38 years of past events

He leaned himself into the leather sofa and leisurely flipped through the books in his hands. The candlelight in the room reflected the messy glass bottles on the table, reflecting dazzling reflections.

I hated him as much as I hated those reflections filled with potion bottles.

"Good evening, Severus." I took off my trench coat and hung it on the clothes rail by the door.

He looked calm and relaxed at this moment, he didn't even raise his eyelids, as if he was so focused on the book at the moment.

"It seems that Dumbledore made a mistake in not entrusting you with the Defense Against the Dark Arts class." The bottle on the table popped out with a crisp lingering sound at my fingertips.

"You should be lucky, otherwise I would not be far away from getting fucked, at least I don't have the share of your sarcastic remarks here." He closed the book expressionlessly, his sallow face was framed by the greasy hair on both sides.

I curled the corner of my mouth, "Is it because you don't want to, or Dumbledore doesn't want to? Maybe he doesn't want you to get out."

"Randolph, if I remember correctly, you have been away from Hogwarts for some time, don't always be like a child, guessing something for no reason, if you can, bring your evidence to the Dark Lord Report on me, of course, and hope you don't disappoint your father again."

I paced from his left to his right, and said to him patiently: "Okay, okay, my professor, don't worry, I'm not here today to expose you. In fact, I would like to Make a good and cheap deal with you."

He looked at me, his face getting more sallow from the candlelight.

"To tell you the truth, I need a time-turner."

"Professor McGonagall has one."

"No, no, it's not the same, it's not the same as those, it's not that simple." I thought about it, and told him in a more succinct way: "It's Dumbledore's one, to be precise."

"Is there any difference?"

"Of course, a normal time-turner will allow you to go back a few hours at most, but that one is different."

He seemed to get my point a little bit, "So you want me to steal it from Dumbledore for you."

I nodded and told him: "To be honest, if I could, I would definitely do it myself, but unfortunately, I have already dealt with him, and he must have set up defenses against me."

"The Dark Lord doesn't know about this?"

"Okay, Snape, don't keep talking about him."

The wand was twirling boringly at my fingertips, and I walked around him slowly and continued, "Do you really think I don't know what you have done? Do you really think I will be like those idiots?" Do you believe what you said in front of my father? Do you really think I don't know who taught Harry's Occlumency? Do you really think I can't find anything about you? Half-Blood Prince!" Worn out The notebook was left on the table, and those messy handwriting could not cover up the yellowing of the pages and the passage of time.

I looked proudly at the astonishment that flashed in Snape's eyes, and felt a strange pleasure in my heart. In fact, when I came out of Dumbledore's office that day, I happened to meet Harry's trio, but Fate is such a coincidence, I picked up the notebook they missed on the ground, Half-Blood Prince, oh, how interesting!

There was only a pause of a few seconds, and then Snape smiled as if it didn't matter, "You can tell from a notebook like this that I betrayed the Dark Lord, and I have too many of them, Randolph If you don't do well in Potions, I don't mind lending you a few more."

"Don't rush to quibble, my professor, I don't intend to report you, I said earlier that today I'm here to talk to you about cheap and beautiful things."

"You help me get what I want, this notebook belongs to you, I swear I won't tell anyone, of course—" I laughed, paying attention to the change of his expression, "including Lily Evans' Things." At this time, I felt his cheeks twitch, even after many years, when he mentioned that name, his eyes still showed uncontrollable sadness.

"I don't think Harry would want to hear that the professor he hates the most is thinking about his mother all the time."

"Snape, I tolerated your betrayal and risked being discovered by my father. This deal is very profitable."

At the cupboard, I opened a bottle of champagne and waited for his reply. After about a long time, he finally bowed his head and said to me: "Randolph, I hope you will always be grateful for what you said today. Responsible."

"Certainly, to Lily Evans, and to the joy of working together, cheers."

It was very late when I came out from Snape, and the Dark Mark on my arm began to ache. I knew it was his call, which was strange and gave me a bad feeling.

I returned to Malfoy Manor as quickly as possible, expecting to see a group of Death Eaters like me clutching their arms in pain, but when I actually arrived, I found that I was the only one in the empty house.

"I thought you forgot the way back. I was going to send Bella to find you, Randolph." His voice sounded from behind, accompanied by his footsteps.

"After receiving your notice, I couldn't wait to come back immediately."

"Oh." He responded in a strange tone, cold and without any emotion, "You want to tell me that if I didn't remind you, you might not remember to come back?"

"Nothing, in fact I recently—"

"You seem to have disappeared from Malfoy Manor recently. Someone even told me that you were seen freely entering and leaving Hogwarts, and even coming out of Dumbledore's office over and over again. Is this what you want to tell me?" He said From behind me to the front, step by step.

"You doubt my loyalty?"

He didn't speak, just stared into my eyes as if trying to find something out of it.

Until a long time passed, "Forget it, I will settle this matter with you later. But now there is another more important matter that you must know." His eyes moved away from my face.I know that I passed his Legilimency just now, at least I didn't let him find out about me and Snape, which is the greatest luck.

