Boundless

𝐓𝐨 𝐁𝐞 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 (𝟐𝟎)

Mattheo Riddle

Being friends with Ollie again felt like being twelve.

Not in a pathetic, pining, heart-eyed sort of way — not really. It was more than anything between us had this strange, impossible familiarity. Like time bent around her. One minute, we were tossing sarcastic jabs like we were first-years arguing over who got the window seat on the train, and the next, she was handing me a quill mid-class like it had always been that way.

It was easy. Painfully easy.

And it scared the hell out of me.

Still, I kept showing up. To every conversation, every quiet glance across the common room, every walk to class where her hand almost brushed mine but didn't. She was rebuilding, and I was learning how to let her.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group — our mess of Slytherins and a few honorary misfits from other houses — had started orbiting each other again. Pansy snuck snacks into the dorms like we were still in fourth year. Theo charmed the chandelier in the common room to flicker like a disco ball. Draco was almost tolerable — in that gruff, older-brother way he only used with Ollie.

We were falling back into a found family. Bent, not broken.

I wasn't fooling myself. Things had changed. We all had. But it didn't feel like some desperate attempt to recapture the past. It felt like something new. Something with teeth.

Which made what I had to do next a bit more complicated.

It happened on the way to Advanced Charms. I was walking with Theo and Blaise, laughing about something Theo had said about Flitwick's duelling stance, when I saw him.

Sebastian. Just ahead, leaning against the wall outside the classroom, hands in his pockets. Waiting.

For her.

He looked up when he saw me. Jaw tight. Eyes sharp. I felt Blaise shift beside me, ready — always ready — to cause trouble.

But I held out a hand to stop him. "Give me a second."

I approached Sebastian alone. My chest was already buzzing — that old, wild anger threatening to claw up my throat. I swallowed it down.

Ollie's voice echoed in my head.

I'm not ready to fall again.

Fine. But I wasn't going to let her carry tension on her shoulders because the two men in her life were too proud to act like adults.

"Sebastian," I said coolly, coming to a stop a few feet away.

His eyes narrowed. "Riddle."

"I'm not here to fight."

He raised a brow. "That'd be a first."

"I'm here because I care about her," I said, steady. No sarcasm. No fire. Just the truth. "And I always will. Whether she chooses you or not."

He didn't answer, but the clench in his jaw deepened.

"I'm not here to ruin anything," I continued. "But I won't disappear again, and I won't lie to her about what we were. Or what we are now."

His silence said enough.

I leaned in slightly, quieter now. "You gave her an ultimatum. I'm telling you this instead — I'm going to be her friend. You need to be okay with that, or let her go. Because she deserves peace. Not a war."

We stared at each other for a long moment. Just two idiots standing in a corridor trying not to throw punches.

Finally, I stepped back. "That's all."

I turned before he could answer — or before I changed my mind and went back to being the person who solved things with fists.

Blaise gave me a look as I rejoined them. "You didn't punch him."

"Miracles happen."

Theo let out a low whistle. "Growth looks weird on you."

I ignored them both and glanced back once.

Ollie had arrived now. Her face lit up when she saw Sebastian, but her eyes flicked to me, just for a second.

And in that second, I knew she'd felt it — the shift. The quiet promise.

I'd made my move.

And this time, I wasn't going anywhere.