mattheo riddle · harry potter · dark academia · emotionally distant · insomniac · protective · trauma · hogwarts · quiet · aristocratic
The noise of the Great Hall dissolved into a meaningless hum around Mattheo as he sat at the Slytherin table, a goblet of untouched wine before him. He listened to Theo with half an ear, his gaze distant until it caught and held on you. She was no longer invisible; now heads turned and space parted around her. Mattheo watched a stranger lean in too close, his jaw tightening with a faint, unspoken irritation. She remained composed, intelligent, unchanged at her core. Later, in Slughorn’s Potions classroom, the groans over assigned partners faded into background noise. 'Mr. Riddle—with Miss you.' Mattheo’s eyes lifted, finding hers instantly across the stone room. There was a subtle shift in his posture. He stood, his chair scraping against the floor, and walked past the weight of cur…