What does it mean... the door can't be opened from this side?
Can someone explain what it means when the damn door can't be opened from the damn side?
Which idiot taught you to do this?
For some reason, when Snape saw those characters, he inexplicably felt himself heating up—he instinctively twisted the door handle again, and the next moment, the solid wooden door and the surrounding stone wall vanished without warning, causing the overexerted man to fall straight forward—
"Boom—"
His face came into close contact with the dirt, and the pain in his nose made him curse out loud.
"This is..."
Professor Flitwick, who was standing beside William, blinked surprisingly. He instinctively thought that William was using a charm to prank Snape, but quickly realized that William seemed not to have used any magic when the wooden door disappeared, merely standing with arms crossed and smiling contentedly.
"Professor, I said this place is absolutely safe."
William sighed, then raised his hand and snapped his fingers lightly. Professor Flitwick and Snape suddenly felt their vision blur, then they opened their dry eyes... Wait, opened eyes?
Professor Flitwick instantly realized something was amiss; his gaze swiftly scanned the surroundings. Everything was unchanged, with the woods around the lawn and the snow-capped mountains in the distance looking the same as before, and the door that had disappeared reappeared. Snape hadn't opened it yet, sitting against the wall with dark eyes clouded.
The confusion didn't lessen, and the short professor's gaze turned to the lawn just now. It was now crowded, with little wizards sprawled all over, while Granger and Diggory, who had been following William, were using Levitating Spells to move these students—
Lying on the ground was ultimately somewhat unseemly, especially since everyone fell in different directions, with many piled together.
Hermione and Cedric were transporting them to rows of deck chairs long prepared on the lawn's other side.
"What exactly is going on?"
Professor Flitwick curiously leaned over, dubiously waving his magic wand and snatching Neville Longbottom from Granger's delivery process. He checked for breath, touched the forehead, pinched the nose, and finally concluded—"They're... asleep?"
"How did you do it?"
Having realized this, Professor Flitwick couldn't help turning to William, his pale blue eyes filled with bewilderment.
He had just been asleep too, yet completely unaware, likely requiring a long time to discover the anomaly if not for Snape opening the door or William revealing the answer—the charm causing such an effect was unheard of.
"The scent of Narcissus and Wormwood... it's Draught of the Living Death."
Snape twitched his nose, which still ached, furrowing his brow, quickly analyzing the strange smell in the air and immediately appearing extremely unpleasant. He, like Professor Flitwick, hadn't noticed anything earlier.
And that was when he was highly wary of William.
Suddenly, a blurry memory buried deep resonated within Snape's mind. Like a slideshow, fleeting images flashed before him, his already dreadful expression glooming further—
Good, now he remembered his reason for disliking William.
He knew about Lily...
"Enough, don't look, I'm not interested in other people's love stories—"
Noticing Snape's gaze, William sighed and silently added in his mind, except for Dumbledore's.
"..."
Snape's mood didn't improve, even recalling the circumstances that led to forgetting that experience—a master of Occlumency, Snape couldn't forget those dream memories like Harry and Hermione, even though Hermione had completely forgotten about the incident recently.
William's influence on him was limited, the final effect merely rendering the memory of the dream blurry.
Forcibly breaking through Snape's Occlumency was an option, but would harm his soul and brain, akin to the Armenian wizard repeatedly subjected to Forgetfulness Spells by Lockhart, who now suffered severe memory deterioration, an aftermath even St Mungo's couldn't remedy.
But William and Snape weren't adversaries, just mutually irritated.
No point in turning Snape into an old man incoherently mumbling irrelevantly.
Thus, Snape opted to forget this memory, sealing it with Occlumency, simply because although he wanted to see Lily, the memory included James and Harry, happily together as a family...
When sealing this memory, recollections of William's Dream Magic were also locked away, only just resurfacing.
"There's also some buffer, a more potent version, haven't you noticed the scent of Sneezewort?"
Seeing Snape's expression finally easing, guessing the man had internally reconciled, William shook his head, hinting at the scent.