[HP] Astringent

"Sev...Sev..."

Vanessa's voice sounded again, each more mournful than the last.Snape's heart clenched.It was a place where he couldn't see his fingers, and he could only listen with bated breath. The voice moved around him, sometimes it seemed to be right at hand, and sometimes it seemed thousands of miles away from him.The sound was getting closer, and it was less than an arm's length away on the left. He was ecstatic——Snape was awakened by the violent slamming of the door, with a layer of cold sweat on his forehead, and he sat on the office chair in the principal's office Asleep, there is still a file open on the table.

He closed his eyes and tried to let himself enter the dream again. It seemed that it was not just a dream. Vanessa seemed to be calling him helplessly in a dark place.

There was another knock on the door, and he got up violently. The Carlo brothers and sisters grabbed the bruised and swollen Seamus, Dean and Ginny and were pushed to the door.Seeing the complacent look of the Carlo brothers and sisters, he felt sick for a while, but he could only show a look of interest: "This is what you have gained tonight?"

"That's right, Headmaster, they tried to contact the boy using the Potter Lookout," Alecto said excitedly. "We got them!" He grabbed Ginny's hair and made her look up.Her eyes were blue and there was blood on her cheeks, but the fiery red hair and brown eyes were just like Vanessa's.Snape's heart throbbed again, he sneered and said, "It seems that you know where the great savior is hiding?"

"We don't know, they cut the signal just in time..."

"So you interrupted my rest at three o'clock in the morning just because of such a trivial matter?" The too sharp gaze frightened the Carlos back two steps, he raised his wand, and almost blurted out the Cruciatus Curse.The brothers and sisters ignored the three students, fell to the ground and rolled in pain, their backs arched like two boiled shrimps.

He frowned in disgust, and gagged their mouths with a tongue-and-throat lock.The horrible howling died away, and their mouths opened and closed like dying fish thrown ashore.This too cruel scene also frightened the three little wizards beside them, they tremblingly waited for the same punishment to come upon themselves.

Snape caught the panic in Ginny's eyes, and sneered: "Go back to your dormitory, I don't guarantee that I will change my mind in the next second, let you try this spell too." There was a sneer on his lips , "I hope you really found Potter's hiding place when you are caught next time, then your death will be more worthwhile."

After the three children left, he looked down at the two Death Eaters indifferently, and his voice was as cold as a snake: "I just let you experience in advance what kind of punishment you will receive for lying to the Dark Lord. Remember, there will be no next time. "

After Snape returned to the desk, Dumbledore in the portrait was wearing a dark purple nightgown and a nightcap of the same color, blinking happily: "I should thank you for protecting the students again. But your The methods are too cruel."

Snape sneered: "You might as well pray for yourself that the potion I gave you didn't add some poisonous ingredients to the potion."

Dumbledore said cheerfully, "It's all right, my boy, I'm not afraid of death."

"But I'm afraid, Albus." His eyes are different from before, it is a kind of tranquility that sees through everything, somewhat similar to Dumbledore's back then, "Vanessa is still waiting for me."

Dumbledore ran his fingers over the corners of his eyes, wiping away tears that weren't there - he couldn't cry in the portrait.Then he said mournfully, "Are you still looking at the dossier that Auston Greengrass sent over a year ago?"

"That's right. Behind the arch is a world without the concept of time. It's a frozen space. They once tied ropes to the feet of ten pigeons and put them into the arch. Three of them disappeared, one died, and the other six They came back alive, but four of them did not eat or drink, and starved to death after three days. Only two survived to the average lifespan of a bird. The research only goes so far.” He paused and continued, his tone full of Full of exhaustion, "After I killed you, Greengrass refused to provide me with the latest research results."

Dumbledore sighed, "I'm sorry, Severus."

"No, I deserve it." He smiled self-deprecatingly. "It won't be long, Albus. It'll be over soon." He couldn't show such emotions in front of anyone except Deng In front of Bullido.In fact, over the past year or so, he has become more and more ruthless. Everyone thought that he had become Voldemort's most valued subordinate.That's fine, the more they think about it, the safer their identity as spies will be.

It was another sleepless night, Snape repeated the well-known summoning spell over and over again, but still got no response.He knew the result long ago, but he just didn't want to give up.Putting down his wand, he sat on the chair beside the bed, watching the moonlight and the rising sun outside the window.

Vanessa sat in the vast darkness, she seemed unable to feel the flow of time, at first she could count the time silently, but it was too long, and she gradually forgot how many tens of thousands of numbers she had counted.Later, her memory also became blurred. She couldn't remember who she was, where she was now, and why she came to this place.You must know that it is not easy to remember everything, even if she tells herself the stories she still remembers every day, memory can never overcome forgetting.

