Chapter 266 265: The Flamels, Part 1: Problems.

France, Paris. One day before the scheduled meeting.

Late in the evening, along a well-lit street by the banks of the Seine, Severus and Nagini walked together: he with his dark hair tied back, his thoughtful gaze directed toward the shining Eiffel Tower, and she pressing against his shoulder, her face adorned with a serene smile.

"Thank you for this wonderful day," Nagini said tenderly, looking up at him as she wrapped her arm even tighter around him.

"I'm glad to hear that, but please, loosen your grip a little. I am, after all, almost an ordinary person, and you're several times stronger than me even in this form," he said with a hint of amusement, winking at her.

"Oh! I'm sorry..." Flustered, she quickly did as he asked, awkwardly lowering her gaze. "...I'm just very nervous..."

"I understand."

"This is our first date... so I..."

"It's all right, calm down." Stopping near the bridge leading directly to the tower, he flicked her nose, drawing an indignant snort from her.

"I asked you not to do that anymore!" She looked at him menacingly.

"Force of habit. And I do like your reaction at times like this."

"Then break the habit! I won't tolerate that anymore!"

"Biting?" he asked with a playful smile, leaning slightly closer to her face. Her cheeks turned pink, but she didn't look away, meeting his gaze without flinching.

"What if I?!"

"I don't mind."

"You know, my teeth have gotten sharper..." She grinned predatorily, trying to seize the initiative, closing the distance between them.

"I'll endure it."

"I bite very hard…"

"Well then, let's find out how much…" And when only millimeters remained between them, she suddenly pulled back and turned away from him, resting her hands on the railing, her pink ears clearly visible.

"Fine, you win!" she snorted, almost resentfully, but when his arms wrapped around her waist, she flinched, then relaxed again and closed her eyes.

"Is there a prize?" She felt his warm breath on her neck, and her heart began to race. She pressed closer to him, anticipating what would come next with trepidation, when quiet words came: "Just kidding…"

Hearing this, she didn't immediately understand what he meant, but as soon as she grasped his meaning, her eyes flew open in astonishment. Then, puffing her cheeks in indignation, she elbowed him in the stomach, though she held back, or else Severus would have been sent flying quite a distance.

"You jerk!"

"I don't deny it," Severus chuckled, rubbing the spot where she'd hit him. "But you still need to work on your control."

"Hmph! You deserved it!" She shot him a displeased look over her shoulder, but after a few seconds, her nature won out. "…does it hurt a lot?" She turned to him, but seeing his cheeky smile, all her worry evaporated in an instant, replaced by annoyance.

"Very much…"

"Bastard!"

"I am what I am. You chose me this way yourself."

"Hmph!" In one motion, she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, surprising even Severus himself, and sharply pulled him toward her. She rose on her tiptoes, their lips met, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

That she would take such a serious step astonished him; he didn't even come to his senses immediately, but then he thought: *These are the downsides of forming a bond with a familiar stronger than yourself… you simply don't know what to expect from them…* He didn't pull away or push her back, though he could have done so by strengthening his body with magic. *Sigh… and what should I do…? I trapped myself… but…* His arms carefully wrapped around her waist, and he pulled back, causing her to bite her lower lip and lower her gaze as she came to her senses.

"I'm sorry… I… I don't know what came over me…"

"You don't know how to kiss…" Gently lifting her chin, Severus tenderly pressed his lips to her pale pink ones, making her eyes grow almost as wide as Galleons, but after a few seconds she closed them again and began to learn, trying to respond to the kiss.

*I once told Brown that he was digging his own grave, getting involved with three women at once, and I remember how that ended, but… now I'm starting to understand him… and… what should I do now?* He mused, laughing at himself.

He understood that this wouldn't lead to anything good, and even if his fears turned out to be unfounded, he simply didn't know how to handle a situation like this; it was all too complicated and new for him.

*But now I can congratulate Eileen; she got her wish…* With that thought, he decided to stop driving himself crazy and just relax and enjoy it. *Let what will be, be…*

---

England. Gloucestershire.

