Chapter 275 - 274. Muggles.

A few hours later.

Stopping in front of the door, Severus knocked.

"Come in, Monsieur Prince."

"Thank you, and I apologize if I’m disturbing you," he said politely as he entered, his gaze fixed on Olympe behind her desk.

"I take it you found what you were looking for?" she asked with a restrained smile, steepling her fingers before gesturing to the two chairs opposite her.

"Yes, though the books I needed turned out to be on the upper floors," he sighed, running a hand through his hair awkwardly. "I had to search the entire library starting from the first floor. Even Nagini managed to get some sleep while I was looking." Nagini looked away in embarrassment.

"That’s still good. I’m happy for you. So, what do you say?"

"As someone who has gone through the Hogwarts library from top to bottom, yours is slightly inferior in quantity, if you don’t count the restricted section, but superior in quality."

"That’s pleasant to hear."

"I merely stated the facts," he replied, then thought: *Though if that stupid war hadn’t started and they hadn’t removed a huge chunk of forbidden books from the shelves, the winner would have been quite different.*

"Yours is much better than that gloomy place," Nagini added with a lively sparkle in her eyes. "Especially your gardens. I haven’t seen such lovely places in a long time."

"You can stay with us anytime, if, of course, your young man..."

"Madame Maxime, that’s a low blow."

"I’m joking," she said, covering her mouth with her hand and chuckling as she looked at Nagini warmly. "We will always be glad to have you."

"Thank you. We will certainly take you up on that invitation sometime, though definitely not soon. We’ve decided to dedicate the next three years to traveling."

"Is that so... I’m even a little envious," Olympe sighed sadly. "When I was a student, I also dreamed of seeing the whole world, but... it didn’t work out. So!" She clapped her hands briskly. "We’ve gotten off topic. It’s already quite late, and I need to make my evening rounds soon, so..." Two unfolded parchments appeared on the table, along with a quill and inkwell. "I need you both to sign. This is simply to ensure you don’t share information about the school beyond the grounds."

"Of course, we understand. Professor Flamel already warned us," Severus said, signing calmly. Nagini signed after him.

But she didn’t even feel the faint pulse of magic that reached her core. The contract was too weak, and her dragon body, like the Basilisk’s, was resistant to magic, though the resistance was not absolute and depended largely on the power of the spell.

"Thank you for understanding. I believe you wouldn’t do such a thing, but those are the rules left by the founder..." Olympe lowered her head guiltily.

"Everything is fine. If I were in your place, I wouldn’t make exceptions for anyone."

"Glad to hear that. I’d also like to clarify something about our conversation..."

"I’ll speak with the director of my shop and tell him to contact you."

"That would be simply wonderful," she said brightly, clasping her hands together, which drew a puzzled look from Nagini, who didn’t know what they were talking about.

"Then... we must take our leave for today," Severus said, glancing at the clock behind Olympe as he rose from his chair and extended his hand with a friendly smile. "Thank you again for finding the time and personally arranging this wonderful tour for us."

"This was a very productive day for us as well," Olympe said, rising slightly to shake his hand. "And for that book... separately." Though the last words carried a nearly imperceptible undertone of anger, which puzzled Nagini for the second time...

Leaving the office, Severus and Nagini, along with Lucky, who was waiting for them in the hall, headed toward the castle exit.

A few minutes later, finding themselves outside the grounds of Beauxbatons, where anti-Apparition charms no longer held sway, they disappeared.

---

A minute after Severus left, a woman entered the headmistress’s office: the librarian, whom Severus would have easily recognized. Though she had appeared to be reading, she had actually been watching him intently the entire time.

"One hundred twenty-five people have borrowed this book over the past ten years," she said tiredly, holding an open volume. "Of those, only half are still studying; the rest have already graduated."

"What did Monsieur Harkinson say?"

"The students were subjected to a weak but quite prolonged influence on their minds, though not a critical one. Most were able to block it thanks to strength of will, but..."

"How many?"

"Fifteen. Each of them took their own lives, and because it happened once or twice a year, even after they had graduated, no one paid it any attention." Taking a deep breath, Olympe rose from her seat and went to the open window, struggling to suppress her sorrow and the rage that came with it. "I won’t ask for forgiveness. I don’t deserve it. This is solely my fault, and I must be punished for letting such filth onto the shelves." Smiling bitterly, she lowered the book onto the table and was about to remove her school robe when...

