𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐞, ᵐᵃᵗᵗʰᵉᵒ ʳⁱᵈᵈˡᵉ

ᴀɴɢᴇʟ

𝐒𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤

The rain had been falling for hours.

It had started sometime during the afternoon, quietly at first with just a soft tapping against the windows during the last lesson before gradually becoming heavier until it seemed to swallow the entire castle in its sound.

By the time late evening had settled over Hogwarts the corridors had emptied. All students had retreated towards the common rooms or the Great Hall while the rain continued to beat against the stone walls and tall windows without any plan off stopping.

I had been sitting in one of the window for nearly an hour with a book open in my lap that I hadn't actually read for the last ten minutes.

My eyes kept moving over the same paragraph without taking in a single word.

I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened earlier.

More specifically, I couldn't stop thinking about Mattheo.

I had seen the way his hands had tightened when Lucas started talking. I had seen the change in his expression and the way something in him had shifted so quickly that it had almost frightened me.

Mattheo was usually difficult to read but that had been different. There had been no hesitation in him when he stood up. No thought behind it. He had simply reacted.

And then there had been the look on his face when I stopped him.

I still wasn't entirely sure what I had seen there.

But he listened to me.

That was the part that kept coming back.

I closed my book with a quiet sigh.

There was no point pretending I wasn't worried.

He had skipped the last class, and I hadn't seen him since. Atlas didn't now where he was either, which somehow made the uneasy feeling in my stomach worse.

I looked towards the tall windows at the end of the corridor. Rain streamed down the glass, blurring the grounds beyond it into a dark mixture of grey and black. The sun had already disappeared behind the clouds, leaving the sky in darkness.