[HP] Astringent

Vanessa fell into a quicksand-like nightmare from a deep sleep, from which she could not escape no matter what.The image of John being burned in the car and the image of Arthur lying bloody on the cold ground kept appearing in her dreams, but when she ran to save them, they all turned into Snape's face again.Finally, she saw Bella laughing crazily, killing Snape over and over again with the Killing Curse, and Snape fell in front of her eyes again and again.

When Vanessa woke up, she found that there was no familiar figure around her, and the half of the quilt had long since lost its temperature.This made her uneasy.Until she saw the time, it was already eleven o'clock.

She couldn't believe her eyes, and checked again—January 25, [-]:[-]:[-].

Vanessa panicked, the mess made her forget that it was Snape's birthday tomorrow, and the gift she had planned to give was not ready yet.She also ignored breakfast, put on her traveling cloak, and rushed out of the school.She didn't go through the gate, because Umbridge is now strictly monitoring all the teachers and students entering and leaving the school, but went directly to Honeydukes through the secret passage Harry had told him.

Vanessa quietly crawled out from under the loose floor tiles, Apparated to Harbor Island-this sea area is the only habitat of the conch.The conch can record sounds without fading over time like other sound-reproducing magics.The original plan had been much simpler, that when she and Snape came over for Christmas, she could sneak out and capture one to give him as a birthday present.But plans always fail to keep up with changes.

Fortunately, she had already caught one by the end of the evening, and there were circles of brown lines on the white crust, such a beautiful polyphonic snail is rare.She filled another bottle of pink coral sand, knowing that Harbor Island has a unique pink sand beach.

As soon as Vanessa returned, Snape asked her sullenly, "Where have you been?"

In order to create a surprise, she guiltily hid the space bag behind her back, and lied a little: "I'm going out to relax."

Snape's attitude cooled down, and he left her and walked to the laboratory.

Vanessa breathed a sigh of relief, she was only thinking about wrapping the presents earlier.She put the recorded polyphonic conch in the middle of the glass jar, and buried the conch with layers of white sand and coral sand. She also used some dye to turn part of the sand into blue and black, and then passed The fixation of the spells allowed them to paint a beautiful scene as she wished.Blue sea, blue sky, powdery sand and white clouds, and amidst the myriad of scenery, two small black figures cuddled together.Finally she plugged the cork, wrapped it in red wrapping paper, and tied a beautiful bow with golden ribbon.After cleaning up all traces, she hid the gift in the innermost part of the closet.

At dawn the next day, Vanessa got up softly.She thought she was being careful enough, but she didn't notice that Snape was behind her, eyes open, not sleepy.How long has Vanessa been busy downstairs, and how long has Snape been lying awake on the bed like this.Vanessa never concealed herself, and now that she was uncharacteristically, Snape could only think of one answer - for John White, her fiancé.She must have recalled the man because of Bella's escape from prison - the only man who had nearly taken Vanessa away from her in the midst of her growing affection for him.He couldn't tell what it was like, he just felt that all the warmth in his body was taken away with Vanessa's departure.

About an hour later, the bedroom door was pushed open again, and Vanessa crawled back into bed in the dark, resting her head on his shoulder, with the cold outside still on her body.Both of them breathed very lightly, for fear that the other party would find out that they hadn't really fallen asleep.

Snape resisted the urge to speak several times, turned off the alarm at seven o'clock as usual, sat up, and Vanessa also pretended to be woken up, rubbing her eyes.

Snape looked at her: "Is there something you want to tell me?" He tried to keep his tone as calm as possible, not sounding questioning.

Vanessa still wanted to hide it: "What, what?" Seeing Snape's more and more determined expression, Vanessa felt that she couldn't hide it anymore, and said with a droopy head, "Why can't I hide anything from you? .”

Snape's face became a little colder, and he believed in his own thoughts more firmly, completely unaware that it was different from what Vanessa was thinking - he thought that there was another person in Vanessa's heart, and he didn't know what to do good.He urgently needed to calm down, he should have left her and slammed the door out, but at this moment he couldn't move himself a little.Vanessa jumped out of bed first and opened the closet.

"Do you want to..." leave?Before he could ask, he saw Vanessa take out a beautifully wrapped gift from the inside, and smiled sweetly: "Happy birthday!"

Snape guessed that he must have a complicated expression on his face, maybe even a weird smile.In short, Vanessa was taken aback, and hurried back to him, saying worriedly: "Don't you like your birthday? You... If you don't like it..."

Snape took her shoulders, pressed her on the bed, and kissed her deeply.Vanessa catered to his rough movements, softened her body, and opened her mouth slightly...

