Chapter 199

"Prince?!"

"Once again, good afternoon, leader, glad to meet you in person." Severus greeted him with a playful smile, nodding slightly, which caused a nervous twitch in the right eye of the named wizard.

"No, this cannot be, no matter how great a teacher Amon is, but to raise a wizard in two years from a simple Hogwarts student to someone capable of so easily approaching me and intercepting control of the bricks, it is simply impossible." he said sullenly, pointing his wand at Severus, "Answer, who are you and why are you pursuing me?"

What he said was not the only reason which "convinced" him that it was not Severus standing in front of him, there was also the mark, which he could not feel on the chest of the man standing in front of him, which confirmed that it was definitely not Severus in front of him, but an impostor posing as him.

Severus, who read his superficial thoughts, could not hold back a chuckle. "I am Severus Prince leader, do not be so cruel, do you know how much effort I spent to find you? I had to come all the way from London, just to meet you."

"Answer the questions, who are you?" the tip of his wand became even richer, as if hinting that the next such "joke" would end in death.

"This is really insulting... but." Without even waiting for him to finish speaking, a beam burst out of Arnold's wand, accompanied by the sound of a clap of thunder, in a split second it covered the distance separating them, which was almost twenty metres, and crashed into the barrier set up by Severus.

To his shock, his attack had no effect, as soon as it collided with the dome, it immediately dissipated, after all, this was one of the strongest spells, with which he easily destroyed any defence, so his reaction was completely justified.

But Severus still continued to finish his words as if nothing had happened. "...but, could you at least listen to the end, I really am Severus." slightly moving his cloak, and then his shirt, he showed him the mark and he almost immediately felt a familiar connection that could not be confused with anything, from which Arnold's eyes almost popped out of his forehead.

"But ... how ...?"

"Magic." as if having answered all the questions, he laconically shrugged his shoulders.

"Then... bastard... then this is your doing…" the man hissed, narrowing his gaze unkindly, remembering the recent failure in Britain.

"Um, no, I have almost nothing to do with it." Severus spread his arms, "Until the day you crossed the line, I did not interfere in your affairs and if you took over the country without noise, I would not have interfered at all, so thank Charles and his tiny brain."

Like a blow of a whip, he waved his wand, sending a bright crimson ball at Severus, " Brat, You shouldn't have interfered in adult games!" but the spell, again had no effect and dissipated, colliding with the barrier, but Arnold did not stop there, and after the first, a second ball flew, and then a third.

"Do you think I'll spare you because of that damn old man?!" The enraged man, who had been tricked by the pathetic boy, continued to test Severus's barrier for strength without stopping for a moment, and with each spell he cast, Severus took a step forward, and his movements became more and more furious.

Severus himself only looked at him with a sneer, as if trying to further irritate the leader of the "Black Star", which he was doing very well...

But when they were merely separated by a pitiful couple of metres, the wizard, who waved his wand again, already concentrating a much more powerful spell, intending to wipe the smirk off the face of this "little bastard", suddenly staggered, he fell to one knee with bewilderment in his gaze,and the spell that was being prepared gradually began to dissipate.

"What is this...?"

"Wormwood tincture, sleepy bean juice, valerian root, asphodel root and a few more secret ingredients." having dispelled the barrier, with a calm smile, Severus headed towards Arnold, who immediately aimed his wand at him, but to his horror, he could not direct magic into the tool, no matter how much he repeated the spell formula in his mind.

"From the first four ingredients, they make a drink of "Living Death", but if you add a few more additional ingredients, you can get, as I called it - "Devastating Potion", in addition to the weakness that you feel now, it also completely deprives control over magic, but the main effect is not lost either." and, after the last words of "Severus", he swayed and fell to the ground, face down in the snow, which slightly softened the meeting of his head with the stone floor.

"A battle with a wizard at the average rank of "Master", even for me would be a hassle… even I would not be able to deal with him in a matter of seconds, and that would completely destroy a couple of blocks in a senseless battle, people here don't live in the best conditions anyway, I don't want them to suffer any further... hm?" Severus raised an eyebrow with slight surprise, seeing how the man lying in front of him raised his head and stared at him with undisguised hatred.

"I am surprised, I tested it on monsters that were only slightly inferior to you in strength, but after a minute, they were fast asleep, and you lasted so long and you even have the strength to move your head... not bad, in the next battle, I will definitely need you and your destruction magic is also very good."

"I... will k...i...l... you…" the wizard hissed with difficulty through clenched teeth, to which the Prince responded with only a radiant smile and an understanding nod.

