HP Starlight

The bustling Diagon Alley was full of students and parents, Snape frowned and unconsciously quickened his pace.He rarely comes here at this time.It is enough to get along with these students for about ten months a year, and to help them deal with miscellaneous things and correct their nonsense homework.Now to see them at extra time, Snape curled his lips.

After simply dealing with a few senior students who greeted him, Snape finally saw his destination, Slugger & Ziggs Pharmacy.The shopkeeper wrote to him to say that the rare material he had ordered had arrived and asked if he would accept it by post or pick it up.Naturally, he had to come and check it out for himself, after all these ingredients cost him almost a year's income, and he wanted to make sure they were of perfect quality.

He didn't like keeping money in his hands, and gathering potion ingredients was the only interesting thing he'd found for himself.There is no cost at all to live and board at school for ten months of the year.And his life is quite boring, always in a black robe, rarely out of the cellar.He has no social needs, and no one wants to approach him.

In fact, it didn't matter, and he didn't want to bother to maintain those false and meaningless connections.He should have died seven years ago, because he killed his only friend since he was a child, and the only person he loved—Lily.The heart-wrenching feeling of seeing Lily's body had already "killed" him.The reason he's alive is because he still has things to do.Dumbledore said that Voldemort, who killed Lily, would make a comeback, threatening the only blood left by Lily-Harry Potter.Protecting him, protecting the continuation of Lily's life is the only reason Snape is alive.Other than that, it doesn't matter to him.

Pharmacies are always the least crowded places, because you can't expect any student to really understand the magic of potions.They just think the ingredients are disgusting, the production process is troublesome, and the products are unpalatable, that's all.So when he saw a little girl in the pharmacy carefully observing the buckets of bat spleens, frog brains and horned slugs, he felt a little strange in his heart.But he didn't care much about it, maybe he was just a little curious when he first entered school, and he won't be interested after he really took Potions class.

But after seeing her detailed shopping list, he realized that she had really previewed Potions, and even some dangerous potions and poisons in the upper grades.Snape couldn't help thinking that the little girl was a bit overwhelmed.He satirizes her mercilessly, just like he usually does in class.

But the little girl was able to respond to him politely, which was different from the students he had met before.Although he was only 28 years old, he had been a professor at Hogwarts for seven years, so he knew these freshmen very well.When they faced him, they either trembled or shed tears of grievance.Will smile and thank him, she is the first.

No one except Lily had ever smiled at him so sincerely, and Snape's indifferent heart fluctuated a bit.Maybe she should be directed to save her from being sent to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Injuries and Injuries by an exploding cauldron before school started.

He checked his rare materials, and he was satisfied with the quality.He felt a little relieved, so he took the time to pick up the quill and doodled on her list.Of course, he didn't let her go, after all, she caused so much trouble for herself.He finished revising the list and left without even asking the freshman's name because he didn't care who she was.

At the unchanging opening banquet, Snape sat at the staff table and waited boredly for the end of the sorting ceremony.It was no surprise that Dumbledore had once again rejected his application for the position of Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts.Dumbledore didn't trust him that much.He was once a Death Eater, an undercover agent sent by Voldemort before he disappeared.Originally, Dumbledore would not even give him the position of professor of potions.But he betrayed Voldemort for Lily and gave Dumbledore information for a year in exchange for Dumbledore's protection of Lily.Dumbledore arranged for him to work at Hogwarts so that he could become a double agent between Dumbledore and Voldemort.

He had originally applied for the position of Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts.Because this is the task given to him by the Dark Lord, and he is also good at black magic, he believes that he can teach students more knowledge and skills.But Dumbledore only allowed him to teach Potions and serve as the head of Slytherin.It didn't matter, anyway, being a teacher was not his hobby, and the position of professor of Potions and the title of head of Slytherin could also be handed over to the Dark Lord.

However, things backfired. Lily died at the hands of Voldemort two months after he joined the job, and Voldemort was also backlashed by the spell and disappeared without a trace.He thought it was over, his mission, his life...

