After putting away the signed scroll, Severus took the initiative to ask Nicolas.
"How do you plan to explain this to the French Ministry of Magic?"
Nico sat on the recliner. The Flamel Residence was quiet, as the house-elf was still at the Ministry and hadn't returned. His wife, who had been quite frightened these past two days, had already gone back to their bedroom on the second floor to rest.
At the moment, only Severus and Nicolas were present.
"Even if I tell the truth, the French Aurors would never believe that those people were the ones who did this." Nicolas said casually.
He looked out the window. The distance to the abbey wasn't small, but even so, one could vaguely see a faint green light spreading out into the night sky from that direction.
"Vinda's group has capitalized on the French Ministry's past fear of the Alliance. It's like if you found evidence directly related to Nurmengard within the Ministry, they would find various reasons to convince themselves it was all a coincidence, then lose themselves in the 'truth' they prefer to believe."
Severus also saw the thin layer of green light illuminating the night sky.
"They used the captured Shafiq and others to pin the blame on the Death Eaters?"
"An enemy far away in England is much easier to accept than a nightmare right before your eyes." Nicolas shook his head, as if lamenting something, "No matter how wise or brave someone once was, once they get entangled in politics, it's like being caught in a spider's web. They eventually become unable to act freely."
"After Perenelle has rested, I would like to ask for your help, Professor Snape."
Nicolas turned to look at Severus.
Severus didn't commit either way. He just met Nicolas's gaze, waiting for him to continue.
"She and I will go to the French Ministry of Magic to inform the Aurors that we were kidnapped by a group of strangers, went through some things, but didn't know their true identities until you rescued us."
Clearly, if they were to honor the promise to Grindelwald and not reveal Vinda and the others' true identities to the French Ministry, Nicolas needed to find a reason for why he and his wife returned safely.
Severus was the most suitable candidate.
When he was investigating cases with the French Aurors, he had discovered several important clues that the Ministry could not find.
It was also he who, one step ahead of the old Alliance's members, first returned to Hogwarts to find Dumbledore, then came to Nurmengard to wait for the culprits, ultimately bringing Nicolas back to Paris.
Even telling the truth, Severus was indeed the one who rescued them from the Alliance.
Regarding this, Severus thought for a few seconds before agreeing without hesitation.
The French Ministry would definitely know about his disappearance this afternoon. Using that time to rescue the Flamels was perfectly reasonable.
The reason Severus needed to think for a few seconds was actually because of the escaped prisoner, Sirius Black.
Previously, when the French Ministry needed his help, he had refused their offer to send a letter to the British Ministry explaining the situation, precisely because he didn't want Sirius to find them so quickly.
But now that Nicolas had been found, and he had a preliminary solution to his own magical casting problem, he would be leaving Paris soon.
Therefore, there was no longer any need to keep the news that he was in France with Lupin and Harry a secret.
However, since the couple had suddenly returned safely, if they weren't going to say it was Vinda and the others, they needed to think of another excuse.
So, before going to the Ministry, Severus and Nicolas first coordinated their stories, ensuring they knew how to reasonably narrate their experiences when meeting the Aurors.
After settling all this, seeing that Nicolas was still energetic, showing none of the fatigue expected for his age, Severus seized the opportunity to bring up another matter.
"Mr. Flamel, do you know what state a person would be in if their body was killed, but their soul survived due to some magic?"
Severus's question piqued Nicolas's interest.
"The body dies, the soul lives on? You mean a ghost?"
However, he then shook his head himself, dismissing the guess about ghosts.
"No, ghosts are strictly speaking already dead, both physically and spiritually. It's just that they have an extremely strong attachment to this world. Their souls after death undergo a different change relying on magic. What you're referring to probably isn't that."
Severus nodded.
"Indeed, it's not a ghost. A dead ghost has no possibility of being truly resurrected. But the state I'm talking about is different. Because only the body perishes, if the remaining soul finds a way to reform a body, then it can achieve a practical resurrection."
