days at Hogwarts

Snape's gloomy eyes fell on the face of the middle-aged woman, and he subconsciously looked for traces of Lily in this face. They were sisters with the same blood, so it was inevitable that they would have some similarities.

But he couldn't imagine what Lily looked like at this age, so naturally he couldn't see any familiar shadows in Penny, including those eyes.

"Long time no see, Petunia Evans, or should I call you now...Mrs. Dursley."

The greeting in a low voice swirled in the cold winter wind, pulling people's memories back. After decades, Penny still clearly remembered the day when she first saw this man. She knew that her sister was a witch, and that kind of magical power was called magic...

It was a sunny day, and as usual, the two Evans sisters broke into the almost empty playground to play on the swings.

With the help of the power called magic, Lily let go of her hands and flew into the air when the swing reached the highest point, laughing happily and jumping into the sky. She did not fall heavily on the asphalt ground, but opened her arms and glided in the air like a bird, staying in the air for a long time, and finally landing lightly.

"Lily, don't do this! Mom told you not to do this!" The elder sister next to her repeated these words. Because of some inexplicable emotion, her tone was unconsciously a little irritable, "Mom said you can't do this, Lily!"

"But I'm fine, Petunia," Lily giggled.

"How did you do it?" Penny said this with unstoppable envy in her eyes.

"I do not know either."

While the two sisters were talking, a boy appeared out of nowhere. He was wearing strange clothes, had dirty hair, looked malnourished, and lacked manners:

"Isn't it obvious? You are a witch."

……

There was a cool breeze blowing from the streets of Privet Drive, and behind this door, the aroma of the Dursleys' dinner wafted out.

Even without using Legilimency, Snape could tell the images that flashed through the middle-aged woman's mind. He remembered what the woman looked like when she was young.

At that time, she was not Mrs. Dursley yet, her name was Petunia Evans. She longed for magic in her heart, but showed disdain and even hatred on the surface. The pain of not being able to get it tortured her, and she even hated people who had magic.

"I know who you are! You're the little boy from Snape's family, the one who lives in Spinner's End, that dirty place by the river!"

"..."

"Bad guy, you're lying! There is no Hogwarts!"

"..."

"What are you wearing? Your mother's clothes? That's funny!"

"..."

"You don't have to go to Dumbledore, Lily! Do you think I want to go to some ridiculous castle and learn to be... a monster?"

"Hogwarts? That's where you're going, a school for monsters. You and that boy named Snape...freaks. You're both freaks. Fortunately, you're separated from ordinary people. It's for our safety."

"You think I want to be a monster?"

"Write to the principal?"

"I didn't! I didn't ask him!"

"You read my letter?"

"That's my privacy, how could you!"

"You two monsters snuck into my room!"

"monster!"

"..."

In Snape's memory, Petunia was always irritable and mean. Her jealousy of her sister twisted into hatred for wizards and magic, and she often insulted and cursed herself. But now, looking back, after a long time, all the impressions have become a little distorted, and finally it can only be summed up as Lily's exclamation - "She is my sister!"

Penny showed a horrified expression, holding the door handle tightly with both hands, and asked in a trembling voice but still in a tough tone: "How did you find this place, and what are you doing here?!"

"Relax, Mrs. Dursley, I'll get a few things."

"what?"

"Some memories, memories of Lily's childhood."

Snape's voice was so soft, as silent as snowflakes falling to the ground.

Petunia's eyes gradually lost focus, her expression slowly became dull, and she fell into a state of unconsciousness. She seemed to have had a dream, an ordinary dream. In the dream, Snape asked her if she had any wishes.

She said she wanted a big Christmas dinner, but she had too many ingredients to prepare and it was a bit overwhelming.

She said she wanted Dudley to lose weight because his teachers at school said he was too fat.

She said she wanted Vernon to be healthy as he had been diagnosed with fatty liver disease during a recent physical.

"..."

