[HP] Astringent

For the rest of the holiday, Vanessa made every effort to read in between caring shifts for Arthur.She sometimes closed her eyes and could picture Neville's parents.She was terrified of what would happen if she went mad or died, leaving Snape alone.Maybe this is what he is afraid of, so he has to study on his own endlessly.

Hermione would occasionally come to borrow books from her, in order to help Harry prepare lessons—Vanessa didn't know until now that they had secretly formed a Defense Against the Dark Arts Association, which could also be called Dumbledore's Army, and Harry was the teacher.Hermione also invented the coin communicator. When Harry decided on the meeting time, he would change the words on the side of the coin, and other people's coins would heat up, showing the changed time.What a brilliant invention, inspired, she said, by the Death Eater's mark.

"You guys are hiding it from me!" Vanessa questioned them.

They shrugged helplessly: "I wanted to invite you to be a guest lecturer, but we have looked for you several times, but you are not here."

Vanessa looked embarrassed and didn't dare to mention this matter anymore.

Snape got a little owl from somewhere, and they corresponded every day, sometimes writing four or five letters a day.Some were questions about magic, some were purely small talk.To the outside world, she just said it was a job requirement.

Snape and other members of the Order of the Phoenix also came twice. In order to reassign the rounds of guards in the Department of Mysteries, Vanessa wanted to help, but she was rejected because the current Aurors took turns to supervise. enough.

On the last day of the holiday, Snape came again, and he wrote ahead of time to tell Vanessa that Dumbledore had asked him to teach Harry Occlumency.The moment he walked in, Vanessa almost couldn't help rushing up to hug him.The only thing that made her less happy was that, without her own supervision, Snape washed his hair less frequently.Their eyes were locked for a long time, until Molly came out to meet him.

Vanessa coughed twice, returned to her usual appearance, and went upstairs to call Harry: "Come to the kitchen, please, Severus has something to say to you alone."

Harry didn't react for a moment, and after Vanessa repeated it again, he opened his mouth in horror.

"Don't be nervous, it's not a bad thing." She patted Harry on the shoulder, "I promise I will help you."

As Harry's godfather and guardian, Blake forced his presence, but Vanessa had no valid reason and could only stay outside the door.She was a little afraid that Snape and Black would quarrel again, so she didn't go far.

The door was suddenly pushed open, and Arthur walked in accompanied by Lupine in a waterproof raincoat.He appears to be fully recovered.The children who heard the movement also rushed downstairs and crowded around him happily.

"I can't wait to carve a medium-rare steak with my own hands!" Arthur said as he walked towards the kitchen.

Before Vanessa could stop her, the door was pushed open, and everyone inside and outside the room froze in place.In the kitchen, Black and Snape held up their wands, glaring at each other with hatred expressions that wished each other would die immediately.

In the past, Vanessa must have stood by Snape's side to fight against him, but the relationship between the two is not what it used to be. She glanced at him with helpless and reproachful eyes similar to Molly's when she saw the twins blowing up the toilet seat. Eye Snape.He lowered his wand resentfully.

"Kreacher! Kreacher!" Blake exchanged loudly, hiding his embarrassment.

It was rare that Kreacher answered his call, and didn't mumble curses to a roomful of people.

"You go and prepare dinner for 12 people." He paused, and said haughtily to Snape, "You won't stay, will you?"

Vanessa said first: "I won't eat here today either."

"Why? Don't you stay?" Blake asked in surprise.

"School will start soon, and I want to go home and have a look." She looked down at her toes, Snape's expression changed, and he glared at Black mockingly.She continued: "I'm sorry. But Arthur, I'm really happy for you."

"It's okay, you've been busy the whole holiday. Go back." Arthur readily agreed.

Vanessa was relieved: "But before I go, can I have a chat with Kreacher?"

Everyone showed surprised expressions again, but Kreacher was a little terrified.He can refuse Vanessa's orders, so Rob hides before Black forces him to do something.Vanessa and Snape simultaneously raised their wands and bound him with the Binding Charm.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked worriedly.This scene reminded her of capturing Wormtail.

"Don't worry, we won't hurt him." Vanessa walked over and grabbed Kreacher's thin arm, and asked Snape, "Did you take it?" After getting Snape's affirmation, the two took Kreacher alone Cut the hug.

They chose the guest room where Vanessa stayed, and Snape frowned less when he found out that this guest room had never been furnished, and everything was in the original dark and simple style of the old house.Vanessa didn't bother to pierce his small thoughts, and complained: "It's not as comfortable as home here, I can't sleep well." Snape looked more relaxed.

He sucked three drops of Veritaserum into a test tube and poured it into Kreacher's mouth.After the potion took effect, he gave up struggling.

Vanessa asked, "Do you know where your little master Regulus Black is going?"

"I know." His voice was hoarse and mournful. "He's dead."

Vanessa and Snape looked at each other, and Snape asked, "How did he die?"

In Kreacher's narration, the two gradually restored the truth of the matter.Voldemort once borrowed a house-elf from Regulus in order to hide the Horcrux made from Slytherin's locket in a cave protected by infernal corpses and black magic.He offered Kreacher.Kreacher's appearance on his return made him suspicious of the strange event.It didn't take him long to figure out what Voldemort had done, and he finally recognized Voldemort's madness and evil.In order to protect his family, he did not tell the truth to anyone, but silently sacrificed himself and became a martyr.He took Kreacher to the cave again, drank the poison himself, and replaced the real locket with a fake one.The last order he left was to ask Kreacher to take the real ghost and find a way to destroy it, while he was dragged into the icy lake by the Yin Corpse.