The next day, sitting on the sofa in the living room in his ihiros form and awaiting his guests, Severus felt tired, not physically but emotionally, remembering the previous day and how the date had ended.

Although he tried to behave as usual and managed it quite well, he didn't know what to do next, and as a result, he couldn't fall asleep until morning.

Nagini, standing behind him dressed in a white shirt and ill-fitting trousers, was more energetic than ever, her face simply glowing, though when their eyes met, she still lowered her gaze shyly.

The others in the house had noticed the change as well, but the first to see it, of course, was Eileen, who had met them in the evening when they returned. Her self-satisfied expression made one want to bang their head against a wall, though her thoughts had played no small part in it.

Severus realized that these two had played him.

They had taken advantage of the fact that he couldn't read Nagini's thoughts as easily as before unless he really tried.

Eileen had talked Nagini into taking this serious step, having studied him well enough to predict his reaction, and had tried to stay out of his sight herself to avoid revealing the plan.

She knew perfectly well that he was aware of Nagini's feelings and that he wouldn't be able to refuse her after all these years, not if it meant upsetting her, and she had decided to play on that to bring them together like this.

She had succeeded beautifully.

Once again, through his own experience, he had seen how insidious and ruthless women could be at such moments.

*My teacher was right when he said that one should always be on guard around these terrible creatures, and I was a fool not to listen to him…* An ironic chuckle escaped his lips.

"Severus…" A pair of hands came to rest on his shoulders. "What's wrong with you? You've seemed tense all day. Is it because of yesterday?" Nagini asked, worried, feeling guilty about what had happened the previous evening. *I shouldn't have listened to her… I ruined everything…*

"No, of course not. I'm just thinking about today's meeting," he said, looking at her with a soft smile, then added, more cheerfully, "It's not every day a Devil comes to visit you."

"Really?"

"Of course. Have I ever lied to you?"

"You have." She nodded confidently, causing his eye to twitch.

"All right, that's not what we're talking about. I just think too much…"

"Usually, I'm the one who overthinks," she said, deciding to tease him. "Isn't that right?"

"Once is one thing, but you kept at it." He waved his hand listlessly, leaning back in his chair. "This has nothing to do with you."

"If you want to talk about something, I'll always be ready to listen," she said tenderly, running her palm along his cheek before straightening up again and removing her hand from his shoulder.

"Thank you, Mommy."

"I'm going to hit you right now."

"And I'll spank you…" He grinned predatorily, making her flush and quickly cover her bottom with her palms, her eyes narrowing menacingly, but after a few seconds, they finally smiled at each other.

*Sigh… if only I had met you sooner…* This thought flashed through his mind as he looked into those dark eyes full of kindness and tenderness.

Under his intent but somehow sad gaze, she felt a little flustered.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it. Change your form. They're already in our suite." Severus shook his head, dismissing the unnecessary thought, and straightened up. Nagini nodded slightly, her expression turning completely serious, and began to transform right before his eyes.

---

Exactly one minute later, Nicholas and Perenelle appeared in the living room. The benevolent smiles on their faces evaporated almost immediately at the sight of the dark-robed old wizard sitting on the sofa. His cold, piercing gaze sent shivers down their spines. They had never encountered anyone so frightening.

But what alarmed them even more was the incredibly dangerous aura surrounding him, as if a true predator were sitting before them.

Perenelle even reached for her wand, but Nicholas squeezed his wife's hand, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye and shaking his head.

Before he could utter a word, Ihiros spoke.

"My apprentice said you wanted to meet with me and discuss a matter related to those creatures in the jungle," he began in an indifferent voice. Severus, standing behind him, smiled at them sheepishly, as if apologizing for his teacher's behavior. "I'm listening, but make it quick. I have other, more important matters to attend to."

"Please sit down. A house-elf will pour you some tea now," Severus said, indicating the sofa on the opposite side as he unbuttoned the top button of his shirt.

At that moment, two more cups of tea and a small dish of sweets appeared on the table.

