[HP] Can you be gentle with me

"I never flattered the Dark Lord like you did before!"

silent.

There was a very, very long silence.

Snape stood still, completely at a loss as to what to say, and Tahlia in front of him exuded a cold air, which made him almost unable to help backing away.

"Get out." Suddenly, Tahlia said coldly.

She pushed Harry back a few steps indiscriminately, and spoke again to Snape who was frozen in place because of this sentence, not moving a step. "I said, get out."

Snape still didn't move, standing in the doorway with a stern face, knowing that he had ruined what could have been another conversation—

"Do you still want me to kick you out?" Snape recovered, and found that Tahlia was pointing his wand at him, his expression was icy cold, and little Potter had already slipped back into the door behind Tahlia. "Don't think I won't do that..."

"You really don't—"

Before Snape finished speaking, a white light hit, and the next second, he flew backwards, hitting the wall in the corridor again, and the door that he finally opened in front of him had already slammed Close it with a snap.

Looking at the closed door in disbelief, Snape finally fully realized one thing...

He thought Tahlia would never attack him—

That was totally just his opinion.

Standing up slowly, his back was already aching from the multiple impacts when he knocked on the door just now, but Snape didn't bother to care about the pain, and looked at the door one last time in a daze, and then dragged his feet leave.

"Harry..." In the living room, Nigel glanced at Tahlia, who seemed very unhappy, and quietly spoke to Harry, who was also at a loss. "Tahlia hated that...Snape?" he asked.

Harry nodded slowly. "At least it looks like I—"

"But...Snape—" Nigel frowned, and it made his face look all tangled up. "Do you think Tahlia will hate me too—"

"How could Tahlia hate you!" Harry said immediately, reaching out and tapping Nigel's little head lightly. "Did you forget that she will buy you many, many things?" There was a pause. "That Snape that Tahlia hates is definitely not referring to you...you're just...just—" he thought hard, and finally said with certainty. "You just happen to have the same name!"

"Really?" Nigel still didn't seem completely relieved, he really liked Tahlia very much, she was definitely the best person in the world to him, so what he was most afraid of was that Tahlia hated him──

"Really!" Harry nodded. "Tahlia must like you the most!"

Nigel took another wary look at Tahlia, and was instantly taken aback when she saw her looking at him.

"Tahlia──" said softly.

"Nigel, if you keep thinking about these inexplicable things, I will never buy you a book on potions again." Tahlia said lightly.

And this threat was obviously very useful, Nigel nodded quickly.After a while, he spoke seriously. "But you can't be angry all the time!"

"I'm not angry," Tahlia said. "I'm just..." At this point, she stopped suddenly, staring blankly ahead. "Just... thought of something I really hate."

"Then don't think about Tahlia!" Nigel said loudly, and ran to Tahlia to sit down next to him. "Right, Harry?" Since you hate that, don't think about it, you won't be angry anymore──

"Of course I do," Tahlia said. "Do you think I'm still angry now?"

Nigel watched Tahlia carefully, then nodded slowly. "Tahlia looks better when she's not angry."

"Is that so…" Tahlia stared at Nigel for a moment before speaking. "I don't know when you can tell when I look good."

Nigel pouted. "I just know that Tahlia looks best when she's not angry."

"Okay..." Tahlia poked Nigel's nose lightly. "I'll take you to eat something delicious tonight, okay?"

"What's delicious?" Nigel immediately became excited, looking at Tahlia with twinkling eyes.

"Um..." Tahlia thought for a moment. "I remember there should be a good restaurant near here──I don't know if it's still open..."

"It's okay!" Nigel said excitedly, and he could hardly sit still on the sofa. "You can go anywhere!"

"That's good." Tahlia ordered Nigel to be hugged off the sofa. "You and Harry go and change first...we'll go out in a while."

"Okay!" Nigel nodded vigorously, and hurriedly dragged Harry into their room.

And Tahlia turned her gaze back to the book after the two children ran away, her face expressionless, as if nothing had happened just now.

The next day, a note was owled in through the window at breakfast, Tahlia glanced at it, and set it on fire.

The next day, the same thing happened again...

This went on for a whole week, and Tahlia's face was getting uglier every day at breakfast.

And a week later, no more notes arrived, which was a relief to both Harry and Nigel, who didn't like the stern-faced Tahlia at all, even though Tahlia was never like the neighbors they had met before. She smiled at them so gently, but they could still easily tell whether she was in a good mood or not from her expressionless face.

A few more days passed after that.

At the moment, Tahlia is nestled in the study, concentrating on making some defensive accessories, which have been her source of income for the past five years. To be honest, the prices on the black market are very good.

And the door was knocked again.

