Good or bad, does it matter?

The basement greeted Severus with deathly silence and almost immediately several dozen pairs of eyes rushed in his direction, belonging to the exhausted wizards from the Black Star, who were caught by him while spying on the house, as well as during several attempts to enter his territory.

Compared to two weeks earlier, the men lost a lot of weight and acquired an even more sickly pale complexion, and in their eyes there was no longer that fight and perseverance, because they realised during this month that no one was going to rescue them, or perhaps the squad leader already considers the entire squad dead.

But among them there was still one person who, even after so much time, met his "overseer" with unwavering eyes, and it was he who was the very ray of light that did not allow the others to give up and endure these unbearable living conditions. 

This wizard, of course, was the leader of the group, sitting in the farthest and darkest corner of the cell, who only silently watched Snape's actions.

Severus himself did not pay much attention to them, although he still had to recognize and praise these people for their tenacity, but at the same time, the Prince wanted even more to lure them to his side, such wizards were rare even in his world. 

'I still have nowhere to rush…' he thought, grinning, looking straight into a pair of cold, dark eyes, and then the Slytherin continued on his way. 

The wizard was not very worried about their lives, because he ordered a restoration potion to be added to the food, which completely eliminated the risk of death from exhaustion, and Gorbi constantly made sure that they did not die, that's the only reason they were still alive. 

Ignoring the plea in the eyes of the others, Severus walked past the cages and approached the door located at the other end of the room and as soon as he opened it... - 

"WELL, FINALLY YOU DECREED TO COME AND VISIT ME, YOU DAMN ARISTOCRATIC SMARTASS! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO I AM?! YES MY BROTHER WILL NOT LEAVE A PLACE NOT COVERED WITH YOUR BLOOD AS SOON AS HE FINDS OUT THAT I AM MISSING! LET ME GO IMMEDIATELY AND ON YOUR KNEES ASK FOR FORGIVENESS, AND ONLY IN THIS CASE, I WILL NOT TURN YOUR IMPORTANT LIFE INTO HELL! YES I…" but the next moment the mouth of the man chained to the wall simply evaporated and an indistinct but furious mooing began to be heard throughout the room and a pair of eyes glared at the figure of Severus standing in the door, burning with incomparable hatred and his hatred was well justified, because the man was missing one arm up to the elbow, and from the blood "decorating" his sleeveless jacket one could easily understand that he had lost it, right here. 

"And what kind of imbecile sends such idiots to negotiate?" Sighing tiredly, Severus shook his head, turning his gaze to a group of wizards standing in a cage and looking at the floor with some doom. "Mr., to make it more convenient for you to interrogate him, G-gorby, I chained him separately..." 

"You did the right thing, well done," Snape patted the excited house-elf on the head with a smile and walked up to the man, on whose face, a long scar was stretched from his forehead, through his eye to his chin.

"Listen, no one told you that your character, a priori, does not correspond to your appearance, and why did you break into the house, I really wasn't there? Although... Why am I even asking?" placing his palm on the head of the "unknown" who tried to dodge, a magical wave invisible to the man's eyes burst out of Snape's hand and the man lost consciousness, and then Severus began to study the memories of the unlucky "negotiator" from the "Black Star"....

---

And half an hour later, having finally finished with this matter, Severus left the room, while pondering the information received, but he knew one thing for sure, Witold sent this "screamer" on purpose, because who in their right mind would send such a person to negotiations and that he perhaps didn't know about Laurus's real nature.

 And he didn't lie about his brother, there really is such a thing, the deputy head of the "Almaz" department, but it's unlikely that he will drop all his business and fly to save him, because they are not on the best terms, although he is still highly valued in the "Gold" department "And it was through his fault that four wolves died, and the fifth, at the cost of his life, tore off his hand.

So his skills were even more than decent. 

The wizard did not linger in the basement and returned to the living room, out of the corner of his eye he looked at the kitten, contentedly licking his paw, near which there were three empty plates, and fell on the sofa.

