[Chapter Size: 1700 Words.]
Third Person POV
Hogwarts.
...
...
Snape finally woke up at his usual time on Saturday. It was finally Saturday, and he had many things to do, so he quickly grabbed his bag with some storage space and used his wand on himself, creating a small silent shower without needing to take off his clothes.
"Magic is so useful for such simple activities..." He couldn't help but murmur. For someone like him, saving a few minutes a day by not having to take a traditional shower was something he valued.
Then, after that, he began to leave the room. Exiting the empty Slytherin house and heading to the school corridors, he saw a monitor here, another there, but no one bothered him, since everyone already knew what happened to the monitors who tried to go against him, and since the headmaster did nothing, they ended up not interrupting his path.
But the same could not be said for the Slytherin monitor, who entered the same corridor as him, watching Snape intently... This was another student who had not been beaten up with Lucius, but was still on their radar. The seventh-year boy just looked at Snape with intense eyes, but said nothing. Snape just approached, continuing on his way and passing by him as if there was nothing in front of him.
Of course, the boy was offended by this, as any noble from Slytherin would be, but he didn't dare face that half-blood youth alone, not after everything he'd heard.
Descending a few stairs here and there, he finally, without further problems, left the castle. Still holding his bag, he went to the north gate, passing through it and following the road to Hogsmeade, but taking the entrance to the Forbidden Forest on the left, just past the school.
Snape headed to the entrance, but did not fail to stop for a moment, looking back at the sky behind him, knowing he was being watched by something, but unable to identify it from that distance.
"Whoever you are... just don't bother me..." Snape murmured, looking in the direction of those eyes.
Setting that aside, he entered the forest while the place was even darker than the night sky before dawn, seeming like the purest moonless night, with little light able to penetrate. He followed through the forest, going along the same path where he had encountered his battle against the giant spiders.
It didn't take long for those horses of death, Thestrals, to approach him. He saw them emerging from some bushes near the start of the forest; there were five of them, with a foal among their legs. "So you are here," he murmured calmly, looking at the creatures while approaching and petting them.
"I'm heading to the spider territory, I hope you don't follow me there, after all, it could be dangerous," Snape warned, looking into their eyes, as he did not wish harm to those creatures which, in a way, he had a certain affinity with.
After greeting them, he continued, and the creatures followed him for a while as he entered deeper into the forest, making the view even darker.
At one point, as he ventured deeper, finding nothing unusual in the forest, the Thestrals seemed troubled now, making them quite hesitant to continue with Snape.
"It's okay... you can go back, I'll continue alone." Snape said, turning back to them. "It will be very dangerous from here onwards for you." He said as the animals did not want to leave him alone there, but Snape slapped his own head with a more serious tone. "I'll be fine, we'll meet later." He advised, and the horses finally began to leave the area.
Seeing the Thestrals going away, he returned to moving forward, the environment was changing and he had already passed the site of his fight against the Acromantulas a few days ago. Now this place was even more different than what he had seen once. A mist filled the entire ground while giant pines surrounded and there were so many that even the vision ahead was obscured by the number of trees there. The light was very weak, but some of it that passed through the leaves gave a very eerie spectrum, but Snape felt no fear of it and just moved forward, attentive to everything in his vision and letting his senses guide him.
He moved forward, passing through the ribs of the forest, hearing some distant sounds of things walking through the place and unique sounds of creatures inhabiting this forest. One sound caught his attention above the others, and a loud howl resonated, threatening enough to make any Hogwarts student run away in fear, but Snape had a thoughtful look towards the direction it came from.
"What could that be?" He murmured, his thoughts going to the possible creatures it could be, being a sound even more powerful than a wolf, it must be a Fenrir or even a werewolf... "There are all sorts of dark creatures here... it could be anything." he commented, knowing he might even encounter superior vampires and even dementors...
Putting that aside, he continued exploring, as Snape had a goal: to look for a specific plant... It was small and blended into this dark terrain, making it difficult with the coloring that could camouflage here. This plant was called the Nightshade Lady, due to its dark coloring that could be compared to pitch black, known for its body having a shape as if it were wearing a dress and although not a flower, it was beautiful, yet highly cutting and rare in the market due to its difficult-to-obtain aspect.
