Chapter 173

The "weekend" came to an end rather quickly and on Sunday evening they returned back to Hogwarts...

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The next morning began with a knock and rather impatiently, which surprised Severus a little, because there was still half an hour before breakfast, and he did not even get out of bed. 

Nagini herself, in order to get rid of the irritant, stuck her head under the pillow, which caused a smile on the Prince's face. 

"And who is it so early?" yawning widely, the wizard muttered, snapping his fingers and a small, transparent screen appeared in front of him, on which an excited Regulus was depicted, behind whom stood two surprisedly exchanging glances brothers, who were a little embarrassed and simply did not know what to do. 

"I completely forgot about him …" sighing tiredly, he got out of bed and, throwing a robe on himself, headed for the exit, "Stop knocking already, I'm coming, I'm coming …"

As soon as he opened the door, a young man flew into the room, fixing his gaze on him with a burning look. 

"Severus...!" Black, abruptly grabbed him by the robe, and the Austins, who saw this, already wanted to intervene and separate them, thinking that a fight would start now, but: "Thank you... if I can ever do something for you, just say so, even if it costs me my life!" and the two brothers froze and began to look at each other in shock, not understanding what was happening at all.

"Calm down, I didn't do it for you, you know the reason yourself," he gently patted him on the shoulder, "Let's talk about this after I get dressed, okay?" Catching the mocking glance of "Severus", and then looking towards the entrance, from where other students were looking with curiosity, attracted by the noise, Regulus, was very embarrassed, while repeating the reaction of several girls, devouring the body of the Archmage with their gaze, after all, it was rare to see a fit, almost in perfect shape wizard, who was wearing only a pair of underpants, and a robe, which was slightly opened by the pressure of the young man. 

The brothers, who suddenly came to their senses, remembered that, as if they were guards, and quickly began to push back the spectators. 

"I ... forgive me ... I'll wait outside!" and Black ran out of the room and slammed the door, under the cheerful laughter of the Prince ...

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 A few minutes later, having put on his school uniform and a hat, the Slytherin left the room, where he was met by three of his classmates, one of whom was looking at him awkwardly. 

"Let's go," and then he looked down at Nagini's head, which was peeking out from under his cloak, and was watching something with narrowed eyes, "I thought you would join me after the second lesson as usual."

"I changed my mind! " she answered sharply, looking unkindly at the two girls, who were whispering about something and looking at Severus. 

Seeing this, the young man could hardly contain his laughter, such a reaction from the Maledictus even made him laugh a little, but he, of course, pretended not to notice anything. 

"Thank you and forgive me for what happened recently…" Regulus finally pulled himself together and spoke. 

"It's okay, I understand everything, but as I said earlier, you have nothing to thank me for and you know the reason, and it was mostly my fault, so it's me who needs to apologise."

"No," the aristocrat shook his head and looked at "Severus" with all seriousness, "Someday it would have happened, I have long suggested moving, but my mother was against it, for the reason that we got this mansion from our grandparents, and they from theirs, and we relaxed too much, you were right when you said that you should never stop and galleons cannot always save your life, no matter how much you earn." 

"I'm glad to hear it and I hope that you will not be lazy anymore," he looked at him with the same expression on his face when they were already going down to the living room. 

"I have never been lazy!" Regulus said with displeasure at such a groundless accusation.

"Then I understand that today you will surprise me?"

In response, the young man quickly looked away. 

The brothers following them did not even pay special attention to their conversation, the moment of shock from the realisation that the main one in this company was not an aristocrat from an ancient family, but a simple half-breed, had long passed. 

After the incident that happened last week, the Prince was again on everyone's lips, after all, journalists did not eat their bread for nothing, and they knew how to blow mountains out of molehills better than anyone else, in one magazine, he was even considered dead, although two days later this was refuted, therefore, in order not to attract attention, he used a spell of distraction and they could already move along the crowded corridors of the castle without any problems, which could not help but please the Austins, who in the evening felt a strong tension from the very thought of what awaited them tomorrow. 

And having reached the great hall, the group immediately sat down in their usual places and began to have breakfast, while continuing the conversation ...

