[HP] Can you be gentle with me

Severus Snape sat quietly in his place at the teacher's table. The seat next to him had been vacant all these years, and no one would sit there unwisely. All the professors and even the students knew that the seat Belonging to their Potions Teaching Assistant ─ ─ Tahlia Watson.Even though she has been missing for a long time, but... the headmaster always said with an innocent face that he had never accepted her resignation letter, and even every once in a while he would specially remind her in various ways Student, there is actually a potion teaching assistant in this school...

But it won't last long.

Snape's hands on his knees clenched unconsciously. The child would go to school. On the last day of the reply deadline, an owl brought back the child's reply, written in a child's crooked handwriting and pretending to be an adult. The next letter said he would enroll.

Even if he hadn't seen the letter, he didn't believe that Dumbledore would choose to lie to him about something like this, which made no sense at all.

Seeing the kid named Nigel is tantamount to finding Tahlia.

This was when he was getting discouraged because he hadn't been able to find Tahlia, Lucius Malfoy reminded him that he had... waited too long.

Because of this, it seemed that the students of other grades walked into the hall and sat down a lot slower than in previous years, and Snape felt that the patience he had cultivated over the years was almost exhausted in just a few minutes... By the time the last student finally hopped on the chair laughing and laughing, Snape had ordered himself to endure it for countless times...

But, it won't be long... He will see Nigel, and even, he has already decided how to act in the future, he just needs to call the child alone, after all, he is a professor──

The hall door was finally pushed open, and McGonagall ushered in a small group of timid freshmen, and Snape found his target in the crowd at a glance.

The big stone that had been hanging in his heart was finally let go, and he felt a sense of relief that Tahlia did not prevent Nigel from enrolling...he was able to see her.

The corners of Snape's mouth raised involuntarily, this move obviously frightened a group of students, and the audience was filled with horrified faces, even the untuned song of the Sorting Hat was almost overwhelmed by such a strange atmosphere.

McGonagall glanced at his colleague on the teacher's desk who was not aware of the atmosphere at all, and resisted the urge to twitch the corners of his mouth. He took the long parchment roll and walked up to the Sorting Hat. . "The people whose names I call will come up here and put on their hats." She said loudly, slightly raised the sorting hat with her right hand to signal the freshmen, then lowered it, and then spread out the parchment roll.

"Stewart Ackerley."

A boy walked up to the stage trembling, picked up his hat, put it on and sat down, and a few seconds later, the Sorting Hat shouted that he was a Ravenclaw.

"Malcolm Baddock."

"Slytherin!"

Snape, who had been focusing on Nigel, was briefly distracted after his house was called out, and his eyes followed the boy who had been sorted into Slytherin until he sat down.

Nigel stood quietly in the crowd, looking as if he was in a daze, but he was not. Since he entered the hall, he kept looking at the teacher's long table when no one was paying attention. It was pitch black... he I thought Hei Qiqi had left long ago, but I didn't expect him to still stay in this school──

He was the man who kept Tahlia from being really happy.

"I fell into the lake!" He faintly heard a small commotion from the Gryffindor dining table, and immediately recalled the violent storm in his mind, as if a student really fell into the lake because the boat heaved too much with the lake water inside……

It turned out that he had been called by name and sorted into Gryffindor.

Eyes were drawn involuntarily...he remembered sitting there, enjoying food with Harry and the others, and Hermione - who had always wanted to know Tahlia better.

And he also saw her, not much different from the one he remembered, ah, but look at the look on his face when he gave Ron a dignified lecture... Nigel couldn't help grinning, this reaction made the standing A girl next to him glanced at him suspiciously.

"Merlin...is that Nigel?"

Harry heard Hermione's exclamation, looked along, and found Nigel standing in the crowd, with a wide smile on his face, couldn't help complaining about him silently before answering. "Yeah, it's his turn to enroll this year—"

Hermione seemed excited. "Does this mean that our teaching assistants are finally going back to school?"

"I'm not sure." Harry shook his head. "If Tahlia is really going to come back, this is the time to show up, no?"

Hermione sighed. "It's true..." She said in a regretful tone. "It's a pity, I've always wanted to ask Tahlia for advice──"

"Perhaps you can ask Nigel to deliver the message," Harry reminded. "You know, they've been living together—"

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione smiled brightly.

"Orla Quirke!"

At this point, McGonagall yelled, and the girl was sorted into Ravenclaw shortly afterwards. McGonagall waited for her to sit down before returning to the parchment, moving his eyes down a little, ready to say the next name.

"Nigel S──"

She fell silent.

The hall also fell into silence.

Even all the students in the audience felt that it was weird, they stopped talking and turned their heads to look at McGonagall in bewilderment.

This must be the first time she froze on stage while reciting the students' names, and everyone couldn't help but wonder what happened.

