HP: For a better world

The sound of steady footsteps gradually sounded in the dark corridor.

"Knock knock." The hand knocking on the door was calm and powerful.

"Come in." As he said this, the portrait at the office door swung open and White stepped into the office.

Snape glanced up and frowned quickly, "Mr. White, I don't think I invited you to leave the hospital wing to visit me. I'm very busy now and don't have time to deal with your..." friends' troubles.

"Professor," White clutched his sleeve, as if struggling for a while, then bit his lip and spoke with difficulty: "...Can I, really, cast a spell?"

The ice in his eyes seemed to be broken. It was the first time that Snape saw this child, who seemed mature and smooth from the moment they met, showing such obvious pain and desire.

——That is a strong yearning for magic.

"Of course, does Mr. White already think he can challenge the Book of Admission?" Snape said without hesitation.

"Then why..." White opened his mouth and closed it again as if he was speechless.

...Why can't he cast a spell?

Snape understood his unspoken question.

There was pure pain in the boy's eyes.

"..." He paused, as if he was racking his brains to find some descriptions that would not be too hurtful, but he obviously did not succeed. In the end, he could only say dryly: "...You are just, just not very good at it." Perhaps he also realized that his words might hurt the heart of this child who was very talented in potions but knew nothing about spells. He made up for it clumsily, "--You haven't figured it out yet."

White gave a bleak smile and said softly, "...Ah, so that's how it is. I understand." He repeated, "I understand." He said no more, pushed open the door of the Potions Office, and wanted to leave.

Did he know something?

Without waiting for Snape to think any further, he quickly called out to White.

"…You just lack a bit of luck, but you can still further your studies in potions." Snape stopped him in a dry voice, "Even if you don't know how to cast spells, you can still -"

"Really?" White interrupted. "I know that many of those great potions require pharmacists to handle the materials personally..." His voice came out of his trachea with difficulty. "You can't even cast the simplest skinning spell - and yet, you can?" He almost seemed to chew the last few words.

He lowered his head, and it was unclear what emotion was in his eyes.

"You just lack a little luck," Snape repeated dryly.

The two fell silent.

"Anyway... Thank you, thank you professor, you will always be my professor--sir." White smiled calmly as usual and took a last look at Snape. His eyes seemed to be lingering... but that touch of blue quickly disappeared in Snape's silent sight.

The door is closed.

["I think I have to tell you that... this child may be an Obscurial." Dumbledore finished his inspection and walked out the door, followed by Snape. Out of the child's sight, Dumbledore sighed.]

["This is impossible, Dumbledore. The Obscurus won't live to be 11 and White will be in his second year!" Snape growled, pacing back and forth in the hospital wing corridor.]

["So I'm saying it's possible, Severus." Dumbledore sighed imperceptibly. "The only thing to be thankful for is that the child has not been completely transformed, but if he still can't control his magic and use it normally before he is completely transformed..."

"...He's only this age." Snape said in a low voice behind him.

"Yes..." Dumbledore muttered, "I have no way. The best treatment plan now still has no chance of survival. So far, only eight cases have survived, and those who succeeded have lost their magic."

[“Is there really no way, Principal?”

"Perhaps you can bring him some luck, Severus..." Dumbledore said, but still shook his head, "But it's difficult... Let him be happy in his last days."]

[“A little luck…”

Snape looked at the child who was sitting quietly on the bed with his head down, not knowing what he was thinking, and he didn't know how to face it.]

……

Snape watched White close the door and leave as if nothing had happened. The calm farewell gave him a very bad feeling. But he couldn't tell White directly that it was almost impossible for him to cast spells and that there would be no future for him soon. That would be too cruel.

Severus Snape sighed, put down the quill in his hand, walked into his bedroom distractedly, looked at the crucible in front of him and made up his mind.

……

[This is a bottle of Feling potion that lasts for four hours. Use with caution. ——S.S]

On Christmas Day, White returned to his "exclusive" dormitory. There were a few gifts scattered around the bedside - Hermione's "Counting Strange Herbs", L.C.'s gift "The Terrible Dark Magical Powers - People You Need to Stay Away", some candies from the juniors in the academy who had received his help, and the most surprising gift from his own dean -

White opened the gift box.

A touch of gold comes into view.

——In the box was half a bottle of an extremely precious, golden potion - the Felicity Potion.

White watched silently. The potion in the box was a dreamy elixir that looked like flowing gold.

"Professor..." White's regretful voice echoed in the room.

[You just lack a little luck.]

He really got a bottle of extremely precious elixir that could not be bought with money.

Just so that he, who has nothing to do with it, can get a little help before the final abyss.

Now…the final crucial step has been secured.

——You are my eternal professor, sir.

White's mouth curled up slightly, he wrote a note and sent it out.

……

These days, Harry and Hermione spent most of the holiday in the library looking up information. Winster was so tired that he seemed to have triggered something. He had crazy dreams these days, but most of them were chaotic and upside down. Full of fragments of things he had seen in the past, he even dreamed that he cut half of his head and stood in the principal's office to tell Dumbledore that he was a time traveler. Haha - he would never go to face Dumbledore, he would be crazy to try to open his brain to Dumbledore.

