Your eyes scanned the compartment windows, searching for an empty seat, or at least a friendly face. Mostly, you saw clusters of students in black robes, already forming the familiar bonds of a new term. Your heart hammered against your ribs. It was just the newness, you told yourself. The uncertainty.

Then you saw him.

Through the glass of a compartment door, halfway down the car. Mattheo Riddle. He was lounging in the corner seat, one boot propped on the opposite bench. He’d grown. The boyish sharpness of his face had hardened into clean, severe angles. A thin, pale scar cut across the bridge of his nose. He wore a fitted black shirt, the sleeves rolled to his elbows, and a worn leather jacket was slung over the seatback. His dark hair was longer, falling carelessly over his forehead.

He wasn’t alone. Theodore Nott sat across from him, speaking quietly. A blonde girl you recognized from society pages as Daphne Greengrass was by the window, and a boy with sharp features and pale hair—Draco Malfoy—leaned against the door frame inside the compartment, smirking at something.

But Mattheo wasn’t listening. His gaze, dark and intent, was fixed out the window, idly watching the platform blur past. Then, as if sensing a shift in the light, his eyes lifted. They tracked past the moving figures in the corridor, and landed, unerringly, on you.

The world seemed to slow. The noise in the corridor faded to a dull roar.

Recognition was instant. A slight, almost imperceptible widening of his eyes. Then his expression settled into something else. Something deeper and more deliberate. The corner of his mouth curved. It wasn’t the quick, boyish grin you remembered. This was a slow, knowing smile. It didn’t reach his eyes, which remained watchful, assessing. But it was pleased. Utterly, dangerously pleased.

He didn’t move. He just held your gaze, the smile lingering, as if he’d been waiting for this exact moment and was now savoring it.

Inside the compartment, Theodore followed his line of sight. His eyebrows lifted. Draco Malfoy turned, his silver eyes narrowing slightly at the unfamiliar face in the corridor. Daphne Greengrass glanced over, her expression politely curious.

The compartment door was slightly ajar.