When Sherlock returned from the Headmaster's Office, Snape was still standing alone outside the door.
His expression was calm, appearing as if he had no psychological turmoil on the surface, but his eyes, staring blankly at the ceiling in a daze, had long since exposed his unsettled heart.
"Have you thought about what you're going to say when you meet later?" Sherlock asked casually.
Snape didn't look at him, but spoke up unexpectedly.
"I won't see her for now."
Sherlock immediately raised his eyebrows.
"Why not see her now? Haven't you been waiting for this moment all these days in the past? Are you afraid she'll find out how you treated Harry? You just need to tell her the truth—that you did it to save Harry's life—and she will definitely understand."
However, Snape said no more, simply turning around expressionlessly, preparing to leave.
As he brushed past Sherlock, he suddenly said a sentence.
"I owe you one."
Sherlock watched his receding back along the corridor and muttered softly.
"Hypocrite."
Inside the office, Lily and Harry had just met, and naturally had countless things they wanted to say.
Harry glossed over his time at the Dursley family vaguely, focusing mainly on his experiences after entering Hogwarts.
He talked about meeting his two friends, Ron and Hermione, and how all the Professors in the Castle were very good.
He also recounted his experiences over these three academic years, continuing until he reached the point of reuniting with Sirius this year and discovering that Peter was the true traitor. Sherlock, timing it just right, pushed the door open and entered the office.
Seeing Sherlock walk in, Harry immediately introduced him to Lily excitedly.
"Mom, this is Professor Cavendish I told you about. He's the best Professor at Hogwarts, and he's also the one who let me see you."
Lily, floating in mid-air with a completely transparent body, turned to look at Sherlock, her beautiful face showing a grateful expression.
"Thank you for taking care of Harry all these years, and for allowing me to see him today."
The current Lily maintained the appearance she had before her death.
She looked a bit more mature than the Lily Sherlock had seen back in the past, but the change in appearance wasn't significant.
After all, she and Harry's father, James, married right after graduation and had Harry shortly after. When she finally died, she was about the same age as Sherlock is now.
Sherlock waved his hand, taking no credit for the matter.
"I am Harry's teacher, it's only right to look after him. As for letting you see Harry again, the person you should thank most is Snape. If he hadn't kept begging me with that miserable look on his face, I wouldn't have thought of helping you."
Although that old hypocrite didn't know what to say to the current Lily, they had shared hardships after all, so Sherlock didn't mind mentioning it to give him a hand.
To his words, not just Lily, but Harry reacted much more violently, crying out in surprise.
"Snape!"
Lily had been a clever person during her life; otherwise, she wouldn't have gained Slughorn's favour.
"Professor Cavendish, was it you and Snape who helped me together?"
Hearing the way she addressed Snape, Sherlock couldn't help but sigh inwardly, though it was only natural.
The current Lily had already lived through the period when that Snape joined the Death Eaters and committed crimes in the Wizarding World; she had likely given up on him completely long ago.
"To put it simply, Snape and I returned to the past due to some accidents. I was looking for a way back, and he was looking for a way to save you. Then I helped him out, using the later developments of history to create a magic that prevented you from dying quite so completely before your death."
Sherlock truly made a long story short, summarising the situation in just a few sentences.
And just from hearing this, Lily stared blankly at a spot, and before long, she had guessed the gist of the matter.
"That Professor Slughorn was him..."
"And the one crying his eyes out in front of your window that summer night, begging for your forgiveness, was also him."
Sherlock said with a curl of his lip. There was nothing to hide; Snape couldn't say it himself, so Sherlock naturally had no reservations.
Lily's expression was complicated, making it impossible to tell her current mood.
"He... left the Death Eaters later?"
"No matter how much you advised him while you were alive, it was useless. It was only after you died that he truly repented... well, maybe not exactly repented, but he finally understood some things. Afterward, he came to Hogwarts, where he became the Potions Professor and the Slytherin Dean."
As he spoke, Sherlock gave Harry a meaningful look.
"Of course, due to certain relationships, he treats Harry quite poorly. He's a rather unfair Professor, but he's always much better than the Snape you knew before."
Sherlock spoke the truth about everything regarding Snape, neither over-praising nor overly disparaging him.
Simply telling the truth was already a huge favour to Snape; as for what would happen when the two met later or how their relationship would be handled, that was not Sherlock's concern.
Harry was caught between surprise and confusion.
He was surprised that Sherlock and Snape's disappearance was actually them returning to the past together, and confused because he didn't understand the matters regarding Snape.
He had heard that Snape seemed to have some sort of feelings for his mother, but he didn't know anything beyond that.
After saying everything that could be said, Sherlock gave Harry and Lily a serious reminder.
"I have awakened you, but your current form is still very dangerous. Because it hasn't been tested, we don't yet know what kind of spells can affect you, nor how long you can remain in this state. So, every day, do not stay out of the protective magic on Harry for too long—an hour or two is about right. Furthermore, this matter must be kept secret; do not even tell Ron and Hermione."
Regarding Sherlock's instructions, Harry naturally took them to heart with a solemn face.
"Thank you, Professor Cavendish," he thanked Sherlock with utmost sincerity.
Just this, of course, was not enough to repay Sherlock for everything he had done to help, so Harry could only keep it in his heart, waiting for an opportunity to repay him.
After Harry and Lily left, Sherlock lay back in his chair, completely relaxed.
Returning to Hogwarts finally allowed his long-strained mood to ease.
But it was only a temporary relaxation.
At the moment before returning from the Department of Mysteries, although Lord Voldemort hadn't caused him any harm, that overwhelming black mist had truly shocked Sherlock.
This was the first time he had seen a top-tier figure in the Wizarding World take action.