They usually grew in darker and more ominous areas, sprouting in soil enriched with magical blood, hence they were known to grow near a nest of giant spiders. With the blood of all the creatures those spiders hunted, the soil was enriched, and with the mixture of magical blood and evil earth, it formed the black substance to create the plant.
Moving forward, Snape finally saw something in the distance with the help of the morning sun's light. He spotted something gigantic in the distance and realized it was nothing more than a huge nest of Acromantulas.
"Finally found it..." Snape spoke with some admiration, observing how that structure was giant attached to some giant trees. There must be at least 1000 or more of those spiders, and he knew there would be even more nests inside the forest.
Elsewhere, near the forest, Hagrid walked with a lantern in front of him, walking beside a dog as he passed through the fallen branches of trees on the dark ground. He finally reached the desired place since he left his house, a large tree with a large passage at the beginning of the forest.
"Horn, are you there? I brought your favorite food," Hagrid spoke as he approached the tree with a sinister structure holding a piece of steak, but there was no response from whatever he had called inside.
"Horn! Come here!" he called once more, but again there was no response. "Strange, he always comes when I give him this food..." His dog turned its face confused and looked at its owner while sticking out its tongue. "Easy, Bulldog, let's see if he's in there. But it's strange, he always greets us out here."
He approached the tree and saw that there was nothing there besides a place being used by a small creature, but no sign of it, which left him quite surprised and worried. "Horn, where are you?" Hagrid murmured and looked at Bulldog. "Can you smell him?" The dog looked at him for a while until it started to sniff around. Picking up Horn's scent, it followed a direction deeper into the forest, while Hagrid came right behind. "Where have you gotten yourself into, Horn?! I told you never to go deeper into the forest, you're just a pup!" Hagrid murmured worriedly.
"Finally found it," Snape murmured, looking at the "Nightshade Lady" on the ground as he carefully picked it up with his dagger, not that the plant could hurt him with the resistance of his skin, but he didn't want to damage the plant.
He had gotten closer to the spider's nest and managed to hide his presence from the spiders, some were walking at a distance through the place, but most seemed to be hibernating...
He removed the plant from the soil and examined it, "This seems to be of good quality." If he was surgical enough, he could extract the substance he was looking for from this plant easily, although it itself was worth good money in the market, he could still make much more money with the potion he planned to make.
As he stored it in his bag slung over his shoulder, he began to search for more. It was generally hard to spot the "Nightshade Ladies," however, Snape possessed a sense of smell tens of times greater than a normal human and quickly began to find many of these plants scattered around while concealing his presence.
As he collected, his gaze shifted back; after all, he knew he had been watched for a while, although these eyes were different from those he had seen before entering the forest; these were more innocent, if he could say so.
"Why are you following me, little one?" Snape commented to the small creature approaching him. The creature sniffed the ground and looked at him cautiously. He didn't know if that was good or bad, he just remained silent, watching the creature stand still.
It was a "Graphorn," a creature quite aggressive by nature, but the one in front of Snape was just a cub, making him wonder where it had come from, after all, Graphorns are creatures that prefer the coastline, not an evil forest.
The cub had followed him from the middle of the forest, probably attracted by the scent, after all, its sense of smell was extremely strong, even surpassing that of a dog.
It had brown skin and its horns seemed to be growing; the creature appeared cautious, but ultimately, it approached him, which Snape found strange.
"What's up, little one? Why are you here?" Snape asked, surprised as it sniffed his legs.
The creature couldn't answer Snape, but he crouched down and touched its head, feeling the hardness of its skin, something Snape internally praised.
"I don't know why you're here... but this isn't a place for you to come..." Snape murmured, but soon his attention shifted back, sensing something approaching from the direction of the nest, and it wasn't an Acromantula.
"What do we have here...." The voice was ancient and bitter.
"..." Snape looked towards what was coming, while the creature by his side seemed to start growling.
What stood before him was a creature he did not remember, at least he never had information in any book about it; it looked like a woman, a very old one with a huge nose with wrinkles, she wore a veil while only her face appeared and she held a basket by the handle on her arm.
"What is this?" Snape couldn't help but murmur seeing that creature approaching.
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