[HP] Can you be gentle with me

"Miss Tonks."

"...your student?" Lupine's voice reached his ears hesitantly. Snape gave him a curt nod and continued walking forward.

"Wait!" The two of them were stopped by Tonks, Snape slowly turned his head, and gave the witch who was trembling and holding up her wand, who was clearly at a loss what to do, a questioning look. "You...explain why you are here—and..." she asked brokenly, looking like she was holding a wand and questioning someone for the first time. "And did you make this spell—"

"Of course not!" Remus started, grinning at Tonks. "Sorry...we got lost—"

Snape glanced at Remus, who was utterly lying, without concealing his disdain.

And Remus just shrugged indifferently, and continued talking to Tonks. "You are...you are also an Auror, right? My friend Sirius---Sirius Black is also an Auror, you should have heard---"

"Mr. Black?" Tonks' eyes widened instantly.

Snape snorted coldly.

When did that guy Black deserve the respectful title of Mr.

Remus kept smiling, and nodded slowly. "I haven't introduced you yet, I'm Remus Lupine, Sirius and I—"

"You're all Order of the Phoenix!" Tonks cut him off abruptly, suddenly agitated, completely hiding the excitement in his tone of voice. "You... I've heard of you! In the last battle──" Then she coughed lightly, her expression slightly restrained. "But Mr. Lupine, you should be a professor at Hogwarts now, right? You shouldn't be here at this time... Excuse me, Professor Snape, too." As he spoke, the wand that had been unconsciously lowered straightened again lifted up.

Remus coughed awkwardly. "This..."

"Dumbledore wants us to come over and get some documents." Snape said immediately, his voice flat, but Tonks, who had listened to Snape's harsh words for seven years, swallowed subconsciously, and was persuaded almost instantly, this Serious professors always have the air to make them obey in a split second. "And we got lost." Ignoring the same speechless gaze cast on him by Lupin, he paused for a while and asked again. "anymore question?"

"Uh…" Tonks blinked, moving his eyes back and forth between the two men a few times before finally dropping his wand. "Sorry...it's just this door—" she said dryly. "Suddenly it won't open."

"Would you like me to take a look?" Remus asked gently, stepping forward at the same time. "After all, as you said, I am now a professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts..."

"That would be great, if you would—"

Remus turned his head and winked at Snape, telling him to leave first, before he turned around and took out his wand, and studied the door with Tonks.

"I just saw your hair change color...is it natural?"

"Yeah, my mother said that my hair always changed color when I was a child! My disguise was completely unprepared and I got a high score..."

Snape turned around silently, his lips pursed into a line, ignoring the man who was already chatting with Tonks, and left.

It was ten minutes later when he joined the people outside and waited in an alley outside the Ministry of Magic until Lupine followed suit. Remus had complained to Tahlia about the weird spell before joining them, standing around the portkey, when Snape suddenly remembered what Lupine had just said to him.

The only one who knows how to solve the crux of their relationship──

He glanced at Lupin who had a calm face, as if he hadn't had any conversations with him just now, and then glanced at Tahlia who had already put his hand on the portkey, and stopped before Lupin was about to touch the portkey. His arm, opened his mouth quietly. "We have to go back to school."

Remus froze for a few seconds, then came to his senses, took a few steps back, and waved casually at the confused Sirius. "You guys go, we have to go to dinner—"

Sirius was about to ask, but Lupine just shook his head at him, signaling him not to ask any more questions, and the next second, Luiucs shrugged and activated the portkey, and after that there were only two people left in the alley.

"So...?" Remus blinked, looking at his black-robed colleague in surprise who actually listened to his words. "What do you want me to say?"

"All." Snape raised his eyes and spoke slowly. "Tell me everything Tahlia told you."

Remus stared fixedly at Snape, and remained silent for a while, as if he wanted to make sure whether Snape was serious or not. In the end, he had to believe that the man in front of him was definitely not joking, and forced a smile. "I think we might need a Pensieve—"

"She talked to me a lot."

For a moment, Remus and Snape were sitting opposite each other on the two sofas in his office, with a silver stone basin on the table between them. "Many nights, she just vented to me... crying and saying—"

"Crying?" Snape froze for a moment, then unconsciously leaned forward.

"She was at a loss then—" Remus explained. "I don't know how to put it...but she's at a loss as to how to deal with your sudden change of attitude."

Snape's hands on his knees clenched unconsciously, and he pursed his lips tightly, falling silent.

"I think you should see for yourself..." After a moment, Remus pointed to the Pensieve in front of him, motioning for Snape to move forward.

And Snape did stand up, but stopped before leaning over the Pensieve.

He raised his eyes, stared at Remus, and spoke lightly. "Tahlia allowed you to do this?"

Remus smiled. "No." He paused. "In case you're wondering, we actually have an Unbreakable Curse..."

Snape raised an eyebrow.

"Severus, if she forbids me to tell you, there's no way I'd dare to put these memories in front of you."

The corners of Snape's lips twitched. "...you took advantage of the loophole."

"I've been very aware of all the school rules since I was a student, Severus." Remus laughed, and sat back comfortably on the sofa, neither admitting nor denying, just saying something casually.

Snape raised one eyebrow again.

He is very clear about all the school rules, so he is also good at taking advantage of various loopholes in the rules...

"Looks like Gryffindor isn't exactly for you, Lupine."

