Harry was expecting them to say something—something he could deduce from it—but before they could talk, the scene was abruptly interrupted. The bedroom was gone, and the next second, Harry was standing in Dumbledore's office, something making a terrible sound, like some kind of wounded animal. Snape leaned against a wall in the doorway, leaning forward, his head bowed, his greasy black hair hanging down to block his expression. Dumbledore stood in front of him with a grim expression. After a moment, Snape lifted his face, and it seemed as if he had spent a hundred years of misery since the scene at the top of the mountain in the wilderness.

"I thought...... Will you ...... Guarantee her ...... Safety ......"

"She and James had mistrusted someone else," Dumbledore said, walking to the window, his hands propped up on the windowsill, looking out at the night sky. "Just like you, Severus. Didn't you expect Voldemort to spare her life?"

Snape's breathing was weak, like a fish out of water, and his expression was pained.

"Her son survived. Dumbledore said.

Snape shook his head violently, as if he were driving away a pesky fly.

"Her son is still alive, and his eyes are exactly the same as his mother's. I thought, you must remember the eyes of Brielle Fergton, its shape and color, right?"

"No!" Snape yelled, "no...... Dead ......"

"Is this remorse, Severus?"

"I hope ...... I wish it was me who died......"

"What's the use of that?" said Dumbledore coldly, "if you love Brielle Fergton, if you truly love her, then the path ahead of you is clear. ”

There seemed to be a fog of pain in front of Snape's eyes, and it seemed as if it had taken a long time for Dumbledore's words to reach his ears.

"Y-what did you say?"

"You know how she died, why she died. Don't let her die in vain. Help me protect Berryl's son. ”

"He doesn't need protection. The Dark Lord is gone—"

"The Dark Lord will return, and by then, Harry Potter will be in terrible danger. ”

After a long silence, Snape slowly controlled himself and breathed freely. Finally, he said, "Good. Very good. But never- don't say it, Dumbledore! only you know me! you swear! I can't stand it...... Especially Potter's son...... I want you to swear!"

"Do you want me to swear, Severus, never to give the best of you?" Dumbledore walked over, looked at Snape's agitated and pained face, and sighed, "If you insist......"

Snape nodded vigorously quickly. Dumbledore's voice seemed to be as deep and distant as another dimension.

"Can you risk your life and protect that child at all times?"

The office vanished, then resurfaced. Snape paced up and down in front of Dumbledore.

"—as mediocre and arrogant as his father, who loves to break discipline, who likes to be showy, who attracts attention, who is impudent—"

"What you see is what you expected to see, Severus," Dumbledore said without looking up as he read a copy of Transfiguration Today, "and the other teachers said that the boy was humble, easy-going, and gifted. I also personally found him to be a likable child. ”

Dumbledore flipped the page, still looking up, and said, "By the way, you probably didn't know that Lily used to disguise herself as all sorts of different characters every holiday to visit Harry, right?"

Snape suddenly stopped and asked incredulously, "What did you say?!"

Dumbledore's gaze was still fixed on the page, and he seemed to reply casually, "Lily cares about that child, Severus." ”

Snape's face turned pale and he muttered, "But...... Why?"

"Oh, maybe it's because she doesn't have anyone close to her anymore to care about. Dumbledore said casually, as if he hadn't noticed what he was talking about. "My sister kicked her out of the house, and those who had expressed their desire to marry her were always avoiding her...... I think she cared about the lonely child, as if she didn't want to see anyone as lonely as herself. ”

A muscle on Snape's face twitched, as if he were enduring great pain. He did not respond to Dumbledore's words.

Dumbledore flipped another page, as if the article in that magazine was fascinating.

"By the way, pay attention to Quirrell, okay?"

Snape stared at Dumbledore, the expression on his face was not only surprised, but also a little suspicious.

Dumbledore finally put down the magazine, a slightly sly smile on his face.

He tried to get close to Lily...... I don't believe he's purposeless. His blue eyes gleamed amusefully behind the half-moon lenses, "but it's funny that Lily didn't immediately say no-"

Snape's face seemed to look even more ugly. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, pretending not to notice the Potions professor's expression.

"It was her move that made me think we needed to pay attention to Quirrell. ”

The Potions professor's face couldn't have been worse. He said in a sleek tone, "Well, when are you still responsible for driving out undesirable suitors for your staff? I don't remember you being so kind—"

Dumbledore looked at him with a look of amusement on his face.

"'Undesirable suitors'? yes, that's how you define Quirrell's proximity to Lily, Severus?"

Snape's face turned horrified, and he looked as if he was about to pull out his wand and say "forget it" at Dumbledore in the next second.