There was a warm feeling on her back as if being baked by a stove—this was the only proof she could find that she was still alive.But she couldn't even remember the source of this temperature.But every time this feeling appeared, she seemed to be able to hear a deep voice calling her softly.She distinguished carefully and walked in the direction of the voice.Not knowing if it was her own illusion, she felt the breeze blowing on her face.If this place is like a deep sea of ​​tranquility, she has groped to the shallows by now.

But at this moment, the warm feeling stopped abruptly, and she stood there in disappointment, almost, she could feel that over there, where the voice faintly came from, was the way out she was looking for.

Vanessa stretched out her hands and groped, she walked forward slowly, the wind was getting stronger and colder, she closed her eyes, discerning with her heart, slowly seemed to touch the silky touch, tripped , fell to the ground.

"You...you...Vanessa?" Accompanied by an exclamation, a person helped her up.

The sudden light pierced into her eyes, and Vanessa hurriedly closed them, and there seemed to be afterimages in front of her eyes, which turned into a vast expanse of whiteness.She tried it for a while, but there was only a piercing sound in her throat, the pain of tearing her vocal cords, and her tongue seemed not so flexible.Finally she managed to utter a vague, grammatical sentence: "Who are you...?"

"Don't you know me? I'm Auston, Auston Greengrass."

It took Vanessa a long time to understand the meaning of this sentence with difficulty, and it took an equal amount of time to recall this person, but she couldn't remember anything.The man didn't care, he helped her into the office and poured her a cup of hot tea.Greenglass briefly introduced the situation to her and told her to rest here with peace of mind, but warned her not to go out.He went out to help her connect with family and friends.

Vanessa gradually got used to the glare of the light, she looked around, it was an ordinary office full of official documents - she also gradually recalled such common sense concepts as office and official documents.Before the pot of tea was finished, Greengrass walked in with a man with black hair and black eyes.This time, she felt that the person in front of her was somewhat familiar.The man rushed to her side excitedly: "Are you okay, Vanessa?"

Vanessa avoided his embrace, frowning: "Who... are you?"

"What's the matter, Auston?"

"I don't know either. After all, I don't have any cases where a living person came out by himself."

"It doesn't matter, it's good to be alive, it's good to be alive." The man shook his head and sighed, he looked at Vanessa complicatedly, and stretched out his hand, "I'm Sirius Black. Come on, I'll take you home first."

Vanessa hesitated and put her hand on his.

Vanessa was wrapped in the traveling cloak that Greenglass lent him, and was led by Black to a two-story building.She felt a little familiar here. There was a small garden overgrown with weeds in front of the house. Next to the garden was a small forest. The village in this house was a little far away, but you could see the scattered lights in the village.

"Can you see this house?"

Vanessa nodded suspiciously, and Blake seemed relieved: "Great, I know you must have known the address of your house from the secret keeper." He didn't care how much Vanessa could understand, and patiently Explain, "Secrecy Curse, do you remember? It can protect the house from being seen by others, and only the Secret Keeper can tell the location of this house. Originally, the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix was in Black's old house, but Albus, that's where The Secret Keeper is dead..." His voice choked up, "We became the Secret Keepers. During an activity to capture the Death Eaters, we accidentally brought the Death Eaters there, so it's not safe there Yes. Then we got a note with your home address on it - we don't know who sent it, the handwriting is very strange. But no one knows who the secrecy is safer. We didn't fully believe it at first , we took turns to test it out, and it took more than a month to be sure that this place is trustworthy. I think it was arranged for us by Albus before he left, and we stayed here. You don't mind?"

Vanessa listened with half understanding, and asked in confusion, "What is the Order of the Phoenix?"

There was a trace of sadness in Black's eyes, but he quickly covered it up: "Let's go in and talk about it first, and we'll have time to explain everything to you. Hurry up, Molly will definitely cry!"

Blake was wrong. When he pulled Vanessa into the room, Molly—Vanessa guessed that the slightly fat and kind woman was Molly, she was petrified, and then cursed: "Don't fool me Sirius!" , you can’t find someone dressed like Vanessa!”

"Molly, calm down!" Blake raised his voice to cover her voice, "She is Vanessa, and Vanessa escaped from the curtain!"

It took them a long time to explain each other's situation clearly. Everything that Vanessa felt was very familiar, but it didn't feel like watching someone else's movie.However, the past one year or two years is completely unfamiliar.The organizer of the Order of the Phoenix, Albus Dumbledore, was killed by a Death Eater named Severus Snape, who now became the headmaster and took control of Hogwarts.Harry, Ron and Hermione ran away from home because of the secret mission assigned by Dumbledore. They didn't know where the three children were, they only knew that they were still alive.

Vanessa had a special feeling when she heard Snape's name, but she had a keen sense that Black didn't want to mention this person.Although she was puzzled, she didn't ask any more questions.Then he stumbled and talked about what happened behind the curtain.Molly shed a few more tears.She felt a little distressed, and happened to catch a glimpse of the ring on her ring finger, so she tried to make a joke: "You haven't told me, where is my husband?"