[HP] Astringent

It was six o'clock on a Monday night, and Harry was trudging towards the Potions Office.He paused outside the door for a while, and finally made up his mind to knock on the door.

This room was different from the one he had been in before. He was punished for out-of-school service in the second grade. At that time, the room was cold and dark, with hundreds of glass bottles on the shelves, full of slimy specimens, and dense Stacks of books on the shelf.Now the fire is burning vigorously, there are fewer potions, and there seem to be more cute trinkets.

"Close the door, Potter." Snape's cold voice came from the shadows, startling him.

Harry complied, and he leaned against the fireplace, hoping the fire would dissipate the fear that had taken root in him.

"The Headmaster wants me to teach you Occlumency, I just hope you're a little smarter than you were in Potions."

"Yes." Harry didn't dare to answer.

Snape spent some time explaining what Occlumency was and why he had learned Occlumency, but the technical terms were as cryptic as a bible.He didn't dare to ask questions, so he could only pretend to understand.Snape couldn't bear to explain any more to him. He inserted the tip of his stick into his hair, carefully retrieved a strand of silvery stuff, and put it into the Pensieve - Harry knew this, it belonged to Dumbledore , which he has used more than once.

"Stand up and get your wand out, Potter." Harry stood up nervously, and the two faced each other across the table.

"You can disarm me with your wand, or defend yourself in any other way you can think of."

"What are you going to do?" Harry looked at him in fear, "I remembered, you want to use the magic that Vanessa used before, to absorb the soul?"

"It's Remembrance, Harry." Vanessa couldn't stand listening, and corrected leisurely.

This startled Harry again, and he found Vanessa sitting next to a pile of glass bottles reading a book. She was wearing a black robe that completely blended into the background.

"Why are you here?" Whatever the reason, Harry felt his courage return.

"Don't worry about things that have nothing to do with my lessons, Potter," said Snape impatiently.This harsh tone didn't affect Harry's good mood, he probably mistook Vanessa as a teaching assistant and came to help him.

Snape said softly, "Let's take a look at your resistance. I've heard you've shown resistance to the Imperius Curse. You'll find that a similar ability is needed here. Now, get ready—Inspirit Take it!"

Harry was dumbfounded, letting Snape flip through his memories as if he were walking in his back garden.But Harry wasn't slow to react. He struggled, yelled, and tried to push Snape out.He raised his wand and muttered a spell.

When Harry regained consciousness he was on the floor, his knee banging hard on the table leg.And there was a red and swollen welt on Snape's wrist, like a brand.Vanessa rushed over almost immediately, but Snape stopped her with a look and rubbed her wrist.

"For the first time, it's not too bad." Snape didn't let him rest for long, and raised his wand again, "You don't need a wand to stop me, you have to concentrate and use your brain to resist me."

Harry said resentfully, "I'll try, but you didn't tell me how!"

"Polites, Potter," said Snape fiercely. "Now I want you to close your eyes, shut out your thoughts, put aside all your feelings. Don't think, don't remember, don't feel." He left Harry Half a minute, and then ordered, "Look at me, three, two, one."

Harry growled and struggled again.Four or five times in a row, Harry felt that his knees no longer belonged to him, and he still couldn't empty his mind.

"Only weak, sentimental fools wallow in sad memories—"

"I'm not weak!" Harry growled.

"Then prove it to me."

But the result remained the same. His brain was like a mailbox, and everyone had the key to open it.

Vanessa finally couldn't stand it anymore: "That's enough, let him take a breath." Vanessa helped Harry up, and he limped back into the chair.Snape snorted contemptuously and took the seat Vanessa had taken.

"Listen, Harry." Vanessa looked him straight in the eye, "You need to concentrate."

"I'm trying, but I can't do it!" He couldn't suppress his anger at all.

Vanessa nodded knowingly: "I understand, it's not your problem. In fact, only Slytherins are good at this. They always know how to get rid of emotions." Snape gave her a nonchalant glance.

Harry's eyes widened. "How did they do it?"

"First of all, you have to believe that emotion and memory are not one. Just like you write a diary, you can say that on December [-]st, I ate toast for breakfast and took transfiguration class in the morning. You can also write that I ate breakfast Toast is my favorite. The transfiguration class in the morning was very difficult. I tried my best to practice the disappearing spell several times but couldn't succeed. I was very frustrated. These two are memories, but one is only objective facts, and the other is subjective feelings. .”

Now Harry understood better, but theory was far easier than practice.

"Let me try it, don't worry, I will only look at the memories of the last month, you have to try to focus on my actions, instead of reviewing those memories as I go deeper." Vanessa comforted him gently , let him relax, and raised his wand.

Vanessa searched and found a small piece of memory. In the magnificently decorated hall, Voldemort was sitting at the main seat, and there was a person kneeling in front of him.Voldemort's voice sounded happy: "The time has come, take Potter, go get it."

"Master, are you talking about me?"

"No, she'll know who I'm talking to."