I am afraid that the only person who knows the reason for McGonagall's reaction at this moment is Harry. He has always known Nigel's full name, but others have never known it. He was always puzzled why Nigel had the same surname as Professor Snape, Over the years, no matter how much he searched, he couldn't find another Mr. Snape in the wizarding world, so there was only one possibility...that Nigel's father was probably a Muggle...

But that doesn't make sense at all. If so, how on earth did Tahlia know Nigel's parents?And why both Nigel's parents died?

It wasn't until earlier today, when he heard what Nigel said on the train, that all the truths were connected by him.

Tahlia had always been Nigel's biological mother, even though Harry didn't know why Tahlia had tried so hard to hide it in the past.

Harry couldn't help but glance at Snape, then turned his head guiltily at being spotted by him.

Since Tahlia was Nigel's mother, Nigel's father - considering the horrific fact he had discussed with Draco earlier - was most likely the one staring at him...

"Minerva?"

Seeing McGonagall stunned for a while, Dumbledore coughed softly, and shouted.

McGonagall came back to himself, but his eyes couldn't help but glance at Snape who was sitting.

Snape blushed, should it be said that Gryffindor's way of thinking was almost the same?The old and the young peeked at him at the same time, what was his plan──

"Minerva, if I remember correctly, the sorting isn't over yet." He reminded kindly, smirking.

McGonagall was annoyed and glared at Snape. She was only shocked for a moment, but she wanted to see if Snape would remain so calm when he heard Nigel's child's name!Looking back, clearing his throat...

"Nigel Snape."

Kuang Dang!

The corners of McGonagall's lips curled up unconsciously. It seemed that she was right. Snape's reaction must have been amusing. He even knocked over the goblet on the dining table in full view.Resisting not looking back, she suddenly understood it completely, and she knew that she would not be the only one who guessed the truth, at least Albus probably knew too, and that was why she was paralyzed in the hall s reason.

It's not hard to guess, is it?Even if she only listened to Albus talking to her about snippets...

About Tahlia caring so much about Snape, about how she left because of Snape, about how much she cared about Nigel, and finally, about Nigel's name...

It just didn't occur to her that Snape didn't know about it until now—

Not long after, Nigel walked up briskly, in sharp contrast to the trembling freshmen before.

"Long time no see, Snape... sir." McGonagall smiled and said softly.

Nigel returned a polite smile. "Hello, Professor McGonagall," he said, grabbing his hat and putting it on, and leaping up onto the stool, not giving Snape a look, and completely ignoring the students in the audience who had been turned into statues at the sound of his last name.

"Ah...you are their child..." As soon as Nigel put on the hat, a soft voice came from his mind, it turned out that he still remembered Tahlia──

"Of course I remember your mother... child." The voice answered him immediately. "She was a very special child - her wit, her ambition...everything befits a true Slytherin..."

Nigel's eyes widened.

Turns out Tahlia was from Slytherin!He and Harry kept speculating before, because Tahlia killed her without telling them her house... In the end they all thought that Tahlia must be a student of Ravenclaw──

"Oh? She never told you?" The Sorting Hat's voice sounded again. "Don't be surprised, child... your mother was a fine Slytherin... but... let's focus on you for now..."

Even though he still wanted to know more about Tahlia's previous sorting, Nigel adjusted his sitting posture quietly, trying not to think about asking more...

"Hmm... let me see..." the voice said in a deep voice. "I see composure in you—"

Snape didn't know what he was thinking right now.

Seeing Nigel sitting quietly on the stool, unconsciously, he remembered that when he was 11 years old, he was also sitting on that stool, with the same hunched back.

Nigel is his son.

He's so sure now... everything makes sense, why he never gets angry because Nigel is being rude to him, why he finds Nigel's behavior cute and funny, completely different from those students who don't have a brain, And why, Nigel is so good at potions...

It all made sense, as he should have understood after recovering that memory.

He should have figured it out then!

He never thought that he would have a son. The memories of his childhood have always made him subconsciously reject the word father. He never thought that one day he would become someone else's father...

And what did he do?Over the years, he has not fulfilled his father's duty once, not once!Instead, he was constantly being blinded by the false fact that just the thought of Tahlia having loved someone else was completely unbearable—

But it doesn't matter now.

That was his son with Tahlia, he had a son with Tahlia!Though he's still confused why Tahlia would lie to him, say she's in love with someone else...

But he should have thought of it earlier!If he had guessed earlier, he would not have been absent from Nigel's life for such a long time. Thinking of this, he clenched his fist unconsciously──

But everything still has a chance to make up, doesn't it?

His and Tahlia's child, now his student, he was almost certain that Nigel would be in Slytherin, why not?Whether it was him, or Tahlia... a Slytherin.

He will fulfill the responsibility of the dean, the responsibility of the professor, and... the responsibility of the father──

"Hufflepuff!"

Huff... Hufflepuff? !