Cigarettes [Mattheo Riddle]

ten

[NOTE: please make sure you all stay up to date with my conversations board! i announce new chapter's coming out and stuff on there!]

blaire awoke with a soft start. the honey-coloured sun beamed through ravenclaw tower's windows and caressed her skin. her eyes adjusted gradually, as sunspots danced carelessly around the blue walls.

luna was already awake, and sketching in her bed. blaire sat up and put on her regular robes. she pulled on her short skirt and knee length socks. luna bid her good morning as she put on her shoes and left the dormitory.

entering the great hall, blaire sat beside cho - and an unfamiliar face.

"hello, who are you?" blaire asked, taking two pieces of toast and putting some butter on them.

"oh, hi, my name's willow. willow stonewell." the girl smiled. she had wavy brown hair which was chest-length, and big brown eyes what seemed underwhelming and comforting.

"lovely to meet you! your name sounds beautiful." blaire replied, taking a bite of her toast. she didn't say her name, because knowing cho, willow had already been told it.

"thank you! you're both so lovely. i expect luna is like this too?" willow asked, raising a spoonful of her own breakfast, porridge, to her plump, rosy lips.

"oh, luna is the nicest out of the whole school." cho chimed in.

"so, blaire. blaire lestrange. i've heard about your family." willow declared, turning her elegant body towards blaire.

"yes." blaire slurred her words tiredly. she was bored of hearing the same phrase repeatedly.

"and, is it true?"

"that i am from one of the many dark pureblood families, and my father is a devoted death eater and my mother- well, nobody knows anything of her. but, yes it is all true."

"you- you aren't like them, are you?" willow asked, looking terrified.

blaire stared blankly. she was offended that this supposedly kind girl actually thought she might be a death eater.

"no." blaire blinked.

"i'm sorry. i went to far. of course you aren't, how could i be so stupid." willow murmured self-consciously.
*

classes began, and blaire sat in her usual seat in potions class.

"morning." mattheo said roughly, as he measured some wolfsbane.
"hello. about yesterday-" blaire started.
"it'll never happen again."
"what, the thing that happened in the bathroom?"
"no, no. not that." he laughed.
"what then?"
"pansy."
"oh."

"she'll never bother you, not on my watch. i think she got the message."
"what did you do, love?"
"only i call you love. not the other way round."
"sorry."
"why the fuck are you apologising?"
"so i can call you anything?"
"if that pleases you."
"okay, um, dickhead."
"you're immature."
"you just proved you are a dickhead."
"blaire?"
"yes?"
"stay away from me for a few days? it's just, it isn't safe."

"why?" her blood went cold. "is it your father?"

"no." mattheo muttered deeply, as he hated himself for lying to blaire.

the previous night.
[mattheo p.o.v] [trigger warning: mattheo's parents hurt/torture him, it's really quite sad.]

"father, i don't want to be involved with this. i am not okay with this." mattheo stubbornly said, as he sat at the end of the long mahogany table in that dim dining room. the traces of blood and pain stained the dark walls.