HP: Embrace the Darkness

Grindelwald felt vaguely that this look was very familiar, but he couldn't remember it for a while. In a hurry, he looked at Dumbledore: "Al, Legilimency!"

Then she stared into his eyes and waited.

Dumbledore was stunned for once, staring blankly at Grindelwald.

For no reason, he captures someone's soul and takes their thoughts.

The others were also confused when they heard this.

Even Athis, who was frequently distracted, was briefly brought back to his senses and looked at Grindelwald with strange eyes. Grindelwald's face turned red and he rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"You heartless little bastard, who am I doing this for! Every time you torture yourself——"

Grindelwald's voice stopped abruptly. He remembered that he had indeed seen this damn look, also in Athis.

For Snape.

Then now...

Grindelwald was not a fool, he was just worried and confused, and lost his composure for a moment. Now that he had figured out the key point, combined with Athis's inexplicable behavior, his brain was still in a mess and cold sweat had already appeared on his back.

He smiled stiffly, turned his head and lowered his voice: "Al, where is Snape?"

Dumbledore knew about the same thing as Grindelwald, but due to years of over-vigilance, he thought more and made more guesses. Upon hearing this, he glanced at Athis with a secretive look and shook his head slightly, indicating that he didn't know either.

Grindelwald suddenly felt a toothache and clenched his wand involuntarily: "Well...if there is anything, you can go first. Al and I are here."

Ases pretended not to know Grindelwald's vigilant movements. He raised his eyes, glanced at the crowd, and his gaze vaguely fell on the distance, nodding inconspicuously, and then quickly retracted it.

"coming."

A group of people suddenly appeared, and Susanna was standing at the front.

This group of people were wearing the same uniform and were all holding an iron chain as thick as an adult's arm. The chain seemed very heavy, causing veins on their arms to bulge. At the other end of the chain were tied tens of thousands of Dementors.

When they saw Ases, they were delighted. Just as they were about to speak, Ases interrupted them directly, "What's the situation at the manor?"

Ases' attitude was so different from usual that they looked at each other in bewilderment.

Susannah immediately became obedient, pulling the chain with one hand, making herself look busy before she said briefly, "Everything is fine."

"Very good." Aces raised his hand, and the ashes not far away floated over. "Contact the outside world and spread the news that Voldemort is dead."

Susanna and the others looked towards the pile of ashes, then secretly glanced at Ases's expression that looked like he was about to have a storm, and they all behaved well.

"Make sure to complete the mission."

"Aunt, you take people to send the Dementors back to Azkaban. Arrest all the Death Eaters, werewolves, and giants involved. Kill the Acromantulas. Close Malfoy Manor and forbid anyone from entering. As for those hands that reach out, chop them off one by one without showing mercy. Even if you kill them all, I will bear the consequences."

Ases held the wand tightly in his hand, with veins on the back of his hand showing, but his face was calmer and restrained than ever, and he arranged the next matters in an orderly manner. No one knew what kind of huge waves were surging in his heart, or how violently his heart was beating in his chest.

He could feel a breath watching him. That breath was too dead. Even though he had never come into contact with it, he knew it was the breath of death.

Time passed minute by minute, and several people listened obediently to Ases' arrangements, but the atmosphere became more and more depressing. They didn't know the reason, and dared not ask or interrupt, so they could only remain silent.

When he could no longer sense the breath of death, Ases stopped in a daze. An indescribable fear surged into his heart like a tide. The invisible hand holding his heart suddenly tightened its five fingers. The originally tense heartstrings were instantly stretched to the extreme, making a crisp "crunch" sound and breaking with a loud bang.

In an instant, a fishy-sweet taste rushed up his throat, forcing him to open his mouth, but he kept his mouth closed like a masochist, suppressing his inner uneasiness and forcing all the pain back into his body.

The smile on his face could no longer be maintained. Ases gave Susanna an expressionless look and turned away.

Susanna looked at the other person's back as he left resolutely, and felt an inexplicable chill on her back. She had a bad premonition, and she had 100% trust in her premonition and wanted to chase after him immediately.

Dumbledore took a wrong step and blocked Susanna with a smile.

