Everyone has their own way of enjoying the holidays. Whether it is fast-paced excitement or slow-paced comfort, as long as you are satisfied with it, it will be a valuable and beautiful holiday.
Of course, this is all based on the premise that life is already full of surplus.
"Bang bang bang... bang bang bang..."
Deep in the maze-like old brick house, knocking on the door echoed in the narrow alley, breaking the oppressive silence.
After several days of continuous rain, the temperature that was supposed to enter summer has once again dropped to a freezing state. In addition, this almost abandoned residential area is sparsely populated, and you even want to put on a coat when you are in it.
In the distance, a towering chimney reaches straight into the sky, which looks quite abrupt in the generally low brick room. The sewage in the distant river has experienced several days of showers, and the smelly sludge has stirred up, sending a disgusting smell quietly towards this side along the evening wind.
"Bang bang bang... bang bang..."
The knocking on the door continued, and there seemed to be a desire not to stop until the door was knocked. In such a messy place, an uninvited guest suddenly came for some reason.
This is Spider End Alley, an old place that is both dark and stale.
I don't know how long it took, but a muffled male voice finally sounded from inside the door, suddenly interrupting the never-ending knocking.
"Narcissa, go back! I no longer welcome 'guests' here."
The voice was cold, cold, and without the slightest hint of politeness in it, directly expressing his attitude of rejection. The door didn't open, not even a crack.
"Severus—" the person outside the door said weakly, holding on to the wooden door, "Severus, open the door... Draco needs your help..."
Although she was wearing an exquisite cloak with a hood, her entire face was hidden in the shadows. But the name she called when she was called at the door immediately revealed her identity - this was Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother who had just been found some time ago.
Narcissa's vaguely pleading words seemed to make Snape behind the door fall into silence for a while. But a few seconds passed, but the wooden door still didn't open.
"What happened to him?" Snape asked in a deep voice through the door.
"Oh... He, he has been having nightmares for a while. I'm worried that... you know... that person left something terrible for him..."
It could be heard that Narcissa's voice was trembling, which was a sign that she was gradually sinking into despair. Her son suffered unknown sufferings all night long in his sleep. This made her, a mother, feel extremely heartbroken and wished she could be the one who suffered.
"Then you should go find a therapist," Snape said immediately after just a brief pause, "Don't say that I am a defense professor now. Even before, my job was just to teach a bunch of brats at Hogwarts. , rather than treating patients at St. Mungo's."
"No, Severus, I know what you are capable of..." Narcissa tried her best to persuade, but in the blink of an eye, a surge of sadness came to her heart, and she couldn't help but cry in her voice, "Severus, you must Help Draco... Do you remember? When you were at Hogwarts, Lucius gave you a lot... "
"Stop talking!" Upon hearing this, Snape's voice suddenly increased a lot, "Narcissa, you should know that I have brought too many conveniences to Lucius in the past few years. In When Voldemort was rampant, I was even more... Narcissa, I don't want to make it so clear, you know those things yourself... "
Although he didn't finish what he said, the meaning was very clear.
Yes, when he was a student at Hogwarts, Lucius, as the senior, gave him, a poor half-blood, a source of support, which made him feel very nourished during his lower grades. But all of this also paved the way for his miserable life after Lucius graduated.
Seriously, now, every piece of those days was something he was trying to leave behind. If Lily hadn't still existed in his memory, he would have completely stripped those memories out of his head, put them into a small test tube and sealed them permanently.
"Oh..." Narcissa felt as if her heart was about to break, "Severus, please save my poor child... Please save him..."
When Narcissa couldn't hold back, her heartache for her son and her grievance about the family's decline came to her heart at the same time, and the tears in her red eyes suddenly flowed uncontrollably.
"Bang, bang—"
She lay on the mottled wooden door, beat her fist twice erratically, and then slid down the door panel as if she had lost all strength.
And on the other side of the door, Snape stood expressionless, with a pair of indifferent pupils flickering with a complex light.
He is a persistent and selfish man.
