Death came without warning.
One second, Lin Yanqing had been at his computer, wrestling with his writer's block; the next, his heart felt as though an invisible hand had clenched around it, abruptly stopping its beat. His consciousness sank into boundless darkness, and his final thought was: Damn it. That mediocre novel really was going to be abandoned forever.
Yet the eternal silence he had expected never came.
"Woo—clatter, clatter—"
A shrill whistle and the rhythmic clanging of metal brutally dragged his consciousness out of the haze. His body swayed with a steady rhythm, while his nostrils filled with the smell of old leather, dust, and the sickly sweetness of something like moldy candy.
He abruptly opened his eyes.
What greeted him was neither the underworld nor a hospital's stark white ceiling, but a smoothly polished dark-brown wooden ceiling. He was sitting alone in a cramped, typical train compartment, perched on a stiff leather seat.
This was not his body.
He looked down and saw a pair of well-proportioned, smooth-skinned teenage hands—not his old body, whose joints had grown thick from years of typing and were covered in thin calluses. Chaotic fragments of memory stabbed into his mind like ice picks—wasn't he supposed to be rushing a draft? His heart had stopped... so he had died? And then... transmigrated?
Before he could sort out his thoughts, unfamiliar memories began to flow into him.
The original owner was also named Lin Yanqing, an eleven-year-old half-blood wizard whose parents had both died. His mother came from an Eastern wizarding family with a special "ge'er" bloodline, while his father had been a Muggle. What made his heart pound even harder were several bizarre words that surfaced among those memory fragments: Hogwarts, magic, Dumbledore...
He had transmigrated into the world of Harry Potter! And the timeline seemed to be... the Marauders' era?!
Just as the shock nearly suffocated him, a voice utterly unlike any system he knew exploded in his mind.
"(ΩДΩ)!! A soul with an exceptionally high compatibility rate detected! Bind, bind! Bind immediately!"
The voice sounded as young as a three-year-old child, anxious and babyish.
"[Sweet Romance Script System] activated! System Cub has waited so long and finally found you, Host! Hurry up and praise me! (??????)??"
Along with the words, an animated meme appeared in his mind—a round little white beast clutching a huge heart and shaking it with all its might against a backdrop of glittering stars.
Lin Yanqing: "..."
There was too much information. His brain completely crashed. Transmigration, HP, and a childish system with such an utterly bizarre aesthetic?
"Explain," he forced himself to calm down and replied in his mind. "The current situation, and this 'sweet romance script.'"
"Okay! (?ω?)" System Cub happily popped up a "class is starting" meme. "Host, you're now a first-year student at Hogwarts! The mission is super simple: find your fated CP, have a sweet romance, and achieve an HE ending! System Cub will issue missions and provide assistance! The rewards are amazing, but if you fail... there'll be a tiny, tiny punishment! (＞人＜;)"
Sweet romance? CP? HE?
Lin Yanqing rubbed his aching temples. He was an office-slave author who had been single since birth—was he supposed to play a dating game in a magic world full of dangers?
"I refuse."
"If you refuse the binding, your soul will immediately dissipate! (???︿???)" The system pretended to cry. "Host doesn't want to die again, right?"
"...Bind." He gritted out the two words through clenched teeth. He had no choice.
"Yay! Binding successful! (^▽^)/" Virtual fireworks burst in his mind.
Suppressing the urge to complain, Lin Yanqing began assessing his situation. His gaze fell on the luggage beside him: an old leather suitcase and a long, hard object wrapped in a cloth bag. He untied the bag, and his breath caught.
A wand.
It was made of nearly black, deep-purple sandalwood, patterned with fine, ancient spiral carvings. He grasped it instinctively.
Buzz—
An indescribable warm current instantly surged from the handle and swept through his entire body! It felt as if a long-lost half of himself had finally returned, making even his soul tremble. He could even "hear" the faint, delighted resonance coming from the wand.
