Snape stopped in his tracks. It took him six to seven seconds before he regained his composure. He looked at the statue with a complicated gaze, and his wand silently appeared in his hand.
The statue of Ravenclaw turned a blind eye to his vigilant actions and demeanor. "Until death, you will not be able to rid yourself of your regret for her. Your pain and regret will follow her to the grave." [Author's Note: During the Victorian era, people liked to communicate in the language of flowers. In the language of flowers, each flower has its own specific meaning. Different flowers together will produce different meanings. Sunflower is a type of lily (Lily Evans's name means lily). Mugwort is a herb with a sweet and bitter taste, so it also means bitterness and sadness at the same time. In Harry Potter's first book, The Philosopher's Stone, Snape asked Harry the answer to the question about the potion. The combination of the above meanings.]
The wizard, who had just been reopened with the greatest wound in his life, clutched at his chest. His hand that was holding the wand trembled slightly. His eyes were overflowing with grief and regret.
"Snap!" There was a snap of fingers. Snape tried to look in the direction of the sound, but the feeling of a foreign object in his palm made him pause. He stretched out his hand and opened his palm. Then, his eyes suddenly widened. A black diamond-shaped stone with the symbol of the Sacred Relic of Death had appeared in his hand. Following another snap from the statue, the stone spun in Snape's palm three times.
At this moment, the male adept heard a slight movement behind him. He turned around, his black robe fluttering in the wind as he stared unblinkingly at the person standing silently behind him. It was the beautiful witch with long crimson hair and almond-shaped green eyes that haunted his dreams and made his heart ache.
"Lily …" The wizard's voice trembled as he called out her name. His greasy hair drooped down as he lowered his head, making him sound like an injured beast groaning in pain. His body leaned forward, his hand extended forward, and his face looked as if he had gone through a hundred years of suffering. His breathing was weak and feeble until the feeling of suffocation made him shake his head violently and sob.
As if he wanted to prove that the person in front of him was not an illusion that would disappear after waking up, his voice trembled and suppressed. "Lily, how I wish … I wish that I was the one who died." Snape's usually cold eyes were now covered by a layer of painful hot fog. His entire body was bent over, as if he could no longer support himself.
"Severus." Lily's green eyes, which were identical to her son's, met Slytherin's eyes. Her voice seemed to have given him unlimited courage. His agitated and pained face immediately lifted, and he stumbled towards Lily, trying to hug her. However, Lily dodged him gently, and he missed.
The sorcerer let himself fall to the ground and turned his head, but Lily had already disappeared in front of him like a mirage. He scrambled forward to hold her back, but all he grabbed was air. He looked down at his hands and realized that the Lifestone in his hands had disappeared.
Snape, who was usually harsh and gloomy, was now kneeling on the ground. The deep-seated regret that had haunted him all his life was pierced through the moment he saw Lily. The arrogance that he used to protect himself and distance himself from others had disappeared. Lily was the only light in his life, and her sudden disappearance had thrown him into confusion. He had completely lost his usual composure. He crawled to face the altar and knelt in front of the statue. "Madam Ravenclaw, please, that Lifestone, that Lily …" The wizard begged hoarsely. "Give it to me. In return, I'll do anything."
However, the altar did not answer him immediately. It looked as if Ravenclaw had already left.
After a while, Ravenclaw's voice broke the stifling silence in the room. "The one who walked out of the Lifestone was not the real Lily, at least not most of it."
The wizard was silent. He knew that Lily was not as real as a living person's body, but she was much more real than a spirit. Her long hair was draped behind her head, and she was wearing the same clothes she was wearing when she died that night.
After a while, Snape's body shrank. "I understand what you mean, wise Madam Ravenclaw. But please, I need that Lifestone. I can give up everything for it."
"You don't have to give up everything." Ravenclaw's calm voice seemed to have a magical power. At this moment, it had a soothing effect. The emotional male wizard felt his breathing become easier. When he began to slowly control his emotions, the statue continued to issue orders. "After the holiday, find my chosen. He will guide you."
In front of the altar that was no longer emitting blue light, Snape, who realized that Ravenclaw had left, suppressed his desire to rush to Allen Harris immediately. Years of experience had taught him to obey orders and endure.
But when he left St. Mungo Magic Hospital, he could not help but stand on the high corridor and look at Allen who was being interviewed by the reporters from afar.
