Snape had submitted the analysis documents to the headmaster's office the night before. That morning, Aurelia walked through the underground corridor as usual, heading toward the Great Hall. The same stone walls. The same smell of potions. The same green light. Nothing had changed——but something was definitely beginning to move. As she entered the Great Hall, Headmaster Dumbledore stood up from the high table. White beard, half-moon spectacles. He spoke quietly, but loud enough for all the students to hear. "[serious]Today, I will announce the results of our investigation regarding the matter of Vaara, a student of Slytherin House" The Great Hall fell silent. Lynnea's misconduct——the explosion accident during last month's Potions practical, the theft of her diary and its posting on the bulletin board——all of it was corroborated by evidence of external interference and library access logs. Dumbledore read the facts matter-of-factly. Aurelia's innocence was cleared. Vaara received one hundred points deducted and a week's suspension. At that moment, somewhere in the corridor, a teacher's voice could be heard reading the same judgment. "Lynnea Vaara, suspension and one hundred points deducted——" A first-year student sitting nearby spoke without thinking. "[surprised]A hundred points?" The older students around them all turned cold stares on the first-year. The younger student shrank back and covered their mouth. The atmosphere in the room shifted strangely for a moment, then returned to its heavy weight. Aurelia watched it all from her distant seat. ——She didn't think of it as winning. --- When the morning classes ended, she caught sight of Lynnea around a corner in the corridor. Her purple long hair was disheveled. It was usually loosely curled, but today it just flowed behind her in a tangled mass. Her golden eyes were fixed on the floor, and her walking pace was unnaturally slow. The other Slytherin students passed by her without a glance. No one met her eyes. The followers who had laughed and clung to her until yesterday were now looking in different directions. Halfway down the corridor, Lynnea's and Aurelia's eyes met. One second. Two seconds. Lynnea's lips moved as if to say something——but no sound came out. Aurelia quietly looked away and continued walking. There was no anger. No sense of triumph. Just exhaustion. A deep, bone-deep exhaustion. --- The Slytherin common room remained quiet even as evening fell. The fire in the fireplace was weak, and the green light cast the ripples of water onto the stone walls. Someone sat on a leather sofa, speaking in whispers. When Aurelia entered, no one looked up. The student who had blocked her seat. The student who had borrowed library books ahead of her. The student who had spread rumors loudly——all of them were still in the same space today. Not a single person apologized. They wouldn't even meet her eyes. They simply passed by in silence, as if nothing had happened. Aurelia sat in a corner chair. She wondered if this was what justice looked like. It had been the same at Durmstrang. Even when someone was proven to be wrong, the one who had hurt others would just go silent. They wouldn't apologize. They wouldn't face it. They would just become quiet. Deep in her chest, the Obscurus pulsed low and quietly. Not anger, not sadness. Something deeper——just exhaustion. The sediment of two months of suppressed emotion. Then, a small sound of wings came from the window frame. An owl landed, carrying a letter in its beak. When she opened the seal, it contained a short message. ——Come to my office tonight. She recognized the handwriting. --- She hesitated. For about thirty minutes, she sat on her bed without moving. She remembered that night. Those words in front of the door. All private contact is forbidden——the temperature of that voice. The fingertips of her right hand, quietly gripping the stone edge. But when she imagined not going, something heavier seemed to weigh on her. She stood up. The stone steps down to the basement were cold. The torches were spaced farther apart, and it grew darker the lower she went. The smell of potions grew stronger. Aurelia walked slowly. There was no reason to hurry. She stood in front of the office door and knocked. "[cold]Enter" When she opened the door, the room was dark. There was no fire in the fireplace. The bottles of specimens on the shelves cast only faint outlines. Only a single torch illuminated the area around the desk. Snape stood beside the desk. Black robes. Black hair reaching his shoulders, with a faint hint of red at the tips. Sharp dark green eyes turned toward her. His usual expressionless face. But tonight, something was different. There was an unusual pause, as if he were searching for words. Aurelia closed the door behind her and stopped near the center of the room. A long silence stretched between them. The torch flickered, and shadows lengthened. Snape opened his mouth. "[serious]That judgment was——a mistake" His voice was low and quiet. Slightly different from his usual coldness. The words seemed to come from deep within. "[serious]I