HP: At the beginning, I influenced Snape's childhood.

The entire Hogwarts castle was brightly lit, yet it couldn't illuminate every corner. The orange-red firelight reflected on the faces of two people, one tall and one short, creating dappled light and shadow.

Both were dressed in black robes, but one of them wore a similarly black garment underneath, buttoned up to his neck, while the other's robe revealed glimpses of the color of his Slytherin school uniform.

Snape, his face cold, glanced around for any little monsters from any of the houses while scrutinizing the child supporting him. He couldn't pinpoint when it had happened, but the skinny boy he remembered from their first meeting had grown much taller than his peers. Perhaps time had slipped by unnoticed, leaving no trace.

Feeling the gaze from diagonally above, Lin Mo didn't look up, relying on his extremely strong perception to make it as easy as possible for Snape to walk in the unseen darkness. The small, cleaned wounds on his back seemed to have some porcelain shards still embedded in the flesh, but he didn't feel anything, only a few cold sweats instinctively appearing on his back.

The two walked slowly, especially struggling down the stairs, where the poor old professor's office was still damnably underground. They noticed that Snape involuntarily strained with each step he took down a flight of stairs.

Lin Mo stretched out a hand to stop Snape, gesturing for him to wait, and then moved to Snape's other side to ease the strain on his injured leg. Snape, sensing Lin Mo's movement, initially thought the boy was impatient with his slow pace and was about to run away or do something else.

However, Lin Mo was not as impatient as he had expected. Logically speaking, many people would find this speed slow, which is understandable. Snape naturally thought so too. However, Lin Mo was more careful and patient than expected.

He didn't care about Snape's walking speed, because whenever Snape encountered other people, he would pretend that nothing was wrong and walk quickly as usual, even though it would hurt a lot and be bad for his wounds.

Lin Mo only hoped that this Potions Master, who didn't seem to care much about his health, could learn to treat himself better. After all, although Snape had lived a life of constant danger for many years, Voldemort had been out of the public eye for many years, and suffering such an injury unexpectedly was still quite serious.

Finally arriving at his office, Snape felt a huge sense of relief. He cursed inwardly, "That damn little troll! Did he leave his brain in the bathroom? Instead of going to the party, he came running after me!" But despite his thoughts, he honestly had Lin Mo escort him back. And along the way, he comforted his proud heart with the thought that "might as well use it."

Snape sat down on the sofa, intending to clean his wounds, but noticed Lin Mo showed no sign of leaving: "Mr. Lin, why aren't you leaving? I don't have any of those boring Halloween things here. Perhaps you've taken a fancy to this dilapidated, drafty little plot of land of yours, the poor professor? Is there anything here that would make Mr. Lin prefer to stay here rather than let me treat his wounds?"

Looking at Snape, who was sitting on the sofa with an air of superiority, and whose words made no attempt to hide his desire to kick him out, Lin Mo still looked at Snape with some suspicion. At this moment, silence spoke louder than words: Sir, are you sure you will apply the medicine properly? No need to answer, I don't believe you anyway.

If it weren't for his need to maintain his composure and his injury, Snape would have loved to throw this kid, whom he had watched grow up for years, out.

"Professor, please don't call me Mr. Lin anymore, it feels awkward." Lin Mo scratched his head. Ever since he had talked about the issue of how to address him, Snape had always called him Mo, but since entering Hogwarts, he had acted very distant.

"...Hmm." Snape wanted to say something, but in the end, he didn't say it. It wasn't that he didn't want to address Lin Mo that way, but he didn't want Lin Mo to be noticed by Dumbledore, that old bee, so early, nor did he want Lin Mo to become a pawn that could be discarded at any time, just like himself, in this game that had been going on for more than ten years.

However, given the current situation, it seemed impossible to prevent Dumbledore from paying attention to Lin Mo, and since Snape himself didn't want to address Lin Mo as Mr. Lin, he simply agreed.

Lin Mo originally wanted to stay and help Snape treat his wounds, but then he thought that Snape didn't want others to see his injuries, and that it was already the best he could do to bring Snape back to health, so Lin Mo gave up the idea.

Just as he didn't want others to know he was injured, Lin Mo did more than just not want others to know.

At the same time, Lin Mo abandoned his plan to give Snape medicine. Whether Snape trusted him was one thing, and whether his medicine was as effective as the Potions Master's own was another. Although Lin Mo could guarantee that his medicine would be better than Snape's, the medicine he carried was not specifically for treating Cerberus's bite, so treating the specific ailment was more effective.

As someone who was often used as free labor by Snape, Lin Mo walked to the place where Snape kept his water glass, poured a glass of water, and gently placed it on the table in front of Snape.

"Sir, please make sure your wound is treated. Get some rest; I'm going back now," Lin Mo said.

"Hmm," Snape replied simply.

Just as Lin Mo was about to leave, Snape's voice came from behind him: "Mo, if you need anything about the trolls, you can come to me." Although Snape knew that Lin Mo's abilities were much stronger than he had seen, he still couldn't help but worry about the child he had been teaching for several years.

