Dusk and Desire - A Mattheo Riddle Story

A Horrible, Dreadful, Awful Day

Well, it had officially been less than a day since Nora had broken her leg and she was already feeling like she could pull her hair out.

Madam Pomfrey had made her stay overnight just to make sure there was no infection. Aditi was spending the day with her new boyfriend—Nora was right about the other relationship being over already—so she thought she'd just make it easy for herself and spend most of the day in the library getting a head start on some of her assignments.

The only problem? Getting there.

Nora had vastly underestimated just how big of a pain in the ass crutches were. They hurt her underarms and were hard to use, especially since her cast felt like it weighed as much as a bloody dragon, weighing down her leg as it dragged along the floor. She was clumsy with the two useless devices but she was even worse without them so there she was, limping down the hallway while people avoided her like the plague. Her reputation as a hard-ass and the furious look on her face wasn't exactly a winning recipe for "How to Be Approachable."

"Almost there," she muttered to herself when the library finally came in view. She'd planned on going back and forth between there and the Great Hall until it was time for bed but that plan went out the window when she realized how difficult it was to move even five meters. She'd rather starve than embarrass herself anymore.

Finally, Nora made it to the library looking far more like a fool than she preferred but with at least a little bit of dignity intact.

Well, or so she thought.

"I thought I heard something about you totally failing but I didn't believe it until now," a nasally know-it-all voice said from behind her. Nora scowled before turning around to face it.

It was fucking. Hermione. Granger.

Nora loathed Hermione Granger and rest assured, the feeling was very mutual. She wasn't sure how it was possible to hate someone more than she hated Mattheo Riddle but then Hermione came along and taught her that anything was possible if you just put your mind to it.

Contrary to what you might believe, their mutual hatred was not, in fact, started by Nora. Or at least not directly. When Nora had gotten top grades in their first year, Hermione had immediately turned into the biggest bitch she'd ever met. Whatever happened to girls supporting other girls? In Hermione's case, that apparently only existed when the girls weren't competition for the top spot.

Nora, being Nora, didn't let Hermione talk down to her, instead trying even harder to beat her the next year. And the next year. And the next year. For six years in a row (about to be seven), Nora beat out Hermione Granger for the top spot, driving the bushy-haired girl completely bonkers.

It didn't help that Nora wasn't exactly humble about her wins because why would she be? Hermione started this feud and Nora was petty enough to dish everything she was given right back. If Hermione wanted to be a bitch, she would be a bigger one. Everything that Hermione did, Nora would do better with an arrogant grin on her face.

And the worst part? No one believed her whenever she said how fucking horrible Hermione was because in their eyes, Hermione was this saint who could do no wrong, the golden girl of the Golden Trio. Even Aditi adored Hermione, insisting that Hermione would never be mean. So, like always, Nora was the bad girl.

Fuck being good. Being good was boring anyway.

"If we want to talk about utterly failing, perhaps you should speak to your boyfriend about the way he let in the most goals all year? Or perhaps we should pull out Slughorn's last potions exam?" Nora asked with an upturned chin and a smile. Hermione frowned in that stupid scrunched-up way that made Nora want to hit her over the head with her crutch.