Snape's expression and voice were both very wrong.
This was completely different from the Snape in Sherlock's memory—the one who was gloomy all day, looking as though someone owed him a fortune and he would never find a wife in his lifetime!
There was no longer any gloom or malice in his eyes. Instead, they were filled with hope.
Sherlock stared at him. This version of Snape made him feel very uneasy, so he frowned and asked,
"What is wrong with you?"
"What is wrong with me..." Snape actually laughed. "I am excellent! Cavendish! Thank you! Truly, thank you very much!"
It was getting increasingly bizarre.
Sherlock watched Snape's smile—it wasn't a sneer or a malicious grin, but a genuinely happy expression of true gratitude—and he began to feel more and more apprehensive.
"What are you planning? Shouldn't we be thinking about how to get back now?"
"Go back?" Snape said softly, meeting Sherlock's gaze. "Why go back?"
"Are you planning to stay here forever?" Sherlock asked, enunciating every word.
"Why not?" Snape breathed out, relaxed. "This is the best world for me! A world where she is still alive, and I still have a chance to save her!"
Sherlock immediately caught the key point in Snape's words.
"'She'? Which she? Do you mean Harry's mother?"
"In 1977, she isn't his mother yet!"(TN: She isn't even 18 at this point.)
Snape said calmly.
In an instant, Sherlock's mind cleared, and he understood exactly what this greasy-haired old man wanted to do!
He recalled what Lupin had told him before.
The reason Snape resented James so much back then, besides the bullying, was that Harry's mother had ultimately chosen Harry's father instead of him!
So, this guy was now trying to steal her away from him!
By making himself Harry's father!
Sherlock stared at him with wide eyes.
"You want to woo Harry's mum!"
Snape said irritably, "I said, she is not anyone's mother right now!"
"Shut up! Do you know the consequences of doing this?" Sherlock glared at him intensely. "As a Hogwarts Professor, you should know that time cannot be trifled with, and history that has already happened cannot be changed! We should only be thinking about finding a way to return to our own timeline, not staying here so you can steal someone else's wife!"
"She is not anyone's mother or wife!" Snape suddenly roared. "What history! What time! Since I was able to come back here, it means fate has given me this chance! I am going to change all of this! No one can stop me!"
Sherlock looked at Snape as if he were looking at an unreasonable madman.
"Then what were you doing back then? A chance to start over? Snape, you should have read the records about time travellers. You know what happened to those who tried to change history. None of them had a good ending! Things in the past cannot be changed; that is the law of the world! People shouldn't live in the past forever. This time doesn't belong to us because another pair of us are living here. All we can do is make the future better, not get trapped in that damn past!"
Snape looked at him coldly.
"Of course you would say that, because you can no longer change anything. Your mother is already dead in this time! You can't change anything yourself, which is why you say such things!"
Sherlock's face darkened.
Snape's words went too far. Even though Sherlock didn't have any feelings for the original owner's mother, he was still provoked by them and grabbed Snape by the collar.
"I'll say it again! We need to find a way back! If you were the only one here, I wouldn't care how you courted death! But now I'm here with you! If you do something you shouldn't, I'll be implicated too!"
"Then why did you bring me to this time? Is it fun to let me see hope and then not let me pursue it?"
"You think I wanted to? You've got the nerve to say that! You're a Hogwarts Professor, Harry and the others' teacher! But what did you do? For your own petty vendetta, to take revenge on Lupin and Sirius, you would rather let Lupin transform into a werewolf in front of them than give him the Wolfsbane Potion! If you had even an ounce of responsibility as a teacher, you wouldn't have ended up like this!"
"What do you know! Do you know what they did to me at school?" Snape roared. "Not only am I going to win Lily back here! I am also going to take revenge on them here! Let them know what regret is!"
Sherlock finally lost his patience. He punched Snape hard in the face, knocking him to the ground!
Snape was dazed by the sudden blow, and blood poured uncontrollably from his nose.
Sherlock pinned him firmly to the ground. Snape struggled constantly, but as someone who spent the entire year in the dungeon researching Potions, he was no match for Sherlock, who was young, strong, and exercised every day.
"Do you really think there is a regret pill in this world!"
"Now is the time when I can make things right!"
"The result will only be worse!" Sherlock gritted his teeth and punched Snape in the face again. "If you really want to make amends, the right thing to do is to be better to her son! Not this cowardly kind of regret!"
