I'm playing a big knife at HP

Seeing Tobias walking away, Snape shrugged and looked down at Martha who was stunned: "Why did you run out?"

Martha came back to her senses, sobbed twice, and burst into tears again.She cried and said intermittently: "What...what to do! Your father...no, don't want you...what to do!!"

Why are you crying again!Snape's scalp exploded immediately: "Don't cry!"

This is obviously not an effective way to appease a four-year-old child. Martha looked up and blushed from crying, pulled his sleeves, and walked towards the back door of the tavern while calling for her mother.Snape quickly pulled back his sleeves: "Okay, okay, why are you crying, I didn't cry."

Martha whimpered and cried: "You are so pitiful!"

Snape: "...actually, I think it's all right."

His unusual calmness seemed to calm Martha's emotions a little, and she asked him with sobs: "What should we do now?"

"What to do?" Snape said calmly. "What if Tobias said he didn't want me? He just said that. I'm his only son, and he won't abandon me."

This kind of complex analysis is obviously beyond the ability of the cub Martha, but when she saw the other party's words, she believed it immediately: "Then he will let you go back tomorrow?"

She tilted her head and thought about it, and suddenly she looked a little happy: "He said that he will kill you if you go back tonight, so you should not go back tonight, stay with me! I will support you!"

The resounding "I'll raise you" made Snape suddenly realize that she was pulling his sleeves to find his mother just now. In fact, her mentality was roughly similar to picking up a stray cat on the street, hugging her and asking if we could raise it.

Snape had mixed feelings: "...I really appreciate you."

Martha dragged him to the back kitchen of the tavern through the small door in the back alley.Snape tried to break free, but failed—this Martha who had lost her magic power was still too strong.Martha ordered Snape to hide in a corner and not come out, climbed up on the small stool, washed her hands, ran to her mother who was helping in the kitchen, raised her head and said loudly, "Mom, I'm hungry!"

Mrs. O'Connor took a plate absent-mindedly, picked up a small piece of fried fish and three or four pieces of potato wedges from the food just out of the pan: "Take it and eat it."

Martha took the plate and looked at it, then raised the plate high above her head: "I want more!"

"That's enough for you." Mrs. O'Connor turned away.

"Mom, I still want it!" Martha spun around her legs resolutely, "I'm so hungry!"

"No! You will have a stomachache if you eat too much." Mrs. O'Connor resolutely refused.

Martha was not obedient, and still pestered her mother to ask for more food, and even her mother refused to agree to coax her to eat enough.Mrs. O'Connor finally became suspicious, sized her up with a frown, and turned to look in Snape's direction.Snape quickly hid in a corner.

Mrs. O'Connor saw a poorly dressed boy and recognized the boy.She looked down at her daughter who was holding the plate high, shook her head and took another plate, and added a piece of fried fish and a few potato wedges to it: "Call your children over, you sit and eat."

Martha giggled sheepishly, ran over and dragged Snape to Mrs O'Connor.Snape said awkwardly, "Hello. It's really nothing to worry about. I should go home."

Mrs. O'Connor rubbed her waist wearily, and picked up the plate again: "You're welcome, how much you can eat as a child. Your parents won't have time to care about you now, go back after eating."

Snape hesitated for a moment, but thanked him and sat down after all.This young body is not hungry, it is already hungry after playing all afternoon.He and Martha sat down on a bench outside the kitchen.This is the place where the back kitchen chefs help the workers change clothes. The benches are covered with overcoats and are very crowded.Martha sat down indifferently, forked the potato wedges happily, and pushed it back and forth on the plate, her small lips were pouting out sharply, making a whirring sound like a storm.

"What are you doing?" Snape couldn't help asking.

"This is my pirate ship." Martha explained seriously, and then bit off half of her invincible battleship, "I will become a great pirate in the future."

"You still have this ideal?" Snape found it very interesting, "Why?"

"I'm going to find lots and lots of treasure, and then our family will have money, and Mom and Dad won't have to work so hard." Martha forked up a second potato wedge and started attacking the potato wedges on Snape's plate with it, " That way they have time to play with me, hug me, coax me, and pat my head like any other mom or dad."

She thought about it carefully: "Well, my brother will play with me in the future, and I will take him to find treasures. Our family will have a lot of money, and then I won't need to be alone anymore."

Snape froze.He couldn't help touching the soft little curly hair: "You are not alone."

Martha let the opponent grope, concentrated on attacking Snape's potato wedges with her new battleship, and urged him: "You have to fight back!"

Snape couldn't, and was forced to fight back with a potato wedge.

While playing and eating, the two children still devoured this small portion of food in a short time.Snape stood up, thanked Mrs. O'Connor solemnly, and said he would take his leave - it had just started snowing outside, and he had to get home before the snow was too thick to walk.Mrs. O'Connor would not allow it, saying that it was too dangerous for a seven-year-old to walk so far home alone on a snowy night, and let him stay in the tavern, saying that his mother would be sent to fetch him.Snape thought it was all right - he'd walked this way countless times as a child, sometimes half-holding and half-carrying his drunken father - but the O'Connors wouldn't let him go.The two sides were in a stalemate, and there was a sudden knock on the back door of the tavern.Mrs. O'Connor hurried to look, only to find it was Tobias Snape.

