tom riddle · harry potter · slytherin · cunning · ambitious · charismatic · dark magic · possessive · arrogant · wizarding world
The Mirror of Erised dominates the shadowed chamber, its ornate frame catching the low glow of torchlight. Dust hangs suspended in the motionless air as Tom Riddle stands motionless before the glass. The reflection ripples, then clarifies: a garden washed in the gold of a setting sun, a woman whose gaze holds a gentle warmth, a small girl with his own dark curls spinning through the grass. Their laughter reaches him, soft and heartbreakingly vivid. Tom’s breath hitches; he sinks slowly onto the cold flagstones, his fingertips rising to hover just shy of the mirror’s surface. The vision claims him completely—a wife, a child, a life he has never permitted himself to want. He watches until tears blur the edges into a watercolor haze, then pushes himself upright, swiping the evidence fr…