[HP] Can you be gentle with me

Tahlia froze for a moment, then shook her head violently. "No, it's impossible." She said hastily. "You know about the school days, when we were just barely getting together, I guarantee he didn't like me then—"

"And what happened next?" Lupine continued. "After Lily's death, if he has transferred his feelings and fell in love with you──"

"What you're saying doesn't make any sense, Remus!" Tahlia growled. "After Lily died, he wanted me to die, but you said he liked me then?"

Lupine fell silent again.

Do not……

Snape stared at Tahlia complicatedly.

He didn't want her dead—

Moreover, he didn't like her at all when he was a student, although he discovered this fact too late──

"Maybe he fell in love with you before he realized it──"

It had to be said that Lupine's intuition had always been surprisingly accurate, and Snape almost had to praise him for it.

But Tahlia obviously didn't feel a little bit of joy because of this. Instead, after hearing this sentence, she silently lowered her head.

"He likes Lily..." After a while, she opened her mouth softly. "He's always liked her, never changed—"

Do not……

"And you mean, he didn't know when... fell in love with someone else?" Tahlia slowly raised her head, looking at Remus.

Yes... Snape met Tahlia's gaze directly, as if that would give her affirmation.

"If what you're saying is true, then obviously that's a problem, isn't it? A big problem..." She went on softly. "He gave up on her." She paused for a moment. "Then, he will give up on me someday—"

"Tahlia—"

"Am I wrong?" Tahlia asked quietly. "Since he can fall in love with another person, no one can guarantee whether he will fall in love with the third person, or even the fourth person... If this is the case, I would rather he never liked me—" she said bitterly smiled. "I absolutely can't bear even one more blow..."

Suddenly Snape understood.

Maybe that's what Lupine really wanted himself to know.

That's what Tahlia would never tell her... the doubts hidden in her heart──

"Remus…" Tahlia looked up. "Tell me... what do I do? How do I get out of—"

What happened next, Snape couldn't catch it, because in an instant he had been pulled into another memory.

But what Tahlia said just now is indeed a question that needs to be carefully considered. Right now, she is afraid to take any further steps forward. It doesn't matter whether she still loves him or not...

The problem lies in what she said——she couldn't bear the blow again, causing her to completely cover herself, it was out of instinct to protect herself, if there is no real effective method...

If he couldn't think of a way to get her out of the invisible prison in his heart, then no matter how much they were attracted to each other, or if they resolved their past grievances... there would be no result.

What should he do?

The waiting time is always long.

Remus had already drank his fifth cup of tea, and the biscuits on the plate were almost emptied by him, and he might not be able to eat anything at the dinner party later.

The sun outside the window was gradually setting, and then replaced by the slowly rising crescent moon, and Remus walked to the window involuntarily, staring blankly at the only light in the sky that night.

Ironically, looking at the night sky peacefully like this has always been one of the few ways he can calm down, and of course it does not refer to the full moon—

After a while, there were several regular knocks on the door.

"Come in," he said.

It was a boy who walked in, with thin black hair sticking to his ears, and Nigel Snape opened his mouth cautiously. "That... Remus—I mean, Professor Lupine, I got your letter while I was on the train—"

"Ah, that's right..." Remus waved his hand, beckoning the boy to come closer, and pushed him onto one of the couches. "I have something to tell you, I don't think Tahlia should be in the mood right now—"

"Even—"

Remus raised his hand to interrupt Nigel, his expression suddenly became serious, making him swallow unconsciously. "But you have to make sure..." He said slowly and clearly with every word. "I promise you will calm down—"

Nigel stared blankly at Remus, then nodded seriously.

"What do you mean... Remus wants Nigel to go find him as soon as he gets off the train?"

At the same time, Harry, who was waiting for the new students to enter in the hall, was completely stumped by Ron's question.

"Do you think I'll know?" Harry said angrily. "I'm also very puzzled... What is so important that I can't even talk about it after the banquet──"

When they saw the owl struggling to fly into the train in the box, they were really stunned. No one expected to receive a letter from the owl on the train.

And the request in the letter couldn't be refused by Nigel at all. Although the lines did not exceed Remus's usual gentle tone, but for some reason, when they read the letter, they all felt the urgency and seriousness of the words in the letter.

This year is already Harry's fifth school year. Regarding the OWLs next June, he is actually not as worried as he expected. Over the years, even though Voldemort has been dead for so long, he still maintains his old habits and is very serious He was learning... Even Potions, which he was most interested in, which was in sharp contrast to Nigel, could not make Professor Snape, who has always been known for being harsh, especially Slytherin-loving, and extremely loathing Potter, pick out any major faults──Of course, with It had something to do with the fact that he and Draco had been partners for four full years.

