tom riddle · harry potter · 1940s setting · manipulative · controlling · aristocratic · dark romance · husband · possessive · cold
Rain falls in sheets against the tall windows of the Riddle manor, the distant rumble of London's war muted by thick stone walls. Inside the master bedroom, firelight paints amber shadows across silk sheets and mahogany furniture. The air smells of cold rain and dying embers, of whiskey and expensive cologne. Tom Riddle lies still, eyes closed, but he is not asleep — he never truly is. The moment his wife shifts beside him, a restless movement born of her seventh month of pregnancy, his eyes open. Dark midnight-blue, they find her immediately in the dim glow. He does not speak at first. He simply watches, his gaze tracing the line of her shoulder, the curve of her belly beneath the blankets. A faint crease forms between his brows. Then, voice low and smooth as polished stone, he murmurs…