HP: It's a snake, not a badger.

Chapter 153 The First Day of Summer Vacation

Severus threw a stack of papers at Emeric, telling him to continue the story as agreed upon yesterday.

"Cough cough, Professor, don't be so irritable. I'll pay you back once I'm healed." Emeric clutched his chest, a trickle of blood escaping from the corner of his mouth. His current situation was that he had been betrayed by his own people and was hiding here to recover from his injuries in order to save his life.

"Ha, get out."

"Shall I trade this for you?" Emeric offered a unicorn horn. "I think a unicorn horn is enough to secure the protection of a Potions Master, isn't it?"

Severus's eyes flickered as he stared at the horn. After a moment, he agreed, "Okay, but you can't go upstairs. Once you've recovered from your injuries, get out of my house."

"Thank you very much, Professor." Emeric forced a bow, his pale face unable to conceal his inherent pride.

"Okay, go wash your face." Severus put away his indifferent expression, reached out and pinched Emeric's cheek, wiping the ketchup from the corner of his mouth.

"I want a kiss, you scared me just now!" Emeric took advantage of the situation, hugging Severus's waist and acting coquettishly, even trying to smear the powder from his face onto Severus's face.

"Stop being coquettish, wash yourself clean before you touch me."

"Okay, okay~"

Seeing Severus leaning back, Emeric quickly turned his face away, and only released his grip on him after Severus regained his balance. They fabricated a memory to explain why Emeric was in his house.

"Hmm..."

Emeric's face was still wet with water droplets, and he kissed Severus without wiping them off. Severus tacitly approved of his unrestrained behavior; kissing someone you like is truly wonderful. The only drawback was that Emeric would kiss for a long time each time, and even with Severus's indulgence, he couldn't stand the numbness in his lips.

"call..."

After wiping the saliva from the corner of his mouth, Severus stood up and went upstairs, feeling that if he stayed any longer, Emeric would pester him for a kiss again soon.

By the time Emeric brought the fruit upstairs, Severus was already engrossed in his experiment. His recent research topic was soul stabilization. Given Voldemort's current state, he would be forced to conduct research sooner or later, so he might as well get started now and be prepared when the opportunity arose.

"Pop~"

Emeric kissed Severus on the cheek, placed the fruit plate on the small coffee table next to him, and said, "Take a break before you start. I baked a cake to eat later." He wrapped his arms around Severus's waist, nuzzled his face, and pressed his entire body against Severus's back.

"Five minutes. Get away from me, it's so hot." Severus twisted his waist and moved a little away. Emeric's breath enveloped him, making his heart race.

"Okay, I'll go clean up. Call me if you need anything." Emeric chuckled to himself. He sensed Severus's discomfort, but he had to get used to it. He couldn't talk about Plato forever.

"Da, da, da."

Severus walked down the stairs. The soft carpet under his feet looked newly changed. On the dining table was a bottle of fresh yellow roses, next to a piece of fine Basque coffee, and a cup of black tea.

"It's a little sweet," Severus said after taking a sip, "but it goes perfectly with black tea."

"Next time I'll put less sugar in and make it pistachio flavor, okay?"

"Can."

Severus nodded slightly, finished the rest of the cake in two bites, and watched Emeric clean up while holding his teacup. The cold tea was very refreshing, and his gaze was fixed on the top of the fireplace, where a dried lily sat.

"Throw away the dried flowers," Severus suddenly said, his expression very calm. "Put them where you like." After saying that, he walked to the bookshelf and tossed a photo album into Emeric's arms. It contained photos taken when he was a child.

Upon hearing the words "throw away the flowers," Emeric ran to the balcony and moved the sunflowers to the fireplace. He took the photo album and put it into his ring, afraid that Severus would change his mind and take it back.

"I told you to arrange things however you like, not to move the sunflower over here. It needs to get some sun!!!"

Severus grabbed Emeric's ear. "Is this little rascal so excited he's gone mad? Is he going to kill the sunflower? He likes it too, you know."

"I couldn't find any dried flowers, so I'll just take them back, hehe."

"hurry up."

She quickly put the sunflower back on the balcony and then pulled Severus into her arms.

"I'm so happy."

"Promising."

"hey-hey."

The rest of the words were swallowed between their lips, Severus letting Emeric run wild in his mouth. They were now kissing almost whenever they looked at each other, and Emeric was like a kissing maniac; his lips were swollen for days on end.

Of course, Emeric didn't succeed in other things. He wasn't ready yet, and the little rascal was still young. What if he got hurt if he did it now?

The warmth from his arm interrupted their tender moment; Severus pushed Emeric away, the flush on his face quickly fading.

"I'm leaving. Be careful at home," he said as he put on his coat and put his wand in his right sleeve pocket. "Take your painkillers beforehand, so I don't come back to find blood everywhere, you hear me?"

"I understand. The main thing is for you to protect yourself." Emeric fastened his shirt, smoothed out the wrinkles in his collar, and looked at Severus, who was crawling into the fireplace, with a worried expression.

After the man left, Emeric's face instantly turned icy; his desire to kill Voldemort grew stronger. If it weren't for him, Severus wouldn't be suffering every day.

"Ilim, deliver this letter to Aldrickson Manor and give it to Grandpa." Emerick now needs to use all available resources to find a way to deal with the Voldemort fragments as soon as possible; he can't stand Severus taking any more risks.

Dumbledore's old friends all suggested killing Harry, but they couldn't do that. So now they could only hope that there were relevant records in Aldrickson Manor, otherwise they really had to rely on him to save his life, but no one knew if he would die this time.

Emeric calmed down and continued tidying up the room. He wanted to clean up the house next door as well, to use it as Severus's storage room. The house was too small now, and there was simply no place to put storage cabinets for materials.

A wave of nausea quickly washed over him. Emeric leaned against the wall to support himself as Severus's memories were being reviewed. He guessed that someone had reported him to Voldemort for being there.

As the nausea subsided slightly, the excruciating pain returned, and Emeric collapsed to the ground, his right hand trembling as he pulled out painkillers, feeding half the bottle onto the carpet.

"Luckily I had a lot saved up," Emerick remarked after drinking two bottles.

When evening came, Severus finally returned, and Emeric took painkillers twice. He hung the clothes on the hanger and handed Severus a cup of milk tea to help him recover.