Sherlock didn't know what effects that black mist had, but when it surged around him like crashing ocean waves, he could clearly feel that even if he could cast five hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand spells at once, he would have no way to break through that mist.
This was no longer something that could be countered by stacking numbers; the gap in magic and spells was too vast, and no amount of quantity could fill it.
Thinking that if Lord Voldemort made a comeback in the future, with his own current meddling at Hogwarts, whether the final outcome would still be the same as in the original story remained unknown.
This made Sherlock's desire to strengthen his own power even more urgent.
There are no shortcuts in the study of magic; no matter how diligent he was or how high his talent, he couldn't possibly match the decades of magical accumulation of people like Lord Voldemort and Dumbledore.
However, the uniqueness of transmigrating ultimately left Sherlock a way to quickly bridge these gaps.
By merging the dead remnant soul of the Original Owner with his own soul, making the soul origin powerful, the magic he cast would naturally become powerful as well.
Furthermore, there was the Control Magic that came with a powerful soul. Sherlock always felt its function was far more than just controlling a wand to cast spells; it could be explored much more deeply.
To do all this, Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes were a necessity.
In other words, a Horcrux was like a Great Restoration Pill for Sherlock—eating one could increase his power by fifty years—and he had already eaten one.
He had mastered Control Magic without a teacher, and the spells he released were much more powerful than before.
Lord Voldemort certainly had more than one Horcrux, which meant Sherlock still had many opportunities left.
Besides, Sherlock wasn't the only one who wanted to find the Horcruxes; Dumbledore was even more urgent about it than he was.
One of the most important gains from this journey to the past was that he had learned a clue about one of the Horcruxes.
Leaning against the back of his chair, Sherlock sipped his tea while staring at the ceiling in a daze.
Because Lupin's identity had been exposed, he could no longer stay at Hogwarts after last night. Sherlock, who originally only needed to grade the final exam results for the sixth year, now had a heavier task, as he had to take over the four year levels Lupin had been substitute teaching.
But he was still in no hurry, his mind occupied with unknown thoughts. After staring blankly for a long time, he murmured to himself.
"Where did that little girl Amy go?"
...
A day before Hogwarts officially began its holidays, in Dumbledore's Headmaster's Office, Hilke sat quietly before Dumbledore.
Dumbledore looked at the young girl before him, who wore a hood that covered most of her face, and did not hide the confusion in his gaze.
"Why the sudden desire to teach at Hogwarts, Miss Hilke?"
Over the past decade or so, Hilke had returned to Hogwarts once a year to visit a grave. Although Dumbledore hadn't interacted with her much, he understood her personality well enough and had never imagined that one day she would be sitting before him applying for a job.
Hilke said plainly.
"There is no particular reason; I just want a change of scenery."
"Did the German Ministry of Magic agree to your resignation?"
Dumbledore's influence was not limited to Britain; he had some understanding of the internal affairs of most European Ministries of Magic and was well aware of Hilke's status within the German Ministry of Magic.
Hilke nodded slightly.
"If there are no vacant positions at Hogwarts, I can accept a substitute or temporary professorship."
Hearing her say this, Dumbledore found it increasingly bizarre.
Why would she be unwilling to stay at the perfectly good German Ministry of Magic, even refusing the future opportunity to take over an entire Department of Mysteries, and instead insist on coming to Hogwarts as a substitute Professor?
Even someone as wise as Dumbledore couldn't figure out the issue, but he didn't necessarily have to.
He naturally knew what capabilities Hilke possessed and was clear about her character, so he had no resistance to her wanting to teach at Hogwarts.
Dumbledore said with a smile.
"This year, the Arithmancy Professor, Septima Vector, submitted her resignation to me. She's grown a bit weary of the teaching life and wants to go out and travel. I hadn't found a suitable candidate before and wanted to persuade her to stay for a few more years until I had someone. Now that you want to teach at Hogwarts, Septima can have her wish."
Arithmancy can be considered a branch of Divination.
However, compared to the abstract divination techniques of Divination like tea leaves, crystal balls, and astrology, this discipline uses numbers and diagrams, appearing much more systematic.
But a divination art related to mathematics couldn't be very simple, especially for Wizards who were inherently not rational enough.
Only Hermione's interest in this subject far exceeded others, and she even believed that those vague divinations based entirely on guesswork weren't even fit to hold a candle to it.
Hilke was not surprised and immediately nodded to accept the position.
Her main area of study in the Department of Mysteries was prophecy and divination; she possessed absolutely professional knowledge in both conventional divination and the Arithmancy that had only risen in popularity over the last century.
And just as Hilke found Dumbledore to apply for the job, Sherlock also arrived in Diagon Alley in disguise.
He looked like a middle-aged Wizard, thin of build, pale-faced, with cold eyes and an arrogant expression—the look of an evil Dark Wizard who spent all his time at home researching who-knows-what Dark Arts.
After coming to Diagon Alley from the Leaky Cauldron, he didn't stop anywhere else, but headed with a clear goal towards the white building in the centre of the street.
Gringotts was very busy every day. As the only bank in the Wizarding World, these Goblins were responsible for many services, not just providing vaults.
The Goblin Ragnuk, who had once received Harry Potter in his first year, had just finished an exchange transaction when another Goblin led an arrogant-looking Wizard to him.
"Someone has come claiming to be of the Lestrange Family, wanting to go to Vault 18 to retrieve something. You handle it."
Ragnuk put down the tea he was about to pick up and nodded to the other Goblin. Only after he left did Ragnuk look the middle-aged Wizard claiming to be from the Lestrange Family up and down.
"Lestrange Family? That wizarding family... I recall they're all locked up in Azkaban, aren't they?" Ragnuk said suspiciously. "Do you have a key?"
Sherlock gave a disdainful sneer.
"You just worry about taking me inside."