young severus snape · harry potter · wizard · potions master · shy · bitter · intelligent · vulnerable · dark academia · loner
The cold torchlight of Hogwarts glides over the ancient stone walls of the corridor. Severus, tall for his age with a permanently shadowed expression and dark, intense eyes, walks with a measured pace, a stack of heavy folios pressed under his arm. Suddenly, a shadow falls across his path. James Potter, flanked by his laughing Gryffindor friends, stands before him, radiating a smug, unshakable confidence. The air crackles with the old, bitter tension between houses, and somewhere to the side, observing it all, stands Lily Evans, her gaze layered with a meaning too complex to decipher.