Holding a piece of paper in his hand, Slughorn looked thoughtfully at Alan.
"I don't even know, I can't say for sure whether it's true or not. First, we need research, which will take a lot of time, as well as galleons—not a couple of thousand, but dozens, not to mention the fact that we also need permission from the Ministry of Magic for something like this, and three other unknown ingredients..." Slughorn shook his head, stroking his temples. "You'd better give up on it. It's simply impossible, no matter how many years you spend studying it, and I'm not in any way belittling your talent, but even I can't handle it."
"Professor, I'll still ask you to help me get these ingredients, and you don't have to worry about the galleons. I recently opened a small shop and I can earn enough... although not officially..." he added sheepishly, and Slughorn sighed tragically.
"And why is it that almost everyone I teach personally goes down such a slippery slope, first Tom, and now you, Severus..."
"And who is this 'Tom'?"
"Huh? Tom? What Tom? Maybe you misheard?" Slughorn quickly rattled off, causing Alan's right eye to twitch.
"Professor, you don't know how to lie..." He looked away, childishly, and began to peer into the cauldron with terrifying interest. "But I won't demand that you tell me your story. Maybe someday you'll trust me and tell me yourself... I think I'll go anyway..."
"Wait... ah... but I've always tried to be a law-abiding citizen..." Slughorn muttered sadly, taking out his wand and then waving it, a small pouch appearing in his palm. "If anyone finds this, I won't be able to do anything about it." Seven small glass vials containing various plants appeared on the ground, and in two of them rested eyes and a heart, which was still beating.
"Did someone say anything about a 'law-abiding citizen'?"
"Hmm! I'm a master potion maker and have every right to carry such ingredients," Slughorn chuckled, lifting his chin. Alan couldn't help but burst out laughing, slightly embarrassing the teacher.
"Thank you, Professor. I will never forget your help and I swear that I will not use these ingredients for any dark rituals or cursed potions, only for good." Putting everything in his wallet, under the professor's puzzled look, he took out four different types of potions, two copies of each, and placed them on the table.
"And this is...?"
"I worked on them during the holidays and I would like to show you..."
At that moment there was a knock on the door and a loud child's voice was heard.
"Professor, will there be a lesson today?"
"Oh! I'll open it now! Just a minute!"
"Keep them with you. I'll come see you again in the evening and you'll tell me your grade, and I'm already late for class, see you in the evening, Professor," and he quickly headed towards the exit.
"See you later, Mr. Snape." He glanced at the eight potions, quickly putting them back in his bag, and then looked toward the door, where the first-years were looking at him. "Sorry to keep you waiting, come in..."
Alan didn't rush to Rune's lesson only because the teacher herself wasn't there yet. At the moment, according to Tail, she was in the Headmaster's office.
"I thought you wouldn't talk about me."
"I wouldn't do it, but I still need his support, and I'm confident in him. He's the only person I can trust in this place."
"And the Headmaster, he seems like a good guy... in appearance..."
"He may not be a bad guy, but I don't like the way he looks... he's too good-natured, but I don't even want to imagine what's hidden behind that facade."
"I think so too," Nagini agreed. "For some reason, I didn't like him from the very first glance, as if something inside me was screaming at me not to approach him. Perhaps an animal instinct?" she added, puzzled, lost in thought.
"It's quite possible. After all, he is a rather powerful wizard, and fear of him is a normal reaction," Alan did not deny her words, although he had a completely different opinion, which he nevertheless decided to keep to himself for now.
A few minutes later, they reached the sixth floor, after a brief ride up and down the stairs. Hogwarts wasn't just any place, after all, but a school that taught magic, so the stairs there were unusual, able to move "at will" within a specific space, connecting the castle's various floors. That's why prefects took first-years to the common rooms at the beginning of the year to explain how such places worked.
Finally, approaching the Runes office, Alan saw two groups of students standing a few meters apart.
Slytherin and Gryffindor... I'll probably never understand why they even put two warring houses in the same study group. They'll just tear each other to pieces, and if the faculty is trying to force them to become friends, then it's a losing plan from the start... although... why am I even thinking about this? I have much more important things: for example, the basilisk, which I need to kill quickly, then help Nagini, and without the first, I won't be able to do the second, so I need to hurry with it, but only when Dumbledore is not here. I don't want him to be able to interfere with me at any moment, and if the information I've gathered is correct, then at the beginning of each school year, at the end of the week, he leaves the school for exactly one day, and this school year that day will be Saturday, meaning I need to somehow open the passage in the remaining two days, and although... Alan's eyes flashed a malicious glint for a moment. I'll just blow up the entrance, and that's it. And with the Silencing Charm, no one will be able to hear anything, not even the basilisk itself. And right now, I just don't need to attract any special attention to myself... Coming out of his thoughts, he immediately met the gazes of his classmates, who were looking at him in amazement. While the guys were simply interested, the girls were already examining his body with much more ardent glances. And this will be harder than I thought...
