78 Chapter 77

Toward evening, all the students who had left the castle for holidays finally returned to Hogwarts. Of course, there was no meeting, as at the beginning of the school year, they were immediately sent to their rooms. 

Dinner was postponed for an hour so that everyone could prepare for it. 

Putting on his school robe and putting his coat in the closet, Regulus left the room, feeling a bit of excitement, because he was really eager to show Severus how far he had progressed, and..

..well, he also wanted to boast that he could finally create the third spear.

Also, Regulus had a lot of questions about that new spell, because no matter how much he tried, he could not conjure it. 

All he could do was just a weak fiery flash, nothing more. Therefore, as soon as he saw the familiar back and long dark hair, he was delighted and quickly ran up to him. "Snape!" 

Hearing someone's voice calling him, Severus felt a bit of surprise, but still turned around and smiled as usual when he saw a familiar face. " It's good to see you, Regulus, but first, calm down. Thank you for the robe, by the way," Wizard patted the robe. "I have been thinking about updating it for a long time, but I never got time for it." 

"There is nothing to thank me for. It's not that expensive. In a short time with you, I realised that you prefer more practical things than all sorts of artefacts and the like, so I decided to give you a robe," Regulus answered a little embarrassedly, such a gift cost him almost nothing, so he was embarrassed by the wizard's gratitude. 

"I found out quite late that it was your birthday yesterday, so I didn't have time to properly prepare… I'm glad you liked it but I'll definitely prepare something better next year!" Regulus spoke confidently, thumping his chest, causing Snape's eyes to shine and he was about to nod, but abruptly stopped himself and cleared his throat, returning his normal expression. "

Of course, I look forward to it. Let's go to the great hall, dinner will be served soon."

"Yes, but I have some questions about the new spell, it has to do with pronunciation." Quickly pulling out a small notebook from his inside pocket, he opened it and handed it to Severus. 

"Hmm…" taking and flipping through the book, the wizard alternately frowned, then looked surprised and occasionally nodded. 

The whole thing dragged on for a minute, until Severus finally closed it. "Not bad, I thought you could do a lot less with this spell." 

Smiling again, Snape handed the notebook back to a slightly nervous Black, who was relieved of his tension at his praise. "Actually, I'm not surprised that you couldn't advance any further. I myself once got stuck at this moment."

"Is it true?" 

"Yes, and the solution is quite simple…" Severus grinned playfully and added. "But I won't tell you, guess for yourself, but I'll give you a hint: don't concentrate only on fire."

"Don't just focus on the fire?" Regulus repeated gloomily, a little confused, and the next moment it seemed to dawn on him. "The formula, this spell consists of fire and wind, but I constantly emphasised only the first component!" 

"That's right, but don't practise here or you'll burn your room down." 

"Hey! I'm not stupid enough to use a spell like this in an enclosed space!"

"Is it true?" Severus drawled in an unctuous-sweet voice, slightly embarrassing the indignant young man, reminding him of the case when he had already pierced the castle wall with a fire spear once. 

"I won't…" 

"All right then," returning his former expression again, Severus looked down at the crawled out Nagini. 

"Good morning," Severus stroked her head with a gentle smile. With a hiss in response, she narrowed her eyes and looked at the nervously smiling Regulus, and then, snorting, slithered back inside his robe. 

"She doesn't like me, does she?"

"Of course not, my snake does not like other people at all and only allows me to stroke itself," Severus calmly answered him. "Let's go, we'll talk about the spell in your room…"

But, before Severus even took a couple of steps, he again heard his name behind him, and he had to stop again. 

Turning around, Severus saw Lily looking a little nervous. "Greetings, Miss Evans, is there anything you would like?" for a moment a chill flashed in the eyes of the young man, but the girl did not notice this, because she did not dare to look into his eyes. 

"I wanted to wish you a happy birthday, but I didn't know where you moved, so… here…" The confused witch handed him a small package. "Happy birthday… I hope all your wishes come true…" 

"Hmm? Thank you," the Slytherin did not refuse the gift, but only slightly smiling, nodded, accepting it. And then there was an awkward silence. 

The girl did not dare to speak, and Snape kept silent on purpose, so that she would leave quickly. "I… will go then…"

"Yes, have a good day." Severus slightly nodded.

"Thank you…" and she ran away rather quickly, slightly saddened at the same time. 

"You were friends before, why are you so cold to her?" Regulus asked him in bewilderment, watching the whole picture. 

After all, he collected a lot of information on Snape and knew about their old friendship, and almost everyone in Hogwarts ​​knew about Slytherin's feelings for Gryffindor. Behind their backs, they were even jokingly called "Romeo and Juliet", but this was mainly among half-bloods and Muggle-born wizards. 

"Let's not discuss my personal life. If you want, consider it an insult, the topic is now closed." 

"Umm….Okay."

*******

At the same time, a kilometre away from a small mansion, a man was sitting on a rock, dressed in a dark robe, stroking the snake in its head in his hand. "Looks like he'll manage on his own, and it's time for us to meet."

