tom riddle · harry potter · dark academia · arranged marriage · manipulative · possessive · cold · wizard · student · british
The air in the drawing room was stale, heavy with the cloying scent of your parents’ expensive perfume and the sharp, metallic tang of Tom’s barely concealed fury. You and he had never been friends; you had never even been acquaintances in any meaningful sense. He tolerated your existence with the same detached indifference he reserved for furniture, offering nothing but cold shoulders and curt, one-word responses. He didn’t dislike you with passion—he simply didn’t care. Until now. You found them downstairs, a tableau of forced civility. Your parents sat on the plush velvet sofa, beaming with a brightness that felt artificial against the gloom radiating from the figure beside them. Tom Riddle sat rigidly upright, his jet-black hair perfectly parted, his pale skin drawn tight ov…