[HP] Can you be gentle with me

Time seemed to be frozen at that moment.

It was sad, and the biting wind on the tower couldn't blow away the sad breath that radiated from Tahlia's body. Facing Tahlia like this, Snape's heart was indescribably complicated, especially full of contradictions.

That's right... she didn't deny her approach this time, but that didn't mean Snape was thankful for what had caused it.

In any case, his wish should not be fulfilled through Tahlia's suffering.

If she really wanted to forget everything—

"Tahlia."

Snape spoke gently, and then watched Tahlia, who had finally stopped crying in her arms and returned to normal slightly, backed away slowly with a stiff body, then raised her head, facing herself with a pair of watery eyes.

If she really wanted to forget everything—

"I want... to give you something."

He won't stop.

"...what?" Tahlia's voice was hoarse, and Snape wasn't surprised at all, considering he had never seen Tahlia cry so heartbroken as far as he could remember.

"Follow me," Snape said, turning around and starting to walk, but stopped just as he was about to step down the stairs.

He knew Tahlia wouldn't follow right away, but she would eventually...

Now she will do so.

Sure enough, Snape only waited for less than a minute when footsteps came from behind him, and then he hesitated and tentatively grabbed the corner of his clothes with one hand.

Snape couldn't help smiling, reaching out and grabbing the cautious arm, leading him to another step.

"where are we going?"

"...you won't be disappointed."

After a while, Snape led Tahlia to her office in the cellar.He stopped at the door, turned around, and saw that the woman behind him had obviously guessed where they were from the route they walked just now, with a look of confusion that he couldn't hide.

Snape reached out and turned the doorknob, which, without incident, was locked. "Tahlia," he whispered.Then moved slightly to the side.

"Don't tell me that the place you mentioned is my office..." Tahlia's voice echoed softly in the corridor where there was no one but the two of them at the moment. Although it sounded like a sentence of complaint, in this sentence After that, she still walked forward slowly and opened the door of her office. "After all I'm pretty sure there's nothing here that you claim to give me—"

"Not now." Snape followed Tahlia into the room, closing the door behind him. "Until then, I'm afraid I'll have to borrow the tools you prepared for Nigel."

"Borrowing..." For some reason, Tahlia laughed out loud. "Are you kidding me, offering to give me something—if I borrow your tools?" She paused for a moment. "What's more, those are Nigel's precious things. Do you want me to let you use them without his permission?"

"I'm not kidding," Snape said flatly. "The only reason for asking for this is that I don't think it's necessary to move places specifically to find a cauldron."

Tahlia laughed again, seemingly amused by Snape's reaction.She didn't say anything more, just took out her wand and waved it lightly, several cauldrons and a large wooden box in the cupboard beside her flew out slowly, and landed on a square table that had just been temporarily transformed by Tahlia. "Then...you do what you want." Then, she slowly sat down on the sofa.

Snape didn't waste any time, quickly moved to the square table, put all the tools on the table one by one, and then asked. "Where are the materials you asked those students to find for you?"

Tahlia's body visibly trembled, her mouth opened unconsciously, and her whole body froze instantly.

"Tahlia—"

"Why do you ask this──" Tahlia instinctively wanted to ask a question, but then remembered that the truth might not be what she thought. "You...shouldn't be trying to destroy them──" Then she realized that just now Snape had asked her for tools for making potions, and then said that he would give her something...all kinds of reasons only led to one result. "Wait..." She stuttered suddenly, after all, the situation was too unbelievable. "You...you mean—you're going to make that potion for me...for me?"

"As you imagined." Snape replied flatly. "But even I, with the title of potion master, can't make any potion without materials──"

"I..." Tahlia couldn't react at all, and when she found out, Snape had subconsciously instructed her to find the potion ingredients hidden by her just now. It didn't take long for the whole office to be filled with burning flames. The smell emanating from the cauldron.

And Tahlia was still sitting on the sofa, completely puzzled by Snape's behavior.

You can't really blame her, can you?Earlier, Snape kept saying that if he chose to escape by forgetting, he would definitely regret it...but now──

Hearing the clinking of jars and the scraping of knives against the tabletop, Tahlia was finally convinced that Snape wasn't kidding, that he was really...really going to make that potion for himself.

"why?"

Those voices stopped briefly because of Tahlia's question, and then, with Snape's faint reply, those sounds came to my ears again. "I just think..." The voice paused for a moment. "No one is entitled to take away a person's right to choose."

"……What?"

"It seems that people always think they can understand each other, and even understand each other's feelings." Snape's voice was still flat, and from the gurgling of the liquid in the cauldron, it could be judged that he hadn't stopped making the potion at the moment. "But no... I have never experienced those painful memories for you, and I will not have any position to make any decisions for you."

