Emerson Wilmore was an exemplary Ravenclaw student, known for her unwavering dedication to academics and an unyielding moral compass. However, things took a twisted and deviated turn in her life after her boyfriend, Cedric Diggory, was murdered by L...
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Over the next days following the return from Christmas break, everything bled into one another with a comforting, familiar rhythm. The frost still clung to the castle windows, and the air inside Hogwarts buzzed with the dull hum of returning routine.
For Emerson though, the most noticeable shift wasn't in the weather or the increased weight of homework for the Sixth-Years. It was Mattheo.
He was back in her life.
He was the same as he was when they first agreed to be friends again before things spiralled. He was close now, in all the ways that mattered and more than a few that made her chest tighten in confusing ways.
He didn't bring up that night in the Slytherin dormitory. They didn't need too. He didn't talk about the way she held him or how desperately he asked her to stay. He didn't mention the kiss on the forehead or the way he clung to her like he might shatter if she left. And Emerson didn't ask. Some things didn't need to be said out loud, and maybe this fragile return to normalcy was his way of saying thank you.
Instead, they returned to old rhythms that somehow felt brand new. The one that was somehow tender and teasing all at once, full of comfortable silences, glances held too long and words unsaid but understood all the same.
Importantly, the group was whole again.
It started during meals. Emerson walking into the Great Hall and, without even needing to look, she found Mattheo already sitting at the Ravenclaw table with Olivia, Theo and Enzo. At the sight of her, he immediately shifted over to make room beside him. Sometimes he nudged her plate toward her wordlessly and other times, he smirked and muttered something like, "You're late. I was about to send a search party."
He didn't hover or overwhelm her with attention, but he was always near in his usual way. His presence was an anchor and it was heavy in the most comforting way.
It didn't take long for them to start spending time outside of meals like they once used to. With all of the increased homework and study, it only got to the second night when Emerson and Enzo joined Olivia and Theo in the library to finish three assignments they already received in the past two days.
