Fifty Shades of Erised
He is the oldest and thus the strongest.
Life is a game to him, one that he desires to win at all costs. He sees it as a challenge that must be bested, all obstacles falling aside like dust as he progresses.
Some call him vain, others see him as arrogant. He disagrees. The truth remains that he is – and always will be – the best. Why then should he not let them know him for the legend he will one day become.
One night, he follows his brother to a secret room, deep within the forgotten recesses of the castle, and it is there that he sees it. It's a mirror, tall and ornate, and he watches Cadmus fall to his knees, tears glimmering in his brother's eyes as he stares into the reflective glass.
For the longest time he waits in the shadows, till the morning comes and Cadmus departs. Curiosity brimming in his veins, he approaches the mirror and gazes into its unfathomable depths.
Pupils dilate at the sight; eyes growing wide as he reaches out to touch what he can only imagine is a representation of the future. Perhaps this is a seer-glass, he thinks as he strokes his fingers across the pile of bodies beneath his reflection's feet. He recognises them, his rivals and he grins at their glassy eyes and bloody corpses – it's so fitting that he one day put them in their place.
Years later, he defies Death, and is given a wand of Elder, the core taken from the wing of a thestral. Finally, his dreams, the future he knows will come to pass ever since he's looked into the magical mirror will come to pass.
He cannot be defeated.
That very night he travels to a village, determined to show off his mettle. A rival, one he has long since quarrelled with, stares at him through bitter eyes – he answers the unspoken challenge with a swipe of his wand and then they're duelling.
It isn't long before his rival lies dead at his feet.
"No man can defeat me," he boasts, and quaffs four pints of ale, followed by an entire chicken. Bloated and drunk, he retires to bed, never to waken again.
The silver knife across his throat is too sudden and surprising for him to even cast a spell, and so Death takes him for his own, whispering into his ear as he does so:
"Tis dangerous to dream, Antioch Peverell."