Chapter 25

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The day before the start of training, having collected all his small belongings and setting up the defensive and signal charms that he managed to cast on the building during the holidays, in the late afternoon the Wizard returned to the training room and took out the parchment taken from the marauders.

"What is it…?" Nagaina crawled up to him and stared in bewilderment at the thing in his hand.

"Umm, I took it from a group of four annoying students." pointing his wand at the parchment, he said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

But oddly enough, the parchment remained completely clean, thus slightly perplexing the Archmage. "Interesting…" With a bloodthirsty grin, he pointed his finger at it.

"Open up!" For the first few seconds, there was no response, until in an instant, red lines started from the tip of the index finger, slowly spreading across the parchment. And finally, as if in surrender, words began to appear on the smooth surface of the parchment…

"Mr. Moony asks Mr.Long Nose to stop trying to get through the defenses and demands that the card is returned to its rightful owners.

Mr. Prongs joins Mr Moony and would like to add that Snivellus is not only a thief but also a freak.

Mr. Padfoot is amazed that such a weakling managed to get his hands on the map.

Mr. Wormtail advises the damn slut to finally wash his hair."

The Wizard paid no attention to such insults at all, but only nodded with slight surprise, twisting the parchment in his hand.

"I thought they were fools, but to create such a little thing ... interesting ..."

"And they "love" you very much,' Nagini hissed with irony in her voice, after reading the words.

 "There is such a thing," but he did not stop, continuing to calmly pass through the protection of the artifact. "Tracking and scanning charms are pretty good… but the defense is lame. They thought of using the imprints of their personalities without blocking or hiding the path to them in any way, so getting to the core is a matter of a few seconds. Apparently, I praised them in vain." A few seconds later the words reappeared on the pamphlet:

"Mr. Moony asks Mr. Snape to stop this!

Mr. Prongs demands that Snivellus remove his rake from the map!

Mr. Padfoot agrees with the words of Mr. Prongs

Mr. Wormtail apologizes for his earlier rudeness and begs you not to touch him."

In response, Severus chuckled and only increased his pressure. Formerly simple lines began to be transformed into symbols and absorbed into the parchment.

"Mr. Moony asks lowly...

Mr. Prongs requires ...

Mr. Padfoot insists...

Mr. Wormtail begs…"

But the young man no longer bothered to read it, but simply destroyed three of the four personality prints.

"Open up," and as soon as those words flew out of his mouth, the words appeared on the parchment:

"Mr. Wormtail greets Master and thanks for keeping him alive."

After these words, the small parchment began to unfold to the sides, and on the previously empty surface, the familiar outlines of the interior decoration of Hogwarts Castle began to appear on the previously empty surface, as well as the names of people in small frames moving around the territory.

For example, in the upper left corner, he saw the headmaster's office, in which the sign with the name "Albus Dumbledore" paced back and forth, in the lower corner from the office of the Dean of Slytherin, the sign with the name "Horace Slughorn" came out and headed towards the stairs.

Also, the young man noticed many other names of Hogwarts teachers and even Filch's cat, simply designated "Norris", and this is not to mention the surroundings of the castle and the many secret passages leading outside the school. 

"No, I was mistaken, they still surprised me very much, I can't even believe that these gouges could create such an interesting thing, and I was just thinking about creating such an artifact," watching the moving nameplates caused a satisfied smile on the face of the Wizard.

"Well, since they decided to give me such a good gift, I will gladly accept it and use it for my own purposes …" he touched the parchment with a stick, and it closed without any extra words. 

"The animagus form of a rat suits him perfectly, I won't be surprised if in the end he just betrays them just as easily ..." but still, Severus didn't care much about the life of Potter and the company, so he didn't think about it much and, throwing the card into his wallet, bought by him to replace the bag, left the training room.

***

The next day, once again cursing the Ministry of Magic on their idiotic rules about Apparition, the young man finally reached the King's Cross railway station, and, moving through the crowds of people who strove to step on the feet of the Archmage, he finally reached platform 9¾, located between the ninth and tenth, and the passage itself was located in the column supporting the roof over the platforms.

"Maybe I'm too old to understand this, but why take the train to Hogwarts at all, wouldn't it be easier to use the same chimney network and immediately move to the castle, because it's both safe and fast ..." he thought in bewilderment. 

Severus after passing through the pillar and finally breathed a sigh of relief. 

Behind the barrier, located on platform 9¾, there was exactly the same station with only one red train, but there were far fewer people, which could not but rejoice the Wizard. 

And after a few minutes, the young man finally found a free place, not yet occupied by Slytherin students, and finally could relax. But the blissful loneliness didn't last long... "I'm sorry to distract you, is it busy here?" A calm but arrogant voice sounded out, causing Severus to take his eyes off the book and look up at the guest. "No, sit down." 

