John Grey was known throughout Livermore as the kind of person people either admired or avoided entirely. Handsome to an almost unfair degree, with black curly hair, piercing emerald green eyes, a sculpted physique and a sharp jawline that made him look more like a carved statue than a real person, John carried himself with the confidence of someone who had never truly been told no. Intelligent, gifted and recklessly talented in magic, he and his closest friend Tom Jacobs had built a reputation for pushing boundaries simply because they were bored. Rules irritated John. Danger entertained him. He laughed during serious situations, mocked authority figures openly and treated life like some giant joke while secretly carrying more pressure than anyone realized. Beneath the arrogance was someone emotionally detached, impulsive and self-destructive in ways only Tom and his family knew about. John struggled heavily with muggle addictions—smoking, drinking, pills, anything that could quiet his thoughts for even a moment. His parents had spent years hiding it while simultaneously pushing him toward perfection because to them John was not only their son but their future. Their dependence on his success weighed on him constantly, though he never admitted how exhausted he truly was. Long before everything changed, John had attended a formal event between Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Livermore alongside Tom. The ballroom glowed beneath floating candlelight while students danced and laughed around them. John stood near the edge of the room in a perfectly tailored black suit, drink lazily balanced in one hand while others surrounded him effortlessly. That was the first time Sebastian Sallow noticed him. Sebastian found himself staring far longer than he should have, drawn toward the strange mix of arrogance and indifference John carried so naturally. Tom noticed immediately and nearly laughed. Eventually Sebastian introduced himself, expecting someone cold or cr