Chapter 14

London. Charing Cross Road.

 Right in front of the most ordinary bar on a rather crowded street, a three-story bus appeared out of the void, accompanied by a powerful gust of wind, almost crashing into a lamppost, having managed to stop just in time. 

"We've arrived, young man!" The bus driver happily informed the pale-faced Severus as he opened the door.

"Don't worry, you will be released quickly, with everyone who uses the Night Knight for the first time."

"Yeah… thanks…" Swaying slightly, Severus left the transport and vowed never to use such masochistic transportation again, at least while his body was so weak.

As soon as he was in the fresh air, he took a deep breath, no longer paying attention to past dissatisfaction with dirty air. And turning to the bus, he only heard the old man's wild laughter, and the transport at great speed rushed straight into the building, and then at an incredible angle, it turned at the angle and disappeared around the corner.

"The Minister of Magic is definitely a lunatic to come up with such a thing."

"So you want us to use Muggle technology?" someone's contemptuous voice sounded next to him.

Of course, Severus had noticed the young man next to him for a long time, but did not attach any importance to him, but Severus still did not lose sight of him.

"And who are you?" Severus asked, turning to him in puzzlement, but after a few seconds he frowned as he looked into the stranger's face. 

"Actually, I'm already in my fifth year at Hogwarts, in the same house as you," Proudly raising his chin, the unknown looked at him with displeasure.

"I am of the Black family, Regulus Black."

"Ah, I see, that means you are the younger brother of that idiot, Sirius, and here I thought why you look so much alike…"

"Don't call him my brother! He is a traitor!"

"Oh…so that's how it is, I feel like we'll get along," grinning, Severus placed his hand on the shoulder of the surprised Slytherin and dragged him towards the bar.

"Come on, tell me."

"Wh-what to tell?" his eyes bulging in surprise at such a frivolous behavior of his interlocutor, Regulus asked him. 

"All the Sirius shoals, of course!" Severus replied with a bright smile, ignoring the bar full of mages who looked more like a mix of bums and freaks.

The bar itself was called the Leaky Cauldron. It was quite small and nondescript, very much reminiscent of the Archmage's ordinary taverns from his world, where you could have a bite to eat and drink after a long journey, and then rent a little room and stay for the night.

'Damn it, it's true, it's like I've returned to my own world ... a dark, shabby bar, beer stains that have eaten into the floor, a slight smell of alcohol, drunk wizards dressed in nondescript outfits ... peace and quiet, still some kind of fight, and not at all distinguished, I would have thought that I had returned back,' Severus thought with a smile, leading the young Black, who was already beginning to recover, and as soon as they passed through the next door, Regulus finally managed to break free from Severus's grip.

"Sorry, I just had to calmly go here, and so as not to be bothered, but in your presence it was the easiest thing," going up to the brick wall, he poked a few bricks, remembering them from the memory, and the next moment they moved sharply and the wall moved to the sides. 

"By the way, why are you alone? I thought that all the nobility would be moving around with tons of bodyguards in such a turbulent time."

"None of your business!" Black snapped.

"Did you run away from home? And by the way, you never told me about your brother… hey! Where are you going?!"

"Get off!" Regulus rather quickly pulled away from the "exasperating" Severus and, turning around the corner, disappeared into the crowd standing in front of a small shop. 

"... how to make a person fall behind: start to annoy him yourself ..." the Archmage remembered the words of his teacher with a smile, and then he himself went in the opposite direction. "But it's still pretty sparsely populated."

There was no trace left of the huge number of bright signs and crowds of wizards scurrying through the streets, like the first time Severus and Eileen visited this place.

Only a couple of dozen stores worked on the strength, and there were ten times fewer wizards, Yes, and everyone went in groups of two or three people, wrapped in dark robes that hid their faces. "War… and why did it start right now, when I was just reborn, couldn't they organize it in five years, when I accumulated enough strength and get out of this country?"

---

A few minutes later Severus reached a small candy store, where a silver-haired man was already waiting for him, dressed in a rather flashy outfit, consisting of a knee-length black coat, under which was a white shirt, dark pants and matching shoes.

Lucius Malfoy was a rather self-confident and arrogant person, easily able to go over the heads for the sake of his goal, and also one of the few people whom Severus considered his friend, and also deeply respected and considered an example to follow, because it was with his filing that the young wizard became study the "dark arts", and also made friends with some students from Slytherin.

"I hope I'm not too late," Severus looked at the man with a smile and greeted him, sitting opposite him.

"Lucius, I didn't know you had a sweet tooth."

"I was told that you have changed, but ... I have a feeling that a completely different person is standing in front of me," the dark wizard drawled, narrowing his eyes, suspiciously, squeezing his cane. 

"Eh... you've always been like this..." Taking out the needle and turning it into a wand, Severus said, "I swear by my magic that I'm Severus Severus and no one else." A light flashed above the wand, at the sight of which Malfoy relaxed slightly.

"There was a reason for such changes, but I won't voice it, let's say, I woke up from a long sleep and decided to start all over again."

 "I see… did you think about my offer?" 

"About joining "you"? 

"Yes."

"Perhaps I won't; it's too dangerous." At Severus's answer, the man in front of him frowned again.

"Why? Before that, we talked for a long time, and you were almost ready, maybe you ...?" Silently shaking his head, the Archmage waved his wand, creating a small transparent dome above them, and at the same moment all sounds outside it disappeared. 

