Draco blinked at her uncomprehendingly. "Come again?"

Chloe's cheeks flushed furiously at his penetrating gaze. "I don't think I'm capable of repeating myself when it's something this embarrassing."

"You ... kissed the Dark Lord's son?" Draco repeated for her, his eyes widening further. "Chloe, what the fuck?"

Chloe groaned, throwing herself back on her bed and resting her back against the mattress as she clutched her face. "Don't look at me. I'm a disgrace."

"Hey - you'd only be a disgrace if you kissed a Gryffindor or a Hufflepuff." Draco immediately retaliated, sitting himself down onto the bed with her, and he nudged her leg affectionately. "This isn't the end of the world."

Chloe peeked through her fingers at him, mumbling, "But it's Mattheo ..."

"Yeah." Draco rolled his eyes. "At least it's not that daft Rune guy."

"Timothy's not daft!" Chloe protested. "If you give the Gryffindors a chance, you'll see that they aren't all as bad as Potter."

"They're even worse than Potter." He deadpanned, and Chloe wordlessly hit his arm with her pillow with feeble force, causing him to laugh lightly.

A few moments of silence passed by, before Chloe asked, a hint of humor in her tone, "So ... I really started singing the word 'fuck' to everyone at your parents' party last night?"

Draco couldn't resist the grin from etching itself onto his face as he looked down at her amusedly. "Poor Mrs Flint was mortified."

Chloe giggled, grasping the pillow and hiding her face under it. "I'm officially a public embarrassment to the elite society."

Draco shrugged, and pulled the pillow away from her face. "I wouldn't go that far. Not long after you departed with your family, Daphne's parents got into a huge fight because Mrs. Greengrass caught Mr. Greengrass with another woman - a much younger woman."

Chloe gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. "No!"

Draco nodded rapidly. "Believe me, your little outburst was long forgotten by then. Mrs Greengrass threw a public fit ... I don't think my parents will be hosting any more festivities for a while."

Chloe laughed, shaking her head in disbelief, before she gently held his arm in her dainty fingers, softly asking, "How's Daphne though?"

Draco shrugged, looking across her room at her window. "I think she was too drunk to really understand what happened, but she should come to the realisation today. I was planning on stopping by at hers in the afternoon to check up on her."

Chloe smiled, and patted his arm, before slowly sitting up. "You're a lovely boyfriend, you know."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Shut up."

Chloe grinned, and sighed contentedly. "I just feel bad that I disappointed my father."

"I think he just feels remorse for not sufficiently being there for you as you were growing up." Draco explains gently, and Chloe's heart tugged guiltily against his chest.

"It's going to be okay, trust me." Draco added, smiling down at her, and giving her shoulder an encouraging squeeze.

"Thanks, Draco." She spoke sincerely, forever grateful for their friendship. Pansy may be her best girl friend, but Draco - he held a special spot in her heart that she only reserved for their friendship. He understood her better than anyone else ever can.

And she cherished that deeply. Sometimes she felt rather jealous of Lyra for having him as her twin brother, knowing that he would unconditionally love her and support her until his last dying breath. Silas was her whole world too - she knew her brother cared for her like no other, but Draco, for some absurd reason, understood her far better than Silas did.

*~*~*

Chloe sat at the edge of their swimming pool in a black one-piece, the thin straps of the swimsuit leaving evident tan lines as she dipped her legs into the water and swung them back and forth, her palms flat on the floor and her head tilted back into the sun. Her eyes were closed,  and she could hear nothing but the gentle hums of the water she swung her legs in, and the chirps of a few birds. In the distance, she could hear the house elves having a serious discussion on the arrangement of ornaments on the Croft Christmas tree this year, and she sighed. For a bitingly cold December, Chloe shouldn't have been out in the pool, but Chloe insisted on forcing her brother to use his excellent skill in charms to enchant the veranda by instilling an outdoor heating spell just in this area to make her feel warm enough to have a swim, and to her luck, it was a sunny day despite the palpable drop in temperature.

