Dusk and Desire - A Mattheo Riddle Story

Broom Closet Escapades

Nora Rosier walked down the Hogwarts corridor wearing what was quite possibly the slyest grin the school had ever seen. Why, you may wonder? Because she was beating Mattheo at a game he didn't even know he was playing.

And it was wonderful.

She had to admit, her pride had been quite wounded when he left her on the Quidditch pitch. And to Nora, her pride was possibly one of her biggest priorities, considering that it was practically all she had sometimes. She didn't have a loving family—since her father was dead, her mother was a narcissistic alcoholic, and her asshole brother was somehow worse than either of them—and for a large portion of her life, she didn't have a great friend like Aditi. She didn't really do relationships considering they'd always felt too distracting from her goals and far too unnecessary. She didn't have a ton of money like other pureblood families and her father's fall from grace cemented their lack of status even though they were a part of the Sacred 28.

The only thing that kept her afloat sometimes? The knowledge that however horrible her life was, at least she wasn't horrible. She had friends, she did well in school, she was determined, she was fucking hot, and she was mostly likable. Okay, well maybe she was only likable to a select group of people but she didn't care about the others anyway. Why waste her time trying to prove how great she was to people who couldn't see it when she could spend that energy focusing on the ones she actually cared about?

Nora knew many people saw her as a bitch. And honestly? She didn't care. There were a lot of things she cared about. Her grades, her friends, her spot on the Quidditch team. But the opinions of others wasn't one and it probably wouldn't ever be.

Sometimes she felt like a fox backed into a corner. She didn't want to bite but she sure as hell would if she needed to. Life had pushed her into a corner and she had spent too long caged by a muzzle to hold herself back any longer. If someone pushed her, she had no problem pushing back.

"You've been in a good mood lately," Aditi said cheerily as she sat down, a turkey leg already poised in her mouth. Nora could have sworn Aditi said she wanted to try being vegetarian for her new girlfriend so she wondered if that was no longer a thing if Aditi was chowing down on meat like that.

"It's the weather," Nora said sarcastically considering it'd been raining for at least five of the last seven days.

Aditi rolled her eyes. Her short, dark hair was wrapped in many intricate braids that highlighted the brightness of her eyeshadow. "You come back to our room blushing every single day. Are you finally getting some good dick? Because there's no way Linc finally learned a position other than missionary."

Nora laughed. "No. No dick."

And the best part was that wasn't a lie. Nora wasn't getting dick because of Mattheo's stupid bet. Not that she would have fucked him if she could have, of course...

"Shame because Mattheo's looking at you like he's mentally stripping you. And from the looks of it, it's a damn good show."

Nora's eyes snapped over to where Aditi was looking at the main Slytherin table. Just like she said, he was staring at her with a dark look in her eyes that made Nora flush all over just thinking about where it would lead.

"Fuck," she muttered under her breath as she stared at him, already feeling the lust rise within her.

Why did he have to be so bloody attractive? If he were ugly, it would be much easier to lie to herself. She could say, Oh, Nora, of course you're only doing this for revenge because he's insufferable and ugly. But no. She couldn't lie to herself because he was sexy as fuck, a damn good kisser, and the most charming man she'd ever met. She couldn't tell herself that she only pulled him into broom closets (which she had done many, many times since the first) to torture him for humiliating her at the Quidditch pitch because that would probably be the biggest lie she'd ever told.