[This side story is unrelated to the main story. It supplements Chapter 81 with a short tale and can be skipped.]
Children, come closer.
Shut the doors and windows tight.
The wind outside always brings bad rumors.
The fire in the hearth always goes out eventually, but the chill in a story can stay with you as you fall asleep.
Today, we won't speak of brave knights.
Nor of kind princesses.
Shall I tell you a story about stars in the mire, about false sweetness, and about how love grows sharp teeth?
Have you heard the name "Half-Blood Prince"?
Listen closely.
This is a song that belongs to midnight.
Chapter 1: The shadows of Wool's Orphanage
There was a street in London that was always shrouded in fog.
At its end stood a gray, box-shaped brick building.
Wool's Orphanage.
The air here always smelled of overcooked cabbage.
Cold droplets of water constantly seeped from the walls.
John Prince lived here.
He had never seen his father.
Nor had he ever seen his mother.
All he had was a slip of paper bearing his name and a frail, perpetually malnourished frame.
The children at the orphanage disliked him.
Because he was strange.
When someone stole his black bread, the boy who stole it would suddenly fall down the stairs and break his front teeth.
When the matron struck his palms with a cane, it would turn without warning into a dried-up venomous snake, frightening her into a dead faint.
John didn't know that was magic.
He only knew that, inside this box filled with malice, he had mastered a weapon called fear.
He was a worm crawling through the mud.
But when he looked up at the sky, he felt he ought to possess all its stars.
He learned patience.
He