Chương 54: Chapter 53 - Old Man.

[Chapter Size: 3800 Words.] 

Third Person POV 

Unknown Place. 

... 

... 

A massive explosion shook the entire cave in the next moment. 

An intense white light engulfed the entire area as a gigantic snowstorm emerged. A true freezing blizzard spread throughout the hall, accompanied by winds roaring like a hurricane. 

At the center of it all, Severus remained standing still. He continued pouring magic into his wand, even though he was expending more than he should due to the current incompatibility, while keeping the sword embedded in the ground with one hand. 

Fawkes stood with his feet on the tip of the sword's hilt to protect himself from the force of the blizzard, while Articuno simply soared through the skies of the cave, completely indifferent to the wind, snow, and cold. 

Severus needed to maintain his concentration. That was one of the most powerful spells he had ever created using his ice magic. It was equivalent to a Fiendfyre in the form of a snowstorm. 

The gigantic blizzard swept through the entire cave. The knights continued advancing, but their movements grew slower and slower as their bodies froze. 

Soon after, they began to reach their limit. The statues started to shatter, unable to withstand the freezing. Their bodies broke apart and fell to the ground in countless fragments of stone. 

Severus brought down about ten of them with that attack. Although he could have done it with much less, he saw an opportunity to test that spell. 

When he finally stopped casting the spell, only three remained. 

He did not want to destroy them. He needed to study them. He immediately cast a freezing spell. A thin layer of ice completely enveloped the three golems, imprisoning them. It was not a Glacius; the stone knights would remain in that state until he himself cast a counterspell. 

In a way, the last three had also been defeated. The cave itself seemed to acknowledge that. 

The thin glass barrier separating him from the Pensieve began to disappear. A wave of blue light rippled across its entire surface before it vanished completely. 

Severus turned his gaze toward the three frozen golems. "This will certainly be an excellent research tool later... But now is not the time for that." 

He hoped he would be able to return to that cave in the future. Countless runes were carved into the golems. If they could truly be called that, they would certainly help with the project he had already been trying to develop. 

Not made of stone, of course, and not with this runic language. Even so, they would be extremely useful. 

Severus walked toward the Pensieve. The two phoenixes landed on his shoulders once again. 

Behind him, while the place was still covered in snow, the sword began to lose its Transfiguration. The fire runes gradually disappeared until the weapon completely returned to its original form: a simple stone sword. 

Finally, he turned his attention to the Pensieve. A memory floated within it. 

Before doing anything else, he performed several checks. He still was not very experienced with that kind of magic, so he also asked the two phoenixes to examine the Pensieve. 

Neither of them found anything unusual. Without hesitation, Severus plunged his head into the Pensieve. 

The next instant, the memories began to emerge. When his vision finally stabilized, he found himself standing before a massive table. 

"Then we'll seal it with the seals. We'll form twelve seals, and that will be enough..." one of the knights said. 

Severus had no idea who those men were. They certainly belonged to a very ancient era. They wore full suits of armor, and all of them appeared to be sworn knights. 

If he was not mistaken, this should have been the true medieval period of this world, which had not lasted nearly as long as it had in the world where he was born. In this world, it had lasted only a few centuries. By contrast, in his old world, that era had endured for about eight thousand years, until he had finally helped transform it into a new age by merging runic magic with technology. 

In any case, standing at the center of that room, Severus could clearly perceive something he had seen countless times in his past life. 

Those men possessed something rare. 

Honor. 

It was written in each of their eyes. They were true knights. Whatever oath they had sworn, it was evident they upheld it with absolute conviction. 

"Then we'll seal it with twelve seals. I hope that man keeps his part of the agreement with our king," another knight said. 

The image began to fade. The next instant, Severus pulled his head out of the Pensieve. 

'A bit disappointing... Is that all? Two sentences from men sitting around a table?' he thought with some regret. 

'So... what happened?' Articuno asked. 

Without answering aloud, Severus simply shared the memories through their mental link. Fawkes remained silent beside him. 

'We've got a mystery here,' Articuno concluded. 

As they moved away from the Pensieve, Severus asked Fawkes whether Dumbledore had ever found anything similar during his explorations. 

The phoenix shook his head. 

Nothing comparable to what had just happened. Those had merely been some of the headmaster's adventures, nothing like what they had just witnessed in that cave. 

"I see... Well, in any case, let's keep going. Whatever exists in this cave, we can't leave until we find a way out." 

After running a few tests, and finding that he could neither Apparate nor even summon the house-elves in that place, Severus concluded that the entire area was protected by extremely powerful magic. 

Thus, he continued walking. He climbed the staircase and passed through the next door. 

