HP - Shadow Monarch!

[Chapter Size: 1900 Words.]

Third Person POV

London.

...

...

Snape was once again in Diagon Alley after leaving the magical district, and the place seemed busier than ever as soon as he entered and came across the crowd. It was especially crowded now with teenagers and children all around, having just left Hogwarts and other schools as well.

After all, many parents enrolled their children outside of England, particularly those who did not want to participate in the silent war between Voldemort and his followers fighting for the pureblood cause against the Ministry and others defending Muggle-borns over the past years, preferring neutrality instead of choosing a side. Of course, only wealthy families could afford to do this.

"I think this is a bit too much..." Snape muttered, not sounding too thrilled about Diagon Alley, watching the throng of wizards occupying every street. He decided to disappear without anyone noticing, transforming into a shadow.

In one of the alleys hidden from the crowd, he reappeared, emerging once again like a shadow. But now he was wearing a skull mask paired with a dark cloak, resembling a dark wizard, advancing towards a hidden location within that alley. At the end of it, an entrance opened, revealing a man sitting by another door, who observed him attentively.

"Are you the...?" The guard muttered, not recognizing him immediately but keeping his eyes fixed on him.

"It's been a long time since I last saw you, guardian of the black market..." Snape spoke calmly, showing his pass. The man recognized the way of speaking, despite the distorted voice, and immediately frowned—a rare reaction from him, as his nickname in the underworld was Cerberus.

"You returned after destroying the entire black market months ago...?" He muttered, his tone cautious and careful.

"Indeed. What can I do when a bunch of dark wizards, along with a half-vampire, believed they could handle me so easily?" Snape said.

"Well, I have nothing to comment on..." The man responded before opening the door without hesitation. He didn't want to spend much time near Snape. He had been rude the first time he saw him, thinking he was just a fool venturing into the black market. After all, families usually brought their children to that place, teaching them how it worked, and when someone ventured alone, they were usually a fool who would die easily in the dark streets without anyone knowing.

But now Snape had proven that he was not someone easy to deal with, even for him, feeling fear towards this mysterious figure now known as the enigmatic alchemist who could cast unforgivable curses strong enough to disintegrate an entire body.

Snape entered the streets once more after such a long time and moved forward, leaving the guardian behind. The silent and dark streets of the black market seemed to have returned to what they were before his battle with Dracula's daughter. With the same grim atmosphere, he proceeded quietly, undisturbed by the streets as he walked through them, noticing some other wizards wearing skull masks to preserve their identities.

He finally reached his destination, the alchemy shop that always sold his products, and saw an old man taking care of his flasks as always. As soon as he entered, the man looked at him before widening his eyes.

"You?!" He recognized him instantly, before starting to vent his frustrations that had been held in for months since Snape hadn't come by anymore. "Your battle with that woman destroyed my shop!" He complained immediately.

"But you fixed everything again...?" Snape commented, in a neutral tone while raising an eyebrow, doubting that this man had suffered any real loss.

"Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that you destroyed my things! There's one thing I value greatly, and it's everything that belongs to me!" He grumbled like an old man.

"Come on, don't be annoying," Snape retorted, before continuing, "It's been months since I've come here. Aren't you interested in knowing how much stock I have this time? I've been accumulating for a long time..."

The old man was forced to think about it. "If you're saying it like that... Well, months without selling probably resulted in a good amount," he replied, intrigued, seeing a big deal on the horizon.

Snape nodded, taking out his bags from his inventory to start the negotiation. After some time of the old man examining his stock, he was forced to look at Snape, stunned.

"What? That's a lot of potion!" The man exclaimed immediately after counting the number of flasks in those dimensional bags with his wand. Over the past months, Snape had created everything from basic potions to highly useful ones, all of which maintained a master's high quality—no, even higher than he used to produce—showing that his skills had grown even further.

"That's a lot of money! This will exceed 200,000 Galleons, can you imagine what that means?! Even selling at wholesale prices!" The man exclaimed, still in shock.

"So, can't you buy them?" Snape raised an eyebrow at the man's reaction.

"You have over 15,000 potions here! Are you crazy to ask such a lighthearted question about something so shocking!?" He continued to exclaim.

"This is the result of what I've been doing all this time, working excessively in front of cauldrons. Look at those potions in the bag on the right; they were made in a special cauldron, more pure and rare than the others," Snape said, pointing to a specific batch he had made using Salazar's cauldron.

