Chapter 346

In the slightly chilly potion preparation room, the crucible was steaming with strange color. The "gurgling" sound of liquid boiling echoed in the quiet air.

Snape is squeezing the sleepy beans with the side of the silver knife, with precise, subtle and one-step action.

On the side of the potion preparation room, Maka lay on her side on a hospital bed that had never been used, with one hand gently resting on a small hourglass.

This is an hourglass with a time of only 5 seconds. Every 5 seconds, he turns the hourglass over and makes a brittle sound like broken chopsticks.

"... click... Click..."

"... click."

"A quarter of a second slower."

Snape didn't look back, but his voice suddenly sounded in the quiet space, low and cold, full of a kind of boredom.

"Yes."

Maka answered softly, and the ending seemed to tremble with a trace of instability.

"Click."

The silence continues.

Probably when the "click" sound sounded about ten times again, Maka suddenly smiled.

"Professor Snape, do you know 'harassment gadfly'?"

"What?" snape said casually.

"Harass the gadfly," said Maka, turning the hourglass over again. "'it is a creature invisible to the eyes, which will float into people's ears and confuse people's brains'..."

"Never heard of it," snape replied quite simply.

"Haven't you read sing the opposite tune? That magazine is very interesting..."

Snape cleaned and wiped the silver knife, put it back in the tool box, and then walked to the boiling crucible.

"Never heard of it."

He said as he walked, even the content of the answer was not bad.

"Come on, the professor's words are always so dry. It's easy to make people sleepy..."

There was another silence.

After a few more clicks, Snape dripped the juice squeezed from the sleepy beans into the crucible, emitting a few wisps of light white smoke.

"... once."

"Huh?"

Hearing Snape's sudden opening, Marca's hand about to turn the hourglass paused.

"Once upon a time, there was a boy who lived on the outskirts of a shabby town. There were low old houses everywhere, broken and few people..."

"The boy's parents are terrible... His mother is a little better, but still very bad. They quarrel from time to time and never look at the time and place..."

"Well, it's worse for my father, because he picks it up every time... Sometimes he beats my mother, which is really bad..."

"So the boy has been ignored... The family has no temperature."

"But one day, he saw a girl in a waste park on the outskirts of the city..."

Snape's cold voice hovered in the air, as if he were really telling a story that had nothing to do with him. But Marca knew that the protagonist of the story was Snape himself.

"The boy fell in love with the girl at the first sight, because he could feel that the girl was as smart, calm and full of curiosity as himself..."

"So the boys and girls met. They naturally came together and made friends. They often played together in the ragged suburbs, lying by the river, listening to the sound of water and looking at the clear sky."

"Well, that shabby suburb..." snape seemed to recall, and there was a little warmth in his cold tone. "That suburb is really shabby. There is nothing. The facilities in the park are still bad, and none of them can be used."

"But the river is very reassuring. It is covered with grass, and you can see the town from a distance... The girl often says, 'the big chimney in the town never emits smoke. What is it for?'

He spoke faintly, and even his voice became soft. However, this rare softness soon disappeared.

"If..."

His voice suddenly cooled and became particularly abrupt.

"If a man meets the child of a woman he once liked and still likes... What do you think the man should do?"

Because this problem came too suddenly, in a little stunned, Maka's originally dizzy brain suddenly woke up a lot.

To say that "man" in Snape's mouth undoubtedly refers to himself.

However, how to answer this question?

Marca thought of Harry for the first time, and then thought of Harry's mother, the little girl in the story, lily.

In the end, he thought of Luna, who was still at Hogwarts castle.

If this happened to him... No, he found himself unable to imagine... Or he didn't want to think at all.

What kind of life Snape has lived all these years!

We should not only face lovelorn, but also face the death of cherished people, and even protect the sons of the women we like and other men.

And this kind of feeling, he just can't let go of it, and it has lasted until now.

In order to show respect for this heavy love, Maka forced herself to put herself in a position, and then sighed gently.

"... anyway, that child... Is a part of the person you love..."

Maka finally understood why Snape had always had that dry tone. Because his voice is almost the same now. He is also so dry and not angry at all.

In fact, if Maka was in that situation, I'm afraid it would be the same feeling! He was always entangled by his contradictory psychology and could not be liberated for a moment.

Just as Snape never had a good face for Harry... In addition to acting for Voldemort, perhaps the pain of love and hate is one of the reasons.

"Part of her... Is that true..." snape said with his back to Marca, stunned, "it's true!"

The voice settled quietly. In the sound of "clicking" again and again, both of them felt a little depressed. It's like something's blocking up your chest. People can't help but want to breathe.

"That child... Is it called 'Harry Potter'?"

Maka suddenly felt that he had to say something. After all, Snape suddenly talked about it here. Although he didn't say it clearly, it was really a disguised pouring out.

You know, with Snape's awkward character, it's not easy to do this step. This man, who has been depressed for too long, needs an opportunity to vent.

And Maka is willing to provide him with this opportunity.

But Maka didn't expect that Snape was surprisingly calm at the moment.

"You know?" his tone didn't seem to have much surprise. "Did Dumbledore tell you?"

When Marca heard this, she just wanted to push it on Dumbledore - because that's what he was going to do.

However, at that moment, he was suddenly stunned.

"Rivers... Low houses... Big chimneys?"

Words flashed through his mind one by one, and a picture in his memory was rediscovered and made clear bit by bit.

It should be right, that's the one... But why? What is the truth?

There seems to be a lack of a key point to connect the front and back!

"No," murmured Marca, "it's a picture you told me."

"What?"

Snape turned back and frowned slightly.

"What picture?"

"A Muggle photo." Maka gradually regained consciousness, his face full of incomprehension. "Yes, a black-and-white photo taken by a Muggle camera."

"What's going on?" snape asked hastily as he walked quickly to the hospital bed.

Maka glanced at Snape and soon realized what Snape was worried about.

"No, it's not what you think..." he said immediately. "That picture has nothing to do with Harry's mother."

He didn't even think about it clearly. Just now, he was a little slow in thinking because of the magic medicine in his body, which made him speak out involuntarily.

"Well... Wait a minute, I just thought... Let me tidy up my thoughts first."

After that, Marca frowned and thought.

Snape stood by the hospital bed, looking a little impatient, but when he looked at Marca a more, he forced himself to calm down.

He knows very well how bad Marca is now. In this case, he can't ask too much of Maka.

In fact, Snape has long recognized Maka as a "precocious" teenager who is both a student and a friend. Otherwise, he could not have told his story in a roundabout way just now.

So the potion preparation room was quiet again.

After a long time, Maka finally breathed out, but his eyebrows frowned tighter.

"Professor, is your mother with long black hair?"

In Snape's anxious look, Maka didn't immediately explain, but first threw out an inexplicable question.

"... yes," snape said suspiciously, "why do you ask this?"

"Is the skin very white and a pair of black eyes?"

"That's right," snape said impatiently. "So why do you ask? You see a picture of my mother?"

"No, maybe your father..." Marca hesitated. "Dark short curly hair, tall, thin, straight face... And a little double chin?"

"That's it?" snape said hastily. "Although I don't know where you saw my parents' photos, does this have anything to do with the question I just asked?"

"Background, the background of that picture is the same as what you described!" Maka said weakly. "Especially the big chimney... Probably no one who has seen it carefully will forget it."

"So, I have one last question --"

He paused and raised the volume a little.

"Professor, do you have... Sister?"