Chapter 194

December 29, 1977. London. Highgate.

The weather that day was not good from the very morning, the sky above London was covered with dark clouds, and half an hour later there was an incessant downpour, which did not show any signs of abating, as if conveying the state of mind of all wizards in the magical part of Britain.

Today, funerals were held in many parts of the country, but the main procession was located in Highgate Cemetery, in a small corner specially designated for wizards, and it was led by the Minister of Magic himself, who survived that day, but now had to walk with a cane.

Along the road of stone slabs, past many graves, hundreds of people were walking - all dressed in black and looking darker than a cloud.

No one spoke, they were all walking silently, at most limiting themselves to a quiet whisper. And only suppressed sobbing accompanied this long procession....

Finally, after a few minutes, they reached a light arch enclosed by a large, dark, iron fence.

At the entrance stood two statues of angels: a young man and a woman, in simple robes with a pair of folded wings behind their backs, greeting their "guests" with warm but sad smiles.

Having passed through it, their eyes fell on a large clearing completely dotted with graves, over which stood stone tombstones with names and faces carved on them, and surrounded by small fences.

It was in this place that almost all the employees of the Ministry of Magic and civilians who suffered during major incidents since the organisation's foundation in 1707 were buried.

Because of this, it was difficult to see the end of the cemetery, in the form of a high, almost three-meter iron fence.

But Harold, leading them, did not stop and continued to walk forward, until finally they saw hundreds of mounds of earth, near each of which stood a person in dark robes with the "m" sign, belonging to the Ministry of Magic.

And, previously suppressed, restrained crying began to break out, because many saw familiar faces on the tombstones, for some these were friends and parents, for others husbands and wives, but everyone experienced only one feeling - grief.

Dumbledore, leading his children and colleagues, could not hold back a sad sigh.

Over the past ten years, he had been to this place more than once, and each time he visited the cemetery, the old man remembered his sister, Ariana, her cold body lying in his arms and her peaceful face, which, with a feeling of guilt, constantly overwhelmed him with apathy and melancholy.

"Professor Slughorn, Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick." in response, the three named professor nodded bitterly and led their students, and Albus himself looked at the three Gryffindors: one seventh-year student, who was still holding on, tightly clenching his fists and biting his lips, and two third-year students, who could not hold back and were crying quietly.

"Mister Spinnet…."

"Headmaster, don't worry, I am fine…" the young man said dryly with a forced smile.

"Very well, Mr. Spinnet, but if you wish to talk, my office is always open for you and I am sure that Miss Fane is also worried and awaiting your return…" Dumbledore said warmly, gently tapping the Gryffindor on the shoulder, because he, like no one else, understood that at such moments one wants to be alone.

"Yes... thank you…" in response, the seventh-year student only nodded gratefully and headed towards two specific graves with shaky legs...

Another heavy sigh escaped from the lips of the elderly wizard, and then he looked down at the two remaining students and smiled good-naturedly "Let's go…"

At the same time, Harold, watching the crying people near the different graves,felt a heavy, oppressive feeling in his chest, since he was the one giving orders and was responsible for the life of each subordinate.

Although the wizard had become a politician, and at times he had to act quite cruelly, he had not lost his humanity and could still empathise with others.

"Tell everyone that in an hour we will begin the burial," Michum said sullenly, feeling a slight headache, the man could never have imagined that such a thing would happen during his term, but he did not regret accepting his post, because it was unknown who would have taken his place and everything could have ended much worse. "Yes, Mister Minister…"

***

Severus himself did not attend the funeral, simply not seeing the point, and went about his business until lunch, after which he received an invitation to take a short walk from a dark witch.

Therefore, by four o'clock, the Prince had apparated to the park not far from Grimmauld Place 12, where the Blacks' house used to be, but now the building was empty and only occasionally the house-elf would visit to tidy up a bit.

And, already approaching the huge tree, located in the very centre of a rather busy park, even in such bad weather, Severus noticed a girl who still did not change her tastes and wore her favourite black dress.

"Bella, honestly, I was very surprised that you decided to invite me yourself, but still, you did not choose the best time for a date." grinning, he reminded her of one particular event that was currently taking place in Highgate, and the weather in the form of a shower was not conducive to it, "So, what did you want, you did not just decide to contact me for no reason, did you?"

Approaching her, he took her hand and kissed it.

"No, this is not a date, I want to ask you for something," tearing her palm away, Black stared coldly at the smiling young man, who was not at all moved by her stern look.

"Hmm ... if it is in my power, I will try to help, so what did my squirrel want?"

