"Did he not explain what he meant when he said he knew why we wanted all this?", Dumbledore asked carelessly towards the end, outwardly not seeming particularly interested in his question.
"No, he only dropped the phrase suddenly after he complained that we already considered him a student at our school. And never came back to it.", Tiredly replied McGonagall, who had been thoroughly questioned for the past hour about the recent incident, which lasted no longer than a few minutes. "Is that supposed to mean something?", Minerva asked a little suspiciously.
"Just clarifying," he replied relaxed, leaning back in his wide chair. "Thank you so much for your time.", Said Albus, indicating that the conversation was over.
"Finally," Minerva thought irritably, heading swiftly out of the office. "Goodbye, Albus.", she dropped her voice as she opened the door.
"See you later, Minnie!", Shouted Dumbledore on his way, frowning slightly as the door finally closed.
"Or do you really think I don't understand why you're doing all this?", He ran those words through his head, trying hard to make sense of them.
"It could be anything.", He sighed, rising from his chair as he began a little walk around the office to stretch his aching muscles. "It's possible that this is just a bluff to pad his price by getting something in return.", Albus thought. "Or it's possible that he might actually know something..."
Climbing up the stairs to a small balcony in his study, Albus walked over to the rather tall bookshelves that stretched across the walls of the entire upper tier.
"But even if this mysterious mentor had put him up to it... All the same, the thing I feared most had happened: the boy had become overconfident," he came to an unexpected conclusion.
Carefully passing his gaze over the shelves, diligently searching for some book, out of the many hundreds of others, Albus pondered:
"The boy thinks he's too important to go to Hogwarts for nothing." he mentally prolonged. "Well... I wanted to give the boy his entire inheritance as soon as he graduated anyway.", Albus snorted. "But he'll have to hold off on the emancipation. Even if I wanted to, even with all my powers, I couldn't make it happen."
Finally finding the folio he wanted, which was a meter above his head, Albus reached up with his hand, wiggling his fingers slightly.
A rather massive tome, with the title 'The Compendium of the Laws of Magical England of 1707' slid smoothly into Dumbledore's wrinkled hand.
Reaching with his right hand for the Elder Wand, Albus tapped lightly on the spine of the book so that it began to flick through its pages rapidly in the next second.
Finally, when the pages of the book stopped at the right page, Albus ran a quick glance through it and found the paragraph he needed almost instantly.
"The Wizard's Age of Full Capacity Act," he began to read aloud, "Amendment number eleven: Any wizard under the age of majority who is entitled to carry a wand may prove his capacity by defeating a magical creature of XXXX-rank, without assistance from outsiders. The creature itself must not be in captivity, and the honesty, as well as the existence of the victory itself, will have to be confirmed by three adult wizards who are not related, at least from the fourth generally accepted degree of kinship.", Said almost in the same breath Albus.
"I have no doubt that Harry, with his current powers, can defeat the same dragon, or chimera. They wouldn't be able to keep track of him...", he thought. ""But the problem is, there are no such creatures in Hogwarts or any of its populated suburbs.", Dumbledore smiled slyly. ""And even if he does find one, and can find some witnesses in the process, I doubt it will happen in the next few years. And by then, I think I'll be able to talk some sense into him.""
Dumbledore, briskly going down to his desk, took out a parchment and a quill and began to slowly write a letter addressed to the boy:
"Dear Ha...", Albus stammered, "Orochimaru..."
"... I was informed that you did not want to accept the offer of admission. And I understand you very well. Few people want to learn from those who take their inheritance from orphans. I'm sorry you mistook me for such a person, and to prove you wrong, I'm giving you this key your parents left me. It's for your child's safe, from which you can take any amount of money for your needs. Don't think there isn't enough money in there, because in addition to the money your parents left you before your seventeenth birthday, all the donations from the charity "The Boy Who Lived" were also transferred into this vault. Which, by the way, I organized. The rest of your inheritance must come from the bank when you come of age, or emancipation, in your case. Sincerely, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.", Orochimaru turned the letter over. ""P.s: regarding emancipation, as well as the location of the aforementioned bank, you may call your hopefully future professor of transfiguration, Minerva McGonagall."
"The boy who lived?" The only question that popped into his head after reading the letter. "Basically, something like this is what I expected.", Orochimaru thought, hiding the letter in the sleeve of his kimono. "The only thing that surprised me was that this Albus would agree to my emancipation. Although I'm sure there will be pitfalls there as well. All that's left to ask is..."
"Take it.", Suddenly said the woman in the green robe that had been standing next to Orochimaru the whole time, handing him a small parchment bundle.
Orochimaru didn't immediately take the scroll, but checked it first with a chakra pulse, using the same chakra threads that he always checks letters like this nowadays.
When Orochimaru removed from the scroll, he saw what appeared to be a copied page from some law book. He didn't have to read the whole page, since the paragraph he wanted was circled in advance with a thin line of familiar green ink.
