Chapter 258 257. Department of Mysteries. Part 3. The Room of Love.

When he opened the door, the sight that greeted him made Severus's eye twitch. A small room, roughly the size of a school office, with a fountain containing a pinkish liquid at its center, was littered with the bodies of Unspeakables. Their masks lay scattered about the room, allowing him to recognize some of them.

But he paid little attention to that, approaching the fountain with a crooked smile.

Of course, the wizards were alive, and no one had intruded before him. Everything was far more prosaic…

Snoring…

They were all simply drunk, which ultimately came as a relief to Severus, for it meant that the plant he sought was genuine.

This flower had three names that fully embodied its nature: Flower of Love, Pink Drunkard, and Flower of Life. The first was given for its love potion effect; the second for its distinctive sweet taste that could change dozens of times in a single sip, putting it nearly on par with the finest alcoholic beverages in the world; and the third for the very magic that could bring almost any plant back to life and increase its fertility.

For these three reasons, many guilds, clans, and factions hunted for it. Its sale alone could provide a comfortable life for the next hundred generations, and in the hands of sufficiently powerful forces, it would transform into an endless stream of gold, until, of course, the flower withered.

Therefore, Severus simply could not pass up such a treasure. Stepping over the unconscious bodies, he stood before the fountain, scooped up some of the liquid, and took a sip. After a few seconds, under Nagini's tense gaze, his lips parted in a rather terrifying smile that sent goosebumps down her spine.

*This is it! I would never mistake this taste! What kind of world is this…? So many incredible treasures in such a magically weak place… although I do have my theories… it's better to wait for now and study everything more thoroughly. One shouldn't draw hasty conclusions.* With those thoughts, he tossed the wooden cup toward a nearby bookshelf. "We're taking it."

"Hey! Wh-what are… y-you doing…?" A slurred voice suddenly came from one of the drunkards, who woke up when the cup bounced off the books and hit him in the face.

However, Severus couldn't be bothered to speak to a completely drunk Unspeakable who, swaying from side to side as if on a ship in a storm, continued to shout at him while waving his wand.

"About three meters deep…" He spread his arms out to the sides, and magic flowed from his feet into the ground, quickly engulfing the entire stone fountain. "And now… carefully…" He straightened his arms out in front of him.

Grrrrrh…

The earth trembled, and a large flat slab of the floor slowly began to rise. Since the ceiling in this room was already quite high and the fountain itself was only four meters tall, he was able to lift it high enough. The next instant, it vanished, leaving behind a square hole in the floor and stunned researchers who had woken up after the crash and were staring wide-eyed at the very spot where their treasure had just stood.

"Wh-what is this? Am I hallucinating…?" One of them rubbed his eyes, staring at the hole.

"No… just a dream…" said another. *How could anyone have sneaked into this place, bypassing all the charms and the colleagues guarding the door?*

"Yeah, a dream…" agreed a third, scratching his bald head and yawning loudly before lying back down on the ground. The rest waved it off and followed his example. All sorts of things could happen at such moments.

And so, for the next few seconds, silence returned to the room. Severus, after looking into the hole and sensing nothing else of interest, glanced one last time at the drunkards and disappeared.

…

…

"THIS IS NO DAMN DREAM!" the Unspeakable suddenly shouted, his eyes as wide as Galleons, his voice no longer slurred, as if he had just seen the resurrected Merlin himself. He rushed to the spot where the fountain had been and… fell to his knees.

"I-it can't be!"

"Thief!"

The others, swaying and stumbling, also rushed over. With incredible despair on their faces, as if they had lost the dearest person in their lives, one after another, those still standing fell to their knees before the hole, and some even… wept.

"No…"

"H-how could this happen?"

"How will we live now?!"

"Curse you! Demon!" exclaimed a toothless old man, tears of blood streaming down his face as he looked at the ceiling and clutched his heart.

The walls of what was once the happiest of places were filled with grief…

---

Gloucestershire.

After returning home, Severus almost immediately poured all the finished liqueur into a barrel made of magical wood to prevent it from losing its flavor in the unfamiliar environment.

Afterward, having disassembled the fountain, he finally retrieved it: the Flower of Life.

It was a flower of incredible beauty, its appearance reminiscent of a lotus.

It had a light pink hue at its very center and a dark border along the edges.

The plant emanated a warm, orange glow that occasionally shifted to yellow, pink, and violet. Additionally, golden sparks hovered around the flower, giving it a mystical, enigmatic appearance.

Not to mention the variety of scents that enveloped his entire garden; the Flower of Life did not suppress the others but instead revealed them, making them far more pleasant and sweet.

For this purpose, he created another fountain, many times larger, and planted the flower at the very center on a small rise, so that it would continue to produce liqueur and spread its magic evenly throughout his garden, which was circular and three kilometers in diameter.

