In the final days of the Christmas break, Hogwarts remained shrouded in the tranquility after snowfall. Since the magical backlash incident in the dungeon corridor, Snape had seemed to vanish without a trace. Through the contract, Lin Yanqing could vaguely sense that he spent most of his time in the Slytherin common room or dormitory, his emotions like a deep pool—calm on the surface, but with undercurrents churning below. It was a sense of frustration forcibly suppressed, unwillingness to accept defeat, and ceaseless, intensely focused thought.
He sent no new reading lists and appeared in no public places. This silence was not his usual avoidance, but more like a wounded beast retreating to its den to lie low and lick its wounds.
The countdown for the system-issued [Crisis Rehearsal] mission ticked down slowly. Lin Yanqing was happy for the peace and quiet. He knew that as long as Snape stopped those dangerous solo experiments, the mission would basically be complete. He used those days to organize the limited knowledge about contracts he had obtained from the system and preview Charms material that might be covered next term.
On the evening before the holiday ended, Lin Yanqing was reading Standard Spells, Beginner at a window seat in the library when a black figure silently appeared beside the seat across from him.
It was Snape.
He looked slightly better than he had a few days ago, but his face remained pale, with tired shadows beneath his eyes. He had brought no books. He simply sat down in silence, his hands resting on his knees, fingers slightly curled. He did not look at Lin Yanqing. His gaze rested on the snowy scene outside in the twilight, as though he had merely chosen an empty seat at random.
But Lin Yanqing knew this was anything but random. Since the contract had been bound, this was the first time Snape had approached him of his own accord, and in a situation free of conflict or demands.
The library was quiet, filled only with the soft scratch of quills on parchment and the occasional rustle of turning pages. A broad Oak wood table lay between them like an invisible boundary.
Snape did not speak for a long time. He seemed to be struggling, organizing his words—or rather, overcoming some enormous psychological barrier. Through the contract, Lin Yanqing could sense a fierce tug-of-war between humiliation and reason. Reason told him that certain exchanges of information were necessary, while his pride made taking the initiative to speak unbearably difficult.
Lin Yanqing did not urge him on or take the initiative to break the silence. He lowered his head and continued reading, as though no one sat across from him. He knew that even the slightest pressure might make this startled—and fiercely prideful—bat fly away again.
Time passed second by second. Outside, the sky gradually darkened, while warm lights came on throughout the library.
At last, just as Lin Yanqing was preparing to pack up and leave, Snape spoke. His voice was low, carrying a deliberately maintained flatness, as if discussing the weather, but the tight line of his jaw betrayed his discomfort.
"Obscure Connection... Chapter Four," he said abruptly, still not looking at Lin Yanqing. "It mentioned a... possibility. The temporary... stabilization of magical channels."
He spoke very vaguely, not even forming a complete sentence. It was more like he was tossing out a few keywords to test the other person's reaction.
Lin Yanqing stopped turning the page. He looked up at Snape, whose profile appeared somewhat stiff beneath the lamplight.
"I saw it," Lin Yanqing replied calmly, his tone equally unreadable. "It requires Twin Moonlight Moss and Resonance Crystal Powder as mediums, and both parties' magic must achieve preliminary synchronization at a specific frequency." This was exactly what he had seen before in A Brief Analysis of Ancient Pacts, a system reward. Though the book was brief, it happened to mention the basic requirements of this Stabilization Ritual.
Snape's eyelashes trembled faintly. Lin Yanqing had named the key points so precisely, clearly confirming that he had indeed been researching the matter and possessed information Snape did not. That did not make him relax. Instead, it made him even more wary—this Ravenclaw might know far more than he let on.
But at the same time, it meant that the direction of "stabilizing the contract" was not simply something he had imagined out of thin air.
Another silence followed. This time, there was less confrontation in it and more deliberation.
"The materials are hard to find," Snape finally forced out, almost in a whisper. This was already the closest he could come to a "discussion." He did not ask, "Do you have them?" much less make a request. He merely stated a fact.
"Mm." Lin Yanqing acknowledged that he had heard. He made no promises. He knew that what Snape needed right now was not an enthusiastic partner, but an informed party who would not hold him back and might offer limited assistance.
After this brief, nearly coded exchange, Snape immediately stood up and swiftly left the library without looking back, as though he had completed a task that had demanded an extraordinary amount of effort.
Lin Yanqing watched his retreating figure disappear and let out a soft breath. Then the system's notification sounded in his mind.
"Mission [Crisis Rehearsal] complete! Rewards issued! (★ ω ★) Host, he came to talk to you on his own! Even though you discussed a dangerous topic, this is a historic breakthrough!"
Two bottles of [Magic Stabilization Potion (Beginner)], glowing with a faint blue light, appeared in his storage pouch. More importantly, he felt that the soul bond that had remained taut all this time seemed to... loosen by the tiniest fraction. It had not become friendly, but had shifted from "absolute hostility" into a state of "cautious, practical temporary truce."
The next day, the Hogwarts Express roared in with the returning students, and the castle was once again filled with noise. The new term had begun.
The first class was Potions class. When Lin Yanqing entered the underground classroom, he found Snape already seated in his usual corner. Unlike before, when Lin Yanqing chose a workbench neither too close nor too far from him, Snape merely lifted his eyelids and gave him a cold glance before lowering his head to prepare his equipment. He no longer gave off that intense air of driving him away.
Professor Slughorn assigned them a new healing potion. During the process, the timing for adding armadillo bile had to be controlled with precision. When Lin Yanqing reached that step, he could vaguely sense an extremely faint ripple of attention from Snape's side, as though Snape were silently monitoring his process and assessing whether he would trigger the contract's interference again.
It was silent supervision, and also a disguised form of acknowledgment—acknowledgment of the fragile balance that now existed between them, built on "avoiding shared risks."
At the end of class, while packing up his things, Lin Yanqing seemingly casually placed a small packet of faintly glowing powder, carefully wrapped in brown paper—Resonance Crystal Powder, part of the system reward material pack—on an empty stool between their workbenches.
He said nothing. Once he had packed his things, he left the classroom.
When he reached the doorway, he caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye: with lightning speed, Snape swept the packet of powder into the pocket of his robes, moving so quickly it was almost like an illusion.
The new term, and a new mode of "cooperation," quietly began amid silence, testing, and extremely limited exchanges of materials. System Cub eagerly planned the next mission, while Lin Yanqing knew that the seemingly calm road beneath their feet was in truth strewn with greater traps and unknowns.
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