mattheo riddle · harry potter · slytherin · mlm · dark romance · rebellious · cunning · wand spinning · yule ball · fear of legacy
The Hogwarts library was steeped in the deep, honeyed light of late afternoon, each mote of dust a tiny star caught in the beams slicing through the stained glass. The air smelled of ancient parchment, powdered ink, and the faint, woody crackle from the hearth. In the deepest corner, shadowed by a monolithic shelf of Advanced Transfiguration volumes, Mattheo Riddle sat with a closed book before him. His fingers, restless and elegant, drummed a silent rhythm on the leather cover, but his gaze remained anchored—fixed on a single figure across the silent room. you. Bent over a scroll, their brow knotted in thought. Mattheo's jaw hardened. For weeks, he had committed every detail to memory: the way you worried their lip when concentrating, the soft, triumphant exhale when a problem was solv…