26 Chapter 26
Eight Hours Later.
Closer to seven o'clock in the evening, the train finally began to approach the station in Hogsmeade, a small village located not far from Hogwarts.
"Thank you for the very useful information," Severus said with a smile, throwing a small notebook into his wallet, looking, oddly enough, at Regulus smiling back at him, no longer looking as frightened as at the beginning of the trip.
Still, Snape was able to find common ground with him without much difficulty, and almost without even using Legilimency. Although, in order to overcome the psychological barrier set by the Black family, obsessed with purity of blood, it will take much more time than he expected.
"It's me who should thank you and…" the young man answered him embarrassedly without the former arrogance and disdain, "…apologize for that day…"
"And please do not cast the spell unnecessarily."
"I understand and, of course, I will be silent! After this conversation, I learned a lot about magic, but I also had a lot of questions."
Glancing out the window at the faint outline of Hogwarts, Severus looked back at Black and said "I will answer one of your questions."
"About the magic core you were talking about earlier, since you were able to detect it, why couldn't the others do it?"
"It's very simple, it's formless to a certain level, and without enough power, you'll never be able to see or feel it. I don't think even Dumbledore can do it and it's worth thinking about Voldemort here, because he is much closer to such concepts as "death" and "soul", maybe he will be able to notice something, but not see it," the Archmage answered thoughtfully stroking his chin.
"Then how could you detect it when even such powerful Wizards couldn't see it?" He looked at Severus doubtfully.
"I did say one question." Severus replied to him with an arched eyebrow.
"How about if I tell you Sirius' terrible secret?"
"And you certainly know how to bargain, young man, but let's do it another time …" After his words, a loud horn sounded, and the train shook slightly.
"We have arrived, collect all your things and get ready to leave," the head boy's loud voice resounded throughout the car…
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After sitting for several hours, Severus wanted to stretch a little, but as soon as he saw the carriages, he only sighed sadly. "Apparently, it's not fate…"
"S-sev…?" an uncertain female voice sounded, from which he sighed even more tragically.
"You misunderstood, miss," the young man answered without even turning around, calmly walking towards the carriage. 'Get off me already, you damn red leech.'
"Where did you disappear to?" At that moment, Regulus approached him. "We haven't discussed when we can talk!"
"Come on tomorrow, maybe you will remember something else about Bella."
"Good, but still… you have a strange taste…"
"You don't understand anything about women," he looked at the young man with a paternal smile, who frowned in displeasure in response.
"You and I are almost the same age, you were just lucky to be born more than a year earlier, and already you are building a wise old man out of yourself."
"You still don't understand…"
Looking at his back, Lily felt an unpleasant bitterness in her mouth, because she understood that he deliberately pretended not to know her, as if he wanted to move away as far as possible. "Maybe... he's right that I'm selfish?" the girl muttered with a forced smile, looking away and squeezing the sleeves of her robe, she turned around and headed towards the carriages of the Gryffindor house.
Severus himself had already forgotten about Lily, because his attention was attracted by the creature pulling the carriage. It was a vaguely horse-like animal, more like a messenger of hell: a skeleton covered with smooth, silky raven-colored skin with a pair of wings behind its back, its muzzle resembled a dragon, and white eyes without pupils caused a feeling of discomfort, and in some, fear.
"Thestrals… are one of the most controversial creatures in the world." Approaching him under Regulus's puzzled gaze, he touched the creature's head and began to stroke it. "Despite their terrible appearance, inside they were kind and gentle creatures…" snorting, the "horse" began to rub its head against the face of the Archmage.
"Calm down, baby," stroking him with a smile, Severus touched the shirt pocket in which the wallet was located, and took out a dark herb resembling a lettuce leaf, seeing which, Thestral neighed happily and ate it at once, smacking contentedly.
"I'm surprised that in this world these creatures have not yet been taken apart, like the same poor dragons ..." but, remembering the two hearts in his wallet, the Wizard was slightly embarrassed ... And finally leaving the "horses" alone, he turned to the perplexed Slytherin students who looked at him strangely, except for Regulus and a few others.
The Thestrals could be seen only by people who knew death, for the rest they were invisible. Therefore, many students, even after graduating from Hogwarts, thought that these were just enchanted carriages moving by themselves.
"Maybe I should get myself a Thestral somehow?" Severus muttered thoughtfully, and even Black himself began to look at him strangely.
After a while they finally reached the castle, accompanied by McGonagall, who met all four groups of students from second to seventh year.As on the day of the end of the school year, the hall was decorated in a festive way, with only a slight difference: there was no food and the service itself changed to gilded.
"Take your seats, the feast will start in half an hour," McGonagall exclaimed after examining the students with a stern look and left the hall again, leaving everyone on the shoulders of Professor Slughorn in order to meet the new students entering this year. " I ask everyone not to crowd and calmly go to their tables …"
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And then, exactly thirty minutes later, the doors to the hall slowly swung open, a huge number of candles floating in the air shone even brighter, and the ghosts, which had previously looked rather passive, activated in an instant, and accompanied by the head of Gryffindor into the hall about sixty excited children entered, constantly looking around and watching in amazement at the pirouettes of ghosts, joyfully greeting them.
Leading them to the teacher's table, McGonagall stopped and turned to the children. "Before we begin, Headmaster Dumbledore has something to tell you."
"Thank you, Professor McGonagall," standing up from his seat, he looked at them with a warm smile, "For starters, I am pleased to welcome you to our educational institution, the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – Hogwarts. Remember, that for the next seven years this place will be your second home, and the professors and staff of the school will be your second family. They will be ready at any moment of the day or night to listen to you, give you advice or help with something. This also applies to the rest of the students," the old man looked sternly at the students who were a little embarrassed by such a speech, and most of the teachers left not far from them.
"Also, I strictly forbid visiting the dark forest, I have said everything, thank you. Please continue, professor."
"Thank you," although the woman was a little surprised by the Headmaster's speech, she didn't think about it much, and took out a rather long list and continued. "Now I will list names, and the one whose name I will list will have to come forward, I will put a sorting hat on his head," she raised a rather shabby pointed hat. — Phyllis Harmony.
A girl with long blond hair stepped out from the crowd of children. "Sit down, Miss Harmony."
"Y-yes!" under the stern look of the professor, the girl faded away and finally sat down on a chair, and a hat was put on her head. And so, after a few seconds, hollow eyes and mouth appeared on the hat, and a rough voice sounded. "I see… that's how… well… Hufflepuff!"
At the same moment, the table of the aforementioned house was filled with joyful applause. And, when she took off her hat, McGonagall sent the girl to the Hufflepuff table, where she was greeted with open arms.
"Next, William McKinney!" a puny-looking boy walked with uncertain steps towards the hat ...
And so it went on for about half an hour, until, finally, the last child was enrolled in Gryffindor, and Minerva, removing the hat and chair, sat down to Dumboldar's right and tapped the glass with her spoon to get the attention of the noisy students.
"A moment of attention!" Again the Headmaster stood up. "Well…let the feast begin!" - and with these words and a clap of hands, food finally appeared, and from its quantity, in the truest sense of the word, the tables simply burst.
And, as if they had not eaten for decades, like wolves, the students pounced on the food, and only Slytherin in this situation even more or less ate calmly, of course, not counting some first-years, but, compared to the rest of the faculties, they were like real aristocrats among the peasants ... Dumbledore himself only watched this with a good-natured smile and, like every year, recalled his happy days at Hogwarts ... But at the moment when his gaze fell on a certain Slytherin student, the smile on the old man's face trembled.
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