Chapter 120. Lestranges' manor.
Sitting on the sofa and running a hand slowly over Nagini's head, Severus set down the wedding invitation and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling.
"July seventeenth, nineteen seventy-seven... auspicious in numerology. If I remember correctly, the number seven is associated with luck."
"That woman again..." Nagini snorted in displeasure, settling more comfortably on his lap.
"I can't help it. I fell in love for the first time in my life..." ...in my fifty years, he added inwardly, closing his eyes. "But that changes nothing for you, so stop being jealous."
"Even if I've come to terms with it, the feeling doesn't just disappear."
"You say you've come to terms with it and then prove you haven't in the same breath. My teacher was right when he said women were the most contradictory creatures alive."
"You've said that before," Nagini drawled, fixing him with a mocking look, and Severus answered with his usual smile. "So, when are we going after the Lestranges?"
"Have you gone wild after that brief time in the jungle?" Severus looked at Nagini with feigned horror. She squinted and bared her fangs. "Joking," he added with a smirk, running his palm along her smooth scales. "We're in a civilized world now. Simple killing would be tedious, and I'm rather egotistical by nature. I dislike it when someone reaches their dirty hands toward what's mine." Rising to his feet, he glanced at the calendar. "Hmm... already the eighth. Nothing interesting ever happens this close to a date anyway. There's too little time to do much of real consequence. I could burn down every business the Lestranges own, but they have plenty of assets abroad, and I'd hurt not only them but innocent people who work for them." A quiet, patient cruelty settled behind his eyes.
"I seem to recall you mentioning something about stripping them of their magic and castrating them."
"That's a last resort," Severus said with a dismissive wave. "And only in the most extreme case."
"Isn't this extreme?" Nagini asked, sounding unconvinced.
"This looks more like an attempt at manipulation from Tom. With the new gang complicating matters, the Death Eaters are under pressure, and that idiot fancies himself a mastermind. He thinks this will let him control me, because Bella is under his absolute 'control' and will do whatever he says."
"Then what will you do?"
"I could rush to the Lestranges and kill them, but that won't accomplish anything good," Severus said calmly, and then bared his teeth in a grim smile. "For now I'll simply watch. Let that idiot go on destroying his own standing in her eyes. That will be the most effective way to loosen his grip on Bella's mind."
"But what if the wedding goes ahead anyway, just to spite you?"
"What a foolish question. Then I'll use the option you suggested. Though I doubt it will even come to that..." He lowered his gaze to the house-elf nearby, who was holding a sheet of paper. "I'll play it a little safe." Taking the sheet, he read it, then rested a hand briefly on the elf's head. "Well done."
"Tobby is very happy to be useful to Master!" the elf squeaked, clutching his hat in the other hand.
"Will you come with me?" Severus turned to Nagini. The same sheet of paper hovered before her muzzle.
"I'll come," Nagini said once she had skimmed it, then climbed up his arm and coiled around his throat.
Severus threw on a dark cloak, and the next moment he was gone.
Space rippled before a great, gloomy Victorian manor of four floors, enclosed by a two-meter iron fence whose far end vanished among thick trees. A moment later, a cloaked figure appeared before the black double gates, with a house-elf in a cloak and hat at his side.
"Not bad, but rather unimaginative," Severus said, touching the barrier surrounding the manor. "Notice-me-not charms, reflection charms, defensive ones. Even Dumbledore would have to work to break through, but..." His hand passed through without resistance, as though the enchantment itself recognized the key and stepped aside.
"...not if you know the key." He placed his palm on the elf's head and walked him through. The iron gates beyond were simpler still: unlocked.
A few seconds after they crossed, a thin house-elf in a grey rag appeared and opened his mouth to speak. He did not get the chance. He collapsed unconscious, sinking to the ground.
Seeing him, Tobby felt a surge of pity for his fellow creature: bruises and abrasions marked every patch of exposed skin. At the same time, a quiet relief washed over him that he himself had ended up with a master who allowed him to wear clothes and eat his fill, never struck him, and treated him with some measure of consideration.
Severus only glanced at the house-elf from the corner of his eye. He was not heartless, but in his world he had seen things far worse than simple beatings.
"Let's go," he said, noting that Tobby had frozen.
"Y-yes!"
"Severus..."
"Why would we want another one?" Severus sighed and looked at Nagini's expression, understanding immediately what she was going to say. "And it's a criminal offense."
