[HP] Can you be gentle with me

"where are you going?"

Nigel cursed fiercely in his heart, turned around slowly, and smirked at the man behind him who had just called out to stop him. "Going out, I thought it was obvious—if you hadn't stopped me, I would have gone out a long time ago." After thinking for a while, I added another sentence. "Did you say so, Father... Dear?" The irony of the last word was extremely strong.

Snape's face scowled, but he was rarely angry, and his tone was as peaceful as possible. "I'm asking where you're going, not what you're doing, Nigel."

Damn!

Nigel took a deep breath, and quickly finished the sentence. "I'll go to Sirius." Counting silently in my heart, three, two, one...

"Damn you want to go to that guy's house again?" Snape heard in his ear, no, it should be his goddamn father's roar. "I won't allow it!"

really.

Well done, he managed to irritate the man in front of him again, which definitely set a new record for this month, and it was definitely the point he was most proud of.

"Why can't I go?" Nigel shot back, raising an eyebrow. "Tahlia didn't say I couldn't go, and besides, she promised me last night—" Snape shut up with that one sentence, and could only stare at him angrily. "You don't want her to break her promise, do you?"

"Of course I won't let her break her word." Snape fought hard not to growl. "But I think it's very unwise for you to leave your invisible mother at home and run to that guy Black—"

"Why do you think she can't see?" Nigel attacked, ignoring Snape's sudden paleness at the words. "Don't talk about this with me, my guardian is Tahlia, not you! I don't know what good intentions you have, and suddenly inserted into our lives like this—"

He really didn't understand why Tahlia finally accepted the man in front of him, obviously he was a bad person, he was the one who caused Tahlia to be sad for many years, and he felt it was his duty to prevent this man from hurting Tahlia again. "You have no right to interfere with me—"

"I am your father."

"No, you're not!" Nigel suddenly couldn't hold back the anger in his heart and roared angrily. "I don't have a father. Tahlia said my father is dead! You are not!" After finishing speaking, she turned around angrily and rushed out of the house, slamming the door hard.

Snape stood where he was.

He doesn't know what to do, his own son rejects him, he's clearly closer to that Black guy, and there's absolutely nothing he can do to improve their relationship.

A pair of hands wrapped around his waist, and he held them reflexively.

"Did you hear that?" he asked in a low voice.

There was a soft reply from behind.

"I thought that he would gradually accept me—" Snape said heavily. "But obviously I was wrong."

"He will accept you, give him some time?" Tahlia's voice came into his ears warmly again, making him smile unconsciously.

Turning around slowly, he was not surprised to see Tahlia who was smiling at him, and couldn't help but lowered his head and kissed her lips lightly. "I don't think you should have agreed to go to Black so easily."

"How could I say no to him?" Tahlia said. "Sirius hasn't been back for a long time, and finally he will stay longer this time, you know, Nigel has always liked him—"

"──not like me." Snape said displeased.

Tahlia giggled. "You're acting like a naive, jealous father, Sev."

"I haven't." Snape said dryly. "I'm just stating the facts, as it stands, Nigel would rather Black be his father..."

"Oh?" Tahlia raised her eyebrows and said in a wicked way. "I thought he and I were both named after you, Mr. Snape." There was a pause, then a sly smile. "Or would you rather we all be named Black—"

"I'm sure you won't either." Snape didn't mind too much, and said with a snort, but he didn't intend to continue the topic of Tahlia being named Black either. "So, when do you think Nigel will come home this time?"

"It's hard to say." Tahlia thought carefully for a while. "Depends on where Sirius takes him—"

"Nigel is 16 years old, Tahlia... you still let Black guy take him with him all day and only think about playing?" Snape's tone sounded a bit complaining, after all, they were already worrying about a lot of things when they were 16 years old. , especially Tahlia... is under even more stress than most adults.

"Times are different, Sev," Tahlia said seriously. "There's no madman out there talking about cleaning up the wizarding world."

