Good or bad, does it matter?

As soon as they entered the room, their eyes were immediately "hit" by a bright light from a large lamp hanging on the ceiling, which evenly illuminated every millimetre of space.

The size of the room was less than half of the large hall, there were tall bookcases along the walls, and in the centre there was a long, round table surrounded by sofas. And only one small section of the brick wall, right above the fireplace, was decorated with a portrait familiar to Severus, it was of one of the founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Rowena Ravenclaw, and she was not the only one, besides her, around the potrait it was dotted with framed photographs of children in school uniforms and with blue ties.

Although the Prince was interested in all these books, something else caught his attention: it was a wooden "altar" in the shape of an eagle to the right of the table, on which lay an open book, the size of which was almost five times larger than usual. 

And the book attracted him not by its size, but by the amount of magic emitted and the constant recharge from the "altar", which was a kind of battery that fueled all the spells in the room, he understood this from the flows of magic, which, like wires, were located along the walls and were connected to magical subjects.

 "An interesting thing..." smiling slightly, Severus took off his hood and headed towards the object that interested him, at the same time, Nagini did not take her suspicious gaze off the portrait of the woman.

"Severus, I don't like her... I feel the same magic as from the portrait of that old man... "At the mention of the latter, her voice trembled for a moment.

"So this is also a living portrait," he gently patted the not very surprised snake on the top of its head, but did not slow down.

"Meow...?" The kitten looked puzzled at the portrait of a woman who, having heard the wizard's words, blinked and stopped pretending.

"You really are a worthy student of the Slytherin house, " an irritated, female voice sounded, which Snape simply ignored and stood in front of the "altar," " 

"I'm talking to you, what should a student do when he sees the founder of his school?!"

"Show respect," Severus waved his hand sluggishly, studying the book with interest. 

"Hmm… so that's how it works..." he took it in his hand and ran his finger along the spine…

"Put it back immediately! Only students of my faculty have the right to touch it!"

"Runes," he said calmly, and the next moment, the book flared up and text began to appear on the empty pages, starting with the most basic level of runology, and gradually turning them over, the complexity of the subject grew and the runes became more and more complex, "So we need to clarify…"

Seeing how easily and quickly he figured out her artefact, the lady simply couldn't find the words to comment on it.

 "Not bad, very good," Severus nodded softly, putting the book back. 

He took the Grimoire out of his wallet, and at the sight of it, Rowena's gaze appeared bewildered.

"What are you... " but before she had time to finish, he put it back, which confused her a little. 

"It's not "not bad", to collect so much knowledge in a couple of centuries, you really deserve the title of "the smartest witch in history" but…" talking with Tom, a fragment of whose soul, Severus stuffed into the artifact, he frowned, because he could not find anything in this colossal amount of information about the last ingredient for Nagini's potion, but there was still something about the other two, "... there is no information about "Chronite" here," he drawled with a wry smile, and then, turning his gaze to the perplexed portrait, he shook his head.

"It's unlikely, I'll still have to go to France."

"It's okay, I'll wait…" Nagini hissed warmly, hearing the name of the plant and realizing what Severus was looking for first and foremost as soon as he received this large book, and although she didn't understand how it worked, she was very pleased that he thought of her first.

"What kind of artefact was that?" an impatient voice sounded from the portrait, instantly destroying the entire atmosphere. 

And Snape's gaze stopped on the woman again. "My artefact, something like yours, only it doesn't require such a large amount of magic to work," he answered calmly, looking around at the other books in this small library, "Quite rare specimens, and the rest, as I understand it, you kept in this artefact?"

"Hm! At least first know how to address your elders," Rowena looked at him with disdain, after all, her dislike for Slytherin and the students of this house was transmitted even to the portrait. 

"Why such hostility towards me? I don't think I insulted you or desecrated your grave yet, although I really wanted to after everything I had to go through to get here," he said, squinting and with a cold voice.

