Diagon Alley
It was the dead of night outside, and Severus, instead of going to bed like a normal person on his day off, sat staring thoughtfully at the woman standing before him.
"Clearly, nothing is clear," he said with almost philosophical weight. "But one thing I can say for certain: she understands who I am, and she has accepted that I took over her son's body without hating me for it. It is possible that our connection affected her, but that is not certain. The seal inside her body has not changed at all since I created it, which suggests that is unlikely, but the theory still cannot be dismissed." He sighed tiredly and rubbed his temples. "Or maybe, out of gratitude, she wants to follow me or see what I can achieve in her son's body. After all, even if the soul is different, the body once belonged to Severus. So the last option is most likely correct, but that is not certain either."
"Severus, what will you do with her?"
"Nothing. If she wants to watch over me, let her watch." He shrugged, meeting the phantom's cold eyes. Then he took out the pocket watch Godric had given him. "Get in. I configured it so you can see what is happening outside. And remember, do not leave it until I allow you. If anyone sees you near me, they will send me on a holiday to Azkaban immediately. Understand?"
Instead of answering, she nodded indifferently, turned into a shadow, and slipped inside. The watch snapped shut.
"If she develops enough, she might still be useful. And she does not feel any negative emotions toward me, so I do not need to worry about my life or Nagini's. I should not forget that she is under my complete control, and at any moment I can simply dispel her." Thinking that, he rose from the chair. He stretched, then held out his hand to the snake lying on the table, and she quickly crawled onto it. "Let us go to sleep. Tomorrow promises to be a very interesting day." He added this with an enigmatic smile. Nagini tilted her head, blinked in confusion, and he could not resist stroking her head because it looked far too cute.
"What is supposed to happen tomorrow that you are so interested in?"
"You will find out tomorrow morning, I think."
"Your riddles again," she snorted in annoyance as they went into the room. She slid off his hand and settled on the pillow.
And just as Severus had predicted, in the morning someone knocked on the shop door. By then they had been up for a while, had even managed to have a snack, and had put the table under stasis again.
When he opened up, he found three Aurors on the step, led by Captain Robinson, the same one who had interrogated him before.
"You again. What do you want from me now? We already agreed, and there are still about two weeks until payment. Or did you decide to bring my Galleons early? I would not be against it."
"No, we are here on other business," Robinson cut him off with an irritated look and handed him a sheet stamped with the seal of the Ministry of Magic. "Today, at two in the morning, eleven bodies were discovered in the house of the Prince family, members of the above-named family. Do you know anything about this?"
"No. I do not want anything to do with them at all. I do not think I need to explain why." Robinson only nodded because he truly disliked the person standing in front of him, especially after that incident, and he wanted to leave as quickly as possible.
"Not necessary. We studied your history." Then he opened his wallet, took out a large, thick folder, and handed that over too. "You, as the last remaining of the line, are entitled to all the property acquired by it. Are you ready to sign?"
"Give it here." Severus signed the first sheet and returned it to the Auror. "Is that all?"
Grimacing in displeasure but still nodding, Robinson glanced at the signature.
"Yes. Thank you for your cooperation. Have a good day, Mr. Snape."
"You too."
Then Severus simply slammed the door in their faces. Robinson's eye twitched. He spat on the threshold, turned to Apparate, tripped on his own spit, and cracked his head against the stone slab.
Behind the door, Severus only chuckled and went back to the table.
"What is in there?" Nagini asked impatiently. She had heard the whole conversation and already had a rough idea of what might be inside the folder.
"Let us see." He opened it and began flipping through the papers. "That house we visited recently, two shops in Diagon Alley and another in Knockturn, a plot of land in Bristol, and a nice one too, plus several shares in fairly large companies. And that is not even counting the bank account of almost two hundred thousand, which the previous head of the family froze. Apparently he sensed something was wrong, but I think that can be fixed. Not for the money, but for the artifacts and books that are there as well." He finished with a satisfied smile and closed the folder. "Soon we will move into our own house. Happy?"
"I hope not that one?"
"Exactly that one, but I will demolish it immediately. You know the phrase, 'My home is my castle'? I will make it a real fortress so no bastard can crawl into our place." When he saw her sigh wearily, he lifted an eyebrow. "Is something wrong?"
"No, everything is fine. Just, you will work yourself to death again. Severus, please take care of your health. You should not overwork yourself so much. It is one thing at Hogwarts, you have a year and a half left to study there, but at least here, please, take a little break."
Seeing the sadness on his companion's face, Severus gave a crooked smile and ran his hand gently over her smooth scales.
"I promised you I would not overwork myself these days, and I have Tobby and Nelly to help me, so calm down. And what makes you think I will do this alone?"
"You always do."
"Fair point, but I promised not to push myself too hard this weekend, so you should believe me."
"Like the past times?"
"That was not my fault. Those were circumstances. I am doing this so I can finish faster, and then we can spend more time together. So let us close this topic. I suggest we visit our possessions." Besides distracting Nagini, Severus himself wanted to see everything with his own eyes.
Just as they were about to leave the shop, an owl tapped at the window, and by the markings near its beak Severus immediately knew whose it was.
The letter itself held nothing special, just Malfoy's thanks for the gift and an invitation to visit next weekend, two days before classes started.
Severus did not refuse, and a few minutes later the owl flew back, very satisfied after snacking on fish that he and Nagini disliked.
After that they left the shop and went straight to the two Prince-owned stores. One was closed, and the second was rented out to a certain Miller. There was a small restaurant there, and the tenant paid good money, so Severus did not break the contract. He simply explained who the new owner was and which account the rent should go to now.
The Knockturn shop, as he expected, dealt in dark artifacts, basically a competitor to Borgin and Burkes. The tenant did not buy anything, only sold, but he paid three times more than the previous one. That was understandable because besides the premises, he had been receiving the protection of the Prince family.
Of course, when the wizard learned the family was finished, he was about to leave, but after a short conversation and an explanation of who was standing behind Severus, he was even pleased. Severus gave him the same order as Shafiq: if anyone wanted to sell the shop, he was to call Severus or Carner immediately. Severus doubted such fools would show up, but he still told him to do it just in case. What if they did?
As for the companies, one of them made furniture, working both for the magical world and the Muggle one. The Prince share was only five percent, but even that brought in thousands of Galleons each month. If you added all four companies together, it came out to roughly seven thousand a month, judging by the checkbook Severus had found in that manor. That was quite a lot, though of course it depended on the companies' profits, but it never dropped below six thousand.
If you added up all the family's income, it came out to nearly nine thousand a month. That spoke to the Princes' strong position, and the rumour about the family's fall with earnings like that was most likely just a rumour.
After that they visited Bristol too, where construction on a new manor was underway. The family had been investing a huge amount of Galleons into it because the materials were not ordinary but the best of their kind. Apparently they intended to move out of the old manor, though Severus could not understand why they had not just used Reparo to repair it. He did not try very hard to understand.
And by evening he decided it was time to visit his little green friends at the bank.