A few minutes later, the cold wind blew a few snowflakes onto Penny's face. Stimulated by the cold, her light-colored eyes trembled subconsciously, and the housewife standing at the door immediately came back to her senses from her trance.

Penny looked around. The streets were empty with only snowflakes falling, and there was no one in sight. She frowned, suspecting that she was too tired and had hallucinations.

After closing the door and returning to the kitchen, Penny was surprised to find that all the ingredients had been processed. The fruits and vegetables were cut into the most standard sizes and neatly placed on the chopping board. The turkey and steaks that needed to be marinated had already shown the most suitable color.

Penny raised her hand to rub her eyes, and found that something had appeared in her hand.

A clear glass medicine bottle.

……

Godric's Hollow.

The golden street lights have been lit, the Christmas decorations between the houses and shops are shining, the villagers are coming and going, and the laughter is heard one after another. No one notices that a mysterious man in a black robe and a hooded head hurriedly passes by, leaving no footprints on the snow.

Snape walked through the alley and along the street, passing several shops, and came to a small church. The stained glass shone like jewels, and the faint sound of carols came from inside. In the open space in front of the church, there stood an obelisk engraved with names.

As Snape passed by, the stone tablet turned into three statues: a man with messy hair, slovenly appearance and disgusting appearance, a woman with long hair and beautiful appearance, and a baby.

Snape actually didn't want to look at the two people next to him, but he still caught a glimpse of the annoying baby out of the corner of his eye. At that time, he didn't have the lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.

Come to the back of the church, pass through a narrow door, walk along the path, and rows of cold and hard tombstones come into view.

Snowflakes fell on the ground, as if covering a silver carpet. The only bushes that emerged were bare and covered with ice. The stained glass windows of the church cast colorful spots of light on the silver carpet, adding a touch of softness to the dark and silent cemetery and reducing the gloomy atmosphere of death.

Snape stopped and waited.

He was waiting for the snow in the cemetery to get thicker, waiting for the carols in the church to stop, waiting for the sky to get completely dark. He couldn't tell what he was waiting for. Maybe he just didn't dare to face it and didn't dare to disturb that person's sleep.

After a long time, Snape slowly exhaled a breath of white air, stepped into the cemetery, and walked to the innermost part with a clear purpose. His eyes swept over one tombstone after another, the Abbott family, the Dumbledore family, the Ignotus family...

Finally, there is the Potters', on which is engraved:

Lily Potter

Born on March 1960, 1

Died on October 1981, 10

The cold air of late December rushed into Snape's lungs, and he could hear the steady beating of his heart. There was neither the expected sadness nor any drastic emotional fluctuations. He just felt that the temperature here was too cold.

"I went to see your sister. She has become a fool..." Snape paused, and finally did not say any derogatory words, "a housewife. I asked her if she had any wishes, and she only thought about those two fat pigs, father and son. She has lost all her cleverness as a child..."

"I left her a potion bottle with toad droppings in it." His voice was a little more relaxed. "Second year Potions knowledge, you know, will calm the Dursleys' excessive appetites...

"Voldemort used his father's bones, his enemy's blood, and his servants' flesh as materials for his resurrection. I don't think you would accept that, so I improved the resurrection ceremony to make it cleaner and without the negative effects of dark magic...

"I won't keep you waiting too long."

The drifting snow fell on the black robe and hood, like a pure white fluffy scarf. Snape felt the coldness gradually seeping into his body, completely freezing the emotions that wanted to surge but couldn't.

He took out his wand and touched the top of the tombstone.

A crack appeared in the tomb behind, and a small wisp of dust rose into the air in response to the call, and then fell into a transparent glass bottle.

……

Number 12, Grimmauld Place, basement kitchen of the Black Mansion.

"Tonks's Patronus turned into a wolf? Did it really turn into a wolf?"

"If you ask me again, I will stuff this cabbage into your mouth, take a picture and develop it with developing solution. This will be the first picture your child will see when he is born." Lupin gestured a few times with the cabbage in his hand, his voice filled with some annoyance, contrary to his usual gentle demeanor.