Chloe smiled faintly as she heard one of the house elves call another one a dimwit, but before she could relish in the solace she was consumed in, she felt someone's presence right next to her. Opening her eyes, she squinted against the sunlight, and immediately blushed at the sight of Mattheo Riddle in nothing but his black swimming trunks. He sat down right next to her on the edge of the pool, and dangled his legs in just like hers. He smirked at her wordlessly, causing her to blush even deeper, and she awkwardly cleared her throat and looked away.

Chloe stared at her legs resting underwater, and she whispered carefully, "I'm sorry for my ... inappropriate behaviour the previous night."

Mattheo mulled over her words for a few moments, not responding right away, until he spoke quietly, "There's no reason to apologise. It's not like that kiss offended me."

Chloe resisted the urge to smile at his response. Still not looking at him, she retorted, "It was still entirely out of line for me to kiss you like that. I know you cannot even stand me, let alone show or reciprocate any form of affection towards me."

Mattheo furrowed his thick brows perplexedly. "Can't stand you? Croft, that couldn't be any further from the truth."

Chloe snapped her head up to regard him inquisitively, and he had a twitch of his lips in amusement. "Besides, you attacking me with that kiss wasn't exactly affectionate, was it? You were clearly doing it to spite your mother, which - by the way, I applaud you for doing."

Chloe blushed profusely. "You applaud me for kissing you?"

He rolled his eyes. "I applaud you for spiting your mother. The woman needed a reality check."

Chloe bit her lower lip, her mind buzzing with different thoughts at a dizzying speed. "What makes you think so?"

Mattheo huffed, his lower lip trembling from the impact as he looked ahead of them at the cold greenery beyond the Croft estate. "I've only been here a few days, and I've seen enough to realise that your mother despises you, and treats you with astonishing contempt."

Chloe gulped. "Ouch."

"Forgive me, Croft, but I don't sugarcoat anything." He spoke softly, for a moment pitying her, but his eyes remained firm. "I do need to clarify though, that I don't like how she's treating you."

A few seconds passed in silence, with Chloe settling his words in her mind, before he added, "So ... good on you for riling her up like she deserves."

Chloe slowly smiled shyly, looking at the pool water as she whispered, "Thanks."

Mattheo clenched his jaw, and finally looked down at her. "I know a thing or two about neglectful parents."

She glanced up at him warily, and Mattheo was smiling emotionlessly at her, but a bitter undertone was present in his dark eyes, a tone she was so familiar with in her own pair of grey eyes that stare back at her through the mirror.

"They sometimes cause you to do ... unexpected things. Things that would infuriate them, but you do it in an attempt to desperately get their attention." Mattheo explained, describing exactly how Chloe was feeling every time she decided to drink too much, or make a terrible decision. "Why else do you think my father decided to chuck me here with you lot?"

Chloe's eyebrows flinched in realisation, and her face softened as she gazed up at him, awkwardly stating, "I'm sorry."

Mattheo simply shrugged, and looked away. "Something tells me though, that you're not just doing these things to get your parents' attention."

Chloe's jaw clenched in anxiousness at where this conversation was headed, and she replied, "My life is messy, but I do like getting myself into messes. I think I was made for it."

"No one's made for it." He swiftly replied, catching her off guard as she looked at him dubiously.

"You think a mess is what you deserve, and therefore it is what you attract." Mattheo explained it briefly, causing Chloe to feel severely exposed to him, and she gulped nervously. "What're you hiding, Chloe Croft?"

"I believe that is of no concern to you." She held her head high, her nose pointed upward with an air of defiance, but Mattheo paid it no mind.

"It may not be, but consider this carefully, Croft. I might be able to help you get what you're after if you confide in me." He spoke slowly, and Chloe frowned at him in annoyance.

"What makes you think I even want anything?" She scowled, and Mattheo smirked, slowly getting himself into the water, and looking up at her.

