[HP] Can you be gentle with me

"What are you doing here?"

Snape looked back the moment the door was pushed open, and he finally knew who Potter was talking about about Nigel.

is a child.

It didn't belong to any of the men with various faces that he had imagined countless times before.

He didn't know why, but he felt relieved instead, and ignored the child named Nigel looking at him warily.

Snape cleared his throat. "School starts in a few days, I think I should discuss with you first-"

"No need." Tahlia interrupted him coldly. "I thought I was just here to take care of them from blowing up the cauldron for you, and to correct some homework for you—not to participate in your class schedule."

"Don't say that, Tahlia—" Dumbledore began, as Snape's face darkened instantly at those few words, and his lips were pursed tightly. "Severus just simplified the teaching assistant's job to tell you that, in fact, it's not too much to ask for you to discuss some lesson plans."

"Don't push yourself too hard." Tahlia was indifferent, and glanced at Snape before returning her gaze to Dumbledore. "I'm here to inquire about my future residence, not to discuss my responsibilities."

"In the future, you will live in the cellar, near the Slytherin lounge, and Severus can take you there──" Dumbledore smiled, not seeming to be embarrassed by Tahlia's attitude, but excitedly started talking to the two children behind Tahlia , of course, only got a few polite responses from Harry, and Nigel didn't make a sound at all.

"I want to go as soon as possible, Albus." Tahlia's tone sounded impatient, stopping Dumbledore's sudden childish behavior. "I think you should have more important things to do than play with the kids."

Dumbledore had no choice but to give up interacting with the children and said sternly. "Then, I will trouble you, Severus."

Snape nodded quickly, turned around and took a few steps, but stopped, and after a moment of hesitation, turned around and held out a hand to Tahlia.

"What?" Tahlia stopped abruptly, staring at Snape with raised eyebrows.

"...nothing." Snape slowly lowered his hand. "follow me."

What else could he say, Merlin knew why he had the urge to take the bag from Tahlia's hand just now...

He walked out of the principal's office first, and walked quickly towards the cellar. After a while, he found that Tahlia didn't keep up at all, but led the two children behind in a leisurely manner, regardless of the increasing distance between them. The farther he got, the more he had to slow down, waiting for the people behind him to catch up.

And such a short period of time felt unusually long to Snape.

The sound of footsteps behind him echoed in the silent corridor at this moment. For some reason, it gave him a sense of peace of mind, and he hadn't felt this feeling for many years. When did he think it came?

five years ago.

He had felt the same way five years ago when Tahlia happily walked beside him.And how on earth did he manage to ignore it completely?

He couldn't help but turned his head and looked behind, and then he found that there seemed to be a thorn stuck in his throat, making him unable to make a sound at all──

The sight of Tahlia holding the little bag and holding Potter with his right hand, who held out his other hand to the little boy called Nigel, hit Snape's head hard for no reason.

"What are you standing there for?"

When he was in a daze, Tahlia finally walked to him slowly, leading the two children.

She raised her eyebrows. "I didn't know that the mighty Hogwarts potions professor could get lost in the castle."

Snape regained his senses, took a few steps back, turned around, and spoke. "I didn't realize it took you this long to walk this short distance, Tahlia."

Tahlia didn't respond, just kept walking, as if Snape's sarcasm hadn't caught on to her at all.

Snape would have thought that Tahlia was deliberately ignoring him again, but no.

Because as Tahlia passed him, she spoke. "Have you ever... put yourself in anyone's shoes?"

What's the meaning?

Snape was immediately confused, and was about to ask something, but Tahlia had already moved a short distance, and he stepped forward and followed her. "What's the meaning?"

"No." Tahlia said flatly, then looked down at Nigel. "Want me to hug you?"

Nigel shook his head. "I'm going by myself!" he said, snapping his mouth shut again, looking at Snape defensively.

Tahlia didn't say anything more, turned around, and continued to walk at the same speed, and during this time, Snape didn't lead too much, and he kept walking a little two or three steps ahead of them all the way.

In fact, Tahlia didn't need him to lead the way at all.

Which of the Slytherin students would not know that there is a vacant office near their common room. It is said that it was originally the room of the school's female student council president, but later many people responded that the dormitory was very inconvenient in the cellar, so the location was changed.

And that room was left empty.

But everyone knew that the inconvenience of the dormitory being in the cellar was just an excuse.