"But he's also too loose—"

"I think you're being too hard on him." Tahlia chuckled. "He did so well in school, what more do you ask of him..."

"Should I be glad the Weasley twins have graduated?" Snape said dryly. "All the troubles they caused in school before, the precious son you mentioned helped a lot──" It can even be said that as long as they are Hogwarts staff, there is no one who will not have a headache at that time of.

Tahlia coughed awkwardly.

Nigel was only with the Weasley twins when he would completely let go of his various talents and use them in pranks, and they would make school troubles every year until they graduated- ─

She couldn't understand how Nigel could hit it off with a twin who had a completely different personality from his, and she almost started to seriously think about whether it was a good idea to let him know the twins in the first place... even though they weren't particularly close in age The kind, the twins were in fifth grade when Nigel entered school!

"They all graduated anyway, didn't they?" Tahlia said. "Nigel has settled down like a normal student for the past two years, hasn't he?" At least it seemed to her.

Snape stared straight at Tahlia for a moment before deciding not to tell her about Nigel being caught trying to sell the twins' prank merchandise to school students a while ago, or being found hiding in the Room of Requirement as a substitute. Twins' new products do research...

Damn Fred and Geroge Weasley!

Although Tahlia stayed with him in the school during the school day, the professors at the school had a tacit understanding and would never tell her what Nigel was caught and did, and it was nothing. For a special reason, when seeing Tahlia's smiling smile, no matter what they were about to say, they would be swallowed back into their stomachs just before they left their mouths. It seemed that what they said would offend the woman in front of them again. Being sad or affecting her physical condition is something they absolutely don't want to do.

Only Snape knows that Tahlia is absolutely healthy except for her blindness. It should be said that with his diligent efforts to urge her to drink potions these days, she can no longer be healthier, but of course he will not stop His colleagues treat her with care.

Because he himself did so carefully.

"You're right." Finally, he spoke.After thinking about it, he decided to stop worrying about Nigel getting close to Black today, and return his attention to the lovely woman in front of him.

But he failed to follow through on his ideas.

It was nearly eleven o'clock when Nigel got home, Tahlia had already gone to bed, and Snape was the only one sitting quietly on the sofa in the living room waiting, he didn't intend to reprimand Nigel for coming home late, He'd always known Nigel's state of mind, and Tahlia had told herself the same.

The current situation is that the more Snape tells him not to do something, the more he wants to do something on purpose, but this is different from the rebellion of ordinary children, because Nigel will not do this to Tahlia, it should be said, he just wants to do something. Do this to yourself.

The solution to this situation is estimated to wait for Nigel to let go of his prejudices and be willing to accept him as—to use Nigel's words—a father who suddenly broke into their lives.

Snape knew he shouldn't be angry with him.

But everything happened when Nigel pretended not to see him and walked past him, and he was surprised to find that there was a faint smell of alcohol on Nigel and then broke out.

"Did that damn guy Black make you drink?" Snape growled uncontrollably, but he had completely lost control of the pent-up anger he'd had earlier in the morning.

"I'm 16!" Nigel shouted back unwillingly. "No, I'm here to explain something to you, I don't need to explain anything to you at all..." Saying that, Snape walked towards the stairs without thinking, and then he found that his arm was strangled.

His arm was strangled by the man who was supposed to be his father.

The strength of holding his hand was so strong that it made him feel pain, and he couldn't help frowning. "let me go."

Cursing Sirius Black countless times in his heart, Snape felt that he really needed to have a good talk with Tahlia about whether Black's unrestrainedness was being used in the right place, and growled. "How did you drink?"

Besides, his memory of the smell of the wine was by no means good.

It should be said that it was very bad, unprecedented.

That would make him feel like he was back in that gloomy and dilapidated house, curled up in a corner, waiting for the fist that would land on him at any moment...

"Just some bartending for fun..." Nigel said displeased.

