Matheo Riddle 6

Her fifth year at Hogwarts was barely a few days old and Aurora Rosewood was already regretting coming back.

Not because of the classes, nor because of the homework, but because of his friends.

—Aurora, tell your boyfriend to stop bothering me—Pansy protested, pointing at Matheo.

"He's not my boyfriend," Aurora replied for the umpteenth time.

"Still," Blaise murmured.

Matheo threw a napkin at him.

Aurora was a reserved, quiet Ravenclaw, quite shy around strangers. However, when she was with Daphne, Pansy, and the rest of the group, that tranquility gradually faded. Especially when she was with Matheo Riddle, her childhood friend and the main source of her headaches.

They argued about absolutely everything: from who had won a chess game to who should save them a place in the Great Hall.

Matheo, for his part, had a problem he preferred to ignore: he had been in love with her for too long.

Things got worse when, one afternoon in the library, Aurora accidentally bumped into a Slytherin while turning a corner in a corridor.

"Wow, do you always greet people like that?" asked the stranger, picking up the books that had fallen.

"Only when I'm not looking where I'm walking," she replied, embarrassed.

—Then I hope to run into you again. I'm Adrian.

What Aurora didn't know was that that meeting would end up becoming a habit.

Adrian was funny, cheeky, and had an irritating knack for making her smile. And, for some reason, he seemed to especially enjoy teasing Matheo.

"Don't you have anywhere else to be?" Matheo asked her one afternoon.

—Yes, but Aurora is here.

—What bad luck I have.

"Mine doesn't seem to be," Adrian replied, winking at Aurora.

Daphne hid a smile behind her glass.

Pansy elbowed him.

That was going to be a very long year.