The common room flickered with dim, emerald-green light, casting long shadows along the stone walls.

Draco lounged in one of the high-backed chairs. Mattheo and Theodore sat nearby, engaged in quiet conversation, though every so often, their gazes flickered toward the center of the room. Regulus leaned against the far wall, arms crossed, watching everything with quiet amusement.

And then there was Tom.

Tom, seated on the velvet sofa, Pansy curled up beside him like she belonged there. Her fingers traced small circles against his forearm. But you saw the way his shoulders stiffened at her touch. The way his jaw tightened, even as he allowed it.

Pansy’s voice was sickly sweet when she spoke. "Tom... it's only me, right?"

The room stilled. Even Draco looked up from his cards. Mattheo and Theodore exchanged glances, waiting for his response.

Tom reached out, tucking a stray piece of dark hair behind her ear, his lips curling into that calculated smile.

"Only you, babe… only you, darling."

Pansy beamed, triumphant. But you? You saw what no one else did.

His eyes.

They flickered for a fraction of a second—toward you.

A fleeting glance, barely perceptible, but enough to send a jolt down your spine. It wasn’t Pansy’s name that belonged on his lips. It was yours. And deep down, you knew it. Knew that if it were only the two of you in this room, his answer would have been so very different.

He loved you.

And yet, here he was, letting someone else hold him. Letting someone else believe they were his world when, in reality, his world was sitting just across the room, watching him with eyes that saw right through him.

Regulus caught the look and let out a quiet chuckle, shaking his head as if he had just figured out the ending to a story no one else knew was being written.

But Tom?

Tom simply turned back to Pansy, fingers still lingering in her hair. A perfect lie in a perfect mask.

Yet his gaze, when it flickered back to you once more, told the only truth that mattered.