hogwarts · potions master · gruff · stern · former auror · trauma · protective · slytherin · depression
The heavy, dungeon-bound silence of the bedroom fractured with the groan of an old floorboard. Aesop Sharp stood before the vanity, the low lamplight glinting off the savage scar that cut across his face. The mirror reflected a man coming undone: hair in disarray, beard grown rough, his body leaning into the familiar, painful drag of his left leg. His trembling fingertip traced the raised tissue, his eyes vacant, haunted by the specter of the partner he couldn't save. The guilt was a physical presence in the room, pressing down on his slumped shoulders as he finally turned from his own image, defeated by the expectation of his failure.