Fragments of memory surged like a tide, he seemed to see scenes from his childhood.
Still the same house, still the same people...
Mom held bread and wine in her hands, distributing food to the guests.
"Chongchong, have some more bread."
Harry saw the complexity in his mother's eyes, a sigh, yet seemed filled with sorrow.
"Maybe... you won't be able to eat the bread I bake with my own hands in the future."
He saw the chubby young man sob with a nod.
The memory jumped again, he heard his father's anxious shouting.
"Go! Lily! Go quickly!"
Then, the sound of a body heavily falling on the stairs.
He sat in the cradle, facing his mother whose face was filled with resolution.
"Harry, mom loves you, dad loves you, mom hopes you will live safely, healthily, and strongly... mom loves you, my darling..."
A voice like a shriek sounded, the green light filled the whole room.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Unknown to how much time had passed, he saw a young Snape walk into his room.
Upon seeing Lily's corpse on the ground, he collapsed, disbelief turning into regret, then despair.
This was the first time Harry saw Snape shed tears, even when humiliated by being hung up by dad, he never saw Snape cry...
"No! Lily!"
He hugged Lily's body, shouting hoarsely.
At some point, Harry found Snape was already gone.
Outside his door, another voice driven by grief sounded.
"Fork! Fork!"
After a while, as if that person had cried enough, Harry heard him standing up.
"I'm going to kill him! I'm going to kill him!"
...
"Harry! Harry!"
Vivi's voice echoed in Harry's ears.
He came back to his senses, at some moment, tears had already covered his cheeks.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." muttered Vivi, "Harry... I have no other way..."
Harry remained silent, the scene of Voldemort murdering his parents still vivid in his mind.
Vivi was quite at a loss seeing Harry like this for the first time.
Just as she thought Harry would demand accountability, he unexpectedly spoke first.
"Vivi, I don't blame you." he said, "In fact, without your help I wouldn't have survived... neither my mom nor dad was a match for Voldemort."
Unable to hold back, Vivi on the portrait covered her face, crying in anguish.
"Perhaps this magic spell is also the reason I can travel through time," he said, "If it hadn't been for those years at Hogwarts a century ago, I wouldn't have met friends from the Phoenix Society, and maybe facing Voldemort a few days ago, I would've been killed by him—"
"I wouldn't have met you either," he said.
In a moment, Villatia's eyes softened like water.
"Harry..."
"Urgently, we need to rescue you," Harry looked up, saying to Vivi, "I think I should act quicker—you know where the snake monster is?"
Vivi hesitated slightly, seemed to be thinking.
After a long pause, she spoke to Harry: "Back when we were at Hogwarts, I heard someone in Hogsmeade saying that in Greece they were breeding this creature—but a hundred years have passed, and the regulations on magical creatures have become stricter, I don't know where you might find a snake monster now."
Hearing this, Harry recalled that when he was in Hogsmeade, villagers indeed discussed the issue of snake monsters, even the newspapers at the time reported on them.
At that time, he didn't mind much, as he was merely a Gryffindor, without any serpent obsession—even though he could speak Serpent Tongue.
Mentioning the discovery of Serpent Tongue, it was related to Omnius—for this reason, Omnius once pulled Harry to do a blood test, to see whether this child might be a lost descendant of the Gaunt family.
It wasn't that he wanted Harry to find his roots, after all, that perverted atmosphere of the Gaunt family, Omnius didn't want Harry to be involved—he just sincerely wished for a more normal brother.
The result slightly disappointed him, yet was a relief; from then on, Omnius and Harry became much closer.
Harry nodded, indicating understanding: "I got it, leave this matter to me—don't worry, we'll meet again soon..."
"Yes," Vivi asked again: "Are the others okay? You know, I left the school shortly after you disappeared and didn't get any news of them."
"No, I... I only know Gareth has passed away." Harry said a bit dejectedly.
"Time is the most merciless existence." Vivi seemed to be lamenting.
Harry suddenly added: "By the way Vivi, I saw Pabi, do you remember her—the Hufflepuff Pabi Swedding?"
"Of course I remember, she helped hang this portrait in the Map Secret Room after all." Villatia said softly.
"But... she didn't seem to be in a good state, when I saw her, she was being chased by Voldemort, it was me who rescued her-"
At this, Harry recalled Pabi was now a unicorn, so he said to Vivi: "Oh, Pabi learned Magic Animagus, she turned into a unicorn and can no longer become human..."
Momentary silence lingered between them.
"Indeed, she used that magic spell..." Villatia's expression was complex as she gazed at Harry, "I had warned her long before, Transformation Magic Animagus is very dangerous, even for a long-lived magical creature like a unicorn, it's not something ordinary people can achieve easily."