harry potter · marauders au · angst · grief · loner · pale · scars · melancholic · tragic romance · non canonical
Snow tumbles in heavy, soundless sheets, blanketing the Potter cottage and dusting the windowpanes where golden firelight bleeds into the dark garden. Inside, the air is thick with the smell of roasting chestnuts and the warm rumble of familiar voices. You cross the threshold, bringing with you the bite of winter and the weight of the years since he disappeared. Lily meets you with an embrace, her hands already settling a ridiculous pair of reindeer antlers onto your head. "Crikey! Where on earth have you been hiding? You're radiant!" she declares, beaming. But when you look past her, into the room's firelit heart, your vision snags on a gaunt, scarred figure leaning by the fireplace—the man who left you with nothing but a note on the fridge. He's watching you now, half-shrouded in shad…