"Oh! Sorry I'm late, you shouldn't have waited for me at the entrance, you could have just come into the classroom," a rather cheerful-looking old woman wearing glasses with large, thick lenses approached the students. "Come in quickly, we don't have much time as it is, and we have plenty of material...!"
The next forty-five minutes passed unnoticed for Alan personally. The professor had a knack for making even such a boring subject as Runes interesting, and every student, of course, listened attentively. Alan himself found it quite interesting, as although the subject had previously been part of the school curriculum, the runes they taught were very simple and carried almost no power. They were merely a part of the Elder Futhark, and it was mainly there to help the young wizards understand what runes were and whether they wanted to study them further.
Runology was a very dangerous field, both for the student and for those around them. After all, runes allowed one to interact with primal magical power and were often used in the creation of ancient artifacts and spells, which alone explained their danger. Yes, they confer enormous power, but the slightest error in their writing could have unpredictable consequences.
But if one were to become a master in this field, enormous prospects would open up for the wizard. He would be welcomed in any country, since masters of this field can be counted on the fingers of one hand...
And although Alan was unlikely to use them, he still intended to study the runes here to better understand the strength of his future enemies, should he ever encounter something similar. And most of the artifacts only bore local runes, so to better understand their power, he would still need to study them.
After the lesson ended, Alan headed towards the stairs in order to go down to the first floor and visit someone.
Opening the door with the sign "Toilet not working," Alan raised an eyebrow in surprise, because he did not sense anyone.
"Why did you go into the women's restroom?" Nagini's puzzled voice rang out from under his shirt, looking at him with a strange gaze, as if asking, Are you a pervert?
"Of course, it still remains a mystery to me how you can show emotions with your snake face, but I have some news for you: a friend of mine lives here."
"In the women's restroom...?"
"Well, then she's not human either," Alan replied, approaching the sinks. "Okay, we can look for the entrance for now. You get to work too, stop slacking off!" He poked her in the nose, leaned down, and began examining the space beneath the sinks, while Nagini, hissing discontentedly, began checking the sinks and faucets themselves.
A few minutes later, Alan looked up at the snake, who was staring thoughtfully at the tap and turning it with her tail.
"The others are leaking water, but this one, no matter how much I turn it, just creaks, and that's it, and this sign... it's not on the other faucets," she pointed to a small snake decorating the faucet on the right side.
"Indeed, it seems to have something to do with opening the passage, good girl," he said, smiling as he patted her head and opened his sleeve, and she quickly crawled inside. "Hmm... now I need to figure out how this mechanism works..."
"Maybe I should just say, 'Open up,'" Nagini hissed jokingly, but the next moment something happened that made her freeze with her mouth slightly open...
The room shook, and right before the eyes of the astonished pair, the large slab standing above the sinks began to rise upward, and the sinks themselves moved forward, revealing to their gaze a large, round passage. Finally, when that very sink with the sign of the snake sank into the floor, Alan approached the edge of the pit and began to peer in surprise into the darkness through which it was impossible to see anything.
"Nagini, did I tell you that I adore you?" he said with a wide smile, looking at the snake, who had finally come to her senses.
"No... I said it as a joke..." she answered, embarrassed by this.
"Well, then I say: I adore you! Now there's no need to blow anything up, although it would be better to close this for now..." "Tail?"
"Sir, there is no one nearby, and no one is coming this way. The Headmaster is in his office."
Alan, having praised him in his mind, turned his gaze to Nagini.
"Close it already."
"H-how...?"
"As you opened it, try saying, 'Close,' or something like that."
"Okay..." "Close!" And, as strange as it was, the room shook again, and the sinks began to return to their places.
It's still a pretty good idea. It's unlikely anyone would have guessed that the entrance was right here, and even if they had guessed and found the tap, they still wouldn't have been able to open the passage without knowledge of Parseltongue, and the chances that a Parselmouth would have found the passage are almost zero...
But while Alan was lost in his thoughts, he heard a surprised voice with a hint of disbelief.
"Snape...?"