Today is Christmas. The house elves have piled up all the presents in the corner of the dormitory.

Colorful gifts filled a corner of the dormitory, making it crowded yet warm.

There are gifts from all four colleges here, red, green, and yellow, as well as gifts from the always unique Ravenclaw.

Winster guessed that it belonged to Luna, but fortunately he gave her a Snorlax coin made according to Luna's description, hoping that she would like it.

Summer slumped lazily on the small pillow beside the bed, opening one eye and glancing over.

"Good morning, Summer, you can go back to sleep, I'm just getting up."

Summer let out a cooing sound from the bird's beak, stretched out her wings, turned herself over, and closed her eyes peacefully.

Winster began to open the presents, including those from Loial and Jenny, Hermione, Harry, Luna, and return gifts of commemorative coins from other professors. What surprised Winster the most was a Christmas card from Cedric.

Now Summer couldn't sleep anymore, and Winster ran over guiltily to wake her up.

"Please help, help, help. Just a greeting card. I'll buy you more delicious owl food when I come back." Winster coaxed.

Summer woke up reluctantly.

Winster was waiting for her to comb his hair and help him deliver the letter. Fortunately, he had written a few extra greeting cards in case of such extra gifts. Now he only had to fill in Cedric's name - he continued to open the gifts. These gifts all had distinct college characteristics and you could tell at a glance which college they were from. Gryffindor preferred gold and red, and all the gifts were candies. Hermione gave him a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard (to be honest, Winster had already read this book in the library, but it would be nice to have a copy to keep as a treasure). Harry gave him half of the rock cookies given by Hagrid and the sugar quill he had chosen before he met Hermione and Weasley in Hogsmeade last time - the rock cookies didn't actually have to be given.

Slytherins were fond of silver and green, and the gifts they gave were mostly practical. Loio and Jenny gave a copy of "Magical Aquatic Plants of the Mediterranean and Their Properties", a book often read by the healers of St. Mungo's. Inside the copy was a bag of cookies baked by Loio's father, which were filled with chocolate chips. They were sweet and delicious.

Carl gave a finger-sized vial of green dragon blood, which was probably some extra benefit his father got from his job - his father raised dragons in Germany. Mike's gift must have been discussed with Carl - he made a paper shell model of a small dragon and gave it to Winster, while Colen gave him a copy of the Muggle novel "The Lord of the Rings" that he was reading recently.

It's really amazing to read magic novels in a magic world.

Winster also found the gift that Draco had sent him, a traditional British Christmas gift basket, which contained some chocolate, wine and silver ornaments. It looked like a very regular Christmas gift, but at the bottom there was a Fabre soap that Winster had seen before, which seemed to be something Draco had put in extra, and a discount card from them.

Luna gave a snowy crystal ball, in which there was a little man singing in the snow, a crow standing on the treetop, and a small snow bump on the ground. The song was recorded by Luna herself, and when you shake the snowflakes in the crystal ball, Luna's song will play, and the music sings about the crow flying over the treetops.

Professor McGonagall gave him a set of tea cups with some simple spray paint on the surface, which looked a bit like the ones Professor Trelawney often used in class. I hope this is not to encourage him to continue learning tea leaf divination. Winster has already found that this thing is really unreliable and relies entirely on imagination and fabrication.

He and Luo have been predicting bad things in a row, with black dogs and bats following him like ghosts. Every time they have a divination class, Luo would look at Winster with a look of silent mourning on his face.

What made Winston happiest was what Hagrid gave him - in addition to some rock cakes, he also gave Winston several herbs that only grew deep in the Forbidden Forest and the by-products of the magical animals he raised.

These herbs are hard to buy on the market. Only in certain seasons can one ask the potion shop owner to leave some for him - Snape would also try to get them, and they are not cheap. Often a fresh one costs more than ten Galleons, which is more expensive than unicorn tail hair.

Of course, Winster's return gift was the potion he brewed himself. He gave Harry several bottles of blood tonic and dreamless sleeping potion, hoping that he would be careful about taking risks and not worry too much about Black. He also gave Hermione a refreshing potion with a pungent smell that he improved, hoping that she would no longer smell like stinging powder when she needed to be refreshed in class - the quality was too poor, and it choked Winster uncomfortably.

The gift for Hagrid was a case book about Buckbeak that the four of them had compiled over the past few days. They agreed to replace it with this one together, hoping that he would remember it well.

But Winster no longer had much hope. Since Newt had failed, it meant that Malfoy was definitely going to deal with Hagrid. Although Dumbledore protected him and prevented him from touching Hagrid himself, it was still inevitable that he would take out his anger by dealing with a few magical creatures.

But what Winster didn't expect was that he found a potion bottle wrapped in newspaper at the bottom of the gifts. Inside was a potion of cold medicine that was brewed very well. When he opened it and smelled it, he could still smell the fresh heat that had just been brewed.

"A duplicitous Slytherin, aren't you, Summer?" Winston teased, adding the potion to his collection.