The colors swirled, everything around them darkened, and Snape and Dumbledore stood in the foyer a little apart. The last group of people at the Ballball walked past them and went back to sleep.

"How's that?" Dumbledore asked softly.

"Karkarov's mark also turned black. He was nervous and worried about being punished. You know that after the fall of the Dark Lord, he gave a lot of help to the Ministry of Magic. Snape looked sideways at Dumbledore's curved nose, "Karkaroff intends to run away if the mark burns." ”

"Really?" Dumbledore whispered, as Fleur Delacour and Roger Davis giggled in from the playground, passing them by.

They didn't pay any interest or attention to the Headmaster and Professors of Hogwarts standing in the foyer, but Dumbledore's expression suddenly moved slightly. Harry noticed that his eyes narrowed slightly, and a smile appeared in his eyes.

"Severus, it's not that I'd like to ask you, but how do you feel about your dance performance tonight?"

Snape's face darkened instantly. He lowered his face—at this point Harry couldn't help but sigh slightly, the young man who had seemed timid and cowering on the wilderness hillside in the middle of the night in Dumbledore's memory had completely disappeared—glared at Dumbledore sternly, his tone stiff.

"I thought we were getting down to business. ”

"We're getting down to business. Dumbledore's blue eyes stared at Fleur and Roger's distant backs, and there was a faint smile in his voice. "I thought you enjoyed those two pieces of dancing with the Gryffindor Flowers—"

"That's what you tricked me into using the horns of the horns!" Snape snarled at Dumbledore, "and damn I haven't gotten it yet!"

"Oh, no, no, you'll get it. Dumbledore replied perfunctorily, "I've asked Lily to get it, and she'll pass it on to you in a moment." ”

Snape seemed even more enraged by Dumbledore's arrangement, and he was speechless.

Dumbledore's face straightened, and he changed the subject casually. "Well, then let's move on to Karkarov - poor man, I think he's about to be scared out. If he escapes, are you going to go with him?"

"No," said Snape, his dark eyes quickly regaining their composure, "I'm not such a coward. ”

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed, "you're much braver than Igor Karkaroff so far. You know, I sometimes feel like our classification is too sloppy......"

He walked away, Snape still standing still, head bowed. His slightly long black hair hung down from the sides of his face, obscuring his expression, but Harry always felt an unusual depression and gloom exude from him.

His figure dissipated like ink in the water, and this time, before the scene could be clear, Harry heard Snape's voice full of resentment and ridicule.

“…… His arrogance is not even on par with his father's, and he seems to be enjoying his fame!"

Then Harry heard his own voice ringing out in anger.

"Don't speak ill of my father!"

The scene before him was clear, it was Hogwarts in the middle of the night, and on a spiral staircase, Snape was holding his arm and speeding down the staircase, his face full of disgust, as if he wished Harry would disappear into the castle in the next minute.

"James Potter, lazy, arrogant—"

Harry heard his own voice protest, "My father was a great man!"

Snape interrupted Harry coldly, "Your father is a stupid pig!"

Harry couldn't figure out how there was no Dumbledore or Lily Evans in this scene, and he could be in the meditation basin. He guessed that Dumbledore or Snape must have told Lily Evans, or maybe she was hiding in the shadows at some corner of the staircase and saw it all?

Then the scene changed again - this time, Harry was still standing in the Headmaster's office. It was night, and Dumbledore was leaning feebly in the throne-like chair behind his desk, looking delirious. His right hand was dangling, charred, black. Lily Evans stood beside him with an anxious look on her face, holding his shoulder. Snape whispered a spell, focused his wand on his wrist, and handed forward a thick golden potion with his left hand without looking. Lily Evans immediately took it and carefully poured the potion into Dumbledore's mouth. After a few moments, Dumbledore's eyelids twitched a few times and opened.

"Why," Snape asked, "why did you wear that ring? it had a spell on it, you know." Why do you want to touch it?"

Marvolo Gaunt's ring rested on the table in front of Dumbledore, cracked, and next to Gryffindor's sword.

Dumbledore smiled wryly.

"I ...... I did something stupid. The temptation is too great......"

"What temptation?"

Dumbledore didn't answer.

"It's a miracle you're back here!" said Snape angrily, "there's a particularly powerful spell on that ring, and the most we can hope to contain is it." I've temporarily imprisoned the spell in one hand—"

Dumbledore held up his blackened, useless hand and looked at it as if he were facing a very interesting antique.

"You've done a great job, Severus. How much time do you think I have left?"

Dumbledore's tone was casual and casual, as if he were asking for the weather forecast. Snape hesitated for a moment, then said, "I can't say it, about a year. There is no way to contain such a spell forever. Eventually, it will always spread, and the spell will grow stronger over time. ”

Dumbledore smiled. He had less than a year left, and the news seemed insignificant to him.