"Every person who makes a series of bad decisions after the other is troubled, and therefore needs something." Retreating into the water, he shot her a wink and stated, "When you decide to let me know what it is you want, you know where to find me."

He then dove into the water, as she watched him, speechless.

*~*~*

Christmas morning was rather awkward, but Chloe refused to let that ruin her favourite holiday. She awoke earlier than her usual, and she grinned childishly. She dangled her upper body from her bed, and extended her arm underneath her bed, her hand searching for something. Sure enough, once she felt the soft material between her fingers, she pulled it up and sat upright in bed, grinning childishly at the pair of ugly socks gripped in her hands. They were a bright red, with pictures of animated elves that change their facial expressions every time you touch one of them. Chloe laughed softly to herself, folding the sock's neck slightly to read the hidden message on the fabric.

'Merry Christmas, little shit. I love you unconditionally. - S'

Chloe giggled to herself again, before slipping them onto her freezing feet, and she left her bed, walking with her grip socks on towards her bedroom door to see her brother. It was a tradition the two of them started when Chloe was ten years old. Each of them would get each other very ugly, festive socks, and write for each other a small message inside the sock. It was heartfelt, yet humorous, as the messages were always backhanded compliments, but you knew the sincerity laced within it was true.

She opened the door, and for a moment, she blinked in confusion to find Mattheo standing right there at her door, his hand held in mid-air as though he was about to knock.

"Oh." Mattheo regarded her with an unreadable expression, before he held up a pair of ugly Christmas socks for her to see, with his eyebrows creased in confusion. "What the fuck is this?"

The socks were enchanted to have Mattheo's face imprinted several times on the socks, wearing a Christmas hat, and Chloe bit her lower lip to suppress a laugh.

"Well... you confided in me about being neglected by your family, so I thought I'd include you in something my brother and I do every year." Chloe lifted her foot off the ground to show him her ridiculous socks, and just for a fraction of a second, so quick to arrive and disappear that Chloe thought she was hallucinating, was a flicker of a smile on Mattheo's lips.

"Silas got these for me." She grinned, and Mattheo clenched his jaw.

"But I didn't..."

Chloe smiled at him cautiously. "You don't have to get us anything. But it's nice to be a part of something, no matter how small, isn't it?"

Mattheo gazed into her eyes with a deeper meaning, and Chloe felt herself only slightly start to feel comfortable around him. Only just. There would still be a long way to go for her to feel like she can be relaxed around him. Mattheo nodded stiffly, and slowly slipped on his socks, to which Chloe resisted the urge to giggle at how funny he looks with them on.

"I have to go see my brother, but before I go - I must tell you something." She stepped closer to him, and Mattheo regarded her curiously. She stood on the tips of her toes to whisper into his ear, "Check the socks on the inside."

She walked away quickly to approach her brother, and Mattheo wordlessly crouched down, and twisted the sock he was wearing slightly to see what she meant, and his breath hitched in his throat at the message Chloe left behind for him.

'You no longer have to be alone. - C'

He had no idea how to feel, or how to react. All he could do was gaze at her handwriting, the words written barely being processed in his stubbornly sealed brain.

*~*~*

Christmas went by in a blur. Chloe immersed herself in festive muggle music (behind her parents' backs), indulged in hot chocolate by the fireplace next to the Christmas tree (which she of course forced Mattheo to join her in, and he begrudgingly allowed it), and opened the presents with the family.

Her father was quite fond of her, already having moved on from the scene she made at Malfoy Manor, but her mother was a different story. Chloe long ago accepted that her mother would never spare her any motherly affection. She knew she was loved, but sometimes she questioned it when her mother would behave the way she does towards her.

She was rather excited when she opened up her presents. Silas had given her a lovely emerald pendant in the shape of a panther, which she adorned and immediately clasped onto her neck. Her father got her diamond adorned hair clips for special occasions, which she showed her gratitude for by giving him a tight hug, causing Killian to chuckle sweetly and embrace his daughter. Her mother had gotten her a new designer dress, but it was two sizes larger than Chloe's frame, feeling like a slap to the face that her mother wouldn't know her own daughter's size. Regardless, she accepted the gift and thanked her mother with a hesitant kiss to her cheek. The woman simply sniffed disapprovingly and looked the other way, and no one seemed to notice Mattheo's thunderous glare at Evangeline.