"Fight me!" without reacting to the "squirrel", the lady firmly demanded, a wand appearing in her hand.

"Fight? Why?" Severus raised an eyebrow in confusion, although thanks to the seal he had long known the reason for this meeting - self-doubt and challenge were not a big surprise for him.

Bellatrix herself increasingly understood that she was weak, the first blow to her pride was the attack on Grimmauld 12 and if not for Amon, it is unlikely that she and the rest of the family would have been able to survive.

The second was Regulus, who was growing too quickly, because quite recently she defeated him using only half of her skills, but now she had to fight him almost at full strength, and what especially surprised Bella were the spells that her cousin used, the likes of which she had never seen.

And, having "pricked" out of him who taught him, Bellatrix was a little surprised to learn that it was Severus. But this also became the reason for the loss of interest, because pride simply did not allow Bellatrix to force him to tell even more, although how to create fire spears, the former Slytherin still learned, only for the sake of interest, but how powerful it was, she did not even imagine.

And that day, the twentieth of December, she used it for the second time, only as a distraction to counterattack with a stronger spell, but the result truly shocked her.

Fire spears passed through an incredibly thick stone wall, like a hot knife through butter and killed the enemy.

Therefore, after that, she began to experiment with it until she learned the limit of its power, which was one of her father's best protective charms and in order to impose something like that charm took a lot of time, like almost ten minutes for every square of protection.

Although it withstood the attack, the spear still managed to penetrate twenty centimetres forward before disappearing.

It was a truly shocking result. But even after that, she held back and did not run to "knock" the rest of the spells out of her cousin, but decided to think first, but she was increasingly inclined to talk to Severus.

And, finally, that very battle became decisive for her.

Twice, she almost died twice, if not for his gift and the opponents that the girl had to face were almost as good as her, although the reason for this was mostly the inconvenience of the opponent.

For Bella, wizards using staffs as a magical tool were a novelty and it was not possible to adapt to them so abruptly in three or four battles for the reason that almost everyone used different sets of spells with a greater bias towards elemental transformations, when the British acted more openly and predictably, almost with the same template, which was easy to study.

For this reason, Bellatrix wanted to become stronger, much stronger, so that she would never lose so shamefully again.

That day at Grimmauld Place 12, the last two battles; that weakness, that unforgivable weakness, the aristocrat could no longer afford, and in order to become stronger, she was even ready to swallow her pride and turn to Severus for help, who had made her cousin much stronger in such a short time, but most of all she wanted to meet Amon himself, the one who had taught him everything.

With this challenge, Black wanted to understand how strong he was, although she had no doubt that the Prince was definitely superior to Regulus, because that day, in Diagon Alley, more than a year and a half ago, he had already demonstrated amazing combat skills when he dealt with the kidnappers, calmly met her attack, and even demonstrated mastery of wandless and non-verbal magic at a high level, when he effortlessly used a disarming spell and and without turning around used a - Protego.

But besides that, she hadn't forgotten what had happened after that date, when he had been attacked most likely by the same wizards they had fought recently and by some miracle, Severus had almost fought them on equal terms, with a large detachment, judging by the number of bodies lying on the ground.

Not only had he held out against them until she arrived, but he had also managed to kill most of them, although she still attributed it to the artefacts given to him by his teacher and that terrifying explosion, she also attributed it to him, but still, the wizard had demonstrated incredible skills and had managed to get out of an almost stalemate alive.

Now she was sure that he had become much stronger, but by how much, that was what worried her.

"I want this, there is no reason!"

"Okay…" Severus nodded with a strange look, looking at her, and then extended his hand to her, "But let's not do it here, I have a more suitable place for this, where we will not cause problems for others."

In response,The aristocrat nodded confidently and took his hand, but before she could come to her senses, she found herself in his arms.

"What are you…" She flared with indignation, because she had come on serious business, and he was just playing with her!

"You're too excited and tense," the wizard smiled softly, gently running his palm over the cheek of the shuddering "squirrel," and then pressed his index finger to her lips, "This won't do, first you need to relax a little, I suggest we postpone our battle until nine, and before that go somewhere and unwind, what do you think?" And then, squinting nastily, he added, "If you don't agree, I won't accept your challenge."

Bella simply didn't know how to react to such a turn of events, but after a few seconds a tired sigh escaped her lips and she shook her head. "I should have expected such an outcome… okay, I agree, but after…!"

"Yes, yes, yes, we will definitely fight," catching Black's very angry look, Snape couldn't help but kiss her on the nose, which made her open her eyes in shock, but he didn't give her a chance to complain, abruptly apparating out of the park…

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