HP: Those Years Sleeping with the Half-Blood Prince

The rest of the afternoon passed by in the rustling of turning pages, the occasional hushed conversations, and the rising steam of black tea.

There were no tests, no witty remarks, only the three teenagers stealing a moment of ordinary time in the brief tranquility surrounded by ancient books.

When they left, Regulus escorted them to the side gate, where the carriage was already waiting.

It was nearly dusk.

"You can keep the catalog notes," Regulus said to Severus. "If you need anything in the future, you can contact me again by owl; just write my name."

"Hmm." Severus carefully put the notebook away.

Ian stepped into the carriage and glanced back at Regulus.

The young Black heir stood in the deepening twilight, his shadow elongated, appearing somewhat lonely.

He met Ian's gaze and nodded slightly.

The carriage moved on, and the manor gradually disappeared behind the trees.

The carriage was very quiet.

Severus leaned back in his chair, eyes closed, as if recalling what he had just seen.

Ian gazed at the blurry shadows of trees rushing past the window and suddenly said, "He's living a tiring life."

Severus's eyelashes fluttered, but he didn't open his eyes. "Everyone has things beyond their control."

“Yes.” Ian turned back, looking at Severus’s profile, which appeared remarkably clear in the dim light. “That’s why we need to be clearer about what we want, right?”

Severus slowly opened his eyes, his dark pupils looking at Ian in the dim light.

The carriage swayed slightly, and their eyes met silently in the cramped space.

"...Hmm," Severus responded softly.

……

Back at Hogwarts, the usual subtle scrutinizing gaze seemed to have disappeared.

A few younger students who were playing with gobbles by the fireplace glanced up at them, then quickly looked down again and focused on their game.

Everett Travers was walking down the stairs of the boys' dormitory, carrying a roll of parchment.

Upon seeing them, he stopped and a smile that was more genuine than usual appeared on his face.

"You're back? How's the Black family's book collection?" He sounded as if he were talking about a regular extracurricular activity.

"Very fruitful," Severus replied briefly.

Travers nodded, his gaze lingering on Severus's face for a moment before turning to Ian.

"That's good. By the way, Burke, the Potions Club is having a small potion stability test next week. Professor Slughorn suggests that you and Snape participate together, as a preview of your summer research directions. We'll let you know the specific arrangements tomorrow."

"Understood, Prefect," Ian replied.

"Hmm." Travers patted the parchment in his hand. "Prepare well."

After saying that, he turned and walked outside.

Back in the dorm, Kevin was sprawled out on his bed, whistling at the ceiling to the strange tune of "A Pot of Hot Love".

He sat up abruptly when he heard the door open.

"How are you? Didn't get bitten by a poisonous snake?" he winked.

"Just old books and black tea." Ian hung up his cloak. "And you? Training?"

"Hey, isn't that weird?" Kevin scratched his head. "The coach suddenly called me in this afternoon and said that the new chaser has 'some issues adapting to the tactics,' and that I should start starting regular training again tomorrow. He even patted me on the shoulder and said, 'Kevin, the academy needs your experience.'"

"My seminar room usage time has also been reapproved, the reason being the need to 'balance academic resources across grades'." Aris looked at Severus, "It seems your 'academic exchange' was quite effective."

Severus was packing his bag, taking out the notebook Regulus had given him and placing it on a corner of his desk. Hearing this, he didn't stop what he was doing.

"They got the signal they wanted."

“A trend,” Ian continued, walking over to sit down on his bedside. “At least for now, we’re no longer the ones who need to be disciplined or isolated.”

……

On Wednesday afternoon, during another arithmetic divination class, Professor Babling didn't let them work with their personal birth charts today.

She stood in front of the podium, tapped her wand lightly, and a three-dimensional star trail pattern composed of countless points of light and flowing lines unfolded in mid-air, slowly rotating.

"Last week, we marked key moments in your personal birth chart. Today, we will learn to observe how these moments extend over time, your celestial orbits, and the possible interactions between them."

With a wave of her wand, a portion of the star chart was magnified, and several originally independent trajectory lines became unusually close in certain areas, even occasionally intersecting slightly.

"The entanglement of star trails," Professor Babling's gaze swept across the audience, "does not represent an inevitable fateful bond, but it means that at certain important junctures, your paths will strongly influence each other, becoming a prominent factor in each other's destiny changes."

She began calling out names, having some students' star trails temporarily extracted to demonstrate simple parallelism or brief intersections.

Most of them are unremarkable, conforming to ordinary interpersonal relationships: friends, short-term collaborators, and competitors.

When it was Aris's turn, several trajectory lines were very close to his own trajectory at certain knowledge-related nodes, and were clear and orderly.

"A resonance of logical networks," Professor Barbling commented calmly, and Aris carefully noted down the coordinates.

Then, she pointed her wand at Ian's star trail.

Silvery light emerges from the complex scene, meandering and flowing.

Then, another, more convoluted line was drawn out – that of Severus.

Several very low gasps were heard in the classroom.

The two star orbits are not closely intertwined throughout their entire length.

They originate in different quadrants, and in their early stages, they extend independently with almost no overlap.

But starting from some point about two years ago, they suddenly converged and have been running parallel at a stable distance ever since.

This is already quite remarkable, but what's even more special are a few key points.

At some point during last summer vacation, the two trajectories almost completely overlapped, and their light briefly blended together, making them indistinguishable.

And not long ago, around Christmas time, they crossed at a very small angle, leaving a tiny point of light.

And now, the faint light representing "this moment" in the projection is sliding forward synchronously along these two almost parallel trajectories.

Professor Babling stared at him silently for a few seconds before speaking, her voice carrying a rare hint of deliberation:

"Mr. Burke, Mr. Snape, your star trails... are strongly and continuously connected, which cannot be explained by ordinary friendship or cooperation."

Her gaze shifted between the two men.

Ian leaned back in his chair, his smile somewhat faint, his fingers unconsciously stroking the handle of the silver chalk.

Severus sat upright, staring blankly at the interwoven light in the air, his body tense.

"The entanglement has reached this level," Professor Barbling continued, "meaning that at those crucial junctures, your choices have strongly shaped each other, and in the future... this mutual influence is likely to continue, or even intensify."

With a flick of her wand, the star chart was restored.

"Record the coordinates and phases of these entanglements. For you, observing the changes in the other's trajectory may be just as important as observing your own, because often, they are two sides of the same coin."