[HP] Can you be gentle with me

"If I don't come out, are you really going to wait here all night, Severus?"

As soon as Lily walked out of the Gryffindor common room on the word of her classmates, she saw Snape waiting outside, pacing back and forth with an uneasy expression on his face.

"Lily..." Snape saw Lily come out and hurried forward.

Lily still couldn't control herself, took a sharp step back, and then saw Snape's disappointed expression.

"Lily... I'm sorry──" He lowered his head sadly and said in a low voice. "I shouldn't have called you that—"

"What are you calling me, Mudblood?" Lily blurted out the word, and she was as taken aback as Snape, then realized that after talking to Tahlia, she didn't care much about the word now, and she didn't care at all. She needs to care about what others call her, as long as she knows in her heart that it doesn't matter...

And Tahlia was right, Severus did come to apologize to himself.

Snape's head pressed even lower.

"I didn't mean to, Lily..." The voice was as small as a mosquito, but it didn't prevent Lily from hearing every word clearly.

"I know."

Snape looked up sharply, looking at Lily in disbelief.

Lily was amused, and burst into laughter. "Why do you want me to forgive you with this surprised expression?"

Snape shook his head blankly, still not realizing what Lily meant when he said he had to forgive himself.

"Severus, I know you don't think so, so I forgive you—" Lily said with a smile. "But I still have to say, I was really sad at the time, really—I never thought I would hear that kind of thing from my best friend..."

"I'm sorry." Snape repeated.

Then he suddenly discovered the fact that Lily just said that she forgave herself?

"You..." He rarely stammered. "You forgive me?"

"Of course I forgive you," Lily said. "Is it possible that we will break up because of this trivial matter?"

"But I..." insulting you like that... Snape knew it was serious, he came here after preparing for the worst, but obviously now the result was beyond his expectation, Lily almost instantly forgive yourself.

Lily chuckled. "I think you should reflect deeply..." The words were meant as a joke, but Snape nodded seriously, which made her even less concerned about the previous matter. "So I said I forgive you...don't make me say it again—" Seeing that Snape opened his mouth to say something again, he said hastily. "I don't really care anymore, really."

On the way back to the cellar, Snape was relaxed and his steps were much lighter - Lily forgave herself, she said she didn't care...

Sure enough, in the whole school, she was the only one who understood her.

But something seems to be missing?

Brows furrowed.

Lily forgave him, he should be happy, shouldn't he?

So what is the feeling of emptiness emerging in my chest now?

He felt as if he had missed something very important, but he couldn't remember what it was.

What exactly is it?

Thinking about it, my pace slowed down unconsciously...

A figure suddenly stepped out in front of him, Snape almost missed it in time, but luckily he was not fast enough, so he stopped in time.

"Severus?" The man sounded surprised, and Snape was surprised too.

It's all this time, why is Tahlia here instead of staying in the dormitory?

Almost in the next second, the intermittent sobs from the depths of the hallway Tahlia walked out answered the question in his mind.

sneer. "It seems that I interrupted your work." The word work was deliberately emphasized maliciously.

Tahlia just looked at Snape blankly. "No, you didn't—I was just done with it." Smirking.

For some reason, Snape felt that the expression on Tahlia's face looked particularly harsh, and the emptiness in his chest was even worse, but he didn't intend to say anything, just turned slightly sideways, trying to pass Tahlia.

"Severus, give up."

After that moment, Tahlia's voice drifted into her ears, wanting to give up...

He paused slightly, but didn't look back.

"No," he said, and stepped forward, leaving Tahlia behind.

Why did she let herself give up?

He won't give up, he won't say anything--

Tahlia watched Snape walk away, smiling wryly.

Still failed...

What was she going to do to stop Snape from insisting on getting Voldemort's favor?

Soon the holidays will come.

It meant reporting to Voldemort every day again.

But she was sure Voldemort was happy with herself lately.

What she said to Voldemort was even unbelievable to herself—discussing with him calmly who should be eliminated and who should be kept for use...

Josh always looked at himself with worried eyes. In fact, not only Josh, but also his other brothers would show concern from time to time.

What would they say if they found out?

Maybe they won't care about themselves as much as they do now...

It's true that she didn't kill anyone with her own hands, but she felt that those who died could be blamed on herself—her proposal, her plan, her supervision...the only difference was that she didn't implement it.

"Tahlia, tell us the truth..." Hamish finally couldn't help asking during breakfast. "Did something happen to you there?"

"Why do you ask?" Tahlia swallowed the porridge naturally.

Is not it?

The four men exchanged glances with each other.

Tahlia's behavior seems normal. If something really happened in their magical world, she would not be so calm when asked──

But why do they feel that Tahlia's back looks more and more complicated?

They should be the ones who understand their little sister best, but I don't know when, Tahlia won't tell them everything... and they can't figure out what she is thinking in her heart, which makes her feel uncomfortable. They were very discouraged--

Hamish touched his nose and said. "...It's nothing, when I think too much──"

"Anyway," Josh announced, clearing his throat. "If anything happens after that, we all want you to tell us, Tahlia."

