[HP] Illusion

The approach of the Christmas holiday made Harry's work more and more busy. He had no class this afternoon and was recruited by McGrath again. At this moment, he was setting up the auditorium together with Hagrid and Flitwick. After three hours of hard work, The auditorium has been completely new, and it looks like——

A beautiful hanging ribbon of silk was hung from the ceiling, and Hagrid, who was constantly coming and going, placed the fir trees one by one. Harry and Flitwick were responsible for the decoration, except for the ones already added Holly and mistletoe, others are up to your own preference, just like Flitwick constantly waving his magic wand and spraying light golden bubbles, the strangely shaped bubbles are crystal clear but will not burst, and a string of them hangs on the dark green On the fir trees, a dazzling light blooms.

Harry was not good at these before, but with the experience of the first three years, he has been able to control his aesthetics well, and he no longer has to put too many decorations on the top of the fir.It's just that his efficiency is not high today. Most of the decorations in the auditorium are made by Flitwick. Although the little professor of enchantments is quite keen on such work, Harry's absence also makes the little professor feel bad. some mind.

"Harry, what's on you?" The little professor's voice was very shrill, and it wasn't too harsh as long as he was not excited. Today he watched Harry shaking his clothes constantly, even the bird The nest-like mess of hair has been tossed and flicked several times. If Harry's hair hadn't looked terrible, maybe the little professor wouldn't have made a special mention.

- This looks like obsessive-compulsive disorder...

"What?" At this moment Harry was rubbing his face that had been extremely red by him, and he conjured up a mirror, only then was he surprised that his appearance looked quite bad.

"There's something wrong with you today. Are you allergic?" The little professor looked at him worriedly, "Why don't you go to Bobby's place..."

Harry's hands paused, and he quickly smoothed his hair. Then he quickly looked at Flitwick and said awkwardly, "No, I'm fine."

Flitwick looked suspiciously at the person in front of him, and said earnestly, "If you're not feeling well, you'd better take a quick look. There's a lot of work these days, so don't get sick because of it."

Harry nodded unnaturally, and a few strings of ice crystals spewed out from the wand in his hand. After a while, he suddenly turned his head to look at Flitwick: "Well, Filius, do you feel that I It seems to be covered in ashes, or smells like burnt or something?"

"No," Flitwick froze for a moment, and then his expression became a little astonished: "Did someone put a charm on you?" He said he wanted to give Harry a stop spell.

Harry quickly stopped him, "No, just think I'm talking nonsense..."

Hagrid came in dragging two fir trees, wheezing, "These are the last two...Harry, what are you talking about?"

Harry: "..."

"Rubus, Harry feels like he's covered in dust." Flitwick shook his head, "I don't know what's wrong with him."

Hearing the word "dust", Harry shivered again, still feeling that his body was still covered with ashes that covered the sky in the middle of the night last night.

Hagrid looked at Harry intently, rubbed his eyes again, and then walked to his side and patted his shoulder, "Don't worry, there's nothing." He also showed his palms solemnly.

Harry, who was in pain from being photographed, was really suffering and couldn't express it.

After Harry returned to the bedroom last night, he rushed into the bathroom and washed himself several times, but even so he still felt that the dust with the burning smell would fall from his hair, so He basically spent the night in such torture, until the first ray of sunlight filtered through the frosted glass, and Harry was surprised that he hadn't slept all night.Fortunately, there were only two classes in the morning today. When the class was over, he was caught by Mag, who had just finished the transformation class from the classroom, and asked him to help in the afternoon.

Hagrid took a look at Harry. On that face that had become fair due to the lack of exposure to the sun, there were two dark circles under the eyes, which were very eye-catching. "Did you not sleep last night?"

"It's okay, I just couldn't sleep well." Harry said vaguely.

Upon hearing this, Flitwick immediately said with concern, "Why don't you go back first, it's almost here anyway."

Harry looked at the auditorium and saw that there was only the last little adjustment that needed to be made, and it stayed, because things always have to be done from beginning to end.

It was already 04:30 when the three of them worked together to complete the final arrangement, and the students hadn't finished class yet.Harry left after chatting with the two of them. On the way, he began to try hard to recall whether there was a potion that could get rid of the creepy feeling he had now.

In fact, a professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts was still a little worried. He thought carefully about the situation in the morning class. In fact, he had already restrained his actions at that time... Merlin, he really has a lot of little tricks.Forget it, give them some more homework, and they won't have the energy to think about it.Harry nodded, silently applauding himself.

Back in his office, Harry's mind is still clear at the moment, he has just told Flitwick that he will not go to the auditorium for dinner today, and Harry, who knows that he should lie down, still sits at the desk Come down and start correcting the homework collected in the morning.

But he was obviously distracted all the time, and soon he found that his eyes were always wandering somewhere——

After experiencing such a horrible disaster last night, Ravenclaw's ghost waved his big hand and gave him a particularly generous trophy. It was the hourglass he took out last night—let's call it an hourglass, that thing Yesterday, he conveniently put it on the top of the low cabinet with the materials on his left. Anyway, it is also a 1000-year-old antique. It cannot be placed on the table. If it is smashed by him... Well, he brought back the gemstone key , that thing was lying in a box in his cabinet.