Seeing Mrs. O'Connor come out, Tobias explained quickly in a low voice: "I'm sorry, I'm not here to cause trouble, I just wanted to ask if you saw my son... He was around here in the evening, yours My daughter was playing with him... I, I said something I shouldn't have said to him before..."

Mrs. O'Connor looked back at Snape, who came out.Tobias Snape breathed a sigh of relief, squatted down and opened his arms: "Thank God you're all right! Sev, let's go home!"

The face that was very similar to his adulthood showed a guilty smile: "Sev, Dad shouldn't have said those words before. Dad was drunk at the time."

Severus Snape stood where he was.The man in front of him didn't wear a hat or gloves, his fingers were red from the cold, and there was a thin layer of snow on his coat and hair. He really looked like he had been looking for a long time in the snow.

"Don't be afraid, son." Tobias stepped forward carefully. "Daddy won't beat you anymore. Daddy is sober. I won't drink anymore. Come to Daddy."

Severus' dark eyes flicked calmly across Tobias' cheek - he was indeed sober and wouldn't go mad again tonight.He glanced back at Mr. O'Connor and Mrs. O'Connor, who had returned to work on the stove, and Mrs. O'Connor with a tired face. He knew that he could not stay any longer, so he took a step forward.Tobias gave a relieved smile and held the little boy in his arms.

Severus frowned, breaking free from the embrace.

Tobias pulled out an embarrassed smile, and patted the boy's thin back: "Look at my little man. I didn't mean it before, don't hate Dad, okay?"

This sentence was like a match, and anger rose from Severus' chest instantly.The fire was strong and alive, as if it hadn't been extinguished in over 20 years.

How could Tobias Snape have the face to tell him not to hate him?He is the source of all suffering.

How much Severus had hated his father.Childhood fears grow older into resentment, then contempt, and finally outright denial and oblivion.Severus had done well - he had almost completely forgotten what Tobias looked like.He became famous, he did what his weak and useless father could not do in his life, and became a completely different person from him.

Professor Severus Snape never imagined that he would meet Tobias Snape again after more than 20 years.The person in front of him is in his early thirties, still holding out hope that he can struggle out of his alcohol addiction, that he can find a job and live his old life.But Severus knew Tobias' fate well - Tobias would never wake up again; the steel mill closed down, the chimneys near Spider's End never smoked again, and Tobias He never found a steady job again; he would drink until he was a completely different person, someone he would never know; he never bought his son and wife a decent Christmas present again; He will soon start beating his son, and then his wife, until his son is old enough to resist; Howling like despair; he will eventually pass out on the side of the road one winter night, his wife has died of illness, and his son is at Hogwarts, so no one will look for him.He will be frozen to death, and will be only 42 years old when he dies.

And this man with a sad fate has a face so similar to his own, this young face is smiling at himself full of hope at this time.

Young Severus had many things he didn't understand, but Professor Snape had keen eyes.More than ten years of career as a double agent made the other party's happiness and anger invisible in front of him, so Severus knew that Tobias' cruelty and weakness were real, but his pain was also real. His remorse, promises and hopes at this moment, and even a hint of paternal love are all from the heart.

Young Severus had once deeply resented his father's occasional waking tenderness - which prevented him from even enjoying the pleasure of hating him cleanly and thoroughly.But in the following 20 years, Severus has made mistakes, suffered blood debts, repented and hated himself, and was scolded by everyone, but he was also pardoned, trusted, forgiven, and rescued from a desperate situation. pulled out too.Twenty years later, Severus finally understood that love and hate might not be such clean and thorough emotions.

The flame in his chest gradually weakened, becoming unsustainable, and finally turned into a wisp of soot.

"I don't hate you, Father," Severus Snape said quietly, placing a hand on Tobias Snape's thin cheek.

Tobias didn't understand the complex expression on the boy's face, he just felt relieved to have found his son.He straightened up, thanked the O'Connors in a low voice, and murmured an apology for his earlier behaviour.

Here Martha knew that Severus was going home, and reluctantly told him: "Come and play with me tomorrow!"

She moved forward and grabbed his hand: "You must come!"

She thought about it again, and decided to throw out a more attractive bait, so she raised a fleshy little finger: "I can let you play the role of a pirate too!"

Severus stroked the little roll on her cheek and nodded.He can at least play with her until two o'clock in the afternoon.

"Don't worry," he smiled, "you won't be alone."

Martha nodded grimly and gave a big smile.

Tobias pulled Severus, and the father and son walked into the snowy night.Martha suddenly ran out from the back door, chased after her and shouted, "Play with me tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and from now on, and I'll share half of the treasure with you!"

Severus knew he could only play with her for another morning at most, so he didn't answer.Martha ran to him and pulled his sleeve to signal him to bow his head, and he obeyed.He felt a pair of powerful little hands grabbing his neck, and a warm and soft kiss fell on his cheek.

"I like playing with you, I want to come back!"

Those were the last words he heard before sleepiness overwhelmed him irresistibly.

The author has something to say: I haven't finished writing the second story yet, so the update time is uncertain.sorry sorry.