Chapter 69

[Diagon Alley.]

It was a deep black night outside, and instead of going to bed like a normal person on his days off, Severus thoughtfully looked at the woman in front of him. 

"It is clear that nothing is clear," said Severus, very deep in the philosophical sense of the word. "But one thing I can say for sure: she understands who I am, and accepted that I took over the body of her son, while not hating me ... it is quite possible that our connection influenced her, but this is not certain, because the seal is inside the body of her has not changed at all since I created her, which means that this is unlikely, but this theory cannot be discarded ... " he sighed wearily, as he began to massage his temples. "Or maybe she wants to follow me as a thank you, or see what I can achieve in her son's body, though the soul is different, but the body once belonged to Severus. So,

"Severus, what are you going to do with her?"

"Nothing, since she wants to look after me so much, then let her watch," he shrugged indifferently, looking into the phantom's cold eyes, and then took out a pocket watch given to him by Godric. 

"Get in, I've set it up so you can see what's going on outside, and remember, don't leave it until I tell you to, because if you're seen near me, I'll be sent straight to the resort in Azkaban, understand?" But instead of words, she nodded indifferently and, turning into a shadow, flew inside, and the watch slammed shut. 

'If it(she) develops enough, then maybe it will still come in handy, and it(she) doesn't feel any negative emotions towards me, so I don't have to worry about my own and Nagini's life, and I shouldn't forget that she is under my complete control and in any in a moment I can just dispel it(her).' With these thoughts, Severus got up from his chair, and, stretching a little, he extended his hand to the snake lying on the table, which quickly crawled onto it. 

"Let's go to sleep, tomorrow is going to be a very interesting day ..." he added with a mysterious smile, to which she tilted her head to the side in puzzlement and blinked her eyes, because of which the young man could not restrain himself and began to stroke her head, she just looked too cute.

"What is going to happen tomorrow, it's rare to see you so interested?"

"You will find out tomorrow."

"Your riddles again, " grunting with displeasure when they entered the room, she slid off her arm and lay down on the pillow ...

***

And, as Severus "predicted", in the morning there was a knock on the door of the store. 

By this time, they have gotten up a long time ago and even managed to have a bite to eat, and then stasis was again imposed on the table. 

Opening the door, the young man, with a bewildered expression on his face, met three Aurors, led by the captain who had once interrogated him. 

"You again, what do you want from me again? We seem to have already agreed, and there are still about two weeks before the payment, or you decided to bring my Galleons earlier, I personally have nothing against ... a sheet of paper with the seal of the Ministry of Magic." Severus completed his sentence as he saw the sheet in their hand.

"Today, at two o'clock in the morning, eleven bodies belonging to members of the above-mentioned family were found in the house of the Prince family. Do you know anything about this?"

"No, I don't have anything to do with them at all, I don't think I need to explain why?" Severus said shaking his head.

Robinson just nodded meekly, because he really disliked the person standing in front of him, especially after that incident, and he wanted to leave as soon as possible. "It's not worth it, we studied your history," and after opening the wallet, he took out a large thick folder from it and also handed it to him. "You, as the last of the family, claim all the property acquired by him, are you ready …"a

"Take it." Having signed on the first sheet, Severus returned it to the Auror. 

"All?" the man, seeing the signature nodded. "Yes, thank you for your cooperation, have a nice day Mr. Snape." 

"You as well." Saying this Severus slammed the door in front of them, from which Robinson's eye trembled, and then, spitting on the threshold, he turned around and was about to transgress, but stumbled on his own saliva and hit the back of his head on a stone slab.

~~~~~~~~~~ 

"Who was on the door?!" Nagini asked him impatiently, because she heard their entire conversation and roughly understood what might be in the folder. 

"Now…" opening it, he began to leaf through the papers and say: "The house that we recently visited, two shops in Diagon Alley and another one in Knockturn alley, a plot of land in Bristol and also a few shares in fairly large companies ... and this is not to mention a bank account of almost two hundred thousand, but frozen by the last head of the family, apparently he sensed something was wrong, but I think this can be fixed, but not for the sake of money, but for the artefacts and books that are also present there …" with satisfaction Severus finished with a smile, closing the folder. "Well, we'll be moving into our own house soon, okay?"

"Hopefully not that…?"

"It is in that one, but I will immediately demolish it, you know the expression: "My house is my fortress?" If only I'll make a real fortress out of it, so that not a single reptile crawls into it" but when he saw how she sighed tiredly, he raised an eyebrow in puzzlement.

"Is there something wrong?"

"No… everything's fine, it's just… you'll work up a sweat again… Severus, please take care of your health, you shouldn't work so hard, even at Hogwarts: you have a year and a half left, you should at least take a rest here, please, take a little break."

Seeing his companion's sad look, Snape smiled wryly and reached out his hand to stroke her gently over the smooth scales. "I promise you that these days I won't overwork myself, and I have Tobby and Nellie who will help me with this matter, so calm down, and what makes you think that I will do this alone?"

"You always do that." Nagini said as she shook her head.

"Reasonable, but I promised I wouldn't work too hard this weekend, so you have to trust me."

"Like last time?"

"It's not my fault, it's all these circumstances, I'm doing this to finish it faster and after that we can spend more time together, so now we should close this topic, I suggest we go through our "possessions" " 

Snape sighed as he saw that Nagini was finally distracted from the topic. 

And just at the moment when they were about to leave the store, an Owl knocked on the window, and Severus immediately recognized whose owl it was by the pattern near its beak. 

There was nothing special in the letter itself, only gratitude from Malfoy for the gift, as well as an invitation to visit next weekend, just two days before the start of school. Snape did not refuse this, and a few minutes later the owl flew back, very pleased, after having a bite of fish, which he and Nagini did not like. 

After that, they left the house and immediately visited two shops owned by the Princes, but one of them was closed, and the second was just rented out to a certain Miller, there was a small restaurant, and the tenant paid good money, so the young man did not tear the contract with him, but simply explained who the new owner was and to whose account the money would have to be transferred. 

And the shop in Knockturn, as he assumed, was engaged in the sale of dark artefacts, in general, one of the competitors of Gorbin and Berkes, only the tenant did not buy any artefacts, but only sold them, but well… he paid three times more than the last one, but this was understandable, because, in addition to the premises itself, the man received the patronage of the Prince family. 

Of course, when the shop keeper found out that the family was over, he already wanted to leave, but after a short conversation with explanations of who "stands" behind Snape's back, he even rejoiced. 

Also, Severus gave him the same order as Shafiki: if someone wants to sell a shop, to immediately call him or Karner. Although Severus doubted that there would be such idiots, he still told him to do it just in case, what if there were?

As for the companies: one of them was engaged in furniture, working both for the magical world and for the world of the simple, while the share of the Princes was only five percent, but even this was enough to receive thousands of Galleons every month, and if you take all four, then it turned out about seven thousand a month, judging by the chequebook that Snape found in that mansion, which was quite a lot, but this, of course, depended on the profits of the companies themselves, but it never fell below six thousand. 

If we add up all the income of the family, then it came out about almost nine thousand a month, which indicated a good position for the Princes, and the rumour about the fall of the family with such earnings, most likely, were just some rumours. 

After this, Snape also visited Bristol, where a new mansion was being built, in which the family invested a huge amount of Galleons, because the materials were the best of its kind.

Apparently, they intended to move from the old mansion, although why they did not use Reparo to fix it, Severus could not understand, and he did not try to do it. 

In the evening, Severus decided to visit his little green "friends" from the bank…

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