Harry tried to break free, but the memory kept replaying in his mind.He didn't want to listen to Voldemort anymore, grabbed his wand in a daze, and cast an armor charm indiscriminately.Vanessa was knocked back several steps and hit the shelf behind her, the glass bottle fell to the ground with a crash, and fragments fell everywhere.

"Vanessa." Snape walked over anxiously.Vanessa woke up suddenly, with several bloody cuts on her arms, and her clothes were drenched by the liquid in the bottle.

Still unable to react, she murmured, "What's wrong with me?"

"What are you stuck with?"

"A memory... about Voldemort."

Vanessa withdrew her hand, she was worried that Harry was still there.And Harry was lying on the ground exhausted at the moment, breathing heavily for air.

"Potter, come here today, immediately, pack up and go!"

Harry stood up angrily, and panicked when he saw Vanessa's appearance: "Are you okay?"

"It's okay." Vanessa shook her head, carefully rolling up her sleeves because it hurt a little when the cloth rubbed against the wound.

Snape ordered again: "Get out at once!"

"Can……"

"You go back first, remember to come at the same time on Wednesday." She comforted Harry, and said to Snape, "Is there any painkiller, he just needs a bottle."

Snape summoned the potion and stuffed it roughly into Harry's arms, not looking at his reaction at all.He picked up his things and hurried towards the door.Vanessa stopped him: "When was this dream?"

"Yesterday, last night."

"I see. Go back, and don't forget to clear your brain before going to bed."

Hearing the sound of the lock being locked, Vanessa gasped: "Where's my painkiller, Sev?"

Snape was already ready. While helping Vanessa apply the medicine to the wound, he sarcastically said, "If this happens again next time, you don't want to teach Potter with me again."

"I didn't think of it either..." She said aggrievedly, "Is it because I'm not well?" The more she thought about it, the more she thought it might be because of this, because she recently felt that her memory was not good enough, and she often forgot for a few minutes thought before.And occasionally I hear a strange voice in my head talking to myself.These strange things didn't happen frequently, and she didn't pay much attention to them.

The wound was slowly healing, Vanessa's arm was numb and itchy, Snape hugged her to prevent her from touching the wound.She whimpered and rubbed back and forth in his arms.

"Sev, do you think I will become like Neville's parents?" She said worriedly, "Will one day I forget you too?"

"The therapist said that there is no damage to your brain. Of course, I don't rule out the possibility that you have no brain."

Vanessa chuckled lightly and relaxed a little. If Snape would tease her about it, it was probably okay.But she still wanted to say something silly: "If I don't know you anymore, will you insist on seeing me?"

He mocked: "I guess at that time, every ward in St. Mungo's had a boyfriend, and it was not my turn to see you."

"Don't worry, as long as I see you once, I will definitely issue you a pass, allowing you to enjoy the privilege of being the first to visit me every day."

"Miss Weasley, I'd rather spend time researching to restore your dull head to a state that normal people can bear, rather than running to compete with your new boyfriends every day." Snape glared lightly. She took a look and continued to teach, "If you have time to think about these messy things, why not let us examine how many Defense Against the Dark Arts techniques you have learned."

"Are you still human! I was hurt!" Vanessa wailed.

Snape raised his lips and said with a sneer, "But you've already recovered, and I never doubted my potion level."

Bad news always comes with good news.Black had just replied to the letter. Although he hadn't identified Regulus among the many infernal corpses, he got the fake locket.Inside was a note written by Regulus himself:

[To the Dark Lord,

I'm dead long before you read this.But I want you to know that I discovered your secret.I stole the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as possible.I am willing to die in the hope that you will be killed when you meet your opponent.

RAB】

When the letter was written here, there was a wet ink stain on the parchment.He went on to write that he followed Hermione's advice and gave Kreacher the real locket, which had been destroyed, and kept the fake one for himself.And now that Kreacher is very hospitable, Black's old house has undergone earth-shaking changes.

Vanessa was really happy for Black, and Snape was very dismissive of the letter.His original words were as follows: "Sure enough, they are all moaning, emotional idiots."

The bad news is that the front page of the "Daily Prophet" published the news that ten Death Eaters escaped from prison, which also means that the dementors have been attributed to Voldemort.Unprepared to see Bellatrix Lestrange's savage face, Vanessa suffered for a long time.Throughout the whole day, Snape didn't urge her to read a book, and let her sit alone on the sofa looking at the fireplace for a day.

Vanessa offered to start combat practice the next day.Snape didn't object and practiced with her until midnight.

Vanessa was exhausted, and her fingers holding the wand were trembling: "Again, I still can't do the cremation spell well."

"That's it for today."

"No, let me try again. Please, one last time," Vanessa begged.

"Disarm." Snape took her wand and forcibly dragged her back to the bedroom.Vanessa's muscles were sore, and she followed behind staggeringly.She thought Snape looked a little unhappy, but she didn't have the strength to think about it anymore.

It was the first time she had fallen asleep without waiting for Snape to finish his shower.But she still habitually rolled over when she felt movement around her.

In the dark, Snape couldn't see anything, but he could feel a solid touch in his arms.He sighed heavily.