Following Christmas, Pansy had sent an owl to Chloe, asking her to join their friends for brunch at her place, to which Chloe automatically accept. She had no right to be furious with Pansy anyway. Her anger was more towards Theodore and how he can't keep his stupid lips and hands to himself. Chloe arrived Pansy's mansion as per the invite, and the moment she stepped inside, she could hear Enzo's obnoxiously loud voice, causing the girl to instantly smile and shake her head.

"Hello, guys." She greeted them nonchalantly when she entered the room, and Enzo immediately snapped his gaze towards her and broke out into a massive grin.

"There she is! The legend herself!" He yelled ecstatically, waving her over.

Draco nudged Enzo discreetly, warning him of something, but Enzo didn't bother taking the hint. "I was too shit-faced to notice, but I heard you made quite the splash at the Malfoys' Ball."

Chloe's face reddened in embarrassment as she sat herself down next to Enzo and Draco groaned. "You idiot. We agreed not to make a big deal out of this!"

"But it's so wicked!" Enzo interjected. "Chloe, you're my role model - seriously."

Chloe bumped her foot against Enzo's under the table and smiled softly, leaning into him slightly, out of instinct, and he subconsciously wrapped his arm around her shoulders, reeling her in closer and kissing her temple. "Boomers are so dramatic anyway."

Theodore's gaze was piercing her face, but Chloe acted as though he didn't exist, especially when Pansy was sat right next to him. Of course, it only hurt Chloe even deeper, but what was she supposed to do? Pansy pouted, and kicked Chloe's shin under the table.

"We haven't had time for just the two of us in a long time, Chlo." Pansy whined, and Chloe smiled drily.

"Maybe it's because you're always glued to Theo's ass, Pans." Chloe winked, and Draco choked on his drink, while Enzo laughed.

Pansy shrugged, her hand reaching to untangle a curl in his hair, and Theo shifted uncomfortably next to her, his intense gaze still focused on Chloe, who side-eyed Draco knowingly.

"Yes, but it's not like Theo's my boyfriend." Pansy rolled her eyes. "I don't need to spend so much time with him when I got you, Chlo."

Chloe blew her a kiss before lifting her teacup off the brunch table. "Let's make time for us when we get back to Hogwarts, then."

It was taking everything in her not to shove Pansy off the chair and sit herself next to Theo, and kiss him on the lips right in front of everyone. If he wasn't her boyfriend, then why was he still claimed as hers? It was infuriating beyond comprehension, and she was starting to lose herself over the pent up anger bottling up inside of her. She couldn't even expose herself, in fear of losing her best friends.

It was torturous, and in a way, she indirectly felt for Lyra. The Malfoy twin sister was achingly obsessed with Lorenzo Berkshire, and although their situations were slightly different, it was still a form of torturous feelings being denied. But what triggered Chloe so violently in her heart was that she knew Theo craved her as much as she craved him.

So why in God's name did he constantly push that away and oblige to Pansy's indirect feelings for him?

Chloe only realised she was clutching the teacup so tight in her hands when she felt Enzo gently taking it out of her grip, without uttering a word. She wasn't sure what he was thinking, but was grateful for him stepping in before she crushed the dainty china in her hand and injured herself.

"Who's hosting the New Years Eve party this year again?" Pansy asked casually, and Theo grunted next to her, leaning back in his seat.

"Silas, isn't it?" He asked, looking at Chloe for confirmation, who shrugged nonchalantly and nodded.

"See you guys soon at my place before we get hauled back on the Hogwarts Express." She winked, her mind recalling Mattheo's offer of helping her out, and Chloe couldn't get it out of her head in that moment, especially when she watched Pansy fiddle with Theo's sweater's sleeve adoringly.

