Chapter 40
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Night.
Sitting on the bed, Severus thoughtfully flipped through a gray book. An unfolded map lay on the table, and his gaze kept darting between the map and the pages.
"Three places. I can only think of three places where the Gryffindor legacy could be hidden, but. each one is more delusional than the next," he sighed wearily, looking up at Salazar's portrait with seven darts stuck in it. It hung directly above the seething green liquid, glaring at him in either panic or rage. "Do not look at me like that. I was actually going to invite a couple of ugly strippers to your place. They would put on a real show right in front of you, with a grandiose sequel. And for dessert, we would hand over all your belongings to Muggle-born wizards, and then we would play a game of spit in the face of the founder of Hogwarts, but with real Muggles."
"Se. Alan, is not that too cruel?" Nagini asked tiredly, looking with pity at the living portrait of what had once been one of the most powerful wizards.
"You were supposed to answer questions, not play silent."
"Party. who?"
"In the Muggle world, that is what they call those who do not say a word even under torture. I read it in one book."
"I see."
"I have told you everything I know about Godric, so get me out of here!" Salazar shouted angrily, clenching his trembling fists.
"I remember. But in your opinion, where could he have left his sword?"
Rising from the table, Severus stepped up to the portrait and began pulling out the darts one by one.
"How am I supposed to know where that red-haired traitor hid his toothpick?! I already listed the places where he spent most of his time and the things he used most often. What more do you want?!"
"All right, enough yelling," Severus said, rolling the portrait up again. With a devilish smile, he added, "Remember everything you know about Rowena and Helga, and then I promise I will resurrect you."
"Can you.?!" Salazar started, but Severus cut him off, tossed the roll into his wallet, and snapped it shut.
"Are you really going to resurrect him?!"
Nagini looked at him in surprise, a flicker of panic running through her, because she truly did not like Salazar.
"Of course. I need pawns who will protect our peace and solve our problems." Severus stroked her head with a smile and slightly opened the barrier in his mind. She immediately felt calm spreading from him.
"Pawn? You are going to make that horrible old man your subordinate? Alan, he is dangerous!"
"Do not worry. I have my own methods. But for now I need to think about where exactly the sword could be hidden."
"Alan, please think about it. He is very dangerous, I."
"Calm down already." Seeing her pleading look, Severus sighed and nodded. "All right, I will think about it some more. Better yet, help me decide where we will go first: the Gryffindor common room, the Headmaster's office, or the lion statues?"
After his words, she calmed down a little, but he still felt a trace of fear from her.
"The Headmaster's office. how are we even going to get there? Although you will come up with something anyway. Let us start with the statues."
"We think alike," he said, winking as he rose from the chair. "Time to get to work, Peter."
"Yes, master."
Nagini stared at him in surprise.
"Are we going now?!"
Pulling on a dark robe, Severus nodded and extended his hand to her.
"Night is the best time. If we do it during the day, we will look suspicious, and with our map we can easily avoid Filch and the other teachers." As soon as Nagini, exhausted by all these adventures, climbed under the cloak, he cast the charm over it and slipped out of the room.
Out in the corridor, he headed straight for the stairs. On the first floor, he passed a weary-looking Minerva on her way to her office, then climbed to the second floor, where the first lion statue waited around the corner on a small pedestal.
It was marble, pure white, but it was carved so realistically that it looked alive, like it might leap down at any moment.
Severus was a little surprised he had never paid attention to it before, but back then he simply had not had time.
After a few minutes of inspection, he found nothing special about the statue itself. It was just another statue. But when he lowered his gaze to the pedestal and examined it, he noticed runic inscriptions. Even with his superficial knowledge of ancient runes, he could decipher most of them, simply from memorizing their shapes and meanings.
".only a true Gryffindor can solve this riddle. If you are not one, leave the statue immediately and go away." Stroking his chin with a smile, he looked up. A grinning creature stared back at him, and a quiet roar began to grow in its throat. A living statue, apparently waking only when the words on the pedestal are spoken. He felt no fear, only mild interest, as he studied the marble lion's menacing face.
~ Rrrrrr.
