HP: Those Years Sleeping with the Half-Blood Prince

The bell rang at just the right time, breaking the silence in the classroom.

The students began packing their things, whispers humming through the air, their eyes glancing furtively toward the back of the classroom.

Ian tossed the pen into his pencil case, the movement appearing somewhat deliberate and casual.

He turned his head, wanting to say something like "This stuff is really made up" to Severus, but when he met Severus's quick glance and then looked away, the words got stuck in his throat.

There was a hint of shock in those dark eyes, as if their core had been exposed, and a trace of... helplessness.

"Let's go." Severus stood up first, his voice harsher than usual, grabbed his schoolbag and walked out.

Ian paused for a moment, then grabbed his things and followed.

Aris walked beside them, wisely remaining silent, his gaze behind his glasses thoughtful.

The corridor was brighter and noisier. Severus walked quickly, the hem of his black robe swaying slightly behind him.

"Severus." Ian quickened his pace to walk alongside him.

Severus didn't stop or look at him, but just grunted through his nose.

"Um..." Ian began, but didn't know what to say. Deny? Too fake. Admit? Admit what?

He simply raised his hand, vigorously ruffled his hair, and said in a low voice, "Professor Babling just likes to say sensational things."

Severus slowed his pace almost imperceptibly, turning his head to glance at Ian.

Ian didn't smile much; his gray eyes looked at him with something familiar and reassuring, along with a hint of nervousness that he couldn't quite hide.

"...Hmm." Severus responded again, this time in a softer tone.

He turned back and continued walking, but his pace was no longer so hurried.

Around the corner ahead, Regulus Black was standing and talking to two seventh-graders.

Upon seeing them, Regulus nodded politely, his gaze lingering on Severus's face for a half-second longer before naturally turning back to continue the conversation.

Ian noticed that Severus nodded almost imperceptibly in Regulus's direction as he passed by.

It was very slight, but it was indeed a response.

Back in the dormitory, the stove crackled.

Kevin looked up from behind a Quidditch magazine, staring at them suspiciously. "What's wrong with you two? Did you fail your arithmetic test? You both look so tense."

"No." Ian threw himself into the chair, grabbed a cushion, and said, "I just listened to a bunch of stories about how celebrities date."

Severus didn't sit down. Instead, he walked to the bookshelf, pulled out a thick book called "Interactive Atlas of Potion Ingredients," sat in an armchair a little distance from the hearth, and opened the book.

But he didn't turn the page for several minutes.

Kevin blinked and looked at Aris.

Aris gently shook his head, signaling him not to ask.

Ian stared at the fire, his mind still filled with those two intertwined star trails.

The point that overlapped was last summer vacation, at his house.

The intertwined knot represents Christmas, after the Dark Lord's visit.

Professor Babling was right.

Those choices, those turning points, they do indeed influence and shape each other.

He suddenly remembered the leaf that had been used as a Valentine's Day bookmark, and the careful way Severus had put it in the drawer.

I recall the inexplicable racing of my heart at the time, and the subsequent frustration that made me want to bang my head against the wall.

It's not inexplicable.

He let out a long breath, leaned back into the sofa cushions, and closed his eyes.

Not far away, Severus finally turned a page in his book, the sound of paper rubbing together clearly audible in the quiet dormitory.

In the days that followed, it was as if an invisible veil was floating in the air, giving everyday conversations and actions an indescribable meaning.

Ian found himself subconsciously searching for that dark figure in the hallway, only to quickly look away once he found it.

Severus became even quieter, spending his days buried in books, but Ian twice caught him staring blankly at parchment, oblivious to the ink droplets from his quill pen spreading across the paper.

No one mentioned star trails anymore.

Kevin had been holding it in for two whole days, and finally couldn't help himself at breakfast. He poked at the fried egg on his plate and whispered, "So what did Xingxing say? Are you two really tied together?"

Aris kicked him under the table.

"Let's eat." Severus said without looking up.

Ian tossed a piece of toast onto Kevin's plate: "Eating won't shut you up."

Kevin reluctantly took a big bite of bread and mumbled, "Fine, fine, I'll shut up."

……

A few days later, at the Room of Requirement, there was a faint, unfamiliar fragrance in the air, like the scent of some kind of icy plant under the first rays of sunlight after a snowfall.

Severus was engrossed in checking the translation of an ancient runic manuscript, while Kevin and Aris were on the other side of the room, arguing in hushed tones about the feasibility of a certain Quidditch formation.

Instead of lounging in his armchair reading as usual, Ian stood in front of the long table against the wall, his back to them, seemingly engrossed in something.

"I'm serious, if the chaser can cut in from the left and work with the batter to steer the ball in this direction—" Kevin gestured wildly, accidentally bumping into an empty reagent bottle on the corner of the table.

The bottle tumbled to the ground, but Severus caught it with a silent levitation spell without even looking up, and placed it back in its original position.

"Thanks, Severus." Kevin stuck out his tongue, but his attention was suddenly drawn to Ian. "Ian? What are you standing there looking at? You haven't moved for ages."

Ian seemed to take a deep breath before turning around.

He held a flowerpot in his hands, his face expressionless, but his gray eyes, which always carried a hint of lazy smile, were surprisingly bright at this moment.

"It's done," he said, his voice not loud, but enough to silence the rest of the room.

Severus looked up and his gaze fell on the flowerpot.

A short plant stands upright in the center of the pot.

The stem is slender yet straight, with a cluster of flowers at the top and pearly stamens in the center.

Aris was the first to enter, his eyes filled with curiosity. "This... I've only ever seen it in the encyclopedia; it's extremely rare."

“Indeed,” Ian said, his gaze passing over Aris’s shoulder and looking at Severus. “In its wild state, even a mediocre specimen like this can fetch 50,000 Galleons at Bogin’s. It’s priceless.”

Kevin gasped, "How much? Fifty thousand?! For this little blade of grass?!"

He moved even closer, almost touching her, but Aris subtly pushed him away by half an inch.

"Be careful, Kevin. The King Blossom is extremely fragile in its mature stage. Even a slight disturbance to the magic field can cause it to wither. All the literature emphasizes this point."

"That's why I did it here. The magic field of the Room of Requirement is the most stable," Ian replied, his tone returning to its usual casualness, but his hand holding the flowerpot remained steady.

"From seed to flowering, it requires a constant temperature, moonlight of a specific spectrum as lighting, timed watering with seven different magical springs, and at least three continuous soothing spells in rotation... It's incredibly troublesome."

He spoke casually, as if he were merely complaining about the weather.

But Severus knew that the seed he had found by chance in a pile of junk in Knockturn Alley had only been in Ian's hands for about six months.

During this time, Ian never mentioned a single difficulty, only occasionally staying a little longer at the Room of Requirement, or bringing over some seemingly insignificant bottles and jars from home.