Wild child

The damaged wooden door opened with a creak, and the house at the end of the alley was almost exactly the same as Benjamin's house at the end of the alley. The smell of wine and mildew mixed on the face had faded a lot, but it still gave Fanny the illusion of going back in time. .With a click, the flickering yellow light enveloped the whole room, and the illusion disappeared, because it was much neater here, and it seemed that Snape had lived here for a few days.

...Snape, yes.

"Are you Tobia's son?"

Tobia.Snape paused, "Clean yourself up."

"What's a souvenir?" Fanny looked at him without moving.

Now that the feng shui had turned, Snape went straight to sit under the lamp, ignoring the creaking sound of the broken chair, and took out a book the size of a pillow from somewhere and opened it.

Fanny stood still for another two seconds, tried hard to restrain the urge to punch the hooked nose, pulled out a two-year-old robe from the box, and walked into the toilet that doubled as the bathroom.She's definitely had enough of sweaty and ill-fitting clothes.

There was only a little hot water intermittently, and Fanny just drenched for a while.It's probably because there were women living there—nonsense, where did Snape come from?—there's still a broken mirror in the bathroom, and Fanny wiped God knows what disgusting thing on it.

The girl in the mirror has messy wet hair on her head, dark eyes embedded under her long and straight eyebrows, her lower jaw is slightly protruding, and she looks like the sky has fallen under a quilt, loose and stubborn.Compared with two years ago, she is fairer and her body lines are softer, but otherwise there seems to be no change.

The school robe from two years ago had already exposed her ankles, so Fanny tore it into short sleeves and put the sleeves into strips and tied them around her waist, so she had a barely normal dress.The house was small, and when we walked out of the bathroom, we almost reached Snape's side, who threw a shiny metallic object over without looking up.

A fairly old wind-up watch with a tank chain and scratches all over the surface.

Little girl: Benjamin, give me your watch.

Big Man: No.

Little Girl: I'll get you a new one from Little Orozko.

Big man: I don't want to steal things.

Little girl: Then I'll make a bet with him to win one.

Big Man: Keep it for yourself.

Little girl: His watch is new and gold, with...

Big man (helpless): Why do you have to have this?

Little girl (wrench finger): You can take it into the water, it will not break, and it will glow, so you can see it anywhere.

Big man (pauses for a moment): Wait until I die.

Little girl (lips curled): Then I'd rather not... If I don't give it, I won't give it.

Big Man: I will, and not for long.

Tobias Snape, Severus Snape's father, used to be a colleague of Benjamin. He also retired to Spider's End Alley. He was also alcoholic and violent.When Fanny went to the tavern to look for Benjamin, nine times out of ten she would see the two sitting at the same table drinking, scolding the government, the army, and things that Fanny couldn't understand, and each scolding each other and ignoring each other. If the two hadn't called each other Fanny by their Christian name when they mentioned each other, they would have doubted whether they had noticed each other's existence.But even if you don't know their experiences, you can feel their similar aura with your eyes closed.

Since Tobia is also a person who doesn't bother to care about the relationship between elders and children, and because he only met Benjamin a few times, Fanny followed Benjamin and yelled casually, so that she couldn't remember his last name.

About a year ago, when Fanny was busy exploring a secret passage in the castle, Benjamin breathed his last breath in the dilapidated house at the entrance of the alley.The funeral was arranged by Tobia. The same thing happened to Tobia a few weeks ago, but it took several days for him to be discovered due to the stench.

This scratched watch has the same aura as Benjamin, and the willful request at the beginning was just to let him feel Benjamin's presence all the time.But now that she was wearing the watch on her wrist, Fanny felt that Benjamin's departure became clearer, and the coolness of the metal surface seemed to flow into her heart.

He always remembers.Fanny thought that she had completely forgotten about Benjamin since she really became a witch, it was only a dozen miles away, and she never came to see him in two years.

He took it for granted that Benjamin didn't care, that everyone around him was as heartless as himself, but the truth was that he always remembered the willful request of a little girl a long time ago. The small request was entrusted to my friend.

Benjamin was so strong and tall that she never thought this day would come.

Some things, Fanny realized, were lost forever before she could understand them.

His war is over.

This is the inscription chosen by Tobias for Benjamin. Fanny stood among the rows of neatly arranged tombstones for a long time until her drenched hair was dried by the night wind.Then she embraced the cold and rough tombstone, turned and walked towards Tobia's house.

The lights in the room were dim, and Snape was still sitting in his original position, but there was an extra pot of tea on the table and an extra chair beside him.Fanny knew what this meant, and she went to the table and sat down.

Want Snape to serve?Fanny thought she didn't have such a hard life, so she poured herself a cup of tea.

