Winter's Gift

Hogwarts in November was enveloped by a biting wind, and the edges of the Black Lake began to form a thin layer of ice. Though warm inside the castle, a weariness unique to the end of term started to spread among the students. For Snape, this fatigue was deeper, mixed with the persistent low mood brought on by rumors and the increasingly undisguised contemptuous glances from certain individuals within Slytherin.

The connection between him and Lin Yanqing, based on "utility," had entered a stranger state after the Mistletoe Berries incident. There was no regular exchange of supplies, nor any form of communication. Yet, on certain specific occasions requiring high concentration or facing potential interference (such as during a Charms class test or a complex Potions operation), Lin Yanqing could occasionally sense an extremely subtle, almost "standby" state emanating from Snape's side. He seemed no longer to be fully blocking the Contract's emotional channel as before, but rather tacitly allowing it to exist as a... "warning" or "stabilizer" at critical moments.

This was a limited, conditional openness. Only when he deemed it "necessary."

Meanwhile, Lin Yanqing also noticed a detail. The weather grew colder, and many students had changed into thicker winter robes or wrapped themselves in wool scarves sent from home. But Snape still wore that seemingly thin black robe, its cuffs even a bit worn. Through the Contract, when the biting wind blew at the castle entrance, Lin Yanqing could clearly capture the physical shiver of cold that immediately followed, though it was quickly suppressed by Snape's willpower.

Spinner's End, clearly, had not prepared him for the cold.

The System hadn't issued a task, but Lin Yanqing felt he should do something. Not out of obligation, but out of a... most instinctive reaction to seeing a companion (albeit an extremely awkward one) suffering from the cold. He knew that directly gifting clothing was absolutely out of the question; it would offend Snape's dignity even more than sharing food.

He needed a more indirect, less conspicuous method.

An opportunity arose one weekend near the Christmas holidays. Hogsmeade Weekend arrived, allowing students above third year to visit the village. Although first and second years couldn't go, the castle became much emptier. Lin Yanqing asked a friendly seventh-year Ravenclaw senior, who was preparing to go to Hogsmeade, to use his accumulated System gold coins to purchase a plain, unadorned, sturdy black winter robe from the Elegant Wizarding Apparel shop in the village, and instructed the senior not to mention it.

Next came the issue of delivery.

Giving it directly wouldn't work. Lin Yanqing thought for a long time, finally settling on a place: the Room of Requirement. He spent several nights pacing back and forth in front of the tapestry of Barnaby the Barmy being beaten by a troll on the eighth floor, silently repeating, "I need a place to store an item that needs to be found by a specific person, but will not be discovered by anyone else."

When the door appeared, he walked in. Inside was a small, empty, dusty storage room with only a rickety wooden shelf. Lin Yanqing placed the simple package containing the new robe on the top shelf, then used his wand to leave an extremely small mark on the rough stone wall beside it, almost blending into the stone pattern—a simple, ancient rune formed by two intersecting triangles, representing "Guardian" and "Contract." He had learned it from that dragon hide notebook, and Snape would surely recognize it.

Then, he left the Room of Requirement.

The next morning, before dawn, while most students were still asleep, Lin Yanqing mixed a folded note, the size of a fingernail, into a pile of letters about to be sent by owl, and placed it next to Snape's usual seat in the library. The note contained only the rune and a small line of text: "Eighth floor, opposite the tapestry."

He did not sign it, and his handwriting was disguised.

This was a gamble. A gamble that Snape's curiosity and understanding of the rune's meaning would drive him to investigate.

All day long, Lin Yanqing could feel a sense of high alert and inquiry from the other end of the soul bond, different from the usual gloom. Snape had clearly received the note and was weighing whether it was a trap or something else.

It wasn't until evening that Lin Yanqing felt Snape's emotional fluctuations appear near the eighth floor. He seemed to hover in front of the tapestry for a long time, and finally, the door to the Room of Requirement opened for him.

For the next ten minutes or so, Lin Yanqing could feel the emotions there shift from extreme vigilance to astonishment upon discovering the item, followed by a long, almost frozen silence. There was no anger, no offended rage, only a... deep, unreadable complex emotion slowly flowing. He was scrutinizing the robe, and also the intentions of the person who left it.

Finally, a sense of resolve came through. Snape took the robe.

The next day, in Potions class. Snape appeared, wearing the brand-new, well-fitting black winter robe. He sat in his usual spot, not looking at Lin Yanqing, as if this suddenly appearing new robe that protected him from the cold was no different from his old one.

But when Professor Slughorn assigned them the task of brewing an advanced Tonic that required a constant body temperature to succeed, Lin Yanqing noticed that Snape's movements were more stable and composed than ever. Without the slight tremors caused by the cold, his actions were as precise as a machine, and the quality of the finished product even surpassed Slughorn's demonstration.

Through the Contract, Lin Yanqing could feel that beneath that cold stillness, something seemed to have... loosened just a tiny bit. It wasn't gratitude, but more like a sense of smoothness from a "problem being solved." Snape accepted this "gift" in the same way he accepted "supply exchanges"—treating it as a cold "tool" to solve a practical need, only this time the tool was a robe.

After class, Snape was still the first to leave. But this time, after he left, Lin Yanqing found a thin, handwritten notebook in the drawer of his workbench. The paper was rough, and the ink was in Snape's familiar florid script. It detailed several quick counter-curses and defensive techniques for common prank spells (such as the Leg-Locker Curse and the Cheering Charm), even including descriptions of the subtle magical fluctuations of these spells.

There was no preface, no epilogue. But the significance of this notebook far surpassed any previous material.

This was no longer a simple "return gift" or "transaction." It was... information sharing. It was a practical sharing of countermeasures against the external threats they both faced (the Marauders' pranks).

Snape was responding to the winter robe in his own way. He didn't say thank you, and he wouldn't even acknowledge that it was related to the robe. But he gave what was most valuable within his understanding—knowledge and means of defense.

Lin Yanqing gently stroked the rough cover of the notebook, feeling a faint chill from the dungeon and the scent of parchment that seemed to linger on it.

He knew that this winter might still be cold, but something was happening beneath this icy soil, changing slowly and awkwardly.

Snowflakes began to fall on Hogwarts, and the Christmas holidays were fast approaching. And this time, Lin Yanqing felt that the soul connected at the other end of the soul bond, after resisting the physical cold, also seemed to have resisted a bit of the inner storm.