In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 454: Summer (2 in 1)

The final result of the meeting between Jon and Matthew was naturally a sour one.

They couldn't reach any consensus, Matthew himself couldn't represent the opinion of the Magical Congress of the United States of America, and Jon couldn't represent Dumbledore and Grindelwald either.

Jon's spraying his words in such a way wouldn't have any serious consequences just because of that, and even if the Magical Congress of the United States of America really lost their minds and decided to join forces with Voldemort, it wouldn't bring about any changes.

Just like Snape said, the key to deciding the victory of the wizarding war was always within the confines of just a few people.

It was only after some friendly exchanges with Matthew that Jon headed in the direction where Snape's house was located on Spinner's End.

Lily with his feather on her had been at that location for a long time and should have had an end in sight by now.

Though that end result would actually be pretty much what he had guessed when Snape left.

Arriving at Snape's house, the door wasn't locked and Jon easily pushed his way into the messy living room.

Only one other person was standing in the room.

Lily stood right in front of the curtains that had been drawn, the midday sun was blocked by the brown curtains, revealing only an orange colour that was as hazy as it was in the evening.

Against such a background, the scene in the living room was like a silent theatre that had reached its conclusion.

The middle-aged man with long greasy hair and wearing dark-coloured robes just flopped to the ground, and underneath him, a shocking puddle of blood-red was spreading in all directions.

Lily stood in front of Snape's body holding her wand like a stone statue, she didn't move a muscle, so much so that one couldn't even feel her breathing, she just quietly lowered her head and looked at the ground that had gradually become ice-cold with her back bent.

Jon didn't say anything either.

After he came in, he silently turned around and closed the door, keeping this drama from being revealed to the public outside, just keeping such an eventual outcome under the radar of the two people.

Such silence lasted for a long time, and the air, because it remained still for so long, could even allow one to perceive the dust that flew in the air with one's heart.

Until Lily's slightly hoarse voice rang out in this enclosed space.

"The hardest thing to change in this world is actually a person."

"Words will always be powerless, only the facts that have already happened can allow one to sum up the lesson, but what's the use at that time?"

"Can the forgiveness of others really overshadow the mistake itself? Never, a mistake is a mistake, no matter how much one apologises, makes amends or covers up the mistake with another mistake, there is no way to amend the reality that the mistake has already been made."

"Wizards are emotional because magic requires us to be emotional, but everything I was exposed to before I became an emotional wizard told me that objectivity has no way of being altered by one's subjectivity. Magic turns the matter upside down, but it's ultimately not omnipotent."

She looked up at Jon, there was no thrill or excitement much less hatred or anger on that face, she was still as calm, as calm as if today was as normal as every other day, she and Jon were continuing to search for Snape and were now planning what kind of lunch they should have for noon.

"A lot of people think I'm only alive for revenge now, Jon."

She ended the sentence that she wasn't sure if she was talking to herself or not.

"But actually there are times when I wonder whether what I'm trying to do isn't so much about revenge as it is about continuing to live for the sake of the people who are dead. All that talk about how James and Harry must want me to live happily, safely and joyfully is really just self-deception, how can it be about continuing to live for the sake of the dead? The only thing to do is to make sure that there are still people in the world who can remember them. So I have to find Wormtail, I have to find Snape, I have to find Voldemort, so that they will always know that there is still a living woman who will be constantly thinking of them, and the reason for doing so is because they were once involved in the deaths of a father and son, a father and son who will become the names that they will never forget because there is someone who will never forget them. They can't afford to forget their names, because someone else is living in their place."

"The progress is now complete by two."

Lily knelt down in front of Snape's body.

"Can you do me one more favour?"

Jon saw what she was trying to do and nodded while walking over to Snape's body. The two of them lifted him one by one, and then Lily used Apparition.

In the next moment, their figures disappeared from the room, and they reappeared at the sea cliff where countless tombstones stood.

The weather here was perfect, the wet and salty sea breeze with warm sunshine sprinkled on this graveyard, with the sound of the waves lapping on the reef for company.

Lily had obviously memorised the location of the two large and small tombstones in her mind, and she led Jon to the front of the tombstones after the Apparition manifested without half a hitch.

And right beside them was a small patch of scattered white bones, a skull was erected at the very top of this white bone, the sea breeze had blown this bone apart, but it was still vaguely evident that the owner of the bone was in a kneeling position to those two tombstones as he had maintained his posture before his flesh and blood had been completely decayed.

Instead of having Snape's body kneeling against the headstones of the Potter father and son, as she had done with Wormtail before, Lily just laid him flat in front of the headstones.

The sea breeze ruffled her long red hair, and the white seagulls made a chorus of what sounded like sad birdsong over the sea not far away.

"I didn't kill him."

Lily sat down in front of the headstone, hugging her knees and hiding the lower half of her face in her legs.

"He broke his own wand before he came to me, from start to finish he never meant to hurt me, the only reason he found me was to ask for death."

One by one Jon was cleaning the bird droppings and stains off the tombstones around him while repairing some of the ones that had been weathered.

He didn't bother to listen to what Lily went on about, families always had to have some privacy and Jon knew when he should have to keep the necessary distance.

"He never wronged me, and he never did anything wrong to you either, the only person he wronged was Harry."

"So I killed him for Harry, James. I hope that's something you won't hold against me, just like I said to him, when something is done wrong it's wrong, and that goes for you as well. But the last things he said, calling me a mudblood for the second time, I know what he was after."

