Chapter 7.

6:35 am, June 19th, 1993

Severus' smug mood for completing a difficult ritual did not even last for 12 hours.

Severus had thought that he'd been quite prepared. He knew that he'd be bombarded with questions if the ritual was successful, so he had the past year's Daily Prophets ready at hand to save himself some time. And he had tentative plans on what to do with a live Lucius - something like giving Lucius one of his false identities as a muggleborn wizard from the United States. Lucius could be one of the opportunistic suitors surrounding Narcissa, and later became Draco's stepfather. If the blood purist was not pleased with that identity, then Lucius should go and figure something out himself. Lucius did offer him quite some money last night, as he had expected, but he already had plenty of gold and silver in his backpack, thanks to the original Stone. Severus praised himself for acting as if he still needed Malfoy gold.

But as usual, Severus was too slow on the uptake, and didn't think enough.

When Severus woke up this morning, Lucius was still by the wooden table in the living room, and buried in the newspapers. The blond man looked a bit pale, and there were dark circles below his blue-grey eyes. Lucius let the newspaper slide from between his fingers, and looked at Severus as he walked in.

Severus remembered some news on the paper, and inwardly smirked.

-Well, Lord Malfoy's dark history has been revealed to the public, and Draco has had to pay hefty fines and restitutions to the families of his victims. And if it were not for the Potter boy, House Malfoy may no longer be a Noble and Most Ancient House anymore. All serve good for what the blue snake deserves. Oh, I need to remind him to be quiet on how he died.

Severus raised his hand, and a bag of bagels flew toward him from the pantry. As the black-haired man walked towards the toaster on the kitchen table, Lucius spoke: "Good morning, my dear Severus."

Severus half-mindedly greeted back, and glanced at the plastic bag in his hand. He shouldn't be preparing breakfast for the aristocrat like a house elf. Instead, he should teach Lucius how to use the toaster.

Just as Severus' imagination took him to the amusing scene of a cooking Lucius, the aristocrat asked quite seriously: "Am I correct in understanding that we do not have a wizarding war going on now?"

That question got Severus' attention. He hadn't been reading between the lines of the Daily Prophet for quite a while, since he began preparing for the ritual. Trying to think very fast on what he did read, he replied: "No, unless you count those places people rarely hear of."

Lucius looked as if Severus had just kissed James Potter. This got Severus quite annoyed, as if he had missed something: "Why? The whole wizarding world seemed to be quite grateful toward the Boy-Who-Lived and the Girl-Who-Revived."

The white-haired politician spoke slowly and with real amazement: "You meant that the BOY and the GIRL told the world that there is a Stone that can mass produce immortality and youth a year ago, yet Hogwarts is still standing there this very day."

Then it dawned on Severus.

-Of course, everyone would want the Stone all for themselves! A selfish bastard like myself only duplicated it instead of stealing it, because I knew the potential danger of it from observing the powerful ritual performed by the Dark Lord, and knew the danger the Potter boy could create if things around him went wrong. Back when I was in such a hurry to leave Hogwarts, I just thought if the knowledge of the Stone is said to be dangerous, then most wizards with some real intelligence would simply give up. God damn it, I have been shielded by Albus for too long! I had forgotten that there's no Albus Dumbledore in Britain now - the boy may become the Light Lord someday, but all he has now is POTENTIAL. Who would believe a boy who has yet to turn thirteen? Who would believe Madam Bones, who has never walked the walks; or Mad-Eye, who has walked the walks but failed? Plus, young kids with potential in pursuit of power die all the time, why would the Boy-Who-Lived be an exception? So the current dark wizards all over the world did not even need to worry too much for retribution later.

-Except there is a PROPHECY that they don't know of: if things around that boy go wrong, he may destroy the world!

Severus froze there, and realized what he had failed to do: he was supposed to be the Death Eater in the Order of Phoenix. He was supposed to think like a real dark wizard, and to predict what other dark wizards might do. But with the Dark Lord gone, and most Death Eaters beheaded, he had thought Britain would be a much safer place. He completely forgot that Britain was only a small corner of the world, and the world was in no lack of wizards much darker and crazier than the Death Eaters. The Boy-Who-Lived, for all his dark potentials, was still a naive child. And Mad-Eye, for all his paranoid "Constant Vigilance" slogans, was indeed a good man who had unfortunately been shielded by Albus for too long. So, they rushed to do good things. Well, Mad-Eye might have something prepared to trap the dark wizards who dared to attack Hogwarts, but even Albus, with all his knowledge on ancient lore and all his power as Headmaster of Hogwarts, failed to prevent the Dark Lord from entering Hogwarts and stealing the Stone.

Now to think of it, Severus was quite surprised that the world had not ended yet.

The two ex-Death Eaters looked at each other. They did not even need Parseltongue to communicate their horrors.

Lucius slowly said: "From the Daily Prophet, it seems that Draco is in Potter's good book. I need to communicate with him very soon."

-Yes, that is quite a reasonable request. Maybe I should contact Harry Potter…

-CRAP!

Severus suddenly realized another thing he had done. Due to his stupidity and blindness in the pursuit of power, he had just endangered wizarding Britain and the world even further.

In the eyes of the rest of the world, Wizarding Britain had already been a vulnerable child with too much wealth and treasure. And now on top of that, Severus had just resurrected someone! When the revival was carried out by the Dark Lord, the most powerful dark wizard in the world, who subsequently disappeared again, everybody would assume it involved some very powerful, dark, and dangerous rituals, and few dared even trying to know. But Severus Snape was only a moderately powerful and intelligent wizard, and the ritual was not all that dark or dangerous. Bloody anyone would want that power!

Severus glanced at the living example of his stupidity, and considered destroying the evidence, but found himself quite reluctant to do that.

-Well, the ritual does require someone to want the other to live, and that desire has to be true.

Severus doubted if he had sacrificed the will to kill Lucius as well as his corporeal patronus.

The snake animagus seemed a little wary upon Severus' glance, and he quickly changed the theme: "Well, we should thoroughly plan before we take action. On the other hand, do you have newspapers from other countries by any chance? It seems that the Boy-Who-Lived now controls the Daily Prophet, and he hides things quite differently from how it has been done before."

That partially explained why Severus hadn't noticed anything earlier. Still, it exemplified his stupidity and ignorance in not even thinking of obtaining a US wizarding newspaper, for all that he had lived in the United States and Canada for the past year!

The sneaky snake seemed to have guessed at Severus' ignorance, and changed the subject again: "Severus, do you have coffee? I could really use some."

Completely speechless in dawning horror and remorse, Severus threw the bag of untoasted bagels to Lucius, and began making coffee.

-At least coffee and bagels will not kill you or endanger the world. That is, unless you put coffee into Harry Potter's mouth, and see what he would do in the caffeine-induced sharpness.

In the meanwhile, the white-haired aristocrat absentmindedly opened the bag of bagels purchased from a discount shelf in Walmart, and began eating.

"Severus, I think there is something wrong in my stomach."

Severus rolled his eyes, and decided that if Lord Malfoy dared to complain a single word about the taste or texture of the bagels, he would destroy the living evidence anyway. But when Severus turned around, he saw that Lucius really was pale and in real pain.

Severus began to throw diagnostic spells onto Lucius, and quickly found the symptom to be the same experienced by the creative idiots who had tried free transfiguration on themselves.

And Severus realized what went wrong in the ritual: the duplicated Stone.

-Of course, when brilliant young heroes come up with some clever way to cheat, they are always successful. And when it comes to the middle-aged ugly dark wizard with sociopathic tendencies, well, there is always some way that things go wrong.