Chapter 120

Half an hour later, the man finished his story, while he looked even more depressed than before and did not even dare to look Severus in the eyes, thinking that he would be blamed for this incident. 

Snape, in turn, did not pay much attention to the self-flagellation of the man, immersed in his thoughts, and he was more and more inclined to believe that, in addition to: the Ministry, Dumbledore's organisation and the Death Eaters, there was another one who decided to take the side of the latter.

And it could well be that Voldemort simply decided to break off all relations between them in this way, and it would not be surprising if they found another supplier, for example from other countries, where all the potions are mainly sold by the Ministry of Magic. 

But at the same time, Severus still could not understand why it was so "bad" to act, while knowing who was behind him, because Tom was not a fool, maybe a "little" madman, but definitely not a fool and making another enemy when he hardly again took up in the war was clear stupidity.

Therefore, Severus had a second theory that he was not made aware of this attack, and those who attacked his shop simply did not know who was behind him, thinking that the potion shop was only under the protection of the Ministry. 

It also could not be ruled out that the fourth side could be independent of the other three, and they extended their hand to them in order to weaken the influence of the government and prevent it from taking full advantage in the civil war. 

But even after half an hour, Snape could not come to any conclusion, there were too many "buts", and Karner, so far, could not find anything about the attackers to at least cut the number of assumptions by half. 

"Okay, that's enough, work as you worked, I'll look for thieves myself," rising from the table, a box materialised in Snape's hand and a moment later, a man in dark clothes and shoulder-length hair appeared next to him, almost immediately glaring at Severus with an angry look, "He will work for you for now."

Jumping up, the "guest" grabbed Severus's cloak with fury and started shaking him. "How could you shove me in there with those monsters?! Damn it, I almost died from fear in that place! Do you even understand this?! What if they ate me?" 

"But they did not, right?" Severus said with his indifferent look, calmly breaking out of the man's grip, and then he turned his gaze to Karner, "He will look after the store at night, but if you need other help, for example, follow someone suspicious or bring something, do not be shy, you can order him."

"Hey! Can you give me a little break?"

"Hmm… okay, I'll give you a day, but no one should see you," Severus nodded, taking pity on him, remembering that he had to live a whole week in a tent full of monsters.

"You should be here tomorrow, at the same time, understood?"

"Just a single day?! Give me at least three!" 

"How about not a single day then? Hm.." Before Severus could finish, the man turned into a shadow and quickly "flew away", while in his mind cursing Severus.

"Um… who is this…?" looking after him, Karner asked with bewilderment. "I found him in Brazil, a good shadow wizard, he can easily take down a dozen Aurors in a head-on battle, and with a surprise attack and a few dozen, he will also run away without any problems." 

"Such a powerful wizard…" Karner couldn't contain his shock and looked at Snape with much more respect. 

"Okay, I won't bother you, keep working," the Slytherin waved his hand languidly and headed for the exit. 

"Yes Mr Snape!" and as soon as the door slammed behind him, Karner breathed a sigh of relief, he expected at least a reprimand in his address, but the fact that Severus did not even yell at him, really shocked the man, and at the same time, Karner respected him even more deep down, "I will definitely find those bastards who dared to try to rob the store!" tightly clenching his fist, Karner hissed with fire in his eyes, "But I'll do it after working hours,"  

At that moment, the door opened and a young girl entered the room, and the man quickly put on a professional smile, "Hello, can I get you something…?"

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After leaving the store, Severus decided to walk around Diagon Alley a little more, and also drop in the knockturn alley to gather more information. 

He knew quite a few information sellers in both territories. And although it took him a couple of hours, he was still able to learn something, but what really surprised Severus was that they knew almost nothing, they all knew only that a new gang had appeared, operating very secretly and leaving almost no traces. 

And with the exception of backing up the last Death Eater clash and trying to rob his store, they didn't show up anymore.

Therefore, he had to return home almost empty-handed, and this situation began to annoy him, because for the second time everything began to get out of control for him, first because of the devils in the centre of the "Magic Jungle", and now here because of the interference of the fourth party.

