[Chapter Size: 1800 Words.]
Third Person POV
Hogwarts.
...
...
Severus returned to Hogwarts just as the curfew had already been announced for the students. He simply lay down in the best room in the school, inside the Room of Requirement, and fell asleep after exchanging a few words with Dobby.
His shadows continued working on potions throughout the night, while he only had to spend his mana to maintain them—far less than what he would need to revive them.
In any case, he woke up in the morning and left for the common hall. He decided to take a walk around the castle, something he had been doing less frequently since mastering teleportation, but also to look for new portraits.
By coincidence, he found Pandora standing still, staring at a painting.
"You're talking about Severus?" she asked as some students passed by, looking at Pandora strangely.
"Your friend is a terrible person!" the painting responded in an odd manner.
"Why do you say that? Or will I have to ask him directly?" Pandora said, pointing at Snape as he approached.
As soon as the painting saw him, it seemed to scream like a frightened little girl.
"He's going to enter my painting!!" And with that, the middle-aged man depicted in the portrait ran off to hide somewhere.
"..." Snape raised an eyebrow.
It seemed he had already gained a certain reputation among the school's paintings. As he got closer to Pandora, he curiously observed the man reappearing in another painting at a distance. The woman in this second frame looked at him and, upon noticing the man's desperation, furrowed her brows before starting to scream.
"Get out of here! Do you want to enter my painting too?! This must be your fault! Get out now!!" the woman cried out in distress.
Even the paintings around the corridor watched the scene, swallowing nervously, clearly afraid of Severus.
"Hello, Severus!" Pandora ignored the commotion and smiled at her friend.
"How are you, Pandora?" he asked.
"I'm fine..." she said before glancing at the paintings one last time. "Well, shall we go to the Common Hall together?" she asked.
Snape nodded, following her down the corridor. His eyes scanned the portraits, but not because they were afraid. He was searching for something.
Along the way, it wasn't just the paintings that were terrified. Some poltergeists wandering about also seemed to sense something, as they fled the moment they saw him.
"AHHH!!!! He's here!!" Even Peeves, who had been tormenting some second-year students, was startled upon seeing Snape in the corridor and hurried away.
"How are you doing this? Everyone runs when they see you!" Pandora couldn't help but murmur, sounding quite impressed.
"Who knows." Snape shrugged, clearly withholding the real reason.
Most likely, the poltergeists could see his shadows and sense the death energy within him. More than ever, they understood the danger he posed to them, as Snape had no doubt that he could turn them into shadow soldiers as well.
As for the paintings… well, he was searching for dungeons. He hadn't found all the relevant paintings yet, knowing that the castle was immense and that it would take at least two months of careful observation to examine each one.
Even so, the portraits had begun to gather and discuss his strange ability to "enter" paintings. It irritated him in some way, but since they weren't causing any real problems, he decided to ignore their petty attitudes.
Regardless, Severus and Pandora headed to the Common Hall, arriving shortly after.
"Why don't you sit with me today? Almost no one comes here on Sundays," Pandora suggested as she walked through the area.
Snape ended up nodding, seeing no issue with it, and sat at the Ravenclaw table under the bewildered gazes of a few students. However, no one actually dared to bother him, as they were a few meters away from anyone else.
"So, what do you plan to do today?" she couldn't help but ask.
"There are some things I need to do today, so I won't be seen for the rest of the day..." Snape replied.
"What a shame. I'm going to help Clarisse with some of her potions. Is it okay if we use your lab this time?" Pandora asked, already knowing, somehow, that Severus would be away from the school.
"Yes, feel free." Snape responded, having no issue with it.
"Alright." He said in the end, while eating.
Throughout breakfast, a few curious glances fell upon Snape. The place remained quite empty, with only a few professors present, including Rosaria, who was watching him from her table as she always did—with great interest.
When he finished, Snape left the school alone. As he walked through the corridors to reach the Room of Requirement, he found three more paintings that opened portals. Satisfied with the possibility of further increasing his power with them, he decided that today he would do the same, but outside the school, leaving these dungeons for another time.
Upon arriving at the Room of Requirement, he found Rosaria already waiting for him. He raised an eyebrow at the sight of her.
"Can we train?" she asked, wanting to make the most of the only day she had with him.
"Not today. I'll be busy." He replied, shaking his head.
"Really? You're leaving the castle again, can I come along?" she insisted.
Snape looked at her for a second before responding.
"I'll be breaking into the houses of powerful families, looking for paintings like the ones we entered that time. Do you want to do that too?" he asked, with a playful tone.
He didn't think she would accept, but he was surprised by her response.
