Chapter 678 Other People's Christmas
Snape's dark eyes fell on the face of the middle-aged woman, and he subconsciously looked for traces of Lily in this face. They were sisters of the same blood, and inevitably had some similarities.
But he couldn't imagine what Lily looked like at this age, so naturally he couldn't see the familiar shadow in Petunia, including those eyes.
"Long time no see, Petunia Evans, or should I call you now... Mrs. Dursley."
The low voice of greeting swirled in the cold wind of winter, pulling people's memories back. After decades, Petunia 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 sisters of the Evans family broke into the playground where there were almost no people to swing.
With the help of the power called magic, Lily let go of her hands when the swing reached the highest point and flew into the air, laughing happily and jumping into the sky. She did not fall heavily on the asphalt, but glided in the air like a bird with her arms open, lingering in the air for a long time, and finally landed lightly.
"Lily, don't do this! Mom told you not to do this!" The sister next to her repeated these words, and because of some inexplicable emotions, 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?" Petunia said this with unstoppable envy in her eyes.
"I don't know either."
Just as the two sisters were talking, a boy jumped out from nowhere, wearing strange clothes, with dirty hair, malnourished, and lacking manners:
"Isn't this very clear? You are a witch."
...
A gust of cold wind blew from the streets of Privet Drive, and behind this door, the Dursleys' dinner food exuded a faint fragrance.
Even without using Legilimency, Snape could still tell what flashed through the middle-aged woman's mind. He remembered what she looked like when she was young.
At that time, she was not Mrs. Dursley. Her name was Petunia Evans. She longed for magic in her heart, but she showed disdain and even some hatred on her face. 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 are the little boy from Snape's family, living in Spinner's End, that dirty place by the river!"
"..."
"Bad guy, liar! There is no Hogwarts at all!"
"..."
"What are you wearing? Is it your mother's clothes? So funny!"
"..."
"You don't need to find Dumbledore, Lily! Do you think I want to go to some ridiculous castle and learn to be... a monster?"
"Hogwarts? That's where you are going, a school for monsters. You and the boy named Snape... freaks, both of you are freaks. Fortunately, you are separated from ordinary people. It's for our safety."
"You think I want to be a monster?"
"Write a letter to the headmaster?"
"I didn't! I didn't ask him!"
"Did you peek at my letter?"
" That's my privacy, how could you!"
"You two monsters sneaked into my room!"
"Monsters!"
"..."
In Snape's memory, Petunia was always irritable and mean, and her jealousy of her sister twisted into hatred for wizards and magic, including insults and curses against herself. But now, looking back, after a long time, all the impressions have become a little distorted, and finally only converged into Lily's exclamation-"She is my sister!"
Petunia showed a horrified expression, holding the door handle tightly with both hands, and asked in a trembling voice with a tough tone: "How did you find this place, what are you doing here?!"
"Relax, Mrs. Dursley, I'm here to get some things."
"What?"
"Some memories, memories of Lily's childhood."
Snape's voice was very light, as if snowflakes fell on the ground, silently.
Petunia's eyes gradually lost focus, her expression slowly dulled, and she fell into a state of unconsciousness. She seemed to have a dream, an ordinary dream, in which Snape asked if she had any wishes.
She said she wanted a sumptuous Christmas dinner. She had prepared too many ingredients and some of them were too much to handle.
She said she wanted Dudley to lose weight because the teacher at school said he was overweight.
She said she wanted Vernon to be healthy because he had fatty liver in a physical examination some time ago.
"..."
A few minutes later, the cold wind blew a few snowflakes onto Petunia'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.
Petunia looked around. There were only snowflakes falling on the empty streets, and no one was around. She frowned, suspecting that she was too tired and had hallucinations.
After closing the door and returning to the kitchen, Petunia was surprised to find that all the ingredients had been processed. The fruits and vegetables were cut into the most standard size and neatly stacked on the chopping board. The turkey and steaks that needed to be marinated had already shown the most suitable color.
Petunia raised her hand to rub her eyes, and found that something had appeared in her hand without knowing when -
A transparent glass medicine bottle.
...
Godric's Hollow.
The golden street lights were on, the Christmas decorations between the houses and shops were shining, the villagers came and went, and the laughter was heard one after another. No one noticed that a mysterious man in a black robe and a hood hurried past, leaving no footprints on the snow.
Crossing the alley, walking along the street, passing several shops, Snape came to a small church. The stained glass was shining like jewels, and there were some echoes of carols inside. In the open space in front of the church, there was an obelisk with names engraved on it.
When Snape passed by, the obelisk turned into a statue of three people: a man with messy hair, a sloppy and disgusting appearance, a woman with long hair and beautiful appearance, and a baby.
Snape didn't want to look at the two people next to him, but he still caught a glimpse of the annoying baby from the corner of his eye. At that time, there was no lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.
Arriving at the back of the church, passing through a narrow door and walking along the path, rows of cold and hard tombstones came into view.
