Chapter 54. Room of Requirement. Part 2. Diadem
Grabbing the first book within reach, Severus quickly flipped through it and, after a few seconds, put it back. Then, scanning the nearest shelves, he gave a grim nod.
"Ah. first impressions can be deceiving."
"Severus. do not abandon me." Nagini intoned tragically, pressing her tail to her forehead, but she was a terrible actress, so instead of applause and ovations she earned a flick on the head.
"Stop fooling around." He walked a little deeper, nodding to himself again. "Still, there are some quite interesting specimens here, but about sixty percent, judging by the first ten shelves, are just copies of things that are already available. Even so, there are far too many books here. and though I meant to put off making this thing until later, it looks like I will have to deal with it this weekend."
"What thing?"
"A grimoire."
"What is that?"
Severus looked at her with genuine amazement, then, remembering the curse, gave a crooked smile and shook his head.
"A grimoire is a book where wizards store all their spells and knowledge. There are two categories: ordinary and magical." Heading toward the exit, he studied the room itself with interest. "Only I definitely will not be able to create a magical one." Not in this world. "But an ordinary one is not such a big problem. It only has one property: storing knowledge."
"And a magical one? What properties does it have?" Nagini asked curiously.
"In it you can save magical formulas and use it like a wand, but the most interesting thing is that, with its help, spells become twice as strong and require no pronunciation of formulas, not even mentally. And that is not counting the same function as the ordinary one."
"I see, so you are going to create a magical one in the future?"
Severus could not hold back his tenderness at his companion's naivety.
"It is impossible. The materials required for it have long since disappeared from this world. At the moment I can only create an ordinary one, and even then I will have to spend a pretty penny. It will take not thousands but tens of thousands of galleons, and the materials themselves will be hard to find, though we have already obtained one for the cover." Only a grimoire is not such a simple thing, since to make it work I will need a small piece of a soul, and I do not want to tear off my own.
Leaving the room, Severus watched it disappear with interest. Then he thought about books again, without any particular theme, and walked past the blank wall three times. The door appeared again.
Inside, the room itself had not changed, except that the shelves were three floors higher, and the room itself had tripled in size.
But he did not stop with this experiment, so, leaving again, he repeated the same maneuvers, only now thinking about artifacts. As soon as he opened the door, a completely different picture greeted him.
It was a colossal room with hills of assorted junk. Among the trash, one could make out artifacts, various kitchen utensils, furniture, toys, clothes, and even silver and gold trinkets. It looked more like some kind of dump where all the junk that had accumulated since the founding of the school had been collected.
Still, after a quick look, Severus noted several quite interesting artifacts, and besides that, some of the furniture looked like new, as if it could be put up for sale right now. But after thinking a bit, he still rejected the idea of taking everything from this room. right now. Closer to the end of Hogwarts, though, this could quite be arranged. After all, he had no doubt that digging around here, one could find many interesting things, but he decided to leave it for Monday, since tomorrow he had to return to Diagon Alley. Besides searching for some things needed for the grimoire, he also needed to pick out a costume for Sunday.
"All right, it is quite late now. Tomorrow morning we still have to return to Diagon Alley." Yawning wearily, Severus headed toward the exit, already dispelling the spell that enhanced perception, but at the last moment he froze, hearing a strange hissing. With mild surprise, he stared at one of the piles of junk. Interesting. it is as if it is calling me. "Nagini, do you feel this?"
"What exactly?"
"As if someone is calling you." Turning around, he walked forward, weakening his mental protection a bit to better sense the source of the voice. The closer he approached it, the clearer it became.
And after a minute, passing by a gilded statue pointing in the opposite direction from where he was going, Severus finally stopped.
"I hear some hissing. and words. 'come. come to me.'" Nagini whispered in surprise, a flicker of alarm rising inside her. Looking toward the table where, besides a strange object resembling a globe, there lay a box with a dirty rope on top, she pointed at it with the tip of her tail. "From there."
"I think so too."
Approaching it, Severus removed the rope and began examining the box with interest.
"Maybe we should not open it? I feel uneasy."
"Scared?" He winked at her with a smile, then poked her forehead, and the strange muttering instantly disappeared. "Better?" In response she nodded with relief.
