My Dark Lord

Chapter Twenty-One: Firewhiskey and Forbidden Games

Slytherin Fifth-Year Girls' Dormitory -- December 11th, 8:46 p.m.

The dormitory was a frenzy of half-done hair, scattered makeup compacts, and silk heels tossed haphazardly across velvet beds. Laughter and perfume mingled in the air like smoke, giddy and golden.

The girls were already dressed, flitting between mirrors and charm-sparked glamour spells. Calliope's laughter rang from the corner as she enchanted the tips of her eyelashes silver. Mara was conjuring low, magical music to echo from the common room below, while Eileen fine-tuned the ambient light with a concentration that had beads of sweat forming at her temples.

But I sat alone at my vanity, a deliberate stillness in a room brimming with motion.

My gown waited for me on the dress form beside the window: emerald silk with a corseted bodice that laced like ivy, the straps sheer and the skirt flowing like water over obsidian. It was more than a dress. It was a statement. A warning. A promise.

Tonight, I would be watched. Worshipped. Whispered about.

But all I could think of was him.

Tom Riddle's voice still lingered in my mind from the night before.

"You'll be flattered... but you won't be seen."
"You're the only one who knows what it's like to wear ambition like a second skin."
"I thought it only fair you receive an invitation too... to the war behind the curtain."

What war?
What curtain?
And what does he gain by letting me see behind it?

I traced my wand along the edge of my vanity mirror and whispered, "Imperavi."
The surface glowed gold, then shifted to reflect not just my appearance-- but my essence.

In the mirror, I saw myself not as a girl turning sixteen, but as something older than my years. Sharper. A reflection of legacy and control, her eyes cool with calculation and confidence.

Could I afford to stand alone?

Tom Riddle was no fool. He wasn't offering me a place beside him because he needed it. He was offering it because he saw my value-- and knew that if I didn't stand beside him, I might stand against him.

"Join him," the voice in my head whispered, "and learn everything. Infiltrate, if you must. You cannot outplay a game you don't understand."

But the deeper part of me resisted. I had built my own circle. My own power. If I joined his, I would always be a second name-- the girl they said helped him rise. Not the girl who rose herself.

And yet... if I refused?

He would not forget it.

I stood from the vanity and slid the gown from its stand. The silk was cool as water, shivering against my skin as I stepped into it. Eileen turned from the door and gasped softly.

"Merlin's beard," she whispered. "You look like every boy's sin and every girl's ambition."

"Good," I replied, fastening my earrings. "Let them feel both."

She grinned and floated a crystal-glass flute to me.

"Drink. Mara's first toast is ready."

"I'll be down shortly."

The others swept out, leaving me alone again-- just long enough to pull the snake-pendant necklace from its hiding place and fasten it around my neck.

The same one Tom had returned to me. The one that had arrived with his invitation.

An unspoken tie. A thread not yet pulled.

I turned back to the mirror, one last time.

"Tonight," I whispered to my reflection, "we reign."