[HP] Can you be gentle with me

"I didn't expect you to come after me..."

Behind the door, Tahlia turned her back to Snape, her right hand holding the wand was lowered, and said coldly, her voice was very soft, but it easily drowned out the roaring and roaring from the cubicles on both sides .

"... How do you say I should deal with you?"

Snape didn't answer, just walked forward slowly, and a spell hit the floor in front of him.

"Maybe I can't see now, but I can hear." Tahlia turned around almost instantly, her voice still cold. "Are you really determined to stop me?"

Snape was silent for a few seconds, then drew his wand too. "I can't let you kill Anderson—"

"Why?" Tahlia suddenly yelled out of control. "You can't—why would you stop me? He killed him!"

"Even if you kill him, Derek won't come back to life." Snape said flatly.

"So what?" Tahlia pointed her wand straight ahead. "This is my business—"

"No, it's none of your business." Snape took a deep breath. "If you do kill him, Azkaban will be your only home."

"Then I deserve to be taken! I deserve it! It's because of me, Derek—"

"Where's Nigel?"

Tahlia lost her mind suddenly, her mouth was slightly open, and she couldn't say anything for a while.It wasn't until this moment that Snape felt that she had stabilized a bit.

"Don't tell me you never thought about him," Snape said quietly.

Tahlia froze for a few seconds, then lowered her head, unconsciously lowering the wand that was pointed at Snape.

"Revenge never changes anything. You think you can be satisfied with it, but there is absolutely nothing waiting for you... Are you really going to carry out your revenge so impulsively, with no regard for the consequences?" Snape continued, perhaps Tahlia He has recovered a little bit of sanity, but he still can't completely let go of his mind. "If you're sent to Azkaban because of this, what do you want Nigel to—"

"Shut up." Tahlia said suddenly, her head still slightly lowered, and after Snape took a few steps forward, she raised her head again, and he noticed that her eyes seemed to be covered with a thin gray curtain, and almost lost the vitality of the past. ...

"You want to leave him alone?"

"I want you to shut up!" Tahlia growled. "That's right! I never thought of that! I'm such a failed mother! What else do you want to say?" She was trembling. "You don't need to remind me—"

"No, you're just losing your mind…" Snape said, grabbing Tahlia's wand hand suddenly. "You need to calm down..."

"I'm calm!" Tahlia growled, before turning to a murmur in an instant. "I just—"

"Breaking into the Ministry of Magic is not at all calm, Tahlia." Snape's tone was still flat, and he took Tahlia's wand away. "this is not you."

"...What?" Tahlia didn't react for a moment, she stared at the front blankly, subconsciously wanted to take back the wand, but failed. "What are you talking about—"

"I know you're having a hard time right now, out of your mind," Snape said softly. "Emotions control your brain, you should calm down and think carefully..."

Tahlia's body was stiff, and she refused subconsciously. "I do not want."

She doesn't dare to think at all now... dare not think of anything──

If she really forced herself to calm down and think carefully──she would have to face the previous thing again...

As a witch, but selfishly want to get rid of magic, and even put the wand equivalent to half the life of a wizard in a drawer?When they were attacked by another wizard, there was nothing she could do...

"It's my fault, isn't it?" Tahlia mumbled absently.

Snape froze for a moment, then spoke reflexively.

"No." It was only then that he realized what Tahlia was saying. "It's not your fault." He should also take part of the responsibility, after all, he failed to save the man's life. "It's me—"

"You? Don't lie, Severus." Tahlia laughed suddenly, a very bleak laugh. "It's funny, I'm trying to convince myself it's you. It'd be so much easier if it was you, wouldn't it? When I got here I was trying to tell myself how much you hated Derek and how much reason you had to see him It’s impossible to save—” She turned her face away. "But you still tried your best, right? The main reason is still me. Potions have no effect on Muggles. I shouldn't ask you to save him at all. It should be said that I shouldn't hurt him at all—"

"...Even if you didn't ask me to, I wouldn't let him die."

"So it's still my fault." Tahlia closed her eyes. "I've never been able to get rid of this thing - you see the consequences, he died because of my stupidity, and as a witch, he gave up the only wand he could protect himself..."

Snape didn't answer, as if Tahlia was about to say something.

"Why did you chase me here?" After a long time, she finally asked.

"To stop you from doing something you regret—"

"No, I'm not asking what you're doing here, Severus," Tahlia interrupted. "What I'm asking is, you came after me—what did you do in my shop?"

Snape was silent for a few seconds, as if thinking, and then answered. "Take you back."

"...Did I promise you that Derek wouldn't die?"

This sentence stunned Snape for another moment.

How should he answer?Theoretically, it may be true. After all, according to the current situation, Anderson probably followed them all the way back from the station... But who can answer this kind of hypothetical past event that cannot be changed at all?

And Tahlia obviously took his silence as a yes.

"I'm really doomed to never live a stable life for even one day, am I?" she asked softly. "No matter what I decide to do, it will always lead to wrong results in the end..." First I decided to study at Hogwarts, only to find that the blood in her body was the most humble in the wizarding world, and then I met Sirius, which made him almost Being expelled from the family, hurting friends on their own initiative, foolishly wanting to get rid of the discriminated eyes and being bewitched by the Dark Lord to intimidate classmates...

So she was branded as expected, and it was understandable that she was hated by Snape...

