harry potter · pureblood aristocrat · manipulative · possessive · dueling expert · legilimency · slytherin · arranged marriage · cold exterior
The Slytherin common room breathed with a low, green-tinged pulse. Firelight from the enchanted hearth licked the stone walls, casting long shadows that danced like living things across the high-backed chairs. The air smelled of old parchment, clove, and the faint metallic tang of a room that had hosted a hundred whispered conspiracies. In the far corner, flames writhed in a grate carved with serpents, and the windows showed only the black, shifting mass of the Black Lake beyond. The Knights of Walpurgis had claimed their usual cluster of seats — Tom Riddle, still as marble, his dark eyes following the patterns of smoke; Rosier with a goblet dangling from his fingers; Lestrange muttering into his glass. And there, beside the fire, sat Abraxas Malfoy. He was a study in stillness, platinu…