After Rhea heard Dumbledore's promise regarding the teaching assistant position, she dropped the barrier. Dumbledore understood that Rhea was going to find her "teacher." After an exchange of polite, business-like smiles, Rhea walked out.
Seeing Snape standing stiffly and dazedly at the door, Rhea figured today's events must have been too much of a shock for her teacher. She didn't suspect for a second that Snape already knew her secret. She stepped forward and hugged Snape, rubbing her head against his chest indiscriminately.
"Rhea, let's go home," Snape said, coming to his senses and holding down the restless little head against his chest in a hoarse voice.
Looking at this child whose eyes and heart were entirely filled with him, Snape thought: so what if she was a demon? So what if she was human? He knew she was his student, his child, Rhea Walker, and that was enough. Even he hadn't noticed how Rhea, like spring rain, had unconsciously moistened the arid soil of his heart, washing away his anxiety and sorrow, and watering a flower named hope, making his shriveled soul radiate vitality once more.
"Okay, teacher!" The hexagram in Rhea's eyes uncontrollably appeared in her pupils, twinkling with starlight just like her inner thoughts. *Ahhhhh, teacher told me let's go home, so gentle. Teacher, I would live for you, die for you, and bang my head against a brick wall for you!*
When Snape first saw the "live for you, die for you" part, some strange feeling had begun to sprout, but before he could dwell on it, the line about banging her head against a brick wall dragged him straight back to reality. He simply couldn't understand what this girl had going on inside her head every day! He actually had plenty of vicious words at his disposal, but from some point on, he could never bring himself to say them to her. When talking to Dumbledore, this girl was clearly so shrewd, yet every time she came to his side, she was as pure as an infant. It really made it hard for him not to worry.
All the way back home, Rhea held Snape's hand. Her heart was as active as if it were about to fly across the Pacific Ocean, while Snape reasoned that a child holding an elder's hand was quite normal. Passing students peeked and watched from dark corners! So much so that a rumor long circulated among the students of Hogwarts that Snape definitely had a child.
After getting home, Rhea acted like a cat that had stolen some cream, clinging greedily to her teacher's warmth and refusing to let go no matter what. Snape was speechless; Snape looked up at the ceiling.
"Rhea, can you let go of your teacher's hand now? We're home already, and I'd like to eat those Lanzhou beef noodles you mentioned last time," Snape said helplessly to the girl, who was gripping his hand for dear life. Having no choice, he could only tell the girl to go cook. Because of the prolonged hand-holding, a faint sense of joy had risen in his heart. Unaccustomed to the feeling, he once again chose to escape.
Hearing that her teacher wanted to eat Lanzhou beef noodles, Rhea had to let go of her teacher's hand even though her heart was reluctant to leave this blissful moment. She so wanted to hold her teacher's hand forever—it would be even better if she could change her status.
Rhea cooked quickly, and two bowls of Lanzhou beef noodles were done in no time. Rhea ate hers with a generous amount of chili oil, while Snape had the original flavor. More than once, Snape wondered if eating those fiery red chilis would actually make someone breathe fire.
After finishing their meal, the two of them sat together on the sofa to research a new Potion. As it happened, Remus Lupin was coming next semester to protect Harry Potter and would need the Wolfsbane Potion brewed. The book Rhea had given Snape happened to contain an improved version of the Wolfsbane Potion that allowed the drinker to maintain consciousness and avoid transforming during the full moon. But Rhea felt it wasn't enough; because the brewing time took a whole month, she wanted to shorten it to a week. The master and apprentice thus began studying it with single-minded devotion, forgetting to eat and sleep. (Throughout her studies with Snape, Rhea never activated Noah's talent; she always used her human talent to study under her teacher, even though this was already utterly heaven-defying.)