Chapter 202. The Magical Menagerie. Part 2. The Underground.
Both wizards signed the contracts and followed the old man down into the basement through a trapdoor behind the counter. The basement contained a few cages housing owls, bats, and snakes, along with various animal feed, potion vials, and even a cauldron.
The old wizard didn't stop there. He moved toward a large cage containing a strange creature: a huge horned blue serpent, nearly five meters long, which bared its fangs and hissed the moment it noticed him approaching.
He ignored it completely. He pointed his wand at the lock, murmured a few words, and a click echoed through the room, accompanied by a red flash. The cage slowly began to open. The serpent continued to hiss without pause until, a few seconds later, it simply vanished, and a second stone staircase appeared in its place, descending further down.
Severus was not surprised. He'd recognized from the start that the cage's occupant was an illusion, and a very good one at that. The man beside him, by contrast, was visibly astonished, though he recovered quickly as they followed the silent shop owner down.
The staircase leading to the underground stockroom was far longer than the previous one. A full minute passed before they emerged into an open space, or what passed for one: a room packed wall-to-wall with cages of every size, housing not ordinary pets but creatures far more dangerous.
The Zouwu alone was something to behold: a monster the size of an elephant, terrifying at first glance, vaguely resembling a cat, with a red mane, unnaturally long limbs tipped with formidable claws, four upward-curving fangs, and a bushy tail twice the size of its body. Then there was the Yeti: a large, humanoid creature resembling a great gorilla covered in white fur, with devastating ice magic capable of freezing a person solid in seconds. Like the other inhabitants of this prison, both were staring murderously at the visitors and growling.
The old man ignored them entirely and turned to the two wizards. He summoned his most welcoming smile and focused his attention on the unmasked guest.
"If my memory serves, yesterday you were asking about a Phoenix and a Qilin?"
"Yes. And a dragon egg."
"On that last point, I'm afraid I don't have any. Each egg is accounted for, and a missing one would immediately draw unwanted attention. But I do have a contact who could help with that. The price, however..."
"Money is not a concern."
"Then I'm confident you'll be able to reach an arrangement." A small scroll appeared in his hand, which he extended to Severus under the watchful gaze of the third visitor.
"Thank you." Severus accepted it with a slight nod, returned the same smile, tucked it into his coin purse, and produced a small pouch containing five hundred Qian, a symbolic sum equivalent to seven hundred and twenty-two Galleons. This reflected the fact that Qian were slightly more valuable than Galleons.
And thank you, young man. It's always a pleasure doing business with intelligent people." He slipped the "gift" under his robe and turned, moving deeper into the underground space. "As I mentioned, you're in luck today. Just yesterday we managed to catch three Qilin calves, though their mother, unfortunately, didn't survive. She simply wouldn't give up. We had to kill her. Think of the money that cost us." He gave a small sniff, his voice tinged with sorrow.
Severus made no comment, as though none of it particularly concerned him. He simply continued in silence, observing the magical creatures around him. There was a considerable difference between reading about them in books and seeing them through Hagrid's memories, and witnessing them in person.
Another minute brought them to a small iron cage in which three tiny creatures huddled together. They looked exactly like Muggle deer fawns, except that their backs and hindquarters were covered in bright bronze scales. The moment they saw the kindly old man, they began to tremble, and fear danced in their eyes.
"Five thousand Qian each." He turned to the buyer and named the price, gesturing toward the calves.
"Hm. Very well." Severus studied them with interest and stepped closer to the cage. "I'll take them," he added softly, crouching down to run scanning charms over the calves.
"Which one, specifically?" The old man's grin widened with anticipation.
"All of them." A large bag of gold landed on the floor. The shop owner stared at the young man in stunned silence, and the second buyer was just as stunned.
Severus paid neither of them much attention. He was absorbed in examining the core structures of the three Qilin. Beyond the trace of dragon blood running through them, which was easily apparent from their scales, their cores were completely white, which indicated several things at once. First, they could be "recolored," trained in any elemental magic. Second, they had a natural affinity for Light magic in its broadest sense, from true Divination to manipulation of souls. They were astonishing creatures, and the fact that magic allowed such beings to be killed genuinely puzzled even Severus.
The calves shrank back further under his gaze, but one of them got to its feet and crept cautiously toward the bars, its clouded eyes fixed on the wizard, until it was standing directly before them.
Severus was mildly surprised by that reaction, but when he noticed the strange glow in the calf's eyes, he understood immediately what was happening. Without drawing attention to himself, he made a small circular motion with his finger. The Qilin's gaze cleared at once, yet the creature remained still and simply looked at him, making no further move.