Ases didn't care about what was happening behind him. He Disapparated madly along the weak connection. His soul couldn't bear his excessive use and kept protesting. The pain attacked his brain again, more intense than before, but he seemed to feel nothing. He left as soon as he landed on the ground without stopping at all.

Rowena followed him not far away, and when she saw him step into the woods, she knew it would be too late if she didn't stop him, so she raised her staff.

"Feel sorry."

A trace of guilt flashed in her eyes, and she swung her staff resolutely. Aces was caught off guard and fell heavily on the road.

"I was really unprepared. As expected, I am still..."

Rowena murmured, walked over and swiftly turned Athis over, placed the staff against his forehead, and with a reluctant look on her face, she activated her magic power and began to extract the memories of Athis that should not exist.

Strands of pure white memories floated out and fell into the crystal bottle that Rowena had prepared early.

Rowena looked at Ases as she pulled out her memories.

The man with an extremely pale face closed his eyes, and the blue veins on his forehead showed his fragility. The spell she used was to make the person cursed fall into a dream from which he could not wake up, but the other person slept uneasily, his lips were pursed in pain, and his brows were wrinkled imperceptibly. Although the sadness and pain were faint, they were real.

It seemed that what he had was not a sweet dream, but a complete nightmare, and there were faint signs of waking up.

"No, there's not enough time."

Rowena hardened her heart and increased her magic power while muttering sorry.

Ases' face turned even paler. His memory was linked to his soul, and his soul was already teetering on the edge of breaking under the impact from many sides, not to mention that he had to endure another sweep of magic power that was no less powerful than his own.

Rowena was not feeling well either. She couldn't bear to see Athis in so much pain, but she had to do it. She could only comfort Athis over and over again, wipe off his sweat with her fingers, and control the magic power as gently and accurately as possible. Even though she had an excellent control over magic, she still broke out in a sweat.

After confirming for the last time that nothing was missed, Rowena stood up with a sense of relief, but her expression was still reluctant. She couldn't help but glare at Ases with reproach. Her lips moved, but in the end, she said nothing. She sighed as if she had lost all her strength and staggered away.

Her departure took away the last bit of light, and darkness swallowed up Athis. He kept falling down in his nightmare, confused and unaware of the passage of time.

Sometimes he vaguely remembered that there was something he had to do, but when he thought about it carefully, he couldn't remember what it was.

The fruitless thinking over and over again made him accustomed to the endless darkness. Gradually, he no longer cared about what such darkness represented, nor did he want to think about it.

He is tired.

It would be nice if I could stay here quietly forever.

He thought that he must have made a lot of efforts, even given up everything, for something that might not achieve the expected results, otherwise he would not have developed the fear of being homesick.

It's just that there is something or someone who deserves him to do so.

Ases raised his head in the endless darkness and seemed to see a pair of eyes staring at him, which could not tell whether they were gentle or sad.

Whose eyes are these?

who is it?

The sky was turning pale, like a huge canvas being slowly pulled open, and the morning light shone faintly through the gaps in the clouds. The light fell on Ases, and a tear slowly fell from the corner of his eye.

Then, his breathing became rapid, and all the darkness was shattered the moment tears flowed from those eyes.

Aces struggled to open his eyes.

"Sev."

His memory came back in an instant. He killed Voldemort, which should have been a happy thing, but he found that Snape was not there, so he hurried to look for him.

and then?

Then what?

The brain feels like it is being stabbed with needles.

Ases raised his hands to cover his eyes, and it was because of this action that he missed two figures running up in a hurry not far away.

Harry didn't understand what Hermione was going to do. He looked back at Hermione while running. Hermione had a serious face and kept recalling the note in the Room of Requirement. There was only one sentence on it - Voldemort is still alive and the last Horcrux is in the Shrieking Shack.

The two ran all the way to the Shrieking Shack. Hermione raised her wand and ran in first. The strong smell of blood and the stench of decay hit her nose. She made a "quiet" gesture to Harry and walked forward cautiously.

Harry fell silent and followed Hermione, wand raised.

The two followed the strong smell and walked into an extremely shabby room. Hermione, who was walking in front, saw Snape and Nagini lying on the ground, their lives or deaths unknown. She stopped suddenly, unable to believe what she saw.

