The door to the Headmaster's office opened.
A black shadow swept in like a whirlwind.
"Dumbledore."
A bone-chilling male voice echoed through the office. As the figure spoke, the temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees.
"Do not be in such a rush, Severus."
Dumbledore, interrupted from his contemplation, unclasped his hands and made a gesture of invitation.
"Tea or coffee?"
"I am not here to drink tea or coffee with you, Dumbledore." Severus Snape possessed a sallow, gloomy, and inscrutable face. At this moment, covered in frost, his enunciation seemed to carry a wind blowing from a deep abyss—cold, damp, muddy, and biting.
"Tell me, Harry Potter—what exactly happened to him?"
"I do not know."
Dumbledore shook his head slightly. "If you want me to tell you the cause of what happened to Harry, then my answer is: I do not know."
"I cannot understand it, nor can I figure it out..."
"This matter is simply too un-magical. I have recalled the countless books I have read, but there is not a single record of a situation similar to this."
Snape's brow locked tight as he listened to Dumbledore. A dangerous light flickered in the depths of his eyes. His emotions regarding Harry Potter were complex—so complex that even he could not correctly or accurately find a description for them.
It was a composite of guilt, apology, regret, hatred, jealousy, and more; a tangled mess, like an overturned palette where countless colors mixed incessantly, finally turning into a chaos that no one could distinguish.
"However, I can guarantee you one thing, Severus. Harry is in no danger—at least for the moment, that is the case."
"Then what about the future?" Snape spoke slowly.
"No one knows what will happen tomorrow—"
Bang!
Snape walked to the opposite side of the desk, slamming his left hand onto the wooden surface.
"He is Lily's only son. You promised me, you guaranteed me, that you would ensure his safety!"
"Yes, I did say that, and I have not forgotten it, Severus." Dumbledore made a pressing motion with his hand, signaling Snape to sit down.
"But since you are here, I have a very important matter to tell you."
"About him?"
Snape frowned and sat down, a strange feeling suddenly rising in his heart.
"Yes, about Harry. This matter might overturn all your previous perceptions in an instant, but I must tell you that it has already happened and has become reality."
Snape's fists clenched; he stared dead at Dumbledore's half-moon spectacles and the clear blue eyes behind the lenses.
"Perhaps you should drink a mouthful of tea."
Dumbledore waved his finger, and the teapot to the side floated up automatically, pouring a large cup of tea that emitted a bitter aroma for Snape.
"Mandrake nectar and aconite?"
Snape asked suspiciously after smelling the tea. "Why drink this?"
"For your... physical safety."
Dumbledore did not explain much. At his signal, Snape drank more than half the cup in one go. The ingredients in the tea had calming and anesthetic effects, but the dosage was small. As a Potions Master, Snape could determine that this was a tea beverage designed to relax the muscles and calm the spirit.
"Can you speak now?"
Snape slammed the teacup onto the table, waiting for Dumbledore's answer.
"Of course."
Dumbledore sat up straight.
"What I am about to say next is a real, existing fact. Please remain calm. No matter what you hear, please do not get too agitated, Severus."
The two stared at each other in silence for a few seconds before Dumbledore spoke.
"Harry, or rather Harley... she is a girl."
Thud.
It was the muffled sound of Snape's upper body collapsing, his forehead hitting the desktop.
Inhale... Exhale...
He took a deep breath, then pushed against the table to sit up, his face stern.
"Are you certain? Dumbledore?" Snape asked gravely.
"I saw it with my own eyes." Dumbledore nodded. "I thought about it for three whole hours after I returned, but I could not figure out how this happened at all."
"Petunia and Vernon explained their reasoning to me. Although I felt it was odd, I could not produce any evidence to refute it."
Dumbledore briefly recounted the explanation he had heard from Petunia. The story left Snape bewildered.
"So, they believe that Lily hid the child's true gender in order to protect Harley?"
"How is that possible..." Snape waved his hand. "That sounds completely illogical."
"Indeed. That is why I believe there must be something I have not thought of. However, that question is not important. What is important is the current Harley."
"What?"
"Before I tell you everything, Severus, I need you to promise me one thing."
"Is it that serious?" Snape found it somewhat hard to comprehend. Although he was still shocked by the fact that Harley was a girl, he was a man adept at concealing his true emotions; he could barely handle this matter.
"I need you to promise me that whether at Hogwarts or outside, you will not disturb Harley's normal life."
Hearing this, many conjectures flashed through Snape's mind, but he ruled them out one by one.
"Fine. I promise."
Snape nodded in agreement after a moment.
"Then let me show you."
Dumbledore waved his wand, and an ancient stone basin slid out from a cabinet on the side. He placed the tip of his wand against his temple and withdrew a short strand of silver filament.
When the filament fell into the Pensieve, silvery-white smoke rose from the basin, transforming into a cloud resembling a projection screen, displaying Dumbledore's memory upon it.
It was the memory of him and Hagrid going to the Dursleys' home to conduct the admission visit for the two children.
When the memory scene switched from the doorway to the living room and Harley appeared in the frame for the first time, Dumbledore looked toward Snape.
Snape's gaze instantly went blank. The psychological defenses that even Voldemort could not breach collapsed in an instant. His eyes turned red, staring fixedly at the image before him, his rims becoming moist unknowingly.
In that split second, a sorrow so thick it could not be dissolved rolled up from the deepest pool in his heart. But immediately after, the struggle between pain and regret ignited a fire. After leaving behind a scorched mess of black ash, the light of the fire illuminated a hope named 'excitement'.
Snape stood up abruptly from his chair. His black robes billowed without wind. His boiling magic surged outward uncontrollably. The fluttering robes instantly turned into dancing shadows. In that flash, Snape, whose style had completely changed, possessed a dark aura more like a Dark Lord than Voldemort himself.
Yet his expression was the complete opposite of his current terrifying demeanor.
A trace of confusion appeared on his face, followed by joy. As the fire of excitement sprayed forth, two lines of scalding tears slowly rolled down.
"Lily..."
Someone spoke softly. The voice contained a thirst and longing so weak it was at its limit, like a traveler dying in the desert touching the edge of an oasis; in that instant, he even smelled the moisture of water vapor.
"She is not Lily."
A voice pierced the mirage that had turned into an oasis. Dumbledore looked calmly at Snape. "She is Lily's child, but she is not her."
"You must understand this, Severus."
"I..." Snape, whose voice had suddenly become hoarse, spat out a few dry syllables. "I want to go back and calm down."
"Go, but remember what you promised me."
Snape did not answer. He simply wiped away his tears silently and left without looking back.
Laughter seemed to come from outside the Headmaster's office door. In this somewhat hysterical laughter, there was a faint trace of a cry where the tears had run dry.
The sound was like madness, shocking to hear.
Like a bright red [Double Happiness], backlit by white curtains, accompanied by the sound of a suona.
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