The other two wizards were still occupied with the bag of gold and barely noticed the calf's behavior. A few seconds later, the small creature gave a soft shudder and looked at Severus again. The trembling was gone and its gaze was clear and steady. But when it saw him press a finger to his lips, it tilted its head to one side in genuine puzzlement.
Severus had to transmit an image of what he needed it to do directly into its mind. The calf obeyed, turned around, and returned to the others. Severus rose to his feet, ran a finger along the lock, and stripped away the barrier and all other securing charms.
That, finally, drew both wizards' attention.
"I'll take them now." He opened the cage. A small box appeared in his hand, and before the others' eyes, all three Qilin were drawn inside. The box snapped shut.
"Ah. Yes." The old man gave a slightly dazed nod, tucking the bag of gold into his own spatial artifact, quietly regretting that he had quoted such a low price. There was no undoing it now. And if this "boy" could casually produce that much Qian, the people backing him were formidable. Best not to let greed create unnecessary trouble. Still, he needed to squeeze as much gold as he could from this walking moneybag. What a shame there was only one phoenix.
"Shall we move on?"
"Yes."
The phoenix's cage sat in another corner of the room. They reached it quickly enough. There was nothing particularly wondrous about it. A phoenix was a phoenix. This bird was a few centimeters smaller than Dumbledore's, and its coloring was nearly identical.
But there was one difference: the look it gave them. Perched on a small swing, it gazed down at the three wizards with undisguised contempt.
Severus didn't care in the slightest. What he needed from the bird was feathers, blood, and saliva. He had no intention of killing it. That would simply be wasteful. Having a consistent supply without needing to scour Diagon Alley for ingredients was entirely practical, so the bird's peculiar temperament was of no concern.
He paid the stated six thousand Qian, blocked its magic as a precaution, and deposited it into the box. He trusted the wolves readily enough, but the Qilin was another matter. There was no telling what this peculiar creature might decide to do.
With that business concluded, Severus decided not to leave immediately. He spent a few more minutes walking through the rest of the menagerie. There was no telling whether the place would still exist tomorrow.
The old man was visibly pleased and chose not to hover. He turned his attention to the second buyer, who was looking for a Demiguise, a white, shaggy, ape-like creature capable of turning invisible when threatened and glimpsing a few seconds into the future, which made capturing one a genuine ordeal.
The walk through the remaining cages took another ten minutes. Severus inspected them all, but he found nothing worth adding to his collection. Every other creature there had a limited ceiling. The highest any of them could realistically reach would be comparable to the Three Kings of the Magical Jungle, and even that would require pouring enormous resources into them, which would be inefficient and pointless.
There was one marginal exception: the enormous cat-monster. With enough investment, it might be raised to the level of a King of Chimeras, but even at that strength it would contribute nothing to the coming battle. A single lesser demon would tear it apart in seconds. So Severus didn't give the purchase a second thought. Taming a creature that wild would have been a headache in its own right.
He turned away from the massive cage where the cat, bound in chains, was still growling at him, and looked upward. He could sense dozens of magical signatures entering the shop above.
The inspection had already begun. Time to go. He looked back at the monster one last time, smiled softly at it, and touched the cage, dissolving every charm placed on it. The beast sensed it. Something like confusion flickered in its gaze, and then it heard a voice in its head. "With your ability to Apparate, you should be able to get your companions out of here. And I know you understand human speech. I'd recommend moving quickly. More people are coming soon to put your captor in a cage of his own, and he will eventually get out of it. So kill him first, and do it fast. Then leave this place." In response, the monster bared its teeth with bloodthirsty intent, and cracks ran through the shackles on its neck, limbs, and tail. "Don't touch the second man. The people moving toward you want to help as well. That's all I have to say. Good luck."
The wizard who had been standing in front of the Zouwu's cage was gone. The chains shattered, and a moment later, so did the cage. A furious roar tore through the underground space:
"ROAAAAAR!"
Dozens of others answered, and the cages began opening one after another, releasing their inhabitants.
"What in the—?! Get back in your cages, all of you!" the old man shouted furiously, wand drawn, but even a fool would have heard the panic beneath his fury as every magical creature in the room turned their crimson eyes on him, closing in from all sides. Merlin's beard, I need to get out of here, now. The moment he tried to Disapparate, he felt a sharp pain at the back of his skull. His wand flew from his hand and was crushed beneath a massive hoof. He looked up from the floor. A blast of hot air rushed from the nostrils of a large red bull, nearly two meters tall, with three long horns curving from its head, striking him in the face.
A moment later, a scream tore through the underground, raw, desperate, full of pain and terror.
"NOOOOO!"
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