Good or bad, does it matter?{HP}

Hotel "Three Dragons".

In a small, very ordinary room, the walls of which were decorated with drawings of flowers, and the ceiling with a soaring golden dragon.

On a small, double bed, a bright green snake was calmly snoring.

And the warm rays of the sun, penetrating through the only window, created such a calm and peaceful picture that even the cleaning lady, who entered the room a few minutes ago, did not dare to wake the guest and calmly left it, but it was unknown whether the incredibly calm and serene atmosphere was to blame or the fear of a particularly poisonous three metres long snake, by the appearance and colour of which it was not difficult to understand how toxic it was.

But in the future, the woman vowed not to enter the room without knocking and that also while wearing a protective amulet, even if the guest left the room, because it was better to leave work at nine and calmly hand over the shift than to stay in the hotel forever as a ghost.

But such a peaceful atmosphere did not last long, as the next moment, the snake hissed furiously, jumping up from the bed when a body wrapped in a robe landed on it.

"GRIIIID!"

"Hmm." he nodded calmly, settling more comfortably on her tail, from which Nagini narrowed her eyes very unkindly and slowly, very slowly, as if afraid to scare him off, began to entangle the wizard.

"Stay still, it will not hurt, and you have already developed immunity to my poison…" and when the "trap" was supposed to "slam shut", the Prince disappeared and appeared near the TV.

"You're dreaming, it will still be very unpleasant."

"I'll be gentle…" the snake said, slowly crawling towards him.

"That's the last thing I wanted to hear from a three-metre snake." a small fireball appeared in his hand, which he raised above the TV, and the snake froze, "And now slowly crawl back to the bed and close your mouth…"

"You won't do that…"

"Let's check?" Baring his teeth, he lowered his palm a couple of centimetres lower, while not taking his eyes off the tense Nagini, "You know that if I sit down to do my research, I can stay in the room for weeks…"

"That's not fair! You provoke me, and then you act so piggishly! Animal abuser! Do you really enjoy torturing a small, defenceless snake so much?!"

"A small and defenceless snake…" he drawled thoughtfully, looking around, "And where do you see it?"

And when Severus "got distracted", the nimble tail, in a split second, braided him and now he was hanging in front of the muzzle of a huge, hostile snake, which with imps in its eyes, looked at him.

"Got caught, my dear... now you will not escape from me and will answer for all the bullying that I had to endure…"

~knock-knock~

"I apologise for disturbing you, this is housekeeping…" a slightly twitching female voice sounded from behind the door, making the snake freeze. "I'm a little busy now, come in about twenty minutes." Severus calmly answered, as if nothing was happening, which made the maledictus very unhappy.

"Y-yes, of course…" As soon as she left, he looked at Nagini again and smiled radiantly: "Shall we continue?"

"You really know how to ruin the mood, but I will still get revenge on you!" reaching her tail towards his left leg, the snake took off his boot, then his sock, and bared her teeth in anticipation, taking the feather hanging on the painting.

"Do you think I'm ticklish?" he raised an eyebrow mockingly, but she ignored his words and slowly began to move it along his heel and closely watch his face, which, even after a minute, had not changed at all.

"Tch! What should I do with you…" she drawled with a hint of disappointment.

"Understand and forgive, well, and also put me down on the ground."

"You can get out yourself, after all."

"I can."

"And why don't you get out?"

"I don't want to, maybe you're a little right, I make fun of you quite often, but mind you, I love you, so be it, you can take revenge, but let's do it without biting, I still have to heal the wound later, and for that I have to get out the healing potion, open it... in general... I'm too lazy." Severus summed up, to which she snorted in displeasure and began to shrink, while slowly lowering the wizard down.

"I hate you." the snake muttered discontentedly, climbing onto the bed.

"Someday I will definitely find your weakness!" she measured him with a determined look.

"Of course, I will look forward to that moment." he nodded with a playful smile, while inside, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, 'I forgot that this is not my real body, just a little bit more and I would have really laughed, and after that, this little impudent thing would definitely not leave me alone, I will have to get rid of this weakness later …'

"I understand that you did what you wanted?"

"Yes, so it's time for us to leave here." stretching out his hand, along which she quickly crawled, the next moment, they disappeared.

And a minute later, the door to the room simply flew off its hinges and a squad of ten wizards in black suits with wands in their hands burst into the room.

"So he left…" the Asian with a scar under his eye drawled with irritation, looking around the empty room, "Search everything here, and also put him on the wanted list, I need him alive, I need to ask him a couple of questions…"

__________

At the same time, Severus appeared in front of a familiar two-story shop, where he had left an order for herbs the previous day, which should have already been picked, judging by the fact that the door was unlocked and had an "open" sign on it, and a familiar old man was inside.

Slightly adjusting his robe, he went inside, where he was almost immediately met by an elderly wizard who looked quite tired.

"Good morning, I've come for my order," and five small bags fell on the table.

