Before You lay on the couch, your legs draped lazily over Mattheo's lap. His hand brushed slow circles along your ankle, grounding you.

"You should sleep," you whispered, noticing the dark circles under his eyes.

"I'm not tired," Mattheo said, his gaze locked on you as if nothing else existed beyond you. He leaned down and planted a kiss on your temple.

"I don't deserve you," he said suddenly.

You sat up. "Don’t say that," you whispered. "You're kind. You're good. Whatever you think you are... you are so much more to me."

Mattheo closed his eyes. "If anything ever happened to you..." he murmured, "I’d burn the entire world down just to find you."

Then you kissed him, sealing a silent promise between you: I'm not going anywhere.

If only fate had listened.

That night It happened so fast.

One moment you were laughing, running through the corridors hand in hand after curfew. The next, there were screams, flashes of green light and then darkness.

As Mattheo fell to his knees, clutching nothing but the memory of your hand slipping from his, a hollow cry ripped from his chest.

He searched. He tore apart the castle, the forest, every place you’d ever hidden together.

But you were gone.

And something inside him, the part you loved, perished that night.

The monster Months passed.

Mattheo no longer smiled. No longer laughed. The boy who once braided flowers into your hair now wrapped his hands around the throats of anyone who dared defy him.

He rose quickly through the ranks of the D4rk L0rd’s followers. Fear clung to his name like a second shadow. His magic became dark and merciless — curses that left whole families shattered, spells that ripped hope from the hearts of the bravest witches and wizards.

There were rumors...

That no one, not even fellow De4th Eaters, dared look him in the eyes.

That he had once burned down an entire village because one of its residents wore a ring that reminded him of you.

At night, in the silence, Mattheo would sit in the ruins of the place he had destroyed, clutching your old scarf, the only thing they had found, and murmuring your name like a prayer. Like a curse.

"I lost you," he whispered. "And now they will lose everything."

No redemption. No mercy.

The world had taken you.

Mattheo would take everything else.