A weary woman sat perched on the parapet of the astronomy tower, her silhouette outlined against the slowly brightening sky. The lit cigarette between her lips gave off a soft, warm glow that contrasted with the weak light of the rising sun. Strands of brown hair fell loosely across her face, dirty, greasy, her whole demeanour bearing the marks of sleepless nights spent into trying to attempt a potion-making miracle.

The man looked up at her from the floor where he was sitting, his back against the parapet stone wall. He exhaled and curls of smoke rose, enveloping the woman's haggard face.

"You look beautiful". — He whispered, his voice coarse from the constant inhalation of alchemical fumes.

"You are such a liar". — She chuckled.

Professor Severus Snape kept his intense gaze on Laurel, feeling the weight of her words. He was indeed a liar. He took another drag of his cigarette, wishing he had the strength to tell her how much he feared losing her, how much he feared the future. He never thought of himself as a coward and yet...

"I'm dead, Sev. How long have we gone without sleep?"

"Almost thirty-two hours," — he replied, directing his gaze towards the slight golden glow of dawn.

"I haven't had time to check the final assignments, but I think if I push myself a little harder..."

"Forget about them. Go to sleep. I will grade them during class breaks".

Severus reached into his robes and pulled out a small ampoule of a dark liquid. Seeing this, Laurel frowned.

"Er, taking Wide Eye potion as often as you do is harmful. You should sleep".

"And smoking is healthy, right?"

"It is not, you are right". — she said with a guilty smirk. — "But is nothing compared to..."

"Don't play that card, pet. I am a wizard. Our life spans are much longer compared to muggles", — Severus paused, his face suddenly darken. — "We are immune to most of mundane diseases, and we can create cures..."

"How much longer?" — Laurel interrupted.

"Twice, maybe three times more". — the wizard looked at the woman with a glint in his eye, his lips downward.

Death

The ineffable stigma that haunted his life.

They stood silent. Laurel took a deep, slow puff of smoke, staring into the dark eyes of his beloved. The sunrise continued its ascent, painting the world in a tapestry of colours.

"Tell you what, I quit right now, right here, if you have a nap. You still have three hours till the first lecture starts".

Severus laughed, wiping away the moisture of his eye with the hand.

"Do you have an alarm clock on you or something?".

"I will wake you up". — Laurel assured him at seeing the mock of disbelief on his face. — "I promise".

Severus softened his expression and nodded solemnly. In unison, the woman and the professor stubbed out their cigarettes against the stone ledge, and Laurel stepped down from the parapet, sitting next to him.

"Don't you prefer to go back to the room?"

"I'm comfortable here," — he whispered, resting his head on Laurel's outstretched legs, his body stretching out on the stone floor. — "I don't think I have the strength to go back to the dungeons. Damn Lupin, I can't believe I am doing all this for him".

"But you don't do it for him. You do it for me".

"How come?"

Laurel smiled and she started playing with his hair, knowing he would soon succumb to the soothing.

"This potion will give a justification for my existence in the wizarding world. I know who I am, Sev. I know that in the eyes of many wizards I am barely subhuman. This potion will prove that at least I have some use."

"This potion will prove that you are one of the brightest, kindest, hard-working people there are, Laurel. You don't need to justify being here, in my world". — Severus grabbed her hand and kissed it tenderly. — "I didn't meet you in the best of circumstances but nonetheless, I couldn't be thankful enough".

Laurel blushed, bending down, she gave him a peck on his forehead.

"Sleep, Sev".

His eyes were lost in the vast sky, in the blurred stars, in the faint crescent moon. The silence was punctuated only by the soft rustling of their robes and the distant crowing of roosters. As the sun's rays extended their gentle embrace Severus realised the astronomy tower might be one of his favourite places in Hogwarts.

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

Harmonia Nectere Passus

Harmonia Nectere Passus

Harmonia Nectere Passus!

Draco's eerie intonation echoed through the Room of Hidden Things, his wand held high, his eyes, staring at the huge vanishing cabinet. The dark wood glimmered; light flickered within the cabinet.

He opened the heavy door and stepped in. Darkness engulfed. Movement, shadows, noise. A second later, someone called his name.

"Mr. Malfoy?"

The creaking of hinges and the sudden brilliance of sunlight pouring in through Borgin and Burkes's windows made him dizzy. Across from him, the stooped owner arched an eyebrow and twitched his cheeks in surprise.

"I made it!". —Draco stammered, looking in all directions of the dusty shop.

"You have indeed, made a marvellous achievement, Mr. Malfoy. — said Mr. Borgin with sickly fawning. —Should we, perhaps, wait a couple of days and give it more tries? One must assure the item is in optimum condition for such an important..."