Lowering his gaze to the box again, Severus already had a rough idea of what might be inside, and when he finally opened it, he saw what brought a faint look of surprise to his face.
It was a simple-looking diadem made of silver and decorated with diamonds, but what surprised him was its resemblance to the once long-lost diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw, founder of Ravenclaw House.
Taking it and turning it slightly in his hand, he gave a crooked smile and, sighing sadly, shook his head.
"Judging by the ruined weave of runes, this artifact was once a very fine thing, but once it fell into someone's clumsy hands, it lost its power completely. If I could find that bastard and break his arms."
"You can rarely be surprised by something like this. Was it really such a good thing?" Nagini asked with interest, puzzled by Severus's reaction.
"Besides the fact that this artifact is a thousand years old and once belonged to one of the founders of Hogwarts, it possessed a very rare property. It affected a wizard's mind. Of course, the diadem did not make one a genius, but it removed all limitations, helping you absorb any material much faster and, in any situation, keep a cool mind, with emotions under full control. Such was the description in a book authored by Rowena herself, and after a superficial examination I can say for certain that she did not lie." And even in my world there were very few such things. Still, this ROWENA rightfully earned the reputation of being the smartest woman of her generation by possessing such an artifact. It is a pity that such a thing can no longer be restored. But there are advantages to that, and messing with one noseless bastard with crooked hands, I am only for. With these thoughts he took out his watch and, right before Nagini's shocked eyes, began to burn the diadem.
"Severus! Why are you doing this?! What if it can still be restored?!"
"It is impossible. He damaged this thing too much."
"Aaaaah! Stooooop!" the shadow screeched furiously, bursting from the diadem and trying to break through Severus's mental protection, but before it was even halfway out, the watch snapped open sharply and began to pull the shadow in with tremendous force. "Nooooo.!"
All this was accompanied by orange and silver light, as well as an unpleasant screech, until finally, after a few seconds, the light dimmed and silence returned.
"A Dark Lord, supposedly, and he shrieks like a woman." Picking at his left ear, Severus said with a grimace, putting the watch back in his money pouch.
"Dark Lord?"
"I did not tell you. That imbecile tore his soul into pieces, hoping, as I understand it, to become immortal that way. In short, he is not even worth mentioning. He is just a laughingstock. Besides losing his mind, he also can no longer develop magically. but he did get pseudo-immortality for a couple thousand years, and then the soul will slowly begin to dissipate and he will finally die." Opening his fist, Severus blew away the ash remaining on his palm and headed to the exit. "Peter?"
"Master, there is no one outside. The Headmaster is in his office."
"Understood. As always, thank you."
"So even if he dies, using any piece of his soul he can be resurrected?" Nagini hissed in disbelief.
"Hm. certain conditions are needed for that. One can use a resurrection ritual, apply that same Philosopher's Stone I recently told you about, since its properties are just right, or use the simplest method: try to seize someone's body, which is what this piece of soul intended to do. And if I had weak mental protection, it would not be me standing before you now but a real Dark Lord. I just told you the most well-known methods. In reality there are far more."
"It is still scary. Such a wizard who, even after dying, can still be resurrected."
Sensing a hint of panic from his companion, Severus could not hold back a crooked smirk.
"You know, I have told you many times that if I want to, I will easily kill him ten times over, so there is nothing to fear and you should already believe in me," Severus said with annoyance, poking her forehead.
"I am not afraid of him. I am afraid that you."
"Will get hurt, or something like that?" In response Nagini nodded sadly.
Sighing wearily, he left the room, and after a few seconds the door disappeared, leaving only a bare wall in that very place.
"You think too much, but so be it. If I do not encounter him in the future, I will not engage in a pointless fight. Deal?"
"Promise?"
"Nagini, you are like a child."
"Promise?" But seeing her serious snout right in front of his face, he almost tripped on flat ground.
"All right, I promise." ...if, of course, he does not decide to visit me himself when he learns that my potion recipes fell into the Ministry's hands. But Severus decided to keep his thoughts to himself, feeling that Nagini no longer gave off that anxious feeling. "Eh. this calmness is making me soft, and that is not good, but still it is quite pleasant."
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