The man saw them and picked up one of the potions before grimacing. "Damn, you damned kid! How did you manage to make this?" The man was quite frustrated, not knowing what to do. After all, even though he could make a great profit, it would take a long time to sell all those potions, and he didn't have enough money on hand at the moment.

"Look, if you clean out my store, I still owe you more than 100,000 Galleons in gold; do you think that's reasonable?!" The man murmured.

"Well, I'm not very interested in your products if you want to know... but I'm still going to ask for something, yet you haven't told me whether you want them or not," Snape inquired, already tired of the man's whining.

"How about you give me a 50% discount?" He suddenly asked, while Snape raised his head.

"I'm already selling at wholesale price. I won't do better than that. I'm only selling to you because you can still keep my identity hidden," Snape stated calmly, while the man muttered quietly, cursing him under his breath.

"Alright, alright, I'll do it. But we have a problem: my money is in a special vault at Gringotts, hiding my identity since I'm being hunted by the Ministry, especially with the mysterious alchemist being a client of my shop..." He said, looking at Snape with accusatory eyes and continued, "So as you can see... I can't go to the bank. You'll have to wait for me to gather the money or risk trusting a goblin... After all, you can never trust those goblins." The man said as if it were a rule.

"That seems reasonable. I'll go with the bank option," Snape simply replied.

"Are you sure? Don't come crying if those goblins steal the money," he commented. After all, such transactions gave those greedy little creatures who handled the money a lot of freedom; they could simply take the money in the middle of the transaction and claim it as transfer fees. This alchemist had already lost money like this before, which is why he hated those creatures and trusted none of them.

"Yes, I'm sure," Snape confirmed, seeing no issues in this as the goblins clearly feared him.

"Whatever. I'll write a letter then so you can access the money. Leave all the potions on the table," he requested, going over to the counter. Snape placed 10 dimensional bags, all filled with potions, onto the table.

The man returned with the letter and the recommendation with the fair value for all of Snape's potions, stamped with someone else's name—not his own—with more than 232,000 Galleons, a fortune enough to sustain an average family.

"Here it is. And remember what I said, just don't cry afterward," he said. Snape didn't bother to respond before taking the letter and pulling out a small parchment to hand to the man.

"Do you see these materials? Do you know where I can get them?" he asked.

"Goblin magical steel...?! What kind of madness is this..." the man muttered, seeing the extensive list of rare and extremely expensive items. "Only the goblins have that, and as I said, you're already going to have trouble with them transferring the money. Now about this, it's impossible to buy their steel," he scoffed, giving Snape a sarcastic look and continued.

"But I can see about the other items. It will take some time, after all, there are things here that aren't even in England. I can arrange some contacts to get them for you, at least if you have the money to cover it," he said, and Snape nodded in acknowledgment.

"Great, do that," Snape replied.

"Alright..." he muttered at the end, seeming to have picked up a habit of cursing people under his breath.

"I'll be going then, farewell," Snape finally said as the man watched him leave.

"Damn it, I won't be able to buy more potions for years with this. I hope that kid never comes back, because I'm going to refuse him," the man murmured, and by coincidence, this would be the last time Snape visited that shop.

It took Snape a little while to reach the bank after slipping into an alley and returning to his normal appearance, having to merge into the post-Hogwarts Diagon Alley crowd. He entered Gringotts, and once again, his presence alerted the goblins, who seemed to watch him with more caution than before, as if his dark aura had intensified. While he waited in line to be served, the manager himself came out of one of the doors, cautiously approaching him.

'Why do they always look at me like that...' Snape muttered curiously.

He didn't know it, but as the goblins looked at him, they could see a dark aura emanating from Snape, rising upwards, with an abyss of darkness in its center where two eyes were always watching, making even the goblins fear for their lives.

"Mr. Snape, it's good to see you here. Please, follow me," the manager said, cautiously looking at the purple eyes within that darkness and ended up giving Snape VIP service, not wanting to offend him, while others watched the scene with curiosity. Even the noble families present there looked at him with interest, not understanding why this unknown figure was being treated better than them.

In any case, Snape followed, wanting to negotiate many things with the goblins, especially the forging of his sword, as he would need a special one to take to Romania. He needed a weapon stronger than the Sword of Gryffindor, which he personally found too flashy, preferring a sword whose strength could be better utilized without replacing his primary weapons, the daggers.

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