Butterfly Wings

Anyone who had never lived through Voldemort's reign of terror couldn't imagine the fear of having Death Eaters burst into their home at any moment and slaughter the whole family.

It was the fear of never knowing whether the kind old person or mischievous child in your family would die before your eyes.

Forget the name Voldemort—even the words "You-Know-Who" had become an indelible scar in many people's hearts.

And this young punk actually planned to use You-Know-Who's name as a gimmick.

He had a death wish!

He'd angered everyone. Someone even hurled the glass in their hand at him.

The wizard in the gold leather jacket jumped onto the platform and punched the young punk hard in the head, knocking him to the ground. Then he waved his Wand and raised a Shield Charm before shouting, "Everyone, everyone, I apologize on his behalf. Please, calm down."

"Someone will bring you all a little gift shortly, as compensation."

"This auction of premium items is canceled."

The wizard clearly had some influence. Though people were still grumbling, they gave him the benefit of the doubt and began getting up to leave.

Just then, Snape stepped forward.

"Tucker, I don't have much time to spare. I only came because you wrote to tell me you had something good."

The wizard in the leather jacket apologized again. "Mr. Doe, I'm sorry."

Snape shook his head. "No, I just want the auction to continue. I'd like to see what he's selling."

At Snape's words, the people around them stopped. A Bearded Giant nodded in agreement. "Right. We can't have come all this way for nothing."

In the end, the auction continued.

Anton glanced at Snape and gave a quiet, amused snicker.

Mr. Doe? What a funny nickname.

He finally understood why he'd run into Snape. Maybe he really had been lured here by the You-Know-Who gimmick.

The wizard in the gold leather jacket gripped Pete by the collar and hauled him to his feet. With an angry expression, he muttered something to him. Pete nodded fearfully.

Then Pete stood in the middle of the platform again.

"All right, there was a little mishap just now." Paired with the huge black eye, his words were rather comical, and many people burst out laughing.

"Two months ago, I went to Albania. I was afraid a powerful Dark Wizard was hunting me, so I fled without thinking and ended up there."

Pete spoke with great emotion, even trembling as though the Memory had frightened him.

The crowd laughed again.

"As everyone knows, the place is so desolate it might as well be the edge of the world." The more Pete spoke, the more animated he became. "But when I got there, I found that besides the forest, there were hundreds of thousands of bunkers."

The Bearded Giant cried out, "That many? Impossible! I know Albania. It's a very poor country."

Pete shrugged. "I'm not sure. Who cares?"

"I didn't find anything there..." Pete met the wizard in the gold leather jacket's sharp gaze and swallowed the rest of his words.

"But I did find this!"

As he spoke, he walked over to the iron cage and pulled away the black cloth covering it.

Inside the cage was a giant snake, a full twelve feet long—about 3.6 meters. It looked like a kind of Viper, its dark brown patches giving it a fearsome appearance.

But clearly, aside from its size, the Viper wasn't in very good condition.

It was covered in wounds, with scales peeling off in large patches. In places, its bright red flesh showed through.

"That's it?" the Bearded Giant roared. "You're wasting my time!"

"Don't rush. This is an incredibly, incredibly magical snake. It's no ordinary snake." Pete smiled mysteriously and drew his Wand from his Wizarding Robes.

He glanced at the wizard in the gold leather jacket. "May I cast a Charm?"

After getting permission, he turned to everyone with an exaggerated expression. "Now, keep your eyes wide open, because the transformation will last only a moment."

With that, he waved his Wand. "Reducto!"

The Charm's light passed through the iron cage and struck the Viper.

The snake let out a shrill, twisting hiss. For one brief moment, its Triangular Snake Head suddenly became the head of an Eastern Woman, her long black hair flying.

But the change vanished in an instant, as if it had been nothing more than an ordinary snake.

Anton gripped the tree branch in his hand.

Fuck!

Wasn't that Nagini?

At first, she'd appeared in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, accompanying a descendant of the Dumbledore family. Later, she'd followed Newt and the others to Hogwarts to find Old Dumbledore.

After that, the snake became Voldemort's most beloved pet and was turned into a Horcrux.

In the end, Neville had swung the Sword of Gryffindor and chopped off her head.

Anton didn't know what had happened in between, or whether the original story had even mentioned it, but Pete had clearly said he'd found her in Albania.

Anton knew Voldemort was hiding there right now!

Which meant...

He stared blankly at Pete, who looked rather pleased with himself on the platform.

I let him go. Otherwise, he would've died. Since he didn't die, did that mean Voldemort never got to meet his pet?

So Old Voldy had missed his chance with Nagini?

"Holy crap," Anton murmured unconsciously. "Did I change history? Butterfly wings?"

This wasn't some unimportant character. Nagini played a key role in many important moments in the Harry Potter story.

She was one of Voldemort's seven Horcruxes.

And she'd killed Snape.

At the thought, Anton looked diagonally ahead. Sure enough, Snape seemed interested and raised his bidding card.

"Very good," the wizard in the gold leather jacket called from the platform, presiding over the auction. "This gentleman has raised the bid. Anyone else?"

Pete stood beside him, excitedly rubbing his hands together as he looked at the Bearded Giant, who had seemed the most enthusiastic bidder.

The giant spread his hands to show he wasn't interested. "Her head has an exotic charm, but I don't want to put my precious bits in a snake's mouth. That's disgusting."

Laughter rippled through the crowd.

A wizard who'd been about to bid had nearly raised his card, but at those words, he hurriedly lowered it and turned to explain himself to the woman beside him.

The Bearded Giant's remark had been a perfect kill shot, completely putting off several people who'd been considering a bid.

Pete's face turned dark. He looked as if he wished he could slap himself.

"Anyone else?" the wizard in the leather jacket asked three times, then shouted, "Congratulations, Mr. Doe! You've won the lot at today's premium auction."

Two staff members came over, lifted the iron cage, and stuffed it into a Suitcase fitted with an Undetectable Extension Charm.

The crowd began to disperse.

Anton took one last glance at Snape, then left as well.

After wandering around the hall, he actually managed to find someone selling Muggle currency. Unfortunately, they had no Francs, only Pound Sterling.

Pound Sterling was a genuine currency with real gold content: 2.13281 grams. Judged by the weight of the gold alone, one pound wasn't a small amount.

Anton remembered reading in Holmes that Holmes had said a single woman could live quite comfortably on an income of sixty pounds a year.

That figure was at least somewhat useful as a reference, so he exchanged one hundred pounds.

At Gringotts, he would have needed twenty Gold Galleons to get that amount. Here, in what was practically the Black Market, it cost him only nine.

The Ministry of Magic strictly restricted contact between Wizards and the Muggle World. Clearly, Dark Wizards couldn't behave as recklessly as Anton had imagined.

Wizards rarely had any use for Muggle currency. The reason it was so cheap, it turned out, was that "extracting the gold from it is a hassle."

Anton nodded earnestly. "Right."

How brain-dead would someone have to be to extract gold from metal currency? Wouldn't it make more sense to take the money straight to a gold shop and buy some?

Once he had the money he needed, Anton didn't linger. The Old Wizard had warned him that the relaxed atmosphere in certain gathering places could make people forget the danger lurking beneath the surface—and that was often the most dangerous thing of all.

Anton left at once.

But before he could reach the passage where he'd hidden his Flying Broomstick, a Charm hit him.

"Expelliarmus!"

The old Wand flew out of his hand.

Anton calmly turned around, while his left hand quietly drew the spare Wand from the Hidden Holster inside his wide Wizarding Robes. It belonged to the Old Wizard.

Recognizing the person in front of him, Anton raised an eyebrow.

Snape!