HP Starlight

After supper, Snape returned to the cellar rack to prepare the cauldron for the sedative.Every year after Easter there is always a large group of students who have to take some for test anxiety.From his first year in office, Mrs. Pomfrey, the head nurse of the school hospital, asked him to help him through a bit.Over the years, he has gradually developed a habit, and will make it in advance when he is not busy during the holidays to prepare for emergencies.

A puff of steam rose from the cauldron, and Snape poured powdered dried nettles into it and stirred gently.Concentrating on brewing potions always gave him brief moments of peace.Watching the cauldron boil, he took the silver knife and skillfully chopped the valerian root into fine, even pieces.Anyone watching will be amazed at his smooth and graceful movements.It's a pity that the locked door of the potions master kept everyone out.

Suddenly there was a rapid knock on the door, Snape paused, and the piece under the knife was cut a little crookedly.He cursed, threw the substandard piece aside, and turned to open the door.

If it was a student he would have scolded him severely and put him in solitary confinement, Snape thought viciously.

Unexpectedly, standing outside the door was the panting administrator Filch.

"I caught the Slytherin students fighting with students from other colleges. Now they are in the school hospital. Professor Dumbledore asked me to call you over."

Damn brat, Snape cursed under his breath, extinguishing the flames beneath the cauldron with a flick of his wand.

"Who are they?" Snape asked as they walked.

"A girl named Esther Collins and a boy." Filch said viciously.

Snape frowned, he could guess who the boy was, and probably knew the reason for doing it.After all, there was trouble, and he climbed the stairs irritably, and saw Dumbledore and McGonagall coming down the stairs.

"Principal, Professor McGonagall." He greeted briefly.

Dumbledore told Filch to go back first, and then motioned for them to enter the school hospital together.

To Snape's surprise, Collins and Wilkes stood there unscathed, even able to smear each other.He looked at them sullenly, being caught when he was fine, what a fool.

But neither the lying nor the standing students noticed that the principal and the dean had come in and were still arguing angrily.

"...he's not his father, he's not a criminal; just like you're not your father, you're not a hero."

"Shut up, you are his accomplice... His father killed my father! I want revenge!"

"But his father is dead, you just want to find a scapegoat..."

"Death Eaters didn't kill your family, of course you're taking it easy."

"In fact, they did not directly kill my family members. Although their appearance caused my father to abandon me, and then my mother died in depression, but I hope they do it directly, so at least in my heart, my parents love me. Dead Apostles, I can justly hate them."

It turned out that her family was also broken up by the Death Eaters, Snape's left arm retracted slightly unconsciously.It looks like she should hate Death Eaters, yet befriend the descendants of Death Eaters.For the first time Snape felt that the little girl did seem a little unusual.

Apparently Dumbledore and McGonagall heard the conversation too.From Dumbledore's tone, Snape felt that he probably wouldn't get to the bottom of their faults, after all, it sounded like the other party was looking for trouble first.How could he not fight back after being beaten, Snape defended the two students of his college in his mind.

Sure enough, as Snape expected, Dumbledore did not demand severe punishment for them.Snape was doing himself a favor by only punishing them with solitary confinement.

However, it seemed that the punishment was a bit light, and Collins dared to chat in the Potions class.Snape did not hesitate to increase the confinement time for Collins. After all, it would be nice if a useful assistant could help him for a while.

Collins is efficient and likable.Even a teacher as strict and mean as Snape could not help but indulge her a little.And Snape found that she seemed to have a special ability to make people feel relaxed when they were with her.Her words were always on point, flattering and flattering, but comforting.Snape decided to be more lenient with her, allowing her confinement time to review her lessons.Although he was very busy at the end of the term, he tried to arrange as few tasks as possible for her so that she could prepare for the exam with peace of mind.

At the end of the school year, Snape placed the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup in his office again, feeling a faint sense of joy in his heart.He wondered that he didn't seem to have any feelings for them before, after all, you can't expect people who have no interest in living to be interested in so-called honor.But now it seems to be different, he feels like he has a little life again.He was annoyed by this confusion.He was sure that he hadn't forgotten the past, but this newborn emotion remained in his heart clearly and truly, which made him a little at a loss.

The new school year had begun, and Dumbledore had once again rejected his application for the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position, which made him feel a little more at ease this time.Colleagues still greeted him politely and distantly, students still looked at him with disgust and fear, nothing changed.It was good, the familiarity made him feel safe.He brought out his harsh and mean side to the fullest, keeping everyone away from him so that no one would notice the change in his heart.

Harry Potter will be entering school next year, and he can finally fulfill his promise to protect the safety of Lily's son.No matter what kind of danger, he didn't care, he had waited too long.Dumbledore said he had inherited Lily's lively green eyes and hoped Lily's sacrifice was worth it.Thinking of Lily, he couldn't help but feel that needle-like sting again.Perhaps he should visit her and tell her that Harry was going to enroll, he thought to himself.

After the Halloween dinner, he asked Dumbledore to leave school and go to Godric's Hollow.Seeing Dumbledore's expression of sympathy and understanding, he quickly left the principal's office after the old man nodded in agreement.He didn't want to hear him say some disgusting comforting words to himself.

