"That was because," he raised his head and met Dumbledore's gaze without fear, his voice filled with the carefully disguised fervor and loathing of a paranoid scholar, "that boy is a monster."
"A monster?" Dumbledore's eyebrows rose slightly.
"Yes, a monster with an 'intuitive' talent for Potions Mastery unlike anything I've ever seen." Snape's voice grew hoarse and low, as if he were stating a disturbing fact.
"He ignores recipes, ignores rules, and concocts things however he likes according to his so-called 'Eastern theories.' Yet what he brews contains a deeper medicinal logic that I... cannot understand. It's dangerous, Albus! Very dangerous!"
He took a step forward and lowered his voice, his tone full of urgency.
"If we don't guide and study a talent that isn't bound by theory, who knows what he might brew in the future? A potion that can cure anything, or a plague that can destroy the world? I must know where his limits lie. I must grasp the core of his theories! Giving him access to the Forbidden Section was meant to make him reveal more, to bring this uncontrollable 'talent' under our watch!"
Those words were airtight, perfectly reasonable.
He had dressed up an extremely selfish "deal" as necessary "academic research" conducted for the "safety of the magical world."
Dumbledore listened quietly, his expression unchanged.
After a long while, he finally nodded slowly.
"Your reasons sound... very convincing, Severus," he said softly. "I hope your research yields results. After all, talent always needs to be treated with greater care."
His gaze seemed to pierce through Snape's disguise and see the secrets buried in the depths of his heart.
Snape felt a fine sheen of cold sweat break out across his back.
"Of course, Headmaster." He bowed stiffly, then turned and swept out in his black robes, leaving the suffocating office almost as if he were fleeing.
The moment the door closed, the smile on Dumbledore's face slowly faded.
He looked out at the gloomy sky, a profound, indescribable worry flashing in his blue eyes.
Ryan Lin...
The name was like a stone dropped into a still lake, stirring ripples in his heart that spread and spread, never settling.
The next day, the sky cleared.
The Quidditch Pitch was packed with people, and colorful banners fluttered in the air.
Gryffindor and Slytherin, those sworn enemies, were about to face off in the first major match of the year.
Harry Potter, the youngest Seeker in history, walked onto the pitch nervously behind Wood. His heart pounded like a drum, and his palms were slick with sweat.
In the stands, Ron and Hermione waved a huge banner bearing the crooked words: "Potter for the win!"
And in the highest, most inconspicuous corner of the Gryffindor stands,
Lin Yuan leaned against the railing, absorbed in a rare book he had borrowed from the Forbidden Section, Analysis of Ancient Curses and Counter-Curses.
To him, the only value of this noisy match was the perfect opportunity to observe the Practical Application of High-Level Dark Magic at close range.
"It's starting."
As Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the fourteen players soared into the air, Lin Yuan's divine sense spread like a vast net, instantly locking onto every fluctuation of magic in the space above the pitch.
The match was underway in full force.
Harry displayed his innate talent for flying, darting through the air like a red-and-gold hummingbird amid the whistling Quaffles, searching for that glimmer of gold.
Just then,
a cold, malicious current of magic crept silently from the direction of the High Table and wound itself around Harry's Nimbus 2000.
"Here it comes." Lin Yuan lifted his eyes from the book and calmly looked in that direction.
Through the vision of his divine sense, he could clearly "see" it.
Professor Quirrell's lips were moving soundlessly. A sustained, vicious curse poured from him, trying to disrupt the core Levitation Stabilization Array on Harry's broomstick.
The broom began bucking violently. Harry clung desperately to the handle, lurching wildly in midair as if he might be thrown off at any moment.
The stands erupted in gasps.
Hermione turned deathly pale with fright.
Yet Lin Yuan's brow furrowed slightly.
Because he "saw" far more than that.
Beside Professor Quirrell's black line of curse magic, another current of magic—just as concealed, but opposite in nature—was flowing from Snape's direction, like a sturdy barrier stubbornly resisting the curse's intrusion.
"Oh? A counter-curse..." A researcher's interest flickered in Lin Yuan's eyes. "One is applying 'entropy increase,' trying to make the stable structure collapse; the other is constantly injecting 'Negative Entropy' to forcibly maintain its stability. The two forces have formed a delicate dynamic balance on this tiny 'Magic Artifact'—the broomstick. Like... walking a tightrope."
He could easily sever both lines.
With a single thought, he could make those two crude streams of magic vanish in an instant.
But he didn't.
"This is the 'protagonist's' trial, and the nourishment for his growth. Outside interference would contaminate the experimental data."
He merely watched in silence, like the most detached observer, recording the collision between these two opposing laws.
In the end, Hermione's simple, brutal "physical attack" broke the deadlock.
A small blue flame sprang up on the hem of Snape's robes.
Snape recoiled in pain, interrupting the counter-curse.
At that same moment, Quirrell stopped casting as well, knocked over by Hermione.
Both forces vanished at once, and Harry's broom immediately steadied.
Then he spotted the glimmer of gold darting away.
He dived after it like a bolt of lightning.
Finally, to the disbelief of everyone in the stands, he failed to brake in time and pitched forward, retching as he spat the golden ball, still fluttering its wings, into his hand.
"Harry Potter has caught the Golden Snitch! Gryffindor wins!"
Lee Jordan's shout rang across the entire pitch.
The Gryffindor stands instantly became a sea of red and gold jubilation.
Amid the deafening cheers,
Lin Yuan slowly closed the ancient book in his hands.
"Data recorded. Preliminary model established for the energy interaction between 'curse' and 'counter-curse.' Conclusion: inefficient, requires optimization."
He turned and walked calmly toward the library, with the roaring cheers behind him.
Before you continue