Good or bad, does it matter?

Sitting on the sofa and stroking Nagini's head, he lowered the invitation to the wedding and looked thoughtfully at the ceiling.

"July seventeenth, one thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven… a good combination in 'numerology,' if my memory serves me right. The number seven symbolizes good luck," he thought aloud.

"That woman again…" the reptile snorted displeasedly, sitting comfortably on his knees. "I'm sorry, but I can't help myself. I fell in love for the first time in my life… in my fifty years," he mentally added, closing his eyes. "But I still won't give up on you, so stop being jealous."

"Even though I've come to terms with it, it's hard for me to get rid of this feeling."

"You say that you have reconciled, but you are still jealous. My teacher was telling the truth when he said that women are the most controversial creatures."

"You already said that before, " giving him a mocking look she said, to which Severus looked at her with his usual smile, "Well, when will we go after the Lestranges?"

"Did she go wild in that short time in the jungle?" "Scared" he looked at the displeased squinted Nagini, who put out her fangs, 

"I'm joking,"with a grin, he ran his hand over her smooth scales, "We are in a civilized world … And killing doesn't suit us, it will be very boring, and by nature , I'm a little selfish and I don't like it when someone pulls their dirty hands to what belongs to me," rising to his feet, he looked towards the calendar, 

"Eh … it's already the eighth, there's nothing interesting that we can do in such a short time, I can of course burn all the Lestrange shops, but they have a lot of assets abroad, and the like, I will harm not only them, but also the innocent people working for them.."

"I remember you said something

about something that was going to strip them of their magic and castrate them…" Nagini said, looking at him.

"This is the last thing," Severus languidly dismissed, " and that is a last resort."

"Isn't that the last one?" The snake looked at him doubtfully. "This is more of an attempt at manipulation on the part of Tom, because because of the emergence of a new gang, the Death Eaters are having a hard time and this idiot imagines himself to be a behind-the-scenes schemer in the hope that in this way he will be able to control me, because Bella is under "his control" and she will do whatever he says."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"Of course, I could rush to the Lestranges at all times and kill them, but this will not lead to anything good," Severus said calmly, and after grinning, he added, "While I'm just watching, let this idiot continue to destroy his image in in her eyes, this would be the best way to further weaken the influence on Bella's mind."

"And what if the wedding, nevertheless, takes place, just to spite you?"

"What a stupid question, then I'll just use the option you suggested earlier, only I doubt that it will take place at all, but…" he looked down at the house-elf who appeared next to him with a sheet of paper in his hand, "But I'll still play it safe," taking it and reading the content, and then touching the head of the b 

House elf, Severus silently nodded, "Well done."

"Tobby is happy to be of use to the Lord!" the elf squeaked excitedly, clutching his hat in his other hand.

"Wanna Come with me?" Severus looked at Nagini, and asked.

"I'll go, " the snake nodded, looking over at him as she climbed up Snape's arm and coiled around his throat. Severus throwing a dark robe over himself, disappeared in the next moment ...

---

In front of a huge gloomy Victorian mansion, four stories high and surrounded by a two-meter iron fence, the end of which was almost impossible to see because of the lush trees surrounding it on all sides, ripples passed through the space and a few seconds later a human appeared in front of the black, double-leaf gates. a figure in a robe, next to which stood a house elf in a cloak and hat. 

"Not bad, but boring," the wizard drawled indifferently, touching the wall of the barrier surrounding the mansion, "In addition to the enchantment of averting the eyes, this barrier contains the enchantment of reflection and protection, even Dumbledore would have to try a bit to destroy it…." but the wizard's hand without any problems passed through, " ... unless, of course, you know the "key"," putting his hand on the elf's head, they went through it without any problems, and go through simple, iron gates, it was much easier, because they were not locked. But as soon as they overcame them, after a few seconds a thin elf in a gray rag appeared in front of them, who tried to say something, but he did not have time to do this, as he lost consciousness and settled on the ground. 

The elf in the hat who saw him felt pity for his brother, because he immediately noticed bruises and abrasions on the open areas of the body, but at the same time, relief that he himself got to a good owner who allowed him to wear clothes, eat his fill, did not hit and treated very well. 

Severus, in turn, only looked at the housekeeper out of the corner of his eye, but did not feel much pity, no, he was not insensitive, but in his world, he had seen things even worse than a simple beating. 

"Let's go," the wizard said, noticing the frozen Tobby. 

"Y-yes!" 

"Severus….?"

"Why do we need another one? - Taking a deep breath, he looked at Nagini's protruding muzzle, realizing from emotions almost immediately what she wanted to say, "and this is a crime, we cannot take someone's house elf"

"Soon, Nelly will be gone for a month, and Tobby will be busy in the store, so I thought that it would not hurt us to start another one, so that he would take care of the house, and look after the monsters ..." pitifully moistening her eyes, she looked him straight in the eyes , while also flooding him with similar emotions through communication. 

