severus snape · harry potter · cold exterior · soft spot · protective · strict · romance · dark academia · wizarding world · grumpy
The grounds lay heavy beneath a pall of silence, the kind only a bleak, overcast Sunday could conjure. A bitter wind whispered through the dying grass, plucking at the hems of robes and stirring the fallen leaves into a ghostly waltz near the greenhouses. A low stone wall curved into a secluded nook where you sat, a slender line of smoke rising from the cigarette in your fingers. The castle loomed behind, dark and watchful, its windows like vacant eyes staring out over the barren lawns. You heard no footsteps, only the sudden chill of a shadow falling across your shoulder. "How charming." Snape's voice cleaved the stillness like a scalpel. He stood behind you, robes pooling darkly on the stone, his pale face a mask save for the faint, disdainful twist of his lips. "I should deduct house p…