Harry returns from Hogwarts Legacy

Chapter 394 Lily's Memories

Harry sat obediently in place, with no intention of provoking Snape.

Looking up, Harry saw a fish tank on Snape's table.

The fish tank was empty, with only a few decorative stones and some aquatic plants.

Where are the fish in the tank?
Thinking of asking Snape, she found him rummaging through something.

Harry decided to ask later.

Soon, Snape found the potions he wanted to give to Professor McGonagall, and he placed the bottles in front of Harry.

Perhaps it wasn't a potion at all, but a clear liquid, with a pupa-like thing inside each bottle.

Seemingly sensing Harry's confusion, Snape spoke slowly.

“This is dew that has not been exposed to sunlight or human contact for seven days,” he said. “It contains the pupae of the ghost-faced hawk moth.”

Harry immediately figured out what this thing was for.

“Animagus?” he asked.

“Yes,” Snape said slowly. “Now you can take these things and go back to Professor McGonagall to report.”

Harry put away the potion, but showed no intention of leaving.

Snape's face darkened.

Or rather, his face never seemed sunny.

"Is there anything else?" he asked.

“Professor,” Harry asked, pointing to the fish tank on the table, “I’m curious, where are the fish in that tank?”

Snape's face darkened further.

He seemed to recall some painful memory, and even this master of Occlumency couldn't help but have his pupils twitch a few times.

Harry noticed that Snape seemed to be hesitating about whether to speak or not, but in the end, Snape did speak.

“This was a gift from someone,” Snape said softly, glancing at the fish tank. “There used to be a little fish living in there, but one day, that little fish…”

Seeing that Snape couldn't continue, Harry began to understand what was going on.

"It was created by magic, right?" he asked. "The person who cast the spell died, so the little fish disappeared, right?"

Snape snorted heavily through his nose.

The fact that Snape valued the fish tank so much made Harry realize, even without thinking, who gave it to him.

Besides his mother Lily, who else could it be?
“By the way, Professor,” Harry tried to change the subject, “I remember my aunt seems to know you? She sent me a picture of you and my mother when I was in first year. You were neighbors, weren’t you?”

"Oh, your aunt."

When Penny was mentioned, a cold smile appeared on Snape's lips.

“No,” he said slowly. “They live not far from Spider's End Alley. Well, you’ve got what you wanted. Now, take your potion and leave my house—”

“One last question, Professor,” Harry said hastily, “—Do you know Aunt Petunia? Why does Aunt Petunia’s expression not look good when my mother is mentioned?”

To his surprise, Snape completely ignored him.

"Or is it that my mother did something to hurt her?" Harry asked again.

He actually wanted to let Aunt Penny meet his mother when he got the Resurrection Stone, so that the two sisters could perhaps mend their relationship.

If Mom has ever done something to hurt Aunt Penny, then... that's going to be a bit tricky.

It would have been better if he hadn't said anything, because once he did, Snape's face became even more gloomy.

He stepped forward and, with a gloomy expression, slapped the potion bottles into Harry's arms.

"Get out!" he said, enunciating each word clearly.

Then Snape turned away and never looked at Harry again.

Harry scratched his head. What was wrong with Professor Snape? Why was he so angry?
With these questions in mind, Harry took the potion bottle and left Snape's house.

After Harry left, Snape quickly closed the doors and windows, sat down in a chair, and stared at the fish tank for a long time, lost in thought.

After giving the items to Professor McGonagall, Harry returned to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place and saw Vivi leaning against the sofa, lost in thought.

Upon seeing Harry, Vivi waved and greeted him.

"Hi," she said with a smile, "Where did you go? Why are you only just getting back?"

“I went to Professor Snape’s house.” Harry sat down on Vivi’s lap with some regret, casually touching her shapely thighs. “Professor McGonagall asked me to get her some Animagus potion for transformation.”