But he did not sit long beside the flower, for he had far more important matters to attend to: namely, dealing with the Time-Turner, which, to his surprise, took only a day and cost him a pendant, which was ruined.

And in the end, he could say with certainty that the creator of this artifact was a truly terrifying person, in the best sense of the word.

Simply recreating such an astonishing sequence of runes and fitting it into a small pendant required incredible knowledge and talent in the fields of artifact crafting and runology.

Even Severus himself was unable to understand everything, for far more time was needed in this case, and a single day simply wouldn't suffice.

But he achieved his goal nonetheless and was able to properly configure the artifact, limiting its area of effect to his room only.

In itself, influencing the flow of time was a truly terrible crime that could lead to horrifying consequences for the entire world.

Even the restrictions he had placed caused harm to the timestream, but hundreds of times less harm than if he had used the artifact to its full capacity and reversed time for the entire world.

Therefore, after using the artifact, he intended to destroy them, even those still housed in the Ministry of Magic.

They were very dangerous things that should not exist at all, for there were no Time Mages in this world who could control or stop madmen like him who decided to play with time.

But before that, of course, he intended to study it thoroughly, for it could help him advance in the field of Time Magic and improve the spells already created based on it.

And having finished with all this, he began the main preparations, once again locking himself in his laboratory for the next seven days…

---

France. Paris. Ascolt. At a depth of over six hundred meters, in a stone dungeon, a gloomy, pale-faced, noseless wizard stood chained to the wall, clenching his fists. His eyes burned with hatred as he stared at his neighbor in the opposite cell, a skeleton wrapped in skin, dressed in dirty rags that barely covered his groin. The man was still alive, only occasionally blinking, never taking his eyes off him, which infuriated Voldemort deeply.

"As soon as I conquer Britain, France will be next, and I'll torture every last one of those bastards to death!" He ground his teeth in fury. He had been captured and imprisoned over a week ago in the country's most secure wizarding prison. "And that old fox who pinned that damned Flamel attack on me… I will never forget! Never! Don't think I'll rot in here! I will escape, and one day I'll take my revenge, and it will be terrible!"

"Heh-heh…" A hoarse, forced chuckle came from the opposite cell. A pair of formerly dull gray eyes suddenly darkened and came alive, making Tom's face twist even more, veins bulging in his forehead.

"Shut up!"

"Heh-heh…"

"I told you to shut your mouth!"

"Heh-heh…"

*Damned crazy old man… if only I had a wand right now…*

"Heh-heh…"

"Will you shut up already, you old bastard!" shouted someone from another cell.

"Shut it!"

*If only I could get out of my cell…*

But the old man kept laughing, ignoring the other prisoners' threats, staring straight into Tom's eyes…

Over ten minutes passed like this. When it finally began to grate on Voldemort and he was about to threaten him again, the elderly prisoner fell silent. A few seconds later, he bared his toothless gums in a bloodthirsty grin, looking incredibly creepy, his eyes turning bloodshot, sending a chill down Riddle's spine.

*What was that…?* For a moment, for the first time in over twenty years, he felt fear, but it was immediately replaced by rage many times stronger than before. But...

"I like your look, young man. Do you want to become stronger?" Those words, spoken by the old man, made Voldemort freeze in shock.

"What?" He didn't even understand at first, or rather, couldn't believe that someone would offer such a thing to him, the greatest dark wizard in Britain. Once again, anger surged from the depths of his soul.

"You shouldn't refuse so hastily. You'd better think it over carefully… for only I can help you escape from this place…" It was those final words that made Tom pause before dismissing the generous offer and the old man himself.

"You know how to get out of here?" Although he could rightly be called a madman, he had not lost his reason, and the desire to never see this damned old man again, or better yet, to strangle him, hadn't faded. "Speak!"

But the elderly prisoner continued to stare at him in silence, not saying a word.

The guards patrolling this floor didn't seem to hear their conversation, and the other criminals fell silent, but Voldemort paid no attention to this. He was far more interested in freedom and revenge.

Another minute passed in deep silence, during which the unknown wizard remained silent, continuing to stare at Riddle with his mad, toothless grin. Riddle, for his part, increasingly wanted to strangle him, but… he decided to play along if it would help him escape, and then he would definitely kill him with his own hands.

"I want this…" With incredible difficulty, Voldemort forced the words out, though he understood this might be nothing but the ravings of a madman. But in his situation, he simply had no other choice. Finally, the old man stirred, and his smile grew even wider.

"Good… very good…" And right before Tom's eyes, the elderly prisoner floated out of his shackles and then passed through the bars. "Heh-heh… let's see what becomes of you…"

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1. Harry Potter: Satan? Nah, Just My Family Crest = CHAPTER 446

2.Harry Potter: Beyond Good and Evil in the Wizarding World = CHAPTER 461

3.Harry Potter: Reborn as Draco Black = CHAPTER 245