Chapter 216. The Experiment and the Black Star.
January 7, 1978.
Over the next several days, Severus barely left the house, devoting all his free time to analyzing the sword and, separately, to the dragon egg, on which he conducted a series of experiments. He was curious about what effect the blood of a true dragon would have on the egg: blood he had borrowed from the King of Serpents of the Magical Jungle. To his surprise, within an hour of submerging the egg in a capsule filled with that fluid, it began to change.
The blood level dropped steadily, and the small flame of magic beneath the shell began to condense at the same rate, gradually increasing in volume.
By the second hour, the density and quantity of magic had reached a level comparable to that of an Apprentice, or, in terms of other magical creatures, the minimum of the second rank. The dragon developing inside was already comparable in magical volume to six-month-old wolf cubs.
By the fourth hour, the blood in the capsule had dropped by half, and the egg now emitted magic comparable to monsters just entering the third rank: roughly equivalent to the weakest adult Blood Wolves.
By the eighth hour, the rate of growth had begun to slow. The fluid level had dropped by only half of what remained, but the magical core beneath the shell was close to the peak of the third rank.
By the twelfth hour, the egg had absorbed the last five liters, reaching a level comparable to that of the six strongest wolves, still below the pack leader, a creature that would soon reach the middle of the fourth rank.
But beyond the sharp growth in magical output, the wizard also noticed another change: the developing body of the creature. It already differed from its kin and from what books described of dragons. Specifically, the wings had separated from the forelimbs and shifted to the back, while everything else remained the same. He had no doubt there were other transformations occurring at a subtler level, ones he could not yet observe. The creature inside the shell was still in the earliest stages of formation. Even so, he could feel the magical power growing almost imperceptibly. Out of curiosity, he poured more blood into the capsule and continued watching, recording every change in a notebook.
The results served not only to satisfy his curiosity. The wizard also wanted to understand how true dragon blood affected other creatures, and many had by now undergone the same process: from simple lizards to dragons and serpents, though it was the latter that he focused on most, since all of these experiments had one purpose: preparing for Nagini's ritual and gathering as much data as possible on the effects of blood across the reptile family.
One thing he deeply regretted was the death of the Basilisk, the creature closest in nature to Nagini. Had it still been alive, he could have obtained far more precise data on the blood's effect on serpentine creatures and calibrated the ritual and the potion to match her more accurately.
Over the next two days, the capsule emptied again. The shell had deepened to a richer shade of crimson, and the number of gold flecks had doubled.
The most significant result, however, was the magical volume. The dragon cub had crossed the boundary of the third rank and entered the fourth, at a level comparable to Masters at the beginning of that rank. To contain that power, the developing body inside the egg had been forced to absorb every useful substance and trace of magic from the blood for physical reinforcement, which was why growth in raw magic had been very modest from that point on.
To his disappointment, getting a small monster to reach the peak of the fifth rank was simply not achievable. From the first of the month through the seventh, the fully formed cub inside the shell had absorbed only two more liters, all of which went into strengthening its body, after which the rate of absorption halved once more.
The creature continued to absorb the blood, but far too slowly. By Severus's calculations, it would reach the middle of the fourth rank at best, surpassing the chimera cub in that regard, while still falling well short of a certain shameless kitten, who was approaching the sixth rank and growing faster than even the Slytherin could predict.
That same evening, Severus set his quill aside, cast a tired glance over three screens covered in text and magical formulae, closed his eyes, and leaned back in his chair. The parchment on his desk rolled itself up and flew toward the shelf to join the others.
One more section of the magical circle completed. A little more and I'll finally finish at least one of them. He smiled faintly, pushed himself up from the table with lazy ease, and headed for the door, but stopped a few meters short of it, clicked his tongue with mild irritation, and turned back to his desk.
A few seconds after he dropped back into the chair, a mirror appeared in his hand. He laid it face-up on the table, and an image formed before him: a familiar blond man, without his mask, his complexion a touch pallid but his eyes still sharp and alive.
