[HP] Can you be gentle with me

Sirius' reply arrived quickly.

During breakfast time, a brown owl with messy feathers flew to Tahlia and dropped the letter. Tahlia opened it and looked at it briefly, then tore a piece of bread crumbs and fed it to the owl who obviously wanted to eat. Then put the letter into the robe.

And Snape also received a note from Tahlia in Potions class in fifth year.

Judging by what it said, Tahlia hadn't told Black that she wasn't the only one visiting at his house.

Considering Black's likely reaction, Snape felt that Tahlia was right to decide to keep some of the truth, especially after he thought about it and began to regret the promise he had sworn to Tahlia a few days ago.

How could he have been so naive as to think that Black could have a peaceful...conversation with him?

Even if Tahlia will be there.

Tahlia has been the mediator in their conflicts since they were both in school, but even so, he can't be sure how he will react now—every time he thinks of Black, his mind goes to Uncontrollably, Tahlia pulled Nigel to stand with him, brimming with happiness──

No.

Snape frowned and forced himself to return to the class, otherwise who knew what these unresponsive students would do here.

"Mr. Weasley, keep an eye on that idiot's potion next to you!" He growled casually, turned around neatly, walked quickly back to the front of the classroom, and turned back to face the whole class.

"Ten minutes left." He said softly. "I have to give you a kind reminder—" After a pause, after the students in the audience raised their heads tremblingly, they put on a smirk. "If you find out... your potions aren't lavender at the moment... I must say I'm terribly sorry, which means you should just pack up and leave because—" He waved his wand casually. "Those are useless liquids at best, not even potions."

Several students let out a scream almost at the same time, wailing over the potion that Snape had suddenly wiped away in front of them.

Snape was in a good mood because of their reaction.

"Didn't hear what I said?" He continued to speak slowly. "Perhaps a paper on the properties and side effects of palliatives can give you a better understanding of how to make a perfect palliative—"

boom!

Suddenly there was a loud explosion.

Snape raised his hand reflexively to find the source of the explosion, so that he could cast a protective spell before the situation became serious-but to his astonishment, and to the astonishment of the whole class, the explosion did not come from anyone in the classroom a crucible.

It came in from outside.

"Stay here." He ordered, and the few students who had already started to pack up their potions immediately stopped what they were doing and obediently stayed where they were.

Snape raised his wand, walked quickly to the door of the classroom, and then carefully opened the door.

"Tahlia?" he called out in surprise.

It was indeed Tahlia standing outside, but she looked calm, and she was only stunned for a short moment because of Snape's sudden appearance. If it wasn't because of his sharp eyes that Tahlia was holding his wand tightly in one hand, she would have been alert He almost thought that the sound of the explosion just now was completely his hallucination.

"What's going on?" he asked, glancing back, giving a few stares to the students who were trying to snoop on the situation before stepping out of the classroom and closing the door behind them. "Someone attacked you?" Although he himself thought it was unlikely, who would dare to attack someone in school?Even if Quirrell was ordered by the Dark Lord, he wouldn't have the guts to--

"No one attacked me." Tahlia coughed softly.

Snape raised an eyebrow.

"…Okay." Tahlia coughed again. "I hit people, you know...I just ran into Quirrell—"

"Let me guess." Snape maintained the same expression. "Presumably our great Professor Quirrell has expressed friendly concern about your forest adventure and physical condition in the past few days..."

Tahlia shrugged. "It's not my fault, Snape...I warned him earlier not to try to interfere with me—"

"I'm not blaming you, Tahlia." Snape said quietly, and when Tahlia fell silent, he looked around and saw that there was no sign of Quirrell in the entire corridor before speaking again. "Where did you take him?"

Tahlia glanced at Snape silently, then, sighing, waved her wand lightly, and Quirrell, sitting unconscious against the wall not far ahead, gradually appeared. "I only had time to hide him a little before you showed up," Tahlia said in a tone of distinct complaint. "At first, I thought that if no one found out... I could modify his—"

"Alter his memory?" Snape asked suspiciously. "You really want to do this? He...you know he'll find out—"

"I just wanted the man to know." Tahlia shot Snape a look. "Don't you think some things are out of our control?"

Snape didn't answer right away.

