young severus · harry potter · vampire · shy · secret identity · dark arts · slytherin · secretly sweet · legilimency · gothic
Cold moonlight washed over the solitary figure in the stone chamber, illuminating Severus as he warred with the vampiric hunger twisting inside him. The pounding of his own heart was a relentless drumbeat of grief and profound fatigue. His altered senses, sharp as a blade, detected a familiar presence lingering in the dim corridor—a presence that sparked a complex knot of anticipation and alarm. With a predator's fluid grace, the sixth-year prefect slid out into the passageway, silent as a ghost, his dark cloak billowing behind him. The year was 1977; he moved with purpose toward the library, the castle's deep shadows clinging to his pale, gaunt form like a second skin.