" She was alone for so many centuries, maybe she's just gone crazy? Let her stay here alone," Nagini looked with irritation at the portrait that dared to talk to Severus so brazenly when he hadn't said a single rude word to her, after all, Nagini really didn't like people who judge others by some criteria, in this case: that all Slytherin students are real villains who simply can't be trusted, because Regulus, whom she doesn't like because he brings HER Severus together with that bitch, she considers a completely good person, albeit with a little aristocratic manners.

"I think you're right, let her stay here and continue to entertain herself here alone," looking indifferently at the portrait of the now angry founder, they headed towards the exit, 

"I hope we won't have to meet again, and I doubt that anyone else will ever come here."

"Wait! What do you mean?! Do you know why no one has come here in the last nine hundred years?! Answer! Immediately!"

"~ Meow?" The kitten looking at the picture, already tired of her squeals, looked at Severus with a silent question, releasing his claws.

"No need, let's go."

"~ Meow." nodding and finally casting a contemptuous glance at the indignant lady, the kitten followed Snape.

"Wait, I said! First, answer my question!" but seeing that he did not react to her screams at all, she became even more angry, but at the same time, a seed of fear slowly began to sprout: that again, she would have to stay here alone for another thousand years.

Although the living portraits were only echoes of the former personality, they also knew how to feel and time passed for them same as that for ordinary people, and therefore these centuries turned out to be a real hell for her, but even for time it was difficult to correct the arrogant character of the strongest and smartest witch of her time, as well as her dislike for Salazar's students, but ...

"Stop! I am the Founder of this school! You must obey me!"

"You are only an imprint of the personality of a witch who once lived, nothing more, I hope we will not see each other again," stopping in front of the door without a handle, he froze for a few seconds, and then grinning, touched the eagle's beak and the next moment a click sounded, and it slowly began to open.

"I... I... ask you to stop…" swallowing her pride, Ravenclaw hissed quietly. 

"Did you hear anything?" Snape looked around in surprise, and then at the snake, who shook her head in response, "I probably imagined it too, let's go, tomorrow morning I still have classes... need to get some sleep, classes start at twelve anyway," hearing this, Rowena almost started spitting poison, but still held back.

"P... please…" she said with gnashing of teeth, clenching her fists until they were white, never before had SHE had to humiliate herself so much, and that in front of a student from that old snake's faculty. 

"That's better, but that's not all, you were rude to me for no reason and I demand compensation, only after that will I be ready to listen to you," turning to her and putting his hands behind his back, he measured her with an indifferent look, from which the lady, almost gasping for air from indignation, very much regretted that she did not have a body to punish this arrogant "boy".

"What do you want?"

"And what do you have?" Her eyes twitched, but she still held back and did not say what she thought about him...

__________

 And after a few minutes, Severus was studying the black earring he had received from the disgruntled witch with interest.

 "Not bad, I accept your apologies," putting it in his wallet, he sat down on the sofa, on the opposite side of the fireplace and folded his hands in front of his face, "I'm listening, what did you want to ask?" 

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, the woman tried to contain her anger and asked "Why has no one come here in all these centuries?"

"Your 'test' turned out to be impossible. I got here because I searched almost everywhere. One type of rune which indicated the location of this place and how to open it, in general, the most important part that makes this set of signs a text, was missing."

"This… this is impossible! I left many books of Urukian writing and runes."

"I, the current and previous headmasters personally did not find anything, and since no one had come here before, neither did the previous ones," he shrugged indifferently, leaving the founder with a shocked face to think over everything he had said.

"But there were students who came here…"

"Since they did not say anything, then someone may have deliberately erased all traces of this "Urukansky" of yours and erased them, or maybe killed them, who knows…" he shrugged, calmly watching the reaction of the lady, who was shocked by his words, "How did you know it?"

{A/N: 'It' here is the language}

"I…" but she suddenly fell silent, and then directed her previously absentminded gaze at Severus, "You... you know it! Where from?"

"I found the book on the shelf of a Muggle shop," the Prince waved his hand languidly, "How did you know it? As I understand it, you were translating it?"

"I... I received it from my good friends…"

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