Tahlia didn't answer.It should be said that she was almost about to make a sound, but the words were swallowed back by her abruptly the moment she was about to say them.

Merlin knew why she suddenly felt like nothing mattered... It was too far-fetched to insist that it was because she felt Snape's memory just now, even if she really understood that the man had changed, she couldn't just be like this Untie the knot in your heart in an instant and act as if nothing happened, right?If it was that easy, she wouldn't have struggled for so many years.

"So you're right, I'll make this potion for you and give it to you..." Snape continued. "And it's up to you to use it or not"

Tahlia fell silent.

The silence lasted for a very long time, Snape had continued his potion making, and he was going well, contrary to the title of this potion, which is said to be the most powerful forgetting potion in the world, its making process was continuous It can't even be called complicated, and it can even be said to be simple. This is almost impossible in any theory, unless the ingredients that make this potion have such effects are not those ordinary medicinal materials at all, but other...more precious thing.

Snape almost thought Tahlia wasn't going to speak anymore, at least not until he finished the potion and handed it to her, so when Tahlia made a sound just as he was about to pour in the last ingredient , he was really surprised.

"Do you... want me to drink it?"

Snape's hands trembled slightly, but he stopped himself just in time to add another drop of liquid because of it, no, there was no way he would have made such a mistake, even in this situation.

A large cloud of red smoke came out of the potion in the cauldron, and after the smoke cleared, what was revealed was the transparent liquid inside.

But it's not done yet.

There is still one last step left.

As for the question Tahlia raised just now...

"You asked for my opinion..." Snape extinguished the flame underneath, put all the potions in the cauldron into a glass bottle, and turned to face the woman who walked to the big table at some point. "Honestly, I don't know."

"...Don't put me off, Severus—"

"You know it's not a perfunctory move, Tahlia." Snape set the glass bottle on the table and stared straight at the woman in front of him. "Are you asking me if I want you to forget about that person? What do you think I should answer? Hmm? Considering how I feel about you—"

Tahlia froze for a few seconds, blinking her eyes a few times. "...Oh." She coughed lightly. "Sorry, that's not what I meant—"

"You don't need to apologize." Snape sighed. "It's not a question of whether I wish it or not, you know the effect of this potion, and even if your last choice is to drink it, you will still remember that there was a man named Derek Hiton, except that he—"

"It's just that he is not important to me at all, I understand." Tahlia answered the words lightly. "Why do you think I chose this potion? It is not without reason that it is called the most permanent potion of forgetting in the world, because it does not alter our memories, even the most reasonable memories will have Vulnerabilities, and as long as the loopholes exist, they may be discovered... Or, even if I can't recover, I will always feel that something is wrong, and in the days to come, maybe I will be madly stuck in the search for something that may never be possible in my life. In the truth to be found..." She paused for a moment, stroking one hand aside, then ran her fingers over the glass bottle Snape had left there. "I will remember him, but I will not remember that I ever cared so much about him..."

Snape just stood quietly.

Not wrong...that's why he had no way of knowing exactly what he wanted Tahlia to do.

Emotionally, he really hoped that there would be no relationship between that man and Tahlia beyond ordinary people, but intellectually...

"Just know that no matter what decision you make, I will support it."

"Very understated." Tahlia chuckled and nodded before asking again. "So, the potion is finished?"

Snape glanced at the still clear liquid. "It's one last step away." His gaze moved to Tahlia's left hand, which still wore the ring. "I need something that the person you want to forget once gave you, a...something that is very important to you and him...Tahlia──" He gently took her left hand.

Tahlia's body froze instantly, and she withdrew her hand abruptly, her right hand tightly covering her left hand. "No."

"You know the potion is nothing without it," Snape said patiently, holding back his temper. "You have to let go—"

"As long as I care about him, I won't take the ring he gave me!" Tahlia growled. "You can't make me do this!"

"That's the only way to get this potion done, you know that." Snape raised his voice slightly. "If you really want to make this thing, you should give up—"

"I know, but not this!" Tahlia's voice was louder. "I won't give up the ring, it's his own hand...he put it on for me with his own hand—"

"Then obviously I can't keep my promise, Tahlia…" Snape said flatly. "Unless you come up with something that will make the potion complete—whatever that is. Before that, what's in this bottle isn't even potion..." He said, pushing the bottle away from Thalia's side.

Perhaps this turned out to be a good thing.

This may mean that Tahlia actually doesn't want to give up the bond he once had with that man, she still... cares.

"I have."

Snape stopped, watching in surprise as Tahlia walked slowly towards him.

"It should be said that you have."