A Certain Hogwarts Magician Professor

In the principal's office, the conversation continued.

Dumbledore paused, then said to Snape, "Voldemort has restrained his temper, he still needs you. I know this since I found out that Umbridge's mind was messed up... that How do you say it? Anyone who asks for help is respectful. Obviously, Voldemort is no exception."

"I'm not interested in hearing you share some vulgar proverbs."

"Oh, Severus, these wonderful short sentences are thought-provoking and worth savoring...you know, I've been trying to make you fall in love with life again," said Dumbledore kindly.

Snape shook his head sharply, as if he had got some dirt on it.

"Since Voldemort wants you to take advantage of the opportunity to heal me, he will definitely wait for a while. I think, maybe the duel time will be determined according to my physical condition?" Dumbledore thoughtful He said, "That way I can influence his judgment. Just a few interviews at the right moment and a few pale-faced pictures...well, I figured it out. Wizengamore, Wizarding Trials... I need to talk to Ms. Burns."

"Severus, your role is too special, so special that even if Voldemort has doubts about you, as long as you still have value, he will not act rashly. Besides Umbridge, there is another loophole, that is, ha Good. Fortunately, his Occlumency is good, and Voldemort seems to be actively blocking the connection, but nothing is absolute, don't take it lightly." He finally warned.

"Speaking of Potter," said Snape suddenly, "Dumbledore, you lied to me. Harry Potter...he was one of them, one of the Horcruxes."

A moment of silence.

"When did you find out?"

"Is that true?" whispered Snape, who stood up and stared at Dumbledore across the table. "I was a spy for you, I made up lies for you, and risked my death for you. All of this. Supposedly it was all about keeping Lily's son safe. Now you're telling me that his end was doomed from the start? Like a pig to be slaughtered—"

"How touching, Severus," said Dumbledore, "are you really starting to like that boy?"

"Like him?" Snape exclaimed, "God Guard!"

The tip of his staff jumped out of the silver doe. It landed on the floor, jumped lightly to the end of the office, and flew out the window. Dumbledore watched it go away, watched its silver light disappear, then turned to look at Snape, his eyes welling with tears.

"It's been this way for so long?" he asked softly.

"It's always been that way," Snape said.

Dumbledore sighed, closed his eyes, and there was only Snape's gasp in the room, and he murmured, "You lied to me, Dumbledore." After a while, Dumbledore opened his eyes , his eyes had returned to calm, staring at Snape from above the half-moon lens.

"I don't want to excuse myself, Severus. But I did prepare for the worst - when the last resort came, the boy had to die once, so I nurtured him, tempered him, watched him, like a A craftsman who carefully carves his own work.”

"Last time?" Snape raised his head. "Dumbledore, make it clear."

"On the night Voldemort tried to kill Harry, the Killing Curse bounced back on him, and a fragment of his soul was blown away and attached to the only living soul in the collapsed house, Harry Potter..."

"Part of the Dark Lord lives inside that baby? Becomes a Horcrux?" Snape asked eagerly. "So Parseltongue, the connection to the Dark Lord's mind, is all because of soul fragments?"

Dumbledore nodded slightly, "To be precise, Harry is not a complete Horcrux."

Snape was a little unclear. Therefore, his understanding of Horcrux was still very shallow. He only knew the most basic information, and some of the contents were even deduced by himself based on multiple pieces of information. He didn't know how to make Horcruxes, let alone many taboos, so he could easily connect Harry with Horcruxes and uncover the truth by mistake.

Now, he pricked up his ears and listened carefully.

"...The steps to make a real Horcrux are extremely complicated and difficult to imagine. Maybe that's why Voldemort has not been able to connect Harry to the Horcrux yet - Harry is not even comparable to the snake in terms of completeness. But he did function as a Horcrux: as long as the shard remained in Harry, Voldemort would never truly die."

"So, is it possible to separate the pieces?" Snape racked his brains. "It was just stuck on by accident, wasn't it? Like a piece of dirt on the wall, just find some way to remove the stain—" He held his breath and looked at the old man in front of him, "Have you found it?"

Dumbledore shook his head slowly.

Snape's body swayed, his hands resting on the table, his eyes staring blankly at Dumbledore.

"Anything involving the soul must be taken with extreme caution," Dumbledore whispered. "We cannot borrow wisdom from the books of our predecessors, we must rely on ourselves. And Harry's case is even more sinister: Voldemort's Soul Fragment Sticking directly to Harry's soul without any treatment. After all these years, the connection between them may be far more than you and I can imagine. And this connection will become more and more with Harry's age. The stronger, like a parasitic life."

"You should have heard about Harry's exaggerated pace of progress this school year?" he asked.

Snape looked blankly at Dumbledore, and Dumbledore looked back at Snape as well.

"I thought—it was the result of his hard training."

"I don't deny there's a reason for that. But—other than the gap in knowledge and experience, Harry isn't much weaker than you right now. It's not normal, Severus."

"Is there no other way?"

"Felix and I - both of us are trying to find a solution. In his book on Horcruxes, he found a line of thought: repentance can reunite divided souls. Felix's achievements in the field of memory magic Amazing," Dumbledore said. "He wanted to grab Voldemort and soak it in a jar full of 'confession' for a day, two days, maybe even a year, two years."

Snape was shocked by the boldness of Felix's ideas.

"...but I don't have much hope for this method, the conditions are too harsh: you have to catch the living Voldemort first - this step is even easier than the other steps. You have to let Voldemort be sincere. Confessing what he did, and frankly, I don't think he has the slightest bit of remorse, I wouldn't be surprised if he suddenly showed me the Patronus...other than that, even if Voldemort was forced to repent and draw out his soul What effect did the shards have on Harry?"

"Nobody knows."

Snape froze in place.

After a long while, he asked with difficulty: "You only talked about Felix's efforts, what about you? What did you do?"

"Oh, I can't tell you yet," said Dumbledore apologetically, "that method may be more illusory, more inconceivable than asking Voldemort to sincerely repent... and I can't verify it for the time being, and saying it will only add to the trouble."

He tucked the black gemstone ring into the drawer and fiddled with the delicate silverware on the table. The conversation seemed to end there, and Snape stood up and walked towards the door. "Oh, by the way, Severus?" Snape turned his head to meet the blue eyes beneath the half-moon lenses.

"Add more sugar to the potion, okay?"

The author has always tried to avoid directly citing the original text, but Snape's use of the Patronus is too classic, and I forcibly changed it and the effect was not good. About 200 words are quoted.