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Edward was standing in front of a manor waiting for someone. Fortunately, he did not have to wait long. After a few seconds of his arrival, another person apparated in front of him.
"Severus, how are things going?" asked Edward with a smile on his face.
"Everything is fine," replied Severus Snape with a look of suspicion on his face as he wondered what had gotten into Edwards today.
"What about the clones?"
"A month ago, I finally created a potion that stabilized their DNA. The muggle scientists were fascinated by this and claimed that they can develop new cloning technology by studying these clones. According to them, it won't be long before they could develop the technology to create perfect clones without any problem.
"Nevertheless, I still discover a problem."
"Oh, can you be more specific?" asked Edward with intrigue.
"I discovered that these clones have developed a brand new soul of their own."
"How intriguing. I will check it out when I have time, however, you do not need to worry as I can still remove these souls from their bodies when the time arrives."
Snape nodded his head before continuing: " I understand. So, why did you call me here?" He did not believe for a moment that Edward just called him to chat or ask about the state of the clones; he could just stop by the laboratory to check the result.
Edward did not immediately answer him, but walked next to the young potion master, patted his shoulder before saying: "Severus, how have I treated you the past few years?"
Snape frowned as he had an ominous premonition. "You have always been a person who keeps his words, so I have no complaints."
"True," replied Edward. "Compared to the two other Lords that you have served, I can be said to be the one much easier to get along with. Voldemort treated you like a servant and did not even keep his promise to you of not killing Lily.
"As for Dumbledore, he used emotional manipulation to keep you loyal to him, yet does not offer anything of value to you."
Snape remained calm on the surface, but a great inner turmoil took place inside him. And it was not just because of Edward knowing all his secrets, but also because he discovered that his memories were being read, forcefully.
He tried to use his Occlumency to stop the invasion, but it was no use; so, he created false memories in his mind. But, that also did not work as these memories could easily be discovered and identified as false.
'It seems that I was right. After my body modification, my already powerful soul became even more mighty, thus increasing the power of Spiritual Magic like Legilimency. Even a powerful Occlumens Master like Snape could no longer resist my power.
'Should I focus on spiritual magic like telepathy and psychokinesis? After all, I seemed to be very gifted with this kind of magic? Forget it. As a wizard, I should control the power of the elements like flame, ice, and thunder. Then, bend space and time to my will. That's what a true wizard should be like in my mind.
'Forget about spiritual magic or using weapons to fight like those barbaric knights. What kind of wizard confronts his enemy head-on. These people should be ashamed to call wizards or magicians.
'However, I could use this newfound ability to my advantage. I wonder if I could read Dumbledore's mind to acquire all his knowledge? Forget it, use the contract first, if that does not work, use the torture. I can only use Legilimency as a last resort. After all, Snape cannot compare to Dumbledore in terms of strength of the soul and mind.'
While all these thoughts were rapidly going through Edward's mind, Snape had a visibly disturbed look on his face. The reason being the fact that Edward placed a very memorable memory in his mind.
In this memory, he saw how he spent years secretly protecting Harry Potter under the order of Dumbledore. Then, the Dark Lord was revived using dark magic and recalled all the Death Eaters to once again serve him. He became a double agent for Dumbledore to spy on the Dark Lord.
The memories were not many or too small, but two of them caught his attention. One is when he is told by Dumbledore that Harry Potter--whom he was forced to protect for so long--had to die at the hands of the Dark Lord--essentially raising him like a pig to be slaughtered (which were the exact words his other self in the memory said to Dumbledore).
The second memory was his own death at the hands of the Dark Lord. Despite being so "loyal" to him, he still killed him without hesitation, just because of the Deathly Hallow. Finally, in his dying breath, he told Harry Potter the truth about him and Lily, and how he was always protecting him all this time.
After reviewing these memories, Snape took a few moments to calm himself down before asking with trembling words: "Is that…"
"Your future? Yes," replied Edward calmly.
Snape's hand trembled slightly, then used Occlumency to keep his rampaging emotions under control. "Why are you showing me this?"
Edward looked at him for a moment, then he said: "As Dumbledore already warned you, I'm about to create a new world order far more brilliant than any wizards throughout history could ever imagine. However, beforehand, I need to know where your allegiance lies."
Severus Snape frowned after hearing this as he began to think about the situation; he knew that he could not hide his thoughts from Edward, so he did not try to fake his response, but thought deeply about the issue.
'I have already served the Dark Lord, so there is no problem with serving Edward as long as he is powerful enough to prevent the previous master from getting his revenge. Additionally, Edward has allowed me to make amends for the mistakes of my past.'
So, Snape bowed to Edward while saying: "I pledge my allegiance to the Lord."
"There is no need for all of this as I am not Voldemort," replied Edward as he lifted Snape from the bowing motion.
"The reason that I need your allegiance is because, in the world that I am about to create, I will need talented wizards like you."
After saying those words, Edward paused for a moment before sighing: "I have to say, I do not think people truly realize how talented of a wizard you are.
"Back in school, you could create spells of your own. I know many powerful and influential wizards, but the ones that can invent spells as powerful as yours can be counted on one hand--not to mention the fact you could do such a thing at such a young age.
"Then there is your potion's talent. Being able to modify the potion book so easily is a level of talent that even I envy. If this was not the fact that you have suffered through so much psychological trauma throughout your youth, I could foresee that you could one day become a great wizard like Dumbledore and Voldemort."
Snape was a little surprised that Edward had such a high evaluation of himself. As a person who dealt with Edward since he was in the Fifth Year, Snape knew how much of a talented wizard he actually was. He spent many nights awake thinking of the terrible consequences that the magical world would suffer from if one day Edward decided to become evil.
At some point, he even wanted to warn Dumbledore to take action and prevent the rise of Edward. However, thinking about the possibility of one day seeing Lily again, he forced these thoughts deep in a corner of his mind.
"Thank you for the compliment," said Snape.
Edward smiled, "You do not need to worry about Voldemort. With me here, it is a question of whether I would allow him to resurrect. And even if he did, he would not pose much of a threat.
"Now, let's get back to business. Show me your Dark Mark."
Without hesitation, Severus showed him his hand with the mark, and Edward used his wand to activate it, calling all the loyal Death Eaters of Voldemort for an assembly.
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Next Chapter Title: Loyalty