CHAPTER 175
"You know where it will happen?" Dumbledore seized on those last words and shot to his feet as though stung.
"Yes. But knowing is meaningless. I nearly died fighting one of them, and that was the weakest of them. I only escaped because they were still behind the barrier. What do you think would happen to wizards like you? You wouldn't even have time to make a sound before you became their slaves. Or perhaps their food. Who knows what their preferences are."
"Then why won't you tell the whole world?" Dumbledore pressed.
"More trouble than it's worth. People are complicated. There would inevitably be people who would try to ruin everything, or who actually wanted to submit to them, and the end of the world would come that much sooner. And someone is already working on the problem. If that person can't solve it, then this world can no longer be saved."
Dumbledore sank back onto the sofa, completely at a loss for how to respond or what to do. Deep down, he agreed with every word and even found himself silently cursing himself for the foolish thing he had blurted out moments before.
He had believed his greatest problem was Voldemort, a monster he had helped create with his own hands. Now he understood that it was nothing compared to this.
Of course, some part of him insisted that it could all be a lie, that Severus had somehow faked the magical oath. But he recognized that he was only trying to convince himself otherwise. More than once, Dumbledore caught himself wishing he had never asked about the tablet at all. Why hadn't he asked about Ravenclaw's riddle? Why had he asked about this? He had no reason to doubt the man; there was simply no motive for him to lie.
But one thing he didn't understand:
"Why did you tell me all of this?"
He let the question settle, then asked it again once his thoughts had steadied. "You were going to make me take an oath regardless, ensuring no one would ever know."
"To give you a reason to keep growing. I originally thought I'd just give a quick answer and send you on your way, but when I saw you, I changed my mind." He took another sip, and a rolled-up red parchment appeared in his hand, which he tossed into the air. It unrolled on its own and hovered before Dumbledore's face. "Sign it."
Dumbledore read through the contract. In addition to the confidentiality clause, it also bound him to take no action that would harm Severus or his teacher. He gave a quiet nod. A quill appeared in his hand. He used a Severing Charm to make a small cut on his finger and signed his name. In the next instant, the parchment burst into flames. A fiery symbol appeared on Severus's wrist.
"And now..." But before he could finish, Dumbledore's view shifted. He was suddenly looking at a pair of two-meter-tall gates, and the stone tablet landed beside him.
Severus's voice followed: "I've told you everything. If you want to help and survive, don't stop. Keep strengthening yourself. And perhaps one day I'll tell you more."
"Become stronger?" Dumbledore murmured with a somewhat pained expression, thinking of his overloaded schedule. Over the past few decades, he had not even considered such a thing. School, Voldemort, the Wizengamot: together they left him no time to read so much as a book. He had long considered himself powerful enough. The last time he had fought with his full strength had been in 1945, in his final confrontation with Gellert Grindelwald. Since then, his abilities had barely improved, and in certain areas had even grown dull. How long ago it was. He stood there in quiet nostalgia, watching as bright rays of sunlight slowly broke through the dark, heavy clouds.
Inside the house, Nagini appeared beside Severus, who had resumed his usual form. She stared at him in silence, clearly waiting for an explanation of what had just transpired.
"My dear little serpent, I understand you think of me as all-powerful, that I could tear through every one of those creatures with my left hand and sip tea with my right. But that's not how it is." He spoke with a trace of irony, looking into her eyes with a smile. "I simply can't keep watch over everything alone. I'm going to need people like that old man. Even if he decides not to accept my proposal, nothing will change either way."
"Are you sure no one hit you on the head? Or maybe you have a fever?" she asked with concern, pressing her tail to his forehead. His eye twitched. "You've always done everything alone, and now you're admitting you can't manage by yourself. That's why I'm worried."
"A joke doesn't get funnier the second time around." He tapped her on the nose. "And I never considered myself all-powerful. I've told you that many times. If I ever said I'd handle this alone, consider that I've reconsidered after weighing everything carefully."
"Your actions haven't exactly shown that."
"I try not to do things I'm not sure about. The same applies to battles: if I can't retreat when facing a stronger opponent, I never charge in recklessly. I build my strength first, form a plan, and then act." He gave her a pointed look at what he considered a barely fair accusation.
"Really?" The skepticism in her voice was undisguised, earning her another tap on the nose.