"I'm just verifying." Sirius didn't care about his threat at all, and smiled. "The Patronus Charm is a very magical spell. People usually think that the image of the physical Patronus represents a certain image in the wizard's heart. There have been some examples of Patronus changing in the past. Do you want to listen?"

"I'm better than you in both Charms and History of Magic."

"Well, the Black family has a larger collection of books, so I can look up more cases."

"Thank you, but no thanks!" Lupin cut the cabbage in his hand fiercely.

"Okay, I'll go talk to Tonks later, maybe she'll be more interested in these cases."

"..."

Lupin clenched the knife in his hand, and a dangerous light flashed in his eyes.

Sirius quickly pursed his lips to indicate that he would not say any more, but he only persisted for a few minutes. Not long after, he began to talk about the Patronus Charm in a roundabout way again.

George and Fred sat in front of the fireplace, lighting the fox's tail hair with great interest, waiting for the unpleasant and disgusting smell to waft out, and then puffing the air in panic for fear that their mother would smell it.

Not far away, Bill and Fleur were discussing the future, how to plan the wedding, whose house to visit next Christmas, and when he would go to Paris to visit her parents and family...

Percy and Charlie in the corner looked sad. The Ministry of Magic was shut down and the dragon-related trade had not yet resumed.

Mrs. Weasley was busy at the stove, her apron fluttering like the skirt of a ballerina as she twirled.

Molly sang along to the radio, glancing occasionally toward the kitchen sink where idle men sat around processing Brussels sprouts, piled up in a messy heap.

In the hallway, the red curtains were open, revealing the portrait of old Mrs. Black, which looked like any other portrait of an elder in the family. From morning until the whole day, everything was very quiet, with no screaming, no cursing, no hysteria.

Snowflakes were falling quietly outside the window, and the room was filled with Celestina Warbeck's holiday broadcasts, with songs flowing softly from the radio.

It's Christmas again.

……

"Here, beer."

Hannah Abbott spoke softly, reluctantly placing a glass of beer on the table. She couldn't help but wrinkled her nose as she smelled the strong odor of alcohol.

Old Tom took the beer and took a big sip, exhaled the smell of alcohol in relief, and the wrinkles on his face smoothed out.

The Leaky Cauldron has a special geographical location. Outside the door is a Muggle street, and behind it leads to Diagon Alley, which is next to Knockturn Alley. The situation in the wizarding world is becoming increasingly tense, and fewer and fewer customers come here to drink and chat. Seeing that the bar owner is becoming more and more haggard, relatives and friends held a Christmas party here.

At this time, the Leaky Cauldron was crowded with people, and all of Old Tom's relatives and friends were there.

Hannah came to the party with her mother as a relative. She didn't like drinking, so she served as a waitress and was responsible for pouring wine for the guests along with several other underage juniors.

Old customers who have been here for decades drink, chat, play cards, and brag about their deeds when they were young.

The Leaky Cauldron hadn't been this busy in a long time.

"I almost won the Quidditch World Cup that year!"

"Come on, you didn't even play on the bench."

“So it was almost there!”

Hannah leaned against the bar, listening to the noisy chatter of these elderly wizards, and felt that this was no different from the Christmas party at Hogwarts, where they were also laughing and giggling at the long table of the college.

The lights in the bar stayed on until late at night. The old wizards were all drunk, with red faces and ears. Some of them were already lying on the table unconscious, while the rest were still making noise.

"When I graduated, many girls wrote me love letters..."

"Bullshit! It was you who wrote a love letter to someone else, and Peeves found it in the bathroom the next day and read it out in front of the whole school!"

"I want to duel with you!"

The last customer who was barely standing was knocked to the ground by Old Tom. He turned around to look at his family and burped: "I have some news to tell you. I plan to retire. Who of you wants to take over the Leaky Cauldron? If no one wants, we will close it and rent out the shop."

"what?"

All the relatives were stunned.

Hannah looked at the elderly relative, who was smiling horribly.