But Dumbledore asked him to stay and continue to protect Lily's child.Of course he knew that Dumbledore wanted to use him by staying with him, but he was willing.He had promised to do anything for Dumbledore.He never regrets what he promised.But seven years had passed, and occasionally he would hope that Dumbledore would give him the position of professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, and that he would trust him more.

The freshmen join their colleges one after another under the assignment of the sorting hat.As the head of Slytherin, Snape glanced at the end of the sorting house. The number of people was similar to previous years, and still a little less than other houses.But that's normal, since smart and ambitious people are rare.

He casually took a piece of pie and put it on his plate, and was about to eat it when he suddenly felt someone watching him.He quietly observed secretly, and sure enough, among the freshmen in Slytherin, there was a little girl looking at him from time to time.He took a good look at her before he remembered that she was the little girl he met in the potions shop.He almost forgot about her, he didn't expect the sorting hat to sort her into Slytherin.It doesn't look like she was injured by the cauldron, maybe she just didn't practice it.Snape snorted coldly in his heart, he should have troubled her a bit during class, and let her know that Potions can't be learned by pretending to be serious.

Soon it was Potions class for first-year Slytherins and Gryffindors, and Snape was making his rounds among the students.Through the hot air above the cauldron, Snape found the little girl.He looked at the name tag on her robe, Esther Collins.Probably a mixed blood, after all, I have never heard of a surname like Collins in a pure blood.Muggle descendants are unlikely, because then she would not be able to learn about potions before school started, and she would be less likely to enter Slytherin House.He looked down at the slug that was cooking in the cauldron, and silently admired it in his heart.The technique and the heat are perfect.But he wasn't going to let her go, he decided to hit her with harder questions.

"Miss Collins, please tell me what's wrong with Mr. Brooke's slug?"

For freshmen, it is not easy to do well.Finding mistakes requires repeated practice and accumulation of experience.It is impossible to find a problem at a glance without making a mistake.Snape knew he was making things difficult for her, but he wasn't guilty at all, what he wanted was that she couldn't answer.He wanted to see her ashamed, and he wanted her to know that potions were hard.

But he didn't expect the little girl to answer. She saw the boy's question.He decided to try again.

"What about Miss Brown's?" he asked again.This time the problem is more difficult than the last one, because there is no obvious difference in the heat until the end.But unexpectedly she answered again.That is to say, while she handles her own slug perfectly, she is still observing others' operations.It cannot be done unless one is quite skilled.Snape was finally sure that she had indeed worked hard at home.But she did not show the slightest perfunctory and slack after she became proficient.Snape couldn't help but approve of the little girl in his heart.Esther Collins, he silently repeated her name in his mind, and began to take her seriously.

After a period of observation, Snape discovered that Collins was also interested in spells.Every time he was doing exercises with the seniors in the common room, he could see her staring at him intently.Different from the feeling of keeping a respectful distance from others, her eyes were full of respect and admiration, which made Snape feel that being a teacher was also a good thing for the first time.He is always inspired by her eyes unconsciously, and the guidance time will be longer.

A month after school started, Dumbledore suddenly called him to the office.Dumbledore rarely called him unless there was a serious problem.He hurried to the headmaster's office, only to find Dumbledore leisurely eating his licorice wand, and nothing serious seemed to be happening.

"Can I come here, Headmaster?" Snape asked directly.

"How are the Slytherin students doing recently? According to Madam Pomfrey, a little boy named Wilkes always seems to be in some trouble." Dumbledore asked casually.

Snape frowned, he didn't expect that Dumbledore's troubles would reach Dumbledore's ears.He was familiar with the child, or rather with the surname.His father can also be regarded as his fellow Death Eaters, but his father is in charge of fighting, and he is in charge of intelligence, and they have no intersection.And it was only natural for this kid, as a proclaimed descendant of Death Eaters, to run into a little trouble.Back then, even if I wasn't a descendant of Death Eaters, I was often troubled by James Potter and Sirius Black.And now Wilkes' situation was better than when he was a child, Snape really didn't think he had anything worthy of attention.

