In the same universe where Remus John Lupin fell in love with his best friend's twin sister, their daughter despises the Golden boy's guts.
Golden Trio era
Cedric Diggory × 𝒇𝒆𝒎!𝑶𝑪
Mattheo Riddle × 𝒇𝒆𝒎!𝑶𝑪 [2]
𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒 [3]
This...
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November 1994
The next day, Rose expected Professor Potter to scold her for not staying until the end of her detention and complete her punishment. But to her surprise, the Potions class went by smoothly, up until she did call her to stay for a moment after the class.
Hence, she approached the desk warily, fiddling with her loose yellow tie, ready to get yelled at as her classmates were slowly leaving.
"I'd appreciate it if you could tell me in advance when you have other engagements following your detentions, so I'm not surprised when I see someone else standing in my office in your stead." Juliet told her, gathering parchments on her desk.
"I'm sorry?" Rose tilted her head, confused.
"It isn't a problem. I am your Professor and I must take my part in disciplining you but I can also be comprehensive if you had some promise to fulfill." The woman continued.
"I don't understand."
Juliet glanced at her with narrowed eyes. "Mr Riddle told me you had to quickly leave my office because you had promised my daughter to help her with a big order she got?"
The Hufflepuff looked over her shoulder, spotting Mattheo who was by the door, ready to leave the room yet had his eyes focused on her. He gave her a subtle nod and walked out, causing her to understand that she must play along for her own sake.
"Of course! Right, sorry. He was walking by and I just asked him that favor. Speaking of which, I must go and thank him!" Rose blurted out quickly before running off under Juliet's suspicious eyes.
"Do they not know I was a teenager too once?" She muttered to herself, shaking her head but letting the matter go.
Rose ran hurriedly, pushing past a few people and throwing apologies as she did, until she finally caught up to Mattheo, who was calmly walking. They just had their last class of the day, they were all free to do whatever they wished to, so she needed to catch him before he disappeared from her sight.
She knew if she was to talk about it to him the next morning then it would be too awkward. It was best to do it then and there.
"Riddle!" She called, walking next to him once she caught up.
"Valentine." He greeted with a simple nod, not looking at her.
She pursed her lips. He looked mad at her. Or perhaps it was just in her head. Either way it made her anxious.
"I'd like to apologise for yesterday." She admitted.
He stopped dead in his tracks, and she imitated his movement, both of them allowing other students to pass by them until the corridor was almost empty.
"I'm listening." He said once he considered it to be empty enough.
"That was it, that was the apology."
"See you, Valentine." Mattheo turned on his feet, ready to leave.
Rose was quick to grab on his arm to prevent him to do so. "Okay, fine! I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it that way. I was being judgmental and was trying to hurt your feelings by pulling a dirty card just because I was offended, and it wasn't right."
She sucked in a breath. She had asked Romy how she could apologise properly last night, without telling her who she was apologising to or what for. Romy was unaware of their interaction simply because Rose was unsure if she wanted her to know.
Anyhow, she had trained well enough to fix things. She wondered why she even tried so hard to fix whatever was going on between them but she did it anyway because it felt worth it. Rose always followed her heart. Well, almost always. When she wasn't being stubborn.
"You can't hurt my feelings." He stated playfully after a moment.
Rose almost sighed in relief. "He says while making me apologise with precision."
"You got me there." He nodded, a hint if a smirk on the corner of his lips. "I suppose I should... well, you know. There's no doubt there are some touchy subjects that are better left alone."
Despite Rose making the initial effort, Mattheo was never really great at apologies. But, really, how would one expect him to learn that when he had to grow up at the Malfoys.
The Hufflepuff nodded in agreement. "I also wanted to thank you for saving my butt from another detention."
"I kind of caused you to run away, I didn't feel right just walking out of there." He looked away, his expression blank.
She smiled, seeing that he meant well. Perhaps there was hope for him. Perhaps the goodness of his heart will overpower the negative view people had of him with time.
"So you stayed and wrote my punishment for me?"
"Don't be ridiculous, I used a copying spell." He rolled his eyes.
Rose chuckled, and this time he didn't try to hide his smirk. "Still, thank you for that." She paused. "And don't give yourself too much credit, I didn't run away."
"Didn't you?" He raised his eyebrows, teasing her.
She narrowed her eyes at him. And for a moment they just stared at each other. This time it wasn't entirely uncomfortable. Mattheo couldn't help but think she was very pretty, even with her tired eyes, even without the makeup she had on most days, even with her wavy hair slightly messily resting on her chest.
Slowly, she started to feel shy under his gaze. There was something so intense about his dark eyes, they looked so cold but it took barely three seconds of staring into them just to be hypnotised. "I owe you one." She finally said before she started to walk away from him.
The Slytherin did not respond and simply watched her go, until he caught himself, and shamefully made sure no one else had seen him. That would be the worst, people assuming he had grown accustomed to the presence of a Hufflepuff, let along Andromeda Lupin's best friend.
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shorter chapter cuz I still struggle with them
also you guys have no idea how in love with luke castellan/charlie bushnell I am rn
