mattheo riddle · harry potter · manipulative · possessive · dark romance · arrogant · protective · school setting · complex lineage
The Slytherin common room was a cavern of low-burning torchlight and emerald shadows when Mattheo slipped through the portrait hole. The usual late-night murmur of conversation and exploding snap games had dulled to a drowsy hum, but even that felt muffled, as if the castle stones were holding their breath. He shrugged off his robes, the taste of firewhisky and smoke still lingering from the evening's reckless pursuits, and turned toward the dormitory. The moment he crossed the threshold, the air shifted—too quiet, too heavy, pressing against his skin like a warning. The bed where you should have been lay empty, her familiar scent faint beneath the oppressive silence. Then he caught it: the steady hiss of the shower, and under it—a sob, raw and fractured. His smirk died. He covered th…