Snowflakes fell on the ground, as if a layer of silver carpet was laid. Only a few bushes that emerged were also bare and frozen. The stained glass of the church cast colorful spots on the silver carpet, adding a bit of softness to the dark and silent cemetery and reducing the cold breath of death.
Snape stopped and waited.
Waiting for the snow in the cemetery to get thicker, waiting for the sound of the hymns 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...
The last one was the Potter family, which was engraved with:
"Lily Potter
Born on January 30, 1960
Died on October 31, 1981"
The cold air at the end of December rushed into his lungs, and Snape heard the sound of his heart beating at a steady speed. There was no sadness as expected, nor any violent emotional fluctuations. He just felt that the temperature here was too cold.
"I've been to see your sister. She's now a fool..." Snape paused, and finally didn't say anything derogatory. "She's become a housewife. I asked her if she had any wishes, and she only thought about the two fat pigs, and she didn't have the cleverness she had when she was a child..."
"I left her a bottle of medicine with toad feces in it." His voice relaxed a little, "Second-year knowledge of Potions, you know, can calm the excessive appetite of the Dursleys..."
"Voldemort used his father's bones, his enemy's blood, and his servants' flesh as materials for resurrection. I don't think you can accept it, so he improved the resurrection ceremony, which is cleaner and has no negative effects of dark magic..."
"I won't let you wait too long."
The falling snow fell on the black robe and hood, like a pure white fluffy scarf. Snape felt the cold gradually penetrate 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.
The grave behind cracked open a crack, a small wisp of dust rose into the air in response to the call, and then fell into a transparent glass bottle.
…
No. 12, Grimmauld Place, the basement kitchen of the old Black House.
“Tonks’s Patronus has turned into a wolf? Has it really turned into a wolf?”
“If you ask again, I will put this cabbage in your mouth, take a picture and use a developing solution to develop it. Your child will see this photo when he is born.” Lupin gestured with the cabbage in his hand a few times, his voice was a little annoyed, contrary to his usual gentle appearance.
“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 Patronuses changing in the past. Do you want to listen?”
“Whether it’s Charms or History of Magic, my grades are better than yours.”
“Hey, the Black family has more books, and I can find more cases.”
“Thank you, but no!” Lupin cut the cabbage in his hand viciously.
"Okay, I'll go talk to Tonks later. Maybe she's more interested in these cases."
"..."
Lupin clenched the knife in his hand, with a dangerous light flashing in his eyes.
Sirius quickly pursed his lips to indicate that he would stop talking, but he only persisted for a few minutes. Not long after, he began to talk about the Patronus Charm again.
George and Fred sat in front of the fireplace, lighting the tail hair of the vixen with interest, waiting for the unpleasant and disgusting smell to float out, and then frantically slapping the air, fearing that their mother would smell it.
Bill and Fleur, who were sitting not far away, were discussing future matters, 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 fluttering skirt of a ballerina spinning.
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 Mrs. Black, like the portrait of an ordinary family elder. From the morning, the whole day was very quiet, no screaming, no cursing, no hysteria.
Snowflakes fell quietly outside the window, and the holiday broadcast of Celestina Warbeck echoed in the room, and the song flowed out from the radio.
It's Christmas again.
…
"Here, beer."
Hannah Abbott said softly, reluctantly putting a glass of beer on the table, smelling the strong smell of alcohol, and couldn't help wrinkling her nose.
Old Tom took the beer and took a big sip, exhaled comfortably, and the wrinkles on his face were stretched out.
The Leaky Cauldron has a special geographical location. The door is the Muggle street, and the back leads to Diagon Alley, which is next to Knockturn Alley. The situation in the wizarding world is getting more and more tense, and fewer and fewer guests come here to drink and chat. Relatives and friends see that the bar owner is getting more and more haggard, so they hold a Christmas party here.
At this time, the Leaky Cauldron was crowded with people, and all of Old Tom's relatives and friends were here.
Hannah, as a relative, came to the party with her mother. She didn't like drinking, so she served as a waiter, and together with several other underage juniors, she was responsible for pouring wine for the guests.
The old customers who had maintained the relationship for decades drank and chatted, played cards and laughed, and boasted about their deeds when they were young.
The Leaky Cauldron hadn't been so lively for a long time.
"I almost won the Quidditch World Cup that year!"
"Come on, you didn't even play on the bench."
"So you almost did!"
Hannah leaned against the bar, listening to these old wizards quarreling, and felt that this was no different from the Christmas party at Hogwarts. They also laughed like this at the long table of the college.
The lights in the bar were on until late at night. These old wizards were all drunk and red-faced. Some of them were already lying on the table unconsciously, and the rest were still quarreling.
"When I graduated, many girls wrote me love letters..."
"Bullshit! It was you who wrote love letters to others, but Peeves found them in the bathroom the next day and read them 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 his head and looked at his family and burped: "I have 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?"
The relatives were all stunned.
Hannah looked at this elderly relative, and he smiled ugly.