In the past, for an invisible and intangible love, he could seize all the bargaining chips that slipped in front of him, and the Malfoy family was naturally one of them; but now, when Maka erased his meaningless feelings about love, After the chase, his sister Tia became everything in his life.
He felt that life was actually quite good now - at Hogwarts, he could be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor he had always wanted to remember since he was a student; in this home, he could enjoy what he had learned since childhood. The residual warmth of loved ones that I have never felt before.
In this case, a friendship with the declining Malfoy family was obviously not what the selfish man needed.
What's more, although Lucius was taken out of Azkaban by Maka, many people actually knew that the connection between him and Voldemort could not be written off. Now and even in the future, I'm afraid there won't be many people who are willing to have anything to do with the Malfoy family.
With Severus Snape's shrewdness, he would naturally not do such a thankless thing.
"You... who are you?"
Just when Snape replaced his answer with silence, trying to let Narcissa retreat on her own, a soft female voice suddenly sounded behind Narcissa. There was a little surprise in the voice, but more of it was confusion and uneasiness.
When Narcissa turned around suddenly and stared blankly at the young woman not far behind her, with a soft "squeak", the wooden door that seemed impossible to open in her life actually opened.
"excuse me… "
Snape seemed quite polite in his words, but somewhat impatient in his actions. He gently pushed Narcissa back half a step, while he walked sideways beside her.
"Tia," Snape grabbed his sister, who was still in a confused state, and dragged her quickly towards the door, "Have you had enough shopping today? It's time to go home..."
"Wait, wait—" "Bang."
Almost as soon as she reacted, Narcissa reached out to grab the wooden door, but her hand was pinched by the door panel that quickly closed. To be honest, the force Snape used to close the door was really strong. Narcissa immediately squatted down on the spot holding the fingers of her right hand.
This door has not been closed after all, although the price paid to prevent it from closing seems to be too high.
"Sev... Les..." Narcissa gritted her teeth to prevent herself from crying out in pain, "Please, please help Draco take a look... I can't just watch my child continue to suffer like that..."
Snape turned around, lowered his head slightly, and frowned tightly. After only a few seconds of pause, his hand reached for the door handle again, obviously wanting to close the door again.
But this time, his hand only reached halfway when someone grabbed him by the arm.
"...she...what happened to her child?" It was Tia who spoke. Although she still looked timid, her life in Spider End Alley at least allowed her to speak a few complete sentences to strangers. He said, "Severus, can you help her? We should be giving help to people, not keeping trouble out."
Her words truly came from her heart and were transformed from her own personal experience. If she hadn't been taken to the Black Mansion and received help from many people, mainly Mrs. Weasley, she would never have been able to live such a safe life now - she was always confused and timid, and she even found He lost Snape, the only remaining relative in the world.
This made her understand that sending warmth to those in need is also the meaning of life.
"Tsk..." Snape clicked his tongue lightly and said impatiently, "Where did you hear this meaningless truth?"
"Yes, it was Mrs. Weasley and the others, they made me understand..." Faced with Snape's habitual indifference and impatience, Tia still seemed a little difficult to deal with, but she still muttered, " You know, they've helped me a lot... and... well, and Mr. McClain, he's always willing to help."
"Hmph," Snape snorted softly, automatically ignoring the last name, "Weasley? I should have guessed it earlier. They are the only family that meets everyone and everyone is as enthusiastic as a fool..."
Of course, he obviously ignored another point - the Weasleys never looked down upon him when they met him, and the same was true when they met Narcissa and Lucius.
But after these contemptuous words, Snape never reached out to close the door again, but suddenly turned around and walked into the room.
"Narcissa, come in and say—" he said coldly, "and close the door."
Narcissa didn't know who the young woman in front of her was, but when she saw that Tia was able to speak next to the stubborn Snape, she immediately took off her hood and wiped the tears on her face, looking towards Tia. Ya nodded gently in thanks.
Soon, with another creaking sound, the wooden door finally closed tightly again.