Chapter 268: The Flamels. Part 3. The Proposal.

Half an hour later.

A groan came from the sofa where Perenelle lay, followed by rustling, and then a weak voice came.

“Wh-what happened…? Ah… why does my head hurt so much…?”

Stroking the right side of her forehead, where it throbbed, she slowly sat up, only to freeze moments later when she realized she wasn’t at home and saw Severus calmly sipping tea across from her, while Nagini stood behind him with downcast eyes. Perenelle looked surprised. “This place…?”

But she didn’t finish her question, because in the next moment, memories of what had just happened came flooding back, and her face drained of all color. “M-Mister Severus, w-where is Nicholas, is he… is he not…?”

“Well… that’s a complicated question. On the one hand, he died… but on the other, it’s as though he’s alive,” Severus mused, stroking his chin as he considered how to describe Nicholas’s condition.

“What do you mean?! Is he alive or not?! Severus!” she cried out sharply, rising from the sofa with tears in her eyes, stamping her foot and clenching her fists. “Even if… even if… I won’t blame you… I saw what was happening to him… and I still clearly remember that magic… please, answer me, is he…?”

“He’s somewhere between alive and dead. In short… here.” He pointed to the censer lying on the table, which she hadn’t noticed at first. But as soon as her gaze fell upon it, her body seemed to lose all strength, and she sank to her knees before the artifact.

“So… only this remains…”

“Severus! What are you saying?!” Nagini snapped, no longer able to tolerate his mockery of the despairing woman. She rushed to her side to comfort her. “He’s alive, truly alive. Please, calm down…”

“But… how…?” Perenelle’s reddened eyes fell on the censer again.

“His soul is in there,” he said with a weary sigh, running a hand over his face, “and it’s hard to call that state alive, but he’s not completely dead either, since his soul is sealed inside and hasn’t passed on to the other side, as they say. That’s why it’s difficult for me to answer your question.”

“So…?” she asked again, as if she didn’t believe what she’d heard, waiting for him to confirm it.

“You could say that.”

“Severus!” Nagini looked at him with reproach.

“In any case, we just need to find a body and place the soul into it, but the body must be suitable, and that’s very difficult to find.”

“You see, he’s fine. So please, get up and sit down. Don’t kneel,” Nagini continued as she helped Perenelle up, while Severus calmly observed them, thinking about where to find a suitable body.

“What do you mean by ‘suitable’?” Perenelle clarified, quickly composing herself; fortunately, she was skilled at adapting to anything after several hundred years as headmistress and her time with Nicholas.

“Close to the previous one, one that the soul is already accustomed to and won’t reject. That’s what my teacher said.” Severus wasn’t lying; ihiros himself had told him about this when Severus was still young and didn’t understand much, clinging to the illusion that he could resurrect his parents, bring back their souls from the other side and place them in other bodies.

“And he himself…? Can’t he help?”

“He has far more important business, and it’s connected to what emerged from your husband.” Severus decided to dispel her hopes; he didn’t really want to walk around in ihiros’s guise, especially in front of her, since she might guess who he really was.

“I see, but where to find…?”

“I have an idea.” Almost immediately, both women turned their attention to him. “Perenelle, how do you feel about children?”

The question, to put it mildly, puzzled her; she didn’t know how to answer, or even what he meant. “I was headmistress at Beauxbatons for several centuries, and I’ve always been fond of children, but…”

“That’s wonderful. And how about infants?”

“What are you getting at?”

“Just answer.”

“I… always wanted to have a child, but Nicholas devoted all his time to research, and I had the school, and now, it’s complicated…” Perenelle was somewhat embarrassed, but then something finally dawned on her. “Could it be…?”

“Yes, I propose finding a Veela and using her as a surrogate mother with Nicholas’s genetic material. That way, the body will be strong enough to withstand an adult’s soul and also suitable, since she will rebuild it as it forms.” This proposal shocked both women, and while Nagini was still reeling, Perenelle, by contrast, considered it and then nodded with complete seriousness.

“I would agree, but where will you get the genetic material…?”

“Well… alchemists are very strange creatures… especially old ones like Nicholas…”

“You mean he keeps…?” She raised an eyebrow doubtfully.

“Not necessarily. He might be different. But it’s worth checking.”

Severus also considered the cloning option, but rejected it because he simply lacked the skills or knowledge to pull that off, and was unlikely to find suitable literature in this world.

So he resorted to the simplest yet most effective option, and even if they couldn’t find what they were looking for, they could always search for the most suitable donor.

Besides, Severus was simply curious to visit Nicholas’s laboratory.

But under the circumstances, Perenelle had no choice but to agree to Severus’s proposal, and she could clearly see what he wanted, especially after the years spent with her husband, since they were as alike as two peas in a pod when it came to research.