He soon entered another enclosed corridor lit only by blue flames. After a few minutes, he came across a much smaller chamber. 

At its center was a well. 

"It seems this will be our only way out." Severus expanded his senses once more, trying to detect anything beneath the water. 

He found no threats near the well. He could only sense lifeforms coming from the depths. Probably fish. 

'This could be a problem...' Articuno seemed uneasy about going into the water. 

"Nothing to worry about." Severus reassured him and began casting the Bubble-Head Charm. 

A layer of air completely enveloped his mouth and nose. 

He had learned that spell while studying some of the spells from books he had bought at Flourish and Blotts. It was not part of the school curriculum until the fifth year, but Severus considered it extremely useful precisely because it allowed one to breathe in environments without oxygen. 

Soon afterward, he cast the same spell on the two phoenixes. 

"Ready? Let's go." Without hesitation, he dived into the well. 

The two phoenixes, still perched on his shoulders, followed him. As he descended through the water, Severus quickly created ice fins on his feet. 

Although rigid, they were far better than swimming normally. 

Shortly afterward, he created another pair on his hands and began moving swiftly through the depths. When they reached the end of the submerged tunnel, they finally came upon a vast expanse of water. 

They soon realized they were in a lake. It was nothing like the Black Lake in the Forbidden Forest. The passage they had emerged from was narrow, but the lake itself was far larger and certainly was not the Black Lake, as the entire surrounding environment was completely different from those familiar waters. 

As they made their way toward the surface, Severus immediately began swimming upward. 

That was when he and the two phoenixes noticed something. From the rocks beneath the tunnel's entrance, shadowy figures began to emerge and immediately went after them. They were no ordinary creatures. 

They were Dementors. The very water itself seemed to grow colder at that exact moment. 

The three of them recognized them immediately. Wherever those creatures had come from, and whatever reason they had for hiding beneath the water, they had identified Severus as a target and were slowly advancing toward him. 

Severus immediately turned to face them and dismissed the fins on his hands, taking hold of his wand. Even the two phoenixes seemed uncomfortable in the presence of those creatures. 

Without wasting a second, he pointed his wand forward. "Expecto Patronum." 

No one could hear his words, muffled by the water and the Bubble-Head Charm. But his wand immediately began to glow. 

The Dementors recoiled for a moment, but the spell was still incomplete. "Damn..." 

'Should we intervene?' Articuno asked. Even in that unfavorable environment, they could certainly deal with just three Dementors. 

But Severus shook his head. 'Not yet. Let me try one more thing.' He focused once again. 

He needed to find an even more powerful memory. Something solid enough to finally allow him to conjure a corporeal Patronus. 

He immediately began searching through his own memories, using a bit of Occlumency to organize his thoughts. 

He saw his family. His beloved wives. The smiles of his children and grandchildren. The countless happy moments he had lived through. But then he found something far greater. 

It was not necessarily his happiest memory. However, it held a symbolic value incomparably greater than personal happiness. 

It was the sight of Arctica at the height of its glory. He remembered flying over the city atop one of his dragons. He had thought then that, two hundred years earlier, that place had been nothing more than a lifeless frozen desert with a single Heart Tree sheltering a handful of forest children... 

But when he had first arrived in that place... In little more than a decade, they had built a true city. 

Two hundred years later, it had become the largest metropolis in the world. More than ten million people lived there. 

A fully functional city. It was the greatest achievement of his life. 

Severus once again saw that immense 300-meter-tall tree, with its sturdy trunk and crimson leaves, in his memories. 

He looked once more at everything he had built. It held a symbolic value far greater than any other memory. 

Immediately, he cast the spell once more. "Expecto Patronum." 

At that instant, completely immersed in the memory, something began to shine. But it did not come from the tip of his wand. 

The light emerged behind him. It was so intense that it completely illuminated the entire lake in the moments before dawn. 

The three Dementors immediately recoiled, their faces twisted into silent screams of agony. 

The next instant, they began to burn in the light, and then... Severus's eyes widened as he watched the Dementors being disintegrated by the radiance. Their bodies began to burn and turn into ash. 

'How?!' Articuno asked immediately, unable to believe it. Like Fawkes, he seemed unable to believe what he was seeing. 

Severus quickly calmed himself. As a man who had spent so many years as a ruler, despite his surprise, it showed only as a slight expression on his face as he watched the scene. But now, he was completely confused. 

A Patronus was supposed to emerge from the tip of the wand. Not... from whatever was behind him. Much less destroy Dementors. 

When he finally turned around, he realized that even the two phoenixes were completely stunned. Severus's green eyes reflected the intense radiance before him. 

