Slytherin's salvation is nothingness

Three years later.

"Feig, thank you for your notes. If it weren't for you, I would have failed the Transfiguration class." A girl with a ponytail was almost sticking to the boy in front of her, with stars twinkling in her eyes. With smooth, spotless white hair and delicate light gray pupils, she was the most eye-catching among the first-year students.

"Are you free later? I heard that the magic show in Hogsmeade has reopened."

The boy turned aside to avoid the girl who was approaching him, and disgust flashed in his eyes. He gently declined the girl, "Sorry, I really want to go over and take a look. However, I need to go to Principal Snape for tutoring."

"Ah...Okay. I didn't expect you to be so close to the headmaster. Can you help me get an autograph? It's rare to see him in Hogwarts, and he's obviously a highly regarded legendary figure. I heard that the Ministry of Magic wanted to award him the Order of Merlin, but he refused. It must be such a low-key and outstanding person that allows Headmaster Dumbledore to retire with peace of mind."

The smile on the boy's face froze, and he couldn't help but tighten his hand on the notebook. "Yes, a very good person." He ignored the girl and went straight to the principal's office.

The moment the door was pushed open, a beam of green light hit the seat opposite. The sound of the spell being detonated was accompanied by a slow and magnetic male voice, "Excuse me, what can this level of killing curse do? Please don't come here every day to release your ignorant anger, Mr. Figg."

"My last name is Slytherin." The long whip was swung in front of Snape, but was bitten off by a giant snake that suddenly appeared at the moment of contact. The yellow snake pupil sized up Witt and then shrank back into Snape's sleeve.

Witt glared at the man with gritted teeth, "Hero? You're not a hero, just a pathetic bastard who needs his sister's help. You even kept the basilisk she gave you. It wasn't you who ordered Kull and the others, it wasn't you who saved Hogwarts, and it wasn't you who resurrected everyone. She must not be dead, where did you hide her!"

"There is no one with the last name Slytherin anymore, and one of the four great masters has fallen into deep sleep again. Apparently the foolish people outside hold a different opinion, otherwise I wouldn't have to deal with reporters and your harassment every day in addition to my hard work at Hogwarts." Putting down the newspaper in front of him, Snape finally looked straight at the little boy in front of him.

"Cyrus Slytherin no longer exists in this world. You should give up your fantasy and work hard to become a popular child."

After finally sending Witt away, a small snake emerged from Snape's sleeve again. This time it did not grow in size, but crawled to a corner of the table, hissing and barking there non-stop.

"If I had known you were so nosy, I shouldn't have taken you in." Snape just closed his eyes and rested, letting the little snake keep barking. In the end, the little snake had no choice but to hang its head and retract into its sleeve.

Snape seemed to have taken a short nap, then he opened his eyes and looked at the thick stack of letters in the corner. It seemed that they were thrown there after they were received, and they were covered with dust. After drinking a full glass of fire whiskey, Snape still picked up the envelope on top.

A photo was attached to the top. Dumbledore was wearing an apron and wiping glasses at the bar. Aberforth behind him seemed to be saying something swear. Across the bar, Grindelwald raised the empty glass in his hand as if urging someone. Beside him lay a hound, which seemed to be disgusted with them and was picking its nose.

Snape threw the photo directly on the table and looked at the words on the parchment:

Severus, Cool secretly brought me photos of his father and his friends. I didn't expect him to be a bartender. He looks clumsy, funny, isn't he? Angus is doing well too.

Gellert came to see me before, and he just said that I looked like him, and then left. Strange old man.

Severus, I hope those reporters won't bother you too much. Does Lucius visit you regularly? I found him quite good at housework when I lived at Malfoy Manor. Perhaps you could ask him to clean the house at Spinner's End for you. Do you still live there? Is Madam Pomfrey ok? How are Professor McGonagall and the others?

Severus, are you still unwilling to reply, or will you not read my letters at all? Cool can no longer secretly send me parchment, and I don't want to tear my bed sheet to write you a blood letter.