Snape was walking in this village where Muggles and wizards lived together in a wizard's robe.It wasn't too noticeable though, as spooky costumes are not uncommon on Halloween.The last few children who were wearing sheets and carrying jack-o-lanterns were called back by their parents.They all looked at him curiously as they walked past him, and ran away in panic when they saw his cold face.

Suddenly he felt his neck was lightly strangled.He turned his head suddenly, and saw a child shrunk into a ball tremblingly withdrew his hand holding his traveling cloak, and asked in a low voice, "Uncle, are you unhappy because you didn't get any candy? I can share it with you." Pieces." As he spoke, he held up the pumpkin bucket in his hand to show him.

He gave him a hard look and turned to leave. The little boy cried "Wow".He stopped in chagrin, took from his robe pocket the lemon drop that Dumbledore had just forced into him, and dropped it into the little boy's pumpkin bucket.

The crying behind him gradually turned into faint sobs, and he breathed a sigh of relief.He didn't understand why he would care about this little boy crying.Maybe he just didn't want him to disturb Lily's peace, so he tried hard to find a reasonable reason for himself.

The last time he was here was the day Lily died.Since then, he has been avoiding this place that made him miserable, so he is not familiar with the surrounding environment.He turned from the alley and found that it was a square. When he passed the monument in the center of the square, the obelisk turned into a statue of a family of three.He froze for a moment, then turned his head to look over, the woman on the stone statue was lifelike, her eyes were full of tenderness looking at the child in her arms.

"Lily." He murmured, slowly approaching the stone sculpture.Standing in front of the statue, his slender fingers moved slightly, as if he wanted to reach out and touch the figure.But eventually they all curled up and tucked away in the sleeves.

He stood there for a long time, until there was no light in the surrounding houses.He took one last look at the statue of Lily before heading in the direction of the cemetery.

Rows of tombstones stand neatly in the cemetery.Snape walked slowly one by one, as if he was a little afraid to find her tombstone, and also afraid that he might miss it.Finally he saw the two names, James Potter and Lily Potter.The names of the person he loved the most and the name of the person he hated the most were engraved together, Snape frowned in disgust.He reached out to dust off Lily Potter's name, but left James's alone.Looking at the words "died on October 1981, 10", he felt suffocated again.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something to Lily, but as if he had been cursed, he couldn't make any sound.He tried a few more times, but still chose to give up.He drew his wand and cast a silent Patronus Charm.The silver-white doe instantly lit up the tombstone.The little deer meekly walked to the tombstone and lay down, bent down and rubbed Lily's name with his head.Snape stood in front of the tombstone for a long time, as if he, too, was a tombstone.

It wasn't until dawn that he moved his frozen body and prepared to go back.He backed out of the cemetery trying to find a hideaway to Apparate, but his legs took him involuntarily to the ruins of Potter's house.It's exactly the same as it was nine years ago, except it's barren and overgrown with weeds.He seemed to see himself stumbling in, crying heart-piercingly.With grief pounding on his brain and heart, he Apparated back to Hogsmots as if fleeing.Fortunately, no one would find him at this time, so he walked quickly across the field and into the cellar.He desperately needs a place to stabilize his emotions.Back in the office, Snape finally took off his mask, sat wearily on a chair, and conjured a lily with his wand.He stared at the white petals ecstatically, allowing himself to sink into the quagmire of depression and pain.

Suddenly a knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.He froze for a moment before realizing it, immediately disguised himself with Occlumency, and opened the door with a wave of his wand.

It was Collins who came and handed in applications to Hogsmeade.Snape tried to be as cold and mean as he usually was, but it didn't work.The violent emotional shock he had just experienced softened his heart.He should have rejected her mercilessly and let her know that the rules are the rules and no changes are allowed.But seeing the girl's cautious and expectant eyes, the word of refusal turned into agreement.Collins' eyes glowed with joy, and Snape couldn't help but feel a little relieved.

It was Christmas again in a blink of an eye, and he was now somewhat used to waking up in the morning to see the Christmas presents on the table, although these things were not his favorite.Since the ink, Collins gave him a loose-leaf notebook the next year, which can arrange the memos in any order and will send reminders on the date.Snape had already used more than half of this notebook.

This year, quills will probably be given away, Snape guessed in his mind as he unwrapped the gift.Sure enough, an eagle quill was beautifully held in a dark green velvet box.Seeing that his guess was consistent with his own, Snape was a little proud.He took out the pen from the box and dipped it in ink and tried it on the parchment. The tip of the pen glides smoothly across the paper, leaving sharp writing.It felt good in the hand, and he tilted the corner of his mouth and put it on the pen holder in satisfaction, ready to have breakfast.

On the last day of the Christmas holiday, students returned to Hogwarts one after another.Snape was about to go back to the cellar after dinner, and found that Wilkes was looking worriedly at Collins not far ahead.What happened again?Snape unconsciously followed two steps to hear what they were saying.Turns out they were discussing practicing Occlumency.Really heartless, is it fun to expose your mind to others?Snape decided to find a reason to put Collins in confinement, to learn something useful under his own supervision, instead of looking for trouble all day long.

