HP: Embrace the Darkness

Snape stared at the potion with mother-of-pearl luster in the bottle, his thoughts in confusion.

He knew he should be happy that Artes didn't have to disconnect the potion and interrupt the treatment.

But he couldn't be happy, and doubts lingered in his mind, clamoring for him to ask whether these potions were really made out of curiosity?

Obviously...a crucible of potion ingredients was refined to the end, just enough to fill a bottle.

There's more than one bottle here.

Snape pursed his lips and told himself not to make random guesses, as long as the result was good.

However, the harder he tried to restrain himself, the more he couldn't control his divergent thinking.

Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the amount of potions.

Six bottles, three days' worth, would need to be refined at least six times, and including the preparation time, it would take at least a week.

Is such a tedious job really just a momentary curiosity? Or were you prepared in advance? If so, why?

The more he thought about it, the uglier his face became.

Aces, who was busy looking for the potion, didn't notice the slightly depressing atmosphere in the air.

He turned over the alchemy ring, and finally regretfully discovered that he had indeed only been able to refine six bottles while trapped in the cave doing nothing for fun.

If the process wasn't so cumbersome, he felt he could still struggle.

Unfortunately, reality never exists.

That's why he prefers alchemy to potions.

There is no long preliminary preparation work for alchemy. As long as the materials are in place, you can create a powerful alchemy item or even more in one go.

But potions don't work.

Even the slightly more powerful potions require several days of preparation.

It usually takes half a year to refine the elixir he received as a Christmas gift when he was in first grade.

Just thinking about this time limit made him feel troublesome, let alone refining it himself.

Perhaps only a potion master with a great passion for potions can tolerate these particularly troublesome potions and enjoy them.

"Sev, to be honest, I'm right -" The rest of Ass's words were stuck before he could say it. He stretched out his hand and rescued the potion from Snape's hand that looked like it was about to be crushed. He was worried. Said, "What's wrong?"

The cool touch of the potion disappeared, replaced by a warm palm.

Snape lowered his head and stared at the person who was warming his hands. Those fears that were like extending out of a dark swamp retreated little by little.

"why?"

what why?

Artes was stunned for a moment, and followed Snape's line of sight to see the potion. He still didn't understand why one sentence could cover so many things.

"Is there something wrong with the potion?"

He held the potion in front of him and looked at it carefully, trying to see something wrong with it.

Still no problem.

Could it be that his potion ability has deteriorated to the point where he made the wrong potion! ?

No!

Aces backed away almost in horror and hurriedly hid the potion.

Making the wrong potion wasn't scary. What was scary was that the Potions Professor who taught him the potion was right in front of him and was his legitimate lover.

This feeling was no less than Voldemort's despair when he discovered that the Horcruxes he had worked so hard to cut into souls to make were all gone.

"Okay, it seems we have to think of other ways." Asses tried to muddle through.

Snape couldn't keep up with him and was confused.

"I'm asking..." Snape had several questions running through his mind, "Are you really just out of curiosity when you refined these bottles of potions?"

When Asses interrupted him, he stopped thinking and simply asked directly.

"Actually, not entirely." Asses recalled that painful experience, "It was also because of boredom."

Feeling the strange look in Snape's eyes, he said in a slightly dull and frivolous tone:

"Isolated from the world in the cave, after writing letters every day, there is nothing else for me to think about. Under such circumstances, I can only see things and think about people."

Snape never expected that these bottles of potions would be related to him after all, and his deep black eyes shone brightly like stagnant water.

Aces got some information from the changes in his eyes, and said love words in a chant-like tone: "What can remind me of you better than a potion?"

"It seems I haven't told you that I really like the smell of you."

These words were unfamiliar to Snape.

He was more accustomed to others scolding him for being dirty and having greasy hair, and felt that there might be some unacceptable smell surrounding him.

However, after he became a professor at Hogwarts, such looks became much less common, and most people with brains would not openly resist him.

Oh, not including that stupid Potter.

He has no brains and wastes potions.

Snape frowned in disgust, which made him look like he had a different opinion on what Ass said and was silently objecting.

Aces reached over the coat rack between them and sniffed with the tip of his nose.

Because the scent of the medicine was very light, he leaned very close to it.

The two of them were only a few centimeters apart, as if they were about to kiss in the next second.

Snape stared stiffly at the slightly trembling eyelashes and warm eyes close at hand.

Aces' eyes were inherited from Anna, but the pupils were not pure black, but lighter than black, and the hazy luster seemed to be breathtaking.

A very faint bitter fragrance floated over, and Asseth carefully distinguished the composition of the fragrance.

Worried that the description was not adequate and that Snape could not understand him, Artes searched for the right words and finally stood up after finishing the draft.

"It's a very light and bitter medicinal aroma. When you first smell it, you can only smell bitterness. But at a certain moment, the pure fragrance of grass and the elegant and calm woody fragrance break away from the bitter fragrance. The three reach a balance and form a harmonious atmosphere. A new, unique flavor.”

Just like the life of Severus Snape.

After enduring a long period of suffering, the unyielding attitude towards fate engraved in the bone marrow emerges tenaciously. He tries his best to absorb nutrients from the outside world, replenish himself, and then gradually grows into the adult he once expected.

Maybe not perfect, but tough enough.

Aces kissed the lips that were close at hand reverently, held Snape's hand and covered the side of his face, "I only hope that you will be happy after all the hardships. I also hope that you will never suffer hardships and have a smooth life."

Sometimes, Snape really felt that maybe he was getting old and couldn't keep up with Artes' thinking every time.

But looking at Aces' sparkling eyes, as if he were about to cry, he miraculously felt a very special emotion from the words and blessings just now.

That emotion is called heartache.

"Already."

Snape moved his fingers, as if caressing the corners of Artes' eyes accidentally, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he found that there was no wet touch on his fingers.

Aces blinked and brought his hand to his eyes, deliberately letting his eyelashes brush against his fingertips. Seeing his fingertips shrink away, he smiled softly.

"not enough."

After all the hardship comes happiness, after all the hardship comes happiness.

There must be more sweetness than bitterness to be called sweetness.

It's not enough yet.

His Potions Master deserves the best.

Instead of being stuck in Voldemort's shabby swamp.