“Good. I’ll take you there. And Nicky himself, I’m sure, wouldn’t mind this.” She smiled sadly.

“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. Severus will definitely pull this off, I’m sure of it!” Nagini assured her in a cheerful voice, squeezing her hand, which embarrassed Perenelle, for whom such an open display of emotion from a stranger was apparently new.

“And you…?” Perenelle asked. Nagini began to introduce herself. “I’m Nag—” But she caught herself, remembering they had performed the ritual in secret. Uncertain how to respond, she looked at Severus questioningly. He waved his hand lazily, as if to say, go ahead, tell her. “Ini… my name is Nagini… Prince.” At that, Severus, sitting across from them, nearly choked on the tea he’d just sipped.

“Nagini…” The name seemed vaguely familiar until Perenelle remembered who it belonged to. “You… you’re that snake? Did you really succeed?” she asked, staring at Severus in shock.

“I apologize for deceiving you back then,” Severus said sincerely, wiping his mouth and shirt with a handkerchief. “That day, when I discovered that creature inside your husband, I feared for Nagini’s life. I worried it might break free and harm her.” “I understand. Don’t apologize. In your place, we would have done the same,” Perenelle said, shaking her head with a kind smile as she rose from the sofa. “Let’s go. I’ll show you my husband’s laboratory.” “All right…”

—

France. Paris.

After several Apparitions, the group found themselves near the Flamels’ house, where Perenelle herself led them to the entrance.

“But I doubt my husband could have kept his…” She didn’t finish, deeming it improper to use such a word in front of others. After making several passes with her hand in front of the door, she grasped the handle and opened it. “But please, be careful here.”

What appeared before their eyes was a completely ordinary room, no larger than thirty square meters, with a fireplace and a couple of cabinets along the walls that held various vessels with unknown contents alongside books.

Tables of various sizes were arranged throughout the room, piled with books, small bottles, and other equipment: a miniature cauldron, a stove, a distillation apparatus, flasks, and even mechanical clocks, which, to be honest, Severus hadn’t expected to see here.

But Perenelle entered the room, approached the fireplace, and took a handful of sand. She threw it into the fire, making it flare brightly, and right before their eyes the space around them began to expand.

Where a small cabinet one meter high had stood, another appeared, followed by rows of others at least three meters tall. The previously pleasant, warm atmosphere shifted to a gloomy, cold one, much like that of a medieval castle without windows, illuminated by torches and floating lights near the ceiling.

*As if I’d returned to Hogwarts…* Severus thought with a smirk, moving between the bookshelves as he followed Perenelle. After a few moments, they emerged into an open space that reminded him of a real Muggle laboratory, the kind he had sneaked into several times out of curiosity.

And Perenelle hadn’t been exaggerating about the mess; there was almost no free space on the floor, and along the way they constantly had to step over books, loose papers, parchment, and other objects.

The second part of the room, beyond the laboratory, was dedicated to materials, stored in the same wooden cabinets but protected by charms. It was more orderly than the other part, although papers, books, and jars of materials were still scattered about in places. But mainly papers, and only a few of those.

“So, how do you intend to find it, if it’s here at all?” Perenelle asked, turning to them and stopping near an iron table over ten meters long.

“At first I thought of using Accio, but most likely he’d cast charms on it to prevent that. However, there is another method… do you have his hair, or…?” But before Severus could finish, the requested object appeared in her hand, which didn’t surprise him much; he had expected as much.

He himself always kept a strand of hair from Regulus, Bella, Eileen, and now Nagini, so that he could find any of them at any moment if they went missing, or at least learn where they had last been.

Taking the gray hair from Perenelle’s hand, he silently spoke the incantation, and it fluttered from his fingers. Rounding the first cabinet of materials, it drifted onward, and the group followed.

But they didn’t have to follow it for long.

Not even a minute passed before it slipped between two cabinets intended for the remains of various magical creatures and disappeared.

So Perenelle had to step forward and open the passage to avoid activating the laboratory’s defenses.

After he removed the illusory barrier, the exhibits in the jars abruptly changed to rarer ones, or rather, very rare ones. A full jar of unicorn blood alone was worth an astronomical price, not to mention the pair of horns, the phoenix tears, and other materials no less valuable.

“And here I thought I was a very rich bastard…”

“All this was collected over six hundred years, so there’s nothing to be surprised about.” He smiled kindly at him, shifting his gaze to him, frozen before a glass door behind which stood many plaques with names, and behind them, steel vessels inscribed with runes.

“Here we’ve found what we were looking for…” Severus’s eyes fell on the plaque bearing the name Nicholas Flamel.