"You're a bit early, but... never mind, you owe me seventeen thousand two hundred Kanji, take them and get lost," he waved him off, hoping to quickly close the shop and go to bed.

"Well, thank you for your efficiency, and don't be in such a hurry, take care of your health, we only live once."

"Kid, are you trying to teach me life lessons?"

"No, I'm worried about you, but I also wanted to clarify, what places should I not visit in Tianzi?" Having measured the young man with his piercing gaze, the elderly wizard snorted irritably.

"The peaks, as well as the gorge marked on the map, I don't know who lives there, but three years ago, a group of a hundred people went down there, but no one returned. If you see a cross-shaped mark made by claws on a tree, leave from there immediately. That is Zouwu territory, although they are scavengers, they will kill you without blinking an eye if you enter their territory. And lastly, do not approach the oasis in the very centre of the mountains, the Sea Serpent lives there, another creature, the size of two Basilisks, but if you do not approach it, it will not touch you, and so, that's it, now pay up and get out."

"Well, thank you for the information." the bags of herbs disappeared from the table, and in their place appeared other bags but these ones were filled with gold.

"Maybe we'll meet again sometime and it would be better if you close the shop for today, I feel like you'll have no end of "clients"..." Severus drawled mysteriously, leaving the building, and then disappearing again, under the frowning gaze of the tired owner of the shop, for the bags of Kanji, he didn't even bother to count them and just simply removed them and closed the front door, on which the sign from "open" changed to "closed", and below appeared a note "until December 15".

"I wanted to take a day off anyway, so here's a reason," stroking the back of his head and yawning widely, he opened the door behind the counter and headed up the stairs to catch up on the sleep he'd had to waste in order to get into the Tianzi Mountains, collecting the necessary herbs…

_________

During the transfer to another magical market, Severus stopped briefly in a Muggle alley and changed his face and cloak, making it a couple of shades lighter.

And after that, he found himself in exactly the same shopping alley, but a little less crowded, and it was run by the Green Dragon group, the upholders of the rules and more humane wizards. It was because of the stricter rules, both for buyers and sellers, that this place had more than twenty percent fewer customers, but as an advantage over the previous one, it was necessary to highlight the safety and some kind of compliance with the laws of the KMP.

In this place, he only dropped in to rent a hotel room, and after that he moved to check the spatial artefact, where he was met by a rather interesting picture: two growling she-wolves, not taking their bloodthirsty gaze off the Phoenix, who was sitting on the wall, to which Vitold was previously chained, looking at them like they were worth shit; one Qilin, butting, pulling the tail, paws and ears of the King of the Blood Wolves and two other qilins, standing a little further away and not taking their excited glances off their brother, who still did not calm down.

"And he caught your eye, maybe you will take him into your pack?" with a mocking smile he looked at the leader of the pack, for whom his eloquent look answered, expressing hitherto unseen sorrow and slight irritation.

As soon as the cub heard the familiar voice, he sharply pricked up his ears and, finding its source with his gaze, with a joyful "snort", as if a puppy seeing his master, quickly ran towards Severus, and the wolf, with relief "exhaled" and sideways-sideways, began to retreat back, behind the wall.

"It hasn't even been half an hour, and you've already managed to drive this wolf mad, I approve." Severus nodded to him, stroking the excited animal on the head, but the King of the Blood Wolves growled discontentedly in his direction.

"What a cutie …" Nagini hissed with affection, looking at this small, defenceless creature, which she wanted to hug.

The qilin, noticing the appearance of the snake, was not afraid at all, but on the contrary, began to squeak something to her and reach out to her, which greatly embarrassed the snake, because usually, because of her colour and appearance, all the animals shied away from her like the plague.

And, for the sake of interest, she lowered herself even lower and the next moment, jumping up and leaning on the wizard's leg, the cub reached forward and began to rub its nose against Nagini's "nose", causing the latter to be completely stupefied.

Severus himself looked at this picture with warmth, because he, like no one else except the maledictus herself, knew about the feelings and unpleasant thoughts that had been gnawing at her lately, and such a release was simply necessary for her.

"Why isn't he afraid of me?"

"He can see the future and thanks to his core, this gift was strengthened several times and it is quite possible that he can see fragments of the very distant future, thanks to which, the cub was not afraid of you, most likely seeing in one of them that you are a very good and caring snake." the Prince stroked both on the head, from whose face, a gentle smile never left.

"Then it is clear.…"but, just after these words, the remaining two Qilins approached the wizard, they also looked at the snake with excitement, already completely embarrassing the poor reptile, simply not understanding what was happening.

"They are also able to see the souls of people and apparently they really liked yours, because it's not for nothing that you take the place of my conscience." he grinned and winked at her, "But let's play later." kneeling down in front of the cub, who immediately began to excitedly rub his nose against his cheek, he continued, "I want to understand what he saw, since he changed so much." his palm fell on the head of the little animal, who puzzledly tilted his head to the side.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt." and, closing his eyes, he began to look through Qilin's memories...