[HP] Can you be gentle with me

"You mean, let him appear by himself?"

"What?" Tahlia frowned. "Of course I don't mean that - we don't have any leverage at all to get him to show up, Albus."

And this answer surprised Dumbledore again.

"I mean, instead of hoping for Peter to show up in front of us, we should try harder to find him—" Seeing that Dumbledore didn't respond, Tahlia continued. "I want to ask you this time, and there is no other way."

"Why are you so obsessed with finding Peter Pettigrew?" Dumbledore didn't immediately join the ranks of thinking methods, but instead raised the question that had always puzzled him.

"Because I think Voldemort's current soul must reside in an animal—" Tahlia said slowly. "And to find the animals..."

"The best way to find it is through animals. I understand that Mr. Pettigrew's Animagus form is especially suitable." Dumbledore nodded, looking at Tahlia approvingly. "You never cease to amaze me, boy."

"Let's save my compliments after Voldemort is dead." Tahlia said impatiently. "So, is there any way to find Peter as quickly as possible?"

"I'll think about it, but not now." Dumbledore smiled.

Tahlia froze for a moment, then frowned again. "I thought eliminating Voldemort should be the most important thing we should do now."

"It's not good to be impatient, Tahlia," Dumbledore said softly. "I don't think you should push yourself like this—"

"Of course I didn't push myself." Tahlia said quickly, but there was a hint of sarcasm in her tone. "Why should I push myself? Even if none of you want to do something—"

"Tahlia!" Dumbledore called out warningly, and that managed to make Tahlia stop her words.

She stood silently without speaking again.

"I think you're the one who should understand the most. Being invisible doesn't mean you don't give, son." Dumbledore said slowly.

It took a while for Tahlia to speak, although her expression still didn't look very good. "Sorry, Albus."

"And I think you've given enough—" Dumbledore continued. "Don't you want to involve Voldemort in your future life?"

"Of course not." Tahlia closed her eyes, and after a while, slowly opened them again. "Of course I'm not going to do that, and I've already made up my mind."

Dumbledore didn't try to hide his confusion, frowning slightly. "What kind of decision?"

"Do you know why I came back?" Tahlia asked instead of answering Dumbledore's question directly.

Dumbledore didn't speak because he really didn't understand why Tahlia would choose to come back after disappearing for five years.

"It should be asked, why would I want to come back?" Tahlia asked again.

This time Dumbledore still couldn't speak, and Tahlia obviously expected this situation and continued directly. "Because I still have responsibilities here, Albus," she said. "This means that when this responsibility is relieved, that is when I leave." She looked straight into Dumbledore's eyes, and that look made him find no hesitation at all. "Once Voldemort dies, and I keep my promise to them, I will leave, forever—"

"Child—"

"When I decided to come here to learn magic, and even get in touch with this world I had never heard of before, it was definitely the worst decision I ever made—and I want to make up for it." She said flatly. "After this is over, I'll live my own life, anyway, not be here anymore." Dumbledore ignored what he was about to say. "If that's what you're worried about, then I think you can rest easy—I'm grateful that you care about me, really—" There was a short pause. "Afterwards, if we successfully kill Voldemort, and I'm lucky enough to survive—I think I'll be happier if I leave here."

"Tahlia," Dumbledore called out quietly.He has no intention of persuading Tahlia to stay, because he has been thinking recently whether it was a good idea to persuade Tahlia to study in school on the grounds that he might not be able to control magic. Obviously, Tahlia's life in the magic world was very More pain than pleasure.

Right now he just wants to know and get an answer.

"The night you disappeared five years ago..." Tahlia's body shook slightly when she heard this. "Why did you forget about Severus?"

A moment of silence.

Tahlia stared at Dumbledore without speaking for a long time, and the old wizard just sat quietly, not flinching at all from Tahlia's increasingly fierce gaze.

I don't know how long it took before Tahlia spoke flatly. "The mantra of forgetting nothing is invented because you don't want people to remember it, isn't it?" she said. "If you really want to know, I think you have a lot of ways to forcefully pull out this memory."

