Most master potioneers were not like Zygmunt Budge, retreating to some deserted island and living in isolation.
They had their own networks and social standing. After obtaining Lucius Malfoy's financial support, Severus Snape began contacting people he had known before.
Snape was dead, having died for Lily Potter. That was what Salvator Mundi Potter and the Daily Prophet had announced to the public; it was a settled matter. He had no intention of bringing a dead man back to life, but those "friends" he had known would not offer help to someone they had never met.
Money could sometimes buy love, and sometimes make people keep secrets. Snape happened to know someone who loved money and possessed considerable prestige—Horace Slughorn. With Slughorn's reputation, he re-established contact with the academic world, then entered the British Royal Archives with the help of "friends."
London had a public archives, which housed records from central government offices and courts dating back to the Middle Ages. Records were generally opened to the public after thirty years.
The Vatican also had its Vatican Secret Archives, which held the Pope's confidential records. The Royal Archives, however, contained secrets exchanged between the British royal family and other royal houses, not material like court records that could be made public.
When Napoleon was proclaiming himself king and emperor on the European continent, Britain's king was the notorious mad king, George III, who had repeatedly been unable to govern due to mental derangement.
It was impossible to deal with a devil like Napoleon by relying on bickering members of Parliament. During George III's reign, the British Cabinet existed in name only, political parties were regarded as treasonous, and constitutional monarchy was nothing more than a façade.
In 1801, the year before the Treaty of Amiens was signed, George III suffered