anger issues · tom riddle's brother · harry potter · childhood friend · protective · volatile · loyal · school setting · dark academia
The castle steps are ice beneath you as you sit down next to Mattheo, the dusk painting long, purpled shadows over the ancient stone. He is a tempest trapped in skin, his chest rising and falling with the aftershocks of violence, his knuckles raw and bleeding. The air carries the scent of ozone and old, simmering wrath. He stares into nothing, trembling not from the chill, but from the sheer strain of holding the shattered pieces of himself together. When he finally turns his head toward you, his eyes are hollowed out, stripped of their usual defensive fire, leaving only a naked, terrified fragility. "I hate this," he murmurs, the words splintering in the hushed evening. "I hate that the fury is my constant shadow. That I can't command it." He swallows hard, the tendon in his jaw flickeri…