Chapter 265: Birthday.

After a few minutes, they made progress on the new problem by resorting to an old method: her strong desire to become human again, the same method she had previously used to shrink in size.

And though she eventually managed to take a humanoid form, still…

“No luck?” he asked with a frown, looking at the young woman standing before him. Green scales still covered her cheeks and the backs of her hands, while large, branching horns adorned her head.

“No…” she sighed dejectedly, shaking her head.

“That’s strange…,” he muttered. He had seen with his own eyes how sixth-rank dragons took human form. Nagini was already at the peak of that rank: it should have been as simple as snapping her fingers right after evolving. But in her case, something had gone wrong.

“It’s nothing terrible! I’m just happy I’ve gotten this much closer to my true form!” she added, waving her hands animatedly and smiling brightly at him. “And I feel that with time, I’ll be able to take a full human form. You’ve already done too much for me…”

“Don’t talk nonsense.” Severus waved dismissively, continuing to scrutinize the analyses on three screens to his right. But no matter how many times he reviewed them, the result was the same: she was perfectly fine. Letting out a disappointed breath, he said, “But you’re probably right. There’s not much else I can do to help beyond training. Now you must take full control of the magic overflowing in your body, and perhaps after that you’ll be able to get rid of these flaws. And we shouldn’t forget that you just turned from a snake into a dragon a few minutes ago, so there’s probably nothing surprising about this. With time and experience, I’m sure you’ll succeed.”

“I think so too!” She spun around with a smile, happily pressing Drake to her chest; he hadn’t left her side this entire time. “But how wonderful it is to walk on my own two legs again…”

And while Nagini basked in this intoxicating happiness, the rest of the menagerie approached her. Severus glanced out of the corner of his eye at Eileen, who was watching Nagini with warmth. Feeling his gaze on her, Eileen looked at him and, guessing what he was about to ask, nodded slightly and mouthed:

“All right, let’s get out of here, then. I bet you can’t wait to leave these four walls?” Rising from the sofa, he extended his hand to her. She stopped, placed the displeased cub on the floor, and tried to put her small hand gracefully in his. But as soon as she took half a step forward, she tripped on the hem of her robe and nearly fell. At the last moment, Severus managed to catch her. “Be more careful. Perhaps you didn’t notice, but you’ve grown three centimeters. And while the difference between here and the outside world may be small, it does exist, so you’ll need to get used to it first.”

“Okay, but… you can let me go now…” she whispered, embarrassed and pressed close against him. She could feel his hands on her waist, one of them even slightly lower, and their faces were mere centimeters apart. It was an extremely embarrassing position, especially with a dozen magical creatures watching them, half of them highly intelligent and fully aware of what was happening.

“Are you sure?” His eyes sparkled mischievously. The others, seeing her reaction, could barely hold back their laughter, which only made her blush more. “All right, but be careful.” He released her, then took her hand and pulled her along.

“But… this isn’t a dream, is it…?” Her smile faded slightly; swallowing hard and unable to believe what was happening, she raised her gaze from their intertwined hands to his broad back.

Before this, she had experienced similar realistic dreams many times. *What if this was a dream too, another terrible joke of her subconscious?*

Descending the stairs, she simply couldn’t shake the thought; everything looked both very real and too good to be true, which frightened her and made her doubt reality.

When they reached the living room and she raised her gaze uncertainly, she froze.

Before her stood a huge table laden with various dishes and even a large cake. Above it, in shining letters, were the words: Happy Birthday! And this inscription confused her.

“Hasn’t it already passed?”

But instead of an answer, she heard a loud “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” She had no idea how to react or what was happening.

“Silly girl, today is your second birthday, isn’t it?” He winked at her cheerfully, then leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Don’t get worked up. This isn’t a dream.” To emphasize, he even pinched her, making her wrinkle her little nose in displeasure.

“So… this isn’t a dream…?” She couldn’t hold back her tears of joy at the realization that all of this was true, that the curse that had been tormenting her for the past few decades had finally been dispelled.

“Today is your happy day, so come on, smile and stop crying.” He tenderly ran his palm over her cheek, wiping away her tears, and led her to the table.

“I agree, you know. I spent a lot of time preparing for this event,” Eileen added with mock sternness, the corners of her lips lifting slightly.

“There they are, the downsides of being a spirit…” Li Er sighed sorrowfully, looking at the variety of dishes on the table.

“…thank you…” Nagini said, pouring all her emotion, all the warmth and tenderness, into that single word. She looked at Severus with her brightest smile, then let her gaze sweep over everyone gathered in the room.

“Meow!” However, Lucky instantly ruined the atmosphere. When all eyes focused on him, he was already sitting on the table next to a roasted chicken, pointing with his paw first to the birthday girl’s place, then to Nagini herself. Seeing this, she couldn’t help but laugh; the sight was too funny. The others joined her, except for Drake, who glared at Lucky.

