The Eyes of Graphorns (Professor Sharp x mc)

The Renegades

The next day, Aesop Sharp stood outside the office in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. After climbing the last step, he raised his hand and paused. Should he really be here? Was it appropriate to visit his former student so late on her first day? He had a good reason, yes, but now that he was standing in front of her door, doubts crept in. But then he shook his head vigorously and decided to knock. On the other side of the wooden door, Elaine looked up from her desk. The sun had already set, and she had lost track of time while preparing for the lessons for the next few days. She ignited a fire in the fireplace with her wand and called out, "Yes?"

The door opened, and suddenly Aesop Sharp was in her office. It was strange to see him in a different office than his own.

"Good evening," he greeted her politely, looking around. The room looked different from Dinah Hecat's time. Shelves lined the walls filled with books, potions, and ingredients. Some shelves were stacked with loose papers, inkwells, and feathers from birds he didn't recognize. Between the shelves, strings were stretched, hanging herbs and roots for drying. Everywhere he looked, he discovered items and objects he had never seen before, some apparently from distant lands, including masks, maps, amulets, clay vessels, and other curiosities he couldn't name.

"Professor Sharp, what can I do for you?" she asked, although she knew the reason for his late visit. Elaine stood up to greet him.

"Well, I wanted to ask how your first day of school went."

"Oh, well, it went quite well, I think. Today I discussed Boggarts with the third years."

There was a moment of silence in the room.

"Well, the reason I'm actually here-"

"Why don't you sit down?" Elaine offered, conjuring a second chair to her desk with a flick of her wand, on which a candle holder illuminated a stack of books and parchments.

"Thank you. We didn't talk about it yesterday, as we were so abruptly interrupted, but you mentioned that you were in Scarborough?"

Elaine noticed him shudder at the name of the place where he had carried out his last assignment for the Ministry. She had also noticed yesterday that the name caused him discomfort. She wanted to address it, but at that moment, Professor Black had inexplicably appeared and stated that he could not tolerate his teachers still being in the corridors at such a late hour, with classes scheduled for the next day.

Elaine nodded and decided to get straight to the point. "I uncovered a secret black market for Goblin artifacts."

Elaine paused briefly before continuing, "We found a hidden storage room in Scarborough full of Goblin artifacts and an empty repository, similar to the one under Hogwarts. The artifacts were partially enchanted with dark magic. They are mainly used as weapons, as Ranrok did. The storage room must have been in use for some time. I..." Elaine paused briefly before hesitantly reaching into her coat pocket. She placed an Auror badge on her desk and slid it over to Sharp. He recognized it immediately. It was the badge of his deceased partner.

"I found this in their hideout..."

"But, what? That can't be. You mean... the smugglers in Scarborough?"

Elaine nodded.

"They didn't just smuggle shrunken heads. That was just what the Ministry was supposed to believe. I persuaded the Ministry to reopen the case. Ranrok had already gathered followers long before he pursued me. The smugglers from Scarborough worked with Goblins who had turned away from Ranrok. They are an organized group and call themselves 'The Renegades.' They abducted or killed Ranrok's followers to obtain the artifacts and then sell them. They also smuggled metal from the mines to make their own repository. After Ranrok was defeated, they continued until today. And now they are after me again. They believe that through me, they can obtain more dark magic to fill the new repository and produce new artifacts. That's why the Ministry wanted me to go into hiding. Then, this summer, I happened to meet Professor Hecat, and when she told me that she wanted to resign from her position... I took the opportunity."