Snape had initially wanted to strike while the iron was hot and break the remaining two seals on the Resurrection Stone in one fell swoop.
However, the red light swirling across the Sorcerer's Stone had already dimmed to a near-imperceptible level.
This indicated that the Sorcerer's Stone could no longer provide him with any more energy.
He had no choice but to let the matter drop.
Ultimately, the Sorcerer's Stone was merely a backup alternative. If he hadn't been unable to get his hands on the Elder Wand in Dumbledore's possession, Snape would never have settled for this second-best option.
Still, being able to break the first seal left him well satisfied.
Snape retrieved the Resurrection Stone, but he did not take the Sorcerer's Stone along with it.
Returning the now-lackluster Sorcerer's Stone to Dumbledore in this state was absolutely out of the question.
The excuse he had used to borrow the Sorcerer's Stone from Dumbledore was to attempt brewing the Elixir of Life, claiming it would significantly aid his research in Potions.
But brewing the Elixir of Life shouldn't consume this much magical power. After all, Nicolas Flamel had been brewing the elixir for over six hundred years without ever completely draining the Stone's magical energy.
Of course, this was partly because the Sorcerer's Stone could automatically absorb ambient magical energy from the air.
Snape picked up the leftover Hydra blood he had cast aside in the corner earlier and began drawing an energy-gathering magic circle designed to help the Sorcerer's Stone recover its magic more rapidly.
Leaving the slowly recharging Sorcerer's Stone in the residence, Snape slipped out of Spinner's End under the cover of the deep night.
Protected by the Fidelius Charm, he wasn't at all worried about the Sorcerer's Stone being stolen while left there.
Godric's Hollow.
The faint crack of Apparition echoed through a silent, deserted street in the village.
Snape stood quietly in the alleyway. Above him hung a deep blue canopy, the stars already twinkling with a faint light.
A rare glimmer of reminiscence surfaced within his usually dark, unreadable eyes.
How long had it been since he last set foot here?
The last time he came to this place traced back to the day of Lily's funeral.
And before that, it was the night everything fell apart.
The collapsed house...
The cold corpse...
The crying baby...
Snape's thoughts seemed to drift through time and space, returning to that horrific night when Lily was murdered.
His wand appeared in his hand before he even realized it. Subconsciously, Snape gave it a gentle flick, and a silver doe leaped from the tip, illuminating the pitch-black alleyway.
Snape stared at the doe Patronus, his eyes welling with tears.
"Lily... it has been so long..."
Lightly brushing away the tears from the corners of his eyes, Snape's blurred vision cleared once more.
Dispelling the Patronus Charm, he walked forward slowly, making his way to the square at the center of the village.
In the middle of the square stood a monument resembling a war memorial. As Snape approached, it shifted into a statue of three people: a man with untidy hair and glasses, a beautiful and kind-looking woman with long hair, and a baby boy cradled in his mother's arms.
Snape's gaze lingered on Lily's likeness for a long time before he finally forced his feet to move again, heading toward the graveyard behind the church.
Rows of tombstones stood solemn and still. Snape quickly located his target—an incredibly ancient, badly weathered headstone.
The glow of a Lumos charm lit up the tip of his wand. Guided by the faint light, Snape slowly read the name etched into the stone.
"Ignotus... found you."
Beneath the barely legible name was the mark of the Deathly Hallows.
Ignotus Peverell was the youngest of the three brothers who had originally claimed the Deathly Hallows, and the first master of the Invisibility Cloak.
With a swift wave of his wand, the tombstone slid aside smoothly, exposing the earth beneath.
Then the soil parted, and a small wisp of bone dust was drawn up by magic, trickling into a small vial in Snape's hand.
Staring closely at the vial of ashes, the corner of Snape's mouth twitched into a faint smile, though it vanished just as quickly.
Even though he desperately wanted to head to Knockturn Alley right now to snatch some unlucky soul for an experiment, he had already been out for too long tonight. He needed to get back to Hogwarts soon.
The earth silently churned back into place, restoring everything to exactly how it had been, and Snape vanished from Godric's Hollow.
Campus life at Hogwarts marched on.
After completing their first automated alchemy production line, the four "Father-Grievers" spent considerably less time and energy on the project.
Designing the remaining production lines would be easy, as they only required minor modifications based on this initial blueprint.
Furthermore, they didn't need to stress over the actual manufacturing; the alchemists under Alfred would handle all the heavy lifting.
The only catch was that Dumbledore had to raise the budget for this military procurement plan from eight thousand Galleons to twelve thousand Galleons.
For Dumbledore—who spent his days embezzling, cutting corners, and misappropriating public funds to subsidize the Order of the Phoenix—such an amount was absolute pocket change.
Instead, another matter entirely commanded the Father-Grievers' attention.
A new Quidditch season was about to kick off.
As a newly risen powerhouse that had utterly dominated the pitch for two consecutive years, the Hufflepuff team needed to hold a fresh round of tryouts to fill the vacancies left by graduating members.
Currently, the team had only five official players remaining.
Cedric, acting as captain, filled the most vital position on the team: Seeker.
Kyle served as the vice-captain. Rather than calling him a Beater, it would be far more accurate to describe him as an aerial fighter jet.
With the way Bludgers flew whenever he struck them, not a single player on any opposing team could manage to stay safely on their broom during a match.
The team's other Beater, along with their former Keeper and captain, Jack, had graduated this past June.
Stripping away their two core pillars, Cedric and Kyle, left the team with just three Chasers.
These were Zacharias Smith, Uriah Cadwallader, and Shabi Jefferson.
These three had anywhere from two to four years left before graduation, meaning they could hold down the Chaser slots for a good while longer.
What Kyle and the others needed to do now was scout out a few qualified players from the reserves to fill the open Beater and Keeper spots.
Granted, whether they filled the Beater vacancy didn't really matter—Kyle practically carried the entire role by himself anyway, while the other Beater position was traditionally occupied by someone who stayed permanently invisible.
Still, training newcomers was a necessity.
What if Hufflepuff lucked out and produced another prodigy who managed to inherit Kyle's Bludger-striking technique—a skill adapted straight from shurikenjutsu?
If that happened, Hufflepuff could continue to rule the pitch indefinitely.
Once those vacancies were plugged, their next step would be to recruit a new batch of lower-year students to act as the next wave of substitutes.
When Kyle, Cedric, and the three Chasers eventually graduated, the new starting lineup would be drawn directly from these reserves.
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