"I'm lucky, very lucky to have you by my side, Severus. ”

"If you had called me earlier, I might have done more to buy you more time!" Snape said angrily, looking down at the broken ring and the sword, "You think destroying the ring will break the spell?"

"Pretty much...... I must have lost my head......" Dumbledore said. Then Snape's anger seemed to shift, and he glared angrily at Lily Evans, who had not spoken beside Dumbledore, and said sarcastically, "You've been here, why don't you stop him? Can't you see that it's a trap? You can just watch him die?......"

Before Lily Evans could speak, Dumbledore stopped Snape's abusive words. "Severus, don't be Lily. There's nothing she can do about it. "I went to the old Gaunt house alone......," he said wearily. Maybe I should just take you with me......"

"Then one of you will always come back with one hand in the black like this, and sit here and plan how your will will be amended for the next year. Lily Evans interrupted Dumbledore abruptly, her face stiff, solemn and ugly like never before, as if she was angry, but she didn't know who to turn to. She pursed her lips angrily, glared at Dumbledore and Snape, and said, "...... I can almost imagine who both of you are going to resurrect......"

Harry waited for her to say the name of the man - the man Albus Dumbledore wanted to be resurrected at the risk of his life - but Lily Evans stopped, glaring angrily at the two men in front of her.

Harry wasn't disappointed either. He guessed that Dumbledore was probably trying to resurrect his parents and his young sister Ariana, and that Snape was undoubtedly hoping for Harry's mother, Beriel Potter, to be resurrected. That ring must have been one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, with a very powerful and vicious black magic attached to it. Now Harry finally understood why Dumbledore insisted on drinking those evil potions when he followed Dumbledore to find another Horcrux, the Slytherin Locket. He thinks that since he is not long dead, he should try to solve all these problems while he is alive, and he should take all the risks himself-

There was a moment of silence in the room. Harry then saw Dumbledore struggling to sit up straight in his chair, and unnaturally forced a change of subject. “…… But that's fine, it makes things easier. ”

Snape seemed completely confused. Dumbledore smiled.

"I'm referring to Voldemort's plan around me. He planned for the poor boy from the Malfoy family to kill me. ”

Snape sat down in the chair Harry used to sit in, facing Dumbledore across the table. Harry could see that he wanted to talk about Dumbledore's hand that had been hurt by the spell, but the other man raised his hand and tactfully said that he was unwilling to continue talking about it. Lily Evans was still standing beside Dumbledore, facing Snape, but they both looked in different directions as if trying to avoid eye contact with each other, and there was an awkward and unnatural atmosphere between them.

Snape frowned and said, "The Dark Lord didn't expect Draco to succeed. This is only to punish Lucius for his recent failures. For Draco's parents to watch their son miss, and then pay the price, it would be a blunt knife for them to cut the flesh. ”

"In short, the boy, like me, was definitively sentenced to death. Dumbledore said, "I think if Draco misses, you'll be the one to take over?"

There was a brief silence. Harry noticed that Snape seemed to glance quickly at Lily Evans as she looked at her. But he didn't understand the purpose of Snape's reaction to Lily Evans when he talked about it.

"That's how the Dark Lord designed, I think. Snape replied quickly, in a stiff and emotionless tone.

"Does Voldemort foresee that in the near future, he will no longer need agents at Hogwarts?"

"He believed that the school would soon be controlled by him, yes. ”

"If the school does fall into his hands," said Dumbledore, as if in the spur of the moment, "I want you to swear that you will do everything in your power to protect the students of Hogwarts, okay?"

Snape nodded stiffly. Lily Evans' gaze seemed to stay on his face for a moment, but soon she was back in the same way she had been staring again.

"Good. So, you first need to figure out what Draco is going to do. A panicked teenager is dangerous not only to himself, but also to others. Give him help and guidance, he should accept it, he likes you-"

After his father fell out of favor, he didn't like me so much. Draco blamed me, thinking I had taken Lucius's place. ”

"It's okay, let's try. I was more concerned than I was with the accidental casualty of any of the boy's plans of action. Of course, there was only one way to save him from Voldemort's wrath. ”

Snape raised an eyebrow and asked sarcastically, "You're going to let him kill you?"

"Of course not. It's up to you to kill me. ”

There was a long silence, and there was only a strange clicking sound in the room. Phoenix Fawkes gnaws on a small cuttlefish bone.

"Do you want to do it now?" Snape asked, with a thick sarcasm in his tone, "or do you need a little time to conceive of a tombstone?"

"Oh, not yet," Dumbledore said with a smile, "I think that moment will come when it's time to come." Judging by tonight's events," he said, pointing to his scorched hands, "we can be sure that it will happen within a year." ”

"Since you don't care about death," Snape said roughly, "why don't you let Draco get it?"