She knew she needed Mattheo's help. She just wasn't sure if it would come back to bite her in the ass.

*~*~*

The moment Chloe got back home from brunch, she hurried to Mattheo's guest bedroom, and she shoved the door open without knocking. Mattheo had his back turned to her, as he gazed out through the window and watching it snow outside. Chloe barged in rather rudely, but it was out of urgency more than anything else, really. She watched him quietly as he didn't turn his head to look at her.

"I could've been naked, you know." His voice was rather neutral, but she could tell he was being humorous, and Chloe bit her lip anxiously.

"Turns out I do need your help." She admitted sheepishly.

Chloe couldn't see it, but Mattheo smirked to himself, his eyes still set on admiring the way the snowflakes piled up on the windowsill from the outer-lining of the house. "Of course you do."

"Are you going to help?" She asked him impatiently, causing him to finally turn around to face her. Chloe briefly eyed the way his strong arms fit into that tight black sweatshirt he was wearing, and she gulped nervously.

"Depends on what you need help with, Croft." He spoke in such a sultry, deep voice, it only seemed to amplify her nerves.

Chloe played with the sleeves of her expensive wool-knit sweater, and she sighed solemnly. "I want Theodore Nott all to myself, but he's been claimed by the Parkinson family to marry Pansy someday."

Mattheo's brows instantly furrowed in disbelief, and Chloe rolled her eyes. "I know. It sounds ludicrous."

"And does Pansy want him?" He asked her curiously, and Chloe nodded.

"She says she doesn't, but her body language suggests otherwise." Chloe replied, and Mattheo nodded, taking a small step towards her.

"Believe me, Croft." He smirked at her. "By the time we're done here, you'll have Theodore Nott on his knees begging for you."

Chloe looked up at him, her neck tilting back slightly as he towered over her once he was standing right in front of her. "And what do you want in return, Riddle?"

Mattheo quirked a brow up at her, impressed by her deducing his intentions.

"Surely you wouldn't be helping me out, out of the goodness of your tainted heart." Chloe clenched her jaw nervously, and her breath hitched in her throat when Mattheo lifted his hand up to tuck away a fallen strand of her behind her ear.

"I'll get you Theodore Nott, and you'll get me Lyra Malfoy." He proposed the deal to her, looking directly into her widened grey eyes, and he smiled coldly.

"Do we have a deal, Croft?" He asked her softly, and Chloe gulped nervously.

"Draco would never let that happen." She whispered hesitantly, only causing Mattheo to smirk at her amusedly.

"That just makes it all the more exciting to achieve." He replied daringly, and Chloe's mind drifted to how Draco would feel about her conspiring with the Dark Lord's son to get his twin sister all for Mattheo.

He'd never forgive her for such an atrocity ... but Chloe's heart was so hell bent on getting Theodore, and she was so tired of being heartbroken every time she spent time with her friends. She needed Mattheo's help. Perhaps there could be a loophole somewhere, where she gets what she wants, without betraying Draco.

"Deal." She sealed her fate, just as Mattheo smiled in accomplishment.

Something told her that this would not bode well for her, but she was adamant on proving that voice in her head wrong.

Perhaps Mattheo Riddle would be the best ally she could ever land her hands on.

A/N: I just CAN'T WAIT for Chloe and Mattheo to start conspiring to get what they want. 🤭 This is going to be very exciting, and I'm just hoping all of you enjoy what is coming!

Things are finally going the way I want them to with this plot, and I'm so happy to see my vision for this story finally coming together!

Thank you all so much for reading, and I hope to see you soon with a new chapter with way more Chloe x Slytherin Boys content.

The next chapter is definitely going to have a lot of Chloe x Enzo, Chloe x Mattheo, and Chloe x Theo. You've all been getting a lot of Chloe x Draco recently, so it's time to let the other boys shine a bit more. 🤭

See you soon! 💕 I hope you're all doing great! Message me on my wall if you'd like to chat with me via discord. ☺️

- lucidreamshade