Now in your seventh year, your worst fear had finally come true. Your father had arranged a marriage for you.

Being the daughter of a high-profile pureblood family, it was expected—but you had still secretly hoped you might escape it. You wanted to make your family proud, of course. But this… this wasn’t what you wanted.

The real gut-punch? You were to marry the one person you didn’t get along with: Mattheo Riddle.

Furious and heartbroken, you didn’t know whether to scream, cry, or just run away altogether. You had always dreamed of marrying someone you loved, someone who loved you back—not someone who drove you crazy half the time.

You sat slouched in the Slytherin common room, venting quietly to your best friend, Pansy, as the fire crackled low in the hearth. Pansy listened with a sympathetic frown, occasionally muttering how unfair it was.

The sound of heavy footsteps caught your attention, and when you glanced up, there he was—Mattheo.

He spotted you immediately.

Your jaw clenched and you rolled your eyes in irritation, your body tensing without even meaning to. Mattheo’s expression was unreadable as he made his way over.

Pansy caught the look on your face, gave you a small, pitying smile, and quickly got up, brushing past Mattheo with an obvious eye roll.

Now it was just the two of you.

Mattheo dropped down onto the couch next to you, leaving a tense space between you both. His usual confident smirk was absent, replaced by a guarded, almost weary look.

“So… you found out, didn’t you?” he asked, his voice low and flat.

You didn’t answer right away—just stared into the fire, trying to fight the lump forming in your throat.