"Thank you," Nicholas said with a polite bow, drawing the tense Perenelle along. She couldn't take her eyes off Ihiros. When they sat down, Nicholas continued, nervously rubbing the back of his head, "We are very glad to meet the mentor who trained such a talented young man…" But noticing Ihiros's slight frown, he quickly changed tack and got to the point. "Several hundred years ago, we visited the Magical Jungle in Brazil and reached the forbidden section. Thanks to one artifact, we easily bypassed the dangers and were able to gather a wide variety of rare resources."

"But when we were about to leave, the artifact that warned us of danger broke, and then we encountered it, a monster. Only after the battle did we understand why the artifact had failed. The power of that creature was on a completely different level." He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white, his face twisting with the memory of that day and the pain he had felt. "…That was when I lost most of my power, as if something inside me had broken when it struck me…"

"I'm surprised that with your strength, you managed to survive at all. Even I would have to exert all my power to handle the weakest of them."

At first, Nicholas didn't understand what Ihiros was implying, but when it dawned on him, he jumped up from the sofa and raised his hands in panic.

"We only ran away when she was distracted! It wasn't what you're thinking!"

"Hm… all right. Who exactly did you see?" Ignoring his protests, ihiros gestured for him to sit back down, and two images of Devils appeared before Nicholas, ones he had seen before.

At first, he fixed his gaze on the muscular creature, but when he moved on to the next one, his face instantly lost all color. Raising a trembling hand, he pointed at the Devil whose body resembled a skeleton covered in skin.

"Him… I will never forget him…"

"A Lower Devil. You were lucky. If you had encountered a Higher Devil, I doubt you would have escaped. Am I right?" ihiros looked at Perenelle, whose face was still deathly pale.

For the first time in the entire conversation, ihiros smiled.

She frowned at the image of the second one for several more seconds. He seemed vaguely familiar to her, as if she had seen him before, but…

"I… you are absolutely right…" She wanted to say something, but shook her head and agreed with him.

After all, if they had truly encountered the second one, classified as a Higher, meaning he was far stronger than the first, they probably wouldn't have been able to escape at all.

She still clearly remembered carrying Nicholas on her back and that creature's form. *It definitely wasn't him…*

"Higher?" Nicholas asked for clarification.

"Yes, this monster on steroids." He pointed at the Higher Devil. "One such creature could easily destroy this entire world." His voice was completely calm, as if he were discussing the weather rather than the destruction of all humanity, and Nicholas and Perenelle felt chills run down their spines.

"Then… humanity is simply doomed… but why do they…"

"They are held back by a barrier, and as long as it stands, these wretches will never be able to break free. Think of them as animals in a zoo, but I don't recommend approaching the cage: they bite," ihiros replied, snorting contemptuously and dispelling the image.

"And aren't you afraid that when it falls, you will be their first victim?" All previous nervousness had vanished from Nicholas's voice, and Perenelle, sitting nearby, suddenly flinched and slowly turned her head toward him.

"Victim? Don't make me laugh. These pathetic parodies of real Devils will never be able to break through the barrier. They don't have the brains for it, especially that over-muscled freak. Am I right, freak?" The last word seemed to be a trigger. ihiros didn't even see how a black shadow in the shape of a hand, emitting incredibly powerful magic, appeared above his head, but…

"And why are you frozen, eh? Little devil?" He looked mockingly at Nicholas, whose body was partially covered in black spots and glowing red inscriptions, his face twisted in a grimace of rage, his eyes radiating pure madness.

However, neither ihiros nor Severus even flinched; they met his gaze with complete calm.

"D-dear…" Perenelle, who was already on the other side of the room behind a barrier, where she had been thrown a second earlier, looked at her husband in shock. "What's wrong with you?! Let me out, I must…!"

"You won't be able to do anything," ihiros replied indifferently, rising to his feet. "He has been subjugated by one of those creatures, and it's unclear whether you too are under its control and are simply pretending so that I'll free you."

"No! That's not true! Please, let me out!" Perenelle cried, nearly in tears, pounding on the dome, but ihiros only shook his head and looked into her eyes.

"We'll find out now. Don't worry, I don't intend to harm you or your husband. And now… sleep."

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