Snape decided to hand over to Collins the work of other faculty members asking him to help prepare the potion, which could not only train her but also lighten her own burden, killing two birds with one stone.

When he demonstrated to her the next day, Snape couldn't help being taken aback when he saw how she handled Sleepy Bean.This is the method he researched, no one should know, how did she know?

"Why did you do this?" He subconsciously asked.

"Taught by a senior," Collins replied.

Snape didn't delve into it, but just teased her.This gave the little girl another chance to show her language skills.Although he knew she was flattering him, Snape was still very helpful.

A few days later, one afternoon, the first-year students sent Snape the collected homework to his office.Seeing the busy and gloomy Snape, the students put their homework on the small table farthest from him and hurried away.Snape looked gloomily at the fleeing figure and didn't speak. Although this made him a little unhappy, it was normal for the students to be afraid of him.The three years that Collins had been in front of his eyes made him feel a little bit delusional, thinking that he was really a popular teacher.

Snape had just returned to his office after dinner when he was called away by the Slytherin sixth year prefects.A student he slept with was wounded and unconscious while experimenting with a dangerous curse, and he had to ask Snape for help.Snape rushed to the boys' dormitory to check the students' injuries.Fortunately, it wasn't serious, he controlled the injury with a few simple counter-spells, and sent him to the school hospital for treatment.When he returned to the office, Collins was already sitting at the small desk writing quickly, grading the homework left by the first-year student.

Thinking of the back of the student running away again, he couldn't help feeling a little irritable.And Collins' self-assertion made him feel disrespected.He was very angry, even the little girl's aggrieved expression and serious explanation could not completely calm his anger, and her behavior of imitating his handwriting also made him suspicious.He used Legilimency on her to see what else she was doing with his handwriting.But I didn't expect the little girl to use Occlumency to block his attack.

"Occlumency? It's surprising that Miss Collins has already started." Snape remembered that Dumbledore had said that she was a child who was good at hiding herself.Just started Occlumency in the third grade, it seems that he is really good at controlling himself, but such a person is also more dangerous.Snape couldn't help but turn from angry to vigilant, and his favor towards Collins declined.

But the little girl was immersed in the joy of success, completely unaware of Snape's dangerous eyes and change of mind, and even asked Snape to help her practice Occlumency without thinking.

"You don't have to practice, who cares what a 13-year-old thinks." Snape found an excuse to prevaricate her.

"I'm not going to be 13 forever! And I'm easily influenced by other people's emotions. I have a strong sense of perception. I need to avoid excessive influence of emotions on me. Occlumency is useful for me." The little girl insisted, even Expose your weaknesses.Snape had heard of the natural Legilimency's ability to perceive other people's thoughts, but this was the first he'd heard of the ability to be sensitive to other people's emotions.But seeing that the little girl didn't look like she was lying, he temporarily believed her words.But he didn't think he should help her.

"Then you should also choose someone you trust to practice with you. After all, the practice process will inevitably expose your memory. That is your secret, a private secret."

"You didn't care just now whether my secret was private. Besides, I have no doubt that you are someone I trust."

The little girl's words crashed irresistibly into Snape's unsuspecting mind.He belatedly discovered that the little girl was not at all angry at him for snooping on her memory.In addition to respect and adoration, she believed in herself so much, it was silly and naive.The complicated personality and simple mind are so contradictory yet naturally merged into one, Snape didn't know how to treat the student in front of him, and he didn't know whether he should accept this trust.

"Your trust should not be given lightly."

"It's not gullible, professor, I promise I've thought it through. From the first time I met you, you helped me. Since I entered school, you have taught me far more than others. Although sometimes it is not so direct and pleasant, but I have to say that I have benefited a lot from you. This is also the reason why I worked hard during the confinement. I don’t think this is a punishment, I am learning from you, and I sincerely hope to help you share some work within my ability.”

Even if she didn't have flushed cheeks with embarrassment, Snape could see that she was speaking the truth, as real as the child who had run away from him in fear that afternoon.He didn't expect that she would regard his making things difficult as a help, would consider other people's ideas so kindly, and would be grateful for it and repay her kindly.

Snape felt that he should speak ill of her, so as to hide his good intentions to help her.He should laugh at her stupidity with his usual sarcastic tone, and take other people's troubles as kindness.But he was a little greedy for the only trust given to him, and he couldn't bear to ruin it with his own hands.He hadn't had this conflicting mood for a long time, because "dead people" would not be entangled in anything, only living people would.

It would actually help her to practice Occlumency by letting her retain that trust, Snape made an excuse for himself.Since Dumbledore had been ready for her to help Harry, it wouldn't hurt to learn more.And during the practice, I can understand this child better, and if she has signs of developing into a dark wizard, I can find out as soon as possible.

Snape allowed her to annotate papers and agreed to help her practice Occlumency.The little girl's face was full of joy, but Snape felt a faint regret in his heart. After she practiced Occlumency, she might never see such a real expression again.