Good or bad, does it matter?

On the way to the dungeon, Severus thought over the information he had received and frowned more and more, because the fact that someone was so interested in the runes and language from his world, to such an extent that, in order to hide it, they killed at least two strong "Masters", already spoke volumes, not only about the importance of this issue, but also about the strength of the organisation behind it. 

Of course, in nine hundred years, it might have already been disbanded or even destroyed, but Snape doubted it, because the "Black Star" was about three hundred years old, and Hogwarts was almost a thousand, and in the world from which the wizard himself came, there were organisations hundreds of times older, so he would not be surprised if they still existed, but for example under a different name.

But the half-blood had an idea who might know something about this, but for now he was not going to rush to sort this out, because he had more important things to do, but if the Prince did run into them, he would definitely not let them go until he found out everything.

The reason why Severus decided to show Rowena the watch and sword, and also tell about Tom was "trust", because he doubted that the diadem and earring, which could help to absorb knowledge faster and better, were her only artefacts. 

Of course, Severus could try to do something similar himself, but he was not very good at such things.

Attacking and defensive ones were easy, just give him the materials, but those that required influencing the mind, it was a completely different matter, for Bella's bracelet he had to select runes and charms for a very long time, and also use the Ravenclaw developments in the diadem and other similar artefacts. 

And he had no doubt that she definitely had something else hidden in her bins, he just had to earn her trust, of course, no one had cancelled Legilimency, but it simply didn't work on living portraits*.

That's why he decided to go this more complicated way, and even if she understood what the Slytherin was up to, she would still have nothing to say.

 But he didn't plan to give up searching Hogwarts, because there was still one place he had to visit without fail, and that was the office, or maybe some room where Godric Gryffindor did his business and could leave some clues about the people who had hunted them.

 Of course, all the students knew that his office was the current headmaster's office, but he doubted it, it was all too simple. 

Although the founder of the "lions" house was not as smart as Ravenclaw, he was not deprived of intelligence, and in addition to battles, few knew that he was also a master of: transfiguration, runology and artifactory. 

And with this vast layer of knowledge, it should not have been a difficult task for him to create something like the rooms of Rowena, Helga and Salazar, because he was the very person who created most of the spells that make this castle function. 

And even in the world from which Severus came, he would have certainly achieved great success and could compare with most of the masters, although he was very far from the best, like the Prince himself. 

For this reason, as soon as they returned to the room, he gave the order to the house-elves to continue the search, but throughout the entire castle, and also attached Lucky to them, of course, after he promised to feed him six times a day.

 And Severus himself began to study everything that he could get from the book that lay on the wooden "altar", nevertheless, he was more interested in the history of this world, not the Muggle one, information about which was available, right up to the origin of the planet, but the magical one, because the book contained, albeit dry, data up to two thousand years BC...

***

 The next day, after classes and right up until the evening, having told Tom to remove all the "water" from the text, he was already studying only bare facts, without the opinion of some historians, which was also present. 

But Snape never received an answer to his questions, and they were quite "simple": "Where did magic come from?"; 

"Who was the first wizard?"; 

"How strong were the ancestors who lived thousands of years ago?"; and he was also interested in information about artefacts from his world and even about several of them, he found a mention in the book, but their location is unknown. 

But what was most interesting was that the owners of each of the artefacts were killed, and after that the thing disappeared.

Perhaps others would not pay much attention to this, because killing for a wand and magic items was commonplace, but for Severus, it looked very suspicious, and he also wanted to meet the leader of the "Black Star" even more, who for some reason was still alive and this raised many questions. 

Of course, those who did this could already be dead, but it could also be that these organisations cooperate or even one is subordinate to the other.

And the more he thought about it, the more his head began to hurt, because he himself created problems, climbing where a sane person who does not want these same problems, would not climb.

And Severus would not do this if it did not concern his world and the possibility of finding the core of the "Creator", with the help of which he had a huge chance of strengthening his own core, to the rank of "Great Archmage".