Enhancing his perception a little, he looked down again and simply erased one rune from the bottom row. The statue froze, mouth half-open.
"Leaving a deactivation rune right next to the statue itself. did he really expect no one would look for the switch right beside it?"
"I think it was a good place. You are just an exception to the rule. A normal student would have run away."
"Can not argue with that. Oh well," Severus said. He looked up again and saw a glint in the lion's mouth, reflecting the light of a firefly hovering nearby. "How convenient." He placed his palm on the lion's head, and its lips lifted upward. The moment a barrier surrounded them, the lion's head exploded, sending shards clattering to the floor. A silver badge, untouched by the blast, fell at his feet with a faint clang.
When he picked it up, he saw a lion with an open mouth on a red background on one side. On the other was some incomprehensible something. It was obvious the picture was unfinished, which meant only one thing: the rest was on the other lions.
"All right, our next target is the library."
After restoring the lion with Reparo, Severus headed for the fourth floor, where the second lion statue was supposed to be in the library.
A few minutes later, after breaching several layers of security and disabling around forty alarm charms, he finally slipped inside. He was deeply impressed by Madam Pince's skill and even wondered if he should ask her to teach him. Like in the best Muggle spy films, he moved slowly toward the statue at the far end of the room, refusing to let his guard drop even for a second.
Nagini, who had never seen the library's defenses, felt secondhand embarrassment for him. He was moving strangely: stepping over nothing, hopping, and sometimes even crawling.
When he finally reached the statue, he did not bother reading the warning. He simply blew the head off.
"So my thinking was correct," Severus said, smiling as he picked up another badge. He looked down at his robe, baffled. Nagini was poking him in the side with her tail, overwhelmed with embarrassment. "What is wrong with you?"
"Nothing! I did not see anything. Keep doing what you were doing!"
"Hm? All right. But if something happens, tell me." Severus glanced at the icon illuminated by the firefly, studied the drawing, and shook his head in frustration. "They are not connected at all. the real picture will probably appear once I collect all the icons." He sighed, looked toward the exit, and immediately perked up, because the obstacle course had shifted into a new one. Checking his watch, he saw the large hand cross twelve and the small one reach one. "This is what it means to love your books! You can even come here in the evenings and train in this place." He grinned, took one of the books from the shelf, restored the lion's head, and placed it directly on the pedestal. "Let us hope it strengthens the defenses."
The next location for the third statue was the corridor leading to the Astronomy Tower, one of the tallest towers in the castle. It took him a good thirty minutes to reach it, because two ghosts stood right in his path, chatting animatedly. After they left, Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, appeared in that spot, and two minutes later Filch himself followed. He had to wait a long time until they were gone, and only then could he reach the statue by the stairs. After quickly collecting another badge, he began his descent back down.
As he walked through the dark corridors of Hogwarts, he heard voices coming from one of the abandoned offices.
"Peter?"
"Sir, Joanna Smith and Anthony Benson are in the office, but they have been there for a long time."
Nodding thoughtfully, Severus stepped up to the door and heard a rather loud moan, which made it immediately clear what kind of lesson was happening inside. To make sure nothing illegal was going on, he cracked the door open. After seeing the girl on top, he closed it just as quietly.
Ah. youth. He nodded with a fatherly smile and cast a Silencing Charm on the door so no one would disturb the couple.
Nagini, flushing with embarrassment, was already a little braver than before. Still, she kept poking her tail into his stomach, and she chose to remain silent. She had clearly heard those sounds, and for a moment she had even seen a hot battle.
Severus decided to close the connection for the duration of the operation so her emotions would not disrupt his concentration.
"Hmm. Peter."
"Yes, Lord?"
"I have a question. You found these statues, right?"
"Yes."
"And you know where each one is?"
"Yes."
In the next moment, his palm met his face.
What an idiot I am. all right, so how many did you find? he sighed, asking the map mentally.
"There are ten in total: five on the castle grounds and five in the Hogwarts area."
And I only remembered six. all right, lead me to the other two. There is nothing else we can do about it.
"Yes, sir. One statue is near the Herbology classroom, and the other is near the exit leading to the Quidditch training pitch."
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