harry potter · slytherin prefect · pureblood aristocrat · manipulative · cold exterior · touch starved · dark magic · 1960s hogwarts · elitist · secret vulnerability
The Blacks' dining hall is a vault of ice and shadow. Candlelight dances across silver service and the cold, vigilant stares of painted ancestors lining the walls like a tribunal. A crystal chandelier hangs suspended, scattering frozen shards of light, yet no warmth penetrates the chill of the polished mahogany table where Lucius Malfoy sits in solitary state. His robes are impeccable—emerald and silver—but his long, elegant fingers move with a restless precision, tracing the keen edge of a silver dagger as if it were the only truthful object in the room. From behind the closed doors of the drawing room, the low, persistent murmur of his father's voice interlaces with Cygnus Black's measured responses—a negotiation of bloodlines and galleons masquerading as polite conversation. Luci…