Good or bad, does it matter?{HP}

An hour after unpacking his belongings and exchanging his school robe for a lighter one—it was still warm within the castle walls—he left his room. On his way from the common room, he encountered Regulus and Leila, who were returning from breakfast.

They chatted for a while, catching up on the latest news from the magical world. Before parting ways, he promised Regulus to meet up again after lunch to review his progress. This early return to Hogwarts wasn't motivated by warm feelings for the place; something else had drawn Severus back.

While he traveled, Nellie had been hard at work—not only brewing potions but also studying in her own way. She frequently visited Slughorn in the evenings, who, out of curiosity, watched her progress closely.

Besides her lessons, Nellie maintained close contact with her kind, gathering all kinds of information about the castle, including rumors and ghost stories. After her lessons with the dean, which lasted until lights out, she would investigate various areas.

House-elves were simple and naive creatures, which made them easy to manipulate, and Nellie's training in this craft came directly from Severus. Although she hadn't yet reached the cunning of a human, mostly due to the servility ingrained in house-elves from early childhood, she had mastered the art of extracting information from other elves with surprising ease.

From one of them, she learned of a mysterious room he'd stumbled into while learning to teleport. The house-elf didn't remember much of it—this had happened about thirty years prior—except for one detail: a small red crystal hovering in the room's center, emanating a powerful magical aura. Startled by a strange rustling, he had fled and never returned.

Following this "informant's" clues, Nellie managed to find the place, or rather, the entrance to it. She hadn't entered, suspecting there might be signal spells she couldn't detect, and her master had specifically instructed her not to act alone. Her orders were clear: report anything strange she might find immediately.

The mysterious location, oddly enough, was in the castle's dungeons, just a few turns away from the Slytherin common room. As soon as he neared the spot, his eye twitched, noticing it lay barely two meters from the girls' restroom. "Do they all have some strange obsession with hiding secret rooms near girls' toilets?" he muttered.

The house-elf tilted her head in confusion, not understanding his remark, but Maledictus shared his frustration; she had accompanied him on numerous expeditions around the castle and vividly recalled the lairs they had uncovered, including the Basilisk's den and the library with Rowena Ravenclaw's portrait.

"Enough," he sighed, brushing the thought aside as he touched the wall. Closing his eyes, he concentrated, attempting to channel his magic through the wall to detect anything unusual. Nothing. The young man raised an eyebrow, surprised. He hadn't expected his efforts to be blocked entirely. "How did you find this place?"

After a tense moment, Nellie answered, "At first, I tried using the detection charms you taught me, but they didn't reveal anything. F-forgive me, Master! Nellie shouldn't speak poorly of your spells! I…!" She squeaked, her eyes wide with terror, dropping to her knees in apology.

He sighed, a hint of exasperation in his voice. "And here I thought I had finally broken her of this habit." Rubbing his forehead, he added aloud, "How many times have I told you not to kneel? It irritates me." His gaze turned cold as he measured her trembling form. "Get up."

At once, she sprang to her feet, though she kept her eyes downcast. "We'll discuss your behavior this evening," he said sharply, snapping his fingers to form a transparent barrier around them. Moments later, they heard laughter as three witches wearing green ties came around the corner, chatting animatedly.

"…I heard Carter found herself a boyfriend, someone from seventh year!" one said with a gasp.

"No way! Have you seen her face? Who would fall for someone like that?" another laughed.

The third chimed in, "I agree, but it's true! I saw her holding hands with some guy on the Astronomy Tower!"

The conversation faded as the girls disappeared into the restroom. Turning back to Nellie, the wizard resumed his questioning, "How exactly did you find this place?"

"I… I used those plastic balls you gave me. I placed them behind the wall in different spots. If I heard no sound of falling, it meant there was solid stone behind the wall. But in one spot, I heard a ball bounce, indicating an empty space beyond." She beamed at his approving nod. "And since you told me to report anything unusual immediately, I came to you right away."

Just then, they heard the restroom door opening, and the same girls re-emerged, laughing again. "…Maybe it was Douglas. He's blond too."

"Unlikely. Even he wouldn't date Carter, and he doesn't like half-breeds," another replied.

Having waited until they were alone, Severus sighed in frustration, realizing that any further investigation of the room would have to wait.

"It looks like I won't be able to explore this place properly now," he muttered, glancing around to ensure they were alone. He hadn't anticipated another hidden room so close to the Slytherin common room and even closer to a high-traffic area.

"Maybe we should return at night?" suggested Nagini, picking up on his thoughts.

He nodded, agreeing. Then he looked back at Nellie, who was fidgeting slightly, feeling guilty. "You did well, Nellie," he said, patting her head. Her eyes brightened at his praise, though she knew she still had lessons to learn. "But we'll have that lesson on behavior tomorrow night. Until then, rest."

"Yes, Master," she replied, visibly relieved, though a new guilt surfaced as she thought of her brothers, Gorby and Tobbi. She'd forgotten to remind them of the rules he'd taught them.

"Dismissed." With a deep bow, the elf vanished, and the Prince himself returned toward the common room. He kept the barrier up as a few more students passed nearby.

Before lunch, the wizard worked on refining a ritual for Nagini. His previous experiment using the blood of a True Dragon had highlighted a few flaws—specifically, gaps in the process that needed adjustments to remove excess magic from her body.

His plan hinged on the curses cancelling each other out. If one curse proved stronger, the dominant dragon bloodline would annihilate it. Yet even in this case, traces of black magic could hide somewhere within her, so he refined the ritual to eliminate every fragment. A new challenge, however, presented itself in the form of Nagini's soul, which had gradually reshaped itself under the curse's influence, adopting a serpentine form. This curse was changing her soul slowly but relentlessly, a fact he discovered by examining it with the sight of a Qilin. Purging her soul of the curse was significantly more challenging than removing it from her physical body.

Solving this would require either a "Great Archmage" specialized in souls—something this world didn't have—or some other drastic measure. One alternative was to wait for "Bambi" to mature, who might eventually use White Magic to cleanse her soul, especially with guidance from someone as knowledgeable as Snape.

However, by that time, Nagini's soul would be so transformed that she'd likely lose her mind, and the changes would be irreversible.

A riskier option came to mind: using black flame to burn away the curse. Black flame wasn't strictly dark or light magic; it combined three elements—darkness, light, and fire—an unnatural creation.

Controlling this fire required painstaking control and specialized spells. Severus was wary of attempting this method on Nagini's soul, deeming it hazardous. Still, he resolved to prepare for the worst and to keep refining his control over the black flame as an emergency measure.

After lunch, Leila left to catch up with friends, and he accompanied Regulus to his room, where they went over Regulus's spell progress. They spent nearly an hour discussing techniques, with the wizard correcting Regulus's form in places and introducing him to new spells.

Progress in two weeks was limited, but Regulus was advancing steadily; with his innate talent, achieving the "Master" rank wasn't far off.

After Regulus left, Severus returned to his work. He hadn't told Nagini about his findings, not wanting to alarm her. Although the Qilin's vision had shown a possible future where she could be human again, he understood this vision was simply one of many possible paths. The moment a person was made aware of a vision concerning them, the likelihood of that specific future shifted, even if they followed the same choices.

He re-evaluated his plans for the necromancer, deciding to observe rather than kill him to see if he could use him to uncover alternative solutions. Severus remained engrossed in perfecting the ritual until dinner, then continued late into the evening. As the clock struck eleven, he finally left his room and returned to the mysterious entrance, ready for another attempt at solving the secret hidden behind the wall.

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