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There weren't many lessons on Monday, but he couldn't use charms there either, so he had to endure the looks of some individuals, and after the lecture was over, he would use the charms to divert attention again and quickly leave, since after a few seconds, his table was surrounded by aristocrats from almost all sides. 

Of course, the children knew little about that incident, but their parents could hear something, and that was enough to resume attempts to establish contact. 

After the end of lessons, the Prince decided to take a short break from the additional lesson with the school healer, who, although she tried to pretend that she didn't care, was still worried about him.

 The half-blood wanted to walk around the castle a little and test his core, which had reached the peak of the "Master" rank, and which had almost completely recovered over the past few days.

 The first place his gaze fell on was the Room of Requirement, which Snape was able to find the moment he found himself on the floor, which was not particularly surprising, because earlier he, with the core at the initial rank of "Master", was still able to notice it. 

After, already inside, the Slytherin used the detection charms, once again exploring the space inside the huge room. 

Although he did not doubt his skills, he could still miss something due to a lack of perception. 

He had to spend a measly half an hour on this, but still there were results. As many as three items, which previously seemed like simple trinkets, in fact turned out to be quite interesting artefacts that could easily go for two or three thousand, and he was going to just leave them here, like other junk that was impossible to sell.

 Having finished with this, the Prince left the room and, having gone down a couple of floors, he reached the hidden passage leading to the Ravenclaw library, but, like last time, the young man could feel almost nothing, which was not surprising, because the magical component in this mechanism was no more than ten percent. 

But still, the wizard was able to see the activation charms, concentrating a little, but only because he knew that they were there, otherwise, he would hardly have noticed them because of the magic that surrounded the castle and seeped through every brick. 

But Severus, even with this, was more than pleased, and having slightly increased the radius of perception, he was able to discover a secret room, which was no more than three square metres and hidden thanks to several dozen charms, and if the Slytherin was at the same lower rank of "Master", he simply would not have noticed anything.

 In addition, he also visited Ravenclaw herself, asking her about some points related to the "Queens", but to her disappointment, she knew nothing about them and had heard of such an organisation for the first time.

He spent the rest of the time before lunch with her, enjoying the company of a woman who even surprised him a little with her understanding of many things, especially magic and history, since that book still didn't contain everything she knew…

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Having met the Austins and Black in the hall, they headed towards the great hall, not forgetting to cast the already known charms, and approaching the dining hall, Severus stopped, which slightly puzzled the wizards following him.

 Near the entrance, the Prince saw a very familiar girl with long, platinum hair and blue eyes, in a school uniform with a green tie, who seemed to be looking for someone, and her worried look caused a smile on Severus's face.

"Why are you standing?" Regulus asked with bewilderment. 

"I saw a familiar face" Snape did not even have to guess who she was looking for. 

And approaching her, he included her in the charm of distraction, and as soon as the girl saw a group of senior students suddenly appearing a few metres away from her, she was very surprised, but noticing the young man in front, tears began to well up in the aristocrat's eyes. 

"Miss Macmillan, am I really that scary?" 

"No," the witch shook her head and approached him, quickly began to wipe away her tears, "M-my brother told me everything, I wanted to thank you personally …" 

"Your brother and I are good friends, so it was my duty to help your father, if it was in my power," he nodded softly to her, patting her on the shoulder, "By the way, Regulus, this is how you looked in the morning," smiling, he looked at the embarrassed young man, who looked at him with displeasure.

"Okay, okay, how is your father?"

"Already much better!" she answered with a bright smile, "He even began to help brother with his chores."

"That's good, so," a gold pocket watch appeared in his hand, opening it, he looked at the time, "Okay, let's go to the hall, and you will tell me everything in more detail." 

"Yes…" at first, the girl was very nervous, over these two years, she saw him only a couple of times and considered him a very serious person, similar to her father, but after communicating with him more closely, she was surprised to note that he was not what he was trying to seem, he reminded her more of her brother, only next to him could she feel calm and even some kind of ease. 

Such behaviour of the Prince surprised the three wizards very much, after all, it is rare to see when "Severus" treated someone with such warmth, and Regulus began to look at the girl with a completely different look, to whom Snape treated so well...

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