Chapter 78. Problems and Their Solutions
Two months after they returned to classes, a significant clash broke out between the Death Eaters and the Ministry of Magic for Magical Britain. Both sides took casualties, and several shops in Diagon Alley were destroyed, but since the skirmish occurred at night, no civilian witches or wizards were harmed.
The Ministry prevailed thanks to sheer numbers; another squad of ten Aurors happened to be passing by at that exact moment. They joined the fight and helped crush the Dark Wizards. They even managed to take several prisoners alive, including Walden Macnair, a Ministry employee; Anthony Rosier, the current head of the Rosier family; Avery Senior, another family head; and several ordinary Death Eaters.
While it could hardly be called a true victory, it was enough to boost morale and demonstrate that the Ministry still had the situation under control. Capturing two of the Dark Lord's close associates and a spy allowed them to learn more about the enemy's forces and several bases that were later destroyed. In the end, the Ministry had almost completely seized the initiative in the war.
Voldemort's foolish move had been prompted by a warehouse storing potions and artifacts, but an anonymous letter ensured that Tom failed to achieve his goal. The attack was repelled, marking yet another defeat. Perhaps if he had joined the assault himself, they could have won, but he had delegated the operation to the two Lestrange brothers, and that became his second mistake.
Of course, that unknown person was Severus. He had learned of the attack through Lucius and advised the Minister of Magic to strengthen security at the warehouse. It wasn't only about the brothers; Severus wasn't that petty. The point was that if the Death Eaters got their hands on huge stocks of potions, they wouldn't need his services anymore, and then his dates with Bellatrix would end. He wasn't about to let that happen. Otherwise, he didn't care.
He had also tried not to leave traces, so it was no surprise when the gloomy Riddle began to suspect spies among his servants. Only fifteen people had known the plan, and the rest learned of it just a few hours before the attack. That meant someone among his close associates was a traitor, and, of course, no one could escape his anger. He checked everyone, but to his surprise, he found nothing. Malfoy had simply wiped his own memories, erasing part of his agreement with Severus and the information about the Mark after first storing them in a special vial. Severus helped Bellatrix as well, blocking Tom from learning about their conversations and from realizing that the necklace around her neck was fake. So the Dark Lord hit a dead end, and decided to lie low for a while to regain his strength and prepare a new plan.
At Hogwarts, things were going as well as could be expected for Severus. He had finally finished organizing the books in the Room of Requirement and had almost finished sorting through all the junk. Even Lily seemed to be cooling off toward him. She got no reaction to her gift, apparently still hoping to catch him wearing that scarf. The scarf Severus had given her, patterned with deer, left her slightly bewildered until she remembered Potter's Animagus form and seemed to understand the hint. From that day on, she stopped pursuing Severus, and when they met, she tried not to look at him at all.
James, for his part, beamed the day he saw his redhead wearing that scarf. After that, every time he ran into Severus, he dismissed him with a contemptuous, slightly arrogant look. For the most part, James behaved like a complete idiot. Severus ignored him. After a couple of days, James got bored; he never got a reaction, and he started ignoring Severus too. Severus had achieved his goal. Lily began spending more time with James. All in all, life was improving, and James stopped bothering Severus.
Besides that pleasant change, something else happened. Salazar finally gave up and offered to betray his colleagues in exchange for a body. He even demanded a magically binding oath, but what kind of body he would receive and the deadline for fulfilling the oath were never settled. So the founder of Slytherin would have to remain in his portrait for another few centuries. Severus decided to listen to Nagini and not help the old schemer, at least until he was strong enough to maintain full control over him.
Still, Severus managed to learn quite a lot about the three founders, and to his surprise, some of the fairy tales turned out to be true. For example, there was the room, the private office where Rowena Ravenclaw kept all her books, known only to the founders. She never allowed students inside. Even Salazar did not know its exact location, because she had refused to let him in either, but the room was definitely hidden somewhere within the Ravenclaw common room. There were also the lion statues, though Salazar did not know what Godric had hidden there. There was Helga Hufflepuff's recipe book, and the cup that served as the key to her office, and many other secrets of the castle that perhaps even Dumbledore did not know about.