"Someone caught a cold?" Snape narrowed his eyes. In the chaotic crowd, he had just caught a glimpse of a healer handing Allen a few bottles of magic potions. Then he noticed that the Phoenix on Allen's shoulder was rubbing its head against Allen's cheek.
Snape stared at the intimate relationship between Allen and the Phoenix and did not say a word. He was hesitant, but he remembered the word 'chosen one'. He realized that he had been here for so long, but his daily prayers could not compare to one meeting with Allen Harris. The Phoenix and Allen Harris were much more intimate than Dumbledore and Fox. It did not seem like they had met for the first time.
Allen Harris had been assigned to Ravenclaw Academy. In addition, he and Ravenclaw's ghost, Madam Gray had been unscrupulous recently. Since a few years ago, Madam Gray had refused to provide Dumbledore with information about Allen like the other ghosts.
When his father, Owen, sent him to Potter's Muggle Academy, Dumbledore and Snape had completed their investigation. Allen was just an ordinary wizard with some talent and intelligence. However, to their surprise, after entering the Hogwarts, Allen had improved by leaps and bounds. Was it because he had become a Ravenclaw's chosen one?
Snape turned his head and looked at Katie Bell who was watching the interview outside the circle of reporters. He no longer doubted whether Allen and the others could solve the problem of Harry's soul fragments. However, what shocked him even more was that Snape, who was always scheming in the dark, noticed the connection between the series of events. "You … What do you want?"
Snape, who felt like he had fallen into a dream, finally stopped thinking. He teleported back to a suburban street in Kirkworth, a small town in the middle of England. The surrounding area was very dirty and messy. Muggle workers were everywhere on the street, but no one noticed the wizard who had suddenly appeared in front of them out of thin air.
The Soul Eaters and the force of nature created a cold mist that floated above a filthy river. Weeds and trash were everywhere on the riverbank. A huge chimney was left behind in an abandoned mill. It looked very gloomy and ominous. Apart from the murmur of the dark river, the surroundings were deathly silent. There were no signs of life. There was only a fat fox sneaking down the riverbank and skilfully searching for these high-calorie foods from a few leftover wrappers of fish and chips.
This was Kirkworth, the place where Penny Evans, Lily Evans, Severus, and Snape grew up. As the name suggested, it was an industrial town. [Author's Note: The "coke" in "Kirkworth" means "coal".]
When the Dursleys brought Harry to Kirkworth to avoid the letter from the Hogwarts inviting him to join the school, they came to Kirkworth. Perhaps Harry's Uncle Vernon, the Muggle, had a romantic idea. As an industrial town, there was no trace of magic in this place, so the letter would not follow. However, he should have known better. After all, his wife Penny's sister, Lily, had grown up to be a talented witch here.
The alley in front of Snape was a row of dilapidated brick houses. The windows on the houses were dark and lifeless in the night. An old railing separated the river from a narrow cobblestone alley. Snape quickly passed through an alley between the houses and turned into a street that was almost the same. A few street lamps were broken. The wizard's figure was sometimes illuminated by the lights and sometimes shrouded in darkness, just like his mood at the moment.
Snape stopped in front of the last house. This was Spidertail Alley, his hometown.
The Defense Against Black Magic class professor did not try to brew potions to kill time as usual after returning from St. Mungo. Instead, he sat on a frayed sofa in the small living room, thinking about what had just happened. After a long struggle, Snape made up his mind and looked around at the furnishings in the house. The environment, which he usually did not feel uncomfortable in, now felt like a dim, soft-walled prison.
Several walls were filled with books, most of them with old black or brown leather covers. A candle light hung from the ceiling, casting a dim circle of light. In the circle of light were a frayed sofa, an old armchair, and a rickety table. There was a sense of desolation in this place, as if no one usually lived here.
"Lily won't like it..." Snape stood up and went to the desk. He picked up a quill and dipped it in ink. He decided to renovate his old house and replace all the lifeless old furniture. He could order a Mr. Deft for daily chores and house maintenance, and he had to install a wizard TV. He felt that it would be convenient for him to follow Allen Harris and Ravenclaw's movements and obtain enough information to satisfy them. Then, Lily would be able to accompany him here.
"Bless Ravenclaw."
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