The boy completely ignored the chattering voice of the old man. His heart began to beat desperately. He felt how the adrenaline began to rise through his body in an uncontrollable rush. There was no going back, he could feel it. Today was the day.

He lifted the sleeve of his robe and shakily touched the dark mark with his wand. Then he turned his gaze to the stooped old man who seemed to have been petrified by the boy's gesture.

"They'll be here soon," — Draco snapped. — "Tell them to wait here until the right time. I'll let you know".

And without another word, the blonde crouched back inside the closet, slamming the heavy door shut.

Despite the intense fear deep down inside, Draco couldn't help but let out a roar of glee at finding himself back in The Room of Requirement.

"YEAH! YEAH! IT IS DONE!" — He whooped while jumping out of the cabinet.

"Who's there?"

The sudden and fleeting feeling of joy was soon replaced by an overwhelming sense of dread. Someone had entered the Room of Hidden Things during his brief absence.

Fast as lightning, he threw a handful of Peruvian darkness powder and point his wand blindly to the source of the voice.

Professor Trelawney was thrown headfirst out of the Room of Requirement at full force.

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

"Listen, Hermione, I can tell it's not a girl. I can just tell."

"Well, why not? Harry, there aren't any real princes in the wizarding world! It's either a nickname, a made-up title somebody's given themselves, or it could be their actual name, couldn't it? No, listen! If, say, her father was a wizard whose surname was Prince, and her mother was a Muggle, then that would make her a 'half-blood Prince'!"

"She may have a point, Harry". — Ron said eagerly, his eyes looking for Hermione's favour and she smiled at him.

"I understand your theory, yes". — Harry drawled, annoyed. — "But I just feel the Prince is a bloke! This Eileen Prince has nothing to do with it".

"The truth is that you don't think a girl would have been clever enough," — said Hermione angrily.

"How can I have hung round with you for five years and not think girls are clever?"

There was Hermione at it again. Since the Sectumsempra attack on Malfoy she took it upon herself to figure out who the Half-Blood Prince was. This, of course meant she spent her days in the library.

"There is another thing". — Hermione pointed at the black and white picture. — "The pendant. Snape's assistant has the same. She told me she bought it in an antiques shop but is too much of a coincidence".

"Blimey! You are right!" — Ron looked at the picture in disbelief.

"But she has no magical ability, I don't know how all this can be related. It doesn't make sense to me" — Harry shook his head. — "Maybe it is just a trinket she found in Diagon Alley".

"You just don't want to see it, Harry. Do you know what? I'll go back to the library and find out everything I can about Eileen Prince."

"Enjoy yourself". — said Harry irritably.

"I will! — Hermione yelled at him, as she stormed out of the Gryffindor common room. —"And the first place I'll look is records of old Potions awards!"

Harry scowled after her for a moment, then continued his contemplation of the blank parchment in front of him, waiting for some inspiration to start with his Potions assignment. How he missed the help of the Prince! After the incident with Malfoy, he had hidden the book in the Room of Requirement. Harry was sure that Snape had not yet given up hope of laying hands on the Prince's book, and was determined to leave it where it was while Snape remained on the lookout.

"She's just never got over you outperforming her in Potions". —said Ron,

"She may have a point, Harry" — Harry mocked Ron's smarmy voice.

"Don't be pissed, Harry, I am trying to get in her good books after all the fuss with Lavender. You cannot blame me for trying to be kind to Hermione".

"Nah, you are right, mate. I just feel defensive of the Half-blood Prince. You don't think I'm mad, wanting that book back, do you?"

"'Course not". —said Ron robustly. — "He was a genius, the Prince. Anyway... without his bezoar tip..." —He drew his finger significantly across his own throat. — "I wouldn't be here to discuss it, would I? I mean, I'm not saying that spell you used on Malfoy was great".

"Nor am I". — said Harry quickly.

"But he healed all right, didn't he? Back on his feet in no time."

"Yeah," — said Harry; this was perfectly true, although his conscience squirmed slightly all the same. — "Thanks to Snape..."

"You still got detention with Snape today?"

"No, the last time I was in his office he seemed overwhelmed. He's working on that potion for Lupin. He practically threw me out."

"My, I never thought Snape would miss the chance to torture you."

"He is acting weird lately. That time in the infirmary, I have never heard him talking so harshly to Dumbledore".

"It's because of that girl, the assistant. The greasy bat finally found someone to smooch him. She is such an oddball!"

"They are up to something, that whole front of the werewolf cure is just a distraction for Dumbledore...

