Give it to Me

1. So Far Away

✯YOU✯

As you did every morning since you could remember, you woke up to the sun rising.
After lying in bed awake for a couple of minutes, you gave up on trying to remember which figures had haunted your dreams. It was always the same pair of eyes anyways, staring at you from the void within. You finally stood up and grabbed your wand, resting on your bedside table, whisked it, and coffee started to fill the empty mug you'd left there from the day before. You held it in your hands, gathering its heat, gazing at the landscape outside your window.

It was a usual morning at Durmstrang. A thick mist was hovering over the pine trees, of which only the tips were visible. Gigantic ice stalagmites were already dribbling down the stone mountain side in which the castle was built. The darkened lake, located on the eastern side of the woods, was not completely frozen; judging by the ice webs covering your window, its onyx waters would be as well, soon. Although it was only September 1st, winter never really left that land. This was due in part to the protective magic enchantments hiding the valley and the castle grounds from Muggles: the magical mist that protected the Academy enclosed it into perennial winter. In the summer months, the temperatures barely reached 15 degrees Celsius - in the middle of January, the nights would go as far as below 25.

You hastily got dressed, checking the temperature again, before deciding to finally head down to the Great Hall to get something other than caffeine in your bloodstream.

✯

You weren't from Durmstrang, but you had adjusted to the atmosphere. It suited you. It's not that you were fond of the cold and humidity... but the weather made it that much more satisfying to curl up, against a warm fire, and read a book, get ahead on work and your research. You had only been there for five years, and in that time, you made sure to explore every corner of the castle, every tree of the forest - even the bottom of the lake. Sometimes, at night, you would hike through the woods and observe magical creatures going about their lives.

You were naturally curious and enjoyed mastering knowledge. You took pride in your work, and you were more competitive than most... which, in time, had become harder to live with. Your muggle born parents had always made sure to support every interest of yours, so you became knowledgeable in many things. When you were summoned to the magical school of your area, thus revealing your magical nature, you found a wide variety of other things to study and learn from. Your parents still felt like outsiders to the Wizarding world, ignoring much of its history. But it was easier that way: to them, you were just a teacher - in a Magical Academy, sure - but a teacher nonetheless. They didn't need to worry about your actual field of interest: the Dark Arts were too complex; too dangerous, wild... best to keep their lives out of it.

Some of your worldwide wizard friends would jokingly say that, had you been educated at Hogwarts, you'd have been a Ravenclaw. But you were a proud Beauxbatons graduate. And a good one for that matter: you had represented your school at the last Triwizard tournament and came in second - and that was enough to secure you a lot of openings in the wizarding community... though, to your competitive mind, coming second was the most shameful event of your academic years.
That's how you ended up at Durmstrang. Following the events of the Second Wizarding War, the academy was completely restructured and was now a welcoming institution who was intent on erasing its shameful, dark past.

After graduating from Beauxbatons, acing all your exams, you studied to become a curse breaker: you enjoyed solving puzzles and learning new things, it seemed like the natural path to follow. Curse Breaking was thrilling, but it took most of your free time... and in those years, you felt like you needed to rekindle your connection to the muggle world and its perks - which included partying, travelling, going off-grid for weeks on end. You had a fair share of knowledge of the Dark Arts - an occupational hazard, in your field - and after years of travel and making wizard and muggle friends around the world, you decided to go steady. Two positions were available at Durmstrang: Defense against the Dark Arts (which had replaced, since 1999, Dark Arts) and Potions.