What can you do?

They returned home with same way, Bellatrix had some questions about many things.

"I cannot tell you much… Let's take a shower and talk about future." Fighting in the middle of nowhere with spell explosions and other stuff made both of them sweaty and dirty.

Bellatrix went to take a shower, meanwhile he called his house-elves to get some supplies for him. They were ordered to buy a couple of newspapers and look for clues under disguise.

After half an hour, they sat in living room as one of the elves prepared meal for them.

"You wanted a job. For now… We need to start from your skills besides dueling." Severus knew about her love to dark arts, she was skilled in charms and dueling.

"Profitable skills, huh? I can bewitch objects… I got Newts in three subjects, though… Transfiguration, Charms and DADA." Severus didn't plan to expand business in artifacts for time being, his goal was working on interesting potions.

"What about your skill in Potions, Herbology or Care for Magical Creatures?" She was smart and charismatic, only way to making her take the official role would be disguise. All those jobs could be performed from hiding.

"I know basics… Patience isn't my strong side. "

"Are you good actress? I could brew some Polyjuice potion and provide you alternative identity for time being." It wasn't ideal solution for her situation, yet she could work anywhere without bigger problems.

'Malfoys would give me 'legal' identity for her. My involvement will probably change war…' It won't end with death of Lily, and he wouldn't let her die for Potter in this life.

"Actress? Art of deception… I don't know. I was too rebellious and got punished for those… Later, I wasn't complete… If I didn't talk back… I wouldn't probably have been mind…" Going through what if situations were only good for case study and time travel. Tormenting yourself with such questions wasn't helping in going forward.

"If your family use outdated rules… You could have healthy childhood. If you cannot change things… Take them as lesson and prevent similar events from happening in future."

"Yeah. It's not easy… They are still my family in the end." He didn't really know all the truth, however their parenting methods weren't best for children.

Puff! One of his servants appeared with stack of newspapers, putting them on space of his table.

First of the stack had catchy title about Bellatrix, using suspicions to destroy her public image.

'Wait. this one has something… Rudolphus looks for her whereabouts. He believes someone kidnapped her.'

"You were right about Lestrange guy. He wasn't going to give up."

"I told you. I would be surprised if he did…" Severus didn't examine all of her memories, and he knew that they knew each other in Hogwarts.

Another elf appeared with discoveries few minutes later.

"Master. There are shady wizards looking for person names Bellatrix Black. They don't look like people with good intentions."

"They are looking for me…"

"Good job. You can get back to your previous schedule."Happy elf disappeared without any more words.

"Coming back to our discussion. What do you think about spell creation or curse-breaking?"

"Spell creation? I never even attempted such thing. Curse-breaking… I only just heard about some Gringotts business… Ah, yeah. They did some grave robbing…" Ancient tombs were frequently filled with curses and hexes, robbing wealth would be impossible without group of talented curse-breakers.

"That's right. Spell creation requires a lot patience… I shouldn't ask. I plan to raid some tombs in future. If goblins can make money this way… Why not me?" It was one of the bigger sources of income for their bank if none knew about his job stealing.

'I feel like there must be some regulations. It's extremely odd to allow completely random people steal your ancestors graves.' Tomb raiders existed for very long time, basically any thief with balls big enough can try his luck in those places.

"It's relatively big fall from being richest to petty thievery. Whatever. I don't really care anymore. Beggars can't be choosers…"

"This project is currently in concept stage. Let's stop for a moment. I could use some training partner for fighting… In future, I will need to nurture some young wizards. This will require the instructor. Can you instruct people?" This would make entire process extremely effective, he would teach her better ways of fighting and she would pass down them later to newcomers.

"Wait. You possess extremely sensitive information about many people… You don't care much about fair fighting… You can apparate… You claim to be eleven years old? What on Merlin's beard are you?"

"I told you… Who am I. Severus Snape-Prince. If you don't believe my words… It's your problem." If he needed to explain every weird action in future, things would become extremely bothersome.

"No… Your origins intrigue me the most. If you don't want to talk… then its fine. I am not going to invade your mind to get the answers…" She was little angry as her mind was exposed to him multiple times, making her feel naked before him.

"Those matters are beyond your current comprehension… This knowledge would expose you to unimaginable danger… As you said… We are not even friends now. Why should I reveal you anything?" It wasn't fair to her, yet she could only blame herself.

"You are right… Forget about my question. I should be able teach people…" Her face revealed some sorrow, yet he didn't trust her with his secrets.

'I need to work on full mind protection. Soul protection? I don't freaking know. How does this cap go through Occlumency.' His thoughts would point to a possibility of the cap simply bypassing shields by assaulting the soul, his previous incarnation could achieve similar effect.

'I cannot do it right now… I have a body. I would need to learn to control my soul first…' Soul in afterlife wasn't limited like spirit inside of alive body.

'Soul arts are dangerous… nonetheless interesting. I need to devour some souls to grasp difference.' Magic and soul were related in some way as his power grew after gaining new spirit.

'Body is related to magic too. It's problematic… I need to study those concepts.'

'What if I put a fragment of my soul in soulless body?' This was interesting idea about generating something like clones with independent minds.

'Soul healing uses your own soul power to heal others. If I could in fact would implement my soul in this way. I could modify this technique into soul splitting in future.' It needed to be direct manipulation of soul not forceful tearing into pieces. Horcruxes were like unfinished technique, and it was good enough for people without deep knowledge about souls.

'If there are people with knowledge about souls. I need to find them…'

He transformed his appearance and decided to hunt down Death eaters ordered after Bellatrix, using their souls as first devouring experiment.