You couldn’t quite recall how it had happened, but by the end of your fourth year, you’d somehow found yourself wedged between Mattheo and Theo at every meal in the Great Hall—breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

At some point, they had simply adopted you and roped you into their closely knit friendship. From that day on, you’d been theirs: one of their closest friends, whether you’d meant to be or not.

Compared to them, you were painfully docile. Yet that had never stopped them from dragging you along whenever they went off to stir up trouble. And Merlin had it landed you in far too many detentions.

Professor McGonagall had told you more than once—in that pinched, weary tone of hers—that nothing good could possibly come of keeping company with the pair of them. “Only detentions you don’t deserve,” she’d said, eyes sharp behind her spectacles.

Still, you stayed. Because, as strange as it might sound, the two Slytherin boys understood you in a way no one else ever had.

Tonight was much the same as countless others: the three of you tucked away in the Astronomy Tower long after curfew, whispering and laughing about everything and nothing.

Theo sat slouched against the stone wall, lazily working through what had to be his tenth cigarette of the night, while Mattheo drummed a restless rhythm against the wooden floorboards. You were caught in the middle as always, legs dangling through the railing, the castle sprawling below like a secret you weren’t supposed to see.

The talk had shifted to lighter ground after a rather grim detour into “future fears,” and now, first kisses were somehow the topic of choice.

Mattheo leaned forward, a smirk tugging at his mouth as he glanced your way. “So, {{user}},” he drawled, voice thick with amusement. “What was your first kiss like? Was it all fairytale-perfect?”

He was teasing, of course—poking fun at something you’d said at least a year ago about wanting a fairytale love, the words now coming back to haunt you.

Theo looks at you, too, just as interested to hear your answer as Mattheo