This was the last thing Arnold saw before falling asleep...

Hanging over the leader of the Black Star, a box appeared in Severus's hand, opening it, a powerful suction force burst out, quickly swallowing the man and almost immediately after that, it slammed shut and disappeared.

"Well, that's another problem solved."

"Somehow it all turned out too easy…" Nagini drawled in surprise, looking at the place where Arnold had previously been lying, and then quickly darted back under the robe, only slightly sticking her muzzle out from behind his shoulder.

"It's cold…" the reptile muttered discontentedly, watching the snow falling from the sky. "You are a magical creature, in no way inferior to the Basilisk, and you are afraid of some weak frost." he looked at her mockingly.

"Hmph! It's just instinct, before we met, I always hibernated in the winter." the snake snorted in response, turning away.

"I see... I thought that if you actively participated in the war with Grindelwald, then you were most likely born in the tenth, maybe in the twentieth year, and that means…"

"If you continue to think in this direction, then in a minute there will not be a single piece of flesh left on your shoulder." emitting a very strong thirst for blood, dangerously narrowing her gaze and baring her fangs, hissed Nagini, which caused another chuckle from Severus.

"I meant something else, don't worry, for the Lamia, who can easily live up to five hundred years and for the Basilisk, from a thousand, you are like a small child and when you become human again, then most likely you will be stuck at the age of eighteen for a hundred years, so do not think about this stupidity like age." gently stroking the snake on the head, he continued, "I wanted to talk about something else."

"And about what...?" She looked at him suspiciously.

"I want to help you find out about your past." His answer really surprised the Maledictus.

"Why...? I told you that you shouldn't do this, the past is the past, there's no need…" but, without waiting for her to finish her speech, the Prince flicked her on the nose,

"Hey!"

"At least don't lie to me, or have you forgotten about our connection? Although you've learned to more or less hide your thoughts and emotions, it's not enough to deceive me yet, and by the way, do you think we came here just because of Arnold?"

"Hm? What are you talking about?" Nagini tilted her head in confusion, to which Severus grinned in response, and a photograph appeared in his hand, in which she saw a young woman: with black, wavy hair, gathered in a small ponytail and released from the hairstyle by two long strands, framing her thin face with dark, straight eyebrows and eyelashes, and small but plump lips.

She could be called one word - a beauty, especially in her image stood out bright, amber-coloured eyes, which really were mesmerising.

[A/N: Search Claudia Kim]

"This is ...?" the snake was a little confused, simply not understanding who was depicted in the photo, although she seemed vaguely familiar, as if she had already seen her somewhere.

"It's you." he shocked the maledictus, who began to peer into the face with even greater zeal... into her face.

"how...?"

"I got it from Dumbledore, he had many other photos from that war and now I can't wait to return you to human form even more…" he winked at her with a vulgar smile, which flooded his consciousness with embarrassment.

"Pervert!" Although she sounded indignant, but at the same time, her voice was not devoid of a bit of self-satisfaction, - 'I'm much more beautiful than that bitch! And if after returning my form, I also get younger, she won't have a chance!'

"That was the second reason why we came to this country," he pointed at her narrow eyes, "Albus himself doesn't know where you came from in Britain, but you were definitely not born there, because you are not listed in the Muggle database, nor in the wizard database, nor even in the "Book of admittance", where all newborn wizards of the United Kingdom are listed since its creation, which is about a thousand years ago, which makes it clear that you came from another country. And by the way, you worked in a circus."

"A circus…?"

"Yes, from which you ran away with someone, of course I tried to find the owner of that circus, but he has been dead for ten years, I was thinking of resurrecting him with the help of necromancy, but in ten years there was nothing left of the brain, and the soul may have already gone to be reborn, in general, nothing is clear, so we will have to look for your homeland ourselves." once again stroking her on the top of her head, he pulled out the already familiar white mask.

"So, to the number of targets after graduation, we have one more, if of course we do not find anything here."

"Severus... I…" She wanted to say something, but catching his mock-menacing look, she nodded warmly, "Thank you…"

"You are welcome, but stop thanking me already." he looked at her "menacingly" again, from which she, a little embarrassedly, lowered her head and timidly nodded.

"Uh-huh…"

"That's great, now let's sneak into the KMP and check everything out." and he put on a mask, which, under the surprised gaze of the snake, slowly began to change, acquiring a human skin color... __________________________________________________________________________________________

The Book of admittance is a magical book containing a list of all newborn wizards in the United Kingdom (so they are all automatically enrolled in Hogwarts School). The book was invented by the founders of the magical school.

KMP is the magical government in china.