"Thank… YOU?! YOU AGAIN! Do you even know what I had to endure from my cousin because of you?!" The named guest turned out to be an old acquaintance of the Archmage, as well as Bella's cousin, Regulus Black. 

But the Wizard only smiled at the indignation of the young man. "And should I be concerned?

"Yes, how are you ...!" Unable to restrain himself, the Wizard tried to grab Severus, but in the next moment, he froze and turned sharply pale. 

Everything, that the young man managed to see was just a pair of yellow eyes with vertical pupils, a blurred green silhouette, and then he felt a chill in the neck area.

"What is happening here?" a sharp voice sounded, and two guys approached the pale Regulus, one of whom had the sign of the head boy on his chest, and Nagini had already returned under Severus' shirt by this time, while still looking straight into Black's eyes with a squint.

"Nothing happened, my friend just felt bad, he just needs to rest a bit," getting up, Severus "helped", or rather, thanks to his greater physical strength, he sat the Slytherin in front of him.

"Hmm… and who are you?" The head boy looked at him with slight surprise.

"Oh… have I really changed that much?" Seeing the self-satisfied smile on the face of the Archmage, the two began to peer into his face, and after a few seconds, one of them froze in shock, as if in disbelief, and began to rub his eyes diligently. "Snape...?"

"Well, at least one remembered, and that's fine."

"Snape? No, they just look like... Snape...?"

Finally, Regulus himself began to peer into the face of the Archmage, because before that he could only recognize him by his hair and eyes. 

"How can you change so much in one vacation…?" His gaze dropped down on the strong figure of the Wizard, lingering for a few seconds on the broad shoulders and chest. Even though Severus didn't look like the Apollo from the myths, compared to his previous skinny physique, he was now like a different person, and the slightly adjusted nose also played a significant role.

And when he was gazing down on Severus, he suddenly remembered the burning bodies of the wizards killed by the Archmage that day and in a moment his face again lost all colors.

Previously, he broke down due to training with Bella, which had become much tougher since that day, but now that he had calmed down a bit and regained some rationality, he realized what a stupid thing he had just done, because if it was not difficult for Severus to deal with six Wizards, against whom he himself could only defend himself, then Severus

 would not even have to lift a finger, to deal with him. And from the realization of all this, the young man trembled.

"I can't believe that it's you, prick, what miracle remedy did you take?" with a gleam in his eyes, the guy standing next to the head boy asked. 

"A side effect of one potion, nothing more."

 "Can you do one more of these?"

"Of course, a thousand Galleons." Both wizards were shocked after hearing such a sum, but Regulus was still in his thoughts.

"Why is it so expensive?"

"I told you, it's a side effect, and in order to somehow achieve it again, I need Galleons for research, I need to buy ingredients for something, and even waste my personal time."

"That's reasonable," the headman nodded, and then, looking again in the direction of the pale Black, he continued. "I hope you'll look after him until we get to Hogwarts?"

"No problem," the Wizard answered him with a smile, but Regulus, who finally came to his senses after hearing Severus's answer, almost cried from the realization that he would have to sit right in front of such a terrifying person all the way to Hogwarts, and when he was about to protest and still change seats, he noticed a pair of yellow eyes with vertical pupils watching behind him. 

"I'll look after my good friend."

'Get away from me! What did I do to you?!' Regulus cried bitterly inside his heart.

"Thank you for your assistance."

As soon as the head boy left, Severus knocked twice on the table, and two illusions in the form of Slytherin students appeared on empty places, at the sight of which Black bulged his eyes in shock because they were as if alive, but as soon as he touched one of them, his hand passed through. 'Illusion, and so realistic…?' The Black Hier thought in disbelief. 

"Well…" from the sharp voice of the Archmage, he almost jumped in his own place. "Let's talk."

 "Oh… about w-what…?"

 "Don't be afraid, I don't bite, perhaps in the future you and I will become relatives at all …"

'Don't let Merlin happen this!' Thought Regulus in his heart.

"Come on, tell me."

"About what?"

"About Bella, of course! What she likes, what she doesn't like, her dream and so on, in general, everything you know, but from me ... so be it, I'll teach you some interesting combat spell, and not the nonsense that they teach at Hogwarts."

"And… that fiery one, with which you were able to deal with those Wizards…?" Black asked, swallowing.

"Of course I can, it has a fairly simple formula, but until you complete it, the magic won't be enough." 

"Anyway, " 'I'm sorry, Cousin Bella…' Black apologised to his cousin in his heart and said, "I'll tell you everything I know, if you teach me it."

"Very well, well, remember the formula"

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Thank you and happy reading.