"Then why are you like this?" Vivi lifted her leg slightly, trapping Harry's hands above and below hers. "You look like a kid who didn't get a flying broomstick."

“Ah…” Harry scratched his head and said, “I was going to ask Professor Snape why my mother and Aunt Petunia’s relationship was so strained. After all, you know, they’ve known each other since they were little. I thought he might know the reason.”

"Why would you ask Professor Snape?" Vivi looked at Harry with amusement. She really couldn't understand why her boyfriend would go after Professor Snape in this way.

Isn’t this why the pot should be lifted if it is not opened?

“This breaks the curse of the Resurrection Stone,” Harry said. “So I was thinking of having Aunt Petunia use the Resurrection Stone to see Mom. I think we need to help them resolve their differences, don’t you think?”

“Oh…I see.” Vivi smiled and said, “I know about this. Wait a moment…please wait for me.”

After saying that, she disappeared from the spot, and a moment later, she placed a meditation bowl on the table.

"If you want to know, there is actually one here—I suggest you look at what the people involved think, rather than an outsider like Professor Snape... After all, he doesn't know what exactly happened when Lily and Petunia met in private."

"Is that so?" Harry nodded, then looked up at Vivi suspiciously. "How come you have everything?"

“Oh, this…” Vivi lowered her head, her unseen toes lightly tapping the ground, “This is what I asked Lily to leave behind, so you can learn more about your mother…”

“If you had said that sooner, I wouldn’t have been mocked by Professor Snape like that!” Harry snorted. “Not to mention the look in his eyes—he clearly wanted to stuff me into a cauldron and boil me into a potion!”

He looked down at the Pensieve, where memories swirled, silvery-white in color and strangely shaped, like ink dissolving in water, in wispy strands.

“Let’s take a look together,” Vivi suggested. “I also want to see my best student’s memories from when he was young.” “Yes, your best ‘student’,” Harry emphasized the word ‘student’. “So, your boyfriend is your student’s child, isn’t that a little… strange?”

“We knew each other first, you ungrateful brat!” Vivi reached out and pinched Harry’s cheek. “Besides, even if I had known you would be my student’s child, I still wouldn’t have let you get away with this!”

"Wow, is that really so weird!" Harry exclaimed dramatically.

Immediately afterwards, he felt a gentle slap on his forehead.

"Don't talk nonsense!" Vivi snorted. "Let's take a look at Lily's memories first."

“Okay.” Harry nodded and joined Vivi in ​​the Pensieve meditation.

Then he felt himself fall headfirst into the sunlight, and soon he and Vivi were standing on warm earth.

He straightened up and found himself in an almost deserted amusement park, with a huge chimney towering prominently in the distant sky.

Nearby, two girls were swinging on a swing, while a thin boy watched them from behind a bush.

The boy had long black hair, and his clothes were extremely mismatched, as if he had dressed deliberately: a pair of jeans that were too short, a big and long, worn-out coat that looked like an adult's, and a strange-looking shirt that resembled a maternity dress.

This must be Professor Snape when he was a child, right?
“This must be Professor Snape,” Vivi said, suppressing a laugh. “Look, he looks almost exactly the same, except he’s a bit shorter and thinner, he’s practically a carbon copy of Snape.”

“It’s definitely him,” Harry nodded, glancing at Professor Snape’s greasy, tangled hair, and couldn’t help but chuckle. “Look, he doesn’t seem to have ever washed his hair since he was a child.”

With this confirmation, the two approached the boy.

Snape looked to be about nine or ten years old at the time, with a sallow complexion, short stature, and a lean build. He watched as the smaller girl swung higher and higher on the swing than the larger one, and an undisguised longing appeared on his thin face.

“I can see that,” Harry said with a sigh. “Professor Snape… longed for this kind of freedom.”

"Lily, stop!" the older girl screamed.

However, when the little girl swung to its highest point on the swing, she let go and flew into the air. She really did fly, laughing and soaring into the sky.