And then he understood. A gigantic tree had appeared in the middle of the lake. 

It rose from the bottom of the lake and towered majestically before them, as though its countless branches and leaves embraced the entire vast body of water. That tree of light stood hundreds of meters tall. 

Its completely white leaves illuminated the entire area. Even its trunk was entirely white. 

His eyes turned toward what remained of the Dementors... nothing. He was still somewhat stunned. 

Nothing in the magical world was capable of destroying a Dementor. But the light of that tree, a sacred tree from his other world... the light of that sacred tree had simply exterminated those creatures. 

"So... this is my Patronus... No..." Severus murmured. 

'You did that? What kind of Patronus is that?' Articuno asked. 

Severus, however, slowly shook his head. "No... Something is wrong. That isn't my Patronus." 

In any case, the tree began to lose its radiance. The leaves disappeared first. Then the branches. Next, the trunk began to dissolve into tiny particles of light until the roots also vanished completely. 

The tree had been so enormous that it had covered a large part of the lake. Beside it, everyone had seemed tiny. 

Now, however, it had disappeared completely, leaving behind only the darkness of the water. 

The exhaustion hit him immediately afterward. 'An absurd amount of magic was spent here...' he complained at once. 

With no other choice, Severus took a moment to catch his breath and began swimming toward the surface. As soon as he broke through the water, he dispelled the Bubble-Head Charm. 

The two phoenixes did the same and quickly took flight, shaking the water from their feathers. 

Severus looked over the lake. The entire surface was covered by a thin layer of mist. 

'There's a house with a pier over there,' Articuno warned. 

Severus immediately began swimming in that direction. The sun was already beginning to rise. The first rays were appearing on the horizon. 

As soon as he reached the pier, he placed his hands on the wooden planks and climbed up. 

He immediately checked his ring and his storage pouch. Everything remained intact. 

The pouch was still completely sealed. The spells he had cast on it had prevented even a single drop of water from getting inside. He let out a sigh of relief. 

The two phoenixes landed beside him. 

Severus cast a Drying Charm on himself and, immediately afterward, another on the two birds, making every trace of water disappear from their feathers. 

For a few moments, he simply stood there watching the sunrise. 

"It seems this night has finally come to an end..." he murmured. It had been the most eventful night of his entire life in this world. 

Besides all the trouble at Hogwarts involving the Marauders, he had confronted the headmaster, told Dumbledore to go to hell, and calmly accepted the possibility of being expelled because of it. 

After that, he had gone into the Forbidden Forest. He had encountered unicorns. He had met the centaurs. He had flown on a Thestral. 

He had entered a tomb of ancient magic. He had overcome an ancient magical trial. He had witnessed memories from a distant past without understanding anything about the meaning of those twelve seals. 

And finally, he had awakened a strange spell of light. A perfect replica of the Heart Tree. A tree so powerful that it had been capable of destroying Dementors. 

"I hope nothing else manages to surprise me today..." he said with a sigh, still watching the sunrise. 

That was when he sensed a presence behind him. He immediately got to his feet, and the two phoenixes also became alert. 

Only then did Severus realize he had not paid any attention to the house by the lakeside. It appeared completely abandoned. 

Standing before him, however, was someone. Or rather... something. 

A ghost. 

It was different from the ghosts of Hogwarts. Its bluish body wore long wizard's robes. It held a staff, and its long white hair and beard reached down to its chest. 

It simply stood there, staring at Severus. "You've done me a great favor, boy," the old man began. 

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Who are you? What do you mean by that?" he asked cautiously, despite standing before a ghost. 

"You got rid of those Dementors. I must say, they had been quite a nuisance ever since they moved into this lake and hid themselves in its depths. You know, Dementors are rather irritating creatures. They create all this mist every morning. It's difficult to appreciate the sunrise like that." He smiled as he gazed toward the horizon. "It's a shame I can't enjoy this morning... But tomorrow's will certainly be much better." 

"You still haven't told me who you are," Severus insisted. 

The old man merely smiled. He certainly looked every bit as old as Dumbledore. "Ah, don't worry about who I am, boy. You may simply call me 'old man.' Names are no longer important to me." 

Severus clearly did not like that answer, but decided not to press the matter. "What is this place?" he asked. 

"What are you thinking? If you're wondering whether we're still in Great Britain... yes, we are. Somewhere around here. I just don't know exactly where." The old man placed a hand on his head. "Perhaps my memory has become a little muddled. You know how it is... an old man's memory can fail him from time to time." 

He let out a soft chuckle. "But I'm certain of one thing. It's been a very long time since I've had any visitors. You're the first to make it here." 

Severus studied the man. There was no sign of concern from either of the two phoenixes. Neither of them seemed to sense any threat from the old man. 

