War, Love, and Riddle //Mattheo Riddle x OC

Chapter Twenty Nine - Harry and Emma Potter are Dead

The distant whistle drifted through the station once more, low and haunting, its mournful sound echoing across the endless expanse of white marble. Emma found herself turning toward it before she consciously decided to move, her gaze following the empty platform until it settled upon the train waiting in the distance. It sat bathed in brilliant light, motionless and patient, as though it had been expecting her all along. There was something comforting about it. Something gentle. The train made no demands of her. It asked for no sacrifices. It offered no impossible choices. It simply waited.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Emma allowed herself to acknowledge how tired she truly was.

Not physically.

The aches and bruises of battle had vanished the moment she arrived here, leaving behind something far older and far more difficult to name. She was tired in the way people became tired after carrying grief for too long. Tired of funerals. Tired of goodbyes. Tired of loving people so fiercely while knowing there was always a chance they would be taken from her. The war had demanded pieces of her for so many years that she wasn't entirely sure who she had been before it began. Somewhere between prophecies and battles and impossible expectations, she had forgotten what it felt like to simply exist without the weight of the world pressing against her shoulders.

The train promised an end to all of that.

No more fighting.

No more loss.

No more waking each morning wondering who she might lose next.

A deep, aching longing settled inside her chest as she stared at it. Not because she wanted to die, but because the peace it offered felt so impossibly beautiful.

Slowly, she closed her eyes.

The moment she did, the train disappeared.

The station disappeared.

Everything disappeared.

All she saw was Mattheo.

His face came to her with such startling clarity that it nearly stole the breath from her lungs. She could see every detail. The dark curls that never behaved no matter how often he pushed them back. The warmth hidden inside those chocolate brown eyes whenever he looked at her. The crooked smile that had somehow become one of her favorite things in the entire world. Then came the memory she had been trying desperately not to think about.

The last time she saw him.

The way his hands had trembled when they framed her face.

The tears he hadn't bothered hiding.

The desperation in his voice when he begged her not to go.

A sharp pain spread through her chest.

Because somewhere beyond this place, Mattheo still existed.

Somewhere beyond the white light, he believed she was gone.

Emma imagined him standing amongst the ruins of Hogwarts. Imagined him searching for her in every crowd. Imagined him carrying the weight of her death for the rest of his life, forced to live with the memory of watching her walk away. The thought felt unbearable. It hurt far more than any curse ever had.

Because if she boarded that train, she would never see him again.

Their cottage would never exist.

The little garden they had spent countless nights dreaming about would never exist.

The future they had built together through whispered conversations and impossible hopes would vanish before it ever had the chance to begin.

The realization settled over her with startling clarity.