"No, I definitely belong to Gryffindor." The smile on Remus's face was still gentle and harmless, but at this moment Snape secretly decided in his heart that he must never let his guard down because of the gentle smile of the man in front of him. "You just don't want to admit that there are smart people in Gryffindor..."

Snape snorted coldly, seemed to decide not to continue talking, and brought his face closer to the Pensieve again, and then sank into it.

Almost the moment he landed again, he saw the black-haired woman curled up on the sofa and weeping in front of him, and Lupine was sitting in the same position as before, the only difference was that in this memory he had a serious face and didn't say anything. In a word, he just sat there frowning, as if he was listening to the woman's words intermittently accompanied by gasping, and seemed to be thinking—

"I really want to forgive..." the woman murmured. "I really want... I really want to—I really want to—"

Snape moved over silently and sat down on the low table in front of her.

She wants to forgive herself...

"How do you think I know he's really changed and won't try to kill me again—" Tahlia looked up suddenly, looking straight into Snape's eyes with deep black eyes.He felt his breath stop, and then she laughed. "But you wouldn't know if you asked, Remus...you haven't had any contact with him—"

"...We really don't have much contact." After a while, a man's voice sounded from behind. "You don't know that we don't get along very well, do you?"

Tahlia laughed a few more times. "Yeah... how could I not know—"

"But even I sensed that his change was real, Tahlia." Tahlia's smile froze on her face. "And you who have been with him for so long, how can you not judge it?"

Tahlia stared forward in silence.

"You just don't know how to believe it..."

Snape reached out unconsciously, seemingly touching Tahlia's face.

"...you don't know how much I wish this hadn't happened," Tahlia whispered. "I can't help but think this way all the time—if only I could act like it never happened, maybe I could start over..."

This time, Lupine didn't respond any more, perhaps also lost in thought at the same time.

"...I'm not sure, Tahlia." It took a long time before the man spoke again. "There's been so much going on between the two of you - sad, but also happy, hasn't it?" He paused, and then Snape found himself with a handkerchief across his chest, which Tahlia took with a weak smile. . "I don't think you really intend to put the past completely aside."

"Maybe..." Tahlia murmured.

The next second, the surrounding scene blurred, and after a while, Lupin's office reappeared, and Tahlia still maintained the posture curled up on the sofa, but at least her face was not wet this time.

"... At that time he even gave me the potion──" she said softly. "What do you mean by him?"

Snape understood what Tahlia was trying to say almost instantly, but obviously Lupine couldn't react that quickly...

"……What?"

Tahlia froze for a few seconds, then laughed. "Ah, I don't seem to have told you about this...it was last semester—Severus suddenly brought me several bottles of potions one day, and before..." Her face softened suddenly. "He brewed potions for me to restore my health every day, and he never stopped—"

"What are you trying to say?"

"What I'm trying to say is, wait...I mean—" Tahlia shook her head. "Why would he do that? Acting like he really cared about me—"

"He does care about you—I thought we'd reached that conclusion last time, Tahlia." Lupine's voice was full of resignation. "You really don't need to dwell on this."

"But why?" Tahlia was staring straight ahead, and because of where Snape was sitting, it seemed to him that she was staring at him. "He's always loved Lily, hasn't he?"

Lily...

The moment he heard the name, Snape realized that he hadn't heard the red-haired woman mentioned for a long time, and he hadn't thought of the name for a long time either.

But no, he no longer has that kind of affection for Lily—thinking about it now, his affection for Lily has always been different from that for Tahlia. He used to think that the attention and longing for Lily was love, but In fact, it is far from the same, even though they are very similar, but the starting point in essence is completely different.

"...Actually, I don't think Severus loves Lily as much as you think──" After a while, Lupine's voice came over, and Snape turned his head in surprise. He never knew that the man thought so, after all, Black had The guy also asked in front of his face if he really liked Lily──"You can insist that he used to be like this, Tahlia, but he definitely doesn't now, I'm sure of that."

"How do you—"

"Intuition." Lupine interrupted Tahlia who had just started. "If I had to say, I think his feelings for you now are more like love—"

Tahlia opened her mouth wide and blinked her eyes several times.

"You...Remus—you mean—Severus he likes...me?" She was clearly shocked, disbelieving.

Snape didn't know how much he wanted to say yes to Tahlia right now, he always seemed to know Tahlia from other people's memories, and when he recognized certain facts, it was because those were all in the past Nothing can make up for it.

He couldn't go back in time to comfort her when she was on the verge of breaking down, and he couldn't tell her how he felt at this moment, which, he had to admit, sucked...

"But...but it's impossible—" Tahlia was still stunned. "Even if what you said is true, even if he doesn't love Lily, he can't help liking me──"

"You said he was affected by the potion."

Tahlia froze, then moved her head, and it took Snape a few seconds to realize she was nodding.

"There are only two outcomes of hope and disillusionment, fulfillment of desire, or death." Lupine's voice was as calm as water, and he analyzed it rationally. "And he's still alive, so I think his wish has been fulfilled—"

"His desire?" Tahlia repeated, eyes widening sharply. "You think he's longing for something like that—"

"No, that's not what I meant." Lupine coughed lightly, and spoke again under Tahlia's incomprehensible gaze.

"What I want to say is, could it be that the person he really longed for...was you?"