days at Hogwarts

Chapter 241 Dumbledore: Insomnia again

Light and shadow intersect in the auditorium.

In the midst of subtle whispers, Professor Flitwick was explaining the key points of the duel to the young wizards.

"Rhythm! In your opinion, this is a very vague concept. In this exercise, Professor Snape explained the importance of rhythm very well!"

"The initial attack was initiated by Professor Black. But Professor Snape resisted. He guided the duel to develop at the rhythm he expected, and it fell into a stalemate. Professor Black was forced to stalemate..."

"If it's not about life, I don't recommend that you learn from Professor Black's last struggle. This seems to me to be very impulsive and unwise..."

Loren was listening among the crowd. He tilted his head and noticed Snape quietly leaving the side door.

Walk quickly with long strides, and the wind is flowing through your clothes.

……

Snape walked into the headmaster's office, his face ugly and filled with renewed anger.

"He doesn't deserve it, he doesn't deserve it! He doesn't deserve to be a professor at all!"

Dumbledore was wearing off-white loose robes. Under the slightly yellowish light, his beard and robes were the same color.There is a cup of hot cocoa on the table, and the rising white steam shows its temperature.

He raised his head from behind the desk: "Well, Severus, you didn't say a name, but I guess you meant Professor Black."

"Don't mention! His! Name!" Snape growled.

Dumbledore sighed quietly, handed his cup of hot cocoa to Snape, and poured himself a cup of hot tea.

"Try it, it'll bring some sense back to you."

"I do not need!"

Snape raised his head and met those blue eyes, as deep as a black lake.

After a moment of silence, Snape took a sip of hot cocoa.

It tastes bad, very bad, cloyingly sweet and sticky.

The taste is viscous and silky, sliding all the way from the throat into the stomach. It is slightly hot and warms the chest.

Dumbledore smiled and said gently: "Do you want to tell me about what just happened?"

Snape hesitated for a moment and said: "Duel, tonight's duel..."

"I should really cut him open in front of everyone! See if the Animagus will return to its original shape after being cut in half." Snape said through gritted teeth.

On the shelf in the principal's office, there was a sudden rustling sound in a glass bottle, and the beetle inside was trembling uneasily.

"Calm, calm! You scared our little guest." Dumbledore waved his wand, and the beetle in the glass bottle fell asleep and remained motionless.

Snape sneered.

"You should hate him. He was the one who told you many years ago that you could get into that house by pounding the knots on the tree trunk with a long stick. If he hadn't said that, you wouldn't have been killed by Harry. Dad saves lives. Maybe nothing else will happen after that."

"Of course I should hate him! Not just him, but also that despicable werewolf, that arrogant, disobedient, showy, and rude James Potter! Do you think they are good people?"

Dumbledore acted as if he hadn't heard anything. He picked up the hot tea and took a sip: "You didn't do it in the end, did you? Severus, you know what this means."

"What does it mean?"

Dumbledore smiled and did not answer: "I knew it from the time you found me and promised to protect Harry."

"Don't mention this! You swore an oath, Dumbledore! Only you know and I know!" A layer of mist of pain appeared in Snape's eyes. Too many things happened tonight, and those long-lasting memories are unsettling. The earth surges.

Dumbledore paused and continued: "When you asked me to promise never to reveal the best side of you. It made me even more convinced that-"

<divclass="contentadv">"Love changes you, Severus."

"Love?" Snape raised his eyebrows and mocked in a sarcastic tone, "It's a ridiculous word, Dumbledore, you are still superstitious about your so-called power of love."

Dumbledore smiled and said: "Severus, since you gave Loren the Magic Edge Shadowless Curse and told him that it was a curse for processing medicinal materials, you can still use it to cut the flesh of living people without any scruples." Flesh?"

"Not long ago, I used it to cut a forty-foot basilisk into pieces." Snape said with disdain.

"What about today, why didn't you cut open Black's body?" Dumbledore's tone was very relaxed, and he seemed to be happy to see the changes in Snape.

Snape's tone was still tough: "The blade of the Shadowless Curse is too sharp. I just don't want to kill him directly. It will stain the dining hall."

"Kill him..." Dumbledore muttered softly, "your soul will be torn apart."

Snape's eyes changed, and his anger suddenly receded.

"Sirius... I think he was deeply affected by the dementors. The large amount of time he spent in prison affected his emotional development, and he was prone to taking reckless actions. This also stems from his passionate and impulsive nature..."

After hearing Dumbledore's long series of words, the deepest memories in Snape's mind could no longer be suppressed and came up layer by layer.

Just like a corpse immersed in the deep sea gradually rising up, there was a rumbling, vague sound of water in the ears. At a certain moment, it surfaced and the sound suddenly became clear.

"It's true, isn't it? No joke? Petunia said you were lying to me. There is no such thing as Hogwarts. Is it true?"

"Did the letter really come from an owl?"

"Severus, tell me more about the Dementors."

This is Lily at the beginning, before she has ever been exposed to Hogwarts.

"We are best friends, Sev, but I don't like those people you hang out with. What do you see about him, Sev?"

"That's dark magic, if you think it's fun..."

These were the happiest years since they entered Hogwarts.

"Let him go!"

"But you're nothing more than an arrogant, bullying bully, Potter. Let him go."

This is Lily who protects him and is the only reason why he keeps that painful and humiliating memory.

Until he yelled the unforgivable word at her in anger: "Mudblood."

"I will never worry about this again... Snotlout."

"No need to apologize, I'm not interested, don't waste your breath."

"You didn't mean to call me a Mudblood? But you call people of my birth a Mudblood, Severus. What makes me any different?"

……

Snape drank the cloyingly sweet hot cocoa in one gulp. Its temperature dropped, and the liquid in the cup became thicker. The sweetness made Snape's throat tickle.

"I have no intention of excusing him. If you want, you can talk to Sirius. Of course, you can also give him a good lesson in the next duel."

"It's your choice, Severus."

"In addition, if Harry asks you to learn Occlumency, I would like to ask you to help him." Dumbledore finally said.