intended to protect you——but I hurt you instead" Aurelia searched for a response. But what came out first was something she had been holding back all along. "[sad]……You're afraid of me, aren't you? Of this power inside me" Her voice trembled slightly. She could hear it herself. "[sad]Of course you are. I'm afraid of it too" Snape took a step forward. "[serious]I'm not afraid" Short, as if stating a fact. "[serious]What lies within you is not darkness. It is emotion that has lost control" As he spoke, his hand reached out. It touched her cold right hand quietly. There was warmth. Aurelia instinctively tried to pull her hand away. But she couldn't. Her fingertips stopped, unable to move. She couldn't quite explain to herself why that hand remained there. But——tonight, she could clearly feel the body heat of the person before her. ——I don't want to lose this person. That thought became the trigger for the Obscurus. Something collapsed deep in her chest. It felt like a dam breaking. Two months. Every day, she had carefully suppressed her emotions one by one——and now they all came pouring out at once. Fear. Loneliness. The coldness of the Durmstrang corridor. The silence of a common room where no one apologized. The nights she spent thinking it would be the same at this school. The sound of the Astronomy Tower railing corroding. The feel of stone the morning her diary was stolen. Everything became a torrent seeking an outlet. Black smoke erupted from Aurelia's entire body. One bottle on the shelf shattered, then another. The high sound echoed through the office. The floor trembled, and cracks ran along the stone joints. One shelf collapsed, and the specimen liquid scattered. Cracks spread across the walls. Dark smoke swirled, and the air in the room warped. "[scared]Get away! Please, get away!" She screamed. But Snape didn't move. "[serious]Expelliarmus——" A protective spell deployed, but the black smoke tore through it. Snape's robes ripped, and burns ran across his right arm. Yet both his hands gripped Aurelia's shoulders and didn't let go. "[serious]Don't run. I am here" Those words reached her through the smoke. A silver light mixed with the black vortex for just an instant. Thin, weak, but unmistakably there. But the torrent of emotion didn't stop. Space itself began to warp. The stone walls rippled as if melting, and cracks appeared in the air. Beyond the cracks——an older corridor was visible. Even older stone paving. Portraits on the walls wearing clothes from a different era. Torches that were more primitive than these. A young voice echoed distantly. Snape's hands——slipped from Aurelia's shoulders. Light consumed everything. --- Silence returned to the office. The shelves were half-destroyed. Black scorch marks covered the floor. Fragments of broken bottles were scattered, and specimen liquid spread across the stone. The cracks in the walls reached the ceiling. Snape stood with his right hand open. Burned skin. The marks of heat on his palm. That hand remained pointed toward where Aurelia had been, unable to move. All that remained on the stone floor was a black scorch mark. Slowly, Snape knelt down. He touched the scorched floor with his hand. The fingers of his right hand trembled slightly. No one had ever seen this man make this expression. Alone in his office, for the first time, he wore a face he couldn't hide away. When he had said "don't run"——to whom had those words been directed? To Aurelia? Or to himself, who had been running into solitude all this time? Even Snape himself couldn't say for certain. The cross-section of the scorched floor was a pale, dry color. --- The stone paving was cold. Aurelia lifted her head. Pain ran through her entire body. Her uniform was charred, and her arms bore fine cuts. This is——Hogwarts. But something is different. The stone is the same. But the clothes worn by the portraits on the walls are clearly from a different era. Eighteenth century, perhaps nineteenth——at least not now. The torches are set in old iron stands. The air in the corridor feels thin somehow. Footsteps echoed. One person's slow footsteps. Aurelia looked up. A young boy stood before her. Black hair. A thin frame. A hooked nose. A Slytherin tie. Black hair reaching his shoulders, with——a faint hint of red at the tips. Dark green eyes looked down at her. They were unfamiliar eyes. Different from the eyes that had looked at her in that office. But——they were the same eyes. The eyes of the same person, from a different time. Seventeen-year-old Severus Snape spoke in a cautious voice. "[cold]Who are you? Where did you come from" Aurelia looked at his face. She understood everything. She had come to the past. 1977——the Marauders era, the middle of the First Wizarding War. She didn't know how to return. She couldn't speak of the future. But. In the depths of this boy's eyes——there was the exact same loneliness as the man who had gripped her shoulders and refused to let go in that office. A single tear rolled down her cheek. "[crying]……I know about you" The coldness of the stone paving seeped slowly into her body.