"Now that things have come to this, how can I face you again?"

Without looking at the parchment filled with handwriting, Snape took a deep breath, stood up and left.

On a plain somewhere in Scotland, hundreds of meters below a castle protected by layers of spells. The Dementor floated in the air, but was bounced away by the spell when it touched the bottom of the cave. A humming sounded in the darkness with an echo.

The temperature at the bottom of the cave was very low, and the girl humming against the wall was only wearing a thin single piece of clothing. The shackles on her exposed limbs were deeply sunken into the ground, and the halo of magic was constantly absorbing magic. In front of her was a pile of ashes, and burnt parchment could still be seen in the ashes. The letters she had sent to Snape were returned to her one by one, but they were no longer returned in the form of envelopes. She still wrote to him every day, but later, even the ashes were gone.

A beam of light shone through the deep cave, and a fiery red phoenix circled in the sky. The girl still didn't look up, staring blankly at the ashes in front of her. A blanket was covered on the girl's shoulders, and Dumbledore gently patted the dust off the girl's head, "Are you still not going to leave?"

Looking at Dumbledore's empty hands, she shook her head slightly, her head moving slowly, as if she was no longer interested in anything. Her eyes looked empty and dull, and her voice was monotonous and boring, "I won't leave."

Dumbledore quietly cleaned the simple bed, but only swept away the dust on it, as if no one had ever used it. "Is this your own punishment? I don't think Salazar used all his magic to resurrect you just to see a corpse that was still breathing."

Dumbledore's words finally made the girl react a little, but her eyes quickly sank again. "It was because of Salazar that I didn't choose to commit suicide. I have done everything I can, and I can finally start over. How could I drag him into the darkness again? He is a hero, and I am a criminal. From the moment I joined the Death Eaters, I was ready to be punished. It was the magic left by Salazar that supported me to resurrect them. I am just a prisoner with less guilt."

"Choosing to imprison yourself... Then why do you still expect a reply from him, and you shouldn't write to him again."

The girl was silent for a long time, the chains on her limbs trembling due to the fluctuations of her magic. "I... understand. I won't write to him again. Perhaps he will never forgive me for being used without knowing it and will never be able to control his own destiny. And as the culprit, I will definitely be hated to the extreme. Isn't this proof?"

She pointed to the burnt letters in front of her and curled up in the corner.

Dumbledore took out a box of cockroach candies and placed them in front of her. She chewed one, frowned slightly, glanced at Cyrus, and swallowed it back. "Actually, I have always wondered why you would go to such great lengths to carry out this self-abuse plan."

A cockroach crawled to the girl's feet. Dumbledore blinked again, and the cockroach was pinched between the girl's two fingers, and the liquid inside flowed out. Through the cockroach's limbs still waving, Cyrus looked at Dumbledore's eyes, and then quickly looked away.

"Have you forgotten what you saw in the Mirror of Erised?... I don't want to be a hero, and I can't be one. I don't think all of this was planned to hurt myself, but to make the least sacrifice. The desire to die and the desire to live are the greatest gifts I have ever received in my life, and I accept them with relish."

"What if he forgives you?"

Cyrus was silent for a long time. "I hope for his forgiveness, but I am also afraid of his forgiveness. After all these things, I realized that I should not exist, and the people around me will suffer because of me. Angus will live well without me, and so will he. He originally just wanted to end it all... After being forgiven, I may really die against Salazar's wishes."

Dumbledore couldn't bear to look at the girl in the corner, and as his magic worked, the chains that bound her limbs broke.

"Is everything now in your plan? Because of you, he will continue to be the headmaster of Hogwarts. If you want to let it go, he will be in Hogwarts, always."

The darkness took over again, and the azure pupils sank into the deep pool again.

Cyrus would never leave the prison again, and Snape would never leave Hogwarts again. The two relied on the news that each other was still alive to get through day by day.

Looking up at the dark sky, the melodious singing voice was heard again, but it could not penetrate the prison cell deep underground, nor the tightly sealed walls, and could no longer reach his ears.