September 4, 1976. Saturday. 6 a.m.
In a dimly lit room, a young man lay on a bed, his gaze fixed on a small window where dawn was breaking, his hand stroking the crown of a greenish-brown snake. It made no other movements, as if waiting for something.
And so, after a few minutes, his eyes lit up, because he finally heard what he had been waiting for a long time.
"Sir, the Headmaster has left the castle..."
But Snape didn't leave the room immediately, deciding to be extra cautious and wait another hour. So, rising from his bed, he summoned a small wallet, and a second later, a pair of high boots, thick dark trousers, a matching sweater, a hooded cloak, and a sword appeared on the floor.
"Nagini, so, will you come with me?" he looked at the snake with a smile, putting on his pants.
"Couldn't find a better time to ask?" She narrowed her eyes, crawled up to him, and started nudging him in the side with her tail. "Why ask such a stupid question? You're the only person in my long life who's accepted me for who I am, cared for me, and tolerated all my whims, the only one who sees me not as a monster, but as a human being and a person. You're the second... no, the first person I can consider a true friend, even though we've only known each other for three months. And even the fact that you picked me up out of boredom means a lot to me... You even want to help me become human again, and if I don't go with you now, I'll lose all respect for myself..."
"Well, you certainly said a lot."
"Hey! You could at least listen to the end properly!"
"Okay, okay, go ahead," Alan nodded with a smile, putting on his sweater.
"You've got me off track! Well, anyway, I'm going with you. Someone needs to save your ass if the plan goes awry!"
"Don't jinx it, but it was still nice to hear."
Finally, having thrown on his cloak, he extended his hand to her, and Nagini quickly climbed into the sleeve, and then, wrapping herself around his waist, stuck her head out at Alan's neck.
"Are we going?"
"In an hour, but now I need to finish something," he sat down on the bed and placed the sword on his knees, and a flame lit up on his index finger.
"You're still weird, what was the point of getting up and getting dressed then? You could have just lain on the bed a little longer..."
"Preparing the body and spirit for the upcoming battle, as well as checking the equipment."
"You've already checked five times..." But, seeing Alan's concentrated face, who was already completely devoted to the task, she merely sighed wearily and laid her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes. "He's still too strange..."
For the next hour, he spent his time writing runes on the sword until, in an instant, they burst into flames and the color of the sword changed from silver to black.
"Wake up, let's go."
"I didn't even sleep..."
Putting on the hood, and then casting a blinding charm and using a disillusionment spell, Alan seemed to merge with the surroundings and then left the room.
Alan moved silently through the castle corridors, making no sound at all, and thanks to the Marauder's Map, he avoided both Filch and the cat, as well as the other teachers. And in a couple of minutes, he reached the restroom.
Finally inside, Alan removed all the spells and, pointing his palm upward, snapped his fingers, and at that very second a shining barrier covered the room.
"Who's there?!"
"Calm down, it's me," he said, looking towards Myrtle, who was peeking out from behind the wall of the stall, and took off his hood.
"Severus, why did you come here, and dressed like that...?"
Finally calming down a little, she flew up to him.
"Treasure hunt."
"Treasures...?"
"That's right, so, shhh..." He pressed his index finger to his lips and walked over to the sinks.
"Open!" Nagini hissed, and just as before, under the girl's shocked gaze, the room shook, and as soon as the enormous slab rose up and the sinks moved aside, a vertical passage opened, the depth of which was impossible to discern.
"I hope you're not planning to jump in there?!" the ghost said excitedly, quickly standing in front of him.
"That's exactly what I'm going to do."
"Are you crazy?! It's so high up there—you'll crash! And even if you manage to get down, who knows what's lurking down there! You have to tell the teachers about this!"
"Calm down, I'll be back in two hours," Alan's body was caught by a gust of wind, and he jumped into the hole. "And if you tell anyone about this place and that I came here, I'll stop being friends with you..." His voice grew quieter and quieter with each passing second.
"SEVERUS!" the girl screamed with horror on her face, rushing towards the passage to see Alan's grinning face looking straight at her.