"Wait... Are you by any chance inviting me on a date?" she asked, excited.
"Well... I wouldn't call it that. After all, we'll be committing crimes." He said.
"Does that matter? The important thing is that we're going out together, so it's a date!" she exclaimed, placing her hand on her hip and flashing a big smile.
"Whatever." Snape wasn't going to bother explaining the difference to her and simply headed to his lab. In fact, having Rosaria along while infiltrating noble houses would be quite useful—no one would ever suspect a Hogwarts professor and student.
"Just wear a mask and clothing that won't identify you, especially something that hides your hair color." Snape said as he entered the room.
He finished gathering all the potions before stacking his bags, with the help of his shadows. He summoned his phoenix and disappeared from the room, reappearing later to drop off all the potions with Genini, ensuring they were restocked on his shop's shelves.
An hour later, Rosaria appeared wearing a cloak and a mask. Her once vibrant red hair was now completely dark.
"Do you like my mask? It has an effect that conceals my voice, my hair, and my eyes. I think that should be enough, right?" she asked, excited.
"Yes. I can't complain about that." Snape responded, pulling something from his inventory and handing it to her.
"These are gloves I developed myself. After applying some glyph enhancements, they hide your magical signature when casting spells. This keeps us out of trouble with the Ministry." Snape explained.
"Alright, they're really pretty." She said.
"Remember, we're not killing anyone... yet. We're just breaking into some houses, finding more of those paintings, entering them, and going through the same kind of trial we did when we were sucked into that strange painting. Got it? But if I decide to kill someone, I'll either warn you, or I'll do it myself. You'll only do it if I tell you to..." he stated and warned.
"Of course!" Rosaria replied, excited.
"Let's get started, then." Snape said, summoning his phoenix.
In the next moment, they vanished from the Room of Requirement.
They reappeared in front of a large gate leading to a grand house in a village.
"Where are we?" Rosaria asked, curious.
"This is a house I broke into once. I killed the patriarch and later discovered a few things about him," Snape said calmly, while Rosaria raised an eyebrow upon noticing the symbol on the gate.
"Oh, I know who they are. This is the Norton family! I saw his death in the newspaper while I was in Romania and knew it was you... And today, you want to strike them again?" She laughed, completely indifferent to the fact that what they were doing was a crime.
"Yes... Anyway, let's go in." Snape said, casting a spell that immediately began to force the gate open, alerting whoever was inside.
It didn't take long before three people came out. A man, a woman, and a young boy watched the two unauthorized visitors approaching their mansion with suspicion.
The masks Snape and Rosaria wore were not those of the Death Eaters, which only increased the tension.
"Who are you?" the woman immediately asked, furrowing her brows and stepping in front of her son and her brother-in-law, who had been helping take care of the house since his brother's death—tortured to death.
They hadn't even hired new security after the recent massacre. Besides, no one wanted to work for that family, no matter how much they paid. All the previous guards had been killed, which left them on edge.
The woman who had asked who they were barely had time to react before an attack was launched at her.
Miss Norton quickly raised her wand, invoking a Protego to defend herself from Snape's attack.
"Nice defense," Snape said in his distorted voice, just to provoke her.
"Do you know who we are?" the woman asked, frustrated, while the man beside her and the boy attempted a joint attack against them.
Snape disappeared before they could hit him, while Rosaria raised a shield to block the boy's attack.
"Where did he go?" the man murmured, confused.
Before he could react, he felt a violent impact on his neck. Snape had reappeared and struck him with a precise blow, making him collapse unconscious onto the ground.
The woman and the boy were stunned. The young boy didn't even have time to react before Rosaria launched a direct attack, knocking him out as well.
Panicked, the woman tried to fight back, but Snape cast a spell, disarming her. Her wand flew backward, and she stumbled, stunned, all arrogance gone.
"Who are you? You're not Death Eaters!" she murmured, stepping back.
"It doesn't matter." Snape replied, raising his wand before casting another spell.
A few seconds later, she collapsed unconscious.
"Well, that was pretty easy," Rosaria murmured behind her mask.
"Let's go. They'll be unconscious long enough for us to search the paintings in the house," Snape said, heading inside, with Rosaria following.
They searched the entire house and found two paintings that met their expectations. Snape also took Rosaria into the dungeons—after all, it wouldn't make sense to leave her behind.
-------------Nexts Chapters ----------------
Chapter 182 - A Ball Among Ghosts 01
Chapter 187 - Voldemort Begins to Act.
Chapter 197 - Mission: Demonic Tower of One Hundred Floors
Chapter 206 - Almost 40 Days Away.
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