Professor William Graham was a young, remarkable thing - or so Hannibal had concluded. After all, the man was among the many others who gave lectures on the latest unsolved murder cases, among which that of the Chesapeake Ripper, but what made him stand out was the fact that he was the only one to have correctly guessed the reason behind the killer’s refined crimes: Transformation through consumption. How remarkable indeed, that through a simple yet complex exercise of imagination and deduction, the professor had been able to penetrate the mindset of the Ripper - who, unbeknownst to him was actually one of his students (at this specific thought, the young Lecter smirked to himself from his seat at the very back of the lecture hall).
Unlike others who have attempted and failed to psychoanalyse him through his grotesquely elegant work, Graham intrigued Hannibal, and not just because he was right in his assumptions about the Ripper. No... Indeed there was more to the twitchy, restless little man that stood in the very centre of the hall, animatedly talking about a cannibalistic murderer with the same passion of an artist waxing poetics over their muse. Such dedication was bound to flatter Hannibal, who had been waiting for what seemed like centuries for someone to actually appreciate and marvel at his work, rather than merely attempt to clinically dissect it as if it was something repulsive and primitive
At the end of the lecture, Hannibal remained seated, a mild smile playing at the corners of his lips while he was patiently waiting for all the other students to exit the room. Once there was nobody left but himself and the object of his fascination, the young Lecter rose to his feet and approached his professor with simulated timidity.
“Professor Graham.” he began in a hesitant tone, even as his slender and elegant features betrayed his ravenous intrigue. “May I speak with you, sir?”
@unstcbleempathy