"Enough. This is not your fault. You did your job well. Even the other teachers and I couldn’t see anything at first glance," Olympe said, turning to her and shaking her head sadly as she looked down at the fourth-year Transfiguration book lying before her. "Did you find out who did this?"

"Everything, down to the slightest touch, is recorded here," the librarian said, clenching her teeth as she ran her hand over her own book, which she had placed on the table a moment earlier. "Professor Pierre has already determined when the charms were placed on it, and when cross-referenced with my records, the circle of suspects narrows to two people: Silvino Nado and Edmon Ratte. But the latter committed suicide a few days ago, so only..."

"I understand. You’re free for today. I’ll handle this matter myself."

"Yes..." Knowing something of Olympe’s connections, the woman, however much she wanted to settle the score personally with whoever had dared to defile the temple of knowledge, had no choice but to accept and thank Olympe for her forgiveness. Though perhaps she would never forgive herself...

"Too simple. I won’t believe that someone who did something like this would expose himself so easily and leave such obvious traces, but it’s still worth checking him..." With those words, a loud pop sent a powerful blast of air through the room, extinguishing every candle and slamming the open window shut. Where Olympe had stood, there was no one.

---

Before returning home, Severus visited Perenelle and examined the Veela who had settled in with her to make sure the ritual was working correctly and that the new body, or rather Nicholas himself, was forming.

Once he had confirmed that everything was proceeding according to plan, he headed straight to Britain, passing through the portal at the hotel. Once home, he contacted Shafiq and told him to start preparing all the documents for the trip to the USSR.

He had chosen it for three main reasons. First, of course, was Koldovstoretz, which interested him because of its library: far more extensive and open in terms of knowledge than other schools, according to rumors. Second was the black market, where the bounty on his head had not been removed but had actually increased, and he very much wanted to meet whoever was running it and have a heart-to-heart conversation.

The third reason stemmed from the second: to use himself as bait and gather materials for a potion to treat lycanthropy, which he intended to develop during the journey.

But that would require volunteers: people who would provide invaluable help by testing it on themselves.

These were Severus’s main plans for the next three months in the USSR. But beyond these, if time allowed, he also wanted to drop in on Arnold to lend a hand in the gang war.

Before all the documents were ready, which would take about two weeks, he had a couple of matters to attend to, as well as several scheduled meetings. Some were in the Muggle world, concerning his small business: a chain of electronics stores that a local gang of ordinary folk had begun to pressure. In just one short month, there had already been two attempts on his double, who was taking Polyjuice.

On top of that, when he ignored their messenger and their letter for the second time, they began spreading false rumors about the merchandise, which also worked against him, and he began suffering losses.

The simplest solution was to kill them all or subjugate them, but the Ministry of Magic’s laws on using magic against Muggles, especially for profit and in economic matters, wouldn’t allow it.

Even the self-defense clause meant to protect wizards could be twisted so much that one could be locked away for life.

Such a tightening had been introduced a year ago, proposed by Crouch.

Using harmless spells on Muggles, if it didn’t result in death, was punishable by a fine, but on the second and third offenses, by Azkaban.

And the Imperius Curse or other subjugation magic definitely did not fall into the harmless category.

Even the Malfoys, who earned enormous profits from the world of ordinary folk, had to do without magic and use their heads when solving problems.

Of course, Severus could use magic with impunity and they would simply turn a blind eye to it, but he considered that a foolish choice, because if everything came too easily, then what was the point?

In the field of magic, he had perhaps already reached the highest level of mastery possible in this world, and as a result, he had not found a worthy opponent in a very long time. If not for the Devils, he might have lost all incentive to advance further and remained stuck at the peak of the Magister rank.

So Severus did not want to use magic in this matter. If he conquered that world with a snap of his fingers too, then what would he do next?

These games with Muggles, he felt, were at least some kind of outlet, a place where he had to think seriously, where he could even lose by making a single mistake.

An easy victory would bring him no pleasure, and he simply had no desire to break the law, let alone draw the attention of the International Confederation of Wizards.

But although he had laid out a plan for the next two weeks, plans had a wonderful way of going straight to a very dark, ill-fated place thanks to the intervention of a third party whom he had not expected to meet so soon...

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