[HP] Can you be gentle with me

Snape knew he had screwed up again.

The only person in the world who could tell him her whereabouts was yelling at him as if she saw an enemy just a moment ago...

Yeah, why not?

What qualifications does he have to expect them to be pleasant?What right did he have to hope for them--believe that he never wanted to hurt Tahlia again?

"She chose to leave by herself!" Josh's roar still hit him in his head.

Tahlia has been here.

He was sure that Tahlia had been here too, just as he knew Tahlia had definitely been to Malfoy Manor.

After being unconscious for so long, she finally woke up, but she... walked away without a word--not telling anyone, not telling... herself.

So she was really indifferent.

Snape stood there silently.

No matter how hard he tried to make amends, no matter how hard he tried to show kindness—even when he was almost sure that Tahlia and his relationship had improved a lot, it was useless, she still... didn't intend to forgive him—

What else could he do?

It seems that he has exhausted all the methods he can think of...

"I remember I said I hadn't seen her."

Snape said nothing, not a word since he stepped into the hall again.

"So I'm curious, Severus, what on earth are you doing here again?" Sitting on the sofa across from him was the owner of the place, Lucius Malfoy.He frowned slightly, observing Snape while asking the question.

He had to admit that he was very surprised.He was sure that the man he saw two days ago was not as restless as he is now, with messy hair hanging down and sunken eye sockets, making his dark circles more obvious. "What do you want me to say?"

Snape clenched his fists tightly, and it took a while before he could speak. "Tell me, she did come—" he continued, ignoring what Lucius was about to say. "I know she's been here."

"Really?" Lucius smiled slightly, leaning back on the couch. "Even if she did come, so what?" He paused for a while before adding another sentence. "You also won't know where she went—"

"...you're right," Snape murmured, casting a glance at Lucius. "I really don't know."

For some reason, Lucius couldn't continue speaking because of Snape's deeply sad words.

"I've searched everywhere..." Snape continued to mutter to himself. "Where did she go──" Saying that, he gave Lucius another absent-minded look, then stood up unsteadily.

"Severus." Lucius suddenly felt something was wrong, and stood up too. "You..." Sure enough, in the next second, Snape staggered and sat back on the sofa in an instant. "What's the matter with you?"

"Nothing." Snape shook his head angrily, standing up again. "I go first."

"Are you—" Lucius took a few steps forward, grabbing Snape's shoulders firmly. "Let me ask you, have you slept in the past few days?"

"Come on, you don't care at all," Snape said coldly, shrugging his shoulders slightly to shake off Lucius' hand. "I have to find her."

"And then?" Lucius raised an eyebrow. "The moment you saw her, died of exhaustion in front of her?" He snorted coldly. "That's not like you, Severus."

"What else could I do?" Snape looked up sharply, glaring at Lucius. "What can I do!" He roared, raised his hand unconsciously, and grabbed Lucius' collar angrily, although Lucius didn't struggle at all, just maintained the same raised eyebrow expression, squinting at him. "I have to find her—I have to... I have to bring her back—if I can't..." He opened and closed his mouth a few times, but he couldn't continue to spit out the next sentence.After a while, he tremblingly let go of his hand. "I have to bring her back."

"Why?" Lucius asked flatly.

Snape looked up slightly, looking straight into Lucius' eyes. "You know why."

Lucius stared at Snape, rather, observed him.

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe Tahlia never wanted to come back?"

Snape didn't answer, his hands were downcast, his lips were tightly pursed, and he turned his face away.

Of course he thought about this problem, but he didn't want to face it.

For a moment, the entire space fell into a suffocating silence.

After a long time, Lucius sat down again. Snape couldn't tell from his expression what he was going to do now, so he sighed and sat down. "I apologize." He said calmly. "Anyway, what I did just now was not rational at all──"

"She did come." Lucius' words made him freeze instantly, and he stopped speaking in astonishment and stared at Lucius. "If that's what you want to ask." Lucius caressed his wand unconsciously with his fingers. "She did come here before she left."

"What did she say?" Snape seemed to have a sudden look of anger on his face, and he straightened up. "She told you—"

"No." Lucius raised his hand, interrupting Snape abruptly. "She didn't say." Ignoring Snape dropped his shoulders in disappointment again. "You know she took the kid."

Snape looked up, confused.

Lucius didn't continue to speak immediately, but just looked at Snape calmly, he thought it was very obvious, there was no reason why Snape couldn't come up with an answer, just give him some time. "She took Nigel, I can tell you, I brought him to her from Black, at her request." He paused slightly, before deciding to add another sentence. "This is a reminder, Severus."

Yeah... of course.

Tahlia took Nigel - that's her... that's her son.

Lucius took a sip of tea leisurely, then watched the man in front of him be silent for a while and suddenly realized.

He knew he had seen exactly what he meant.

No matter what Tahlia said, she would never be able to completely disconnect from the wizarding world. It should be said that it was impossible as long as she still had the child.

Nigel would grow up, and one day, he would receive his acceptance letter to Hogwarts.

Then Tahlia will appear before their eyes again──

"You owe me one, Severus."

Snape closed his eyes and nodded slowly. "I appreciate it."