"Soon Nelly will be away for a month, and Tobby will be busy in the shop, so I thought one more wouldn't be too much. Just for the house and looking after the creatures..." Nagini looked up into his eyes and blinked, letting a wave of pleading emotion flow through their bond.
"Hmm... you know I can't refuse you." Severus waved a hand toward the unconscious house-elf and temporarily moved him into his wallet.
"Thank you..." Nagini pressed against his cheek with obvious joy, and Severus only sighed again, smiling.
"When you become at least a lamia, I'll be waiting eagerly for a proper show of 'gratitude.'"
"You make everything sound dirty!" Nagini huffed, going red with embarrassment, and smacked him over the head with her tail before turning away.
"I was talking about cake. And who's making things dirty, you little pervert?" Severus drawled in mock offense, which only deepened Nagini's blush.
"I'll bite you right now."
"When you're a lamia, bite me as much as you like." Severus winked, pressed both palms flat against the next set of double doors, and pushed them open.
"Avada Kedavra!" several wizards shouted in unison, and green beams cut through the air toward Severus.
Rather than dodging a spell that could kill him just as well as any other, he summoned a cube covered in runes into his hand. In the same instant it flared and shot forward to meet the curse.
To the attackers' astonishment, they recognized the artifact at once, but they did not hesitate and unleashed a barrage of spells.
"Hit it with a combined Bombarda! It won't hold against that much force!" one of them shouted as the cube absorbed the next volley after the Killing Curse, holding its shield.
Five wizards raised their wands together.
"Bombarda!" A devastating wave of force tore toward Severus and shook the entire manor to its foundations, while Severus stood perfectly still.
The dust thrown into the air obscured the fact that the cube, after absorbing the earlier spells, shot back to him and flared even brighter, and then a violent explosion thundered, swallowing the cloaked figure whole.
The force of the blast was such that it ripped through the basement and two upper floors, gouging a great hole in the manor's entrance. Those who had cast it, standing near the staircase, had shielded themselves with Protego and remained unharmed.
"Did we get him?" one asked, frowning into the slowly settling dust.
"Impossible to survive, even with those artifacts. But we should still check," another said, gripping his wand tighter. He chose to wait, but...
"Not bad," a voice said, and all five men flinched. It came from the very place their combined spell had hit. "Almost Magister level." A gust of wind swept toward the entrance behind them, scattering the last of the dust to reveal a completely unharmed stranger in a cloak, standing on a small island of intact floor amid the wreckage. Through the great hole behind him, the setting sun was visible. "Magical steel and silver still don't hold," Severus said regretfully, looking at the crumbling remains of the cube that had endured their combined strike. "I'll need to experiment further." He put the fragments into his pouch, then looked at the wizards staring at him with wide eyes, and among them he saw the ones he had come for.
Two men in shirts, with long dark hair to their shoulders, shivered as though they felt his gaze. Something about the sensation seemed vaguely familiar to them, though the aura he projected was subtly different from what they expected.
"I'm not in the mood for games today."
Sensing danger, one of them raised his wand sharply.
"Reducto!" He had chosen one of the simplest and fastest spells he knew, one requiring no extra wand movement. Severus barely looked up as he batted the red beam aside, as one might brush away a fly.
That motion was the signal. The others moved to attack, but their wands flew out of their hands and clattered to the floor at Severus's feet.
At the same moment, roots erupted from the wooden floor and, within seconds, bound all five of them.
"What is thi..." the stubbled wizard began, but a root coiled around his head and covered his mouth.
"Hmm..." Severus walked toward them slowly, studying the three wizards he didn't recognize. He believed he knew all the Death Eaters, even those without marks, thanks to Lucius, Bellatrix, Crabbe and Goyle, and a handful of informants who didn't even know they were informants. "And who are you?" He smiled, and the men began to moan and glare furiously. "Don't worry. I'm not going to kill you." He placed his palm on one of their heads, looked him directly in the eye, and began to dig through his memories, but after a few seconds he raised an eyebrow.
"Mind protection? Interesting... I came for a bit of sport with the Lestranges and found something far more interesting instead. Who are you?" Severus smiled again, this time with a thoroughly unkind squint, and forced his way deeper, breaking through the protection without ceremony. The work was crude and brutal, but effective. To the others' horror, the wizard beneath his hand began to convulse. Orange foam spilled from his mouth, blood seeped from every seam, and the stranger could not stop convulsing, as if someone were deliberately prolonging every second of it.
That went on for the next half hour.
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