HP: Embrace the Darkness

Grindelwald raised his head and raised his eyebrows, even angrier than Athis.

"You still have the nerve to say that to me? You actually have the nerve to say that to me! Do you know how long I've been waiting? A full twenty minutes!!! How dare you make me wait here for you for twenty minutes? Al never made me wait for twenty minutes! Don't you think you should apologize to me first and then explain why you were late?!"

Aces waited patiently for Grindelwald to finish his madness, then raised his eyes slowly and said bluntly: "I remember I didn't invite anyone here."

“It’s my ability that I can come in.”

Grindelwald was simply being extremely arrogant. If Athis hadn't noticed the slight worry in his eyes, he would have thrown him out by force.

But even if Grindelwald was not thrown out, Athis's patience had reached its limit, and he said restrainedly: "I don't have time to waste with you, the British wizarding world-"

"Stop, stop, stop. Are you trying to say that the British wizarding world is reviving and it can't be done without you?"

Grindelwald looked strange.

"Well, from what I understand, you're still meeting Al at the Ministry of Magic."

Ases was stunned.

He was meeting Dumbledore at the Ministry?

Why didn't he know?

Or is there someone...

Athis quickly figured everything out and felt a little relieved. When he looked at Grindelwald again, he no longer had the disgust he had at the beginning.

"There are burn marks on the lower left side of your sleeve. Who did you fight with? Don't say I didn't remind you that your parole order has only been issued not long ago. It's best not to fight in private, even if that person is Dumbledore."

Grindelwald came half because of emotional issues. He rejected Athis's unilateral discrimination, and then asked with a strong sense of justice: "We have some disagreements on the small matter of holding a wedding. Do you have any way to convince Al?"

"Why do you want to have a wedding?" asked Athis.

Grindelwald slammed the table angrily: "Why should I have a wedding? Shouldn't I have a wedding? Without a wedding, I will never be able to--"

"Stop." Athis interrupted him. Facing Grindelwald's accusing eyes, he said coldly, "You don't need to tell me the rest. Just tell Dumbledore directly."

Grindelwald was speechless: "Do I have a very disgusting face? Why do you seem to not want to see me?"

"You know why."

Ases lowered his eyes, his thick eyelashes casting shadows, half-hiding the fluctuating emotions in his eyes.

The curtains in the room were tightly drawn, and the light from outside filtered through a warm yellow filter. The man sat there quietly, surrounded by the warm light, making people want to get closer unconsciously, but the words he said had nothing to do with tenderness.

"It's not a good habit to come uninvited. Do I need to make it clearer?"

"Why are you mad at me?"

Grindelwald frowned and was about to get angry, but when he looked up and met Athis's eyes as calm as dead water, he held back his anger and took out something from his pocket and threw it to him with an irritable tone.

"Okay, okay, stop arguing, okay? I know, you take a look at this thing first, and I'll leave if there's no problem."

Athis raised his hand to catch the object thrown by Grindelwald. The moment he touched it, it was extremely hot. He subconsciously let go of his hand, and the unknown object slid down his palm, rolled on the ground for a few times, and stopped only when it hit the corner of the table.

Then, a curtain of light was projected into the air.

Grindelwald sat up straighter, interested.

Snape walked up to Athis, put him behind him, and stared at the empty light curtain cautiously.

A woman appeared first on the light screen.

Grindelwald might not know this woman, but Aces and Snape both recognized her. It was Rowena.

Snape realized something and glanced at Athis quickly and guiltily. He opened his lips slightly, wanting to explain, but then realized that Athis couldn't hear him, so he closed his eyes in annoyance and stared at Athis, trying to turn a blind eye.

The picture on the light curtain continues.

A figure familiar to everyone appeared.

It's Snape.

Snape in the light curtain walked up to the woman, sat down, and greeted her politely.

Snape had his back to the camera and there was no sound. Grindelwald and Aces could only see Snape saying something, suddenly becoming excited, and reaching out to grab the woman's wrist, not letting go for a long time.

Grindelwald couldn't help but look at Athis with a strange look, seeming to be hesitant to speak.

Ases knew what he was thinking without even looking at him, and threatened him coldly:

"The relationship between Sif and her is not what you think. I suggest that before you speak out, you should first think about who worked so hard to get you out of Nurmengard, and then think about whether I have the ability to send you in again."