And spending childhood by Tobia's side, this is certainly not a nightmare to describe.Even she couldn't bear to be with Benjamin for a long time, so she only came to live in between stays in the orphanage.And judging from the experience of the previous few dealings, Benjamin and Tobias are nothing compared to - Fanny can still clearly remember the sound of the wine bottle being smashed on the head, and the sound of the bottle being covered with broken glass. The feeling of the mouth of the bottle against the neck.

The inscription on Tobias' tablet reads "He was here", perhaps the best sentence Snape could have given him as a son.

The death of this surly man had no effect on Snape, and his face was as rigid as a stone carving.

He really looks like Tobias.

"...they're all terrible people, it's true, even in front of Benjamin. But I like Benjamin, and I like Tobias, because they both have stories."

When a person is drunk to a certain extent, the conversation box is open, and everything is poured out. This is the main reason why Fanny always runs to the tavern.When the two of them were more or less drunk and still asleep, she poured out their bottles—and then it was story time, full of questions and answers.One time, when she was a little anxious, Tobia's irritability hadn't passed away, and she was caught pouring wine and almost went to see her parents.

Tobia was the one who really crawled out of the sea of ​​corpses and blood. He was a typical veteran soldier who had bombed bunkers and endured bullets.His unit was wiped out in the last war he participated in, and disarmament came to him a few months later.

I don't know if it was his luck that he didn't die, but for his wife and children, it must be a great misfortune.Because he can be a survivor on the battlefield, but he doesn't know how to live in a peaceful society.

PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.Refers to an abnormal mental reaction to severe stressors such as trauma.Delayed psychogenic response, also known as delayed psychogenic response, refers to a delayed and long-lasting mental disorder caused by unusually threatening or catastrophic psychological trauma.It mainly occurs in men, especially soldiers who have experienced war, so it is called "shell shock" (shellshock), also known as "battle fatigue" (battlefatigue).

The most common manifestations are overreaction and violent tendencies.

Of course, Fanny doesn't know this kind of advanced terminology, she has her own feeling.

"I think the words Tobias chose for Benjamin were actually for himself after death. Benjamin said: 'Come out of the army that makes the wind and rain, and it is what it is now.' I think Tobias is in the same situation as him. I said—'Why did I survive?' Those deaths, killings, bloodshed, and despair never left him, they haunted him all his life, and now they finally took him away."

While recalling those episodes again and again, Tobia is also experiencing unemployment, bankruptcy, debt collection, and ridicule. This is not the peaceful world he dreamed of when his life was hanging by a thread.

"He has forgotten how to live, and he is unwilling to die."

Fanny couldn't ask what happened later.However, it is not difficult to infer that at the most desperate time, he found that the only wife who never left him was a witch, and the boy who inherited his appearance also had the same ability.They could make him whatever they wanted anytime, if only they did.

"Everything is scorning him, and he feels like a total loser - which he probably is."

The man on the opposite side remained expressionless, and of course Fanny didn't expect any reaction. It was obvious that the other party was also rewinding in his mind, most of which were full of bad memories such as roaring, screaming and pain.She doesn't believe that Biya has the ability to bring happy memories to her family. His wife and children are not freaks like her who just listen to the story and look at people with weird standards.

"Well... I guess Tobias never told anyone about it, and I guess you don't want to know. But since he's dead, I'd like to talk to someone who remembers him—and you know you grew up with him." What a resemblance. Well, if I said you're just like him—I mean except you have a job and don't beat people—you wouldn't turn me into a rat, would you?"

For a moment, Snape felt the blue in his eyes shine into the depths of his soul - a very familiar feeling.

This night, a Gryffindor and the head of Slytherin reached a tacit understanding. They were just two people who had lost a piece of the past, one was talking and the other was listening.

The night wind howled outside.

In fact, Fanny muttered the last few words in a daze. After meeting Snape's eyes for a second, she threw herself and the cup onto the table, knocking over the tea on the table.

Snape subconsciously stretched out his hand, paused, pushed Fanny's shoulder, and began to burn his hand.

After running for more than ten miles, and blowing the cool wind in the middle of the night with wet hair, even Fanny, who is as strong as Fanny, will catch a cold.

By the time Fanny woke up, it was already broad daylight, or rather past daylight.The sun was already setting, and she was lying on a precarious bed, a double bed, half of which collapsed, as if it had been smashed.

Obviously, the last memory was telling Snape about Tobias at the table, could it be that Snape... well, he must have used the Levitation Curse or the Banishing Curse, and it must have been done with a wand, of course.

What's even more strange is that she already had a premonition that she was going to be sick last night. The finger pinched by Benjamin's door was also swollen at that time, but now everything is normal, except for a little pain.Speaking of which, when she was half asleep and half awake, it seemed that someone had given her something spicy and choking.

"Did you sleep well?"