Vanessa was slumped in Snape's arms, the pockets of her nightgown hanging down her arms, the zipper half-unzipped.She hummed in a low voice: "If you don't like it, I won't celebrate your birthday next time. It's so fierce in the morning. Those who don't know think I'm going to run away with other men."

Snape's ears were so hot, he barely moved his lips, and said vaguely: "I like it."

Vanessa's interest came back, she hooked the corner of the bow, and brought the gift over: "Take it apart and see if you like it!" Snape's memories of birthday gifts stayed before he was six years old, when he was still There is no magic riot, and there is a fairly normal home.Later, only Lily would give it, and it was just a book or a brand new cauldron.And then...his birthday was like any other gray day, nothing special.He held the glass bottle, looked at Vanessa's eager smile, and nodded slowly.

Vanessa raised her head and pressed a kiss between his brows: "Why are you still frowning?" The warm breath melted away the last bit of uneasiness in Snape's heart, and he tightened his arms so that Vanessa couldn't leave .

Vanessa traced his eyebrows with her fingers, and her heart became softer and softer: "What if, one day you miss me..." The conversation stopped here, Vanessa took a deep breath, of course she hoped never There will be this day, and then dragged her rising tone, "You can listen to it." She didn't tell Snape about the polyphonic conch, that's what surprises are for, at the risk of never being discovered, But the day he finds out by himself, he will be happy.

Snape didn't notice what was wrong with her, and finally regained his usual tone at this moment, and said as viciously as possible: "You want to hang around in front of me for 26 hours a day, but I hope to find some time, even if it's just 10 minutes to miss you."

"Oh—" Vanessa teased, "I don't know which gentleman is holding me now and not letting me get up."

Snape turned his head away awkwardly, relaxing the strength in his arms.Vanessa deliberately didn't pull up the sling, and walked out of bed with one step at a time. The opening of the zipper on the left side shook accordingly, and the spring was looming.Snape's ears were completely red, he didn't look at Vanessa at all, walked into the bathroom as if fleeing, and locked the door behind him.

"Why can't I help being so funny..." Vanessa murmured to herself.

When the two walked into the office together, Snape was shocked enough.A red ribbon hangs from the ceiling, a small heart-shaped pendant is hung on the chandelier in the middle, and a photo of Vanessa secretly taking him or a photo of the two of them is pasted on the wall.He almost couldn't help backing back to the other side of the door and re-entering again. Finally, he glared at Vanessa with a little helplessness: "You just got up this morning to do this? Are you afraid that my birthday is going too well?"

"Didn't you ask me if I have something to tell you after you knew it?"

Snape cut off the conversation abruptly, and refused to speak again, but Vanessa saw some clues: "I said, why did you start to lose your temper with me yesterday, do you suspect that I did something bad behind your back? "

Snape looked at the ends of her hair, then at her collar, but never looked at her eyes.Vanessa scolded his face, and he said angrily, "No."

"Mr. Pinocchio, your nose will get longer and longer." Vanessa kissed quickly.

"I didn't see your nose grow longer because of the lie you told yesterday."

"I didn't intend to prepare a gift for you. Merlin was moved by me, so he didn't punish me."

Snape narrowed his eyes, and said forcefully, "Do you know that you may be captured by them again at any time, and you still sneak out to do something insignificant at this moment?"

"It doesn't matter!" Vanessa yelled, "This is your birthday, it only happens once a year."

Snape's eyelids twitched, his heart was warm but he really worried about her, and finally he could only squeeze out a reprimand that was not so deterrent: "There will be no next time."

Vanessa made a gesture of salute and said with a smile, "Of order, Mr. Stern."

"I'll give you 10 minutes to restore the office to its original state, Miss Trouble."

"That can't be done, this is also for me to celebrate, I will be prosperous all day long."

"If I remember correctly, your birthday is June [-]th, and there are still half a year left."

Vanessa shook her finger and said inscrutably, "But today is the day when Merlin sent my most cherished person to this world. Shouldn't I celebrate Merlin's award?"

Snape's lips twitched, and finally he took the teaching book, leaving Vanessa with a hurried back and a sentence: "After class, don't let me see this place like a lion's den again."

