[PROLOGUE]

───🦋･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.🦋───

───🦋･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.🦋───

PROLOGUE

ELEANOR “ELLIE” HAWTHORNE HAD A PROBLEM.

A frustrating, maddening, and downright humiliating problem.

She had a hopeless, one-sided, completely ridiculous crush on Lorenzo Berkshire.

Lorenzo, Slytherin’s golden boy. One of the team’s best Chasers, effortlessly charming, the type of person who walked into a room and owned it without even trying.

His confidence was infuriatingly attractive, his smile something straight out of a fairytale, and worst of all—he was nice. Like, genuinely nice.

The kind of nice that made Ellie’s stomach do stupid little flips every time he laughed at her jokes or slung an arm around her shoulders after a tough Quidditch match.

The problem?

He didn’t see her that way.

To Lorenzo, she was Ellie—his teammate, his friend, the girl who occasionally helped him with his History of Magic essays when he fell asleep in class. The girl who trained just as hard as he did but never quite managed to stand out the way he did. The girl he treated like one of the lads rather than someone he might ever fancy.

And that was precisely why she had come up with the most ridiculous idea of her life.

A fake relationship.

The idea had struck her one evening in the Slytherin common room, after a particularly grueling Quidditch practice. The team had been celebrating an upcoming match, sprawled across the worn-out couches and armchairs, laughter ringing through the air. Lorenzo had been there, as always—smiling, talking animatedly with some Ravenclaw girl who had wandered over to say hello.

Ellie had tried to ignore it. She really had. But after watching Lorenzo flirt effortlessly for the better part of an hour, her patience had snapped.

So now, here she was, seated beside Mattheo Riddle, Slytherin’s Quidditch Captain and resident perfectionist, as she blurted out the most absurd thing to ever leave her lips.

“Maybe I should just… fake date someone to make Lorenzo jealous.”

Mattheo barely looked up from his copy of Quidditch Weekly, his long legs stretched across the common room couch, looking far too relaxed for someone who had probably spent an hour yelling at them all to practice harder.

“Brilliant plan, Hawthorne,” he said dryly. “That never backfires.”

Ellie scowled, snatching a cushion and chucking it at his face. He caught it effortlessly, smirking at her.

“I’m serious,” she insisted. “Lorenzo never pays attention to girls unless they’re, you know… wanted. If he sees me with someone else, he might finally notice me.”

Mattheo hummed in amusement, finally closing his magazine and tilting his head at her. “And who’s the poor bloke you’re roping into this ridiculous scheme?”

Ellie hesitated.

She hadn’t actually thought that far ahead. But now, with Mattheo watching her expectantly, her brain seemed to disconnect from her body as the words tumbled out before she could stop them.

“You.”

The silence that followed was deafening.

For the first time in her life, she had managed to render Mattheo Riddle —Mattheo bloody Riddle—speechless.

He blinked at her, as if waiting for her to say she was joking. “Me?”

“Yes, you.”

Mattheo arched an eyebrow. “Let me get this straight. You want me—your Captain, the person who literally yells at you for missing practice—to pretend to be your boyfriend… so you can make Lorenzo jealous?”

Ellie shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny, but she refused to back down. “Exactly.”

A slow, amused smile crept across Mattheo’s face, and suddenly, Ellie had the distinct feeling she had just made a deal with the devil.

“You do realize,” he said, leaning forward, “that this means convincing people we’re together, right? Holding hands, sitting next to each other, acting like we’re madly in love.”

Ellie swallowed. She hadn’t quite thought of all the details yet.

“I—I know that,” she said stubbornly.

Mattheo chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief. Then, after a long pause, he let out an exaggerated sigh, like this was all some grand inconvenience. “Alright, Hawthorne,” he said finally, a smirk playing on his lips. “Let’s play.”

And just like that, her perfectly normal life took a turn she hadn’t expected.

One that, she would later realize, was much more than a game.

───🦋･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.🦋───