Even now that the Dark Lord is dead, she still makes mistakes again and again──

Derek really shouldn't have known himself at all... If the two of them had never met, or if she hadn't fled there earlier and had found a place to stay and let him run his little shop by himself, he would still be will live.

When Anderson finds her own house in another location, she will only pay the price──

"...give me back my wand."

Snape frowned. "So that you can keep doing stupid things?"

"No." Tahlia looked up. "I've figured out one thing..."

"Surely you didn't mean to tell me?"

"That's right." Tahlia's refusal was as quick and decisive as before. "Give me back my wand."

Snape was still frowning, but his intuition told him that Tahlia really didn't intend to stay here any longer, and of course she didn't want to continue thinking about killing Anderson, so he slowly put her wand in her hand. "So, where are you going to go next?"

Tahlia, who had already passed Snape and was walking outside, paused slightly when she heard those words. "Go home," she said. "You won...I should have come back long ago, I am a witch anyway──I belong here." After she finished speaking, she started to walk again, and at the entrance happened to meet Sirius and others who finally opened the door lock people.

"Tahlia, you—"

"Sorry." Tahlia cut them off first, and smiled at them. "I didn't say hello to you just now—we... haven't seen you for a long time."

There was an awkward silence.

"... Shouldn't you say something else?" After a while, Lucius said quietly. "You didn't tell me you couldn't see, Tahlia." He paused. "Honestly, I'm a little bit upset."

"You're upset?" Tahlia raised an eyebrow. "I'm the one with the eye problem, not you, and I didn't lie to you—"

"But you deliberately concealed it." Lucius replied flatly. "I don't see any difference between the two."

"…Okay." Tahlia shrugged. "I admit it's my fault, I shouldn't hide it from you, I'm sorry, I promise I will say whatever you ask next—" He said, squeezing between them. "But we'd better get out of here right now, the spell I put on their door won't last that long - let's go...to you, Lucius?"

Lucius still looked displeased, but he responded quickly and followed Tahlia to leave.

Then a few people hurried to follow, only Snape walked behind very slowly, watching the interaction between Tahlia and those people in front of him with a frown.

Still not right.

And very wrong.

Tahlia was perfectly normal, so normal that no one would notice anything wrong with her—if they hadn't seen her before.

"You also think she's not in the right shape, don't you?" Snape came back to find that Lupine was also slightly behind the line, walking a little ahead of him, whispering to himself.

Snape glanced at the werewolf, then nodded curtly, forgetting that the man was there.

"What happened to you guys just now?" Lupine asked again. "She's really going to—"

"It doesn't matter," Snape replied impatiently. "Eventually she gave up and she didn't do anything."

"...you convinced her."

Snape froze for a moment, then spoke in a low voice. "No, I'm just giving her a heads up." He just moved that kid Nigel out. "I'm not that capable of convincing her—"

"It's still the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, Severus." To Snape's surprise, Lupine laughed. "You've always been the only one who can convince her...don't you see that?"

Snape paused for a moment, then said coldly. "Are you confused, Lupin? I've never been able to convince her to do anything, otherwise how could she have sneaked into the Dark Lord when we were all in school—"

"You're wrong." Lupine shook his head. "Although she seems unwavering, you can always easily influence her will. Maybe you didn't ask directly, but she will only change her original decision for you... As long as you think about it carefully, you will find out ──”

Snape didn't answer, but Lupine slowed down even more, became side by side with himself, and continued talking on his own.

"Think about it, when we were in the first grade—she didn't intend to disclose her background, but later she revealed it to everyone without warning, just because your identity was also exposed."

Snape paused for a moment, but then he continued on.

"You wanted her to make an introduction for you—don't look at me that way, Severus, I know it—she didn't want to, and meant to stop you for the rest of her life, but she did, because that's the only way you can live."

Snape's face fell. "If you're trying to make fun of me—"

"No, I'm telling you how much she cares about you—"

"I don't know anything about what you're saying." Snape interrupted Lupin coldly. "What are you going to say next? That she changed her decision to teach because of me? Because I ran away for five full years? Finally because I raised a child by myself? Mr. Lupine, don't try to fool me—"

Lupine sighed softly. "I thought you should be more sensible, Severus."

"For you, I never need that kind of emotion—"

"I know a lot more than you think." Lupine's sudden words made Snape shut up. "So you should hold back a little and don't lose your temper with me, and listen to me calmly, after all—maybe I'm the only one who knows how to solve the sticking point between the two of you right now."

Snape fell silent.

Then they suddenly realized that the two of them were already a long way behind the group of people in front, and it happened that the door leading to Auror's office on the side was suddenly knocked open when they passed by.

Damn!

"You..." It was a young witch who rushed out, but in a panic, she accidentally threw herself forward, and the door that was finally opened, for some reason, closed heavily as if it had its own consciousness. Going back, judging from the slapping sound mixed with cursing from inside, it seems that Tahlia's spell is really very tenacious.After a while, the witch stood up in embarrassment, patted the robe on her body, and blinked at them with an expression of disbelief.

Snape seemed to recognize the woman, but he couldn't remember where he'd seen her.

"professor……?"

Snape raised one eyebrow.

"Snape...Professor?"

Ah, he remembered, when the witch's hair turned silver with fright as she spoke.

If I remember correctly, the woman in front of me has only just graduated from school not many years ago, and the always rash Hufflepuff student at that time has now become a... Auror?

"Tonks...Miss."