Chapter 57

Standing in the corner of the hall, Bella wearily watched everything, while trying not to draw too much attention to herself. 

Even though she was an aristocrat, she was not a fan of such events, and if it were not for Walburga, she would not have come to this place at all. 

And besides all this, she had her own problems, one of which was finding that artefact-producing bastard, she had signed up for this task. 

But after almost three months of investigation, She was not far from Lestrange in the task of finding that person.

And even the search rituals did not help in this matter, as if the one who produced those Cubes erased all traces, simply leaving nothing. And they only got one copy of those cubes which was from the dead body of a wizard but that also exploded when one of the artefacturer in their group tried to disassemble it and lost his hands because of it.

But that was not the most terrible thing: to endure Crucio as a punishment had become the norm for her and it did not affect her much at this moment, what was different was the pain. Yes, the pain. Bella still felt the pain but unlike before when it was both physical and mental, it only affected her physically now and it had almost no effect on her mind, as if someone had removed a thin veil from her mind.

But the most annoying and insufferable thing was the fact that it all started from the day when she last met that Snape Bastard- a man who with his presence alone could piss her off.

The man who dared to kiss her, the dirty half-breed who dared to touch her. But even through all this hatred, she did not lose rationality and understood that it was all his doing, or that he was at least connected with it. 

And as much as she wanted to torture "Severus" and beat the truth out of him, she simply could not do it, because the order of her master was to win him over to their side in any way. After all, besides the fact that he is a good battle wizard, he also has great potential in potions and is one of the best students in the potion course, and it is a very good thing  to have such pawns on your side. 

And although the news that the recipes fell into the hands of the Ministry caused real fury in Voldemort, he did not immediately rush at full speed after the half-breed's head, but decided to wait. 

The potions that were bought by Lucius, which he still received fairly steadily, were still enough, and there were no real clashes between the Death Eaters and the Ministry, only small skirmishes, although the intervention of the Order of the Phoenix spoiled many plans. But besides all this, there was another reason why the Dark Lord did not try to take the recipes by force, by destroying Snape under his fierce barrage of Imperius and Crucio.

This is because of the report of Crouch Jr., one of the Death Eaters who is an agent of Voldemort in the camp of the enemy, and also the son of Barty Crouch Sr., the head of the Department of Law Enforcement. 

From the report, Crouch learned about his father's plan and how he failed miserably and the "boy" even ended up free, while concluding a very lucrative contract. 

And after the investigation of the Lestrange brothers, Voldemort learned about the incident with the gangs in Diagon Alley, and then the Dark Lord understood why the Ministry, having a huge fighting force, decided to make peace with a simple wizard who had not even finished school. 

It wasn't kindness, but fear, the fear of confronting a powerful wizard or a group of wizards standing behind Severus' back. 

It was this conclusion that became the basis for making such a decision to leave Bella to continue to follow Severus, and, if possible, to attract him to their side, because the Death Eaters already had enough enemies in the face of almost the entire magical world of Britain. 

With an irritated chuckle, she glared in the direction of the group of startled wizards who had been looking at her a few seconds ago.  "How they piss me off, and what joy does Narcissa find in this…" 

"Miss Black, are you bored?" a cheerful, playful male voice sounded, which made her eyes tremble nervously, and finally turning to the source, she raised an eyebrow with slight surprise, because the costume of the person in front of her seemed rather strange to her. "And you are?" 

"Your secret admirer, after all, as soon as I saw you, I fell head over heels in love at the same moment," taking her hand, he kissed her. "Would you mind giving me one dance?" 

"Hmph!" Pulling her hand away, Bella only grunted in response and turned away. "Disappear, otherwise …"

"Miss Black, I can't do this: I will never forget the taste of your lips…"

From his last words, she almost stumbled, and then understanding the meaning, her eyes bulged in shock at the scarlet-haired young man."You…?!" 

"Me, who else could it be?" Stepping closer to her, he held out his open hand. 

"Do you think there is a single person in this hall that will dare to invite you to dance, except for me?"

"If I could, then…" Clenching her fists, she stared at him with hatred in her eyes. 

"I know, well, what do you think about the dance, or… should I take the fee for potions?"

"Tch!" Putting her hand on his, the young woman bowed slightly. "I accept your invitation…" she hissed through clenched teeth, looking directly into his eyes. 

At the same time, the guests watching this experienced a real shock, each of them knew the sadistic nature of Bellatrix Black, so almost no one approached her, fearing that she might just throw some kind of spell at them, and the tale about her love for Crucio was generally legendary. 

And what Severus did right now was no-less a real miracle, because the last time she danced with someone was about ten years ago. 

And now a strangely dressed man was leading this crazy woman behind him, and when they both stopped and he put his arm around her, most of the audience's heart almost stopped, but ... what everyone expected did not happen, because she also placed her palm on his shoulder, while smiling.

