The Return to Hogwarts

Amosta had no doubt that Black was a man of steel, and absolutely loyal to Voldemort.

However, precisely because of this, Amosta couldn't believe he would shed tears here. Especially after being tormented by Dementors in Azkaban for twelve years, he should be a villain on the verge of complete madness. Bringing flowers to his former master was somewhat understandable, but to shed tears of sorrow for it? Did such a guy still have the emotion of sadness in his heart?

Amosta stood silently in the room filled with ruins, his brow furrowed in deep thought.

Did you guess wrong?

Sirius's goal from beginning to end was Harry. He had never been to this place before. The bouquet of flowers and the tear stains in front of him were not left by Black.

Judging from how withered the flowers were, the person who left the footprints must have been gone for at least a month. In such a long time, all traces of magic in the air would naturally dissipate. Otherwise, Amosta would have had some means to trace it back.

A gentle breeze from the wilderness wafted through the crisscrossing streets of the village, and the overgrown weeds and nettles in the courtyards swayed softly in the wind, making a rustling sound.

A few petals of the withered lilies in front of the picture frame floated into the air on the breeze, swirling in front of Amosta before slowly drifting back down.

Gazing at the few yellowed, withered petals, Amosta's brow twitched, and an idea struck him.

Five minutes later, Amosta returned to the church he had passed earlier. Behind the church was a cemetery, with rows of identical tombstones neatly arranged. In front of most of the tombstones were several bouquets of flowers, some fresh and some dried.

Amostella concluded that the cemetery was probably prepared specifically for the wizards living in Godric Valley, as she stood outside the cemetery and glanced at the inscriptions on the nearest tombstones.

Although he did not know the dead buried beneath the tombstone, he could not have been unaware of the ancient and illustrious name of Amosta.

If nothing unexpected happens, the Potters should also be buried here. However, Amosta did not step into the cemetery to look for them. His purpose in returning here was not to find their tombstones. Instead, Amosta turned around and looked in the direction to the left front of the church, where there was a flower shop.

The small flower shop was filled with white or yellow flowers that are often used for memorial services. As Amosta stood in front of the shop, a plump woman in her fifties with her back to him was gently wiping the petals of a bunch of white roses.

Amosta recognized her at a glance.

"Hello, ma'am, how should I address you?"

Hearing the greeting, the witch, who was lost in her own world, snapped out of her reverie and realized that a customer had come to her shop.

"Hello, sir, I'm Iri Tramon, the owner of this florist. How can I help you?"

“Well, Ms. Tramont, I’d like to buy a bouquet of flowers.” Amostah’s gaze was directed at a bouquet of gentle white lilies in a flower tube on the ground behind the shopkeeper.

"Oh, is that the bouquet? No problem, sir."

The chubby florist was surprisingly quick; in less than two minutes, he had trimmed the lilies, wrapped them in an old newspaper, and handed them to Amosta.

"Twenty pounds, sir—"

Amostella raised an eyebrow, feigning difficulty. "I'm sorry, Ms. Tramon, I only have Gallon here."

"Ah, you're from our area."

Ms. Tramont, who had been merely offering a polite smile, suddenly realized what was happening. She looked around to make sure no one was watching before turning to Amosta with a surprised expression. "You're a wizard? Oh, sir, I must say, your Muggle attire is so professional; I didn't recognize you at all."

When Amostella revealed his wand, Lady Tramont was no longer suspicious and began to talk to Amostella very warmly.

"--Oh, yes, that's right. Many wizards buy flowers from me. Are you here to pay respects to the Potters too?"

"So to say."

Amosta handed over a few Galleons, sniffed the flowers, smiled, and casually inquired.

"Do many wizards come here to mourn them?"

"Of course they are heroes, and their children defeated the mysterious man and saved us from fear and despair,"

Ms. Tramont spoke with a touch of respect.

“Every year, on the anniversary of the Potters’ murder, their birthdays, Harry’s birthday, and even their wedding anniversary, many wizards come from all directions to mourn them. Hmm, the last group came during the summer holidays, around the end of July, which I think was Harry’s birthday. Oh, I heard from a rumor that the villain Black escaped from Azkaban to deal with him, but I think he’ll be safe and sound, right? Because Dumbledore is still at Hogwarts!”

"Of course, I agree with you."

Amosta smiled and nodded, then asked curiously,

"Do you remember, I mean, who bought flowers from you to mourn the Potters back then?"

Strange questions

Ms. Tramont thought to herself, but she didn't pay too much attention to it. Over the years she had been running her flower shop here, she had encountered all sorts of strange questions. Because she was a native of the area, some foreign wizards had even asked her if she had seen how little Harry defeated that terrible wizard whose name she couldn't even mention more than a decade ago!

That's ridiculous, is there any way she could possibly know that?

"Hmm, who are those people?"

Tramont rolled the whites of her eyes upward as she tried to recall, and after a moment, she smiled apologetically at Amosta.

"I cannot answer that question, sir--"

The florist gestured toward the cemetery behind the church. “Look, sir, even on ordinary days, quite a few people come here to buy flowers. I can’t possibly ask every customer’s name and identity, can I?”

This answer was not unexpected for Amosta. Moreover, even if the bouquet of flowers was indeed from Blake, Amosta thought it was unlikely that he would have his original face. The reason he asked was just to try his luck and hope that the boss would remember some guys who seemed to have strange behavior.

“In that case—” Amosta smiled apologetically at Ms. Tramon, “please forgive my intrusion.”

