Dusk and Desire - A Mattheo Riddle Story

Butterbeers and Bets

"I fucking hate Nora Rosier," Mattheo grumbled as he took another swig of butterbeer. This was his... fourteenth? Eh, who was counting? Certainly not him and certainly not his friends.

"Wow, Riddle, thanks for the interesting piece of news," Draco Malfoy grumbled. He, like the others, was probably tired of hearing tirade after tirade from Mattheo. For seven years, he'd ranted and raved all while his friends begrudgingly listened. None of them liked Nora—though it was important to note that none of them disliked her either—but they were all tired of many years of the same insults. Especially when none of them actually believed that Mattheo hated the girl.

"Yes, do tell us more about what's new in your life," Theodore Nott mumbled under his breath. Always the quiet one, though not as much around his friends. 

The Slytherin boys were crowded in Mattheo's dorm room passing around many cases of butterbeer and catching up with each other. Though they all saw each other over the summer, there was something special about their late-night chats at the beginning of the year. Even now, a few weeks into the school year, they were still finding things to catch up on. Tonight, that mostly meant the Slytherin Quidditch tryouts which immediately proceeded to become a rant about Nora Rosier.

Mattheo still couldn't believe she made the team. Actually, he couldn't believe that she managed to stay on her broom for more than a minute, much less become a fucking chaser. Was Enzo out of his mind?

No, he wasn't. Mattheo had watched Nora from the sidelines, figuring that—like always—the tryouts would give him some ammo for a few weeks. But she was bloody brilliant. Did she take some liquid luck or something? She was easily the best one out there and last year, she couldn't even get more than ten feet off the ground. Had the world gone mad?

Well, the world might not have gone mad but Mattheo Riddle surely had. And, like always, Nora Rosier was at the center of it all.

Mattheo Riddle considered himself a good-looking guy. It was hard not to with many women constantly eyeing him like he would be the best fuck—and he was for the record. With his dashing grin, toned body, mischievous brown eyes, and matching messy curls, he was practically a dream for any woman.

Well, any woman but Nora. The one he couldn't stop fucking thinking about.

"I can't believe you gave her the fucking position," Mattheo said with another swig of his butterbeer. But it was a lie because after watching her play, he could believe that Enzo had made a chaser. The boy was always big on rewarding talent and hard work. And while it was clear that Nora Rosier had possessed little to no talent—several years of falling off a broom would do that to you—she clearly had worked hard at some point to get to this point. After watching her play this morning, he was almost a little surprised she hadn't made it earlier.

However, just because he saw why she was on the team didn't mean that he liked it.

"I can't believe that you're still bitching about her," Enzo retorted. His friend was always the nicest one out of the Slytherin boys but that didn't mean that he took any shit from them. "It's been what? Seven years?"

"Yeah," Draco continued with a laugh. That annoying little git. Half the time, Mattheo couldn't remember why they were friends but then Draco would do something that reminded him why—like prank a Weasley or something stupid. Though Mattheo would admit, Draco seemed to have matured over the past year. So he might have been (admittedly) a little less of a git. "Either fuck the girl or ignore her but either way, get her out of your system."

Mattheo choked on his beer. "What?"

Theo smirked and that was when Mattheo knew he was in trouble. Out of all of the Slytherin boys, Theo was easily his best friend. It wasn't just the similar names—though that did give them a reason to speak those many years ago. The two boys just seemed to connect on another level. Their home lives both left something to be desired—Theo with a dead mother and neglectful father, Mattheo with a dead father and mother who was in the most notorious prison in the world. They became roommates in their first year and while they were very different, it was those differences that gave them a reason to connect in the first place. Theo was quiet and introverted while Mattheo was loud and could make friends in just about any room. Theo was intimidating in that gruff sort of way while Mattheo threw hands at anyone who dared to piss him off. They understood each other in a way that only best friends could. To Mattheo, that meant everything.