They could have left him alone, but no, it was necessary to attack his shop, initially he did not want to interfere in this war and just wanted to stand quietly on the sidelines, but it seems like someone specifically wanted to draw him in or the "power" behind him. 

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Upon returning home, he was met by a joyful house-elf and the phantom Eileen, who was powered by the core of the house and one might even say, controlled it, he did not immediately free the monsters from the box, but first decided to enclose the territory with a fence, as well as add a new source of magic in the form of the crystal that he took from the treasury, which, in terms of collecting and storing magic, was several dozen times better than those that he had made earlier. 

But this kind of thing would take a lot of time, therefore, he decided to leave this work for tomorrow, and today he already had an appointment, because on the way to the house, he noticed a familiar owl belonging to the Malfoys with an envelope in its beak, and in the letter, only a meeting place was mention in the Muggle world, with an addition: "without a tail." 

Therefore, after resting for about an hour and leaving Nagini, at home at her own request, as she did not like Lucius a little because of his slippery nature, Severus apparated into the park in which he once happened to beat the Lestrange brothers and two other Death Eaters earlier. 

And approaching the meeting place, he noticed a man in a dark coat with long silver hair and a cane in his hand, who was standing near the pillar under the muggle repelling spell. 

"I thought that you do not like the Muggle world, but at the same time, you appoint a meeting place in such a crowded place," Severus said with a smile, approaching Lucius, to which the man snorted coldly in response. "For such meetings, this is the most suitable place."

"And one can't argue, who would have thought that one of the main Muggle-haters would decide to meet someone in such a place," Severus nodded in agreement, using scanning charms and checking the nearest hundred metres just in case, but apart from two subordinates in the form of Crabbe and Goyle, he did not find anyone else, "So what did you want to talk about? You know, I just got back from Brazil today and wanted to get some rest."

"It's about your shop, to say that we have nothing to do with it."

In response, Severus only silently nodded, because he expected something like this, it was not in their interests to make another enemy for themselves when the Ministry and Dumbledore were already against them. Snape believed him, and the seal inside Lucius' body was almost impossible to deceive, unless of course you were an Archmage, which Lucius was not. 

"Glad to hear it, but that's not the only reason why you decided to meet me in person, right?" Severus asked calmly, admiring the huge fountain in the centre of the park, near which the children were playing. 

"Be careful, we ourselves don't know who they are and why they decided to come out on our side, but they have a lot of people, that day, more than forty people joined us and each of them had skills no worse than the best of us."

"Any guesses where they came from?"

"We assume that another country decided to intervene in our war, those wizards acted too well and used the same spells, although they tried to pretend that this was not at all the case, using them in a different order, and also non-verbally," Lucius replied with a bit of irritation. 

"It sounds suspicious indeed, but I take it you don't know the reason for the attack on my store?"  In response, Lucius just shook his head.

"I see, thank you for the information." 

"What about potions?" looking at the clock for the second time during the conversation, as if in a hurry, Lucius asked. 

"As usual, by the way, how is Bella? I wanted to visit her tomorrow," but noticing how he flinched, Severus became alert, because he was watching her through the seal and it seemed nothing new was happening, and as usual, she improved her skills in martial magic, almost all day long, "Something happened?" 

"Well ... nothing special …"

"Tell me more specifically?" Snape's gaze became sharper, causing Lucius to swallow nervously, for some reason, at that second, it seemed to him that he was standing in front of the Dark Lord... a very evil Dark Lord. 

"The date of the wedding was postponed … " Lucius was worried about completing his sentence because knew about the feelings of Severus for Bellatrix and, most of all, he did not want to tell this news, so he was in a hurry to leave, but ... 

"Ahh, why are you acting so weird"  Severus drawled with relief, which greatly surprised Lucius, because he expected anything, even the unforgivable right in the face, but the fact that Snape would react so calmly to this greatly puzzled the man, 

"Okay, thanks, that you told me about this. By the way, prepare a black tailcoat in advance, I think that soon, it will be useful to you and tell your master that it is very bad to play with other people's feelings."

"What do you mean…" but before Lucius had time to finish, Severus   disappeared, and only after a few seconds the meaning of the words of the Slytherin came to him, from which a nervous smile played on the face of Lucius…

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