HP: Embrace the Darkness

Dumbledore didn't look at Asseth, so he naturally didn't notice anything was wrong with him and continued talking on his own.

"Severus... I have always felt ashamed of him. I did make some mistakes with him and misunderstood him."

The flowing heat of the black tea wetted his glasses. Dumbledore's eyes were completely white and he couldn't see the way forward clearly. This reminded him of the blank space in his head and the unscrupulous accusations in his mouth when he saw Snape pleading.

His voice suddenly dropped.

"Later I found out that I had misunderstood him. His loyalty and character far exceeded the harshness of life. At that time, I said some unpleasant things when I was in the misunderstanding."

"I...regret this."

"Later, when I was able to make amends, I had to personally watch him go to the abyss."

The old man's regretful voice reached Asseth's ears. He held his breath and used the oppressive feeling of suffocation and death to force his brain to regain clarity.

Seizing that momentary gap, Occlumency operates silently, randomly packing all disturbing emotions into the deepest corner of the brain.

He took a few quick breaths, drank half of the black tea, and cleared his throat.

"With all due respect, Headmaster Dumbledore."

Dumbledore's eyes trembled slightly. During this conversation, he looked at Artes for the first time. He was startled by Artes' red eyes and hesitated: "You..."

Aces leaned back calmly, his crow-feathered eyelashes lowered, and he suppressed his complicated emotions.

"I'm fine, but you should tell him these words yourself. You can't expect me to tell him, otherwise he will only think that you are perfunctory... and that you and I are on the same side, which is not the case."

"I will. Do you... need me to step away for a while? Or maybe a cup of sweet hot cocoa?"

Dumbledore raised his wand and lit it on the teacup, replacing the hot black tea with hot cocoa.

Aces didn't refuse his kindness. He took it and took a sip, letting the sweetness spread in his mouth.

It's very sweet, but unexpectedly appropriate at this time.

Licking the remaining hot cocoa on his lips, Asseth looked at the old man in front of him who looked a little uneasy and smiled without emotion.

"You should have guessed that his ending was not good. You...you ordered him to kill you."

Dumbledore's lips trembled, and the hand holding the tea cup was trembling too hard.

Aces tapped the table irritably, the chaotic rhythm was like the chaotic thoughts, and his tone couldn't help but become cold and cruel.

"You arranged everything, walked away, and left him alone to face pressure from all directions, including but not limited to Voldemort's suspicion, the disgust of his colleagues and students. In the end, he shouldered the heavy pressure, completed the task, and left this world alone... .”

Asseth struggled to finish the last sentence and blinked his dry eyes uncontrollably. He always felt that his eyes were still full of devastated red and extremely lonely black.

The fingertips unconsciously exerted force and penetrated deep into the palm.

"In the future, you should never dare to think about what he will face, because you are afraid that you will be shaken, and that you will no longer be able to use the tool named Severus Snape unscrupulously."

"But I can understand you. Putting aside all factors, he is indeed a very handy tool."

No matter how much he told himself to be patient and restrained, Artes couldn't help but stab Dumbledore twice in the heart with sharp words.

He didn't care at all that the two knives pierced his heart mercilessly.

The stabbing was bloody and the stabbing was to the core.

The mark on the back of his hand seemed to feel his pain and emitted a faint light, silently comforting him.

This light was not obvious in broad daylight, and no one noticed that the mark was shining. Only Snape, who was far away in the cellar, subconsciously touched the mark on his finger - he felt strong grief from inside.

The corner of Asseth's lips twitched, as if he was about to bend down, but he immediately raised it forcefully and laughed sarcastically, "Dumbledore, is he easy to use?"

"I...I'm sorry. This is indeed what I would do. I have no intention to argue, but I definitely did not regard him as a tool! I trust him from the bottom of my heart. If one day, I have to die, only Silver Only Les can make me trust everything."

Dumbledore's blue eyes were full of pain. He pulled his hat down to cover his eyes, and his glasses were stuck in the middle, which made him look a little funny.

However, neither of the two people present had the heart to pay attention to these details.

Ace then raised his hands to cover his eyes.

The resentment and confusion that filled the sky welled up from the bottom of his heart, and along with fear, he squeezed his heart crazily. He breathed rapidly and closed his sore and painful eyes.

A counterattack after extremely suppressed emotions.

——Occlumency failed.

Intangible hints collapsed in the violent emotional fluctuations, and the abnormalities in the past became clear.

Anger overwhelms grief, fear, and resentment.

"Damn bastard!"

Aces laughed in anger.

He has never suffered such a big loss in his life, and he has to bear this crucial loss.

Dumbledore, who was still in grief, froze for a moment. He felt that Artes was scolding him, but also felt that it didn't seem like it.

He quietly lifted the hat, saw Ass's chest rising and falling vigorously, and breathing almost uncontrollably, and silently put the hat back on.

Regardless of whether he was scolding him or not, it seemed like he shouldn't be there at this time.

With his excellent and keen intuition, Dumbledore escaped again.

Aces tried his best to calm his breathing, gave up using the more effective Occlumency, and simply relied on his strong self-control to turn all the anger and wails in his soul into a calm and empty smile.

Dumbledore looked fearfully through the slit in his hat at Artes, who seemed to be about to blow up the principal's office in the next second and wanted to pull him to jump down with him.

"Principal Dumbledore, that's not what I meant... Forget it, these are not important. I can tell you what you want to know. I have already told you. What you want to do in the future or how you do it has nothing to do with me. Deng Principal Bullydo, see you later."

Artes quickly said his goodbyes and stood up to leave before Dumbledore could answer.

He knew that his tone and attitude were not polite, but before that, he had also said even more impolite things, so it didn't matter.

It doesn't matter what happens.

The flung hem of his clothes knocked off the cup of hot cocoa, and Aces paused in his steps. Dumbledore thought he was going to look back, but he never looked back from the beginning to the end.

Looking at the retreating figure, Dumbledore seemed to have aged more than ten years, leaning slumped on the sofa.

Nearly fifty years later, he doubted himself again.

"For the greater good..."

Dumbledore read this sentence over and over again in an old and choked voice.

In a place shrouded in darkness, Grindelwald stood stunned on the stairs, his heart and belief that had been as cold as iron shaken for the first time in so many years.

Was he really wrong?

Was he the one who trapped Al in this sentence, so painful?

Grindelwald doesn't know.

Just like he didn't know what he could do for Dumbledore now so that he wouldn't be in so much pain.