Shadows of the Forbidden Zone and Omens of Loss of Control

The remaining few days of the Christmas holiday passed in a peculiar calm. Hogwarts, like a silent fortress wrapped in snow, offered the few students who stayed behind a rare chance to relax.

Lin Yanqing and Snape maintained their tacit understanding: Snape would provide a more in-depth, more dangerous reading list, and Lin Yanqing, relying on his Ravenclaw status and the System's occasional convenience, would repeatedly "borrow" ancient tomes exuding the scent of old parchment and dangerous magic from Madam Pince's watchful gaze.

These books were far more profound than the previous ones, even bordering on the sinister. The Shackles and Bonds of the Soul was filled with warnings about soul tearing and eternal servitude; Bloodline Pacts and Magical Resonance detailed the catastrophic consequences of forcibly linking different magical bloodlines, including magical contamination and mental derangement.

Snape was clearly engrossed. Through the contract, Lin Yanqing could often sense prolonged, highly concentrated thought emanating from the other end, occasionally accompanied by waves of near-frenzied excitement when Snape reached a crucial point. However, this was often followed by deeper confusion and a subtle hint of anxiety. He seemed to be searching for a specific answer, perhaps a way to break the contract, or perhaps how to unilaterally block its influence.

However, danger was quietly approaching.

One evening, as Lin Yanqing emerged from the library, clutching the last book Snape had requested—Obscure Connection: On Involuntary Magical Contracts—he felt a sharp, needle-like pain pierce through the other end of the soul bond the moment he stepped out of the library doors!

The pain wasn't physical; it felt more like a soul being forcibly pulled and magic being violently churned. Lin Yanqing let out a muffled groan, almost dropping the book in his arms. He leaned against the cold stone wall, feeling a slight disturbance in his own magical circulation.

It was Snape! Something had happened to him!

Almost instinctively, Lin Yanqing followed the contract's guidance, hurrying towards the Slytherin dungeons.

The pain and magical disturbance continued, not strong, but unsettling like background noise.

He found Snape in a shadowy alcove along a seldom-used corridor leading to the dungeons.

Snape was curled up in the shadows, his back to the corridor, his shoulders trembling slightly, his left hand gripping his right wrist tightly.

Several sheets of paper covered in complex calculations and magical symbols were scattered on the floor, along with an open copy of An Investigation into the Phenomenon of Magical Resonance, which Lin Yanqing had given him just days before.

"Snape?" Lin Yanqing slowed his steps, calling out tentatively.

Snape spun around abruptly, his face ashen, his forehead beaded with cold sweat.

His dark eyes, usually cold or wary, now held an unprecedented, almost panicked expression. Though this expression was quickly suppressed the moment he saw Lin Yanqing, replaced by a layer of icy resolve, that fleeting moment of vulnerability had been captured.

"Get out!" His voice was hoarse, tinged with weak sharpness.

Lin Yanqing didn't leave. His gaze fell on Snape's left hand, which was unconsciously pressing down on his right arm, and the faint, abnormal magical glow seeping between his fingers. "Your magic..." he frowned, "Contract backlash?"

Snape's pupils contracted, and he pursed his lips, neither admitting nor denying. He had clearly been conducting some dangerous magical experiment or deduction on his own, attempting to forcibly analyze or even counter the contract's connection, and had suffered a magical backlash.

"I warned you, studying this alone is dangerous," Lin Yanqing's voice was calm, not accusatory, merely stating a fact. He stepped forward, ignoring Snape's immediate tensing and warning glare, and bent down to pick up the scattered drafts. The frenzied symbols and equations on the papers clearly pointed towards methods for "isolating soul perception" and "blocking magical flow."

Snape snatched the drafts from him, crumpled them into a ball, and stuffed them into his pocket, his movements stiff due to the discomfort in his arm. "It's none of your business," he said, gasping, trying to stand straight but stumbling.

Just then, another faint ripple of magic emanated from Snape, transmitted through the contract. Lin Yanqing felt a slight numbness in the same spot on his own right arm. He looked at his hand, then back at Snape's still-clutched right arm.

Snape clearly noticed Lin Yanqing's subtle reaction, and his expression darkened further. The worst guess had been confirmed—the contract not only shared magic but might even share damage, or at least the negative effects of magical loss of control.

"It seems," Lin Yanqing lowered his hand, his tone still level, "that before you find a way to 'block' me, we at least need to ensure you don't blow yourself—or me—up first."

Snape glared at him, his chest heaving, his dark eyes churning with humiliation, anger, and a hint of helplessness. He loathed this feeling of his weakness being exposed, and potentially implicating another person; it was more unbearable than simply being spied upon.

"That book," Lin Yanqing pointed to Obscure Connection, which he had almost dropped earlier, "might mention how to 'stabilize' the connection, rather than forcibly tear it apart. At least until you find a safe method." He offered the book.

Snape didn't take it immediately. He stood there, like a trapped, wounded beast, struggling between maintaining his pride and facing reality. The only sounds in the corridor were their suppressed breaths and the faint whisper of wind from a distance.

Ultimately, his thirst for knowledge, and his fear of experiencing that loss of control again, overwhelmed his impulse to blast this Ravenclaw and himself into oblivion. He abruptly reached out, practically snatching the book, and then, without looking back, walked briskly, his steps slightly unsteady, towards the Slytherin common room.

This time, he didn't leave a new reading list.

Lin Yanqing watched him disappear at the end of the corridor and sighed softly. He could feel the sharp pain and disturbance from the other end of the soul bond slowly subsiding, but a deeper, more complex emotion was brewing—an anger at his plans being thwarted, mixed with annoyance at his own insufficient abilities, and... a deeply reluctant compromise, acknowledging the current situation.

"New mission triggered! [Crisis Rehearsal]"

[Mission Description: Ensure bound target Severus Snape does not cause magical loss of control due to research on soul contracts within the next week.]

[Mission Reward: Magic Stabilization Potion (Elementary) x2, System Points x50.]

[Failure Penalty: Share the [Magical Disturbance] negative status with the bound target for 24 hours. (╥﹏╥) Cub doesn't want to crash!]

Looking at the mission penalty, Lin Yanqing rubbed his temples. He knew the peaceful holiday was over. The real trouble, or rather, the next stage of their twisted relationship, had just begun.