"The boy's soul hasn't been completely ruined," Dumbledore said, "and I don't want to tear it apart for my sake." ”

Snape had a very strange, very painful look on his face. His voice sounded like it was barely squeezing out of his throat, a painful hiss.

"And what about my soul, Dumbledore?

Harry saw that at this time, Lily Evans, who had avoided meeting Snape's gaze since the beginning of this scene, finally turned her face to look at Snape, and there seemed to be a faint haze of sadness in her green eyes, as if she felt the helplessness and pain of Snape when he asked the question. But she didn't say anything, and before Snape could lift her eyes, she deliberately looked away, as if trying to pretend that she had never paid attention to his question.

"Only you know that helping an old man from pain and shame will not hurt your soul," Dumbledore said, "Severus, I beg you to do this great thing for me, for death is a certainty for me, just as the Chadley Artillery will be at the bottom of this year's league." Truth be told, I'd rather end my life quickly and without pain, than procrastinate and die a miserable death, like involving Greyback, I heard Voldemort recruited him, or falling into the hands of dear Bellatrix, who likes to play with her food before eating?"

His tone was lighthearted, but those blue eyes looked at Snape sharply as they had looked at Harry before, and seemed to be able to see the soul they were talking about. Finally, Snape nodded slightly.

Dumbledore seemed satisfied.

"Thank you, Severus......"

The office vanished, and in the twilight, Snape and Dumbledore strolled together in the deserted castle grounds.

"You and Potter will be locked up these nights, Severus, and it won't be long before this boy will be locked up longer than he is free. ”

"He's a copy of his father—"

"It may be like that in appearance, but he is more like his mother in his bones. I stayed with Harry because I had something to discuss with him, and I had to give him some information, or it would be too late. ”

"Information," Snape said, "you trust him...... But they don't trust me. ”

"It's not a question of trust or distrust. You and I both know that I have limited time. I had to give the boy enough information to get him to do what needed to be done. ”

"Then why can't I get the same information?"

"I don't want to put all my secrets in one basket, especially one that hangs on Voldemort's arm for many days. ”

"I did what you told me to do!"

"You've done an excellent job. Don't think I'm underestimating the danger you're in all the time, Severus. Tell Voldemort only the information that seems valuable, and keep the most important information in the back of my heart, and I can only leave this job to you. ”

"But you trust a little boy who doesn't even know how to put up a brain, his magic is mediocre, and he can directly connect to the mind of the Dark Lord!"

"Voldemort was afraid of that connection," Dumbledore said, "and it wasn't long ago that he had a little taste of what it meant to him to share Harry's thoughts. He had never experienced such pain. He'll never try to control Harry again, I'm sure, at least not in that way. ”

"I don't understand. ”

"Voldemort's soul is so mutilated, it can't stand a soul like Harry's, like a tongue stuck to frozen steel, flesh touching flames—"

"Soul, we're talking about thought!"

"In the case of Harry and Voldemort, the two are the same thing. ”

Dumbledore looked around, making sure there was no one else but them. They were now near the Forbidden Forest, but there was not a single figure around.

"Severus, after you killed me—"

"You won't tell me anything, and you're still counting on me to do you that little favor!" Snape growled, his thin face flashing with real anger, "You take many things for granted, Dumbledore!

"You swore it, Severus. Speaking of your service to me, I remember you promised to keep an eye on our young Slytherin friend, right?"

Snape looked annoyed and unconvinced. Dumbledore sighed.

"Come to my office at eleven o'clock tonight, Severus, and you won't complain that I don't trust you......"

They returned to Dumbledore's office, it was pitch black outside the window, Fawkes was sitting quietly, and then Harry was somewhat surprised to see Lily Evans, who had not been seen in the previous scene. She was standing at the desk in the headmaster's room, looking around with a hint of nervousness.

"Don't be nervous, Lily. You can stay there in a minute. Dumbledore gestured lightly to a large wooden cabinet in the corner. Lily Evans walked over and pulled open the cabinet door. It was pitch black inside.

"I want to ...... It's not a vanishing cabinet, is it?Professor Dumbledore?" her face was still a little nervous, but her mouth was joking, and her voice trembled slightly.

Dumbledore seemed to appreciate her humor, and said with a smile, "Of course not." Where do you want to teleport yourself, Lily?"

Before Lily Evans could speak, there was a soft knock on the door of the principal's office. Her face changed, and she immediately slipped into the cabinet and closed the door. Dumbledore waved his wand, and he didn't know what spell had been placed around the cabinet. Just as he was finishing this, the door to the headmaster's office opened, and Snape walked in.

【to be contiuned...】