“All right, all right, sit down.” Severus nudged her. “Or else someone will eat all the food. And he would. I’ve witnessed it myself.”

And Lucky, as if confirming this, thumped his chest with his paw and raised his little nose. “Meow!”

“See?” Severus smirked, pulling out a chair. After both ladies sat down, he joined them. “By the way, we’ll need to buy you some clothes. The ones we prepared definitely won’t fit anymore.”

“You know, I’ve wanted to get outside and take a walk for a long time, so I’ll keep her company,” Eileen quickly volunteered, a bright sparkle in her eyes. Due to her unusual appearance and lack of company, she hadn’t really wanted to go outside, so she had spent almost all her time at home, walking through the small forest or working on her undead army.

Although looking at lifeless bodies had once been deeply unpleasant for her, now she paid them no mind at all, treating them as if they weren’t even there. That was the effect of becoming a Lich and her proximity to the concepts of life and death.

“All right.” A familiar mask appeared in Severus’s hand, one he had taken from Arnold earlier. “Take this mask to hide your horns and scales until you learn to do it yourself.”

“And what about you?”

“I don’t need it yet, and if I do, I’ll just take it. And there’s always Polyjuice.”

“All right then.” Accepting the artifact, Nagini examined it curiously. “How does it…?” Following his instructions, she put it on excitedly. A moment later, right before their eyes, the horns disappeared, the scales vanished from her face, and her hair grew slightly shorter. “This artifact has its limitations: it only creates a humanoid form,” Severus clarified, in case she got any strange ideas, while conjuring a mirror in front of her. She peered into it with interest, touching her cheeks and head.

“Isn’t there another one?” Eileen asked with an awkward smile, and Severus shook his head. “What a pity.”

“I’ll think of something. And when Nagini learns to transform into a human on her own, you can borrow it until I need it.”

“Thank you.”

“Hmm… if memory serves, there were a couple of artifacts with similar properties…,” Li Er began, but trailed off.

“Meow!” Lucky cried out, smacking the table with his paw and glaring at Li Er threateningly. Li Er fell silent, unsure how to react.

“All right, all right, let’s eat.” Severus cleared his throat a couple of times to stifle his laughter, then put some salad and a chicken leg on his plate. The others followed suit to avoid angering Lucky further, though someone at the table kept coughing.

When everyone finally had food on their plates, Lucky meowed loudly again, as if to say *finally*, and immediately pounced on the chicken. Unable to hold back any longer, everyone burst into cheerful laughter. Only the cubs glanced toward their owners and, not understanding what was going on, returned to their dinner, which the house-elves had served them, along with the other creatures on the grounds.

—

The next week passed far more calmly than the previous ones. At last, Severus could fully relax and stop racking his brain over the ritual. He could simply rest from everything.

Of course, he usually didn’t take such long weekends for himself, considering it a waste of time. But Nagini decided to pressure him, first with force—which she had in abundance, especially after she learned to partially transform. That ended with her running out of the laboratory a few minutes later, red as a tomato and clutching her bottom. Then she tried playing the pity card, which partly worked. He had been thinking about taking a break for a couple of days anyway, just a little later.

As for Nagini, two days after the victory, she disappeared with Eileen for almost the entire day. By evening they returned with ten bags full of clothes, shoes, and jewelry. After that, until midnight, she kept pestering Severus, modeling various outfits for him, to the approving nods of a certain Lich.

And although he had to admit it was a decent fashion show, especially the swimsuit finale, the fact that his day off was being spoiled in this way, without any advance warning, didn’t sit well with him.

So the next day, Severus himself joined the Chimera King’s training sessions as a trainer. As a result, by noon Nagini couldn’t even move and lay in bed until evening.

She wasn’t stupid, of course, and immediately understood what this revenge was about. But while she had to admit the sessions were effective, she wasn’t willing to nearly die during them. So she vowed not to pester him anymore. However, the fact that Eileen tried to keep a low profile during this time and didn’t defend her offended Nagini greatly, but they made up fairly quickly.

Over these days, although she didn’t learn to fully hide her true appearance, she gained a fairly decent level of control over her already inhuman strength and partial transformation.

But she still lacked combat experience, which she was gaining in battles with the same Chimera King and other magical creatures, while limiting her strength to match theirs. Severus occasionally joined them; for him, this was also a kind of rest and a chance to stretch his legs.

On top of all this, Severus hadn’t forgotten about the meeting with the Flamels that his teacher was supposed to attend, and he was already prepared for it after updating all the rune patterns in the house.

He was confident that the full power of the improved house as an artifact would be enough to contain the Devil, whose magic he had sensed that day, if it appeared at all. Beyond that, he had a second trump card in case the first failed, which was unlikely, but he was preparing for that outcome as well.

And by the end of the weekend, ihiros returned to Britain, and the meeting was scheduled for the very next day.