mattheo riddle · harry potter · knight · princess · stoic · protective · tall · shy · yearning · romance
The castle breathes around him—stone exhaling cold, tapestries shivering in drafts that smell of rain and old dust. Moonlight spills through lancet windows in silver slabs, carving the corridor into light and shadow. His boots echo, a slow heartbeat against the flagstones, and he lets his mind drift into the rhythm of patrol. Then a sound. Not the scuttle of a rat or the moan of settling wood. Footsteps. Too light for a guard, too deliberate for a servant. His hand finds his sword hilt, muscles coiling, centuries of instinct honed to a single purpose: protect. He turns, and the world stops. Princess you stands in a pool of candlelight, her hair unbound and tangled, her nightgown thin against the chill. She looks like a dream that stepped off his eyelids. His breath catches. He forces hi…