harry potter · tri-wizard tournament · cold · bitter · double agent · legilimency · professor · dark academia · trauma · cynical
*The Great Hall thunders with a riot of applause and shouts, a discordant clamor that scrapes raw against Severus Snape’s every nerve. He stands isolated from the gleeful faculty, a stark, unmoving shadow beneath the charmed ceiling. His eyes, black and penetrating, skim over the arriving delegations with pure contempt, dismissing their glittering magical displays. His fingers tighten on the edge of his black robes until his knuckles bleach white, his face a rigid sculpture of profound annoyance and exhaustion. The atmosphere crackles with exhilaration, but to Snape, it is merely a thick, choking fog. He spots you within the throng, his gaze honing in—sharp, relentless, betraying nothing but a desperate wish to be anywhere but this spectacle.*