Harry Potter: Beyond Good and Evil in the Wizarding World-Chapter 83 - 78. Problems and Their Solutions

After they returned to classes, two months later a fairly large clash broke out between the Death Eaters and the Ministry of Magic by Magical Britain’s standards. There were losses on both sides, and several shops in Diagon Alley were destroyed, but the skirmish happened at night, so fortunately there were no casualties among ordinary witches and wizards.

The Ministry won thanks to sheer numbers, because at that exact moment another squad of ten Aurors happened to be passing by. They joined the fight and helped crush the rebellious dark wizards. They even managed to capture several alive, including Walden Macnair, a Ministry employee; Anthony Rosier, the current head of the Rosier family; Avery Senior, another family head; and several ordinary Death Eaters.

While it could hardly be called a real victory, it was enough to raise morale and show that the Ministry still had things under control. Capturing two of the Dark Lord’s close associates and a spy helped them learn more about the enemy’s forces and about several bases that were later destroyed. In the end, the Ministry almost completely seized the initiative in this war. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

The reason for Voldemort’s foolish move was a warehouse where potions and artifacts were stored, but because of a letter from an unknown person, Tom failed to achieve his goal. The attack was repelled, and it became yet another defeat. Perhaps if he had joined them himself they could have won, but he left everything to the two Lestrange brothers, and that became his second mistake.

Of course, that unknown person was Severus. Through Lucius he learned about the attack and advised the Minister of Magic to strengthen the warehouse guard. It was not only about the brothers. Severus was not that petty. The point was that if the Death Eaters got huge stocks of potions, they would not need his services, and then his dates with Bellatrix would end. He did not want to allow that. Otherwise, he did not care.

He also tried not to leave traces, so it was no surprise the gloomy Riddle began to suspect spies among his servants. Only fifteen people knew the plan, and the rest learned about it just a few hours before the attack. That meant someone among his close associates was a traitor, and of course no one could escape his anger. He checked everyone, but to his surprise he found nothing. Malfoy had simply cleaned his own memories, erasing part of his agreement with Severus and the information about the Mark, after first storing them in a special vial. And Severus helped Bellatrix as well, blocking Tom from learning about their conversations and from realizing that the necklace on her neck was fake. So the Dark Lord hit a dead end, and for a while he decided to lie low, regain strength, and prepare a new plan.

At Hogwarts, things were going as well as possible for Severus. He finally finished with the books in the Room of Requirement and almost sorted out all the junk. Even Lily seemed to be cooling toward him. She saw no reaction to her gift, apparently still hoping to catch him wearing that scarf. And the scarf Severus gave her, with deer on it, left her slightly bewildered until she remembered Potter’s Animagus form and seemed to understand the hint. From that day on she stopped chasing Severus, and when they met she tried not to look at him at all.

James, for his part, beamed the day he saw his redhead wearing that scarf. After that, every time he ran into Severus he sent him off with a contemptuous, slightly arrogant look. In general, James behaved like a complete idiot. Severus ignored it. After a couple of days James got bored, because he never got a reaction, and he started ignoring Severus too. Severus had achieved his goal. Lily began spending more time with James. In general, life was improving, and James stopped bothering Severus.

Besides that pleasant change, something else happened. Salazar finally gave up and began betraying his colleagues in exchange for a body. He even demanded a magically binding oath, but what kind of body it would be, and the deadline for fulfilling the oath, were never agreed on. So the founder of the snake faculty would have to stay in the portrait for a couple hundred more years. Severus decided to listen to Nagini and not help the old schemer, at least until he was strong enough to keep him under full control.

Still, Severus managed to learn quite a lot about the three founders, and to his surprise some of the fairy tales turned out to be true. For example, the room, and also the private office where Rowena Ravenclaw kept all her books, which only the founders knew about. She never allowed students in. Even Salazar did not know its exact location, because she would not let him in either, but the room was definitely somewhere in the house common room. There were also the lion statues, though Salazar did not know what Godric hid there. There was Helga Hufflepuff’s recipe book, and the cup that served as the key to enter her office, and many other secrets of the castle that perhaps even Dumbledore did not know about.

