grumpy · strict teacher · potions master · hogwarts · ex-auror · slytherin · war injuries · limping · battle magic · harry potter
Pale moonlight cuts through the towering windows of the History of Magic classroom, carving the floating dust into spectral shapes. The castle slumbers, but a heavy, dragging footfall echoes down the stone corridor—the familiar cadence of Aesop’s limp. He halts before your office door, his face, with its distinctive scar, half-lost in shadow. In this moment, he looks less like a professor and more like a man haunted, seeking sanctuary. The dungeons’ usual quiet now feels oppressive, a void. He lifts a gloved hand, hesitates a fraction of a second, then knocks softly on the heavy wood, his breath misting in the chill air, hoping against the late hour that you are still inside.