Grindelwald was quiet.

At this moment, the picture froze, and then a vague voice was heard.

They heard Snape's voice as if from far away: "His future should be bright. I'll leave it to you this time."

The scene ends abruptly here.

Grindelwald's heart skipped a beat. He secretly peeked at Athis's expression and asked worriedly, "Are you okay?"

Aces pondered for a moment and asked in a deep voice: "Who gave this to you?"

Grindelwald frowned and tried to recall. "It wasn't given to me. It was given to Al. Al then gave it to me. According to Al, someone asked his student to give it to him. The student couldn't explain who gave it to him."

Ases was silent for a moment, and politely asked, "Do you have anything else to do?"

"Yes." Grindelwald, who had just said he was leaving, suddenly changed his tone, "Al asked me to ask you, where did you take the person?"

Ases' eyes turned cold.

Grindelwald tried to cover up the truth, saying, "Al wants to prove his identity as a spy. If that doesn't work, you should hand him over for a while and then bring him back."

"..." Aces closed his eyes, "Tell Dumbledore that he only needs to produce a certificate to prove that he once asked Snape to stay with Voldemort as a double agent. I will take care of the rest."

Grindelwald did not ask further questions.

He knew that asking about Snape's whereabouts was already crossing Athis's bottom line. Athis did not turn against him only because of their many years of friendship. It would be impolite to ask further.

"I understand you, so I never intended to persuade you. Besides, I knew the day I found you... take care of yourself."

Grindelwald sighed and left.

Ases watched him leave, curled his lips in self-mockery, got up, went to the bedroom to change clothes, and returned to the basement again.

With a wave of his hand, half of the basement instantly twisted and deformed, slowly turning into a study. Ases took out a piece of parchment from the table and wrote and drew on it.

Snape took a closer look and found that what Athis had drawn was the magic circle on the ground.

"What on earth are you going to do?"

Snape couldn't touch anything, so he could only stay next to Athis, staring at him boredly to pass the time and poking his face with his hands for fun.

"Didn't I tell you that your eyes are like the obsidian you gave me? There's a tiny light burning in the darkness... Very beautiful, I like it very much."

Snape talked to himself, while Athis lowered his head, quietly scribbling on the parchment. Although the two could not touch each other, they inexplicably felt an indescribable peace.

An afternoon passed, and Ases made some modifications to the original magic circle and arranged tomorrow's schedule. He put down his feather pen, leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for a while, then picked up the pen again, took out a few sheets of letter paper, and after a moment of thinking, began to write the letter.

The first letter was to the president of the International Potions Guild.

The letter briefly described the current situation of the British wizarding world, explained the identity of the mysterious potion master, and invited the other party to meet in the UK.

Next came the president of the Alchemy Society, the president of the International Confederation of Wizards, the president of the American Magical Congress... It can be said that Ases wrote letters to everyone he knew and could contact, and the contents of these letters all revolved around one person - Snape.

Snape, who was watching, suddenly fell silent.

Because the recipient's identity is relatively special, every letter needs to be carefully considered and worded before writing. If you are not careful, you will have to start all over again.

It was so complicated that even Snape, who needed to be vindicated, felt a headache after reading it, but Athis remained highly focused and patient, writing every stroke, neither hurried nor slow, with elegance and order.

In addition, he used extremely beautiful, gorgeous and unique cursive script to write many meaningless compliments, and cleverly hid the hints in those high-sounding official discourses.

At first glance, the letter appears long and complicated.

Snape, who hated it most when Lucius took so long to write letters and then filled most of the letter with compliments, rarely made any comment on this. He read all the letters quietly and fell into a long silence.

It took a while before I found my voice again.

"No wonder you asked me indirectly before if I wanted to be a hero in the eyes of the world."

He raised his hand, and placed his translucent fingers lightly on Athis's shoulder, then leaned down and gently hugged Athis.

"Thank you."

Ases wrote the letters unconsciously and sent them out one by one.

The British wizarding world was a bit chaotic at the moment, so even if they received the letter, it wouldn't come so quickly, not to mention that there was Dumbledore's pressure. Asis was not in a hurry, and after delivering the letter he went back to the basement to catch up on his sleep - he put a bed in the basement, right on the magic circle, very close to the ice coffin.

