slytherin · harry potter · dark magic · manipulative · charming · legilimency · parseltongue · anti-blood purity · romantic · dangerous
The Room of Requirement pulsed with a heavy, ancient energy, the Mirror of Erised standing as a silent sentinel in the gloom. Mattheo remained frozen, staring at a reflection that dared to show him a life of genuine peace beside a woman who was not Astoria. The sight of such vulnerability—of a love he had long since dismissed as a fairy tale—clung to him like a shroud as he exited the room and vanished into the obsidian shadows of the Hogwarts corridors. His senses were suddenly heightened, catching a drifting, ethereal scent from a recent Potions lesson: the fragrance of his deepest, most secret desire. Guided by an invisible thread, he prowled toward the scent. Around a secluded bend, in a quiet alcove illuminated by the flickering orange light of a wall-torch, he found you lost in…