"You agreed? This is wonderful! Link, you have no idea how wise this decision is!"
Beckman practically screamed the words.
Waving his arms, he kept announcing Link's decision to the surrounding students and professors.
This carried enormous significance for everyone.
Because Link's willingness to stay at Durmstrang for a while meant he was willing to accept the pure-blood and mixed-blood wizard families represented by the Durmstrang students.
This was exactly what everyone wanted.
For a moment, the entire crowd erupted.
Cheers and applause nearly echoed through the entire underground plaza.
Amid the excited crowd surrounding him, however, Link turned his gaze toward Hogwarts.
His brows were slightly furrowed, and there was a trace of worry in his eyes.
———
[In The Underground Office At Hogwarts]
Snape sat alone at his workbench. His expression was blank, but his eyes were filled with bloodshot veins.
In front of him lay the "spatial anchor point" Harry had brought earlier.
For the entire previous night, Snape had been studying it.
The research had no clear purpose.
Because even Snape himself didn't know what he wanted to find.
Perhaps he wanted to discover that the spatial anchor point in his hand was fake and that this had all been a prank from the beginning?
Or perhaps he wanted to find out who was behind all this so he could drag out the person who had misled Harry and beat them senseless?
Snape didn't know.
And he had discovered nothing.
The spatial anchor point still sat there exactly as before.
The only thing Snape had learned was that it was a breakthrough device used in a spatial transportation system.
If placed inside the Hogwarts Headmaster's Office, it could break through Hogwarts' anti-Apparition spell (improved version) and teleport certain people inside.
No matter who those people were.
Harry was definitely making a terrible mistake.
Since his research on the spatial anchor point had produced nothing, the problem before Snape had returned to its most basic form.
Should he help Harry or not?
A nauseating smell of roasted meat was spreading through the underground office.
The smell came from the Hogwarts kitchen.
Hogwarts Castle didn't have a fresh-air system as advanced as Durmstrang's.
The kitchen was underground just like Snape's office, sharing the same ventilation and exhaust system. Naturally, the kitchen's smells drifted into Snape's office.
It was a very unpleasant experience.
Food aromas that might have smelled decent normally often became disgusting after passing through the exhaust ducts.
But the appearance of those smells also meant it was already noon.
"Haa..."
Snape let out a long sigh.
He gripped his hair tightly. The redness in his eyes had spread to the swollen bags beneath them.
To be honest, after teaching at Hogwarts for more than ten years, he had developed feelings for the school.
The students were troublesome and sometimes even played pranks on him.
But at least when he was with them, Snape didn't have to think about so many things. He didn't have to deal with the scheming and calculations involved in facing Dumbledore and Voldemort.
Those were some of the few moments when he could relax.
What's more, in a sense, Hogwarts now belonged to Link.
And his relationship with Link was so close.
Because of that, if anyone else had come asking him to place the spatial anchor point in the Headmaster's Office, he would have refused without hesitation.
And then he would have arrested that person, beaten them half to death, and handed them over to Link and Dumbledore.
But the problem was that the person who had made the request was Harry Potter.
"Potter! He must have lost his mind!", Snape cursed viciously.
He couldn't think of any other explanation.
He even suspected that Harry Potter had never realized what consequences his actions would bring.
Perhaps Harry Potter thought it was a small matter?
That because of his relationship with Link, he wouldn't receive any serious punishment?
But how could that be possible?
Snape knew Link and Dumbledore far too well.
The judgments and decisions of these two, one old and one young, were astonishingly similar in certain matters. That was also the foundation of how they had become allies.
In their hearts, Hogwarts held an irreplaceable position.
And what Harry Potter was doing now was putting Hogwarts itself in danger!
What would Link and Dumbledore do once they learned the truth?
That wasn't difficult to guess.
Even if the person responsible was Harry Potter.
Even if Harry Potter's actions had not yet caused any serious consequences.
Link and Dumbledore would still eliminate any potential threat without hesitation.
And the methods included in that "elimination" could very well include killing Harry directly.
Those two were absolutely capable of doing such a thing.
Because through his investigations into Horcruxes and Voldemort, Snape had already confirmed that Harry himself was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
That was exactly why Dumbledore paid so much attention to Harry.
Harry was like a pig.
Once it had been fattened up, it would be slaughtered for meat.
If everything went unusually smoothly, Dumbledore, the pig farmer, might allow the pig to live a little longer.
But if the pig started tearing apart the house now, Dumbledore would feel no burden whatsoever in slaughtering it.
But...
That was something Snape could not accept.
Harry was Lily's only child.
"Lily... what should I do..."
Snape closed his eyes in pain and muttered repeatedly.
At that moment, a pair of faint, almost imperceptible hands seemed to rest on his shoulders.
"Who's there?!"
BOOM!
Accompanied by Snape's roar, his right hand swung backward violently. A huge invisible blade shot out and split the shelf behind him cleanly in two.
