Snape, the Sunshine of Hogwarts.

Chapter 214 The Repaired Silver Whistle

Led by the Albanian Auror, Severus and Black soon arrived at the Aurors' tent.

An elderly man, seemingly having heard the sparks outside, emerged from inside, puzzled.

Upon seeing him, Blake instinctively lowered his head, averting his gaze and avoiding direct eye contact with Nico.

When Severus saw Nico, he simply smiled.

The Albanian Auror who had brought them there turned and left hastily after taking them to their destination, so Severus could call Nico by his name without any hesitation.

"Long time no see, Mr. Lemaître."

"It's only been two weeks since we last met, not a long time."

As Nico spoke, he glanced down at Blake, who dared not meet his gaze, and a mischievous smile appeared on his face.

"So you've already met?"

At this point, Blake could no longer hide. He looked up and met Nico's gaze. The voice coming from the No. 3 broadcast was somewhat subdued.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Lemaître.”

Nico simply waved his hand at this.

“No need to apologize to me, Blake. You just used your own methods to solve the problem. You suffered a bit along the way, but the result was good, right?”

He didn't seem to mind that Blake had left without saying goodbye.

Everyone has their own habits, whether they are good or bad.

At this point, he looked up at the cluster of red sparks in mid-air.

What happened at the ruins?

Severus replied.

"They discovered that two Aurors were missing."

"An Auror is missing?" Nicole narrowed her eyes slightly. "Should we go and take a look?"

Severus, of course, would not refuse.

After reuniting with Nico, they returned to the entrance of the ruins.

Almost all the Albanian Aurors who remained here had arrived. Cabunara was counting their numbers for the second time, and finally confirmed with a grim face that two of them were indeed missing.

And these two people were the last two Aurors to be on duty in the ruins last night!
"We didn't see them in the ruins, so where could they be?"

"Search! Search the surrounding area! Whether dead or alive, we must find him!"

At Cabunara's command, the Aurors began to disperse into groups and search the surrounding woods.

At that moment, Nico suddenly walked up to Cabunara and asked softly.

Did you discover the person was missing early this morning?

Already entangled in a host of troubles, Cabunara is now facing internal problems within the Auror organization, making him even more frustrated.

But when he turned and saw Nico, the expression on his face softened.

The alchemical code translation that Nico gave him last night was extremely valuable. After he brought it back to the Ministry of Magic, the alchemists in Albania treasured it.

This incident allowed him to save face in front of the minister, and it was all thanks to Nico.

“Yes, Mr. Williams,” Cabnara nodded. “According to the shift change plan, the people who were supposed to take over their work discovered that they were missing underground.”

Nico pondered.

"I saw the two missing gentlemen last night when I left, and they acted a bit strangely."

Cabunara's expression turned serious.

"strangeness?"

“Yes.” Nico nodded calmly. “I have some impression of them. When one of them greeted me, his tone of voice was different from his usual manner, but I didn’t think much of it at the time.”

"You mean they might have been replaced yesterday when they were heading to the underground shift change?" Cabunara's voice was somewhat fearful.

“It’s just a guess,” Nicole said softly. “Or maybe I’m just imagining things.”

Although he said that, Cabunara could not possibly take it as Nico's delusion.

After sharing some of the clues he had discovered with Cabona, Nico returned to Severus's side.

"After receiving your letter, I brought Blake here immediately, firstly to help you, and secondly to confront you and see if I had misjudged you."

As he spoke, he teased Blake.

"It seems that I was right."

Blake just kept his head down, it was unclear whether he had nothing to say or was too embarrassed to speak.

"Why don't you turn back into human form? Blake, if you're ashamed to see me, then you don't have to."

“He was affected by the potion made from the recipe Grindelwald gave me last night,” Severus explained to Black, who didn’t know how to broach the subject.

This made Nico blink with a subtle look on his face.

"A potion that can stabilize magic power?"

"Correct."

With Nico's knowledge, it only took him a few seconds to understand why Blake could only be a dog now and couldn't turn back.

Nico looked at Blake again, then seemed to remember something and glanced at Severus again, finally clicking his tongue in disapproval.

“That potion is no ordinary thing. It won’t be easy to break this state of constant magic power. You’ll probably be a dog for a long time.”

Even though I had heard Severus talk about it yesterday and was mentally prepared for this, I was still prepared.

Even after confirming the fact again with Nicole, Blake still felt a sense of depression and unease.

He didn't believe a single punctuation mark from Severus's words, but the same words coming from Nico's mouth were a different story.

“Where can we find the antidote?” Blake asked.

Nico simply shrugged.

“That medicine isn’t poison, and the formula has always been in the hands of only one person. No one else could possibly have developed the corresponding antidote. Currently, the only pharmacist who has the formula is Severus, and he is the only one who could possibly develop the antidote.”

"If you want to turn back into a human, you'd better start sucking up to him from now on."

Let alone doing it, just hearing those words made Blake grit his teeth in hatred. "I'd rather be a dog for the rest of my life!"

His words only elicited a smile from Severus and Nicola, after which Severus began to ask about the important matter at hand.

"So, have you come to any results from your research on that mural?"

“The harvest was enormous.” Nico nodded. “The mural on the surface depicts the story of the Fountain of Good Fortune, but the alchemical symbols within it form a complete structure for a specific alchemical item. Judging from your description of the silver whistle you found deep in the ruins, it should have been used on that item.”

