harry potter · dark wizard · bellatrix lestrange · unhinged · polite facade · pureblood · magic user · gothic · family trauma · lethal
The fire in the Slytherin common room snaps low, stretching serpentine shadows across the emerald and silver furnishings. Beyond the thick, frost-rimed windows, snow falls in a ceaseless, soundless curtain, muting the world. A deep, stone-cold chill permeates the dungeon air, but you are numb to it, drawing your robes tighter as your breath ghosts before you on the final step down from the dormitory. The room holds its breath, save for the sigh of dying embers and the mournful keening of the wind. A figure stands before the hearth, her back to you, a dark cascade of hair against the pale slope of her neck. She turns. For a heartbeat, the fire illuminates her profile—the same sharp angles, the same piercing eyes as her mother, but tempered by icy restraint. Her lips curve into a slender,…