Although he has already figured out that Tahlia will appear again because of Nigel one day, he still can't put on even a good face. Yes, he knows that he only needs to wait for Nigel to come when he is 11 years old, and she will be able to find Tahlia as she wishes... ...but he-

But for him to do nothing like this, just wait—

Every cell in his body was clamoring to get out of here and find her...but he held it back. If Tahlia decided to avoid them, no one would be able to find her. Anyway, he is now impulsively leaving the place and wandering around. Chuang is definitely the most useless option.

Snape sat limply on the couch in his office, head thrown back.

He just needs some time to get used to Hogwarts without Tahlia... He can definitely do it-yes, Tahlia had been away for five years, and he continued to live as usual.

He'll just have to be patient, Nigel will be 11 soon... soon.

At this moment, Snape, who was lost in thought, didn't notice that the door of his office was pushed open. Strange to say, although the school professors rarely locked the office door, he couldn't even notice that someone came in. yes

By the time Snape realized, Sirius Black was already standing in front of him, looking down at him.

He was here alone that day, and since that fellow Malfoy came to his house one day and told Regulus a long line of words that he had to concentrate on to understand, he had a strong feeling that he had to come, not to mention He had to... confirm one thing for himself.

"You're an asshole," he said.

Snape frowned, but he didn't refute, he didn't ask Black why he was here, if he just wanted to piss himself off... he wouldn't succeed, he'd leave after he'd made himself a fool of himself anyway .

"You love...is her?" Black's voice came again.

Snape looked up in surprise. "What?"

"You told me back then that you didn't like Lily...so you love...Tahlia?" Sirius took a deep breath and said.

Snape was silent for a few seconds, then nodded slowly.

"Oh Merlin!" Sirius took a deep breath and turned his head, he didn't want to believe it! "Damn it! You—" He turned to look at Snape again. "You..." He opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say for a moment. "You—when did it happen?"

"...I'm not going to talk to you about this, Black." Snape lowered his head again, intending to remain silent.

"Really?" Sirius snorted. "I think so too...it doesn't matter, anyway, I didn't come here to tell you this—"

Snape snorted coldly.

Sirius gave Snape a blank look, whether he saw it or not. "I just... have something to give you—I must say, it's definitely not because I sympathize with you—"

"I do not need."

Sirius shrugged. "Whatever you think, although I never thought that I would say these words to you... But I think, I can somewhat understand your current mood──"

Snape looked up again.

"Look, Snape, what happened to Tahlia, and then she left without a word...we're all sad - when everyone is celebrating the victory of justice, I can't celebrate like everyone else , but I know exactly how you feel right now, Snape... you have to... you have to let go—"

"No." Snape glared at Sirius, his voice through his teeth. "impossible."

How dare he? That idiot Black!

How could he possibly know his current mood?No matter what, no matter who it is, it is impossible for him to let go of anything!

"If you're just going to tell me this, you can go."

Snape spat out something rude, and pointed in the direction of the door.

But to his surprise, the man in front of him didn't jump in anger because of his words, but smiled—

What happened to this person today...

Snape frowned, and spoke in displeasure. "What are you doing—" But in the next second, he shut his mouth because of something Sirius Black pulled out from his arms.

A photo, it should be said.

"You──" For a moment, Snape couldn't organize his words at all, and his whole body seemed to be taken out of his soul, staring at the thin paper in Sirius' hand in a rare daze.

"You haven't seen it, have you?" Sirius waved the photo slightly. "This was taken for her a few days before we graduated, when she didn't quite want to—"

Snape was still speechless.

The person in the photo is Tahlia.

Still in her school uniform, she smiles in the direction of the camera, then becomes stunned after a small flash, blinks her eyes, and then smiles again.

Something hit him hard inside, even so, Snape only looked away slightly. "Are you showing off to me?"

"No." Black's voice reached Snape again. "I think you need this thing..."

Snape raised his head abruptly, no, it should be said that he stood up from the chair. "If you're just going to tease me—"

"No." Sirius said again. "Believe it or not, Snape... As much as we don't like each other, I've never been as - what should I say - as vicious as you think." He took a deep breath. "You can't imagine how I carried on when Tahlia left...I was in a state of confusion, always wondering if she didn't care about me at all, if I wasn't important to her For her to leave so resolutely—I... I almost couldn't make it through." He paused for a moment, seemingly hesitating, but finally handed the photo over, and Snape took it with a look of disbelief. "That's when Regulus put this thing in front of my eyes." He forced a smile. "Now, I think you need it more than I do."

Snape stared blankly at Sirius.

"Why?" He asked hoarsely after a while.What Black said just now was exactly the same as his current mood. It was only at this moment that he suddenly realized that the man in front of him really loved someone...

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Do you think I will?" He looked displeased. "I'm just afraid that Tahlia will be sad when she comes back and find you starved to death—"

Snape looked bewildered.

"Oh, enough of you." Sirius rolled his eyes. "Remus writes to me every day, saying you hardly eat anything - you should look in the mirror, Snape, you're like a skeleton when you're not talking..."

Snape blushed.

"But it's time for me to go, let me tell you first, I just lent you the photo, if you lose it, I will never let you go—" Sirius didn't plan to stay any longer, before Snape had If there is any response, he waved his hand and walked outside.

But when he was about to walk out of the door, he was stopped.

Sirius turned his head and saw Snape cautiously waving his wand, the photo was framed by a photo frame, and landed lightly on the table, then he turned his head, and for the first time in his life, spoke to Sirius without any sarcasm .

"Anyway, thank you."