"Professor Snape?"

Hermione subconsciously walked over quickly. Harry stopped her without knowing why. "Hermione? What are you doing? Snape is a Death Eater."

Hermione was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding her subconscious actions. She calmed down, looked around, hesitated for a moment, and shook Harry off, pointing at the silent Nagini, "This is Voldemort's last Horcrux. Now it's dead. Do you still think Professor Snape is a Death Eater?"

Harry was speechless.

Hermione didn't bother to look at his expression to guess whether he believed it or not. She walked over, helped Snape up, and pointed her wand at him.

There was a flash of white light, but the feedback was blank, as if the person in front of him was not injured, but simply fell asleep.

But how is it possible.

Hermione was puzzled. As soon as she touched Snape, she was shocked by the temperature of his skin, which was close to the temperature of a dead person. If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of Snape's chest, she would have thought Snape was dead.

How could such a person not be injured? Moreover, she didn't think that Snape would be willing to let her help him up if he was not injured.

"Professor Snape? What's wrong with you?"

There was no other way, Hermione could only seek help from Snape, who was not sure whether he was still conscious or not.

Snape closed his eyes, feeling weak in his body, and frowned impatiently. He knew someone was coming, but it was not Athis. He was too lazy to open his eyes.

Forget it, this rude witch will probably give up soon.

Snape closed his eyes in despair, pretending to be unconscious.

However, Snape did not expect Hermione to be so patient. Seeing that he did not speak, he thought he had lost consciousness, and kept throwing all kinds of spells at him. He also took out a low-quality potion that no one knew who made and stuffed it into his mouth.

Damn, don’t you know that potions have corresponding usage situations?

Snape opened his eyes angrily.

However, his vitality was constantly slipping away. Even though he was in a state of extreme anger, the movement of opening his eyes revealed a sense of weakness. Not only did it not have any deterrent power, it also successfully made the witch opposite cry.

"Professor Snape, how are you?" Hermione was used to seeing Snape scolding people swiftly, but this was the first time she saw him even opening his eyes slowly, and she felt a pang of sadness in her heart.

Snape wanted to curse, but what came out was a sigh as soft as a mosquito's.

"look into my eyes."

Hermione looked down blankly, and was caught off guard by Snape's legilimenation, and saw the Aces in his memory.

"Ah...Seth."

Snape's lips trembled as he uttered the name silently.

What a pity, I was just this close to being with you forever.

In the last second before he lost consciousness, Snape's mind gradually became blank. He could not see the present or the future. There were only countless nights of intimate hugs and the warmth of being hugged rising from the bottom of his heart, emerging, and disappearing.

He seemed to be back in his conversation with Dumbledore, and Dumbledore's last question echoed in his ears again and again.

"Are you really going to do this? Aren't you afraid of—dying?"

Dumbledore was rarely so excited, as if he was about to point his finger at him and scold him.

What was the last thing he said at that time?

Snape recalled blankly.

It seems like... fear.

If it were in the past, he would not even hesitate when faced with this question.

fear death?

Death was a feast he had been prepared for, so how could he be afraid?

He had lived a complete life up to now, without any worries. Even if he died, no one would feel sad for him. But now it is different - he has Aces.

Just like a weary bird finding its way back to the forest and a kite finding its string, he could no longer bear to let go of Ases' hand.

Just why?

Snape's brain was working extremely slowly, but his confused subconscious told him that this was a very important matter.

He didn't dare stop and think.

Finally, he remembered the question that Arces had asked him under the moonlight—"Sif, do you love me?"

Yes, he loved him.

His love for him had silently and strugglingly taken root and sprouted in those unknown nights when they slept in each other's arms, in every intimate embrace in a cramped corner, and in the countless times when he ran towards her and made choices without hesitation.

Finally, it blooms in the desolate heart.

Love is noisy and silent.

The joyful love was deeply rooted in his soul, but he never dared to express it out loud.

Aces...

He was too afraid that he couldn't be with him.

I can't bear for him to give up everything.

He still broke the contract.

A clear tear fell from the corner of his eye.

Snape didn't move.

Just like the time when he had a nightmare and fell into a deep sleep after being comforted by Ases, he didn't move.