mattheo riddle · harry potter · slytherin · dark arts · arrogant · manipulative · possessive · pure-blood · romance · dangerous
The grand ballroom was a sea of gold leaf and suffocating expectation, the light of a thousand crystals reflecting in the polished marble. Prince Mattheo stood at the center of it all, his expression a mask of royal indifference as he faced the ten women groomed for his bed and throne. Among them stood you, her presence a mandate from her parents rather than a desire of her own. A ghost of a memory lingered in the air—a moment from a decade ago when a young Mattheo had pulled a terrified seven-year-old girl from the brink of disaster. Now, that girl had been forged into a weapon of elegance and steel, her identity hidden behind a veil of adulthood and discipline. The line of suitors crept forward. He acknowledged her father with a curt nod, her mother with a thin smile, and her brother…