The old Black house was very lively that day, and many people gathered there, Harry, Draco, Fred and George, in order to celebrate Harry successfully serving as Auror like Sirius after graduation, they just tasted it while chatting. Some low-alcohol cocktails that Kreacher prepared for them--the twins complained about it for a while, saying that such things are not used for entertainment, but Kreacher made it clear that there was a future like him among them. As an adult, he was often ridiculed for this.

So he really didn't understand why the man in front of him had such a big reaction.

With a little effort, he shook off the hand that was holding him, didn't intend to speak any more, and quickly walked towards the stairs with strong strides──

"Tahlia?"

Pausing, neither Nigel nor Snape behind him seemed expecting to see Tahlia appear on the stairs.

He turned his head and glared at his father. "You even woke up Mom." The accused growled.

And Snape's face was dark as well, and he didn't say anything.

"What happened?" Tahlia asked, walking down the stairs slowly while holding onto the banister of the stairs. Seeing this, Snape stepped forward in a few steps and took Tahlia's hand.

"How did you get down?" he asked in a low voice.At the same time, he kept wanting to teach himself a lesson, it seemed that his yelling woke up Tahlia just now.

Tahlia just smiled. "I figured it was almost time for Nigel to go home, so I came down to see—"

They were already downstairs, and Tahlia smelled faintly of alcohol on Nigel. "Nigel, go take a shower first..." she said softly.

Snape was about to speak, but stopped because of the look on Tahlia's face asking him not to interrupt, and could only watch silently as Nigel walked up the stairs with a victorious air, and slammed the door behind him. .

"I'll talk to him..." Tahlia said immediately after hearing the door slam. "I promise."

"I just—"

"I understand." Tahlia held out her hand, placing her index finger squarely on Snape's lips. "I know what you're worried about...I'll talk to him."

"You don't have to do that," Snape said dryly, and Tahlia's fingers were still on his lips, giving him an eerie feeling when he spoke. "This is not something to brag about to my son..."

"But it's an important step for him to understand you." Tahlia said seriously, then smiled. "Okay, I guess I'm still sleepy, maybe you're sleepy too?"

Snape nodded slightly, normally he would never just nod to answer Tahlia's question, because she couldn't see it, but now because it was against his finger, he knew she could hear him clearly.

Snape didn't know exactly when Tahlia went to Nigel to talk about it, or rather, he didn't know if Tahlia had ever gone to Nigel, but the holidays were over soon, they all had to go back to school, and he couldn't talk to Nigel. Do any confirmation.

Then, one day, there was a knock on his office door, just as he was about to leave the office and go back to the larger room the school specially prepared for him and Tahlia.

The person who came surprised him even more.

"Mr. Snape...Nigel." He changed his words shortly, almost calling out in private what he'd called his son in class. "What are you doing here so late?"

Nigel stood hesitantly at the door. There was a marked difference from the previous aggressive attitude of confronting his father. His eyes were also wandering, as if he was still considering whether to speak or not.

Snape wasn't in a rush either.

He knew that Nigel must have made an exception to come here because of something, even though the child's talent for potions was completely inherited from him and he also had a strong interest in this subject, he had never seen his son in order to ask for advice. problem and step in here.

This is definitely the first time.

After hesitating for a while, finally, Nigel still chose to enter this office, put an envelope in his hand into Snape's hand, and left in a hurry, leaving Snape standing there with a rare look of astonishment.

Slowly opened the letter in his hand, and after looking at it, the corners of his mouth raised uncontrollably. This is not a letter, it is more appropriate to say it is a card, because there is only one line written on it.

"Happy birthday, Severus."

Severus...?

Snape felt that he was in a very happy mood now, Nigel called him by name, not Professor Snape who was unfamiliar at school, nor his stiff and sarcastic father at home, but Severus.

Although it wasn't the affectionate daddy he was expecting.

But always a beginning.