But this time it was different, Tahlia could clearly feel the spell she cast on the door was lifted, opened the door and walked into the living room with a frown.

She already knew who the person outside the door was. At this moment, there was only one person who could easily break the spell on her door without breaking open the door—Albus Dumbledore.

"Harry, you go and open the door for the guests, will you?" she said. "That's the Headmaster of Hogwarts, remember to be polite—"

Harry nodded quickly, immediately dropped the book in his hand, and opened the door leading to the entrance. After a while, he brought in a tall and thin old man, and Tahlia was already waiting.

"To be honest, I didn't expect you to come to my place, Albus."

As soon as Dumbledore walked in, Tahlia spoke.

Dumbledore smiled. "You didn't give me a chance to talk to you last time."

Tahlia raised an eyebrow, then stood up, motioning for Dumbledore to sit down, before she sat back down. "What's up?"

"I believe you have received the letter I sent you earlier?" Dumbledore began.

"If you mean the letter asking me to return as a professor, then you should already know my answer." Tahlia said lightly. "I reject."

"Don't say that, it's different now." Dumbledore was still smiling. "Besides, Severus told me that in order to make the potion you requested, he must have a certain understanding of Harry's physical condition──" ignoring Tahlia's slight frown. "This means that if you all stay in school, things will be much simpler..."

"So much easier?" Tahlia repeated. "No, it won't be much easier—I'm not short of money, and I'm not at all interested in going back to school with students who want to kill me," she said flatly. "Have you ever thought about their reaction? If I really return to the professorship, and what happened last time, do you think those parents will keep silent?"

"That won't happen, I promise—" Dumbledore said, speaking again after seeing Tahlia's obvious disbelief. "If that's the case, I think it's the headmaster's job, not the professor's, to deal with the parents."

Tahlia didn't speak right away, but looked straight at Dumbledore, and for a split second he almost thought she was going to say yes.

"You know you can't always hold those papers down, can you?" she said slowly. "After all, their purpose is to fear that the world will not be chaotic, and to catch wind and shadows - isn't it what they are best at, grabbing a person's weakness and injuring them wantonly?"

Dumbledore had no way to refute at all, so he could only shift his gaze and began to observe Tahlia's small apartment──and then saw a child sitting on a chair in the corner seriously writing and drawing something.

The level of concentration was completely out of character for the kid's apparent age.

It's as if the child is really serious about writing something, rather than ordinary children scribbling on paper.

And the child was sensitive to his gaze, raised his head slowly, and in an instant, his black eyes met his blue eyes.

But only for a moment, the child didn't seem to be interested in him as a visitor at all, after just a glance, he returned his attention to the paper in front of him, and continued the action just now.

And this surprised Dumbledore again.

For the first time in his life, he saw such a child who would not be curious to observe a stranger.

Has he really lived too long, or has the child changed now?

Shouldn't children at this age be full of curiosity about the outside world and explore their surroundings energetically?

Dumbledore glanced at Tahlia, and found that she didn't express any opinion on the way he looked at the child just now. He stood up slowly, walked to the child, and unexpectedly found that the paper in front of the child was already filled with words , although it looks very sloppy because it was written by a young child, but just from a few words in it, it can be seen that he already has a certain degree of cognition.

"What are you writing about?" Dumbledore said softly, very gently.

But the child didn't say anything, still lowered his head, writing intently, as if no one was talking to him at all.

This made Dumbledore stand aside in embarrassment. This was the first time he encountered such a situation, and he was completely ignored by a child. Back then, even Voldemort as a child couldn't do this──

"Don't say you can't understand such a simple thing, Albus." Tahlia's faint voice came from behind. "Since when did you want to tell me a cliché from a child?"

"I don't mean any cliche." Dumbledore turned around and said seriously. "This child is—"

"Nigel," Tahlia replied. "Now I'm taking care of him."

"Then his parents—"

"Dead." Tahlia said flatly.

Dumbledore just wondered where on earth Tahlia found such an orphan who was obviously a young wizard, and the appearance of—

A child with black hair and black eyes is really very rare...not to mention the inconspicuous freckles on his nose...

An idea formed in his mind──but he quickly rejected it.

Definitely not Tahlia's child, she had loved Snape so much - there was no way she would have had a child with anyone in five years.

What's more, she also said that the child's parents are dead, so she has no reason to lie to herself, does she?

"I'm sorry," he said.

Tahlia froze for a moment, then spoke. "this is not your fault."

"If Voldemort had anything to do with the death of this child's parents, then I must bear some responsibility, Tahlia." Dumbledore said seriously.

"Indeed..." I thought for a while. Tahlia nodded slowly. "It can be said that it has something to do with him—"

Dumbledore smiled. "Then... let's continue with the topic just now──"