if one of them is dead.

chapter twenty-one.

Draco.

Draco had not seen, nor had he talked to Mattheo since Slughorn's Christmas party. He did get weird looks from multiple people ever since the party.

But the first time he had seen Mattheo again, Mattheo was running his hands through his hair while writing something on a piece of parchment.

Something told Draco that he wasn't stressed because of the parchment in front of him.

But, then again, Draco didn't seem to care. He meant what he said at Slughorn's Christmas party. He knew that Mattheo could have had something to do with Lilith's death, he just didn't know what. And he wanted to figure it out. He didn't want to talk to Severus about it, not only because he was angry with him.

Well, it's not that he was angry with Severus, he was angry with everyone these days. Being under all the stress of being a death eater, with the mission as well, and Lilith's death, he was more angry and stressed at everyone and everything than he had ever been.

Lilith kept him afloat, just like she did the others. Draco needed her now more than ever, and she was gone. She wasn't there to help him through it.

And he knew he was a dick to Mattheo. He would be lying if he said that he didn't regret being a total douche to him at the party.

Even Pansy Parkinson wouldn't talk to him. Which, if he wasn't being honest with himself, kind of hurt. She used to be a little obsessed with sticking with him, and, although she stopped talking to him after Lilith and Cassius Warrington broke up, he would have thought she would have tried to come back to him at some point.

Blaise wasn't talking to him either.

What fun this was.

Draco huffed, putting his book down as he sat in the love seat in the common room. People were sitting all around him as they normally would. Someone, to Draco's surprise, was sitting in Lilith's normal spot.

It wasn't surprising that anyone was sitting there. But it was rather weird that Mattheo hadn't yelled at the person yet. Draco never bothered to remembered the kid's name, so he had no idea who it actually was.

The love seat had been moved to face the rounded table, where Mattheo was sitting. Draco told himself that, no he hadn't sat there because it was facing Mattheo, he had sat there because it was the only place that was open.

Mattheo was running his hands through his hair, but he most definitely not focused on whatever the hell was on the piece of parchment in front of him.

Blaise was sitting a few seat down from him, packing up his things and pausing every few moments to pat down his clothes.

Draco could go over and try to talk to the two, or he could simply just continue on with his book. He opened his book again and started to read the line he was on. He couldn't comprehend what he was reading; it just went through his brain as nothingness.

The book was stupid anyways.

He huffed and tossed the book onto the middle table, and stood up. No one paid attention to him, thankfully. He walked over to the round table, sitting directly across from Mattheo.

He didn't even notice.

Blaise, on the other hand, did.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked.

"Right now," Mattheo grumbled, thinking Blaise was talking to him, "I am wanting my girlfriend back more than ever."

"Not you," Blaise said, glaring at Draco. "I'm talking to the dick who thinks you had something to do with Lilith."

Mattheo finally looked up, and his eyes met Draco. He glared at Draco and looked back down at the parchment, not that he was reading what he had written.

Blaise sighed and dusted off his clothes. "I'm going to find Luna. The tension of killing won't be as high with her," he said, stood up, and left.

Mattheo sighed too, running his hands through his hair again. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to talk."

Mattheo shook his head. "To talk about what? Your conspiracies against me and my girlfriend's murder? Are we going to have that conversation?"

He sounded mad. Well, Draco couldn't blame him, that was for sure.

"Look, about that—"

"Look, Draco, I don't give a fuck that you think I had something to do with what happened to Lilith," Mattheo snapped, putting his hands out in a sort of gesture. "And I don't want to fucking hear it. I've had enough with Snape thinking different things, and taking me into his office more times than I can count to interrogate me more, and others already thinking that I did something, so I don't need you feeding into that. You can't possibly think that I would have done something like that. Not after how much I love her."

"Love is a motivator to kill."

Mattheo scoffed and crumbled up the piece of parchment, standing up. He shook his head as he started to walk away from Draco.

"You are unbelievable."

"Mattheo, I didn't mean that."

"Yes you fucking did."

Draco stood and shouted after Mattheo. They were already drawing attention, so it didn't surprise him when everyone was already looking and listening to them.

"She kept secrets from us all, Mattheo. Don't pretend that she told you as much as you told her."