"Host's bonded wand detected! Compatibility rate: 100%! (★ ω ★)" the system announced. "Eastern Rosewood, Phoenix Feather core, thirteen and three-quarter inches! Super impressive!"
Clutching the wand that seemed to have been made for him, Lin Yanqing felt slightly more at ease. At least he now had his first weapon for survival.
He needed information. He slid open the compartment door, and the corridor outside was bustling with excitement as first-years in black robes hurried back and forth. His attention was drawn to a commotion outside a compartment not far away.
A bright girl with red hair and green eyes, radiant as a flame, was peering worriedly into the compartment. Lily Evans!
Then the people inside had to be...
He unconsciously stepped closer. Through the half-open door, he clearly saw what was happening inside.
A pale boy dressed in black with greasy hair stood with his back to the door, his shoulders tense. Facing him was a bespectacled boy with messy, sticking-up hair, arrogantly shouting with three companions behind him—an handsome, haughty black-haired boy, Sirius Black; a mild-faced, bookish-looking boy, Remus Lupin; and a short, stocky, freckled boy, Peter Pettigrew.
"...This compartment has been polluted by your weird smell, Snape!" James Potter mocked loudly, clearly trying to draw Lily's attention. "Need a Scourgify? Maybe it'll make you look a little more human!"
The boy named Snape abruptly turned around. Lin Yanqing clearly saw his profile—the unmistakable large hooked nose that made his face look gloomy and prematurely aged. Rage was suppressed in those pitch-black eyes, and his lips were pressed into a pale line.
"Get out, Potter." His voice was low and cold, filled with undisguised disgust.
"The one who should get out is you!" James drew his wand.
The conflict escalated.
For some reason, Lin Yanqing's heart tightened. Severus Snape... was this the person he would need to "sweetly romance" in the future? Looking at that gloomy, isolated boy bristling with thorns, he felt both absurdly pressured and unable to put his unease into words.
"(′▽`) Key character [Severus Snape] discovered! Host, don't miss this chance! Go for it! Melt him with your warmth!" System Cub bounced excitedly around inside his head.
Go for it? How? Was he supposed to barge in and tell the future double agent, "I want to date you"? He suspected he would be blasted straight out of the carriage by a curse.
Just as he hesitated, James Potter cast a spell. A faint beam of light shot toward Snape. Snape reacted quickly and dodged sideways, and the spell flew past him into the corridor.
The course of fate took a fatal turn at that moment.
To avoid the spell, Snape staggered back a step, just happening to retreat into the corridor—and slammed heavily into Lin Yanqing's chest!
"Urgh!" Both of them grunted.
The instant their bodies touched—
Boom!
An invisible yet immense force erupted violently from between them! It was as though an ancient bell had been struck deep within their souls, making Lin Yanqing's ears ring as the Sandalwood Wand in his hand instantly heated up like a burning coal!
"Warning! Warning! (;?Д?i|!)" System Cub's alert became shrill and distorted. "Unknown supreme protocol activated! Same-origin soul wavelength detected! [Soul Guardian Contract] forcibly established! Bound target: [Severus Snape]! Binding process... irreversible! 100% complete! Cannot be removed! Cannot be removed!"
What—?!
Lin Yanqing froze in place, his mind blank. He could clearly "feel" an invisible, resilient bond deeply rooted in his soul instantly tying him tightly to the boy before him. They could not be separated. He could not break free!
Snape, whom he had crashed into, also spun around. Those bottomless black eyes, cold as the darkest night, locked onto Lin Yanqing. Shock, fury, and a trace of almost mad killing intent at having his soul's forbidden ground forcibly invaded churned within them.
"You..." Snape's voice was so low that every word sounded like an icy shard dredged from the abyss, trembling uncontrollably. "What... did you do to me?!"
Lin Yanqing opened his mouth, but no sound came out. The gears of fate had begun turning with a thunderous roar in the most brutal, irresistible way possible, catching him utterly off guard and tightly entangling him with the future's most dangerous Potions master.
At the very start, he had entered a dead end—and the only path to survival.
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