Now Severus had a new goal: to pry open every founder’s hiding place and pocket whatever treasures were there. He understood Salazar probably did not know much about the other founders, because after his departure they lived another couple of decades and could easily have moved everything. Still, he decided to check. He was not especially interested in Hufflepuff’s culinary delights, but there might be something else besides those.

And so another month flew by unnoticed. Severus finished sorting all the junk in the Room of Requirement and marked every valuable item that might be useful or worth something, so that by the end of seventh year he could take everything in one go. A couple hundred thousand Galleons would never be useless in a household.

Besides that, two weeks ago he finished the glasses and handed the blueprint to the elder Macmillan. Faust patented it that same day, and they signed a contract stating that Severus would receive ten percent from each pair sold. Severus refused at first, but Faust insisted.

From the start Severus had meant to give Faust the blueprint as thanks for supporting him at the beginning, but Faust refused to budge until Severus accepted the ten percent. It was not only about nobility, though that might have played a part. Mostly Faust did not want to break their connection, held together by friendship with his son, an artifact, and Galleons. He thought Severus was trying to buy them off that way. In short, that was Faust.

But this month did not pass as calmly as the last two. One day on the way to the Great Hall, Severus ran into two Slytherin students. Nothing unusual, except he sensed Dark Marks on them. These were far more intricate than the earlier ones, and neither Dumbledore nor the school’s protective charms could detect them. At first he did not pay them much attention, though he was surprised that two Death Eaters could stroll through the castle as if nothing mattered.

Only a couple of days later the number of those students tripled, and Severus felt trouble creeping closer. Hogwarts was the one place where he could spend his time calmly, with at least some sense of safety, and now that noseless lich was about to ruin his peaceful island full of treasures. Severus could not allow that. So the very next day Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore received an anonymous letter from a student concerned about the school, asking him to check right forearms for a certain black filth. In the corner the student drew a snake, as a hint about where to start looking.

The next day they announced a short-sleeves day, and the headmaster decided to visit the Slytherins, without forgetting to check the other houses too. And right as he passed two particular students, the Dark Mark appeared on one of their arms, and the whole mess began.

That same day they checked every student and found nine more. To everyone’s surprise, the last one came from Ravenclaw. After that the Ministry arrived to inspect the school, but it stayed only two days. After interrogating students who were close to those idiots, the officials left quickly. Dumbledore tightened the security measures, and now he could often be seen walking the castle halls.

If it had happened earlier, it would have been a problem for Severus, but once he finished everything he needed in the Room of Requirement, he stopped worrying about it. The rat locator warned him almost immediately whenever Dumbledore left his office and came back, or whenever he was already nearby. In general it barely affected him. He did most of his work at night if he suddenly needed to search for something. During the day he checked the information he got from Salazar, and he also started studying Healing Magic. In his past life he had mostly ignored it because he never needed it, thanks to the phoenix heart’s powerful regeneration, though he still had to learn basic first aid back in his magic school.

Healing Magic was a branch of magic that studied injuries, physical damage, disease, and other consequences of magical influence.

They did not teach it at Hogwarts, so Severus had to study through books, which was difficult. Fortunately the library had enough material for him to work through the subject calmly.

Severus did it for one reason only. He was not alone anymore, and if something ever happened to Nagini, or to anyone else he cared about, he wanted to be ready and help them right then.

Even so, he knew it would not be enough. Books alone could not make him competent, because they do not always tell the truth, especially in a branch as difficult as magical medicine. He needed someone who truly understood it, someone who could teach him, share experience, and let him practice. Only then could he say he was on the right path. He already had a way to solve that problem; he just needed the help of one old wizard.