"He didn't want to make me feel bad about something like his equivalent of suicide after begging for death like that, so he did what he could to lay the groundwork for his own death. It was very thoughtful of him, and I appreciate the sentiment, but really, even if he hadn't put on such a show, I wouldn't have felt any guilt or sadness."

Lily spoke quietly as if they were still sitting together as a family, with James just finishing a glass of brandy and whining, Harry happily sitting in his baby chair shaking the magical toddler toy that Sirius had given him, and Lily counting off all the wrongs her husband had done, and the people she herself had encountered today.

"I'm divided on the fact that one can't treat other people as things they've visualised and filled out, that would subconsciously glorify or worsen them as much as possible. I miss and remember everything Snape helped me with as a child, but that can only be a fond memory. The Severus of that time was not the Snape who made it to Hogwarts afterwards, and just as I have often told you, people are the most complex creatures, good and bad are never absolute, but bad should never be masked over by good."

"What I once promised in front of you is now one person short. It was he who killed you all with his own hands, and I have no way of guaranteeing that I will surely bring back his body as I did today, that man has done more unforgivable things, and our family is just a small reflection of what he has done in his life, and the current Order of the Phoenix has become what it is today because of the many people like me, and like you all. But even with all these people together, it still wouldn't be safe to say that we could successfully kill him one hundred percent at this stage of the war, it's hard, but a lot of people are trying to do it, just like this graveyard is expanding every year, and the headstones keep getting taller and taller as if they can grow on their own."

Lily spoke calmly, but at some point, two tear stains appeared on her face.

"The tragedies we've already been through can't continue, James, Harry, the people who died for this shouldn't continue to show up, there are so many children waiting behind us, waiting to see magic, to be exposed to a peaceful wizarding community. Every corpse in this land carries more than just the vengeance that they spoke of, more than just that kind of hatred."

"There is also the future, all the hope each of us has for the future."

"I hope you know that I feel the same way, always have."

Just as Lily was talking, Jon was standing on the edge of the cliff.

He looked out over the sea in the distance, his mind unbelievably empty at this moment in time, thinking of nothing as the sea breeze blew the fine strands of hair from his forehead and the hem of his robes.

The midday sun was slowly shifting to the west, just as everything in the world goes on, in a cycle that never changes.

***

"The sun is really nice today, isn't it?"

The body belonging to the original "Coulibaly" witch was leaning back on a bench, squinting at the sun that was slanting westward a little bit from the highest altitude.

Three metres in front of her, a male wizard was trembling on the ground, not daring to raise his head, not to mention not knowing how to open his mouth to answer such a question.

"But even if the sun is nice, it's just as unfair." The witch's voice did not seem soft, but rather somewhat neutral and cold, "Not everything on the ground can experience its warmth, large trees can, mountains can, oceans can, but this grass-covered dirt we are stepping on underneath our feet, they can't."

The male wizard buried his head even lower as if he could not wait to be immersed in this land that had never been warmed by the sun.

"So why is it that some people just don't want to go to the sky, the cloud is always under the shine of the sun, but everything in the world can perceive its thunderstorms and storms, so why does he want to get close to the dirt on the ground?"

"I gave him the chance to go and be a cloud, all the time, a reward for the best decision he had made once, but he never knew how to appreciate it, and was even willing to die for such dirt?"

"Coulibaly" laughed softly, smiling, as if she was angered, yet there was no way that the word anger could be used to call the expression on her face and the words that came out of her mouth.

The male wizard knew he couldn't remain mute. No matter what, he had to say something.

"There are some people who cannot appreciate your kindness, my lord! You have been kind to him! He is the one to blame for all this!"

The witch picked up a cup of black tea, it was like she loved this flavour since 'he' had switched to this identity, the warm liquid soothing certain physiological sensations that had no way of being changed.

"I have no problem with him taking responsibility for his past, but he gave that item to Dumbledore."

"My lord I will do my best to get it back!" The male wizard gritted his teeth, "They certainly haven't left Britain by now. We've traced their Apparition trail, and although their drop point is strongly shielded, I'm sure someone within the Ministry of Magic will figure it out soon!"

To this, he was met with a cold reply.

"I hate empty words, you've been with me long enough to know that. If you really could do something like this, then you wouldn't have me as your lord."

The male wizard's body trembled, unsure of how to give a new promise.

The witch shook her head in disappointment as she put down the teacup she had held and put on her wide-brimmed pointy hat as she rose from her chair.

"It's given to Dumbledore as far as things go, now I don't care what you tell the other me, but take control of the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic as fast as you can, all the Unspeakable who can be bribed should be bribed, and those who can't, let them have accidents of their own, and then replace all of them with people who belong to us. The work of the Department of Mysteries will continue as usual, and you will do whatever the Ministry of Magic tells you to do, but those things that have already ceased to be functional will be guarded, and if there are any special circumstances, they will be thrown behind the curtains of the Hall of the Dead. That's a small thing, you will be able to do it, won't you?"

The male wizard replied loudly and firmly.

"There are countless purebloods who miss your arrival! You alone are our lord! Your commands are the direction in which each and every one of us is headed."

He patted himself on the back of his head, and as he said this, he suddenly seemed to think of something else and carefully paused for a moment before he opened his mouth to ask hesitantly.

"But about Barty Crouch's end. We've tried to contact him, but he has never made his intentions clear, and since he is so trusted by the other you, I wonder if it is necessary for you to approach him to let him know to whom he should really give his loyalty?"

"Coulibaly" was all that was left of 'him', with her back turned towards the sun.

"Don't bother with him at all with anything, just pretend that there never has been such a person."

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