Good or bad, does it matter?

Half an hour later, having checked Nagini again, Severus noticed that there was almost nothing left of the fruit's peel and, taking out a gold pocket watch with the symbols of the Houses as well as a gold bottle with "liquid luck," he looked confidently into the eyes of the excited snake and nodded firmly.

 "In a minute," Severus uncorked the bottle, poured the contents into Nagini's mouth and gently ran his palm over her face, "Don't worry, everything will work out," after taking the potion, the snake's nervousness began to disappear.

"Yes !" she hissed resolutely, closing her eyes and trying to feel that fruit in her body.

And finally, when the time had almost passed, the shell covering the fruit dissolved and huge streams of magic burst out of it, instantly overwhelming every part of her body, which somewhat surprised Severus, since earlier the effect was much weaker and not so sharp, so the wizard had to completely concentrate on this strange phenomenon.

Gradually, Snape began to notice how the snake slowly began to change from the inside, this was especially noticeable by the poisonous sac in the fang area, the magic in which became more and more, and the size increased, but besides this, he also felt the magic that slowly began to concentrate on the skin , which could not but please Severus, because the path that evolution took was very good, reminiscent of the Basilisk.

And when the Prince opened his eyes, he could watch how her scales gradually became coarser, and the size of the snake itself, almost imperceptibly to the eyes, increased, but still one thing upset him, she could not adopt the Basilisk's ability to petrify, but it was not so bad, because the reptile managed to create the basis by concentrating on speed, poison and protection, which was also very good. 

The whole evolution lasted about half an hour, during which its size increased from ten to fifteen metres, and the color became even brighter, but what was most noticeable after the size were the scales, which protruded slightly and had a kind of steely sheen, but at the same time between there was not the slightest gap through which even the thinnest needle could not slip through. 

And when she finally opened her eyes, she hissed joyfully and excitedly, as if a child had received the most desired toy, began to examine her body.

"Congratulations, now you are almost equal in strength to the Basilisk, and in size, even a few centimetres larger than him."

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" In an instant, Nagini shrank to her usual size and rushed towards him, she quickly crawled over his body and wrapped herself around his neck, and then began to affectionately rub against the Wizard's cheek.

 "Calm down," the Wizard said with a gentle smile, stroking her finger on the top of her head, "You're doing great."

"Yes! I did as you said!"

"Mmm?"

"You said that it would be nice to concentrate on poison and scales, and when this strange magic overwhelmed my body, it was as if I could control it and direct it where needed," Nagaina quickly stammered with a twinkle in her eyes, which again surprised the wizard. 

"That's how... it's strange, when I asked the Black Hound, she told me that at that moment she simply lost consciousness... hmm..." Severus muttered thoughtfully, stroking his chin, trying to understand how it happened, because the she-wolf definitely wasn't lying to him.

"Maybe I'm special?"

"Most likely it is so," the Wizard nodded softly, stroking her again, 'Perhaps in this situation the fact that she used to be a human and thanks to her mind, she could control this whole process played an important role...? It's worth studying this later,' breaking out of his thoughts, he headed to the table, "Okay, let's check your condition first, I need to make sure everything went well, I'll also need a little of your poison to find out how much stronger it has become."

 "Otherwise you'll bite me one day and I'll die," Severus added with a grin, which confused the snake a little. 

And sitting down at the table, the reptile crawled off it and the wizard began to analyze the changes in his companion…

.

.

.

Black Star Organization. "Steel" department.

The next two days turned out to be quite calm, which was very unnatural for Magical Britain, in which almost every day there were small skirmishes between the Death Eaters and the Ministry, as well as the death of Muggle-born wizards, and this silence a little frightened ordinary wizards, who simply did not know what to expect and even the aristocrats watching all this almost from the "first rows" did not understand what was happening.

 And in a small three-story house in London, not far from the entrance to Diagon Alley, almost under the noses of both opposing groups and all the wizards of Britain, there was a temporary base of the Black Star, where at the moment, on the top floor of a three-story building, in a small room furnished very modestly and without any frills, five wizards sat at a round table and if Severus had seen them, he would have recognized each one almost immediately, because they were all in Nestor's memory. 

The gloomy man sitting at the head of the table, with green hair, looking about forty years old, was the leader of the Steel branch - Witold Alegria, and the rest were heads of groups, like Nestor.

 At that second, in a windowless room, illuminated only by a small light bulb, there was deathly silence, not one of the four wizards dared to look into the eyes of their leader. 

"So you're saying that he betrayed us and went over to that boy's side?" he asked with irritation in his voice, from which the four captains, almost synchronously, shuddered."I see…" 

"He also told us…" the wizard with a black patch over his eye, swallowed, "..that we should leave if we want to survive…" 

"That's what he said?" he asked much more calmly, but with interest, remembering the cautious nature of his subordinate, who in life would not make an enemy out of the Black Star, because how could he not know how vindictive their organisation is and how it treats traitors? and this could only mean one thing, that behind the boy there was someone much worse, since he went over to the other side so openly and without fear.

"Y-yes." 

"Did he say anything else?" In response, the captain shook his head negatively, "Traces of the others?" 

"We can't track them using tags, most likely they are dead," said another, with a small beard, dejectedly.

 "I see, don't touch him for now, apparently the rumors about the powerful Wizard behind him were not a lie, Spencer," Witold's gaze darted towards the gloomy-looking man, whose clothes completely matched him and were only in dark colors.

"The group will collect information, I authorize you to act rudely."

"Yes, Leader," he answered in a monotonous voice, and the next moment his body was swallowed up by a dark aura, and as soon as it dissipated, the wizard had already disappeared. 

"What about implementation?" He looked at the other captain, with a shiny bald head and glasses.

" Everything is going great, they don't even realize, although…" 

"What is it?"

"Tomorrow there will be another recruitment into the ranks of the Aurors, in which we do not yet have people and the office of the Department of Magical Law and Order, but this worries me, it's all too suspicious, even though our people didn't notice anything, but…" taking off his round glasses, gloomily shaking his head, he took out a handkerchief and began nervously wiping the lenses, "... only recently our people disappeared and then suddenly this... Although I have no evidence, I still suggest sending only a small part of people or ignoring this recruitment altogether."

 "Do as you see fit, I'm used to trusting your judgement," although his subordinate was too cautious at times, quite often, it was this trait of his that helped them avoid traps.

"Thank you, leader, then let ten people go, whose aura size is no more than twenty centimetres, and if it turns out to be a trap, then their loss will not greatly affect the overall combat strength." 

"Okay," and finally, his gaze fell on the latter, who looked the youngest in appearance, and green hair, as well as facial features, were very reminiscent of Witold and immediately made it clear that he was someone close to the leader, "What about the Eaters?"

 "Completely closed, there is no way to plant a spy on them," he answered gloomily, which did not greatly surprise the wizard, because Voldemort, unlike the Ministry, turned out to be too cautious, which was unexpected, because they considered him the easiest target. "I see, take care of Nestor's tasks and continue suppressing the gangs, I'll take care of them myself." 

"Yes, bro... I mean, Leader," he corrected guiltily, but he did not pay much attention to this reservation.

 "The meeting is over for today, everyone is free," he announced, getting up, and the others bowed silently and left the office, and Witold himself went to a small cabinet and took out a folder on which there were only two words: Severus Prince and an interested smile appeared on the man's face, "I can't wait to find out what kind of monster was able to frighten our Nestor so much that he even betrayed the organisation and went over to the other side…"