Thus, Severus relaxed a little. The old man, however, turned his gaze toward the two birds. 

"But I must say, boy... I truly didn't expect my visitor to arrive accompanied by two phoenixes. Especially such a rare Ice Phoenix." 

Severus looked at Articuno before turning his attention back to the ghost. "You know this species?" Severus asked. He was the first person who had actually recognized it. 

"To tell you the truth, I've never seen one in person. But we knew they existed." He smiled. "There were ancient records about these creatures. I never imagined I'd encounter one, even after my death." 

Severus remained silent as he observed him. That man seemed even more mysterious than Dumbledore. 

"Well... in any case, now we can Apparate again. Let's head back to Hogwarts." Severus shrugged and began to stand up. 

"What? You're leaving already?" the old man asked, sounding somewhat disappointed. 

"There's nothing more for us to do here. We also don't want to trouble you, sir." Severus truly believed the man was merely a reclusive ghost. 

"No, no, no... I couldn't possibly let you leave like this." The old man shook his head. "Especially after you came all the way here, gave me the chance to speak with someone after so long, and most importantly, rid this lake of those creatures." He turned his gaze back toward the horizon. 

"My mornings will be much more beautiful from now on." He paused briefly before looking back at Severus. "But I must say... that light was extraordinary. It illuminated the entire lake." He slowly stroked his beard. "That didn't seem to be an ordinary Patronus." 

Severus had the impression that the man truly knew what he was talking about. 

"No... I'm not even sure myself whether that was really a Patronus," Severus murmured. 

The old man merely nodded. "Well... in any case, it seems fate has brought you to me. Unfortunately, I no longer have physical hands to prepare tea for us, but let me give you a reward," the man said. 

Severus looked around. He let his mind begin exploring the house. 

He found a few small foxes and several birds' nests, but not even a single rat. The place was completely isolated, and rodents would hardly have survived there. 

Even so, Severus searched through the animals' memories. He found nothing unusual. The ghost did not appear in any of them. The oldest memory he was able to access belonged to a fox that had been living there for about two years. 

There certainly did not appear to be any kind of trap. Thus, he took a step forward and followed the ghost into the house. 

"Come, come. Don't be shy." The old man passed through the old residence. 

The windows banged incessantly, producing an irritating sound whenever the wind grew stronger. 

The ghost made his way to the second floor. Severus followed him. There, he found a library. 

Unlike the rest of the house, that room was impeccably clean. None of the animals could enter it. 

The room was protected by magic and, apparently, preserved by it as well. It looked like a completely new library, similar to the one at Hogwarts. 

"So, before you died, you cast magic over this place..." Severus murmured. 

The ghost nodded with a smile. "Exactly, boy." 

He slowly walked between the bookshelves. "In any case... let me find something interesting. And preferably something that will also be interesting to you." 

Severus immediately turned his attention to the books. They were all written in an extremely ancient form of English. "Wait... You must be nearly a thousand years old." 

The old man did not answer. He simply pulled one of the books from the shelf. 

After thinking for a few moments, he also picked up a small wooden box. 

Severus was extremely interested in the books, but he was not bold enough to ask about them. 

The ghost approached. "Take this. Don't open it just yet—you'll be surprised by it." He handed him the book first. It had no cover. 

Then he placed the small box beside it. "And this as well. If you can unlock what's inside the box... everything will be yours." 

Severus picked up the box with telekinesis, making it slowly rotate in the air as he examined it from every angle. "Thank you... I think?" 

The old man merely smiled. "It's nothing you don't deserve, young man." He observed Severus for a few moments. "It's good to know that the wizarding world still has adventurers." 

He paused briefly. "I hope you're from Hogwarts." 

"I'm from Slytherin," Severus replied. 

The old man raised an eyebrow. "Far too adventurous to be a Slytherin..." Then he smiled. "But I'm not surprised either. After all... I was a Slytherin too." 3

Severus raised an eyebrow in surprise upon hearing that answer as he left the library. 

"Good luck, young man." The old man smiled. "Come visit me whenever you can. And tell me if you managed to uncover the secret of the box." 

For a few moments, he looked at the small object in Severus's hands before sighing. "There's something interesting inside... It's just that my mind... these memories can no longer remember what it is." He smiled resignedly. "I apologize for that." 

Severus merely nodded and said nothing more; he shouldn't. The next instant, he and the two phoenixes began to glow. 

Shortly afterward, they disappeared completely. 

Only the old man remained. He stood motionless on the house's wooden dock, leaning on his staff. 

"What interesting times..." he murmured as he watched the sun rise with a faint smile on his face. 

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