I picked at the edges of my toast, the crispy corners breaking off in crumbles, my focus slipping from the light chatter around me. Avery was talking to one of our friends, Kai - no, more like dramatically reenacting last night's party events with exaggerated hand gestures. Her energy, usually infectious, seemed a bit distant today as if I was on the other side of a glass wall, watching everything from a removed, muffled world.
"...and then Draco just stepped in, like some kind of dark prince out of nowhere," Avery was saying, her eyes gleaming with the thrill of recounting it all. She snapped her fingers for emphasis, drawing a laugh from Kai. "He completely shut Williams down. Like, 'this is right here is my territory' or something."
Kai, grinning, glanced at me. “Pretty sure Y/N could’ve handled him on her own, though. Right, Cat?”
I forced a smile, nodding absently. "Yeah, totally."
But in truth, my mind was elsewhere. The smell of fresh fruit and pastries filled the Great Hall, yet all I could think about was the way Mattheo had looked at me in my dream - how real his hands had felt tracing my skin. I swallowed hard, feeling the phantom sensation of his fingers trailing over my thigh. My breath caught in my throat as my imagination got the better of me. I could almost feel the warmth of his body pressing against mine again, his breath hot against my ear.
Stop it. I pushed the thought away, feeling my cheeks flush with embarrassment. It was just a dream, I told myself. Just a stupid, twisted dream. And yet, here I was, unable to shake the feeling that something had changed, that something was lingering just beneath the surface, waiting to rise again.
Avery snapped me out of my thoughts, her fingers snapping in front of my face. "Hello? Earth to Catalina. You’re spacing out on us."
I blinked, trying to refocus. "Sorry, what?"
"I was saying that Draco stepping in like that was pretty bold, don’t you think? Not that he isn’t always arrogant as hell, but still..." Avery trailed off, her eyebrows raising as she observed my distant expression.
I forced another smile. "Yeah, it was definitely... something."
Kai laughed lightly, oblivious to my inner turmoil. "They really did have their eyes on you, though. All of them. You’ve always drawn attention, but I didn’t think it would be from the slytherin elite."
That comment hit harder than it should have. I could feel my pulse quicken, a knot forming in my stomach. Had they really noticed me? Or was it just my own delusions? Kai’s words mixed with the memory of the dream, feeding the paranoia that had been simmering all morning.
I glanced over toward the slytherin table, trying to keep my gaze casual, but my stomach twisted with a mix of dread and anticipation. They were all there, of course - Draco, Mattheo, Blaise, Theodore, Tom, Lorenzo and a few others whose faces were blurs of sharp features and smirks.
For a second, just a flicker of a moment, Theodore Nott’s eyes met mine across the hall. My heart stuttered. His gaze was unreadable, but there was something in it - something that made my throat tighten. It was over as quickly as it had begun, Theo looking away as if nothing had happened at all. Yet, the brief encounter left me shaken. Had he seen me staring? Or was I just imagining things? Did they somehow know what had been plaguing my dreams?
My paranoia tightened its grip on me, my thoughts spiraling despite my efforts to stay grounded in reality. Theodore’s fleeting glance - innocent or not - seemed to add fuel to the fire, making the lines between dream and reality blur even further.
“You okay?” Avery nudged me with her elbow, pulling me back to the present.
I cleared my throat, forcing a light laugh. "Yeah, just... distracted, I guess. Lack of sleep."
“From what? The party?” Kai grinned, biting into a croissant. “Or the slytherins?”
Avery smirked. "She’s been out of it since the party. Who knows what they did to her. Maybe they’ve put a spell on her."
The teasing tone in her voice stung more than I expected, and I forced myself to look away from the slytherin table, focusing instead on my untouched plate. My skin still tingled where I imagined Mattheo’s touch had been, and the memory of Draco’s voice in my ear - deep and mocking - echoed far too vividly.
Stop it, for Merlin's sake. It was just a dream. I'm going crazy.
Still, I couldn’t help but wonder... what if it wasn’t? What if, somehow, they knew? What if their actions last night had seeped into my subconscious, planting seeds of doubt and desire that I couldn’t uproot?
“Cat?”
Avery’s voice once again broke through the haze of my thoughts, and I blinked, trying to center myself. She was watching me closely, her expression softening with concern.
“You sure you’re alright?” she asked, leaning in slightly. “You’re looking a bit pale.”
I nodded quickly, forcing a smile. “Yeah, just... tired. I’ll be fine.”
She didn’t seem convinced but let it go, shifting her attention back to Kai. I felt a wave of relief, though it was short-lived as my thoughts continued to spiral. I pushed my plate away, appetite long gone, and excused myself from the table.
---
After breakfast, I found myself in the library with Avery and a few other Ravenclaws, including Kai, attempting to focus on studying. Books were piled high on the table in front of me, their pages blurring together as I tried to concentrate on my notes. The others were talking quietly, their voices a soft murmur in the background, but I could barely process the words. Every small sound seemed to pull my mind back to that dream, to the way Mattheo’s hands had felt on my skin, the way Draco’s voice had whispered so close to my ear.
I kept telling myself that it was all in my head, that they couldn’t possibly know about the dream. But Theo’s glance at breakfast... that had been real, hadn’t it?
I shook my head, trying to clear it, but it was as if their presence lingered everywhere. Even the faint scent of parchment and ink seemed to carry a trace of them, and I could almost hear Draco’s low chuckle echoing faintly in the back of my mind. I really am delusional. What the fuck is wrong with me?
“What are you working on?” Kai asked, breaking my train of thought. He leaned over slightly to glance at the notes in front of me.
I looked down at the parchment, realizing that I had been staring at the same sentence for the past five minutes without actually reading it. “Uh, just some potions work.”
Kai raised an eyebrow. “You sure? You’ve been staring at that page for ages.”
I flushed, quickly flipping the page to avoid any further questioning. “Yeah, just... lost in thought.”
Avery glanced up from her own work, her eyes narrowing slightly as she studied me. “You’ve been lost in thought a lot today,” she remarked, her tone light but her gaze sharp.
I forced a smile, hoping to deflect her suspicion. “Just tired, really. The party took more out of me than I thought.”
She seemed to accept that explanation, though I could tell she wasn’t entirely convinced. I shifted in my seat, trying to focus on my work again, but the uneasy feeling in my stomach persisted. Every time I tried to concentrate, my mind would slip back to the slytherins - to the dream, to Theo’s glance, to the nagging feeling that I was losing control of my own mind.
I rubbed my temples, trying to push the thoughts away. But it was as if they had taken root deep inside me, impossible to shake. The sensation of their hands, their voices, their presence... it was all too vivid, too real, and I couldn’t seem to escape it, no matter how hard I tried.
Theodore’s eyes flashed in my mind again - just a brief flicker, but enough to make my pulse quicken. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to steady myself, but the memories only grew stronger. What if they knew? What if the dream wasn’t just a figment of my imagination? What if they had done something to me at the party, something that had made me vulnerable to their influence?
I opened my eyes, glancing around the library as if expecting to see one of them lurking in the shadows. But the room was quiet, the only sounds the soft rustle of pages and the occasional whispered conversation. Still, the uneasy feeling lingered, like a dark cloud hanging over me, and I couldn’t shake the sensation that I was being watched again, even when there was no one there.
Maybe I was losing control. Or maybe... they had already taken it from me.