"Eh ... you know that I can not refuse you … " waving his hand in the direction of the lying house, he temporarily moved him to the spatial pouch.

"Thank you…" Pressing against his cheek, the snake happily thanked the snake, causing another tired sigh and smile from Snape. "When you become a lamia, I will look forward to "gratitude."

"You always vulgarise everything!" the Snake snorted in embarrassment, thumping the top of his head with its tail and turning away. 

"I was talking about the cake ... who else is vulgarising everything, you are my pervert," the Wizard drawled in an offended way, which made the snake even more embarrassed.

"I'm going to bite you now…"

"Become a lamia and bite as much as you want," winking at her, he put his palms on a couple more double doors and using a little force, without any problems, flung them open… 

"Avada Kedavra!"

Several wizards exclaimed in unison, and green beams flew at Severus. But instead of evading such a dangerous spell that could easily kill him, a cube appeared in the wizard's hand, covered with runes on all sides, and in the same second it shone and flew forward, right into the rays. 

And to the amazement of the attackers, who immediately recognized the artifact, without hesitation, they again attacked with a variety of spells. 

"We'll use a joint bombardment, it won't withstand all the force, just like those!" one of them yelled as the cube blocked the next spells following the Avada Kidavra, creating a shield. A group of five Wizards simultaneously waved their wands: Bombard!

And a destructive wave of terrifying power from which the whole mansion shook rushed into the Prince, who was still calmly standing in one place. 

Due to the dust rising into the air, from the wave, the wizards did not notice how the cube that blocked the previous attacks quickly flew up to the Wizard and shone even brighter, and then a terrifying explosion rang out that swallowed the figure in the robes...

The force of the attack was so great that it hit the basement and the top two floors, creating a huge hole at the entrance to the mansion. But the people who attacked him, standing aside near the stairs, managed to protect themselves from the shock wave with the help of the Protego, so they remained completely unharmed.

"Were we able to hit him?" one of them asked, frowning at the dust slowly settling on the ground. 

"It's impossible to survive, even with those artefacts, but it's still worth checking," squeezing the wand tighter, the speaker decided to wait at first, but in the next moment, behind them, a gust of wind rushed towards the entrance, blowing away the dust and revealing a completely unharmed unknown man in a robe, standing on a small land around which there was a real devastation, and behind him in a huge hole without any problems you could see the sinking sun.

"Magic steel and silver are still not suitable," Severus drawled with regret, looking at the collapsing cube, which managed to withstand the joint spell of the five, 

"We'll have to experiment some more," putting the artefact back in his wallet, he looked at the wizards who looked at him with bulging eyes, and among them, Snape found those he was looking for. 

Two men in shirts and with long, shoulder-length dark hair, as if feeling the gaze of the unknown person in a cloak on themselves, felt trembling all over their bodies and for some reason, but vaguely, this feeling seemed familiar to them, but the aura emanating from him was a slight different. 

"Today, I'm not in the mood for games ... " And sensing the danger, "Reducto!" the man used one of the lightest, but at the same time fast spells, which he knew best of all and did not require extra waving, but the unknown man only sluggishly, as if waving away a fly, reflected the red beam to the side. 

This action also became a trigger for the rest and without hesitation, they were about to attack, but the wands flew out of the hands of the wizards and landed right in front of the feet of the unknown. 

And at the same moment, roots burst out of the wooden floor, which in a few seconds entwined all five. "What is this…" but the man with bristles didn't have time to finish his sentence when a root wrapped around his head and covered his mouth. 

"Hmm…" Snape slowly walked towards them, while examining with interest the three Wizards unknown to him, whom he had seen for the first time, although it seemed to him that he knew all the Death Eaters, even those that they went without marks, Lucius, Bella, Crabbe and Goyle helped him in this, as well as a couple of spies who themselves did not know that they were spies.

"And who are you with us?" Severus looked at them with a smile, from which the men began to mumble something indistinctly and stared at him with fury.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you," putting his hand on the top of one of them, Severus looked straight at him into his eyes and slowly began to poke around in his memory, but after a few seconds, he raised an eyebrow in surprise, "Protection on the mind? Interesting... I came to play with the Lestranges for a bit, but I found something much more interesting, who are you?" with a smile, narrowing his eyes very unkindly, Severus again looked directly into the man's eyes and, without ceremony, began to "break" the protection, from which, to the real horror for the others, the man shook violently and foam came out of his mouth, and from all the cracks there was blood, but at the same time, Severus did not stop, as if on purpose continuing to torment him. And so it went on for the next half hour…