The florist, who was about to end the conversation and go about her business, was stunned by these words. She stared into Amostella's eyes, and before she could ask the young wizard why he said that, she suddenly noticed that the young wizard's distinctive light purple eyes suddenly gleamed. Then, as if the sky had collapsed and the earth had caved in, an unfathomable darkness as deep as an abyss appeared from the center of his pupils. Instantly, Tramon lost consciousness and control of his body.

call---

From the moment they met, Amosta flipped through the florist's memories. Frozen images and accelerated video clips, carrying a massive amount of information, crashed against Amosta, who stood in the void, like a tidal wave, causing him to unconsciously squint.

Two days, a week, two weeks. Through Ms. Tramont's perspective, Amosta quickly grasped the information of everyone who had been near the church recently.

Amosta possesses an exceptional memory, likely due to the superposition of his two incarnations and his innate extraordinary spiritual power. When fully focused, he can clearly remember the faces of everyone who flashes past his sight and compare them with those of the wizards he already knows.

The further back one goes, the more blurred the faces of those people appear in Tramon's subconscious memories become. By the time it reached the period twenty days ago, the outlines of those people were still relatively clear.

Amosta wasn't incapable of making Ms. Tramon recall the faces of those people, but doing so might cause irreparable psychological harm to the innocent woman. Besides, the blurry faces didn't trigger any tremors in Amosta's taut intuition, so he didn't do it.

Memories continue forward: twenty-eight days, twenty-nine days, thirty days.

"I need a bouquet of lilies."

As dusk fell, a wizard with greasy black hair, exuding a chilling aura, and whose voice was unusually deep, appeared before Amosta, causing the entire world of memories to freeze in an instant!

"Professor Snape?"

In the void, Amosta opened his mouth in astonishment, completely silent.

Chapter 163 Tsk tsk

In the mental world of florist Tramon, amidst the frozen torrent of memories, Amostah stared wide-eyed at the wizard whose appearance and figure were somewhat blurry, his face filled with undisguised astonishment.

The greasy black hair that even Pantene couldn't wash out, the familiar facial features and physique, the highly recognizable gloomy tone—Amosta was certain he hadn't mistaken the person for someone else; it was his beloved old professor—Severus Snape!

But isn't that strange? Why would Professor Snape come back to pay respects to the Potters?

Amosta was puzzled.

The night after Christmas this year, when Amosta had just returned to Hogwarts and encountered Hermione at the school hospital who had mistakenly taken Polyjuice Potion for animal transformations, she asked Professor Snape about the events of the Chamber of Secrets attacks. Out of curiosity, Amosta casually asked about Harry Potter, whom she hadn't met yet, but didn't hear a single kind word from Professor Snape!

At the time, Amosta deduced from a comment Snape made that Amosta probably had a deep grudge against Harry's father, James Potter, when he was young, and that he was likely the one who suffered a great loss. Therefore, he harbored such a strong prejudice against Harry because of his hatred for him.

However, without anyone knowing, he came alone to pay his respects to the Potters and shed tears in front of the Potter family portrait.

This was the second time Amosta had seen this man, who had completely shut himself off from the world, shed tears!

Amosta's mind raced, trying to see through the fog to the truth.

Professor Snape had a grudge against Harry's father, and this hatred had never been forgotten in his heart. Otherwise, there would be no reason for him to target Harry so much at Hogwarts. So, what kind of hatred was it?

Atonement

On the night he left Hogwarts, Professor Snape, in a fleeting moment of openness, said this to him: But why forgive him? Could it be that the deaths of the Potters were actually related to him?

The thought crossed Amosta's mind, but wasn't it Sirius Black who betrayed the Potters and revealed the location of the mansion to Voldemort? Could there be some unknown secret behind the Potters' deaths? Did Professor Snape, who may have worked for Voldemort for a time, also play a role in it?

Following this line of thought, after the Potters' deaths, Professor Snape regretted his actions and thus turned to the light, coming here to pay his respects as an expression of remorse.

No, that's not the truth, because that possibility ignores Professor Snape's continued loathing for Harry and his unresolved issues.

So, the person Snape really wanted to pay tribute to when he came here was Harry's mother, James Potter's wife, Lily Potter.

In the silence, a strange light appeared in Amosta's widening eyes. He realized that Professor Snape's relationship with Harry's mother was probably not ordinary!

Think about it, Harry's parents have been gone for over ten years. If it were a superficial relationship, it might have been forgotten long ago in the mundane routine of life. Only those with a particularly deep relationship...

What kind of relationship could it be?

A best friend from your teenage years? A secret crush you once had? Or someone you were lovers with for a period of time, but later broke up for some reason?

Amosta's lips gradually twisted into a sinister grin, his gossip-loving spirit burning fiercely within him.

The first possibility is unlikely, for a simple reason: whether in the previous world or the mysterious magical world of today, Amosta, who has lived for nearly fifty years in total across both lifetimes, has never witnessed an intimate but purely romantic relationship between a man and a woman!

Gee

So that's how it is. No wonder Professor Snape hated James Potter so much and had such a deep-seated prejudice against Harry. It was indeed a deep-seated hatred!

If it were Amosta herself, watching the child of the man who stole her happiness wander around in front of her every day, and that child was born to the man and his former love, it would be hard not to feel twisted in her heart.

If Lily Potter was just Professor Snape's secret crush, it might be easier to accept. But if they were once lovers, and James Potter swung his hoe so well, then this tainted hat is truly a blood feud!

Based on this reasoning, it's not hard for Amos Tower to understand why Professor Snape later entered Hogwarts and became Dumbledore's right-hand man.

This also explains why Dumbledore would shelter Professor Snape, who was once a Death Eater.

Many years ago, when Snape learned that the woman he loved had died at Voldemort's hands, his loyalty to Voldemort was completely shattered by his love for Lily. He desperately wanted to avenge the woman he loved, so he most likely went directly to Dumbledore to express his determination, hoping that one day in the future, when the shadow of the Dark Lord once again loomed over the earth, he could do something to completely defeat the Dark Lord.

Why---