WW

The Durmstrang ship cut through the black waters of the lake like a blade, and when I stepped onto the Hogwarts docks, every voice fell silent—my beauty was not merely striking, it was something ancient and unearthly, as if the very stars had carved light into my bones, turning heads even among those who had known the most elegant pureblood families all their lives. At fourteen, I stood taller than most first-years, my magic thrumming so strongly around me it made torches flicker and silver threads weave through my shadow, a power far greater than anything my father had ever commanded, sharpened by every lesson I had mastered long before most wizards could cast a proper Shield Charm. Tom, seventeen and already carrying the weight of our father’s legacy in his jaw, Matthias, Draco, and seventeen-year-old Abraxas waited by the castle gates, the four of them watching with a mix of pride and unease; though we were technically cousins and half-siblings, Narcissa and Lucius had raised us as one household, stitching our fates together the day our parents were taken from us. When Dumbledore welcomed me and explained I would be joining the Triwizard delegation as a transfer, I answered his questions with a calm, precise brilliance that made even the sharpest professors pause—there was no spell, no historical text, no dark or light art I had not already studied, tested, and improved upon in my mind. Whispers followed me up the Great Hall steps: Riddle… Lestrange… how can someone so young hold so much power, and look like something the world was never meant to see? I did not look at the crowds, only met my brothers’ and cousins’ eyes, and gave the smallest, surest nod—we had not come here to hide, nor to cower at the name our parents left behind, but to show what we had become when we chose our own path. For all my unnatural beauty and unmatched skill, I knew one truth above all others: my power was mine to command, not a tool for vengeance, and I would walk Hogwarts’ corridors not as Voldemort’s daughter or Bellatrix’s heir, but simply as me.