With each passing day, the time of the meeting scheduled by the Black Star organization crept closer. Both Vitold and Severus waited for it impatiently.
Vitold had never destroyed the letter. He'd put it in one of his desk drawers, which played right into Severus's hands. Severus could calmly eavesdrop on every conversation about the upcoming "event," as they called it, from the front row.
The meeting plan was simple: two possible outcomes. In the first scenario, if Severus agreed to join them, everything would proceed peacefully. In the second, the moment he gave a negative answer, charms would activate in the room to block all magic. Ten burly guards would burst in and quickly bind him. And to surprise Severus, they planned to have Bellatrix kidnapped. This way, they intended to manipulate him if he refused to cooperate. It would also serve as protection against Ihiros, if he really was as powerful as Nestor claimed and the gathered information suggested.
By Thursday, several people from the organization had begun following Bellatrix. José noticed them when they stood practically on top of him, or more precisely on the shadow in which he was hiding. Severus himself couldn't track them because they kept their distance, so he'd told the shadow mage to watch over her.
Black Star had everything ready for the negotiations. Of course, Severus didn't intend to disappoint them. He'd prepared a few toys of his own to ensure the successful outcome of the upcoming event.
Around this same time, several incidents had also taken place at Hogwarts. One involved Filch discovering, during his night patrol, three unconscious Gryffindors hanging upside down at the castle exit, right on the spikes of a suit of armor. Their faces were scratched. After they came to, an investigation began immediately. But the three clammed up, claiming it was too dark and they'd seen nothing. They couldn't very well tell everyone that a little kitten had handled them like naughty children. The other students would simply laugh at them. And who would believe it anyway? And who in their right mind would want to bring down the wrath of the entire female half of Hogwarts upon themselves? Later, as Severus later discovered from their memories while they lay in the hospital wing for two days, these 'individuals' had been heading for a nighttime date with three Hufflepuffs on the third floor. Along the way, they'd noticed Lucky heading towards the Slytherin common room. They'd decided to mess with the snakes and 'wash' him a bit using Aguamenti. But something had gone wrong. The kitten simply vanished, and they'd lost consciousness. They woke up already in the hospital wing.
Of course, none of the students even thought about the 'creature.' They assumed he'd simply gotten scared of the wizards and scratched their faces in defense, all three of them, and were taking revenge for this.
But the teachers were smarter. They immediately guessed something wasn't right. Severus himself had to explain that this 'creature' wasn't ordinary, which they'd already figured out anyway, watching Lucky appear and disappear at will. He didn't reveal all of Lucky's strength, only about three percent. He told them about Lucky's ability to hide, his intelligence equal to that of an eight-year-old child, and his strength comparable to an adult man. But he also added that Lucky wouldn't attack without provocation.
Under Slughorn's persuasion, the matter was eventually hushed up. Slughorn argued that Severus only had one school year left, and that Lucky himself wouldn't bother students again. If something similar happened, Lucky would simply leave and show them who had offended him. Minerva, who had volunteered to help, would punish the student responsible. That resolved everything.
The three young men themselves, after this incident, shied away from the kitten as if from fire and generally tried not even to breathe in his presence.
Besides this, another unfortunate event occurred. Pomona Sprout, the Hufflepuff Head of House, had gone to Hagrid's hut for some herbs for her garden. She'd found the gamekeeper lying near his own hut, pale and unconscious, with a wound in his side.
At St. Mungo's, they discovered that in addition to his injury, he had also been poisoned with Acromantula venom. They managed to neutralize it because the concentration was low, but if he had lain there another day, he would have died.
After Hagrid regained consciousness, he immediately began defending the spiders. He claimed he had gotten the wound through his own stupidity, by accidentally stepping on one of their offspring.
But as Severus later learned from Slughorn, who knew much more than the others since he was a head of house, the Acromantulas had simply driven the giant away. When Hagrid refused to leave and demanded to know why they wanted him gone, they wounded him. He had no choice but to hurry back to Hogwarts and take an antidote. Unfortunately, on the way, he encountered several more monsters attracted by the smell of blood. The wound worsened because he had to run all the way to the castle. By the time he reached his hut, his strength gave out and he lost consciousness.
Severus wasn't very surprised. It was only a matter of time. After what he had done in their colony, the Acromantulas definitely disliked people now, and Hagrid was no exception. Even so, it was clear Aragog hadn't wanted to harm him. The venom concentration wasn't even lethal for a half-giant like him. If not for the monsters that had chased him, Hagrid could have reached Hogwarts safely. But fate had apparently decided to play a cruel joke on him, or perhaps to take revenge for all those dangerous creatures he had bred and let loose in the Forbidden Forest.
The meeting was scheduled for two in the afternoon, on the outskirts of London, in a small estate far from any settlements or Ministry of Magic bases.
Since Severus had never been there, he had to apparate to the nearest point and then follow the owl, which led him quickly to Vitold.
The mansion itself was quite ordinary. It had only three floors and was surrounded by an iron fence. A barrier hung over it, repelling Muggles.
As soon as Severus landed on the ground, the gates swung open. A young man with green hair emerged, wearing a friendly smile. A flicker of surprise flashed in his eyes. After all, it wasn't every day someone used flight charms. Even in their organization, not many were capable of flying. At most five people. And none of them rushed to reveal their secret.
"Welcome, Mr. Snape. We've been waiting for you."
"Thank you." Severus nodded meekly, adjusting the hood of his robes and smiling back. "But don't you find your reaction a bit strange? I've come to demand a ransom. And not a small one."
"Of course. We'll definitely pay it. But I think we'll have something else to discuss as well."
"Is that so? Well, good. Lead me to your leader."
"Yes. Please follow us." The man turned his back to him and headed towards the building. Five guards surrounded Severus in a square formation.
"I feel rather like I'm under escort, being led to an interrogation," Severus said dryly. One of the guards' shoulders trembled. "I'm not accusing you of anything. I just once found myself in a similar situation, due to a misunderstanding with the Ministry of Magic."
"I see. But don't worry. We just want to discuss something," the Black Star member assured him calmly, without turning around. "And also to retrieve our man, who behaved poorly. For that, I also apologize. This came as a great surprise to us as well." He added this with such natural, genuine embarrassment that Severus almost wanted to exclaim, "I believe you!" if, of course, he hadn't already known the truth.
"You must forgive me as well. I was away at the time. And these are troubled times, as you know. I told my house-elf that if anyone started knocking and demanding to be let in, he should activate the defensive and offensive charms. I didn't expect those people to turn out to be so weak."
"Nothing terrible. The fault was entirely ours," the man replied again without changing his expression.
Severus could easily read the thoughts of the man walking ahead of him. Beyond gloating and contempt toward Lavr and his people, he felt nothing else. That was to be expected. From the memories of the Gold division member, Severus had seen how arrogantly Lavr treated others, often insulting them directly. Steel division members could do nothing but endure, since he outranked them. So his attitude toward Lavr was hardly surprising.
Large doors decorated with golden patterns swung open, and the group entered the building.
Inside, the mansion was almost completely empty, except for a dozen wizards standing at each window and near the stairs leading up. That wasn't surprising, though. Outside, a sign read "For Sale."
The guards glanced at Severus from the corners of their eyes, then returned to their duties, as if not interested in the "guest." Severus found this somewhat amusing. He didn't show it outwardly. He only looked around with a hint of interest, as befitting a seventeen-year-old youth.
Well. I hope everything goes according to plan and I won't have to arrange a massacre. At least not now. With these thoughts, he took the first step.
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