[HP] Can you be gentle with me

"You mean, you want me to substitute for him...for a whole month—just because he's bored and wants to go outside?"

In the headmaster's room of Hogwarts, there were three people standing.

Among them, a man and a woman with the same hair color were staring at the helpless witch sitting behind the desk in disbelief.

"Tahlia, if I could stop him, I wouldn't let him—" McGonagall said with a headache. "I really have no other choice, so I will ask you for help..."

Merlin told her how she woke up one morning and received a letter—

A letter from Sirius Black, to be exact.

The content of the letter was roughly that he was tired, wanted to rest, and wanted to go shopping around the world──and said...and said that he also had the right to find his own spring!

McGonagall really didn't want to admit that she'd seen that sentence - and it was a wonder she didn't pull out her wand and set fire to the letter right away.

There was just one small problem, Sirius Black happened to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at the school.

And he has only been here for less than half a semester.

McGonagall now regrets so much why he agreed to Lupin's resignation in the first place, and why he invited the popular current Auror to be a professor in a moment of confusion──

"So our great Professor Black left only one letter, thinking that would be enough? Obviously, how much trouble we get into by staying here is out of his concern──" The tone was mocking It was so thick, Tahlia smiled helplessly.

After all, this was the friendliest way Snape had treated Sirius.

"Didn't you two come together, Severus?" McGonagall smiled wryly, spreading a piece of parchment in front of the two of them. "Maybe you each share half of the class? I saw your original class schedule first—there is only one class that needs to be moved." Rarely looked at the two people in front of him with a pleading expression. "I'm counting on you?"

Tahlia looked at the frowning McGonagall speechlessly, and turned to find Snape looking at her. "What?" she asked. "Should you agree?"

"You're already going to agree, will I disagree?" Snape replied flatly.

Turning around and sighing, he pulled the parchment aside, copied one and handed it to Snape who was aside before speaking. "Okay, let's help—"

"That would be great!" McGonagall breathed a sigh of relief. "I promise, when he comes back I'll have a good talk about him—"

"Looks like it will be useful if you say it──" Snape said coldly.

"Sev."

Closing his mouth quickly, Snape forced a smile.

After a while, I opened my mouth. "I'll stop." Then to McGonagall. "But Minerva, it's time for you to seriously consider the question of whether Black is fit to be a professor—"

McGanagall smiled wryly.

Of course she thought about it, even though Lupine had served as a professor for several years before, proving that the position of Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts in the school was not cursed at all, most people were still quite afraid of the rumors, and as soon as Lupine resigned, she fell into a search again. In the dilemma of not being a professor.

"If you want to blame, you can blame the previous professors who didn't stay well and left after less than a year──" she said, and then she was embarrassed to find that Tahlia was looking at herself with embarrassment, and immediately clarified. "It's not your fault, you had a reason—"

Then he immediately regretted it because of Snape's instantly darkened face.

"Sorry." McGonagall looked at them both apologetically. "I guess I'd better stop—"

"Indeed," Snape said slowly, though his face was still gloomy. "You talk more and more every day, Minerva." Then he felt a push on his arm, turned his head, and found Tahlia looking at the front with a nonchalant face, but it seemed that he was completely guilty.

"Ahem..." Obviously intending to continue to cover up, she cleared her throat and opened her mouth pretending to be calm. "In short, we agreed—if there is nothing else, we will go back first."

McGonagall nodded quickly and waved them away.

After the two left the office door, McGanagall breathed a sigh of relief, and began to curse the absentee Professor Black countless times in his heart.

"Haha!"

At the same time, Sirius, who was strolling leisurely on a country road somewhere in Scotland, sneezed loudly, and a coolness rose from his back for no reason, making him shiver unconsciously, and subconsciously tightened the robe on his body .

"You have the flu?"

"Probably not." Sirius rubbed his nose, smiled at the woman walking beside him, and joked. "Maybe someone is thinking about me..."

"It's less stinky." The woman laughed and gave Sirius a nudge. "Maybe it's not thinking about it at all, but scolding you—"

"Who would scold me?" Sirius pretended to be serious. "It's too late for them to like me—"

Obviously this amused the woman who had been following him all the time, only to hear her start laughing uncontrollably. "You're really the most shameless person I've ever met, Sirius." While smiling, he reached out his hand to wipe away the tears from the corners of his eyes because he was too excited to laugh.

"That's called confidence!" Sirius said cheekily, and then laughed too.

"You really are a very special person," the woman said. "Leave aside the weird clothes you always wear—"

"I'm a wizard, Natalie."

The atmosphere froze instantly.

Sirius closed his mouth after saying this, quietly waiting for the woman named Natalie beside him to speak.

Natalie blinked her eyes, trying to find the joke in the handsome man's eyes, but to her surprise, she couldn't find it, but she said it pretending to be calm. "Are you kidding me? Magic doesn't really exist—"

"No, it exists." Sirius said immediately, silently clutching the wand hidden in his sleeve, ready to take it out at any time. "I'm really a wizard."

"Prove it to me." Natalie only had one thought in her head now, maybe she was out of her mind and misunderstood Sirius' words, or maybe Sirius was out of her mind and started talking nonsense. "are you serious?"

