complicity [tom riddle]

P R O L O G U E

The Slytherin common room, as always, was a grim spectacle—draped in pallid, sickly hues that contrasted sharply with a fire that blazed green when it chose to. The scene was all the more unsettling when inhabited by six young men, each as menacing as the other: Tom Riddle, Abraxas Malfoy, Judias Avery, Rhydian Lestrange, Charles Rosier, and Tobias Nott. Together, they cast shadows over Heidi Battleaxe’s life, shadows that grew darker each day.

Heidi was not a girl to be underestimated. Though outwardly shy and quiet, she held an intelligence sharper than most realised, perhaps even sharp enough to rival Riddle himself—a nemesis, or something far more dangerous. Slytherin’s cold walls had long been her sanctuary, a place to escape the tumultuous crowds and remain unseen, precisely as she preferred.

That is, until an impossible request came from none other than Albus Dumbledore. Opinions of Dumbledore were as polarising as the man himself, yet Heidi sensed a gravitas in his words that she could not dismiss. She had lost her parents to a fire fueled by dark magic, and Dumbledore’s offer—to help her become an Auror—lit a desperate hunger in her. The promise of power, of belonging, was as intoxicating as it was unreachable.

Isolated by nature and circumstance, Heidi had only the fading comfort of her cigarettes and a semblance of companionship with the enigmatic Professor DuLac, as well as Mary Mulciber, the only girl bold enough to wear her hair short but too closely tied to Riddle's clique. She was, in truth, utterly alone, and her only escape had been invisibility itself.

But now, in her final year at Hogwarts, invisibility had become her edge. Dumbledore was convinced there was something unnatural about Riddle, something hidden behind his rigid manner and charm. Heidi, through her quiet presence and reluctant proximity to Riddle, had unwittingly become Dumbledore's instrument. And whether driven by grief or ambition, Heidi found herself pulled into his orbit, caught in a strange and dangerous web—one that might offer salvation, or consume her whole.