"Anyway, don't tell anyone about this, I'll be back in two hours," and he continued his descent.
"You... you... you... IDIOT! And I'm worried about him! I'm not going to be friends with you anymore! Damn you... damn you... damn you!" If she could touch physical objects, she would have stamped her feet several times and simply run away. "If you're not back in two hours, I'll call the teachers here immediately!"
"Certainly..."
The descent itself turned out to be not just a pit, but a real slide, covered in an unpleasant-smelling slime, which Alan still did not dare to touch, but simply slid on it, and after several dozen seconds, he finally broke out of the wide pipes into a pit filled with the same slime, while he was surrounded by pitch darkness, but this did not last long, because after a few seconds, a bright light appeared next to him, illuminating a small room, and he was finally able to see what was crunching under his feet: these were the bones of various small creatures.
But here we can't relax anymore... He looked up and thoughtfully began to examine the many tunnels leading in completely different directions, but one still managed to attract his attention due to its unnaturally smooth chips, as well as a pair of bones leading in its direction.
Although dampness and pitch darkness were loved by snakes, due to the fact that Nagini was once a human, she experienced a completely opposite feeling.
"Are you scared yet?" Alan asked with a smile, noticing how she disappeared under the sweater.
"I'm not afraid... I just..."
"It's normal, there's no need to hide it."
"I... why aren't you afraid?" she asked, sticking her head out and looking into his eyes.
"Hmm... I guess I'm used to it. I've seen scarier monsters, and what's there to be afraid of? If I just wanted to kill him, I wouldn't have to waste a minute. But I can't damage his organs, they're crucial for two potions..." Alan put on a pair of black gloves, placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, and headed toward that very tunnel...
Gradually, moving over the remains of bones and marks on the stone walls, with each new turn, Nagini's anxiety only grew stronger. She sensed something terrifying ahead, pressing down on her. This was a fear of a creature far greater. After all, the basilisk was no ordinary snake—it was a true King of Snakes, and fear of it was a natural reaction for any snake. The fact that it didn't run away, tail flashing, already earned Alan's respect.
And finally, after rounding another bend, he saw in the distance a smooth wall from which protruded a huge, rounded steel door. Its hinges resembled the intertwined tails of seven snakes, welded to the door, made of the same material. The snakes themselves were not mere decoration, but rather served as a latch with their fangs, arranged at equal distances from one another, forming a circle.
Approaching the thick door, he looked thoughtfully at the wall on the right, and then, sighing sadly, shook his head.
"I've never understood people like that, hanging so many enchantments on the door and leaving the walls bare... Apparently, I was wrong to praise Salazar's descendant. He, like his ancestor, is still an idiot. Nagini, try opening it using the same method." He touched the place where the snake had been, and a few seconds later a head emerged from under his clothes, perplexedly surveying its surroundings until its gaze settled on Alan.
"All this time... you were able to block that terrible aura?!" she hissed, narrowing her eyes menacingly. Alan nodded, smiling calmly. He then felt a rather pleasant tingling sensation in his waist area.
"You're a damn sadist! Do you even understand what I've been through all this time?! I almost went crazy! It was... it was... sob! W-it was... sob! It was terrible!"
"You yourself wanted to come with me, and if I had maintained this barrier from the very beginning, then at the moment of battle, if I had lost concentration, you would have lost consciousness in that very moment, or even worse, you could have gone crazy, so calm down..." He extended his hand and began to stroke her head, although she tried to dodge.
"And warn me?! ~sniff!"
"I forgot," the pleasant tingling sensation around my waist only intensified. "So open up. The sooner we're done here, the sooner we can get out of here. Don't you want to be back on the surface, in a warm bed, on a soft pillow...?"
"The serpent is a tempter."
"I hear it from the snake."
"Hm!" She turned away from him, looked at the door, and hissed. "Open up!"
Another snake crawled out of the loop along the edge of the frame and slowly crawled around the door, removing the "latches," until it made a full turn and returned back to the loop, and at the same moment the door slowly began to open...