[HP] Can you be gentle with me

It fell into silence again, and for a moment, only the ticking of the clock on the wall in the living room outside could be heard.

Flames flickered from the candle again, and Snape, who was already propped up in the room, lit it with his wand.

With the reappearance of the light source, he looked at the woman who had lost consciousness under him with a complicated expression, and there were still many traces of bruises in the undisguised place of the messy robe──

Standing up quickly, he frowned when he found that the clothes on his body were not much more tidy than the unconscious woman's, tidied himself hastily, and stepped out of there without looking back──

He was out of control.

The potion was a failure. Perhaps he had made a mistake in a certain link. The formula was incomplete. When making it, he took risks in many unknown places to guess the ingredients based on his sensitivity to potions. Dosage, it's not like him at all. Potions should be a very delicate subject, but he acted so hastily, which led to the situation just now.

With another curse, the apparition disappeared.

Almost at the same time, Tahlia in the room opened her eyes.

It took a few seconds for her to regain her comprehension.

And Snape was completely gone.

She didn't know how she should react now, since she woke up, her lower body had been aching uninterruptedly, and her back was constantly tingling because of the coldness of the floor.

Not being able to think about anything, she felt that her mind was now in a mess, all thoughts, all emotions were jumbled together.

So she just lay still—

It wasn't until her stomach protested, and at the same time she heard a bell ringing outside, that Tahlia decided to make a move.

Standing up cautiously, she found that her hand that had pulled her clothes back was trembling uncontrollably.

How did things turn out like this?

She never thought that the effect of that potion would be so... surprising.

Never mentally prepared for this to happen...

there has never been.

The only female friend she knew well at school was Lily... Barely added a roommate, and after graduation, the only one she had a lot of contact with was Narcissa.

And it's obviously impossible for them to talk about even a little bit about this in the chat...even if they are both married and have children of the same age.

Sure enough, Snape wasn't there... that was the conclusion she'd come to after scouting the house.

She lingered for a long time in one of the rooms that was almost certainly Snape's bedroom, probably the only room in the house that was barely habitable... at least not thinking that the furniture was covered in dust everywhere else.

Then she saw a framed photo on the bedside table that had been torn in half.

Lily's photo.

She suddenly felt that the thing was very dazzling, which made her unbearable... She almost escaped from the room.

Going down the stairs to the living room on the first floor, the moonlight was already shining through the gap in the curtains, and Tahlia had no idea where Snape had gone.

And should she leave now... or wait here?

But she didn't have to worry for too long, because at this moment, the door to the outside was slowly pushed open, and then Snape appeared behind the door.

And when he saw Tahlia standing there, he stopped and froze while holding the doorknob with one hand, obviously surprised that Tahlia was still in the room.

"What are you still doing here?" After a while, he spit out a sentence.

"Just haven't left yet..." Tahlia began, and then realized that her throat was very dry, and the unlubricated voice sounded strangely dry.

Both of them fell silent for a while, and Snape was still standing at the door, not entering the house for a long time.

"I think you should come in first... Severus." Tahlia thought for a moment before deciding to speak.In fact, she had no idea how to react to the current situation.

Snape nodded stiffly, and walked into the house, but instead of closing the door, he pointed out. "And you should go."

that's it?

Tahlia couldn't believe it, Snape's reaction made her feel bad, even though he did it because of the potion, but he should say something...anything—

"You…" Tahlia squeezed out a word. "You have nothing to say?"

And after Tahlia asked that, she got another sneer from Snape.

"I think you'll see it in the Daily Prophet in a few days... It doesn't hurt to tell you first—" Snape said each word slowly. "Reports about the Hogwarts professor openly studying black magic..." said pretending to be regretful. "What do you think the parents will think? You, who are suspected of being a Death Eater, have been obsessed with black magic even after becoming a professor──"

"Study... black magic?" Tahlia was at a loss.

She hadn't studied the Dark Arts at all - yes, she might have cast the Unforgivable Curses, but that didn't require research, did it?In terms of research, the only books that Voldemort gave her when she was a student could barely be called it... Snape's accusation was totally unfounded.

Snape showed disdain for Tahlia's astonishment. "Hiding the black magic books on the desk without any protective spells, where's your vigilance?"

"Books of Dark Arts..." Tahlia realized in an instant what Snape was referring to.

The annotated "Leading-Edge Dark Arts Declassified" she had brought from the principal.

And it's not that she hasn't cast any protective spells, in fact, the guard spells she cast outside her office door are definitely the most strict in the entire school-so she never thought that someone could break in without her knowing The book was found in her office.

The only exception was Snape.

"You...you rummaged through my things?" She asked weakly.