This information invigorated Severus.

"Great!"

Seeing his reaction, Nico then gave him a serious reminder.

"Although I don't yet understand what your purpose is in coming to this forest, I must remind you, Severus, that there is definitely something wrong with the legend of the Fountain of Good Fortune that is circulating here."

Severus, of course, understood what he was talking about.

Perhaps the Albanian Aurors were a bit slow on the uptake, but Severus had already deduced the owner of the underground ruins the moment he saw the basilisk.

It is remarkable that such an underground ruin could have been built in this land near ancient Greece before Christ, and that such a long-lived basilisk could have been bred.

Aside from the legendary ancestor of black wizards—the despicable Herpo—Severus really couldn't think of anyone else.

Despicable Herbo.

The earliest and most famous ancient dark wizard in the recorded history of magic.

The first basilisk was created by him.

He also made the first Horcrux.

Even today, much of black magic has been influenced by his research to some extent.

As a wizard who had studied dark magic extensively during his student days, Severus was naturally familiar with this wizard who could be considered the progenitor of dark magic.

The underground ruins he left behind still contain murals depicting the story of the Fountain of Good Fortune, and there are also things hidden deep within the ruins that could lead to the Fountain of Good Fortune.

How could such a notorious black wizard be so kind as to leave a spring that could bring good luck to future generations?
So, even without Nico's reminder, Severus already knew from the moment he entered the ruins that the legendary Fountain of Good Fortune hidden in Albania was definitely not a good thing!

Even if it does bring temporary good luck, it comes at a much heavier price.

However, Severus never came here to find any spring; his purpose from beginning to end was solely Voldemort.

The clues left behind by Voldemort clearly point to the legendary Fountain of Good Fortune.

Severus had no idea what Voldemort, currently in a weakened, wandering state, wanted to do, nor could he be sure whether what Voldemort was doing had actually happened in the original books.

After all, Severus had been making all sorts of big moves since he first came into this world. Perhaps even the slightest flap of a butterfly's wings could cause a huge deviation in this forest that had been isolated from the world for most of the time.

"Don't worry, my goal isn't that Fountain of Good Fortune. Even if I do find it in the end, I won't use it."

Severus said definitively.

Nico, of course, had no doubt about what he said, and he smiled as he spoke.

"Then let's go and see what the silver whistle you found is for."

Just as they were about to Apparate away and return to the troll camp by the river.

The Albanian Aurors, who were searching everywhere for their missing companions, made a discovery at this moment!
"Supervisor! We found them! We found them!"

The shouting was filled with fear. Cabona hurriedly turned around, and Severus and the others followed suit. Then they saw the Aurors returning with two corpses that looked ashen and had been dead for some time.

Upon witnessing this, Severus and Nico did not choose to linger and Apparated back to the troll camp with Black and the others.

After arriving here, Nico asked Severus in a low voice.

Can you guess who did it?

Severus narrowed his eyes and said softly.

"Anyone could be involved. Perhaps it's a wanted criminal or black wizard roaming Europe, or perhaps it's an Albanian enemy drawn by the legend of the Fountain of Good Fortune. Of course, it could also be someone with the same goal as me."

Nico didn't ask any more questions, and it seemed that his curiosity about the matter had come to an end.

They brought Nico back to their tent, and Draco, Harry, and Lupin were all overjoyed to be reunited with Nico in a foreign land.

Nico himself seemed to really enjoy the environment and atmosphere; he greeted the children with a big laugh and even took out some candy from his pocket to share with them.

After a period of getting together and chatting, he followed Severus and Lupin into their research lab and finally obtained the silver whistle.

After holding the whistle and examining it closely for a long time, the knowledgeable alchemist gave his evaluation.

"It's a very rough piece of work, but the idea behind it is quite original."

Lupin asked from the side.

"Can you tell what its function is?"

“The alchemical symbols on this are the same as those I found on the murals in the ruins; they mean summoning,” Nico said.

Severus and Lupin exchanged a glance, then Severus turned back to Nico and spoke.

"In the legend of the Fountain of Good Fortune, a golden unicorn will lead lucky people to the location of the fountain. We previously guessed that the function of this whistle is to summon that unicorn."

Nico took a handkerchief out of his pocket and carefully wiped the silver whistle.

“Your deduction is reasonable and highly probable. However, the reason you couldn’t make it work before was because the alchemical patterns on it were incomplete.”

"Can you fix it completely?"

"Ha, that's why I came here. If I can't even do this, then I've wasted all that time in that underground ruin."

As Nico spoke, he kept pulling out all sorts of strange little tools from his suitcase.

"Give me two hours. Such a rough product won't take me much effort at all. It will be done in no time."

Severus and Lupin did not linger there to disturb him.

Just two hours after they had prepared lunch outside, without anyone calling him to come out for lunch, Nico walked out of the research lab with the silver whistle that looked exactly the same as before, but had been completely repaired.

He handed the silver whistle directly to Severus.

"That's easy. As long as you have the corresponding alchemical symbol, you can find an alchemy apprentice anywhere to fix it for you, although it will take a little longer."

Severus accepted the silver whistle, but instead of checking it immediately, he invited Nico to have lunch with him.

After lunch, he and Lupin finally got to properly examine the repaired alchemical instrument.

(End of this chapter)