A Sharp Sensation

7

Mirabel was chatting away with Timothy Teasdale while you kicked a rock about. It was a lovely day but you couldn't bring yourself to enjoy it. You couldn't understand why you were so upset about it all. You've lost friends before, everyone has, so why does this loss make you so angry?

"(Y/N) here is already popular!" The Herbology Professor cheers. "the students love her! I'd say she's getting along quite well at Hogwarts!"

Timothy stroked his beard as he ponders your appearance. "It's nice seeing more young folk like you two teaching. I could never stand getting bossed around by some old man when I was a lad."

"Tim... You're an old man..." Mirabel whispers, as if anyone else would hear.

The man only guffaws. "Exactly! What she of kid wants to answer to a fossil like me?"

You never really minded the ages of your Professors as long a they had treated you with respect, of course it was much easier to receive respect when you gave it.

"Do you have the seeds I requested?" Mirabel asks once everyone had stopped chuckling.

"That I do," Teasdale says, standing from his seat. "I have them set aside out back."

You were following the salesman to the back of his shop when an explosion stopped you all in your tracks. You turn to the northwest where the sound had some from only to see a growing pillar of smoke in North Hogsmeade.

Without a second thought, you took off running. You ran across the cobble bridge, dodging awestruck citizens before whipping around the corner and slamming into someone in front of J. Pippin's potion parlor.

A grunt. "(L/N)?"

You look up to see none other than Aesop. You wanted to be petty but now was most certainly not the time. You took off through the winding streets and up the stairs, Sharp fairly close behind despite his limp.

"What's happened-" he starts to ask but you screech to a halt at the top of the steps.

Brood and Peck was on fire. You race past the burning building, hearing panicked cries of beasts inside.

"Ellie!" A sixth year Hufflepuff you recognized as Poppy Sweeting cries, a Gryffindor girl holding her back. "No, Catherine, she's still in there with them!"

"Aguamenti!" Aesop shouts, pointing a jet of water at the collapsed in door, a terrified niffler streaking past.

"Arresto Momentum!" You cast, stopping the creature in its tracks before it could run off into another dangerous environment. "Sweeting, niffler!

The Hufflepuff was a crying mess but she scooped the beast up and held it close. Garlick was casting Episkey on the bystanders with minor burns. You burst through the rubble as Aesop extinguished the flames, ignoring his calls for you to come back.

"Ellie!" You call, crouching low so you could breathe. "Ellie Peck?"

There was a laboured coughing. "Here!"

You crept towards where the voice came from. Having been in the shop before, you knew she was up a small set of steps in an alcove. Using diffindo and depulso on any rubble in your way, you made quick work of getting to the young shopkeeper.

"It's Hebron!" Ellie cried.

Despite being trapped under a fallen beam herself, she was much more worried about the Giant Purple Toad that was caught between the remnants of a wheelbarrow and the sharp spikes of a destroyed iron cage. The amphibian was still, unresponsive.

"Elle, I don't think he's made it-" you say, trying your best to dislodge the fallen beam from Pecks leg.

"They took Juliette, I can't loose Hebron too!" The woman cried, trying to wriggle towards the poor toad.

"Ellie stop, he's gone! We've gotta get you out of here before we loose any more beasts!"

Using bombarda, you blasted off the iron bars to your left, dragging Elle out of the inferno. Her leg was most certainly broken, for she was unable to help herself.

"(Y/N)!" A furious voice calls as the witches and wizards around you doused the flames with their wands.

You look up to see an incredibly angry Aesop. "You could've gotten hurt!" He growls.

"I'm fine," you bit back. "Elle was inside, someone had to help her!"

"You can't run into burning buildings (Y/N), you can't do these things without a plan!" Aesop shouts, starting to pace on his shaky leg.

"It doesn't matter, Ellie said someone took her Jobberknoll-" You started to say.

Aesop cuts you off. "The bird doesn't matter (Y/N)! you can't just run into danger because you want to play hero-"

It was your turn to silence him, only this time with a slap. "Fuck you Aesop." You spit.

Sharp only looked down on you in shock.

"I don't know what your problem is, treating me like some petulant child, but Ellie Peck needed help. We're Wizards for Merlin's sake! Is it not our duty to help others with the magic we've been gifted with?" You sneer, seething as you spoke.

Mirabel and Pippin were helping Ellie, giving her a generous amount of Wiggenweld. Aesop glare hardened, his jaw clenching, but he didn't speak. Anxiety crept up your spine, you couldn't just sit in silence so you dug your grave even deeper by speaking.

"Besides, I don't even know why you care when you don't want to be my friend!" You spoke, staggering backwards.

Aesop stepped closer, angrily grabbing your arm. You flinch away only to realize he was healing a burn you hadn't even noticed.

"Miss (L/N)," he says quietly as he checks the rest of your body for injury. "I am not keen to loose another... colleague..."

Your heart drops. Eliazar. Your predecessor had only recently passed and you were performing feats that could possibly take your own life?

'Stupid,' you thought.

"Aesop I-" you started to cry. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to help! Please don't hate me!"

Hot tears slipped down your cheeks. You hadn't cried in ages until you started working at Hogwarts, for some reason your feelings were on edge and you had no idea why. Aesop grasped your hands in his own, giving them a squeeze.

"I don't hate you," he whispers. "I just... Want to protect you..."

"From what?" You ask, looking up at him.

His eyes cloud over with pain. "From me."