Vanessa covered her mouth tremblingly, leaning carefully against Snape, almost crying.There was a long silence between Snape and they sat in silence until the effects of Veritaserum had worn off.

Kreacher stood up angrily, screaming.But Vanessa couldn't scold him anymore.She quietly wiped tears on Snape's shoulders, calming down: "Listen to us first, we have a way to destroy the Horcrux, can you give it to us?"

These words were like sealing the tongue and locking the throat, instantly stopping his cursing.He was under a petrification spell, and it took him a long time to come back to his senses: "Is what you said true...Miss Weasley?" His big cloudy eyes were filled with tears, "You can really achieve Is it the little master's last wish?"

"We can, provided you don't leak this matter to anyone."

"I don't believe it. You must be deceiving Kreacher. You are with the bad master and want to throw away the little master's things."

"We won't!" Vanessa said, "If you don't believe it, we will call you when it is destroyed."

"Will you swear in Merlin's name?"

"I swear."

When Kreacher took them downstairs trembling with excitement, Blake and the others were sitting in the living room chatting.Blake finds a letter from Lily, which also contains a picture of Lily and Potter chasing baby Harry on a toy wand.Everyone wanted to see it, and finally Blake stood on a chair and read Lily's letter aloud.As they walked into the restaurant, Blake saw the first sign: "With infinite love, Lily."

Snape clenched his fists under the cover of his baggy robes.Vanessa also stopped, looking at Snape uneasily.Fortunately, he didn't withdraw into his shell, but under Vanessa's warm gaze, his shoulders relaxed.Vanessa stopped Black: "Show me the picture, I haven't seen little Harry yet." She guessed that Snape would want to take a good look at Lily.

But Snape calmly refused: "If we're still going to find Albus, we shouldn't wait too late for something unimportant."

Vanessa breathed a sigh of relief: "Then I'll watch it another day."

The two of them followed Kreacher to the kitchen cupboard, watched as he pulled a chain out of the rubbish and handed the locket to Snape.They exchanged glances, quickly confirming that it was a Horcrux.

"Kreacher, can you take us straight to Apparate back to Hogwarts?"

"I can do it." He couldn't hide his joy, flapped his ears, and replied in a shrill voice.

"Call Sirius." Seeing that Snape was not happy, Vanessa persuaded, "He has the right to know that his own brother is a hero."

The locket was cut by Blake himself with Gryffindor's sword under the witness of Snape, Vanessa, Dumbledore and Kreacher.When the Horcrux dissipated into a plume of black smoke, Creech cried uncontrollably. Not only was he in pain, but he also hit his head on the ground.Blake looked calm, with a dead silence in his eyes.Vanessa was a little worried, but she couldn't really come forward to comfort her.

"Professor Dumbledore, can't you still tell me why my brother died?"

"I'm sorry, Sirius." Dumbledore also had tears in his eyes, "but he is undoubtedly a hero."

"Forget about Vanessa, why would Snape know?" he questioned.

"If I could, I wouldn't want to tell so many people that it's not good to know too much. But they've been involved from the very beginning."

Black sat across from Dumbledore's desk, while Vanessa and Snape sat on the sofa next to Fawkes.With the help of the cover of the sofa, the two held hands tightly.

Blake was not in the mood to pay attention to the movements of the people around him, and buried his face in his palms in pain: "This is why you believe he has repented?"

"Not exactly." Dumbledore said regretfully, staring at the people in front of him, "I find more and more that sometimes our sorting is too sloppy."

"That's right, I didn't even know Rael was so brave. I'm a bastard, and I misunderstood him for so long. I'm not a competent brother." He took a deep breath, raised his head, and used such a peaceful tone for the first time Say to Kreacher, "I ask you to take me to that cave, and I will bring Rael back no matter what."

The rest is Black's own business. With Lupine and Harry by his side, Black shouldn't be depressed for too long.They sat back across from Dumbledore.Dumbledore brought them a plate of raspberry cookies.

"I think even if I conceal it intentionally, you have guessed a lot of key information."

"Are you talking about Horcruxes or Deathly Hallows?" Vanessa said directly without any twists and turns.

Dumbledore was slightly taken aback: "You always surprise me, Vanessa."

"Glad I've become a bit wiser as an adult." She smiled smugly. "Actually, I'm pretty sure my guess was tonight."

Even Snape was a little surprised now.

"Don't look at me like that, Sev. I just didn't have time to say it." Vanessa explained carefully, "Blake read Lily's letter, I guess you only heard Lily's name. Bathilda Bagshot Tell Lily that you used to be friends with Grindelwald, and that you borrowed the Invisibility Cloak. I guess you've seen at least two of the Deathly Hallows by now."

Dumbledore stroked Fawkes's feathers lightly on the table, and Fawkes let out a comfortable cry.

"So what are you going to do? Should I return the ring to the Dark Lord or make up a lie?" Snape bluntly said, "I don't care what you have done. Even if you married the first generation of Dark Lord It has nothing to do with us."

Dumbledore's movements paused, and Fox rubbed his head against his palm in dissatisfaction, telling him to continue.He looked a little tired, but his voice was still light: "I will return the things to Tom, but now is not the most suitable time."

They knew Dumbledore's character well enough that he wouldn't say a word if he didn't want to.The two drank the last bit of black tea, got up and said goodbye.When she walked to the door, Vanessa stopped in her tracks: "Professor, you wouldn't joke about your own life, would you?" She couldn't say anything, but just took the document proving that Snape was a spy from Dumbledore She has been worrying about it since handing it over to her.

"I will only meet death when the god of death chooses me." His lenses reflected light, hiding the complex emotions in his eyes.