---

Already late at night, when he returned back to Rowena's library, he was met by a calm, but at the same time thoughtful look of a woman who had thought over a lot that day, managing to simultaneously: hate herself; understand that she could not do anything because of her blind faith and Salazar's bad reputation, which prevented her from thinking rationally; forgive, because nothing could be changed, in this situation they were both to blame, if Slytherin had not behaved like a "turkey" and explained everything normally, she would have thought about it, and Godric and Helga would have definitely understood everything, and she herself was to blame for not understanding that she was being manipulated, because everything was on the surface, and her mind and feelings seemed to specifically deny these thoughts, not allowing her to understand everything.

 But even after that, the feeling of guilt that she felt did not go away, and perhaps will never disappear and will forever haunt her. 

"I see you have thought about my offer?" Severus said, smiling slightly, walking up to the chair opposite her portrait and sitting down on it. 

A few seconds later, a kitten jumped onto the table, squinting at the woman, and then lay down in front of Severus, who quickly lowered his hand to his head and, not seeing any displeasure on the baby's face, began to stroke him with a contented expression, and Nagini watched this with a bit of envy. 

"~ Ahem! ~ Ahem!" Ravenclaw attracted attention, "I thought about your offer," the lady looked at them with displeasure, but now she could not say anything or punish him for this disrespect for an elder.

"~ Mrrrrr…"

"And what did you decide?" moving his hands to the kitten's cheeks, with all "seriousness", he asked, from which the eye of the founder of the school twitched. 

"I realised that you showed me the sword and the watch on purpose," in response, Severus nodded silently, "Regarding the diadem, I do not hold a grudge against you, even if you simply destroyed it ... it brought me too much grief …" for a moment, a shadow of sadness passed over her face, but Rowena quickly pulled herself together, "I trust Godric as much as I would trust myself, he was the only person I deeply respected, because he combined both wildness and intelligence, and kindness, which was a huge rarity at that time, but I'll tell you something, that watch, it used to have the Gryffindor crest on it, am I right?"

"Hm? That's right…" Snape nodded after thinking for a moment and after a few seconds he realized what she meant, "So the mark was your sign, if the Gryffindor coat of arms remains, then the watch was obtained by force, but if all four faculties, then voluntarily, am I right?"

"Yes, but not only because of that, I'm ready to trust you…"

"What else did you see?" Smiling, he stared expectantly at the woman. 

"Your mind, skills and look, which cannot belong to a simple "young man" and the fact that you were able to get here already says a lot, am I not right?" the lady answered with a slight smile, studying with slight interest the reaction of the young man, in whom she saw as if two personalities: Salazar and Godric, merged in one person: his sharp mind, cold, reasonable character, aristocratic features, love of snakes, reminded her very much of Slytherin; and the look, which did not have the inherent coldness of the previous one, but was warmer, but with a bit of indifference, skills in runology and artifactorics, without which it was impossible to get into this place and physique, reminded her of Gryffindor. 

Rowena felt that the young man sitting in front of her would definitely surpass her two colleagues someday, but if the aristocrat knew the truth that he had already done this a long time ago, she would definitely fall into prostration and would not come to her senses soon. 

"I see, so what did you want to ask and what will you offer in return?"

'With his impudence, he definitely went to Salazar,' she thought with a tired sigh, and then added out loud, "My request will probably seem strange to you, and I myself am surprised that I am asking this of a simple "young man" who did not even finish school …"

"It's already eleven o'clock in the evening, speak frankly, my classes start at nine."

"Shut up! Show at least a little respect to the founder of your school!" the lady said sternly, as if automatically, but seeing no reaction, she took a deep breath and continued, "I want to ask you to protect this place if they ever come back and want to finish what they started."

"Do you think those who did this are still alive?"

"I don't know, but…"

"Okay, I'll do it, but what will I get in return?"