Snape was relieved to see that Aces went to bed obediently. He followed him to the bed and watched him fall asleep before testing the range of his free movements.

He counted by the number of steps, with Ases as the center, and walked to the side. He didn't feel restrained until he reached fifteen steps, and he couldn't lift his feet if he went any further.

"About ten meters."

Snape tried to continue lifting his feet, but a pulling force appeared from behind, and he was pulled back before he could react.

Looking back, Ases turned over and estimated to be a few centimeters shorter.

"You deliberately?"

Snape walked over with a dark face and stretched out his evil hand towards Athis.

He didn't expect to touch it, so he didn't hold back his strength.

The result was that Ases was poked hard while he was sleeping, and a small red mark appeared on his pale cheek.

Snape looked at his hand in doubt and stretched it out tentatively again.

His fingers hesitantly fell on his cheek.

Didn't get through!

Snape's pupils suddenly lit up with surprise, and he couldn't wait to put his entire hand against Ases' cheek, leaving no gap.

Feeling the warmth coming from the palm of his hand, Snape's heart couldn't help but ache. He gently stroked Athis's eyebrows with his fingertips and rubbed the corners of his eyes.

"I'm always by your side, don't be afraid."

Ases seemed to sense something, his eyelashes trembled, and he slowly opened his eyes.

The temperature of his palm slowly dissipated as Athis woke up. The moment Athis opened his eyes completely, Snape's hand passed through Athis again without any obstruction.

Can’t touch it again!

For the first time after losing his body, Snape lost his composure and kept grabbing Athis's hand. Athis suddenly raised his hand and touched his left cheek. There seemed to be a little coolness left on it, which covered his warmth.

"Sif..."

He seemed to have thought of something, took out a bottle of potion from the alchemy ring, closed his eyes and drank it, then put his hand on his lower abdomen, slightly bent his knuckles, and closed his eyes.

"If it's you, close my hand."

The sleeping effect of the potion took effect quickly, and Athis fell into a deep sleep. Snape was angry and anxious. He was angry that Athis drank the potion casually, and he was anxious that he couldn't stop him, so when he saw Athis fell asleep, he immediately reached out.

This time his hand didn't go through and he successfully pinched Ases' face.

Snape was delighted and took the opportunity to mock.

"Congratulations, you got a zero in Potions, remember to come back to me to study again."

Snape mocked and glared at Athis fiercely, and he used his hands to knead Athis like a bun, venting the anger that had accumulated over this period of time.

"Not sleeping for work?"

"Comatose from excessive blood loss?"

"Drink potions casually?"

"Huh, someone is so arrogant. Has his true face been revealed or has Master Cavendish become arrogant due to his recent rise in fame?"

Every time he said something, Snape pinched him hard and mercilessly.

Aces was like a puppet, being manipulated by Snape obediently, and his handsome face soon turned red.

Fortunately, Snape still remembered what Athis said. When he had enough fun, he went to look for Athis's alchemy ring, found the corresponding antidote for the potion in it, pinched Athis's mouth open, lifted the bottle, and slowly poured it in.

Ases was in a coma and had no consciousness to swallow. The potion dripped from the corners of his mouth and he didn't drink a single sip of it.

Snape helped him up and leaned against his shoulder, took out another bottle of potion, hesitated for a few seconds, drank it himself, kissed Aces, pried open his mouth, and passed all the potion to him.

Since Snape made the potions himself, he could naturally control the time when the drugs would take effect. He calculated the time, gently put Aces down, and reached out to close his hand.

Athis hadn't woken up yet. Snape estimated the time and leaned over to kiss him. When Athis was about to regain consciousness, he opened his mouth and bit Athis's lower lip.

Stimulated by the pain, Ases suddenly opened his eyes, but there was still nothing in his sight, but...

He lowered his eyes to look at his clasped hands. His heart, which had been hanging for many days, finally settled down and his soul returned to the world.

"Sif!"

His cheeks and lips suddenly felt burning with pain, and the stinging pain that he had just ignored came back to his mind. Aces raised his hand blankly and rubbed his lower lip, which was stained with a little blood.