HP: Embrace the Darkness

It has been snowing for many days, and the much-anticipated Christmas finally arrived on the day when the snow stopped.

That morning, Asseth woke up early.

Snape beside him didn't know when he woke up, and he was leaning against the bedside with a book in his hand.

She was wearing a thin nightgown, and her sleeves slipped down when she raised her hands. She didn't feel cold, but instead it dazzled the eyes of those who had just woken up.

It should be bone-chilling in winter, but the coldest cellar bedroom is as comfortable as spring.

Most of the credit here goes to the hard-working and conscientious Asseth.

In the past few days, although his focus was on preparing Christmas gifts, he still found time to renovate the cellar.

The first thing to be remodeled was of course the bedroom.

The entire bedroom was carefully engraved with the magic pattern of constant temperature, not even a corner was spared.

By the way, it also recharged ten years of magic power at once, ensuring that the bedroom will be as warm as the spring breeze in the next ten years.

After it was done, the bedroom was no longer cold and comfortable, so Snape rarely left the bedroom these days unless necessary.

"woke up?"

Snape held the book with one hand and turned the pages slowly, making a rustling sound as the paper rubbed against it.

"Well, has Sif been awake for a long time?"

Artes sat up, smoothed away the nightgown that had been messed up during his sleep, and leaned on the bedside like Snape did.

"I'm not one of those trolls who only eats and sleeps."

In addition to eating and sleeping...

Aces thought for a second and felt that he should not be within the scope of what Snape said.

After all, he is still very busy.

As if he knew what he was thinking, Snape didn't even raise his head, deliberately lengthened his tone, and chanted sarcasm towards his face.

"Your too poor brain may not tell you that you are only a little better than those trolls."

"That's all."

Asseth was thrown a bunch of complex taunts at him before he was fully awake. He couldn't react for a moment and was stunned. His brain struggled to understand what Snape meant.

After a while, he finally realized that Snape was seeking revenge for urging him to eat and sleep every day.

Ever since he moved in that day, he had been working tirelessly to force Snape to have a more regular schedule than Dumbledore, who claimed to sleep well as he got older.

Go to bed early and get up early, eat on time.

It can be said that the potion master's bad habits were almost changed by Asseth's hard and soft tactics.

Of course, along with the good habits came the Potions Master's resentment, which was worse than the ghost.

Merlin knew how many days it had been since Artes had received the Potions Master's favor.

Every day I looked at him and found something he didn't like. I picked him from beginning to end. Snape could pick a day.

Even he himself couldn't remember how many times he was ridiculed by Snape, but it was a lot.

Maybe it was because today was Christmas, the Potions Master was a little friendlier than usual, and he only had one mild sarcasm for so long.

Aces had a flash of inspiration and thought this was a good opportunity, so he immediately approached it.

"Merry Christmas, Sev."

He leaned his head close, and his hair, which was still a little messy after waking up, brushed against the tips of Snape's ears.

Snape raised his eyebrows, lifted the book and put it on the far shoulder of Arthas, preventing him from getting any closer.

"I don't think I'm so hard of hearing that you can't hear clearly while sitting still?"

The resistance was not strong, but Asseth still stopped his movements obediently, "Of course not."

"Then stay where you're supposed to be."

"Well, if you want."

Artes stepped away politely and took Snape's book from his shoulder.

"Basics of Alchemy?" Arthur was a little surprised when he saw the title of the book. "Do you want to learn alchemy? Can I teach you?"

Surprised for only a moment, Asseth immediately saw another ray of light illuminating the way forward.

Snape glanced at him lazily, "No, I just took it for a look."

He refused without hesitation.

Seeing that Snape really had no intention of learning, Artes regretfully retracted his series of beautiful fantasies.

The morning chat was over, the two got up, had breakfast, and started busy with their own affairs.

Ace first went to the Owlery to mail out all the Christmas gifts.

Many owls walked away with gifts in their mouths and disappeared into the white field of vision.

Aces did a good job in the past few days. He also used the leftover materials from before and the scraps from this time to mass-produce hundreds of gadgets.

Although these gadgets do not have much protective capabilities, they have many interesting functions.

He had no use holding them, so he gave all these things to Draco, asking him to use the owls from Malfoy Manor to distribute them to the young wizards who had signed up for alchemy classes before the holidays or when he went home. The rest he could give to anyone he wanted. who.

Because of this incident, Draco showed off his power in Hogwarts for several days, especially in front of Harry.

After the gifts were delivered, Artes left a message to Elise, asking her not to leave Hogwarts.

Then he left Hogwarts on his own to keep his appointment with Lucius.

According to the usual practice, Lucius and Artes usually do not go to their respective manors when they meet. They always take turns to meet at the inconspicuous small house named by both parties.

The last time we went was to Lucius's house, and this time it was Aces' turn.

The place where he decided to meet was at the edge of Godric's Hollow, where there was a long-abandoned house, which was also the house under Artes' name.

It's just that he owns too many houses and has not maintained every house.

But Nina will take care of everything.

The first thing Asseth did when he came to the door was to call Nina at Hogwarts.

Nina jumped out excitedly, and when she saw Asseth, her eyes lit up, "It's Master Asseth! What does the master need from Nina? Nina promises to complete the task."

There was too much dust in the room, and Asseth couldn't bear it and waved it away.

The huge magic power swept through, cleaning out all the dust in the house.

"I need you to help me clean the house. I have guests here and I'll leave the rest to you."

Nina was very happy that she could help Asseth and wiped her hands on her clothes excitedly.

"Don't worry, young master, Nina will definitely live up to the trust of the young master!" After she finished speaking, she walked straight to the house with great pride.

Aces stood at the door of the house and accidentally saw the holes in Nina's clothes.

"Nina, remember to clean up the useless things inside. Also, I hope you can help me get rid of those useless things."

House elves can gain freedom by getting clothes from their masters. Artes doesn't mind letting Nina go free, but Nina herself doesn't want to. She looks at Artes with tears in her eyes every time Artes brings it up.

Ask Asseth if there is something wrong with her that’s why she doesn’t want her.