"Hey!"
"All right, we'll close that topic for now. The reason I chose Dumbledore is simple: his skills and his knowledge. I'm certain that given time, fifty years of serious dedication could make him significantly stronger." The peak of the Master rank might not even be his ceiling. Wizards aren't warriors, and advanced age never greatly slows our development. The core's growth rate does slow slightly with age, but never critically. "I only choose people who are useful and who have real potential to grow. He only partly fits the second category, but his knowledge and talent more than compensate for that gap."
"I can breathe a little easier now."
"Hey! I did say I wasn't planning to broadcast any of this, but I will need people who can hold the perimeter and, if things go wrong, handle the weaker creatures that try to break through, so I can concentrate fully on the stronger ones."
"No. I can't." Nagini let out a tired, resigned sigh, knowing she wouldn't change his mind. She knew she was being selfish, but more than anything, she didn't want to see him risk his life. "But I won't let you fight them alone!"
"Then you need to become strong enough to stop me. Which means no more slacking off." He gave her a reproachful look, and she glanced away with a faint blush of embarrassment. The sofa and the TV were just too hard to resist. "So if you really want to fight at my side, from now on, I'll expect you here every morning with the others. And no matter how fond I am of you, there'll be no special treatment." He spoke each word with firm clarity. Nagini hesitated for only a second before nodding. "And I won't allow a repeat of last time: a week of training and then 'forgetting' all about it." She looked away again, bringing a smile to his face. The childlike quality of her behavior genuinely amused him. "All right, let's go see how our Shadow Squad's training is coming along." He stroked her head and shrugged off his cloak, letting Nagini settle onto him.
Half an hour later, after Severus had finished everything on the manor grounds and they were preparing to return to Hogwarts (since classes had ended an hour ago and the copy was already in the room), he stopped abruptly. He looked down and raised his palm toward the floor, conjuring a long staircase. A few seconds later, they heard the sound of heels: slow at first, then growing steadily louder. A young woman emerged from the dimness of the stairs. She couldn't have been older than twenty-five, with long, dark, wavy hair; an unnaturally pale complexion; and dark, lively eyes that watched him with open curiosity. She wore a white dress and black shoes with short, wide heels, her body wrapped in dark fabric up to her neck. But the strangest thing was her aura.
The closer she came, the more the temperature around them dropped until, when she was two or three steps away, Severus could see his own breath.
He barely reacted to any of this, simply smiling at her warmly.
"Congratulations on a successful evolution, Eileen."
Nagini couldn't hide her surprise.
She remembered how the woman had looked before. She had appeared no older than thirty back then; now, she looked even younger than Bellatrix.
"Is this really Eileen?"
"Yes, it is." He gave a quiet nod, examining the woman before him with curiosity. She was a Lich at the lower Master rank. This world is full of surprises.
In the world he came from, only zombie mages whose cores had reached the Archmage rank could become Liches, or Archmages themselves resurrected by a necromancer. But standing before him was another anomaly: a Lich at the Master rank, something that simply should not exist. It confirmed certain suspicions he had long held: that the laws of magic in this world had either been altered or weakened, allowing creatures like this to come into being. He could not rule out simple chance, but once was chance. Twice was something worth thinking about.
Eileen raised her hand slowly and touched his cheek, stroking it gently, her lips curving into a smile.
"You've grown so much." Her voice was very faint and strained. It was clear she still wasn't used to speaking, but it was full of warmth. "I'm so proud of you."
"Grown?" Nagini looked at him with puzzlement and concern, wondering whether she had lost her memory during the months of absorbing fragments of Voldemort's soul, or whether something had gone wrong during the process.
"She means in terms of magic," Severus replied calmly, reading her emotional state and scanning her memory.
Good. No hostility towards me. But I'll still need to watch her.
"Eileen, pull in your aura. The house-elf is freezing."
She tilted her head, not understanding, until she noticed the cloud of steam rising from his mouth and looked down at the shivering house-elf.
"I'm sorry. But how...?"
"I'll teach you." He placed his palm on her head and transferred a small portion of his memories related to aura manipulation and that specific type of magic.
Eileen absorbed the knowledge quickly, and within a few seconds, the temperature in the room began to rise.
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4.Harry Potter: Reborn as Draco Black = CHAPTER 138
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