After closing the door, Alan looked thoughtfully toward the galleons.
"I could only read the surface of his thoughts, though that's not surprising: Lucius is a fairly experienced Occlumens, and I wouldn't be surprised if he had a couple more artifacts hidden on his body that block Legilimency..." Taking a deep breath, he transferred the coins to the pouch and headed up the stairs. "But you're still too narrow-minded, Lucius..."
In that moment when Malfoy lost control, Alan managed to penetrate his mind for a moment and learn some of his plans, especially the idea that had popped into his head the moment he heard about a potion capable of enhancing wizards' magical powers: stealing the recipe and producing it himself. After all, in these turbulent times, this was the only way to make a fortune, but he also didn't want to ruin his relationship with Snape, so the wizard abandoned the idea and decided to try to analyze the potions he had received and simply derive the formula. Of course, Alan fully expected this and had added something to the potion to prevent anyone from discovering its ingredients.
He didn't even think about the Strengthening Potion, since just one dose wouldn't help much, and it would be a lesson for Malfoy so that he would never think of deceiving him again.
When Alan was about to go to his room and go to bed, it was already ten o'clock in the evening, and he hadn't even managed to cross the threshold when he felt that someone had entered the house.
"What's with all of you, coming in the evening? Couldn't you have come during the day or in the morning?!" he grumbled irritably, turning around and heading downstairs toward the kitchen, since that was where the uninvited guest was.
As soon as he entered the room, his right eye twitched.
"You've got to be kidding me…" Right in front of him on the floor lay a huge greenish-brown snake, which was currently scurrying around the refrigerator, which was powered not by electricity, but by magic, thanks to the Thermo spell.
Hearing someone's voice, the snake raised its head from the refrigerator and hissed towards Alan, opening its mouth and showing its fangs.
"Sigh... there are too many snakes around me these days..." he muttered with a mournful sigh, waving his hand and turning away, heading back toward the stairs. "When you're done eating, close it and leave the house the same way you came."
And Alan really did go to his room, leaving the snake, slightly dumbfounded by such indifference, to open and close its mouth, and after a while, hissing something, it returned to its meal.
The next day for Alan began, as usual, with a hearty breakfast... in the company of a huge snake. Oddly enough, the magician did not throw it out of the house, most likely because he felt sorry for it.
He needed only one glance to realize that this wasn't a snake, but a cursed human. Even in his world, such things weren't uncommon, though in most cases such curses became a gift when the wizard took control of their power. This one, however, was a true curse, due to the fact that she had spent too much time in the form of a snake, so both her thinking and her magical core were slowly changing, adapting to the new body, and perhaps even old Alan would no longer be able to restore her to her human form.
Another reason for leaving her was the feeling of loneliness that had plagued him in recent days. And the snake wasn't much of a nuisance: it lay quietly in one corner of the room, watching his training. But the mage didn't relax, because he simply couldn't trust it yet.
And so, closer to lunch, having finished practicing his movements with the sword, he threw it back into the bag and, sitting on the floor, took out a lot of food to provide himself with even more energy.
"Come here," he beckoned to the snake, who, narrowing her gaze, crawled up to him and looked at the roast chicken. "This is for you," he nodded and began eating himself, picking up a separate chicken leg. "I almost forgot," a necklace with a black snake appeared in his hand, which he put on under the snake's puzzled gaze. "Tell me, how did you end up like this?"
...apparently, I shouldn't have decided to stay here for a while. He's definitely crazy. What normal wizard would spend his time practicing with a sword instead of learning spells? Instead of hissing, Alan heard a rather pleasant female voice, which made his smile widen even more, while the snake stepped back warily.
"He's definitely crazy," she said, baring her fangs and hissing. "Don't look at me and don't come any closer..."
"Don't be nervous, I'm normal, I'm just a little surprised."
"Now he even acts as if he understands me..."
"Well, actually, that's true," Alan added calmly, nodding, causing her to freeze and look at the smiling young man with bulging eyes.
"Do you understand me...?"
"Yes, thanks to this artifact," he pointed at the black snake.
"Y-you're not lying?!" she asked in a worried voice, appearing in front of his face in an instant.
"As I suspected, she's been in snake form for too long." He smiled. "No, I'm not lying, so calm down," he reached out and patted her on the top of her head. "Tell me about your curse, maybe I can help."
This gesture made her narrow her gaze and hiss like a real snake, but after a few seconds she pulled herself together, quickly suppressing her animal side.