Harry was interrupted from his assumptions by the appearance at his side of Jimmy Peakes, the beater of Gryffindor's quidditch team, who was holding out a scroll of parchment.

"Thanks, Jimmy... Hey, it's from Dumbledore!" — said Harry excitedly, unrolling the parchment and scanning it. — "He wants me to go to his office as quick as I can!"

"Do you think he's found a Horcrux?"

Both boys looked at each other.

"Better go see, right?" — Harry jumped to his feet.

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

"It is open! Come on in, please!"

"Good afternoon, Miss Noel. I hope I am not interrupting".

Laurel raised her sight from the condensation funnel in which a crimson liquid was seeping. She blinked a couple of times, her eyes tired from the dim candlelight and the nights of insomnia. It took her a couple of seconds to realise Miss Granger was standing in Snape's office doorstep.

"Not at all, Miss Granger". —said Laurel with a slight tremble in the voice, as she suspected the reason of Hermione's visit. — "What can I help you with? I am afraid Professor Snape is not here at the moment".

"Oh, well, better yet". —Hermione let out a sigh of relief and she closed the door behind her.

The young witch pulled a chair in front of the marble workbench and sat across from Laurel. She didn't say anything but simply slipped a wrinkled, worn-out newspaper page to the woman.

Laurel stared down at the article: the words, first blurry and crammed, slowly started to make sense.

Scandal in the disgraced Prince Manor

...The youngest and only surviving member of the Prince clan, Eileen Snape (née Prince) could not hold back her tears when she was denied access to the funeral of her late father, magnate Vespertilius Prince...

Prince, who died last Sunday, has left all his dilapidated assets to a distant cousin, Madame Elisabeta Dragós, who has reluctantly agreed to take over the old man's funeral arrangements in exchange for the dilapidated property located in Nottingham...

According to the magnate's last will, his only daughter Eileen will be deprived of any benefits due to the scandal caused by eloping with a Muggle, Tobias Snape...

"I don't care about the money; I just want to say goodbye to him. — Were the words of the young woman in front of the gates of the Prince manor...

Laurel could feel her eyes start to burn and she had to make a great effort to swallow the lump in her throat.

"Hermione..."

"Harry found the book in the potions classroom cabinet. Professor Snape must have left it there by accident".

"I wish I could have even half your brain, Hermione, really". — Laurel picked up the worn-out paper, rereading it, feeling distant bittersweet emotions.

"You and Professor Snape are very close".

The woman smiled shyly, her cheeks blushing.

"That's... a private topic".

"I understand". —Hermione's face reddened as well. — "I... I will not mention anything of course..."

"We both now that you will be informing your friends. I just beg you that this will not come to Professor Snape's ears. If he learns that any of you knows so much about..."

"I will make sure he never finds out we know..." — Hermione stopped on her tracks. — "That I know all this. I won't tell my friends anything."

"I will thank you deeply for that, Hermione" — Laurel slowly got to her feet, her back aching from hunched over for hours. — "Now as for the book, it is best to return it."

"Harry has hidden it in the Room of Requirement, in the Room of Hidden Things".

"Miss Noel, may I ask... After learning about the type of curses he is capable of inventing... Do you fully trust Professor Snape?"

The Akardos smiled and nodded vigorously.

"Of course I trust him, Hermione."

≫ ──── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ──── ≪

"HOW — DARE — YOU — AAAAARGH!"

Professor Trelawney's hideous shriek made Harry sprint towards it, his wand at the ready, hurtled around another corner, and saw the brittle witch sprawled upon the floor, her head covered in one of her many shawls, several sherry bottles lying beside her, one broken.

"What happened professor? — Harry looked around and realised they were on the seventh floor, right in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. — Were you trying to enter the Room of Requirement?"

"I... well... I didn't know students knew about —"

"Not all of them do," —said Harry. —"But what happened? You screamed... It sounded as though you were hurt..."

"Erm..." —Professor Trelawney scrambled to her feet with the boy's help. — "I was trying to put some things away."— She hastily picked up the bottles from the floor —. "But there was already someone in there".

"Someone?"

"Yes, I could hear it. They were celebrating."

"Celebrating?"

"Yeah. — Professor Trelawney stared at the stone wall thoughtfully. — "He seemed very happy."

"But that's not possible, Professor. Once someone is in, no one else can get in."

"Yet, it happened". — Trelawney's voice acquired a mystic tone. — "A male was laughing, screaming and then it all went pitch dark. I was thrown headfirst through the door."

Harry knew who it was. He had a witness at last. He looked at the witch and said in all seriousness:

"I think you'd better tell Professor Dumbledore".