Chapter 85

[Two Months Later]

After releasing the hand of the young man lying in front of him on the bed with a reddened face covered with a rash, Severus frowned, and then he looked at the calm woman standing next to him. "The symptoms are very similar to a fever: high fever, rash, redness of the face and eyes, but something is wrong with it," Snape drawled thoughtfully. 

Taking out a wand from a jar standing on the table, he slightly opened the patient's mouth and, creating a small firefly that flew into the student's mouth, Severus slightly pressed his tongue with the wand and saw the patient's throat of a strange green colour. "Hmm… it looks like the effect of a potion… it looks like someone poisoned it…" 

Pulling out his wand, he smelled a sharp unpleasant smell, and also saw a strange green substance on the tip. "Hound grass, leafy, nightshade and mandrake root, what kind of cretins brewed this potion? His hands would be torn off and stuffed in one place."

"What do you say?" Pomfrey asked with interest, cheered by the "boy's" reaction.

"It's okay, the mandrake root managed to weaken the effects of the potion," throwing the wand into the trash, he again turned his gaze to the witch. "He should just lie down for two days and will be fine, you don't even need to do anything, but you can speed it up by using an antidote based on the mandrake root, because the potion has turned into a weak poison."

"Very well, you're a fast learner, Mr. Snape, I didn't think you'd get into practice so quickly."

"I was just lucky: the question was just in my specialty." 

"Don't be like that, after all, not many people would be able to achieve such progress in two months, while you are also studying Potions at the same time. By the way, how are you with that?" she asked with a smile, returning to the table and taking out a teapot with two cups. 

[A/N: They are talking about his potion mastery over here.]

"I can claim the "golden cauldron", but it's too early, I have a goal of reaching "black" by the end of the seventh year," 

she almost spilled her tea at his words, and then stared at Severus in shock. "Mr. Snape... you're a monster in the best sense of the word..." 

"Thank you for the compliment," sitting in front of her with a smile, he took one of the cups, and inhaled the pleasant fruity aroma, and after taking a sip, Severus squinted contently. XWhat is this tea?"

"My good friend brought it two weeks ago from China, but I'm not a connoisseur of this, so I can't say the name."

"China, you say ... somehow I must visit this country." 

"I recommend that. You will be able to learn a lot, especially in the field of medicine," for a moment thinking about something, the Witch  lowered her gaze to Snape's collar. "Did you decide to leave your pet in the room today?" 

"She's pretty bored with us, that's why I decided to leave her there - or rather, it was she who asked to be left in the room, describing the hospital wing as "quiet as a graveyard." 

"I see, she's quite an interesting snake, for moments it seemed to me that she even understands me, but this cannot be," shaking her head and taking a sip, her gaze became more severe. "I have a question for you."

"From your reaction, it seemed to me that you understood who could have done this to Mr. Kane, am I right?"

Frowning, Severus stroked his chin thoughtfully and nodded after a few seconds. "I have a guess, there is one four debies ... bad guys from Gryffindor who love to play tricks on others …"

"What makes you think that they are behind this?"

"I can roughly imagine what kind of potion they were trying to brew, and if they could make it right, then Mr. Kane would look like a big balloon and now he would be taken out from the ceiling of a large hall, and the effect should have passed in exactly one hour. However, those who made it screwed up with the amount of some ingredients and overexposed the potion on the cauldron, and even added a mountain of nightshade, so the mandrake could not cope with its negative properties. Also, when I was walking down the corridor, I heard a conversation between two Gryffindors about yesterday's quarrel between Mr. Potter and our patient, but I do not presume to say that it was them, someone could set them up in this way," the wizard calmly explained, taking another sip and then added. 

"The potion was made by the incompetent, and of those four, only Remus has "satisfactory knowledge," which is just right."

"I understand you," the woman nodded sullenly, rising from the table, "I'll leave for a few minutes." 

"Of course Madam Pomfrey,"

**********

The next day turned out to be quite entertaining for Severus. In the morning, the whole breakfast, as well as lunch and dinner, he caught the looks of Potter, who looked at him suspiciously. 

Potter didn't know why, but he felt that it was Severus' fault that they had been punished yesterday for the Oliver Kane incident. 

Severus simply ignored such things, he didn't care about James's thoughts, because his head was filled with many other things. 

After the end of the lessons, he had several questions, the answers to which he simply could not find in the books, and when he went into Madam Pomfrey's office, he saw a new face lying on the bed in the form of a green Quidditch player, and also standing nearby with him was Lucinda Tolkelot, who, noticing the "intruder", for some reason was embarrassed. 

Of course, not because she was in the medical room, but because she could not stand under Snape's "I told you so" look for long, and she quickly retreated from the hospital wing. 

And from that day on, she tried not to meet his eyes again until the very moment of graduation from school.....

********* 

And in the evening, after the lesson with Slughorn, who couldn't get enough of his student who grasped everything at a glance, Severus and Nagini returned home… 

These two days, Severus still decided to work, although he had had little rest on his days off before. 

First of all, the young man began preparing the documents that he would soon need to promote his idea to the Ministry. After all, the books for each course were already ready and checked by one bearded "Master", who appreciated the work perfectly and even praised it, but if the one from whose "pen" they came out would have been a rather interesting reaction, but Severus still decided to hide this, otherwise the old man would have a heart attack, and Snape himself could get dementors in Azkaban. No one would feel good about this ... 

Unless Riddle gets rid of two splinters at once in one place. 

In itself, promoting something new, especially in an organisation like the Ministry of Magic, in such a turbulent time, was a very difficult task, almost impossible, because they simply would not be up to any innovations in education, but thanks to some connections, Severus the very next day, without any problems, was able to put them forward for consideration. 

This procedure will take about a month. and Snape was not particularly worried that his idea would not be accepted, because we can say that he had already prepared everything, it remains only to invest a couple of thousand galleons in books, and the streets will become much calmer in at least a couple of years, and wizards will not so often die. 

In addition, Severus had already personally worked on a book on Potions, but to be more precise, he used knowledge from his past life and entered it into a book, and also sent articles on this subject to newspapers and magazines every month, making a name for himself in this difficult field. 

And because of all this, he had to cancel his Saturday date with Bella, who from that day on again began to behave as usual, except for the fact that she became more open with him, and to Voldemort, on the contrary, more cautious. No, of course, the old devotion has not disappeared, rather, it has simply weakened,

For example, earlier she could sit next to him without fear, even when he had a fit of anger, and gladly took it upon herself, but now in such cases the Witch  tried to be as far away as possible and not meet his eyes at all. 

But the feelings that had been enchanted for years were very difficult to dispel, everything depended on her willpower and environment. 

If Severus left Bellatrix to deal with this on her own, it would take decades, but due to his intervention, who constantly unbalanced her and also slightly influenced the woman's mind with magic, she came to her senses much faster. 

One or two years instead of a decade was a huge difference, although even then it would not be possible to completely get rid of the influence of the necklace. 

Therefore, in addition to fellowship on Saturdays, also in the evenings, mostly on weekends, he chatted with her using a mirror, and although she constantly pretended that she didn't like it, but she just didn't know how to lie, especially when even at a distance of hundreds of kilometres he felt her real emotions. 

Of course, love was still far away, but sympathy nevertheless appeared, and even she had almost nothing against kissing, although she pretended that it was disgusting to her, while responding to him.

In some way, Bella reminded him of Nagini, who says one thing, but thinks of a completely different thing, and in general there is something third in emotions. In short, women. 

We can say that Severus's business was going uphill, exams and three months off, which were already scheduled to the eyeballs, will begin soon…

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