Fanny almost rolled down from the collapsed side, but from the first syllable she was able to confirm the source of the sound in her consciousness, and at the same time she was relieved—it turned out that it wasn't Snape who did it, the world is finally normal... …

"It's... okay." Fanny quickly sat upright, "Uh, professor, how do you...?"

"Actually, it was Professor Snape who told me you were here." Seeing that Fanny's expression was about to collapse, Dumbledore added calmly, "There are special arrangements for next semester, I think Sev Ruth do me a favor - you know, he's one of the best potion makers around. Just this morning, I got a letter from him agreeing, and in passing mentioning that he met some 'on the street' little girl."

"Then he now...?"

"Going to buy some necessary ingredients, I think we just need to close the door when we leave."

"us?"

"Almost at the same time I received Severus' letter, I also received a letter from Mrs. Conwell. They came to see you while you were asleep, here." Dumbledore gestured to the corner of the room The suitcase was obviously full, "You can choose to refuse, but I think Bella will be very sad. They were both worried about you, and they searched for you all night."

Fanny was a little embarrassed, she really didn't consider Mrs. Conwell's feelings when she was in a hurry.Thinking of Smith again, she couldn't help snorting.

"My suggestion is for you to separate for a while to cool off and think about it. So, what do you think of the Leaky Cauldron?"

"What... you mean I live there for the rest of the summer?"

"Yes, you will find that Diagon Alley is as interesting as Hogwarts."

"The book says that Diagon Alley is one of the oldest wizarding business districts." Fanny nodded, "But I'm planning to go to London, and I can save the accommodation fee, but don't you persuade me? Like what?" Smith didn't really push you away ''They all love you' or something."

To her surprise, Dumbledore chuckled. "Going to London? That's a good idea, but not at the moment, it's not been so peaceful lately. As for persuasion, do you yourself think it will work for you? And you know it perfectly well."

"Okay, whatever." Fanny shrugged, "Does 'Not Peaceful' refer to Sirius Black? The Daily Prophet and the Muggle News are talking about him. I shouldn't have recited it that way. .”

"Be careful." Dumbledore said sternly, "Okay, back to the topic just now. I just said 'we', if you want, before going to Diagon Alley, I would like to invite you to meet a people."

Fanny raised her eyebrows, saw that Dumbledore was waiting to say "You'll find out," and skipped the step and said, "Okay, but I'm hungry."

Dumbledore laughed until his beard was shaking.

An hour later, Fanny propped her head up and sucked on Coke, silently looking at Mr. Whitebeard who was chewing slowly.With a wave of Dumbledore's wand, the luggage had already gone to the Leaky Cauldron, and when Dumbledore asked what he wanted to eat, Fanny blurted out three syllables without thinking, which caused her to be watched with the headmaster again.

This time, it was an old man with a silver-white beard and a strange black dress wearing a robe similar to that of the old man, who was wearing some kind of gorgeous and large robe that looked like medieval clothing. Ni thinks they are just two big idiots—the ones with mental problems.

Dumbledore was as safe as a rock, repeating the cycle of pressing his beard - taking a bite - slowly chewing - swallowing, with an average of more than 5 minutes of chewing each bite, occasionally wiping the sauce on the corner of his mouth, and taking a sip of the orange juice next to him And so on, this made Fanny, who had resolved the battle in 2 minutes, very crazy.

Even if no one pays attention, the diners around have changed three dials, okay? !Okay, I was playing a prank, but you can't play me like this... Burgers don't taste like this. Don't you think it's disgusting to chew out the flavor inside... It's getting dark...

After briefly talking about Benjamin, Fanny gave up on what she felt.The atmosphere of the burger shop is really not suitable for lyricism, especially when Dumbledore picks up the burger and starts to chew.

This scene should be very popular if it is photographed and sold to "Witch Weekly"...

Dumbledore swallowed his last breath when the last gleam of sunset glow disappeared into the sky.

"It's good to have a change of taste once in a while, but it's still too heavy a burden on my elderly teeth. And it's really hard for me to eat what these Muggle foods are made of." Dumbledore walked away Okay, give a friendly look to the crowd with a return rate of more than 80.00%, "It seems that wearing wizard robes in the Muggle world is not a good idea, is it?"

He was leisurely and airy, while Fanny, who was dangling behind him, was sloppy without any airs, with her head drooped, her shoulders slumped, her pockets were in her pockets, and the soles of her shoes were grinding the ground.

"Probably, but in your case, if you don't attract attention, you have to wear an invisibility cloak."

Dumbledore had no objection to that at all.After leading the way for more than an hour, he turned his head in a lonely alley and said to Fanny, who followed two steps behind, "Then, you don't mind your followers showing up, so you can save some time?"

"...Okay." To save time, what were you doing for the last two and a half hours? !