Tahlia nodded, lifting her head and smiling. "I will."

Day by day, staying with Voldemort was as unbearable as the scorching heat. Fortunately, the summer vacation was only two short months, not too long, right?

This morning, as soon as Tahlia walked downstairs, she was greeted by the glowing eyes of her four brothers looking at her.

"What's wrong with you?" Tahlia asked in astonishment.

Billy excitedly held the parchment in his hand, and handed it to Tahlia, acting so carefully that she almost thought that ordinary parchment was a rare treasure...

"What is this?" Tahlia asked.

But the moment she saw the envelope, she knew the answer—she almost forgot her OWLs results.

"Oh, it's my OWLs."

"What's that? Is it an important exam? It's the first time I've seen them send their grades home...how does this affect the future?" Billy threw out a series of questions in an instant, which made Tahlia's head hurt. I just remembered that I completely forgot to mention the important exams of the fifth and seventh grades to my brothers...

"After obtaining the certificate of this exam, you can take the following courses, and then you can take the seventh-grade exam, and most of the work in the magic world depends on how many certificates you get for the seventh-grade exam—" she explained.

"Did I hear you right? You didn't mention it to us!" Josh protested.

Tahlia, who has always loved studying, never mentioned this exam to them...

Tahlia was embarrassed for a moment. "Sorry, I forgot—"

What else can she say?She really forgot... Besides, since she was in the third grade, she seldom wrote letters to her brothers - because that summer vacation, they heard a neighbor talking to another woman about how she often saw owls flying recently Flying around──they were so scared that they didn't dare to communicate with letters too often. Anyway, they had the double-sided mirror that Hamish and the others gave them, so they were afraid that they would not be able to contact them?

Seeing that the faces of the four elder brothers were still a little ugly, Tahlia thought about it, and quickly spread out the parchment.

Uniform O.

Sure enough, the attention of the four men was immediately attracted...

"What does O mean?" Tony asked. Tahlia had never mentioned the school's grading method to them...but now it seems that it is completely different from the grading they are familiar with.

"The O is for excellence—" Tahlia said. "The next one is E..."

Before she finished explaining, she was interrupted instantly by Billy.

"Haha, so you are all O." He puffed out his chest triumphantly. "As expected, you are the best──"

Tahlia rolled her eyes. "Billy, I'm the one taking the test, what are you so proud of?"

Apparently the other three men thought so too, and looked at Billy with contempt.

"Of course I should be proud—" Billy replied confidently. "This means that our family has good genes..."

No one complained about him, because they really didn't know where to start—think of Billy's school performance that could only be described as abysmal... Maybe they should be surprised that he even knew the word gene... Josh was almost moved Gotta cry.

However, this means that I should really think about my future work—— I looked back at the parchment in my hand, and went back and forth between the names of the subjects.

What is her favorite subject?

In short, it's definitely not a potion - that's Snape's specialty... Thinking about it, her face darkened slightly, but she immediately adjusted back.

Although Slughorn had previously done employment counseling for each of them - what did he say then?Ah, at that time, Slughorn was almost always chattering alone, saying that he could introduce her to various jobs in the future... Then she left in a hurry when the time came, and there was no result in the end.

So is it time for her to plan her future?

Shake his head.

Now her future is already occupied──

Even if she managed to kill the man in the end and end all of this, she might not stay in the magic world anymore...

In short, she doesn't have to worry about the selection criteria. Which professor would refuse a student with an O to enter their advanced class?

"I think we should celebrate, Tahlia—" Josh said, rubbing his chin, before Tahlia could speak. "You can't refuse!" He looked at Tahlia pretending to be serious. "How long has it been since you had a good meal with us? Even if you say that what you do is very important, you can't always stay at home."

Tahlia was silent.

It took a long time before she spoke, as if she had compromised. "Well, I'll try to come back as early as possible tonight, okay?" In fact, she didn't know if she could do it at all. For the first time, she promised something she wasn't sure about.

After breakfast, she showed up at Malfoy Manor as usual.

Not a single person - except for the house-elves.

Malfoy Manor was quiet at this moment, and there was no sign of anyone being there at all...

While wondering what was going on, there was a sudden pain in his left arm.

"Hiss—" Tahlia gritted her teeth, pressing her right hand tightly on the place where the mark was under the clothes.

Is this a call?

The constant stinging pain almost made her unable to concentrate on thinking──

No, the man knew she couldn't use magic, and she hadn't tried Apparation yet, so there was no way she would know how to move to a man... unless—

──Unless he is in some strong mood right now, not thinking about anything at all.

Shaking her head, she quickly rejected the idea.

There was no way Voldemort would have done such an ill-considered thing.

Suddenly, Lucius appeared next to Tahlia out of thin air, and the two of them were stunned for a moment, almost pulling out their wands and pointing at each other...