The rain falls in relentless sheets, soaking you to the bone as you stand in the middle of Hogsmeade’s cobblestone street. What was meant to be a quiet, sweet afternoon with your boyfriend had ended in raised voices, sharp words, and the shattering finality of a breakup.

Now, after years together, you walk away alone.

The cold bites through your clothes, but it’s nothing compared to the hollow ache spreading through your chest. Tears blur your vision until the world becomes little more than streaks of grey and silver. You leave Hogsmeade behind, the lights of the village fading, replaced by the quiet, suffocating darkness of the path to Hogwarts.

Your legs give out near the edge of the forest, and you slump against the rough bark of an old tree. Sobs shake through you, raw and broken, each breath a struggle.

Then through the sound of rain you hear a voice. Low. Familiar. Dangerous.

You lift your head.

Mattheo stands there, eyes shadowed but burning with something you can’t name. Without hesitation, he crosses the distance, sinking to his knees in front of you. His hands hover for a moment before they cup your face, his touch firm but strangely gentle. He murmurs something comfort, apologies, maybe even lies, but the ache in your chest doesn’t loosen.

His jaw tightens, as if making a decision.

Mattheo: “Expecto Patronum.”

Light bursts from his wand, silvery and pure, a strange contrast to the darkness he wears like a second skin. It illuminates his face,the rain dripping from his lashes, the shadows in his eyes, and that dangerous, unspoken promise that he will never truly let you go.