"Behave at least a little seriously…" noticing some, even childish interest in the look of the "young man" standing in front of her, one episode surfaced in her memory, when Godric, just like him, with the same look asked her to give him the diadem to study the charms on it and got her with this for about a month, until she gave in, and, involuntarily, a barely noticeable, nostalgic smile appeared on her face, which she quickly hid under the mask of severity, with which she frightened all the students of the school in her time, "I will give you what I put all my skills into and wanted to give to my own daughter," the mention of the latter, again caused sadness on the woman's face, "Don't worry, this thing can be worn by men, I wanted to make it an heirloom of the family, but ... it did not work out, Godric made a huge contribution to the creation of this artefact, and when he finished, he even said that it was one of his greatest works …"

At this moment,one of the books on the shelf flew out of it and rushed towards the altar and a second later hovered above it, a magic circle flashed on it, illuminating the entire room with a golden glow and in unison with it, a similar one also lit up on the altar and two things flew out of them, flew up to each other and abruptly united with a steel ringing, spreading throughout the office. 

An iron badge in the form of a coat of arms hung in front of Severus, on which an eagle with wide-spread wings on a blue background was depicted.

"This artifact has all the properties that my diadem, but several times better, it is this that I have been working on for the last forty years of my life," the woman explained with confidence and pride, contentedly watching the "young man", who, like a starving beast, was devouring the magic object with his eyes. 

And Snape's reaction was not unfounded, because there are no more than ten thousand items of this level and with these properties, even in his world, and almost every one was in the hand of some "Great Archmage". And the reason for this was the complexity of their manufacture, because one slightest mistake and the one using it could simply go crazy, because a defenceless mind was a very fragile thing. 

Therefore, items that could remove the limitations of the mind were an enormous rarity, because in addition to the fact that it could help to easily assimilate any material in a matter of minutes, it helped to restrain and control emotions, which when using certain spells, for example, which fed on anger, it could help to strengthen it several times, from a small breath of wind, to create a real whirlwind. 

But of course, before using such a thing, the wizard was going to go through every rune and charm to make sure that it would not turn him into a fool, because one thing is a weak diadem that would pull an artifact of the rank of "Magister" of the middle rank, and another - this badge, due to its small size, could well reach the highest rank of "Archmage", it certainly cannot compare with the best works of this type, but it would definitely take at least the end of the list. 

Squeezing it between his thumb and forefinger, a small wooden box appeared in Severus's other hand, where he put the magical object, deep in his soul already impatiently waiting for when he could begin to analyze it. 

"Alright, I swear that I will protect this place and will not allow anyone to destroy it," with all possible seriousness, the Prince swore, firmly looking into the eyes of the woman, who in response, smiling slightly, nodded gratefully …" 

---

 A few minutes later, having said goodbye to the Foundress and promised to visit her occasionally, he left the Ravenclaw library and headed back to the common room, and as they were approaching the stairs, Nagini stuck her head out from under her cloak.

"What happened to Rowena's daughter? " she asked, puzzled, remembering the portrait's strange reaction to her mention.

 "Her daughter, Helena Ravenclaw, once stole her mother's diadem, hoping to surpass her, but she failed, which is not surprising, because Rowena devoted more than a hundred years to studying everything that was possible, and she less than a couple of years and gave up pretty quickly, and it was already embarrassing to return, so she hid in the forest of Albania and in order to return her daughter back, Rowena sent her servant after her, remember the ghost with a strange wig and a suit covered in some kind of silver liquid, called the Bloody Baron?" 

After thinking for a few seconds, she nodded, because once they met him on the astronomical tower, when they decided to look at the stars, he still made some strange sounds then, "Well, he found her, but she was very ashamed to meet her mother, so she refused to go, and the baron had a very hot temper and because of the refusal, he stabbed her, and then committed suicide, realizing what he had done, since he loved Rowena's daughter very much," from such an outcome, the snake opened its mouth in shock, because it was too unexpected an end.

"Something like that, so she was not particularly upset about the destruction of the diadem."

"It's... unexpected…" the maledictus simply couldn't find the words to comment on it, "...and tragic…"

"Can't argue , that's what bad upbringing does, but we won't allow that, will we?" grinning, he winked at her to dispel the tension hanging in the air a little and it worked just fine, since she was completely overcome with embarrassment, which replaced sadness, but at the same time, she didn't answer anything, but dived back under the robe and diligently began to poke him in the side.

"Okay, okay, I'll keep quiet…" laughing loudly, they continued moving towards the dungeon, - "I can't wait to get to work..."

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