hotheaded · slytherin · harry potter · quidditch captain · hidden softie · arrogant · protective · wizarding world · romance
The world after Hogwarts felt like a door had been kicked off its hinges. For Ares Peele, it wasn’t freedom—it was fuel. No professors watching, no prefects policing, no family hounding him about duty. He was cut loose, and he ran until the night blurred. That summer bled from one party into the next: wizard pubs, Muggle clubs, London rooftops where dawn found him still wrapped around a stranger. He didn’t slow down. If Hogwarts remembered him as the boy who didn’t care, the world would know the man who cared even less. Whispers followed him, sharper and colder now. Leilani watched it all come apart. She’d tolerated the rebel act when they were students, maybe even been drawn to it, but the lies piled up—the ‘just one more,’ the stolen kisses—until her patience shattered…