"X-x-x-x-x?", He was a little surprised when he finished reading to the end. "Sounds pretty serious."
"And what is the maximum rank, of these so-called.. magical creatures?"
"According to the classification of the British Ministry of Magic: X-five.", Minerva didn't hesitate to give it out, not asking the reason for such a sudden question.
"Do they want to sic the biju on me?", Orochimaru marveled, folding the bundle back up. "Though, I doubt it. Most likely, creatures of that rank are about equal to boss level summoners, or so." pondered Orochimaru. "So that's going to have to strain a bit..."
"Now can we visit Slanted Lane?", Said McGonagall, who had been patiently waiting all this time for Orochimaru to finish all the letters offered to him.
"For the gear that's listed on the invitation card?"
"Yes, that's right."
McGonagall did not ask how he knew about the list, the envelope with which, to her shame, she had forgotten to hand over, but only silently held out her hand to him.
"...?", Orochimaru raised an eyebrow slightly in response to the palm offered to him.
To this mute question, Minerva only sighed, and chastising her forgetfulness, began to explain:
"Hold my hand firmly so we can apparate to Diagon Alley. Apparition is..."
"That technique you moved yesterday?
"...Yes.", Minerva replied with a little silence, a little confused by this strange designation.
He unhesitatingly rather firmly, grabbed her hand, and Minerva, prepared, did not fail to warn her:
"Don't be frightened, and don't let go of my hand under any circumstances. You might feel a little queasy towards the end."
After waiting a little while for the meaning of her words to sink in, Minerva concentrated on the place of her arrival, and wishing hard to be somewhere else, made a sharp half-turn on a short heel.
The space around them swirled in a transparent spiral, and they immediately disappeared with a loud pop, leaving behind only slightly raised dust from the ground.
Orochimaru, abruptly finding himself in a different place, was not confused, and only slightly regrouped before he landed, sinking smoothly to the surface of the stone paving stones.
Looking around a bit, he saw only the familiar wide streets of London around him, and not noticing any differences around him, met his gaze with McGonagall, assuming that they had not yet come to the designated alleyway.
"That way.", she nodded towards an unremarkable bar that, gray and unassuming in appearance, reminded Orochimaru of one of the secret passages to Root base.
And so he followed her without a doubt, before that, using only the one-handed concentration seal, doing a trick with the illusory clone and invisibility, choosing not to use the shadowy one because he was worried that the rather thick smoke that was produced by the technique would give him away with his head.
Orochimaru wasn't worried that a random passerby, or a piece of garbage that flew by at the wrong time and bumped into him from behind, could dispel his illusory clone. Since Orochimaru was standing only two meters away from his projection, he could easily order the clone to dodge, or in a pinch, he could set himself up, smoothly dispelling the illusion as well as his invisibility at the point of collision. In a year of practice, including fighting shadow clones, Orochimaru was able to master this technique almost perfectly, and therefore in battles involving it, could be a bit like Obito. Even though the latter only knew about his fighting style from the words of his apprentice.
"It's a pity that this technique is useless in battles with dojutsu holders..." With a little regret, Orochimaru thought. "But even so, in case of a collision with a serious opponent - this technique will give an incredible advantage. The main thing is not to let anyone know its essence."
"You haven't, by any chance, ever apparated before?", Unexpectedly asked Minerva.
"I haven't.", Orochimaru admitted honestly, not seeing the catch in that question.
"Strange...", She said quietly.", Even wizards who have practiced apparatus for quite some time don't come out of it as casually as you do.
"Is there a problem with that?", Asked the boy in a neutral tone.
"Of course not!", She quickly retorted, thinking that she might have somehow hurt him with that question, "It's just odd to see a freshman come out of apparatus at the level of a seasoned obliviator.
"Well, I'll keep that in mind.", Calmly replied Orochimaru, actually making a mental note to himself: to find out who the obliviators are.
As he crossed the threshold of the dusty hall, Orochimaru noticed a small genjutsu at the entrance, which apparently is supposed to ward off random passersby who don't know senjutsu. He had guessed something like that before, when he saw that not a single person passing by paid attention to their sudden apparition.
"It's like being in a cave again...", Orochimaru thought as he looked around the dark, musty room.
Fortunately, none of those present paid much attention to him, which he was able, (and secretly liked) to attract sometimes.
But now was not the time when he wanted to draw attention to himself, for this was no longer the world he was used to, and knew almost thoroughly. And he had not yet had time to establish a reputation for himself, one in which his appearance would cause timidity and fear among civilians, and among ordinary shinobi – awe, and at the same time wild horror; not, as now: just curiosity, and in some cases wild disgust.
So quietly would have continued all the way to the entrance of this mysterious alley if one of the occasional visitors, who had previously been peering extremely closely into his forehead, had not shouted out:
"Look, it's Harry Potter!"