Seeing Snape still standing frozen, Alister looked at him with even more sympathy.
Just as he opened his mouth to continue his 'consoling,' he snapped it shut. A deadly, sickly green glow was already illuminating the tip of Snape's tightly gripped wand.
"Avada..."
"WAIT... Wait," Alister said, immediately throwing his hands up to act the part of a terrified, normal teenager. He couldn't let anyone discover yet, that the three Unforgivable Curses, which directly targeted the soul, were completely useless against him.
"Potter, tell me the TRUTH," Snape snarled, his wand trembling with a murderous, barely contained rage. "About what Horace told you..."
"Okay, fine," Alister relented, dropping the joke. "He just knows about the friendship between you and my mom, since she was a potions prodigy too. He didn't know much about my dad because he wasn't a potioneer."
The sheer panic drained from Snape's face, instantly replaced by a venomous, humiliated fury. His chest heaved as he lowered his wand. "Get out... GET... OUT... OF... MY... OFFICE..."
"RIGHT... NOW."
Instead of moving toward the door, Alister let out a long, heavy sigh. The playful, arrogant facade of a student completely melted away from his face.
"You're so stubborn. Looks like there is no other way but to use force." He tilted his head, his vibrant green eyes hardening.
"Don't blame me for this later, Snape. I just need to make absolutely sure Astra is safe while I am gone."
"Stop muttering to yourself like an idiot! Didn't you hear..."
Alister stopped holding back. He released the mental locks on his core and let a fraction of his Tier 3 mana break loose.
The oppressive, terrifying weight of his magic instantly flooded every single inch of Snape's office.
Alister maintained absolute, pinpoint control, keeping the pressure strictly contained within the stone walls. If left unchecked, the raw, unrestrained aura of a Tier 3 mage could sweep across Scotland like the shockwave of a nuclear blast.
Even Snape, a highly formidable Tier 2 wizard in his own right, was instantly paralyzed. His body locked up, and his internal mana circulation was completely crushed by the sheer, suffocating density of Alister's presence.
"See? It would have been much simpler if you had just been honest from the start," Alister said softly, his voice cutting through the heavy, vibrating air.
"Now, it would be best if you stopped playing with this toy."
With a casual swipe of his hand, Alister used a burst of raw telekinetic force to rip the wand out of Snape's frozen grip, sending it clattering into a far corner.
He didn't just stop there. Gesturing with his empty hand, he dragged the immobilized Snape violently across the room through the air.
Alister's hand shot out and his fingers clamped around Snape's throat in a tight grip.
The moment physical contact was made, Alister pulled back the room-wide magical suppression, relying only on his physical strength.
Suddenly able to access his own mana and move his limbs again, Snape instinctively thrashed, his hands coming up to claw desperately at the Alister's wrist.
"What... are... you..." Snape gasped, his face pale, struggling wildly to break the hold.
It was completely futile. Against Alister's upgraded Tier 2 physique, a fragile, traditional wizard who had relied entirely on spellcasting his whole life stood absolutely no chance.
"Right," Alister mused, his voice dangerously calm as he looked down at the struggling Snape. "No one will recognize me with this face."
"What... do you... mean..." Snape choked out, his fingers still scrabbling uselessly against Alister's grip.
Alister didn't let him finish. Without letting go, he triggered his Animagus transformation.
The shift was fluid and immediate. His vibrant green eyes melted away, bleeding instantly into a piercing, glowing sapphire blue.
Two heavy, curved black horns rose symmetrically from either side of his head, crowning his draconic form.
A wave of glossy, obsidian dragon scales surged across one side of his torso, sweeping over his shoulder and down his arm.
The dark scales merged seamlessly into glowing blue energy veins that pulsed with raw, visible mana across his chest.
His hand, the very hand currently pinning Snape, shifted and elongated, ending in elegant, razor-sharp, claw-like fingers.
Massive, bat-like dragon wings unfurled behind him, casting huge, suffocating shadows across the stone walls. They were pitch-black, shimmering with sharp, blue crystalline reflections in the dim light and a long, heavily scaled tail uncoiled behind him with a heavy thud.
The transformation had also aggressively altered his skeletal structure, pushing his height and build to that of a towering, full-fledged adult.
"Now," Alister rumbled, his voice noticeably deeper, echoing with a faint, inhuman baseline. "Do you recognize me, Snape?"
Snape stared up at the towering draconic hybrid, his dark eyes wide with surprise. He couldn't even speak or breathe properly.
"No. Your face tells me not yet."
He released his crushing grip on Snape's throat, only to instantly shoot his clawed hand forward. He grabbed the front of Snape's black collar and violently yanked him closer until they were mere inches apart.
"Then how about this?" Alister whispered, leaning in so the glowing sapphire light of his eyes reflected off Snape's surprised face.
"Look into these eyes of mine. If you can't even tell who I am with a hint this obvious, then your brain might actually be slower than the trolls you love to sneer at."
Looking closely into those glowing sapphire eyes and hearing the distinct, resonant cadence of his voice finally triggered something in Snape's memory.
The blood completely drained from Snape's already pale face. His already wide eyes stretched impossibly further.
"Y... YOU...You're the Architect."
"Ha! Finally. You got it right."
Alister released his grip. Without the draconic hand holding him up, Snape collapsed heavily onto the cold stone floor. His legs entirely gave out under him; his mind was having hard time processing the truth he had just heard from Alister's own mouth.
"Congratulations, Severus," Alister looked down at Snape with a terrifying smile curving on his altered features.
"You are the very first person in the world to see the whole picture. That Alister Potter, the rising alchemist who pioneered memory metal, and the elusive Architect who just triggered a global magical upheaval... are the exact same person."
He stepped forward, his crystalline-laced wings casted massive, jagged shadows across the room.
"I am the only wizard since Merlin himself to successfully bind a legendary creature, a dragon, into an Animagus transformation."
He sat down on his knees to look at Snape's face with his sapphire eyes glowing brightly in the dim dungeons.
"I am Alister Potter and Architect."
END OF CHAPTER
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