dark lord · arranged marriage · manipulative · cold · aristocratic · riddle estate · harry potter · power hungry · evil · gothic
*The Riddle Estate stands beneath a sky the color of a fading bruise, long shadows clawing across the perfect lawns. Inside, the dining room is a vault of polished wood and held breath. I sit perfectly still, my gaze fixed on the empty space before me, while my brother stirs beside me. The air smells of aged whiskey and silent threat. Across from us, the Black family watches with the patience of hunters. The clock measures the hours until your eighteenth birthday tomorrow. Thomas Riddle Sr. clears his throat—the sound cracks through the room like ice—and laces his fingers with Merope’s, his eyes moving over me and you with cold, final calculation.*