"I've felt a lot of unease recently. I smell a bad omen coming to us. I'm not sure if this omen comes from somewhere, or has someone noticed it?" He said in situ Walking around, the tone seemed to be saying to me, and it was more like a kind of self-talk, "There is no reason at all, there is no reason, no one should know, know about that." He raised his head, Looking up at the lifeless ceiling, he seemed to be thinking hard about something.

"Did you find something, or?"

He turned his head to look at me, his voice was suppressed very low, but I still clearly heard him say "Horcrux!"

Gaunt's old house is located in the intertwined undergrowth, because it has been uninhabited for a long time, it looks dilapidated and pitiful in a circle of trees.

The path by the door, which had not been trodden in years, was so overgrown with wild nettles that there was nowhere to stand when we emerged from the apparition.

I followed my father and stopped in front of the wooden door of the house. The door frame has rotted, and a dead snake nailed on it has also turned into a crumpled trunk. I think if someone pinches it again at this moment, it will definitely become a pile. Powder.

"Go in, Randolph," he said.

There are three rooms in total, and we are standing in the middle, but unfortunately no matter which one, almost all are covered with thick dust and dirty dirt.

Unlike my distaste for this place, he stood there for a while, as if lost in some kind of contemplation.

"There is where my mother cooks. There is a small window next to it. She lies on that window and looks forward to that Muggle riding past the door like a fool every day." The stove is still the place for the cabinet, he said, his tone was light and soft, without any emotion.

"Come on, Randolph, I brought you here for something very important."

According to what he said, I came to this, which is the half-sized kitchen where my grandmother used to live, a broken cabinet, a rusty stove, this small room full of grease and dust, although I really can't imagine him Need me to do something.

However, I clearly know that the Dark Lord is not someone who would let me do useless work, so after I checked everything around me carefully, I still had to confess to him frankly: "I'm sorry, there is nothing here. No."

He squinted his scarlet eyes and looked at me repeatedly, with a mocking smile on his pale face, "It's really disappointing."

"Get out of the way! I'll come in person!" He waved his wand, and the already damaged small cabinet in the room was instantly blown apart, revealing the hidden compartment on the wall behind.

I don't know what he wants me to take, at least my magic did not sense any strange things around me just now, so when I approached the secret compartment, all I saw was a dead poisonous python lying inside , and nothing else.

This is obviously not a good sign!

I saw blood in his eyes, his pale face twisted a little bit with anger, the wand was tightly held in his hand, and he almost gritted his teeth and asked, "Where's the ring? My ring." What? Who stole Voldemort's ring!"

"Ring? What's that!" I figured something bad might have happened.

"It's Marvolo's ring, it's the Slytherin honor, it's the Horcrux I made when I killed that Muggle fool!" he growled.Because of anger, even the voice became a little weird, "But it disappeared, from the magic circle I set up, it disappeared under my nose! It was stolen! Is it clear enough now! Idiot!"

"Enough! I know who did it." In fact, I'm 12 percent sure now.

"who is it?"

"Dumbledore! It must be him!" I said with certainty: "In Dumbledore's office, I saw it, but only once, I saw his left hand was quietly hidden in the robe, I saw the ring in the reflection by the window, and if I remember correctly, it was black!"

"damn it!"

The spell shot out of his wand angrily, punching hole after hole in the wall, while the jars and bowls were rattled and shattered, "Yes, yes, I should have known, my hunch That's right! They found it!"

He paced back and forth, rubbing his wand over and over in his hand, and said as if he had sworn, "Randolph, kill 'em, whatever it takes, tell Draco if he can't finish I'll leave it to him." He won't have to come back to see me, of course, including Narcissa!"

Suddenly, he stopped his wandering steps again, and there seemed to be a very unusual meaning in his eyes staring at me, snake-like eyes, which made me very uncomfortable.

"Wait, I still have you, I still have something to do." It seemed to be talking to himself.

He approached me, mouth without upper lip dryly spit out a few words: "On the cliff of the sea, in the middle of the lake, at the end of the cave."

"All this time, I never intended to tell anyone, but, maybe, now I have to tell you."

"Why?" I asked him.Even though I have his blood running through me, I know he's not one to trust others, especially when that thing is called a Horcrux.

"This matter is very important, and Dumbledore may already know something, so—" He paused, leaned closer, and looked into my eyes firmly, "I have to hand this matter over to someone more Reliable people will do it, I don't trust Snape, and I don't trust the Lestranges, so, Randolph, you won't betray me, will you!"

"Of course!" I told him solemnly, "Why not, there is something closer than us, you should trust me."

"Yes, yes, what could be closer than you and me? That's how it should be," he said.Then the lips without lips curled into a smile-like expression, "Then I hope you won't disappoint me, my child."

The Black Mark shot out from the arm, blasting green flames in the sky, black smog filled with the intertwining of skeletons and snakes, and at the same time, the sky in the distance seemed to be about to rain heavily, and dark clouds were approaching heavily...