Harry Potter: Beyond Good and Evil in the Wizarding World-Chapter 27 - 24. Map.

Chapter 24

The day before school started, after gathering his few belongings and setting the defensive and signalling charms he’d managed to cast on the building over the holidays, Severus returned to the training room toward evening and took out the parchment he’d lifted from the Marauders.

"What is that?" Nagini slithered up beside him and stared at the thing in his hand with open suspicion.

"Took it from one of the annoying four," he said, pointing his wand at it. ""I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Nothing happened. The parchment stayed blank, which was mildly puzzling.

"Interesting." He smiled, and there was nothing pleasant in it, and pointed a finger directly at the surface.

"Open up."

For a few seconds there was no response. Then red lines began to seep from his fingertip, spreading slowly across the parchment. Finally, as if giving in against its better judgement, words surfaced on the smooth page.

Mr. Moony respectfully requests that Longnose stop attempting to breach the security, and demands the map be returned to its rightful owners.

Mr. Prongs seconds Mr. Moony and would merely like to add that Snot is not only a thief but also a freak.

Mr. Padfoot is astonished that such a weakling managed to get his hands on the map at all.

Mr. Wormtail advises the filthy slob to wash his hair before attempting anything else.

Severus didn’t bother with the insults. He turned the parchment over thoughtfully in his hands.

"I thought they were fools, but to make something like this. Interesting."

"They clearly love you very much," Nagini hissed, irony thick in her voice.

"So they do," he agreed, already pressing steadily through the artefact’s defences.

"The tracking and scanning enchantments are decent. But the defences themselves are weak. They used their own personal signature prints without masking them and left the path to them completely open. Getting to the core is a matter of seconds." He shook his head. "I shouldn’t have praised them."

A few seconds later the parchment spoke again.

Mr. Moony humbly implores Mr. Snape to stop immediately.

Mr. Prongs demands that Nosey remove his hands from the map at once.

Mr. Padfoot is in full agreement with Mr. Prongs.

Mr. Wormtail apologises for his earlier remarks and begs you sincerely not to continue.

Severus chuckled softly and only pressed harder. The lines began to shift and change shape, the words becoming symbols, and the symbols sinking into the parchment.

Mr. Moony respectfully requests —

Mr. Prongs demands —

Mr. Padfoot insists —

Mr. Wormtail begs —

He didn’t bother reading the rest. He destroyed three of the four personality prints.

"Open up." The words had barely left his mouth when new text appeared.

Mr. Wormtail greets the Master and thanks him for sparing his life.

The parchment began to unfold, and on what had been blank paper, Severus saw the familiar layout of Hogwarts spread out before him: the interior of the castle rendered in fine lines, with small labelled frames moving across it, each one marking a person. In the upper left, the Headmaster’s office showed a nameplate reading Albus Dumbledore pacing back and forth. In a lower corner, Horace Slughorn was emerging from the Slytherin Head of House’s office and heading toward the stairs. Dozens of other staff names were visible, and even Filch’s cat, marked simply as Mrs. Norris, along with the grounds around the castle and a network of secret passages running beyond the school walls.

"No, I was wrong. They genuinely surprised me." He watched the moving nameplates with quiet satisfaction. "I cannot believe those idiots managed to build something this good. I’d been thinking about creating an artefact exactly like this." He allowed himself a real smile. "Well. since they’ve decided to give me such a thoughtful gift, I’ll gladly put it to use."

He touched the parchment with his wand and it closed, offering no further remarks.

The rat’s Animagus form suits him rather well, Severus thought, watching Pettigrew’s nameplate a moment longer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up betraying the rest of them one day, just as easily as this. But the lives of Potter and company weren’t his concern, so he didn’t dwell on it. He dropped the map into his wallet and left the training room.

The next day, silently cursing the Ministry’s Apparition regulations for the dozenth time, Severus finally reached King’s Cross. He followed the route from memory through a crowd that seemed personally committed to stepping on his feet, and made it to the passage between platforms nine and ten, the pillar concealing the entrance to platform 9¾.

Why a train at all? he thought, passing through the barrier. The Floo Network would get them there in minutes without any of this.

Beyond the pillar, an identical station waited, smaller and quieter, with only one scarlet train and considerably fewer people. Both of those things were welcome.

A few minutes later he found an empty compartment and settled in. The peace didn’t last long.

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?" A calm voice, with an edge of hauteur underneath it.

Severus looked up from his book.