Snape was expressionless. "That's not the point. The point is that I have found the evidence."

"You don't understand...that book is the school—" Tahlia shook her head, trying to explain something, but was interrupted sharply by Snape.

"Stop! I don't want to understand," he said harshly. "I don't need you to prove anything to me, I also know how evil you are──"

"I..." Tahlia couldn't think at all. "I'm not evil—"

Moody said, don't care how others see her, what matters is how she sees herself──

Sirius said he knew she wasn't evil like those Death Eaters—

So why, hearing Snape say these words to her, made her feel so heartbroken?

She even felt that the confidence in herself that she had built up with great difficulty before was smashed into pieces because of this short sentence, and it seemed that she could never recover.

Anyone could insult her, but it was Snape's words that made her want to die.Thinking back to the days before Voldemort disappeared, it was definitely the darkest period in her life, she thought she could suppress the heartache when she saw Snape resenting her at that time, but now she Knowing she was wrong--

In her heart, Snape's opinion of her was far more important than anyone else's.

Tears didn't know when they fell from the eye sockets, and the mouth opened and closed several times, but nothing came out.

"I thought..." After a while, she whispered, her voice visibly trembling. "Even though you might not like me, after this time together, you can care about me even a little bit..." He looked up at Snape with a glimmer of hope.

But then he was hit again by the contempt in his eyes.

"That doesn't mean anything at all, do you expect me to fall in love with you?"

"No, I just—"

"Or do you think I've put up with the disgust of being with you these days so you think I've forgiven you?" Snape continued. "Shouldn't you forget... I said I would never forgive you?"

Tahlia was silent.

He said disgusting.

It was disgusting for him to be in his presence.

And she naively thought that the relationship between them had improved, but it turned out that everything was an illusion──

The...poison-like hallucination that made her fall.

"You can just say that you hate me──" In that case, she would never have decided to go to school at all, even if it would be inconvenient to take Harry with her.

"I don't hate you—" Snape said flatly, and then he spoke to Tahlia's last vestiges of anticipation. "I hate you."

Tahlia looked at him hopelessly.

always like this-

Why is it always like this?

Snape would always give her a faint hope, and then push her down the valley the next second.

"You are nothing to me." His every word, every word seemed to be turned into countless sharp knives, piercing his chest with precision.

"Stop talking..." There was a tightness in her chest, which was far beyond what she could bear in the past──

"Or, do you think you've fooled Dumbledore and you can live in peace from now on?"

"Please...don't—" Tahlia said blankly.

"Don't do anything else? How many people have you killed? How evil are you? You don't deserve to live... You killed Lily!"

"...I didn't...kill Lily──" Tahlia suddenly felt very cold, both psychologically and externally, even though it was summer. "I didn't—"

Subconsciously tightened the robe on his body.

Snape didn't say anything, just stood there, sneering.

"Since you say you hate me..." Tahlia's voice was so small that she could barely hear it, but Snape could hear it clearly in the quiet room at the moment. "Why did you just—do that...?" She couldn't even say it.

Snape froze.

Because even he couldn't explain it. At the beginning, he blamed the mistake on the failure of the potion, but after calming down, he knew clearly in his heart that this was not the case. There was nothing wrong with the potion, and he didn't even want to think about why it happened There is that kind of influence.

"I'll say it again, that doesn't mean anything at all, stop being sentimental."

Finally, he spat out the words.

That doesn't mean anything at all.

"It doesn't mean anything..." Tahlia repeated in a murmur, raising her head, biting her lips, and Snape noticed that her lips were still slightly red and swollen. "That's what you think, isn't it?" she said softly. "Not only what happened just now... but also all the things we have experienced before──For you, it doesn't make any sense...?"

"I do think so," Snape said coldly.

To his surprise, Tahlia suddenly smiled.

And the smile was unusually bright, coupled with the tears still flowing on the cheeks, it seemed very incongruous.

Then, under Snape's slightly puzzled gaze, she slowly drew out her wand and pointed it at him.

Not a little trembling.

"Did I hit it?" Snape said calmly without fear. "Finally decided to stop pretending, to stop being a good guy to Dumbledore?" There was a pause. "Are you going to kill me?"

"I didn't intend to kill you, even if you were an asshole, Snape." Tahlia smiled. "And it took me so long to finally realize this—"

Snape thought that smile was as fake as the one he saw in school before, but he was surprised to find that facing Tahlia's expression, another new emotion rose in his heart, regret——

This was something he hadn't expected.

But he didn't have time to say anything.

"Obliviate." Following Tahlia's incantation, the last thing Snape could see was the green beam from his wand, and in the next second, he couldn't even remember that. into darkness.