It would be no inconvenience if the current female student council chairperson was a student from Slytherin, but embarrassing is embarrassing. The previous female student council chairpersons were rarely from Slytheirn College—there were quite a few male student council chairpersons, and even Tahlia's current class, female The president of the student union is also Lily.

So Snape couldn't figure out why Tahlia didn't object to Dumbledore's proposal, but agreed without saying a word, and even followed him quietly along the way.

Of course, he wouldn't be optimistic that Tahlia had finally become the same as before, after all, she had seriously expressed her determination not to say a word to him just a few minutes ago.

"Here we are, Snape." Behind him, Tahlia's voice came suddenly. "You should go back."

Snape pulled away from his thoughts, looked in front of him and saw that he had indeed reached the door of the empty room, and stepped back a few steps to allow Tahlia to step forward.

"Maybe I can organize some things for you," he blurted out.

Tahlia gave Snape a faint glance and spoke. "It's troublesome." He said, and opened the door of that room.

The unexpected dusty furniture, probably Dumbledore had ordered the house-elf to clean it thoroughly.

There is simply a set of sofas and a small low table inside, and there are office desks and chairs inside, and there is a door in the innermost part of this space, which probably leads to the bedroom.

Nigel had already approached curiously, circling the entire space, as if he wanted to say something to Tahlia, but because Snape was still there, he swallowed the words that had come to his mouth every time.

Snape thought it was funny, and watched with interest as Nigel wandered around the room, opening and closing his mouth, then staring at himself angrily.

I don't know why, but he didn't feel angry at all because of Nigel's stare. No student dared to do this before, or it should be said that he has severely taught the students who looked at him with such a gaze──

It seemed that in his subconscious mind, there was no thought of rejecting this child.

Not at all, and he didn't know how to explain the weird situation.

"I thought you said you were going to tidy things up for me," Tahlia said.

Only then did Snape realize that she had taken out all the contents of her pouch and placed it on the floor, taking up a lot of space.

He never knew that Tahlia had so many things... There were also several large boxes that looked heavy, and he didn't know what was inside.

He nodded slowly, walked directly to one of the boxes, and opened it.

All are books.

Snape thought the corners of his mouth must be twitching a lot right now.

Now he knew that one thing about Tahlia hadn't changed.

"It seems that your library has increased a lot—" he began.If these large boxes were filled with books, there would obviously be a lot more than five years ago.

"Really..." Tahlia responded casually, opened another box, and began to take out the books inside and put them on the shelf. "I don't have any memory." Then she stopped suddenly.

"Tahlia?" Snape called out suspiciously, noticing the sudden pause in her movements.

"It's okay," Tahlia said quickly.And Snape was surprised to find that she didn't know when she had lowered her face. She straightened up and looked straight at him. "I thought about it for a while, you'd better leave here, I'll be more at ease──"

"Sorry?" Snape wasn't sure what he heard, did Tahlia suddenly change her mind?

"Past experience tells me that it would be foolish for you to have access to my personal belongings at will." Tahlia said flatly, pulled out her wand and flicked it lightly, and the door of the office was opened again. "I think you should learn your lesson this time?"

Snape stared blankly at Tahlia.Then I remembered what Tahlia was referring to...

"This is the school." He darkened. "You're not going to try to attack me—"

Tahlia responded by holding her wand steady and flat, facing him. "Do you think I ever cared about the occasion where the spell was cast?" she said softly. "Think about it...have I ever cared?"

Snape didn't speak, but it could be seen from his displeased expression that if he did speak, it would definitely not be a polite sentence.

Tahlia really never cared about the occasion of casting the spell... Besides, she had already threatened many students since she was still in school.

Lifting his head sharply, Snape noticed that Tahlia's face became even more ugly, staring straight at himself.

Then he realized something, he seemed to have spoken out what he was thinking just now.

"I..." opened his mouth, and was about to explain something, but was shocked by Tahlia's indifferent expression, so he finally uttered only one word.

"You're absolutely right, absolutely right," Tahlia said slowly. "So the most important thing you should do now is to leave this office and don't appear in front of me." The hand holding the wand was even stronger, and the knuckles turned white. "Or if you want to get hit again, that's fine with me, Snape."

"...or not." Snape said coldly, seeming to forget that he shouldn't allow emotions to be easily provoked. "I think I still have this awareness." After speaking, he turned around, walked out of the office, and slammed the door shut.