"Indeed." Dumbledore nodded. "I have a way to forcibly learn it directly from Severus, but you definitely don't want to see the consequences—"

"How do you know?" Tahlia asked coldly. "Isn't Snape's memory damaged forever? You think I care? Since I'm the one who messed with his memory."

"Stop kidding yourself, Tahlia—" Dumbledore waved his hand. "You and I both know that you still won't allow anyone to hurt that kid Severus, don't rush to refute me, I can feel it-you may have stopped wanting to contact him for some reason that you don't want to tell anyone , but you don't change your mind about him." Pausing for a while, looking at Tahlia's gloomy face, he spoke again. "I am sure."

"So what?" Tahlia said coldly. "I'm just protecting myself."

"Severus will not harm—"

"He's already done it!"

Dumbledore was startled by Tahlia's sudden roar, and for a moment forgot to speak again to finish what he had just said.

"He's already done that." Tahlia said it again, but this time it was much softer than before, as if she had just had an emotional outburst.

Still, she looked angry, and her emotion was evident in the way she stared at Dumbledore. "So don't tell me anything about how he is now, I don't want to know!" Then, he smiled sarcastically.

It was the first time Dumbledore had seen him smile since Tahlia's return, but to be honest, he hadn't expected it to be this false.

"There's not a moment when I'm not trying to stop thinking about not caring about the goddamn bastard! And I almost made it, Albus—" Tahlia growled. "No matter what I do, no matter what I give to him—he won't treat me kindly, even pity me like charity, so why should I continue to let him hurt me?"

She didn't realize that tears were streaming down her cheeks as she yelled these words at Dumbledore, and he didn't remind her of his thoughts.

If what he heard was right, Snape really did something too much that day five years ago, and that even made Tahlia, who was always willing to tolerate Snape no matter what happened, leave angrily, even giving it such a... …the feeling of discouragement.

Dumbledore felt that no matter how hard he tried to think about it, he couldn't think of anything that could make Tahlia so cold.

"In short, no matter what you want to say, I have already decided." Tahlia took a few deep breaths, but she didn't bother to wipe the tears from her cheeks, as if letting them stay on her face like this would calm her down . "Voldemort is defeated, I'm leaving - you live your lives, I continue to live mine - no big deal..."

Dumbledore let out a long sigh, closed his eyes, and when he opened them, his eyes were full of exhaustion. "I guess today's conversation, you don't want me to reveal to anyone?" he asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

"Tell whoever you want—" Tahlia said softly, making it impossible to tell what she was yelling just now. "Anyway, even if I ask you not to say it, you will tell other people..." Pausing for a while, she turned her head and looked thoughtfully at the portraits of previous principals on the surrounding walls. Although they all closed their eyes, she Knowing that they are all awake, they have been listening to this conversation... "And what I want to say is, whoever you tell, don't expect them to be able to convince me to stay, I mean it." Finished, She turned around slowly and moved towards the door.

Only then did Dumbledore realize that he had never been able to control the woman's thoughts in front of him, she had always made her own decision and carried it through to the end, and all he could do was to cooperate with her as much as possible.

The only thing she changed was her decision to give up on getting close to Snape altogether.

It is completely incomprehensible.

"By the way..." Tahlia stopped suddenly before walking out the door, turned her head, and spoke to Dumbledore who was already in deep thought. "Can I meet the Weasleys?"

Dumbledore didn't react for a moment, blinked, and responded after a while. "Why?"

Tahlia thought for a while before speaking. "I want Harry and Nigel to spend more time with their peers, it's not a good idea to keep them bored in school... and that kid Bill told me earlier that he has a few younger siblings who are not yet old enough to go to school , I think—they'll get along well."

She didn't know what the Weasleys thought of her, she had never met them, maybe they, like the rest, hated her from the bottom of their hearts.

She didn't have this idea at first, but Bill's attitude towards her gave her a little hope. Maybe parents who can teach a sensible child like Bill won't be like those drifters in the magic world, always relying on some One-sided words may be biased against a person.

But, in any case, the meeting had to be brought up by Dumbledore.

"I don't think that's a problem at all, Tahlia." Dumbledore said softly, with a smile on his face after the momentary shock. "Arthur and Molly would definitely be delighted to meet you."