HP: Those Years Sleeping with the Half-Blood Prince

"Defile it? Ha!" Sirius chuckled briefly, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'd rather defile it than watch it rot in your hands! Is Mother overjoyed? Her most obedient youngest son is finally embarking on a noble path? Is the next step to brand him with the Dark Mark?"

A dull thud came from the terrace, perhaps a fist slamming into the stone railing.

"Shut up." Regulus's voice finally crackled with intensity, though only for a moment.

"I'll tell you anyway! Do you know what they're doing? Do you know what that great undertaking is? It's murder! It's torture! It's creating terror! And you, my dear brother, are you going to become one of them? An accomplice?"

"...You don't understand." Regulus's voice lowered, carrying a weary stubbornness. "Times are changing, Sirius. Weakness and escape lead nowhere; strength is the only way..."

"Powerful? You mean the kind of 'powerful' that comes from hurting others and building up your strength with dark magic?" Sirius interrupted him, his voice filled with disappointment and something deeper.

"Regulus, I used to think you were just a coward, but now I realize I was wrong. You are a weakling. You dare not rebel, dare not have your own thoughts. You only hide behind the 'family' and the 'era,' doing whatever they want you to do! Even if it's wrong!"

The prolonged silence was suffocating.

Ian and Severus remained in the shadows inside the archway, neither moving forward nor backward.

Finally, Sirius spoke again, the anger in his voice gone, leaving only disappointment.

"Fine! Very well! Now that you've chosen that path... from this day forward, you are no longer my brother!"

His footsteps sounded, resolutely heading towards another exit of the terrace.

"Sirius!" Regulus's voice suddenly rose, carrying a hint of panic for the first time.

The footsteps didn't stop.

"Sirius Black!" Regulus called out his full name, his voice trembling in the night wind. "Go out there and never come back! The Black family has no son like you!"

Sirius's footsteps paused for only a moment, then grew louder and faded into the distance until they disappeared completely into the wind.

There was no more sound on the terrace.

After a long time, there was an extremely faint sound of clothes rubbing together, followed by a suppressed, almost inaudible gasp, which lasted briefly and then disappeared.

Ian and Severus exchanged a glance.

Ian shook his head slightly, indicating that he was leaving.

They retreated silently, taking a longer route towards the Slytherin cellars.

As they approached the lounge, Severus suddenly whispered, "He doesn't really want to."

"Who?" Ian asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Regulus," Severus said, looking down the empty corridor ahead, "is afraid."

"But he still chose it," Ian said.

"Sometimes..." Severus's voice was very soft, almost drowned out by his own footsteps, "there's no choice."

Back in the dorm, Kevin and Aris weren't back yet. The fire in the stove crackled and popped.

Severus did not immediately sit down to read as usual, but instead went to the window and looked out at the dark lake.

Ian poured him a glass of water and handed it to him.

Severus took it, held it in his hand, but didn't drink it.

"That book," Ian leaned against the window frame, looking at his profile, "you don't have to read it if it's too much trouble."

Severus remained silent for a moment.

"The theory itself is not wrong," he said. "It's very profound, and some of the ideas... are very bold."

"But the person who wrote the annotations had a purpose."

"I know," Severus said, swirling the glass, the water sloshing around. "Lucius Malfoy doesn't make pointless investments."

"So what are you planning to do?"

Severus finally took a sip of water, his gaze still fixed on the view outside the window.

"Keep watching, learn what I can, but..." He paused, "I'm not making any promises."

Ian smiled faintly. "Wise."

Severus turned to look at him, his dark eyes appearing particularly deep in the dim light.

"You will always..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but Ian understood.

"Of course," Ian said matter-of-factly. "I've said it before, our family has a good eye for investment."

……

After that night, Regulus appeared in public with an increasingly flawless smile, as if he were wearing a mask.

But Ian noticed that when no one was looking at him, the boy would occasionally have a fleeting emptiness in his eyes, so quick that it seemed like an illusion.

Severus was almost obsessed with studying the book, but he no longer discussed its contents publicly, and kept his notes and drafts in the Room of Requirement.

Only Ian knew that he would often stare at the annotations on a particular page with a complicated look in his eyes, then slam the book shut and stand by the window for a long time.

"Is there a problem with the annotations?" Ian asked casually as he handed him a glass of water.

Severus took the cup; his fingertips were icy cold.

"The theoretical framework is complete, even ingenious. But there are a few derivations... that omit key steps, point to some... unconventional materials, and," he paused, lowering his voice, "the final assumption about the soul, the object is not a magical creature."

Ian's heart sank. "Pointing to someone?"

Severus neither nodded nor shook his head, but simply looked out the window. "His tone of the annotation was very confident, as if... he had verified it."

This is not an academic exchange; it is bait, and also a test.

We'll see if Severus will continue down this dangerous and powerful path, and whether he will become interested in, or even dependent on, unconventional methods.

"What do you think?" Ian asked.

Severus remained silent for a long time.

"I want to know what the correct steps are," he said, his voice slightly hoarse, "but I don't want to use the answers they give me."

Ian patted him on the shoulder, "Then find it yourself."

Aris, having overheard Severus's words, spoke up, "My grandfather's collection of books seems to contain relevant records. I can write to him and ask if I can access the relevant sections."

Kevin scratched his head. "I can't help you with academics, but if you need any magic spell experiments, be sure to call me!"

Severus looked at them, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly. He opened his mouth as if to say, "No need to trouble yourself," but in the end he just nodded, his voice lower and hoarse than usual: "...Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for?" Ian leaned back against the window, a lazy smile on his lips. "It's better to figure it out sooner rather than later, so you don't look at that book with such a bitter expression every day, it's annoying for us too."