"No, and I'm not going to join Dumbledore either, and the reason why I don't want to join is that I don't want to be stabbed in the back, you know well that I'm a half-blood, and now remember what that madman does with the half-bloods, so I don't want to fall under his hot hand at some point and lose my life, and don't tell me that this never happened," Lucius had nothing to answer to Severus's words in front of him, but he understood from his eyes that he had hit to the very point. 

"My life is very dear to me, but I also don't want to lose our friendship, so I'm ready to help you a little."

 "Help?" Lucius asked curiously.

"Yes, to save you from one problem on your left hand."

"You… can you take it away…?!" the aristocrat almost exclaimed in shock, jumping up from his chair, but rather quickly pulling himself together, he sat back and squeezed his cane even tighter, "Can you remove that damned seal?"

"Yes, I researched it for a while and found a way to remove it, and as a good friend I am ready to help, of course, I will not erase it, but simply remove all the negative factors in the form of complete submission and others, what do you think?"

"What do you want instead?" Lucius got straight to the point. 

"Nothing special: knowledge of Legilimency and Occlumency. I think it's easy to get, and also find a person willing to sell me the hearts and blood of the Dragon and the Phoenix, can you?"

"Why do you need them?" Malfoy asked, puzzled. 

"For one potion, so what?"

"Hmm… first I need to make sure you can do it."

"Of course, lend me your hand."

"Right here…?" Looking at Severus warily, Lucius shifted his gaze to the table behind where a group of wizards were sitting, and then to a young girl in a pink waitress uniform. 

"It's a matter of seconds," the wizard waved him off languidly. Due to the fact that the tables were small, the Archmage could easily take the hand of the surprised Lucius and, pointing the wand at the mark, sent an invisible wave of magic into it… It was not difficult for Severus to remove such a slave seal, because for the last five years of his life he was in the darkest organization of his world - "Magistrate", collecting information and preparing for revenge.

And there he studied real Dark Magic, not to mention such a thing as a simple slave seal, he could easily summon demons and use necromancy, and also owned a huge layer of curses, that no one in this world could take away. And although the Archmage never used this knowledge in practice, with the exception of curses, they still settled in his head. And the seal put on Malfoy, although it had differences from the one he studied in his world, but the basis itself was almost identical, so he could safely delve into it without fear that the one who put it would notice.

"What you…!" Lucius exclaimed indignantly, wrenching his hand away, already wanting to yell at his interlocutor for such tactlessness, but he froze abruptly, sensing a change in the mark set by the Dark Lord.

"I removed the part that makes you obey, and also hurts, but the mark itself has not been erased, and also your "master" can still contact you through it, and when he wants to hurt you, you will feel warmth, and then the stronger the warmth will be,  the better you'll have to pretend it hurts, hmm? Why are you looking at me like that?"

 Severus asked, tilting his head to the side in puzzlement, while inside he could hardly contain his laughter at the sight of his interlocutor's dumbfounded face.

"As…? How do you know…?"

"Let's just say I found a description of this "Slave Seal" in one encrypted book from the closed section, written by Salazar himself, and then tested it on one Death Eater. You yourself know my great love for books." 

After hearing Severus's explanation, Lucius believed him, though not completely. Who, if not him, should know whose descendant his "master" was.

After all, his father was almost the right hand of the Dark Lord, and the Malfoy family itself was one of the richest in the magical world, and it would not be difficult to collect information about a single wizard. 

"I have to tell my father…"

"No... you can't, he is truly loyal to the Dark Lord."

"He may not touch me, and Severus ... most likely, he will betray himself in order to curry favor even more, then ... I can use him myself ... " Lucius, although he served Voldemort , but he was never completely faithful to him, and at any moment he was ready to leave if the "ship" suddenly began to sink, and even serving him, the aristocrat always looked for profit in this.

For example, a close acquaintance with the Black family, which is almost as rich and powerful as the Malfoy family, as well as connections with many other families of twenty-eight purebloods and lone wizards from different countries.

This is not to mention the fact that it was his family who handled all financial matters, and quite often it was he who went to meetings, solving problems with the supply of potions, dark artifacts and other such things.

At the moment, Lucius was waiting for only one thing, when the race would be under his complete control. And then he will finally be able to disperse to the fullest.

"Okay, I'll look up information on those ingredients, but I can't promise it will be fast, you know. As for the books, I'll send them through the domovik."

"Very well, I'll be looking forward to good news."

"But I have one more condition: to remove the negative component of the mark for some more Wizards."

"No problem, but then I also have a condition: I will get the ingredients for free," Severus added with a grin, but Lucius' face didn't even flinch. "For your kind, even a hundred of these sets should not hit the pockets. 

"Of course, this is not a big problem."

"By the way, can you tell me what the situation is now between the two camps? I'm not asking for anything secret, just general information so I know when to lay low…..

---

 After talking for a while, both wizards got up from their seats. 

"And one more thing."

"Hm?" Lucius turned towards Severus.

 Severus's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Don't try to take away my knowledge by force, the book is destroyed, and I myself made a vow to someone that I would remain silent. If it is violated, I will lose my life, so let's use each other peacefully," Severus finished with a smile, while Lucius himself did not change his face at all, but still, Severus noticed a small ripple in the eyes of the aristocrat. 

"Don't be stupid, we're friends."

"I'm glad to hear it, let's continue to be "friends" ...

.

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