Harry rubbed his forehead and put down the quill in his hand.

He used the floating spell to get the hourglass in his hand—he wiped the translucent surface on purpose to make sure that it was really not covered with a layer of dust, and then carefully observed the bracket supporting the hourglass. The weight of the hourglass It is not light, not only because the material of the container is different from the glass used in modern times, but also because of the bracket made of metal that he can't see on the outer layer. In fact, this hourglass is very finely made, and the products of goblins are always complicated and delicate , if possible, he would like to buy a few more, but unfortunately he has been blacklisted by the fairies now.

Harry turned the hourglass upside down casually, but the sand in the upper container didn't fall down as normal. He turned it upside down several times, but the thing still didn't respond at all. The sand got stuck in the middle and couldn't go down. Only the normal rustling sound when shaking proves that the sand inside has not condensed.

There is only one explanation for this situation - broken!

That's right, even if the utensils of more than 1000 years are said to be properly preserved, they may be unusable due to aging or wear, and it seems that they can only be used as decorations - at least he has never seen such a thing in the Potter's vault Antique objects.

When his fingertips were rubbing the fine lines on the metal bracket, he thought of another thing - when he took this thing out yesterday, were there any letters on it?

Maybe he can use the Pensieve to draw out the memory and take a look?Harry thought, staring at the hourglass.But in fact, that is not necessary, anyway, this thing is broken.Harry also took out the gemstone key, but after looking at it for a long time, he couldn't find any connection between the two things—even the things with different degrees of fine workmanship seemed impossible to be made by the same goblin.

Harry suddenly realized that too much attention had been paid to these things today, and it was time to get down to business.He put the two things away separately, and picked up his quill again.

The work of teachers is not easy. They need to face different types of students. It may be said that students whose minds are not yet fully mature, and it is not surprising that things will happen.Even when he was in school, if he was to be classified, he must be classified as a super problem student.Today, he looked at it from the perspective of the teacher himself and the students who would cause trouble - although most of the time it was the trouble that came to him - he thought that he would not like students like himself too much.

Sometimes, empathy made him understand a lot of things, especially after he got those memories.

Harry's life time is not regular. In the past, when he was a student, his attention was usually not concentrated. Even if there are occasional distractions, he forces himself to concentrate most of the time, and the habit becomes natural over time. This habit also allowed him to get quite good results in NEWTs, but after he started working, such concentration It often made him forget the meal time - when he was in school, the time was very regular and supervised, but now when he is alone, no one cares about him.

But this is also good. He is more and more comfortable and faster when dealing with the homework of these children. If it is not for days like the approaching holidays or the end of the term, his time is still abundant occasionally, and it also gives him the opportunity to do his job. want to do.

The backlog of homework on his desk was not too much that day, but he still had to correct until 09:30. Someone felt dizzy when he stood up, and the feeling of being full of dust that he deeply experienced all day has subsided. A lot, but it still made him feel uncomfortable.

"Kreacher..." After asking the house elf to bring him dinner, Harry smelled the aroma of the food but felt drowsy. After stuffing the food into his mouth, he almost fell asleep. Kreacher still didn't leave. After touching him several times, he woke up.Only then did he realize that he had stayed up all night yesterday, and he hadn't slept well the day before yesterday. He had corrected a long time of homework just now, and he was a little bit unable to hold on due to his physical and mental fatigue.

Entering the bathroom to take a bath again today, Harry sat in the bathtub and fell asleep.When he woke up, he found that he had been soaked in the water for more than two hours, because the water temperature in the pool would not drop, so he accidentally wrinkled his skin.Harry frowned, looking at the wrinkled skin, wanting to cry.

At this time, the time was approaching midnight. I wondered if it was because of the sleep, his spirit was much better, even better than ever - he couldn't fall asleep at all.

His classes are all in the afternoon tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow is the last weekend before the Christmas holiday, so there is a lot of time.

At such times, he usually only does one of the following three things - go to the tower for a breath, enter the Pensieve, or... make a potion.

There is a small compartment in Harry’s office where all his potion utensils and potion materials he bought are stored. Today, Harry has been thinking about how to use potions to get rid of the shadow brought by the ashes, but he wants to Not sure why, but now I don't think so.Going to the tower to have a blast had just cast a shadow over him for a whole day, and of course he would not go again, so it was obvious that he had only one choice left.

Walking to the shallow stone basin engraved with Niwen and symbols, Harry stuck his head in without hesitation. Some tiny memories flashed before his eyes, and Harry was suddenly sucked in by a sudden suction. The matter dragged him into the darkness in an instant, usually not for long——

But this time there are some exceptions.

Harry has long been used to the flustered feeling brought about by the fall, and he even felt that this icy texture made him feel at ease, but this time it took longer than every time before, after 5 minutes, or 10 minutes?In the dark, he couldn't use magic at all. Could it be something wrong with the Pensieve that he used too much?

