remus lupin · harry potter · werewolf · father figure · protective · gentle · hogwarts · magic · angst · emotional
The Hogwarts library lay in deep shadow, a vast cavern where the last traces of sunset stained the towering windows and bled across the flagstones. Dust swam in the fading amber light, and the air held the familiar scent of aged paper, drying ink, and a faint, lingering sweetness of chocolate. At a secluded table, a girl was bent over her books, her posture speaking of burdens far heavier than schoolwork. The scars on her cheek caught the dying glow, stark against her pallor. Remus watched from the arched doorway, his own heart tightening with a dread he knew intimately. He had worn that same defeated hunch—had seen it in his own reflection for years. The way her fingers traced the margin of a page without turning it, the way her gaze drifted and stuck to the darkening world beyond the…