Now Severus had a new goal: to pry open every founder's hiding place and pocket whatever treasures were there. He understood Salazar probably did not know much about the other founders, because after his departure they had lived for several more decades and could easily have moved everything. Still, he decided to check. He was not especially interested in Hufflepuff's culinary delights, but there might be something else besides them.
And so another month flew by unnoticed. Severus finished sorting through all the junk in the Room of Requirement, marking every item that might prove useful or valuable, so that by the end of the seventh year he could take everything in one go. A couple hundred thousand Galleons would never go to waste in a household.
Besides that, two weeks ago, he finished the glasses and handed the blueprint over to the elder Macmillan. Faust patented it that same day, and they signed a contract stating that Severus would receive ten percent of every pair sold. Severus refused at first, but Faust insisted.
From the start, Severus intended to give Faust the blueprint as thanks for supporting him at the beginning, but Faust refused to budge until Severus accepted the ten percent. It was not only about nobility, though that might have played a part. Mostly, Faust did not want to break their connection, held together by his son's friendship, an artifact, and Galleons. He thought Severus was trying to buy them off that way. In short, that was Faust.
But this month wasn't as peaceful as the previous two. One day on the way to the Great Hall, Severus ran into two Slytherin students. Nothing was unusual about that, except he sensed Dark Marks on them. These were far more intricate than the earlier ones, and neither Dumbledore nor the school's protective charms could detect them. At first he didn't pay them much attention, though he was surprised that two Death Eaters could stroll through the castle as if they didn't have a care in the world.
Just a few days later, that number had tripled, and Severus felt trouble closing in. Hogwarts was the one place where he could find peace, with at least some sense of safety, and now that noseless lich was about to ruin his peaceful island full of treasures. Severus couldn't allow that. So the very next day, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore received an anonymous letter from a student concerned about the school, asking him to check the right forearms of students for a certain dark symbol. In the corner, the student drew a snake as a hint about where to start looking.
The next day, the school announced a short-sleeve day, and the headmaster decided to visit the Slytherins while also checking the other houses. Just as he passed two particular students, the Dark Mark appeared on one of their arms, and the whole mess began.
That same day, they checked every student and found nine more. To everyone's surprise, the last one was from Ravenclaw. After that, the Ministry arrived to inspect the school, but they stayed only two days. After interrogating students who had been close to those idiots, the officials left quickly. Dumbledore tightened the security measures, and now he could often be seen walking the castle halls.
If this had happened earlier, it would have been a problem for Severus, but once he had finished everything he needed in the Room of Requirement, he stopped worrying about it. The rat locator warned him almost immediately whenever Dumbledore left his office, returned, or was approaching. For the most part, it barely affected him. He did most of his work at night whenever he needed to search for something on short notice. During the day he reviewed the information he had received from Salazar, and he also started studying Healing Magic. In his past life, he had mostly ignored it because he had never needed it, thanks to the phoenix heart's powerful regeneration, though he had still been required to learn basic first aid during his previous schooling.
Healing Magic was the branch of magic that dealt with injuries, physical damage, disease, and other consequences of magical influence.
It was not taught at Hogwarts, so Severus had to study from books, which was difficult. Fortunately, the library had enough material for him to work through the subject at his own pace.
Severus did it for one reason only. He wasn't alone anymore, and if anything happened to Nagini, or to anyone else he cared about, he wanted to be ready to help them right away.
Even so, he knew it wouldn't be enough. Books alone couldn't make him competent, because they didn't always tell the truth, especially in a field as difficult as magical medicine. He needed someone who truly understood it, someone who could teach him, share their experience, and allow him to practice. Only then could he say he was on the right path. He already had a way to solve that problem; he just needed the help of one old wizard.
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