These words made Nicolas recall something. He visibly frowned, then looked thoughtfully at Severus.
"Ordinary magic couldn't achieve this level... What exactly are you asking?"
Severus spoke calmly.
"That kind of soul state, which should be dead but isn't, can possess living creatures. I was wondering if you, Mr. Flamel, have any similar research that could control such a soul state, or rather-"
"Prevent it from possessing living beings, but instead confine it to a specific object!"
Nicolas unconsciously opened his mouth, staring blankly for a moment. His aged, somewhat sluggish mind was clearly working hard.
Although he didn't understand what Severus intended to do, he had a strange premonition that this former Head of House Slytherin from Hogwarts was preparing for some grand plan!
"Mr. Flamel? Mr. Flamel?"
Severus's two soft calls brought Nicolas back to his senses.
He took a deep breath, looking deeply at the wizard before him whom he hadn't thought much of before… just someone with a somewhat special soul and magic, but very competent.
"I haven't seen the soul state you described." Nicolas shook his head.
This result, while disappointing to Severus, didn't weigh too heavily on his mind.
Originally, he was just seizing the opportunity to probe this great alchemist. It would be great if he gained something, but if not, he would simply stick to the original plan and go to Albania.
But just then, Nicolas suddenly spoke again.
"However, even if that soul state is different from a ghost, in essence, as a mass of intangible matter where the body is dead but the spirit and will persist, it should be closer to the form of a ghost."
"I'm not sure if I have something that can capture a living soul, as you described. But I do have something that can trap ghosts."
His words made Severus's eyes light up again.
Nicolas had already risen from the recliner and was rummaging through his safe. Finally, he pulled out an old teacup!
It was a small bone china teacup, with a small chip visible on the rim that looked like it had been knocked off.
To Severus's knowledge, it strongly resembled the teaching aids used by Hogwarts's Divination professor, Trelawney, in her tea leaf reading lessons.
After taking the cup from Nicolas, Severus could immediately feel its peculiarity.
Some uncleaned tea leaves remained at the bottom of the cup. It truly looked like a leftover prop from a tea leaf reading session.
But those tea leaves seemed to have fused with the cup itself. They appeared to be soaked in a shallow layer of water at the bottom, yet even when Severus turned the entire cup upside down, not a drop of water or a single tea leaf fell out.
When he righted the cup and looked at the bottom again, he found that the tea leaves, which had previously vaguely formed a triangle, had somehow changed shape at some point, now forming a hexagram.
"This was once a hag's collectible…" Nicolas explained to Severus, "I found it in the Pyrenees mountains. The hag was dead, but the ghost she became after death was trapped in this cup, unable to escape. So, I brought the cup back at the time and studied the principle behind it."
"I discovered that this cup likely belonged to a powerful divination wizard long before. The hag stole his divination collectible, and he placed a curse on this cup, ensuring the hag could never escape it, even in death, forced to remain inside forever."
"I was very interested in this curse and the cup. In 1798 or 1789, I forget the exact year, I later helped the hag release her soul. Then, using alchemy, I fused the curse permanently with the cup and kept it as one of my collectibles."
Severus held the [Hag's Teacup], listening to Nicolas's story. His expression turned somewhat peculiar as he looked up.
"Weren't you afraid the wizard who cast the curse would come after you?"
Nicolas laughed.
"How many people in this world are eternal? The wizard who cast the curse died long ago. It's just that the effect of his curse never dissipated and was ultimately permanently sealed into this cup by me."
Severus shrugged. His gaze on the cup grew brighter.
"Have you tested its effect on anything else before?"
"I've tried it on the ghosts of Beauxbatons. Ah, and some special spirits, like poltergeists and some spirits classified as dark magical creatures. It works on all of them." Nicolas said thoughtfully.
"As for whether it will work on the soul state you described, that's something you'll have to test yourself."
Severus narrowed his eyes and nodded.
Obtaining something that might work was already an unexpected boon for him. As for whether it would ultimately prove useful...
That would depend on how he prepared.