She didn't crash heavily onto the asphalt of the playground, but instead glided through the air like an acrobat, lingering for a long time before finally landing very lightly on the ground.

Harry immediately recognized the older girl as his aunt Petunia and the younger girl as his mother, Lily.

"Your mother told you not to do that!"

Penny stopped the swing by scraping her heels on the ground with a sharp, grating sound, then she jumped up and put her hands on her hips.

"Mom said you're not allowed to do that, Lily!"

“But I’m fine,” Lily said, still giggling. “Penny, look at this—watch me do it.”

Penny looked around; the empty playground contained only the two of them, and of course, Snape, though the girls didn't know it. Lily picked up a withered flower from the bushes where Snape was hiding.

Penny walked up, looking both curious and dissatisfied, her heart filled with conflicting emotions.

When Lily waited until Penny got closer and could see clearly, she opened her hand. The petals in her palm kept opening and closing, like some strange, multi-layered mollusk opening its shell.

“Don’t do this!” Penny screamed.

“I didn’t do anything to you,” Lily said, but she still crumpled the flower into a ball and threw it on the ground.

“This isn’t right,” Penny said, but her gaze followed the fallen flower and lingered on it for a long time. “How did you do it?” she asked again, her voice filled with barely concealed longing.

Harry turned around, intending to say something to Vivi, but to his surprise, Vivi was staring at Petunia with a shifty look in her eyes.

Harry, with his high emotional intelligence, knew that Vivi was probably thinking about her Squib days back then. Perhaps at that time, when she watched her sisters riding flying brooms around Nurmengard without any restraint, she was extremely envious.
He reached out and put his arm around Vivi's slender waist, without saying a word, just quietly keeping her company.

Vivi also sensed her boyfriend's feelings, and she reached out and held the hand that was pressing against her waist.

"Isn't it obvious?" Snape could no longer contain himself and jumped out from behind the bushes.

Penny screamed, turned around and ran off on the swing. Lily was obviously startled too, but stayed where she was.

Snape seemed to regret his sudden appearance. He looked at Lily, a faint blush rising on his ashen cheeks.

“What’s so clear?” Lily asked.

Snape appeared both nervous and excited. He glanced at Penny, who was lingering by the swings in the distance, and said in a low voice, "I know who you are."

"What do you mean?"

“You are…you are a witch,” Snape said softly.

Lily looked as if she had been insulted.

"It's very impolite to say that to others!"

She turned around, tilted her head back, and strode towards her sister.

“No!” said Snape. His face had turned bright red, and Harry couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t take off that ridiculously oversized coat, unless it was because he didn’t want to reveal the maternity clothes underneath.

He chased after the two girls, his comical appearance resembling a bat, just like his adult self.

The two sisters scrutinized him with equally disapproving looks, each clinging to a swing post as if it were a safe zone in a tag game.

“You are,” Snape said to Lily. “You are a witch. I’ve been watching you for a while—there’s nothing wrong with that. My mother was a witch, and I am a wizard.”

Penny's laughter was like cold water.

"Witch!" she screamed. The boy's sudden appearance had startled her, but now she had regained her composure and her courage had returned.

“I know who you are—you’re the Snape boy! They live in Spider’s Tail by the river,” she told Lily, her tone clearly indicating that she considered it a sleazy place. “Why were you spying on us?”

“I didn’t peek,” Snape said, his hair looking dirty in the bright sunlight, his voice trembling with excitement and unease. “I certainly didn’t want to peek at you,” he continued dismissively. “You’re a Muggle.”

Penny clearly didn't understand the meaning of the word, but she certainly understood his tone.

"Lily, hurry, let's go!" she cried out.

Lily immediately obeyed her sister's words and left, but her eyes were still fixed on Snape.

“I think I know,” Harry said to Vivi, seemingly enlightened. “That’s why Professor Snape’s expression wasn’t so good when Aunt Petunia was mentioned.”

(End of this chapter)