 "Not a moment of peace, damn... but I didn't want to interfere in this "war", and now I don't even have a choice, and I doubt that they would leave me alone, apparently, I still have to deal with them..." - from Laurus's memories he learned that Witold had recently become actively interested in the Blacks and others with whom he was in contact and it didn't take a brain to understand what he intended to do if these negotiations were unsuccessful.

"Darty," taking out a parchment and a pen with ink, Severus, using magic, quickly sketched out a letter with an offer to ransom this idiot, as well as agreement to negotiate. 

Allegria was just a simple subordinate and even if he kills him, it will not solve the problems, but will only aggravate them.

 And before getting rid of this organisation, we first had to find out who the real leader is, and only then take similar, radical steps. 

Although, nevertheless, Severus would not be averse to resolving everything peacefully, because basically, only they suffered, and he himself, with the exception of five wolves, did not suffer any more losses, and they repaid them in full.

 Of course, Severus was not a fool and understood why they started all this in the first place and that a peaceful resolution of the conflict could not be achieved if he did not give recipes, so they would have to use the most primitive measures to combat such individuals - force. 

A few seconds later, an owl purchased before the start of the school year flew into the window and landed on the armrest. 

"Did you call, sir?" a pleasant, feminine voice sounded from this bird, which made the kitten look at her in surprise, because he had seen owls in the forest more than once, but this was the first time he had observed the speaker. 

"Send this letter to this address," the wizard folded the parchment and wrote it on it from Laurus' memory.

 "Yes," she nodded, and then turning to the window, exclaimed, "Dean!" and the next moment another owl flew into the room with a special attachment on its leg for writing.

And taking the parchment from the Snape's hand,She put it on the other and patted her on the back, she flew away, and Snape, who was watching this, twitched his eye twice. 

"I thought that you would fly on your own…" 

"Why, when there are subordinates who don't need anything other than food and a roof over their heads?" the magical creature looked at him with sincere amazement, "And I can continue to rest and read books," the wizard's first eye was joined by the second, and the Slytherin could not say anything against it, because her words sounded reasonable. 

"Only a week ago she ate these fruits, and already such progress..." 

"Okay, do what you want, but I will ask you to ensure that the letters are delivered on time, if anything happens."

 "Yes, Master," the owl nodded confidently, and then asked with a bit of embarrassment, "Can I visit your library, otherwise my books are already out of stock...?" 

"Hm? I don't see anything bad in this, I'll tell Gorby to let you through," Severus said with a slight smile, because he had nothing against it if another smart "person" appeared in the house.

"Thank you, Master" the feathered creature joyfully flew up to him and began to rub its head against his cheek. - 

"Okay, okay, that's enough, I realised that you're happy, I still have a lot to do."

 "Yes, Master, have a good night," the owl wished with excitement in her voice, and then quickly flew out of the room, fearing that the owner might change his mind.

 After watching the bird with a mocking glance, he turned his gaze to the clock, and then, smearing his palm across the space, a transparent screen appeared before his eyes, on which, apart from the sound reminiscent of a strong blow of wind, nothing could be seen.

 "Well, let's see, maybe I'll see something interesting..."

" ~ Meow?" Jumping from the table to the sofa, the kitten looked in bewilderment at the black screen, tilting his head in "Soon we'll watch a very interesting film," the wizard explained with a wide yawn, in a slightly sleepy voice, imperceptibly reaching out to the baby, who sharply turned his gaze to him and squinted his eyes in displeasure , causing an embarrassed smile on the wizard's face, "Well, a little bit…"

 "~ Meow!" the kitten shook his head. 

"And for the fish?"

"...meow!" not giving in to temptation, the kid met his gaze with determination, completely ignoring the momentary hesitation. 

"Two, from the best chef in the country."

"... m... meow!"

" So no... what if there are three...?"

The "struggle" on the animal's face was especially fascinating to watch, and the way he constantly averted his eyes, wiped away his drool and shifted from paw to paw was very funny.

Severus even began to wonder what would win: pride or food?