However, he promised Dumbledore to keep an eye on Wilkes so that he would not be in danger.

Dumbledore nodded with satisfaction, and asked about the situation of Esther Collins.

"Collins? Is there something wrong with her?" Snape said warily.Although he had changed his view of her, it was not unusual for an unremarkable girl to be singled out by the principal.

Dumbledore told Snape that Harry and her were friends and that she was good at keeping secrets.Snape felt that she just didn't like to show off, rather than like to hide something.After all, compared to him as a double agent, the little girl is as simple as a blank sheet of paper.

He reported his observations to Dumbledore in detail, and Dumbledore's remark about the friendship between Slytherin and Gryffindor was not easy to bring back painful memories for Snape.He and Lily belong to Slytherin and Gryffindor respectively.If it weren't for his indiscriminate "Mudblood", they might still be friends.Collins' friend seemed to be a Muggle-born as well, and Snape suddenly felt that he saw his young self in Esther.Dumbledore asked Snape to pay attention to and guide Esther, so that Harry would have strong enough friends to help him in the future.Snape nodded quietly, accepting Dumbledore's extra work.

The first-year students were exposed to more theory, and Snape really couldn't think of any additional guidance for Collins.So he put a lot of comments on each of her Potions homework, making her theoretical knowledge more complete.In fact, her thesis is much better than that of her peers.But to Snape, who had taught Potions for many years, it still seemed full of loopholes.He just picks mistakes at first, and then adds some related knowledge.And every time he makes an annotation, he can always see Collins citing the knowledge points he raised last time in the next homework.He was satisfied with the little girl's comprehension, and the content of the annotations became longer and longer without knowing it.

Christmas was fast approaching, and Snape woke up early as usual.He hadn't had a good night's sleep since learning that Voldemort thought Lily's son was the Son of Prophecy.After Lily died, he had even more nightmares.So he tried to let himself sleep less, so that he could spend less time dreaming.Occasionally he would use the Dreamless Sleep Potion to escape, but more often he would let himself face the torment of the dream and punish himself.

Just like today, he once again dreamed of Lily lying in the ruins, and felt that needles were piercing his heart again.He stared blankly at the dusty roof, unable to recover for a long time.In fact, he would rather dream of Lily scolding him and scolding him severely.But Lily has long since ignored him, even in her dreams.

He rubbed his throbbing temples and got up to get ready for work.He didn't want to cure his headache at all, and even though his cupboard was full of potions, he didn't want to use them.Keeping the pain allows you to atone for your sins at all times.He is not qualified to enjoy life, all he has to do is to live and wait for the time when he is needed.

But when he walked to the desk, he was surprised to see a gift box and a greeting card.He hasn't received a Christmas gift for many years. The last Christmas gift was given to him by Lily in the fifth grade, but Lily broke up with him half a year later.He hasn't received a Christmas present since then.He wasn't popular at Hogwarts, and didn't want to make himself popular.He couldn't think of anyone who would give him a present.

Maybe it was a prank, Snape thought grimly.He picked up his wand and carefully checked the package and card, there was nothing suspicious.He had to admit it was really a Christmas present.He picked up the card and looked at it. The immature but elegant font simply said Merry Christmas to Professor Snape, signed by your student Esther Collins.The stars on the greeting card flickered a few times and then disappeared.Nice magic, but too flashy.Snape curled his lips, threw the card aside, and opened the gift box.A bottle of green ink lay quietly in the box.Is this because I commented too much?Snape was a little annoyed.He put the ink on the table and dipped it with a pen, then found Collins' homework without looking at it, and gave a big P (failure) without mercy.

The ink flowed obediently on the parchment, and Snape felt better.He read the paper again from the beginning, and the content was actually quite good.But he didn't have the idea of ​​changing the score, he just added a lot of comments as before.

