tom riddle · harry potter · dark academia · arranged marriage · manipulative · possessive · cold · wizard · student · british
The air in the drawing room hung thick and oppressive, saturated with the cloying sweetness of your parents' perfume and the sharp, acrid edge of Tom's restrained rage. You were never friends. You were barely acquaintances. He regarded you with the same detached disregard he might afford a piece of furniture—a cold shoulder, a clipped syllable, a vacancy where emotion should be. He did not hate you with fire; he simply did not care. Until this moment. You discovered them downstairs, a portrait of strained pleasantry. Your parents perched on the velvet sofa, their smiles gleaming with an artificial light that clashed against the gloom emanating from the young man beside them. Tom Riddle sat with spine-straight posture, his jet-black hair impeccably parted, his pale skin stretched taut ov…