Not because he knew Tahlia was right, but because of her words... she said 'we' - she saw them both as a group.

Just hearing Tahlia call the relationship between the two of them like this, he felt extremely satisfied from the bottom of his heart. This feeling was so indescribable that he didn't even know how to respond—

"Snape?"

Snape coughed lightly. "You're right." He said slowly. "But I still want you to think twice before doing this—"

Tahlia sighed. "You can just say exactly what you want me to do." She looked up suddenly, looking straight at Snape. "What do you think? Say I was impulsive, but I did, but I can't pretend it didn't happen—"

"Perhaps you should get out of here quickly and leave this to me," Snape said softly.

"To you?" Tahlia raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, I almost forgot, you once cast a flawless forgetting spell."

Snape froze for a few seconds, remembering that he had indeed cast Forgetfulness on the mad Mr. Anderson in front of Tahlia's eyes a few days ago.

"No." He whispered. "I just didn't want you to use this spell." As for the effect of this spell, he believed that Tahlia's was definitely more successful than his, after all he had experienced it himself, and until now he still had no memory of that night. "You don't have to push yourself—"

"I didn't," Tahlia said stiffly. "I haven't forced myself to cast a single spell—"

That's right, she used it voluntarily, no one used a wand behind her to force her to do it, any spell—any spell that hurt others, she decided to use it herself.

As she'd told Nigel once, she was responsible for any spell that came out of her wand, even the Forgotten One that was directed at Snape in the first place— ─

"You don't know me," Tahlia said softly.

Snape closed his mouth too, his lips pressed together.

"So," he said slowly after a while. "give me a chance."

Tahlia looked up abruptly, astonished. "What?"

"Let me get to know you," Snape continued. "You can't expect people to understand you—when you keep pushing people away," he said calmly. "At least, the current me is not your enemy, Tahlia." While clicking with his chin, he nodded to someone who was unconscious not far away.

"Isn't it the enemy...?" Tahlia repeated in a low voice, then turned her face away, following Snape's cues to Quirrell. "Indeed, we have other enemies—"

Snape had never been able to hear his own heartbeat so clearly.

Maybe he had succeeded, succeeded in making Tahlia stop hating herself so much - he had succeeded, hadn't he?

"I won't let you do it alone." Tahlia's voice reached Snape softly again. "I think the two of us can definitely come up with a perfect enough script. Even if we can't hide it from that person forever, we can always delay it for a long time."

Snape raised an eyebrow, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly involuntarily.

Of course he is sure that the two of them together can solve all problems──but right now, all he cares about is...

Snapping out his wand almost at the same time as Tahlia, Snape still had a small smile on his lips.

All he cared about at the moment was how long the venerable Professor Quirrell was going to be absent from his classes – or how upset Dumbledore was going to be as an interim Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

"Ready?" he asked.

Tahlia nodded slightly, raised her hand, and pointed her wand directly at Quirrell, and Snape beside her did the same.

The two glanced at each other at the same time. This time, they didn't look away awkwardly like the previous time. Instead, they were finally able to calmly put on a smile at each other, then turned around at the same time, and spoke in a low voice.

"Obliviate."

"Obliviate."

Two beams of the same color were emitted from their wands at the same time, and the next second, they sank straight into Quirrell's chest──

dark.

total darkness.

Snape didn't know how he had this hallucination, he was clearly standing in the school corridor with Tahlia a moment ago, casting a spell on Quirrell—

Instead of being in this stuffy space, you can't see your fingers...

"Please..." A voice came into my ears.

Snape felt that the voice full of tears and almost howling sounded strangely familiar, and unconsciously took a few steps forward.

"No... no more—Severus... please—"

Snape stopped abruptly.

"Please...stop—Se...Severus—"

Snape's eyes widened.

He seemed to have lost all his strength in an instant, unable to take another half step forward, even so, the woman's pleading voices still kept rushing into his ears...

Snape could only stand like this, unable to do anything, until the voice unknowingly turned into a suppressed whimper, and finally...the sound gradually disappeared, replaced by a man's heavy breathing──

──It came from my own mouth... No, not my current self, but seven years ago, the self of that day seven years ago──

Snape stood motionless, which felt strange... a few hoarse growls from what was clearly his own voice - and then a dead silence.

Merlin.

what did he do...