Although she didn't quite believe the thought in her head because of the man's unusually serious expression──

And Sirius didn't hesitate, and immediately took out the wand that had been hidden before, held it steadily, and stretched it out in front of Natalie's eyes.

"It's just a stick, Sirius." Natalie said calmly, thinking that Sirius had suddenly lost his mind, and she began to think seriously about how to persuade him to seek medical attention──

"This is the wand, Natalie," Sirius said softly. "I'm just going to prove it to you now—" He said, lightly lighting up his wand.

Natalie's eyes widened.

She couldn't say anything, she just stared at Sirius in panic, as if she was terrified that he just calmly turned a stone at her feet into a flower in an instant.

Sirius didn't say anything either.

He'd been thinking about it for a long time, thinking about telling Natalie about it.

Thank Merlin for allowing him to meet her and let him let go of Tahlia completely.

He knew that Tahlia was still the girl he fell in love with at the beginning, but they were not suitable. His feelings for Tahlia were not so much love, but admiration. Maybe he had a good impression of her at the beginning. Wrong, but as they grew up, he felt that she was getting farther and farther away from him──

So, letting go is a good thing.

Natalie Jones.

Years ago, while he was traveling to find a cure for Tahlia's eye, he met this woman.

Then he realized that he didn't know since when, he no longer had a feeling of heartbeat disorder when he saw Tahlia, because he felt uncontrollable again from a small restaurant where he had a short break for a long time. It's impossible to think calmly about how heartbeat is.

Natalie still looked in disbelief, and Sirius started thinking maybe he should have said something more, but it was too late...

Without saying a word, she turned around suddenly and ran away──

damn it!

Sirius cursed and knew without thinking that he should go after her at this time, otherwise he would never be able to say a word to her again.

"Natalie, wait!"

But Natalie ran faster and faster, which made Sirius frustrated. Could it be that he made her run like running for her life?

But he will never give up so easily, thinking about it, the speed on his legs has also accelerated a lot──

Originally, men had an inherent advantage over women in running. Soon, Sirius chased after Natalie, reached out his hand and grabbed her arm forcefully, and then, amidst her exclamation, pulled her away. near yourself. "Are you afraid of me?"

Natalie shook her head in panic, but didn't think about breaking free.

"Then why did you run?" Sirius said angrily. "I'm still the man who ordered a lot of food carelessly and forgot to bring the money, but was still made things difficult by the store."

"You know I really thought you were stupid at the time, don't you?" Natalie said casually, before realizing something was wrong and shaking her head again. "... No, if you are really a wizard, how could you not be able to solve the situation at that time?" As he spoke, he seemed to calm down a little. "What trick did you just do? How did you turn stones into flowers?"

"I said it was magic!" Sirius growled. "Do you want me to try it again?" He felt that all his worries just now were unnecessary, and the woman in front of him didn't seem to care much at all.

"Okay ok..." Natalie chuckled, seeming amused by Sirius' sudden outraged reaction. "I believe you are, Great Magician—"

"It's a wizard!" Sirius corrected. "I'm not the same kind of person as the monkey-playing people you see on TV—"

"It's the TV," Natalie corrected. "I really don't know what era you're living in, Sirius...how could there be someone who doesn't even know how to pronounce TV?"

Sirius' mouth twitched. "I said I'm a wizard! We don't watch that kind of stuff!" Suddenly, Natalie didn't answer the question she asked at the beginning. "So why are you running?"

"Huh?" Natalie froze for a moment before smiling. "I think... If you are really a wizard, you should be able to catch up with me, right? Just make sure—"

Sirius was completely speechless.

However, inexplicably, he felt that such a woman was very cute. He smiled, and naturally let the hand that was holding her arm slide down, and instead held her palm.

"Then...why did you tell me?" Natalie asked seriously after the joke.

Sirius smiled, lowered his head and planted a light kiss on Natalie's forehead, and spoke softly under her surprised gaze. "Because I like you, Natalie──and I don't want to hide anything from you." He squeezed the other's hand slightly harder. "how about you?"

"Me?" Natalie was stunned for a moment before she realized it. "Of course I like you...I mean, who doesn't like you? Of course I also──" As he spoke, he suddenly realized what he had just said, and immediately lowered his head, looking shy, and changed his mouth to utter A murmur that no one could hear.

"I take that as a promise?" Sirius smiled, resting his free hand lightly on Natalie's chin, causing her to lift her head and look straight into her eyes. "I love you, Natalie," he said. "I love that woman who is willing to stand up and defend the weak when everyone doesn't understand, and I also love your look of focusing on work. Maybe I used to live in a different place or even a different world from you, but That doesn't prevent me from having the feeling that I like you──"

"Sirius..." Natalie felt that her cheeks must be extremely red now, because she could clearly feel that her whole head was burning faintly──

He was a mysterious man, and she knew it from the first moment she saw him.

He only stays here for a few days at a time, but in those few days, no matter what she does, even work, he will accompany her, most of the time, he just quietly stays by and looks at herself quietly.

For some reason, that made her feel extremely satisfied.

As if that's how they should interact.

she smiles.

Perhaps meeting this man in the restaurant was the luckiest thing she had ever met in her life.