"If you're contacting me, I take it you found the person I was looking for?" He raised an eyebrow and addressed the leader of the Black Star. A tired sigh escaped the man's lips as he gave a small nod.
"Yes. I was able to find out who it is. But..." The man hesitated, searching for how to phrase this without offending or upsetting the person who held his life in his hands.
Arnold had spent a long time thinking through the situation and arrived at one bleak conclusion: if it came down to a choice between his own life and the Diamond division along with the Necromancers' commune, he would of course choose the former. But he didn't want to make that choice. Losing those two groups would be a severe blow to the entire organization, and he couldn't even estimate how many decades it would take to rebuild to its former strength.
"Speak." The wizard rested his chin in his hand, elbow on the table, and gave the order calmly.
"May I ask whether there's any possibility of resolving your disagreement through peaceful means?" Arnold asked with a frown, clasping his hands in front of him, not mentioning what his subordinate had told him: that the Necromancer in question had spent the last ten years inside the commune without leaving the library, had only recently become an official member, and simply could not have provoked someone like Severus in any way or had any reason to encounter him at all.
"Hm. Very well." After that quiet answer, the leader of the organization paused for just a moment. He had expected a refusal and had been preparing to explain why pursuing it further was unwise and how it might affect the organization as a whole. The memory of the anger in the young man's eyes that day was still vivid. "I'm prepared to drop the matter. But on one condition," he added this in the same breath, to clear the air of the suspicion he could plainly read in the man's expression. "I want to look at something." A transparent screen appeared beside him, on which a black book materialized. "It should be in the Necromancers' commune. I don't care who brings it. I have no intention of stealing it. I simply need to verify something."
"That will be difficult. Very." The man's expression grew even more unreadable. He recognized the Black Grimoire almost immediately, the commune's principal treasure, which they worshiped as a deity. Bringing that here was considerably harder than bringing the boy here.
Realizing this, his face fell, and he closed his eyes, running through hundreds of possibilities in his mind, trying to find a way to resolve this deadlock while preserving the organization's strength and his own life.
"Alternatively, that person himself. I won't kill him or take the artifact. The latter I couldn't use even if I wanted to. If you don't believe me, I'll swear on my magic or sign a magical contract," he added this with casual ease, which visibly startled the wizard on the screen, whose tense expression gradually relaxed, something approaching a smile touching his lips.
"I... allow me to explain the situation to my associate and I will contact you again in a few minutes."
"Go ahead." Severus waved him off with a languid hand. The screen dissolved, and he rose from his desk, crossed to the window, saw that it was already dark outside, and smiled quietly, watching the cubs playing in front of the entrance and Eileen and Nagini chatting in the gazebo below. I should have been more composed that day. It was most likely my impulsiveness that caused that vision.
Ten minutes later, Arnold contacted him again and accepted the offer. The meeting was set for the fourteenth of January, in Romania, near the capital, in the city of Pitești.
The country had not been chosen at random. It was home to the largest Necromancer commune in existence. And no, it was not a trap. It was a precaution. They believed in magical contracts, but they still wanted to ensure the young talent's safety.
It would have been simpler, of course, to go to Romania right now, find the commune, and destroy that circle of enthusiasts. But it would have taken far too long, since Arnold didn't know the commune's exact location. That information belonged primarily to the leader of the Diamond division, Sandro, the Unfeeling Reaper.
And weakening the Black Star was not in Severus's interest regardless. He still intended to use the organization in the future for any number of purposes: gathering intelligence, locating ruins, sourcing ingredients, and so on. Weakening it would only give the Queens an opening. They were unlikely to sit quietly and ignore an enemy in disarray. That was not to mention the smaller factions that dreamed of carving a piece from the giant.
But Severus had no intention of leaving him unwatched either. That was precisely why he wanted the meeting: to place a mark on him, keep track of his movements, and be in a position to end his life at any moment if needed.
Such was his plan, and there were still several days until the following Saturday. Time enough to prepare for the return to Hogwarts and for tomorrow's meeting with Bella.
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