Just as Harry was thinking wildly, the cold feeling slowly began to dissipate, and his toes touched the ground.Harry breathed a sigh of relief, thinking maybe he was thinking too much.

It's a pity that what he didn't know was that he seemed to be relieved a bit early.

Just when he plunged into the Pensieve, the moment he entered the hourglass that he put outside, the sand that stayed at the top slowly leaked down at a speed visible to the naked eye.

——Memory is drifting bit by bit, time is also wandering second by second.The gift from thousands of years ago reopened the great wheel of destiny.

☆☆☆

When Harry landed on the ground, he felt a burst of scorching heat. Although he was not wearing very heavy clothes, since it was winter clothes, he was sweating almost after a while.Something was wrong, because the weather was too hot, so he took off his bathrobe and put it away. He was only wearing a set of pajamas. In his memory, he should not feel the high temperature of the hot summer.

Harry, who couldn't figure it out, felt that something was wrong, but he was familiar with the place he was in.

This is Spider's End, and a little further down is Snape's house.

When he first came in, he didn't choose any particular memory. Sometimes even if he wanted to enter a certain memory, he would accidentally miss it and enter other memories, just like the last time he saw the three-year-old Snape— —Well, these days, being entangled in work before the Christmas holiday made him less time to enter the man's memory, and he also forgot the last time he thought about checking the memories left in the Pensieve.It seems that the only way to check is to go back.

There was no one around him now, and the alley was silent.

The sun was fiercely overhead at the moment, and it looked like it was noon, and Harry was wearing fluffy slippers, and the cobblestones under his feet made his feet ache.

Beside him is an old abandoned house, all the houses here are typical abandoned brick houses, dilapidated is their biggest feature.The layout of these houses is also like a maze. Except for the house numbers that are occasionally seen, there are no special features. There are blue-green slimy moss on the dilapidated brick walls. Most of the windows here are nailed directly by wooden boards. The tall chimney not far away seems to be pointing the middle finger at him, which makes people uncomfortable.

When was this Snape's memory?Then why didn't he see Snape?

Soon, Harry saw the owner of the memory——

This one, maybe a little smaller than the little Snape he had seen the other time, but he wasn't sure because the clothes on the little boy looked too big.

When Harry saw him, he was stumbling towards him, and the unclosed door behind the boy leaked a man's thick growl and a woman's faint cry.

——There was obviously no sound just now, could it be that the witch secretly used the silence spell?

The boy was lowering his head, not paying attention to the things in front of him at all. His small shoulders shrugged, but the range was not too obvious. His speed was very fast. When Little Douding was about to pounce, Harry Dodged to the side, although it was nothing to be pierced by Snape——

Harry suddenly felt a dull pain in his knee and thigh.

Maybe he didn't dodge in time, the moment he turned sideways, the boy bumped into him.I don't know if it's because the boy is still too young. After bumping into his thigh, the boy's three-headed body wobbled a few times, and then sat down on the ground.

Actually, Harry thought, he didn't mean to.

In fact, it was indeed not his fault!Harry was very straightforward.But he soon realized something was wrong, he was in Snape's "memory", right?How could it be possible for him to feel anything in his memory - even if he was being worn all over his body, he wouldn't feel anything.

Harry: "..."

Little Snape didn't know if it was because of the pain from the fall or something else. He sat on the floor and didn't get up. The arc of his little shoulder twitched more and more, looking very pitiful.

Harry, who hadn't figured out the situation yet, squatted down subconsciously when he heard the uncontrollable sobbing.

"You..." He poked the little shoulder that seemed so real little by little.

——Hey, it won’t pass through, it’s a real body!

He poked himself again, and it was also real!

How is this going?Harry placed his hand cautiously on Snape's shoulder.

"Hello?" Harry pressed that textured little shoulder.

I don't know if it was frightened by Harry, Xiaodouding shrank reflexively, his thin little hands rested on the ground as if he wanted to stand up.

Suddenly, Harry reached out and hugged the little boy who had been sitting on the ground unwilling to get up (?) just now.

This time, little Snape was obviously taken aback and began to struggle violently. It was Harry who used some strength to hold Little Douding in his arms.

Probably knowing that he couldn't escape, the little boy suddenly raised his head, which also made Harry see directly above the straight hooked nose the pair of red, foggy, angry eyes. Less than three points of stubbornness and one point of black eyes that even Harry couldn't tell what it was.

Harry's heart was beating violently, his throat was a little hoarse, and his eye sockets seemed to be starting to feel a little hot.

"You..." Can you see me?

Just when he was immersed in a feeling that he couldn't explain clearly, little Snape suddenly tilted his head back slightly, and then——

He knocked hard on Harry's chin.

"Ow—" Harry couldn't help howling, a sharp pain spread across his jaw instantly, and he always felt that the bone was about to be smashed.

——Maybe Harry didn't realize his current look, that is a strange sorghum wearing winter pajamas in summer.

--[Candle]