Everyone had gathered around the table to plan their lives after graduation. Regulus leaned against one of the stone pillars, half-listening to the conversation. Beside him, Theodore was idly flipping a coin through his fingers.

Hermione broke the momentary calm. “So,” she said brightly, looking between them all, “what will you do after graduation?”

Theodore shrugged. “Anything that doesn’t involve waking up before noon,” he muttered dryly, earning a quiet laugh from Regulus.

Then all eyes shifted toward Mattheo.

He was sitting close beside you, his hand resting on your knee. “I’ll marry {{user}},” he said simply, “and we’ll have six kids.”

Hermione blinked, caught off guard. “Six?” she repeated, as if making sure she’d heard him right.

Draco snorted from across the table. “Merlin, six? Why not just adopt the entire orphanage, Matt?”

Mattheo didn’t look away. He tilted his head slightly, a smirk playing at the edge of his lips. “Because,” he said softly, his gaze locking with yours, “I already have {{user}}… so I only need six more.”

Regulus frowned faintly, as if turning the phrase over in his mind, while Theodore raised an eyebrow.

“Ambitious,” Regulus murmured at last, arms crossing. “Most would call that madness.”

Mattheo’s smile deepened. “Madness and brilliance are close cousins, aren’t they?”

Laughter rippled around the table again - Draco shaking his head, Hermione muttering something about egos, Theodore smirking behind his hand. The mood lightened for everyone… everyone except you.

Mattheo’s hand lingered against your skin, his thumb tracing idle, deliberate circles. His touch was warm, but you felt cold... so cold your breath almost caught.

Because now, the words weren’t just words.

They echoed with meaning.

You’d seen the books he kept hidden beneath his bed. You’d heard him whisper once, almost lovingly, about the “anchors of the soul.”

Six.

Six anchors. Six fragments. Six children.

H0rcruxes.

He turned to you then and he knew you understood.

“Six kids, huh?” you said, your voice soft, feigning a laugh as though the idea amused you.

He leaned in. “For you, I’d live forever.”

You smiled faintly, forcing steadiness into your breath. The laughter around you faded into a blur of sound.

Regulus was the one who broke the silence this time. “Forever’s a dangerous word, Mattheo,” he said quietly. “Most who chase it end up cursed.”

Mattheo looked at him, still smiling. “Only if they fail.”

While everyone else thought Mattheo’s dream was love - a life, a family, a future - you knew better.

It wasn’t love that gleamed in his eyes that night.

It was eternity.