Upon hearing this, Lin Mo paused for a moment, then resumed his normal movements and walked out. He knew Snape was worried that he might have some psychological barriers to taking action for the first time, but Snape's concerns were likely unfounded. Of course, this wasn't his first time killing; he had seen mountains of corpses and seas of blood several times, not to mention that he had personally caused some of those deaths.

After leaving Snape's office, Lin Mo did not return to the Slytherin common room. He figured that with the little dragon's ability to spread information, going back now would definitely lead to a barrage of questions about the battle with the troll. Rather than going to the Slytherin area where the situation was already known, Lin Mo chose to cast an Illusion Charm on himself and then ran to Ravenclaw's bedroom to treat his wounds.

After answering the simple question at the Ravenclaw entrance, Lin Mo walked through the lounge and sat in the blue-themed bedroom. He felt much more relaxed, marveling at how blue was a protector for his fragile little heart, while calmly tending to the wound on his back.

He took off his shirt, revealing defined but not overly exaggerated muscles in his upper body—the result of years of training and deliberate control. He was the type who looked slim in clothes but muscular underneath; in other words, although he appeared thin, if he punched you to death, don't be surprised. |ω・）

Years of training hadn't given him the fair complexion of a pampered child; while his skin was good, it wasn't very white. The scars on his back varied in size, with a small shard of porcelain still embedded in his flesh. Lin Mo's arms were long, making it relatively easy to treat even the injuries on his back.

Skillfully removing the porcelain shards, applying medicine, and bandaging, Lin Mo tied a knot at the end of the gauze wrapped around his body. He then took out a clean set of light blue clothes from his spatial storage and changed into them. He washed his school uniform with "Clean as Spring" and "Refreshed" before putting it back into his spatial storage, and then used "Refreshed" on himself.

After tidying up, the stench of blood on Lin Mo was greatly reduced, to the point that ordinary students couldn't detect it at all, even in the tranquil blue environment. The fighting spirit and bloodlust that had been vaguely aroused within Lin Mo were also suppressed.

After leaving the dormitory, the Disillusionment Charm hadn't completely worn off. Even though Lin Mo had only used a fraction of his power to cast the charm, no students noticed him. However, Lin Mo saw Professor Flitwick in the lounge, who must have just returned from outside.

He did notice Lin Mo, walked over, gently patted Lin Mo's shoulder, and said softly, "Your strength is quite good. If you have any questions about spells in the future, feel free to ask me."

Lin Mo had no doubt that even if he wanted to enter the restricted section now, and asked Professor Flitwick for his permission, this kind and humorous professor would readily help him, even though Lin Mo currently had no plans to go to the restricted section.

Perhaps sensing that Lin Mo wasn't enthusiastic about the party, Frivi didn't say anything more, indicating that Lin Mo could do whatever he wanted before going back to mingle with the students.

Lin Mo didn't hesitate. He left the Ravenclaw lounge and went up to the Astronomy Tower. He made a special shape with his fingers, put it to his lips, and blew. A melodious whistle rang out.

A moment later, he raised his left arm, and the gyrfalcon that Lin Mo named "Bai Ze" flew out of the darkness, its sharp claws landing on Lin Mo's left arm. However, Lin Mo habitually wore special protective gear on his left arm, so there was no need to worry about injury.

Lin Mo gave Bai Ze some food, and then took out paper and pen from his spatial storage to write a letter, intending to write to a handsome man who was imprisoned in Nurmengard by his lover.

After tonight's events, Lin Mo knew very well that Dumbledore was already watching him. And considering that Snape, despite his pride, had deliberately let Harry see his wound, it was probably part of Dumbledore's plan. Lin Mo's expression darkened further. Anyway, he'd been disliking that old man lately and planned to cause him some trouble.

"Xiao Mo, your gyrfalcon is quite nice. Here, give it as a gift." Chang Feng examined Bai Ze through Lin Mo by the moonlight, and a deep blue light entered Bai Ze's body. Lin Mo wasn't quite sure what Chang Feng had done, but he was quite relieved.

Chatting with Changfeng, I finished writing the letter, tied it to Bai Ze's leg, and let it fly into the darkness. Within seconds, it was no longer visible by the moonlight.

—A certain primeval jungle—

Lin Boyan and his men were lying in ambush in their concealed positions when he suddenly felt a slight warmth on the golden lines on the back of his hand. Although he knew his younger brother had only suffered minor injuries, he couldn't help but worry and whispered to the man closest to him, "What day is it today?"

"King Yu (Lin Boyan's code name is Yu), today is Halloween," the man replied, his voice steady.

Lin Boyan had been spending the last few days in this jungle. He didn't care about the date, but when he heard it was Halloween, he understood what had happened and felt relieved.

Author's rambling: I definitely didn't do well on the test, I've regressed. But there's good news: I only lost one point on the ninth-grade district-wide standardized Chinese composition exam! ~(￣▽￣～)~

With the pressure of studies, I'm a little worried about not getting into the top high school's experimental class. I plan to skip going over most of the well-known plot details and write the parts without romance as quickly as possible to finish it sooner. However, it's impossible to finish it in just over 200,000 words. A bad ending is out of the question; otherwise, I wouldn't feel right about myself. I'm estimating it to be around 400,000 words. Sometimes, as I'm writing, I find myself wanting to write more and can't stop myself from expressing my thoughts.