The shelf held some of his most treasured potion-making equipment and specimens, yet there wasn't a trace of reluctance in Snape's crimson eyes.
He was already overwhelmed by fury.
But in the next moment, all of his anger vanished because of a single voice.
Because it said, "I love you."
"Lily..."
Snape collapsed back into his chair.
He could hardly believe what he had heard.
No, to be precise, it had little to do with hearing, because the voice had come directly from inside his mind.
It made no sense, because at that very moment he could clearly feel that his master-level Occlumency was still operating at full strength.
If that was the case, how had this voice appeared?
Was he missing Lily so much that he was hallucinating?
That wasn't impossible.
After spending the entire night researching the spatial anchor point, he had exhausted too much mental energy. His consciousness had already become hazy.
Snape pulled out a restorative potion and drank it in one gulp. Then he shook his head forcefully, trying to clear his mind.
But it was useless.
Because the next moment, the voice appeared again.
'I love you. I love you. I love you. I...'
This time the voice came even more intensely.
The glass vial still containing traces of potion slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor with a sharp crash.
Snape stared blankly at the wall ahead as tears poured from his swollen eyes.
This time he heard it clearly.
It was Lily's voice.
And the Lily in his mind kept repeating the words he had dreamed of hearing.
Only Snape himself knew that every time he saw Lily, he would silently repeat his love for her deep inside his heart.
It was a secret that belonged to him alone.
The reason he had learned Occlumency in the first place was simply to protect that secret.
Not to become some double agent.
And now, Lily had finally responded to him.
Although Snape knew very well that it made no sense. Lily's soul had long since vanished. Even if it still existed, it wouldn't come specifically to him just to say such things.
So the voice he was hearing was most likely a hallucination.
But Snape's scarred heart was still healed by it.
For more than ten years, he had constantly walked between the forces of Dumbledore and Voldemort. Everything he did was for Lily's revenge.
The hardship and mental pressure he endured could not be described with a simple word like difficult.
He was simply too tired.
Without Occlumency supporting him, he probably would have collapsed long ago.
But now things were different.
His efforts had been acknowledged.
The moment he heard Lily's voice, he felt that all his suffering had been worth it.
"I'm sorry, Lily. I'm truly sorry. It's all my fault. I caused all of this. I was the one who hurt you..."
Snape cried as he dropped to his knees.
This delayed apology had been buried in his heart for decades.
It was both regret for accidentally calling Lily a Mudblood after being provoked by James Potter all those years ago and guilt over Lily's death.
If not for his stubbornness, perhaps Lily would have been with him now.
If not for his foolishness, perhaps Lily would still be alive.
Even if she had become someone else's wife and had given birth to a child.
At least he could still watch her from afar and hear her voice.
Unfortunately, there were no ifs in this world.
He was the one who overheard Trelawney's prophecy about Voldemort and passed it on to Voldemort.
Although he later begged and pleaded with both Voldemort and Dumbledore to spare Lily.
The girl from his dreams still died in the end.
...Killed because of him.
It was all his fault!
And now, he longed for forgiveness.
But the approval he expected never came.
Not only that.
The moment he said those words, even the beautiful voice that had been lingering in his mind stopped abruptly.
It was as if he had been completely rejected.
"No!!"
Snape let out a miserable howl like a beast that had lost its young.
Driven by his emotions, out-of-control magic burst from every pore in his body, forming a terrifying magical tornado inside the underground office.
Sharp magical power raged everywhere. All the potion equipment he had treasured for years was ground into dust.
But at this moment, Snape had no attention to spare for any of it.
His efforts had been denied.
Lily was unwilling to forgive him.
Why?
Had he still not done enough?
That's right... It had to be that.
'Harry Potter!'
'Lily's only son!'
He was still in danger. He still wasn't completely safe.
That was why Lily refused to forgive him.
Thinking of this, light returned to Snape's lifeless eyes.
It was as if he had grabbed hold of his only lifeline. His clenched fists trembled from the force of his grip.
This would be the last time.
He was certain of it. As long as he could save Harry Potter, his sins would be redeemed and Lily would forgive him.
As for how to do it?
That wasn't a problem at all.
Throughout the entire night, Snape had already carefully considered every possibility.
There was always a way. He simply hadn't wanted to do it.
Harry Potter's greatest danger was Dumbledore.
So all he had to do was kill Dumbledore.
It wasn't impossible.
As long as he placed the spatial anchor point inside the Headmaster's Office and brought in the people Harry wanted to bring, causing chaos, he might be able to kill Dumbledore in the confusion.
After that, he could take Harry and disappear far away.
Perhaps they could find somewhere secluded to live, just like Sirius and Harry were doing now.
Snape's wish was simple.
He only wanted redemption. And if possible, he wanted to see Harry's eyes every day, because those eyes looked so much like Lily's.
The only problem in this plan was Link.
Dumbledore had to die.
As long as he lived, Harry could never truly be safe.
The man was always talking about morality and righteousness, but in reality, he had no heart at all.