"Be careful…"

"You're telling me this for the third time." With a tired sigh, he moved straight to the building without any problems. 'And…I can't help but be careful at the moment,' he added mentally, looking at the entrance, where a few wizards were already standing.

One of them was the father of Lucius, and the second was a magician unknown to Severus, but his look and the level of magical power immediately said that he was quite an experienced and strong wizard for this world, a "Master" at the peak, equal in strength to the strongest teachers of Hogwarts. 

"Greetings, Amon Ichiros, our master is already waiting for you, please follow me," Malfoy said bowing, respectfully in his voice, while trying to see the guest's face hidden under the cloak, but, apart from a couple of red dots, he saw nothing more but even this was enough to feel very uncomfortable under the gaze of an unknown person. 

"I don't have much time," came the indifferent, slightly hoarse old voice from under the hood, sending goosebumps all over the two wizards' bodies. 

"Yes!"/Turning around, they opened the doors, letting Severus go ahead, and then quickly followed him. 

Moving along the gloomy corridors of the mansion, the group walked in silence. 

After all, the two Death Eaters were very afraid of the unknown, especially Lucius's father, who had seen a huge number of people in his lifetime, he immediately realised that Wizard in the robe was a very dangerous person. 

This also applied to the second wizard, his name was Antonin Dolokhov, he was one of the strongest wizards, having vast combat experience and taking many lives of both Aurors and Muggle-born wizards, but even he was afraid of Ichiros, because he simply did not know what can be expected from the man.

A few minutes later, the group finally reached a large hall, where a pale-skinned man who was none other than Voldemort himself was sitting at a table, and Bella and Lucius stood behind him, this is not counting those who were hiding in other rooms.

"My Lord …"

Voldemort calmly waved his hand, not taking his eyes off the guest, who did not stop, but, going up to the table, pushed the chair aside, and a snake crawled out from under his hood, who in a few seconds under the surprised looks of the wizards increased in size to five metres and curled up behind him, "Amon", calmly sat on it and silently stared at the local Dark Lord, while stroking Nagini, whose head lay on his shoulder. 

"You have an interesting snake …" 

"A rare species from the centre of the Amazon, do you want to discuss snakes with me?" two red dots under the hood flared menacingly, from which the younger Malfoy swallowed nervously, feeling a bit of panic, and only the fact that his Lord was standing in front of him gave him confidence. 

Seeing such disrespect, Bellatrix, who was standing behind Voldemort , frowned, and a cold light flashed in Riddle's eyes, but at the same time he clearly felt that the wizard in front of him was a difficult one, whose strength he simply could not feel, but his instincts clearly told him: the guest is very strong. 

"Join me, I need strong supporters. I promise, after I capture this country, you will get everything you want," Voldemort immediately turned to the point, slightly turning up his "nose". 

After a few seconds, chuckles were heard from under the hood, which made the Dark Lord frown, and then the chuckles turned into uncontrollable laughter, from which most of the Death Eaters began to look strangely at the "crazy" old man, after all, only a madman would act like that, sitting right in front of their Lord, one of the most dangerous wizards of magical Britain. 

"Young man, you have a sweet tongue. I'm flattered, but I'll probably refuse, I'm not interested in your childish games, and if that's all you wanted to discuss with me, then the conversation is over," he got up from his place, and the snake quickly decreased in size and returned under the hood. 

"It was nice to meet you," Severus said before heading towards the exit.

"Stop!" the dark lord exclaimed coldly, looking menacingly at the back of "Amon", who simply ignored him. 

But, oddly enough, he did not try to stop him, but only shifted his gaze to the right, at the wizard hiding around the corner, and nodded. 

"You bastard, how dare you talk like that to our Lord!?" the man exclaimed with rage, pointing the wand at Severus's back. "Ex…"

The man was going to fire a spell but he didn't even had time to finish speaking: in a moment his body was consumed by the flames, and in less than a second, the sound from the contact of the wand with the stone floor, as well as the nasty smell of burnt flesh, spread throughout the room. 

Finally, Amon himself stopped. In the next moment, a dark suffocating aura began to emanate from his body, engulfing the entire room in a few seconds. "I'm not going to interfere in your stupid civil war, I'll forgive your this trick only for the reason that you were able to get one of the ingredients that are important to me, but there will be no second chance, remember," the "darkness" dispelled, and after that he calmly left the room, but there was deathly silence in the room.

After that, all the wizards began to glance at their master, who looked gloomier than a cloud, with apprehension. 

After all, he had not been so angry for a long time, Voldemort struggled to keep himself calm. 

Only the fact that he was finally able to sense the guest's magic and the recent display of power could keep him from acting rashly. 

Even though he began to go crazy because of the Horcruxes, even in this case, the dark lord did not lose his caution. 

Yes, he has become many times more cruel, but at the same time, the old Riddle has not disappeared. 

Finally, unable to restrain himself, the man hit the table with all his might, and then, taking a deep breath, he looked towards the exit and grunted contemptuously: "Let's see how you can leave…"

.

.

.

.

Thanks for reading. Please vote with power stones.

You can read upto 102 chapters on p@treon.

P@treon.com/lucifer09