And Hermione has been thinking about this exam since they were in fourth grade, and he believes she will be absolutely fine--

"Instead of thinking about these things here... you might as well worry about next year's OWLs." Harry said angrily, successfully shutting up Ron who was still thinking about it a second ago. "It wasn't Professor Snape who was looking for him, what would happen to Nigel?"

Harry was right, there was no possibility that Nigel would be injured in school, but when the sorting ceremony was over and halfway through the opening banquet, he suddenly saw Nigel walking in through the small door on the side of the hall, his face was pale and he could go. He also staggered and lost his mind when he walked, obviously not in the right state.

This made Harry inexplicably worried, except when Tahlia fell into a coma before, he had never seen Nigel in a state of trance... Could something really have happened?What's wrong with Tahlia?

No, if it was true that Tahlia was hurt or something, Nigel couldn't possibly be in the mood to go back to the hall for the banquet, or force himself to smile at Cedric Diggory sitting next to him.

As soon as the dinner party was over, Harry couldn't hold back the anxiety in his heart, and directly stopped the boy who was following the crowd to go back to his dormitory, obviously he wasn't the only one doing this, Draco joined them after a while.

"What's the matter?" Harry grabbed Nigel who obviously didn't want to talk to them very much. Only then did he realize that he seemed to be unable to use his height advantage to suppress the boy. He didn't realize it when he was on the train. Now they are standing close to each other, only a short summer vacation, Nigel is almost taller than himself.

"...Nothing──" Nigel froze for a few seconds before speaking. "It's just… Tahlia just showed up in Remus' office."

One sentence petrified the two boys, and Nigel took the opportunity to get rid of the hand that was holding him tightly, and then threw another shock bomb at the two who hadn't reacted at all.

"She said . . . she was going to come back.

What Nigel said afterwards Harry and Draco felt vaguely confused, and they also couldn't remember how Nigel dismissed them with a few words and left, and now they were only thinking about one sentence.

Tahlia is coming back.

She's... coming back?back to school?Back to the wizarding world?

After a while, the two managed to come back to their senses, and looked at each other in a daze.

"You hear—"

"Well, I heard." Draco's face that he had deliberately pretended to be serious in front of others all these years could not hold back at all, and the blankness was clearly written on his face. "We shouldn't have heard wrong... right?"

"There's no way we both got it wrong..." Harry smiled wryly, and then he stopped.

wrong……

How could Nigel react like this if Tahlia decided to come back?He should be excited... not this look like he was hit hard by something──

Apparently Draco nodded at the same thought, and their expressions collapsed at the same time.

There must be something else going on...

And that was absolutely serious, to the point where Nigel had to deal with them casually.

"...you have to promise first—guarantee that you will stay calm."

Nigel couldn't help but become serious when he was struck by the seriousness on the face of the usually gentle brown-haired professor in front of him. He was silent for a while before slowly nodding.

Remus looked down, took one last look in the direction of the Pensieve, and coughed softly. "You see, Tahlia should have told you this herself, but I think she's not in a good mood right now—"

"Why—" Nigel was about to get excited at first, but then he remembered what he had promised just now, and he suppressed the panic that surged in his heart when he heard Tahlia's emotional instability, and because of this, when he spoke At least to Remus's ears, his question could definitely be called calm.

Remus looked at the boy in front of him quietly, strange to say, he was quite firm in his heart when he wrote the letter, but now, when he really looked at Nigel's unusually deep eyes, he didn't know How should I speak. "Something happened..." He paused, watched the boy turn into a puzzled expression, and took a deep breath. "That...about Derek—"

"You know Derek too?" Nigel blinked, he thought Remus had never met Derek—

"It's not acquaintance, Nigel... It should be said, I met him once—" Remus began, but seemed to hesitate to speak. "He—"

"he died."

Time seemed to freeze in an instant.

Nigel stared at the boss, but instead of looking at Remus, he turned his head sharply towards the fireplace, staring straight at the woman who suddenly appeared and said these words, and behind her was a woman with shiny golden hair hair man.

At this moment he didn't know which side he should react to first...whether he should refuse to believe what he heard, or should he be confused about how the person who said this sentence would appear so naturally after he planned to never come back here.

Obviously, Remus on the side also did not expect such a situation.

For a while, no one in the whole room spoke, only the crackling sound of the flame burning in the fireplace causing the wood to shatter.

It wasn't until the woman who had just appeared in front of the fireplace walked slowly in front of Nigel, knelt down, put her hand on the top of his head and rubbed it lightly a few times, and smiled reluctantly at him, that the boy finally recovered. own voice.

"Tahlia…" Then he found his voice trembling like never before.