"I want to talk!" she hissed, her eyes shining.
"Of course, let's talk..."
While Alan continued training with the cursed sword, he also spoke with her and learned only a little. They mostly just talked about "nothing," but she was wary of him and couldn't open up completely. He understood this and didn't pressure her.
The snake itself was called Nagini, and she had once truly been human, but due to a curse passed down from her mother, she gradually turned into a snake until she became the one Alan saw at the moment.
Before meeting him, she lived at Hogwarts, but, tired of being there, she simply left and wandered the world for several decades. Only a few days ago, she wandered into Diagon Alley, and then, hungry, she snuck into his house. And while she wasn't lying, she was also leaving something out, though he didn't emphasize it.
Having completed another set of movements, Alan decided to end his training for the day, since it was already night outside, and for maximum benefit he needed to stick to a routine.
"You still haven't answered why you're training with a sword?" the snake asked with keen interest, following him.
"Soon I'll have to face a monster whose skin almost completely blocks magical attacks," he explained calmly, looking at the ten-meter snake, whose face didn't express a single emotion, which couldn't be said for its voice.
"But why do you need this?"
"It's necessary," he replied, ignoring the disgruntled hiss. "Will you follow me everywhere?" he added with a smile, taking off his shirt, causing Nagini's eyes to narrow and run down his broad chest...
"Are you embarrassed to undress in front of an ordinary snake?"
"Sorry, but I don't have that feeling," he said, throwing off his trousers and barely holding back his laughter as he watched the reptile slither away. "Even though she's been in snake form for quite a while, inside she still considers herself human..."
A few days later, and again in the evening, after another, not so boring training session in the company of Nagini, when he was about to go take a shower, someone began to violently pound on the door, which made him only sigh sadly and go to open it, because he already knew who it was, and a snake followed him.
"Stop knocking already, I'm coming, I'm coming…" Finally opening the door, a man in a dark cloak burst into the room, grabbing Alan by the chest and glaring furiously into his face.
"What have you done to me?!"
"Calm down, Lucius, what happened?" Alan asked with a smile, looking at the man's emaciated face, which was very reminiscent of his own after taking the strengthening potion.
"You lied to me! You didn't say it would hurt THIS much!"
"I mentioned pain, didn't I? Have you really forgotten: 'I, the future head of the Malfoy family, am afraid of any pain?'"
"But not that strong! And have you seen my face?! How can I show myself in public looking like that?!"
"Eat more and do physical training, in two or three weeks you can easily get back to normal and even become stronger, don't you see?"
"I see...?" As soon as the aristocrat began to peer into Alan's face, he actually noticed that he was now as tall as him.
"Do you think it's possible to achieve something like this without intense training? And it'll be good for you, too; spells aren't just blocked, they can also be dodged, didn't you know that?" Easily breaking free of the man's grip, Alan calmly sat down at the bar. Under the shocked gaze of the former Slytherin prefect, a snake nearly five meters long slithered up to him and laid its head on his lap, while he, in turn, began to pet it. "Is something wrong?" As if only now noticing Nagini, he introduced her with a smile. "Meet my companion, Nagini."
"~Hesss…" the snake hissed, causing goosebumps to run down Malfoy's body.
"I-I see... Then I'll be going..." He met Alan's gaze for a moment, and the aristocrat's back broke out in a cold sweat.
"Lucius, my good friend, stay, I'll treat you to some tea, and we'll discuss whether you managed to derive the formula?"
The man shuddered at Alan's words.
"What are you talking about? Why would I do this...?" He almost forgot, taking a small notebook from his inside pocket and handing it to him. "Here are the test results."
"I see... then thank you, but maybe you'll stay for tea?"
"I think..."
"~Hesssss…" Narrowing her gaze, Nagini hissed in his direction.
"Of course, let's have a drink, I just have a free minute!"
"Glad to hear it, sit down, I'll go get the tea set..."
"Can I come with you?!"
"Don't worry, Nagini doesn't bite... I guess..."
It was only half an hour later that Lucius was finally able to leave Severus. As soon as he left the house, he immediately Disapparated to Malfoy Manor—the Malfoy family estate.
"Damn it! Why was I scared?! It was Snape and a simple snake! But why did I see 'him' at that moment?!" He couldn't forget Alan's gaze, just as cold and merciless, and the snake only completed the terrifying picture, which made him feel afraid even after he found himself hundreds of kilometers from Diagon Alley...