The rest of the people sighed, seemingly believing that she had learned to control her anger, but the same could not  be said about Narcissa and Regulus, to them it was quite clear that Bellatrix could hardly contain her anger, at this moment both of them experienced respect towards Snape. 

And finally, the music sounded again, Severus and Bellatrix simultaneously took the first step, and even though the woman tried to take the upper hand in the dance, everything was unsuccessful: the forces were too unequal, and even realising this, Bella was still not going to give up so easily.

In mere moments, a simple waltz grew into a real war: the movements became sharp, and the distance between them either increased or decreased until they touched each other, which, of course, did not escape the eyes of experts, causing, in addition to surprise, barely visible smiles on their faces which those experts tried to hide. 

Each new attempt by Bellatrix to take over met with strong resistance from Severus, and at the same time, deep down, she was even a little surprised by his skills, but this did not smooth out the corners in the slightest, but on the contrary, provoked her. 

Three turns, and again the distance between them was reduced, and their faces were separated by a few centimetres, while on one face there was a smug smile, on the other - only displeasure. 

And the music changed pace again, and the movements became faster, but none of them was going to give up.

After a few minutes, the "struggle" came to an end, but ... as soon as the music faded away, their bodies were tightly pressed against each other, and his lips only a few millimetres from hers ... it was a complete defeat on the part of Bella, from which she was dissatisfied, but without her former hatred, pursing her lower lip, she recoiled from him and quickly returning her former expression she bowed while lifting her dress slightly and walked back towards her corner.

"Miss Black, it was a beautiful dance. Hope, Would you mind keeping me company again sometime in the future?"

"If we happen to meet again," the young woman replied, not even turning around, but stopping for a moment, a hint of menace in her voice that brought a smile to Snape's face. 

"Of course, I will do my best to make it happen again."

"Hmph!" 

At the same time, guests with cheerful faces watched this "communication", and some even clapped, while among them, there were a few disgruntled ones, one of which was the two Lestrange brothers - Rabastan and Rudolphus, the second of whom is Bella's fiancé. 

The two of them glared at Snape's back, tightly clenching their fists.

And the other was Walburga Black, who is currently the head of the family, and it was she who arranged and proposed this marriage between families. 

And the way some unknown person right in front of everyone hit on Bellatrix was a real spit in her face. Calling two servants to her, she ordered them to find out all the information about the guest in a strange suit.

****** 

At the same time, with a satisfied smile, Severus returned to the table where Regulus was sitting. "I'm sorry, I attracted unnecessary attention – now you will most likely get to hear it from your mother." 

"But I can't tell by your face that you feel guilty," Black chuckled, meeting the eyes of the elderly lady for a moment and, shuddering, quickly turned away. "She will definitely torture me about your personality."

"Don't worry, you can tell her about me, but before that, warn your cousin about it. I'm sure it will help you, only your training will become much tougher…" Regulus almost cried at his words, although he himself understood it. 

In the depths of his soul, the young man still regretted a little that he invited Severus, but it was only a fleeting feeling. "Okay, I'll survive somehow, and, probably, this is for the best, but I have only one question: how ?!"

"What "how"?" Severus tilted his head in confusion.

"How did you do this?! My cousin is such a beast and the last person who tried to ask her to dance was sent to St.Mungo for three months! And you, it seems, are still alive and even smiling …" 

"Regulus, my young friend, you are still too young to understand this ..." Smiling like a father, Severus patted him on the shoulder and looked towards the stage. "Tell me better why you started this stupid game. Do you think I don't understand that all the families gathered here are... Death Eaters," from the last words the young man shuddered and turned pale sharply. 

"When did you realize this?" Regulus asked nervously.

"From the very beginning, when you invited me. Your behaviour seemed rather suspicious to me, so I asked someone to check those who also received invitations." In fact, the Archmage simply read Regulus' thoughts on the day he received the invitation.

"You did not trust me from the very beginning…" Regulus said looking at him.r

"There is one interesting saying: "trust, but verify." I might not have checked anything if you hadn't acted so suspiciously." Seeing how Regulus sadly lowered his head, not daring to look into his eyes, Severus nodded contentedly. "Remember once and for all: I'm not going to interfere in this stupid 'war' started by that creature, and even if that idiot miraculously wins, I'll just move to another country, that's all. If you keep trying to drag me into this pointless game like this, then our friendship will be over, am I clear?" Severus reinforced the last words with a wave of bloodlust, causing the young man to shudder and nod. 

"Since you knew, why did you come?" Regulus asked with a wry smile trying to control himself.

"Of course, for the sake of Bella, and to see her fiancé, nothing more. So I hope we understand each other?" 

"Yes… I'm sorry…" Regulus said, lowering his head.

"That's wonderful, okay, I'll go then, otherwise someone will soon eat me alive…" look at the head of the Black House, who has been keeping an eye on him all this time, "And good luck to you, consider it a punishment for deceiving me," and, finally patting Regulus on the shoulder, Severus headed towards the exit, and at the same moment four more wizards followed him, which of course...

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