"Go ahead."

"Then — YOU?! You again! Do you have any idea what my cousin put me through because of you?!" The intruder turned out to be someone he knew: Regulus Black, Bellatrix’s cousin, and clearly still aggrieved about the last time they’d met.

Severus only smiled at his indignation.

"Should I care?"

"How dare you —!" Regulus lunged forward, and then stopped completely. The colour drained from his face in one go. All he managed to register was a pair of yellow eyes with vertical pupils, a blurred green shape, and a chill that settled on the back of his neck like a cold hand.

"What’s going on here?" A sharp voice cut through the moment, and two boys came down the corridor. One of them wore a prefect’s badge. By then Nagini had already retreated under Severus’s shirt, though she was still watching Regulus with a steady, narrowed gaze.

"Nothing to worry about. My friend felt a little faint; he just needs to sit down for a moment," Severus said, standing and guiding, or more accurately manhandling, Regulus firmly into the seat opposite him.

"Right." The prefect, a fair-haired boy with fine features, looked at Severus with mild curiosity. "Who are you, exactly?"

"Have I really changed that much?"

Both boys studied his face. A moment later the second one went very still, as if he couldn’t quite trust what he was seeing, and started rubbing his eyes.

"Snape?"

"At least one of you got there. That’s something."

"Snape? No. You just look like Snape."

Regulus, who had so far been focused entirely on the yellow eyes, finally looked at Severus properly. His gaze moved down to the broader shoulders, the different build, and stayed there a moment.

"How does anyone change this much in one summer?"

Severus didn’t look like Apollo, but against his former thin frame the difference was stark, and the quietly corrected line of his nose didn’t hurt either.

Regulus didn’t stare long. The next instant, the memory of burning bodies in a Diagon Alley side street surfaced and all the colour went out of his face again.

He’d snapped at Severus out of sheer frustration, the result of the considerably more brutal training Bellatrix had put him through since that day. But now, calmer and thinking clearly, he understood exactly how stupid that had been. If Severus had dealt with five experienced wizards in seconds, wizards Regulus had only just managed to hold off alone, he wouldn’t have needed to exert himself at all to deal with one agitated Slytherin fifth-year. That thought alone made his hands unsteady.

"I can’t believe it’s actually you." The boy beside the prefect leaned forward, eyes bright. "Tell us. What did you take?"

"A side effect of one potion. Nothing more."

"Can you make more of it?!"

"Of course. A thousand Galleons." Both boys stared. Regulus remained absorbed in his own thoughts.

"That’s outrageous."

"It’s a side effect. If I want to replicate it deliberately, I need to fund the research: ingredients aren’t free, and neither is my time."

"Fair enough," the prefect said, and glanced at Regulus, who still had the look of a man sitting next to something that might bite. "Can you keep an eye on him until we reach Hogwarts?"

"No trouble at all," Severus said pleasantly.

Regulus, coming back to himself just enough to follow the conversation, almost burst into genuine tears at the prospect of spending the next eight hours directly opposite someone who terrified him. He was about to protest and find another seat when he caught a pair of yellow eyes watching him from beneath Severus’s collar.

"I’ll take good care of my dear friend."

"Leave me alone! What have I ever done to you?!"

"Thank you for your help," the prefect said, ignoring Regulus entirely, and headed back up the corridor.

The moment he was gone, Severus knocked twice on the table. Two illusions appeared in the empty seats, shaped convincingly like Slytherin students. Regulus stared at them, then reached out and put his hand straight through one.

A perfectly solid-looking illusion. He refused to believe it.

"Right then." Severus’s voice brought him sharply back to the present. "Let’s talk."

"About... what, exactly?"

"Don’t look so frightened. I don’t bite. In fact, by the time we reach Hogwarts, we might even find we’re going to be relatives one day."

"Merlin, please no."

"Come on. Talk to me."

"About what?"

"Bellatrix, obviously. What she likes, what she can’t stand, what she actually wants from life. Everything you know. And in exchange, I’ll teach you a combat spell worth knowing, not the nonsense they teach at Hogwarts."

"That fire," Regulus said carefully, swallowing. "The one you used on those wizards."

"I can, yes. The formula’s not complicated, but your magic won’t be strong enough to execute it yet."

"Doesn’t matter." He straightened slightly. "I’m sorry, Cousin Bella. I’ll tell you everything I know if you teach me that spell."

"Good. Here’s the formula."

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