Potions & Charms

Thinking

Avi found himself in the dungeons two hours later, on his desk and with parchment in front of him. He kept crossing out words with bright red ink, added comments here and there and sighed when he saw the pile of Dreadful's' and Poor's grew. He would meet Scott outside near the lake in an hour and wanted to be done with grading the assigned homework but it seemed as if he would be forced to push their little date back for at least another hour, if not two. 

He kept working for another thirty minutes, highly focused and without being interrupted, when someone was knocking on the door. The man frowned lightly, then put down his expensive quill and made his way over to the heavy wooden door. 

"Minerva?" he asked when he saw the witch standing in front of him with her hands folded and a look he couldn't quite read. "What's the matter?"

"There is someone who would like to talk to you." She stepped aside and revealed a person standing behind her, someone Avi knew too well. 

He took a deep, shaky breath and nodded just lightly to greet the wizard he had known for years. "Professor." 

"Avriel, hello." 

The bearded man pushed his shaky hands into the pockets of his cloak to hide them from his former teacher and then stepped aside to allow him entry. Minerva looked at him for a moment too long — Avi understood that she wasn't happy with the wizard showing up — and then she turned around to make her way back upstairs again. 

"It's been a while. How have you been?" The man stepped inside and looked around, noticed the books and the pile of presents Avi hadn't been able to put away yet as he spent most of his free time with Scott, and then he sat down on the couch. His beard was short and dyed, black, and his face was still as scary and rough as Avi remembered. The man — Professor Snyde — cleared his throat after Avi had failed to answer him immediately. 

"Uhm, good, Sir. I've been good." 

"I heard. You're known around the world as the most talented Potion Master after Professor Bartholomew. It's good to know that even the ones we thought wouldn't make it are now rather successful." 

Avi frowned for just a moment. He knew that he had been one of them, one of the ones the teachers had thought wouldn't make it due to their soft and gentle nature, and suddenly he just wanted to crawl into the fireplace and disappear. But instead of saying anything he just hummed. "Yes, Sir. Thank you. Do you mind telling me why exactly-" 

"Durmstrang is interested in having you back to teach the younger generations" Snyde said and looked at him. "You know where you belong, Avriel. Hogwarts isn't healthy for you. We spent so  much time and effort on helping you to become the best version of yourself and then you are forced to teach little brats how to not hurt themselves due to the lack of rules? You can do better, you know that." 

"Sir-"

"We'll pay double."

"Professor Snyde-"

"Think about it. I expect your owl in two weeks. Until then - don't forget who you are and where you come from." The older man got up and then, after he placed his hand on the door knob, turned around to look at him. "And think about where you belong." With that he left, and Avi allowed himself to take a deep breath. 

His head suddenly began to throb — Snyde had definitely tried to force his way into Avi's mind — and he was so shaken up by just seeing his Professor after so many years that his legs almost gave in. 

It was snowing outside, the sun was slowly setting and instead of being near the lake with Scott Avi was sitting in the Astronomy Tower by himself, with his thin cloak wrapped around his shivering body while the storm picked up. 

He hadn't told Scott. He hadn't even thought of Scott when he had made his way up to the Tower, hadn't thought of their plan to go for a walk. His mind had been so distracted with forcing back the bad memories of his time in school that he simply hadn't thought of Scott.

Now that he was sitting on the edge of the stone floor, surrounded and covered by snow with his legs dangling off the platform. Avi needed time to think, he needed space, he needed his mind to slow down and allow him to sort the mess his thoughts currently resembled.

Avriel didn't know for how long he had been out in the cold by himself. He didn't know what time it was, it felt as if he hadn't blinked once since he had sat down, he didn't know what was happening. 

The clicking of heels went unnoticed and he didn't even flinch when he felt a hands on his shoulders that wiped the snow off of him. Someone sat down next to him and reached for one of his hands to hold it with both of theirs, tight but with such gentle movements that he felt a single tear slipping down his cheek. 

"Avriel?" 

But he didn't react. Avi kept staring into the darkness in front of him, at the Dementors that had been forced to stop in front of the invisible border, until they slowly backed off. 

"Avi, hey." 

This time he turned his head, to his left, and saw a large, silver wolf sitting next to him. 

The Potion Master swallowed thickly. "Kirstie" he choked and turned to his right to look at the woman. 

But the woman didn't say anything and just wrapped his arm around his upper body, allowed him to rest his head on her shoulder. "You'll be okay. Trust me."