Even though the gift wasn't exactly what he wanted, the unexpected gift distracted him.He temporarily forgot about those negative thoughts and nightmares, and even went to the Christmas banquet in the auditorium for the first time.

The teachers and students in the auditorium were a little surprised by his arrival, and everyone fell silent, which made him immediately regret coming out of the cellar.Dumbledore smiled and added a chair next to Professor Flitwick and invited him to sit.Snape had to sit stiffly at the long table.

Flitwick and Sprout calmed down and warmly invited him to join them in their earlier conversation.They also received a Christmas card from Collins and raved about the flickering star magic.But Collins seemed to have sent them cards instead of presents, which made him feel a little better.

After school resumed, Snape found that Collins' potions partner had been replaced by Wilkes, and the two of them often sat and ate together in the auditorium.It seemed that she decided to befriend this troublesome Wilkes, a really stupid decision.But he didn't want to take care of it. After she had suffered, she would naturally know how to choose a friend.

After a day of lectures, Snape returned to the cellar office wearily, sat at the desk and sorted out the latest work progress, the list of apparitions and tuition fees had already been handed in.He'd have to spare half a day the day after tomorrow for Apparition class with the sixth graders, hoping there wouldn't be any idiots who split apart in the first class.Those brats who needed to make up the exam had to be spot-checked when they had time, and they couldn't be allowed to embarrass Slytherin House again.The next Quidditch match...

His quill fidgeted across the paper to scratch off work already done and add a few new ones.After sorting out his schedule, he started grading annoying paper assignments again.These idiots are always testing his nerves, and every time he thinks he won't see a worse paper than this one, there will be a worse one.So much so that he found it incredible to see a paper that could get an A (pass).Angrily, he drew a P (failure) or D (very poor) with a quill, and his brows became more and more wrinkled.

Suddenly there was a whisper from outside the door, "Hi, I mean, how are you? You see we have been together for several months..."

Snape put down the quill irritably and went out, only to find Collins outside the door.She was babbling with her wand bowed with her back to the door, looking so focused that she didn't realize that Snape was already standing behind her.Snape listened carefully for a while, feeling clueless.So he interrupted her aloud, "I didn't expect the Sorting Hat to choose a crazy student into Slytherin."

The little girl looked unprepared and was taken aback.Snape ushered her into his office and asked what she was doing.She explained for a long time before Snape understood that it was because he couldn't learn advanced spells and thought it was a problem with the wand, and he wanted to chat with the wand.Snape found it a little ridiculous that a student who was always smart and quick had such a silly side.He was always annoyed by students who were not very bright, but remembering Dumbledore's words, he restrained his temper and taught her once, and also taught her the disarming spell.This is more practical and effective than advanced spells in battle.Unexpectedly, the little girl learned it after listening to it once, and the effect is very strong.Snape was hit by the curse and knocked against the shelf behind him.Although it was caused by his own contempt, his self-esteem would not allow any rude behavior towards him by the students.He put her in confinement.The little girl apologized in trepidation, and accepted the punishment obediently, without any intention of resisting.

Snape finally felt that he had gone too far, but he would never admit it.He just changed the content of the confinement to something simpler and more useful.I didn't expect the little girl to be very serious and attentive.Although Snape was still mean in his mouth, he developed a good impression of this student in his heart.He had thought of allowing her to study or complete homework for the rest of the confinement.But she even offered to help her share the work.Snape subconsciously thought that she had some kind of conspiracy, so he couldn't use Legilimency to feel her thoughts.Unexpectedly, the little girl really just wanted to help.Snape felt a little guilty.He took Collins's advice and gave her the task of registering assignments for grading.Unexpectedly, Collins was very efficient and safe in doing things.Snape automatically started making her do more.

Collins is a very smart and easy assistant.So after the confinement ended, Snape was even a little unaccustomed to it.A few times he wanted to deliberately find fault with her and ask her to be confined to help him.But every time he looked at him with respect in her innocent eyes, with a polite and sincere smile on his face, Snape took all those selfish thoughts into his mind.