"Because she is also an inheritor of Ancient Magic, Harry," Villatia spoke softly and gently, "Go and see the memories belonging to your mother, perhaps you will understand the course of all these events... Of course, you might blame me because of it..."
"I won't, Vivi," Harry said confidently.
He took steps forward and approached the Meditation Basin.
"Take a look," Villatia's voice was tinged with sadness, "see your mother's memories..."
Harry nodded and leaned his face into the Meditation Basin.
Then—
He found himself rapidly spinning downward through a cold darkness, and soon, the view before him brightened suddenly.
He discovered that he was on the shore of the Black Lake, sitting beside him was a crying girl whose face was covered in freckles.
Harry raised his head and surveyed the familiar Black Lake, realizing it looked different from the Black Lake he remembered back then...
Before he could think more, he heard a familiar voice, that voice often heard in dreams...
"Expelliarmus!"
Harry looked up and saw a red-haired witch holding a magic wand in each hand.
It was his mother, Lily.
"Mom?" he instinctively spoke.
Lily did not respond to him, instead, she glared at the Slytherin classmates ahead like a lioness.
"I want you to apologize, Museber!"
"Smelly Mudblood..."
The Slytherin student named Museber couldn't finish his sentence before Lily's Magic Spell hit him, causing a cluster of blue-green boils to sprout on his face.
Two other Slytherin classmates beside Museber drew their magic wands, but the girl who was crying earlier stood beside Lily with another girl.
The Museber on Slytherin's side lost his ability to fight, and soon, under the just three-against-two, the other two Slytherin students were also struck by Evil Curse—one's front teeth grew so long that he couldn't pronounce a spell; the other's mouth was sealed tightly, and his legs were locked.
"Trash..." Lily disdainfully threw Museber's wand into the lake.
The three Slytherin students fled in shame.
"Mary, I'm sorry..." Lily looked sympathetically at the girl beside her whose face was covered in freckles.
"I'm alright, Lily." Mary forced a smile at Lily, "You helped me teach them a lesson anyway, didn't you?"
But the girl next to her suddenly said, "You should apologize, these two are friends with your Slytherin greasy-haired friend, aren't they? How could you still hang around with people like them, look, they're Death Eaters. Could it be in the future..."
"Marlin!" Mary stopped Marlin McKinnon quietly.
"Oh, sorry." Marlin realized she had said the wrong thing and apologized to Lily with a smile.
Lily stood awkwardly, knowing that those two people were friends of Severus Snape...
But Severus, he was her childhood friend.
She knew Severus always aimed to join the Death Eaters—a blood supremacist group, yet she still cared about her childhood feelings with Severus, wishing to persuade him to change his ways.
But unfortunately, it was always in vain. Severus seemed resolute, red-eyed, diving into the depths of the Death Eaters, even studying Dark Magic, and inviting her along...
She stood blankly in place, and when she regained her senses, Mary and Marlin had already left.
Lily raised her head, glanced at the sun hanging in the sky, and sniffled hard.
After sighing, she walked forward.
Harry quickly followed; he wanted to stay with his mom for a while longer.
Following the lakeside, Harry walked with his mother to a tall beech tree where a circle of people gathered.
Unexpectedly, once they squeezed in, he saw individuals he had seen in photographs.
One person looked a lot like him, except for the difference in eye color, he was almost a replica of Harry in fifth grade.
It was his dad, James Potter.
Opposing James was someone even harder for him to forget—
The Professor of Potions, Severus Snape.
Snape's mouth was filled with soap bubbles, constantly vomiting pink suds—Harry instantly understood why when casting Cleaned Up at Draco earlier, Professor McGonagall said, 'If Professor Snape caught you, it would be a different ending.'
"Let him go!" Lily shouted.
James suddenly turned his head upon hearing Lily's voice, his demeanor instantly deepening and becoming melancholy, greeting her in a steady bubbly tone, "Oh, Evans—how are you?"
"Let him go," Lily repeated. She looked at James, showing intense disgust throughout. "What did he do to provoke you?"
"Well..." James adopted a thoughtful posture, "It's mainly his existence, you understand my meaning..."
Many observing students laughed loudly, a tall, handsome boy next to James also laughed, while a shorter boy behind him chuckled along, but Lily did not smile.
"You think yourself quite funny," she said coldly, "but you're just an arrogant, rude, bully, Potter... I said, let him go!"
"If you agree to go out with me, I'll let him go, Evans," James immediately said, "Agree to go out with me and I'll never use my magic wand on Old Snot Spirit again..."
Behind him, the Obstacle Curse was gradually weakening.
Snape began crawling towards his fallen wand, vomiting bubbly suds as he moved.
"Even if I had to choose between you and the giant squid, I wouldn't go out with you!" Lily said disgustedly.
"Bad luck, Prongs," the handsome boy said cheerfully, he turned to Snape, "ooh!"
But it was too late, Snape had already aimed his wand straight at James, and a flash appeared, causing a deep wound on James's cheek, blood splattering his robe.
James spun around violently, after the second flash, Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robe falling over his head, exposing bony pale legs and underwear nearly turning black.
In the small group of people nearby, many were cheering; James and his two friends burst into laughter.
Lily's cheeks twitched; from Harry's perspective, Lily seemed to emit a cold snort.
But...
Seeing Snape's predicament, Harry truly didn't find it amusing.
(J.K. Rowling's X, @jk_rowling, don't take it out on me if you have complaints)
Snape's experience reminded him of the time at Muggle School when Dudley and his gang bullied him.
He too was helplessly curled in the center of an observing crowd.
The most difficult thing in the world is to truly empathize.
"Put him down!" Lily shouted again, drawing his wand.
"Hey, don't push me to use Evil Curse on you, Evans!"
James warned but still turned to counter Snape.
"Leave, Snot Spirit." James sighed, "You're lucky Evans is here..."
However, Snape suddenly interrupted James with words.
"I don't need help from a smelly little Mudblood like her!"
Harry slapped his forehead.
He understood, completely understood.
Why, when entering school, the made-up story would provoke such a strong reaction from Professor Snape, including deducting twenty points from his house...
Professor Snape's furious face at the time overlapped with Snape's gloomy face now.
It seems... at that moment he was regretting saying the words he uttered now...
(For those who don't understand the hurtful impact of Snape's words, let me use an example—when you help a Chinese-Japanese Mixed Blood oppressed by Japanese, and he responds, "I don't need help from a smelly little CN pig like you," all I can say is Lily's character was too high, she didn't give him a Crucio.)