Umbridge finally approved the first trip to Hogsmeade this school year, which was scheduled for the second Saturday in February, which happened to be Valentine's Day.Naturally, Vanessa couldn't hold back her restless heart, and explicitly hinted that Snape would take her out to play.Snape seemed to want to retaliate against her for teasing him all day long, so he pretended to be stupid and refused to speak.It so happened that Vanessa had received two letters: one from Gringotts.In the past, the editor would remit the manuscript fee directly to the account of the Bank of America, but last year she handled the business of transnational bank remittance.Not long ago, for the first time, she received a direct transfer of remuneration from the United States, and she needed to go to Gringotts to go through the formalities.The other was from Hermione, who they could never find, so they just wrote and invited her to the Three Broomsticks in the afternoon.She wrote at the end of the letter: "You can refuse me, if you don't want to be disturbed by me on Valentine's Day with Mr. Slytherin."

Vanessa saw Snape sitting on the sofa calmly handling the potion, and put these two things on the agenda without hesitation.

Saturday is not a good day for a date, the weather is not beautiful, and it has been raining since the early morning, but this can't stop the students from falling in love.It was less than ten o'clock, and there was no one in the castle.Vanessa picked up her rain cloak to go out, and Snape followed suit.

Vanessa knew that this stubborn bastard would not really go out with her, so she couldn't help but said triumphantly: "Why do I remember that I didn't promise to go out with someone for Valentine's Day today?" The man glared.

Diagon Alley was almost deserted, and with the wide hoods covering their faces, the two walked hand in hand in the rain without any scruples.Vanessa felt that the two seemed to have changed back to their student days, temporarily forgetting the cruel life, and only enjoying the people around them and the scenery at the moment.I don't know what Snape was thinking, but he held Vanessa's hand tightly and followed her pace quietly.

The two deliberately walked from the Leaky Cauldron to the Lihen Bookstore, and made a detour before returning to Gringotts.Vanessa took off her dripping cloak and shivered. A drying spell followed by a warming spell immediately dispelled the chill from her body.Vanessa glanced at Snape and said coquettishly, "You'll spoil me sooner or later." Snape wanted to know when she would return to the squeamish way she was when she was an adult.

A goblin received them: "This is your contract, please read it over, if there is nothing wrong, please sign at the bottom."

Vanessa looked it over carefully three times, and asked, "Is there a mistake? I remember that the manuscript fee was [-] Galleons, and my account balance was [-] Galleons. Why is there suddenly more..." She repeatedly counted After confirming that it was five digits, he continued, "Where did the two thousand Galleons come from?"

The goblin took out the folder and read respectfully: "On September [-]th last year, Mr. Severus Snape entrusted us to transfer [-] Galleons under his name to your account. That's right, here And Mr Snape's signature."

"Sev?" Vanessa exclaimed in surprise.

Snape snorted coldly: "If you can save two pieces of clothing, you won't have only saved three hundred Galleons."

Vanessa had a flash of inspiration, and said to the goblin, "Can you check Severus Snape's account balance for me?" Before he could find the file, Snape pulled Vanessa out .

"Are you so afraid that I'll see it? You don't mean to transfer all the money to me, do you?" She quietly looked at Snape, and saw that he tried his best not to reveal any emotions: "I'm afraid you see The clothes in the middle were bought by others, and in the end I wasted my time listening to you cry."

"Oh, we Sev are not afraid that I have no money, we Sif are afraid of wasting time..." She improvised a ditty to the tune of "Weasley is Our King", singing to Snape's face Red for a while, white for a while, and finally blocked her mouth in the most simple and straightforward way.

After the two separated, Vanessa licked her upper lip eagerly, her wet hair stuck to her cheek, the neckline was wet by rain, and her snow-white skin was looming.The tails of her eyes are frivolous, and Manli is lazy.She stood on tiptoe and leaned close to Snape's ear. She had already figured out what Snape liked, and said in a hoarse voice, "How about we go back to the castle now? I want to try the age-reducing potion..."

Vanessa said to Snape while drying her hair: "I promised to see Hermione in the afternoon, please help me find a wizard robe that I can wear."

Snape tossed the mess of Slytherin and Gryffindor school uniform robes in the hamper into the laundry basket - Vanessa had mail-ordered them behind his back last week, and he knew now that Vanessa had paid for them. Where the hell are the flowers.He took out a set of green robes and handed them to Vanessa. Through the foggy mirror, he could vaguely see his own appearance. It was a pale and thin face, gloomy and weird, as if he was always hostile to the world.It seems like nothing has changed in the past 20 years, except that I have grown a little taller.Vanessa is the complete opposite. She looks younger than her actual age without makeup, ignorant and domineering, her warm brown eyes always reveal an innocent smile, and her cheeks are plump with a natural blush .

When she changed her clothes and came out, the age-reducing agent of the two had expired, and Vanessa's cheeks became more angular and sharp. She took the robe that Snape handed over, and kissed his side face.