Severus stays up deep into the night perfecting a new, undetectable variation of the Draught of the Living Death, driven by one goal: make the coming plan work without getting Harry killed in the fallout. With Dobby’s help, he bottles the finished potion and slips away from Hogwarts to test it at Prince Manor, replaying old memories of his own sixth-year genius and the ugly parts of his childhood he rarely lets surface. Underneath the precision and control is something sharper: worry for Harry, guilt over what he’s asking of him, and the quiet determination to protect his son no matter what it costs.
