Mattheo Riddle and Amelia Rosier were engaged long before anyone at Hogwarts ever suspected there was something tying them together. It had not been a romantic decision, nor one either of them had been asked to approve. Their families had arranged it quietly, efficiently, like a political alliance sealed over candlelight and ancient promises. Only four parties knew the truth: Mattheo, Amelia, his father, and her family. No friends. No professors. No curious pureblood circles whispering behind fans. Silence was part of the contract.At school, they behaved like strangers.Not enemies — that would attract too much attention — but two students whose worlds simply did not overlap. Mattheo remained where everyone expected him to be: at the center of Slytherin’s gravity, flanked by Draco, Theo, and Blaise, moving through the castle with the effortless authority that seemed bred into his bones. Amelia, meanwhile, belonged to Gryffindor, though she never quite matched its loudness. She was known, certainly — the Rosier name ensured that — but she occupied a strange space in people’s perceptions. Some thought her spoiled, noticing the fine rings always glittering on her fingers, the expensive quills, the subtle evidence that if she wanted something, she usually obtained it. Others thought her oddly childish at times, prone to soft giggles and bright curiosity. Yet in the next breath, she could be startlingly mature, her composure sharper than girls years older. What no one realized was that the freedom she seemed to carry had a foundation: Mattheo.Since the day their engagement had been finalized, an unspoken protection settled around her life. She knew — even if they barely spoke — that she was not navigating the castle alone anymore. If she ever truly needed something, she could go to him. That knowledge softened her caution, let her laughter come easier, made her a little bolder than she might have otherwise been.