"You don't understand anything!"
"You're right! I don't understand! But I know I want to go back to our original time!"
In less than a moment, Snape had been beaten until his face was covered in a mixture of snot, tears, and blood.
Watching Snape cover his head and stop struggling or resisting, Sherlock no longer had the heart to beat some sense into him.
He got off Snape, panting. He had cast spells continuously during the time travel, and with the recent exertion, his stamina had been depleted quickly, leaving his body utterly exhausted.
Sherlock sat down beside Snape. Snape covered his face with his hands, acting as though he had been beaten to death, motionless and silent.
Both of them breathed heavily, and after a moment of silence—
"Fine, let's both calm down," Sherlock said, steadying his breathing.
Snape turned his head away, as though he didn't want to hear him speak.
"I know you have your own wishes." Sherlock looked at the white clouds drifting across the sky and said, "Although I can't understand them, I can support part of your idea. For example, letting you meet Harry's mother in this world first."
"Her name is Lily Evans," the corpse-like Snape said abruptly.
Sherlock chose to make a partial concession.
"Fine, Lily Evans. Since you want to see her so much, then meet her first. After that, we'll discuss what happens next."
Snape used his robe sleeve to wipe the snot, tears, and blood from his face, then extended a hand towards Sherlock and said coldly,
"Give me back my wand."
"Don't even think about it." Sherlock stood up. "Before we settle this and reach a consensus, I'm not giving it back."
"Then how am I supposed to see Lily?" Snape also sat up. He looked miserable now; apart from that foul face, there wasn't a trace of the former Slytherin Head left.
After hearing that Sherlock was willing to help him meet Lily first, Snape's emotions were no longer as extreme or violent, and he finally became willing to communicate.
Sherlock, of course, knew this was only because he didn't have his wand.
If Sherlock hadn't taken it away at the beginning, Snape would already have run to Lily's doorstep by now.
"I agree to let you see her, but from now on, you must follow my arrangements." Sherlock stared at him. "Let's put our disagreements aside for now. Given the current situation, we're in the same boat, so we first need to find out what we brought with us."
Because it was Sherlock who proposed it, he was the first to take out all his belongings.
He removed the magic bag that had been enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm and, in front of Snape, emptied its contents onto the ground.
Besides the two hundred wands, there was a bottle of Felix Felicis that Slughorn had given him earlier, the Philosopher's Stone fragment obtained from Nicolas Flamel, several bottles of pre-prepared Sorrow Potion, some other useful Potions, a bag of Galleons, and a few magic books.
Watching Sherlock lay out all his belongings, Snape silently took out a bag that had clearly also been enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm.
He didn't empty it like Sherlock. Instead, he carefully removed the items one by one.
Soon, countless Potion bottles were lined up in front of him.
His face was expressionless, but swollen and bruised from Sherlock's punches, he could no longer manage his usual cold, sour expression.
"Do you need me to introduce them one by one?"
Sherlock looked at the colourful Potions and waved a hand.
"No need. Just tell me whether you prepared any Polyjuice Potion in advance."
Snape looked up at him, then pulled out a Potion stored in a kettle from the pile.
"This is it. Just put a hair into it, and it can be used."
"Then do you remember where we are now?" Sherlock asked.
Snape narrowed his eyes. He wasn't reminiscing, merely answering reluctantly.
"A street in Cokeworth called Spinner's End. I didn't leave there for the entire summer after my sixth year. Lily should still be there."
"Good." Sherlock extended a hand towards Snape. "Let's go. Our first stop is Cokeworth."
Snape ignored Sherlock's offered hand and climbed to his feet with a cold expression.
"Scourgify."
Sherlock didn't care. He shrugged and pointed his wand at Snape. The dirt vanished instantly, leaving his clothes looking as good as new.
Because this was a period Sherlock had never experienced himself, they couldn't Apparate directly to their destination.
Snape might have been able to, but Sherlock certainly wasn't going to let him get his hands on a wand.
In the British wizarding world, however, besides Floo Powder, Apparition, and Portkeys, there was a fourth means of travel.
Sherlock extended his wand straight out to the side, like a Muggle hailing a taxi.
Not long afterwards, a purple triple-decker bus suddenly appeared on the endless country lane, racing towards Sherlock and Snape without slowing down.