HP: Those Years Sleeping with the Half-Blood Prince

Severus turned his head and looked at his profile in the dim light.

Ian's gaze remained fixed on the castle on the opposite bank, his grey eyes reflecting the shimmering light in the water.

"Okay," Severus said, a simple word that carried on the lake breeze, yet weighed more heavily than any lengthy discourse.

Ian smiled, turned to look at him, then leaned in and kissed the corner of his cool lips. "Happy Halloween, Severus."

Severus's ears felt hot again. He turned his face away and mumbled an "Mmm," but he didn't let go of Ian's hand.

They stayed there a while longer, until the noise from the other side gradually subsided, the lights in the windows began to go out one by one, and Ian finished the candy. He crumpled the paper and stuffed it back into his pocket, saying, "Let's go back. We have Potions class tomorrow."

When we returned to the castle, the sweet scent of the dinner party still lingered in the common room.

Kevin slumped by the fireplace, clutching a plate of pumpkin pie remnants, mumbling a complaint: "I almost got buried alive by Peeves' ribbons..."

Aris was using his wand to clean the sequins stuck to his robe.

"I warned you not to stand directly under the chandelier. Based on Peeves' behavior over the past seven years, that's one of his favorite attack areas."

"How was I supposed to know he'd use a whole hundred gallons of ribbon!"

Ian and Severus quietly returned to their usual corner, where the fire was burning brightly, warming the damp corners of their robes.

The next few weeks passed smoothly amidst classes, assignments, and the lingering effects of OWLs.

Severus visited the library's restricted section much more often, and Slughorn readily approved his notes, occasionally recommending a rare book or two that "might be helpful for further research" in a low voice.

"Any progress?" One evening, Ian pushed open the door of the Room of Requirement, where Severus was holding a bottle of silver potion.

"It's done."

Ian closed the door, and the soundproofing spell activated automatically. He strode over, his gaze falling on the vial of potion.

"A soul remedy?" he asked, lowering his voice, knowing that Severus had never given up on studying that book.

"Hmm." Severus placed the bottle on the padded workbench with unusual care, then explained the reasoning behind it all to Ian.

He stopped talking because Ian wasn't looking at the potion, but at him.

"How long have you been without sleep?" Ian interrupted him, his brow furrowed.

Severus averted his gaze. "That's not important. What's important is that it's done, Ian. And..." He took a breath, his voice deepening, "its principles involve soul repair, which is too..."

Ian's hand froze in mid-air, not touching the potion. He looked at Severus's bloodshot eyes and unusually bright black eyes, and his heart felt like it was being clenched.

"Soul repair..." Ian repeated, his voice soft, as if afraid of disturbing something, "Severus, do you know what this means? If the soul can be soothed and repaired..."

He stopped, and Severus's face instantly drained of all color, his already pale skin almost transparent under the dim light of the potion lamp.

"...That might also be able to be cut up, stored, or even..." Severus's voice was dry, "...transferring."

The two looked at each other, and the air suddenly became heavy.

Ian stepped forward, not to look at the potion, but to touch Severus's cold cheek. "When did you think of that?"

"Just now," Severus closed his eyes, then opened them again, "the moment the finished product was created, those theoretical fragments... pieced themselves together. Ian, what that great man was looking for was not just power, he was looking for... a way to continue, the core of immortality, which may be right here."

"And this bottle of stuff," Ian said, looking at the silver liquid that shimmered with a pearly luster, "proves that soul manipulation is possible, at least in theory. Even if it's just used for mitigation, it opens a door."

"A door that can't be pushed open." Severus's voice deepened as he stared at the potion. "Especially, we can't let anyone outside know that we pushed it open."

Ian withdrew his hand and paced a couple of steps in the small space.

"At Slughorn's tea party this Saturday, he mentioned that people from the Potions Society would be coming, as well as several 'guests with achievements in the realm of ancient magic'."

"Nott and Carlo will definitely be there," Severus quickly interjected. "They'll probe about NEWTs topics, about... research interests."

"Perfect timing." Ian stopped and turned around. "Tell them that your research on the Soul Stabilizer has hit an insurmountable bottleneck. The material's reaction is completely deviating from theoretical predictions. After the seventh explosion, you decided to temporarily shelve it and turn to the more practical direction of magic stabilizers."

"Will they believe it?"

“If you say it, they’ll believe you.” Ian walked back to his workbench, picked up the potion bottle, and examined it closely. “You never lie about your failures, Severus. In potions, that’s a ‘fact’ they all know, and…”

He paused for a moment, then said, "The explosion was real; we did blow up half of our workbench last week."

It was an accident; Kevin had taken the wrong grade of moonstone powder, but it became the best cover-up at that moment.

Severus paused for a moment, then nodded.

"At the tea party, I would 'casually' mention, and casually complain, about how the obscurity of the ancient magical texts led to initial translation errors."

"I agree, and suggest that you join me in focusing on the new blood-replenishing improvement that Slughorn is promoting. It would be a big plus and also much 'safer'."

Ian took over, and the plan quickly took shape during the conversation.

He put down the potion bottle and took out an inconspicuous black velvet bag from his inner pocket. The bag's opening was wrapped with fine gold thread, giving it an ancient feel.

"This can completely isolate magical fluctuations and detection spells. It was left to me by my maternal grandfather. It is said that it was used to hide some... collectibles that were not convenient to be exposed to the light."

Severus watched as he carefully placed the dangerous silver potion into the velvet bag and tightened the opening.

A flash of golden light, and some ancient concealment spell was activated. The slight magical fluctuations in the room vanished instantly, as if the bottle of medicine had never existed.

"Where to put it?" Severus asked, for there was no absolutely safe place at Hogwarts.

"In my house, there's a hidden compartment in the third attic that only my parents and I know about. I go home on weekends to pick up some old books and winter clothes."

Ian stuffed the bag back into its place. "Starting tomorrow, the Room of Requirement will suspend all related research. The notes will be encrypted, and we'll use the two-person spell we agreed on before. On the surface, we'll focus all our efforts on the Slughorn project and those 'fun' but harmless rune games that we missed in the OWLs years."

"it is good."