Fighting Fate // Mattheo Riddle ♣️

Chapter Twenty-Four - The Second Task

Word Count: 2,717. 

Warnings: None. 

The day of the Second Task quickly approached and on the morning of the next stage in the competition, I found myself asleep in bed, a feeling of utter worry settling in the pit of my stomach.

Harry had informed me of the Merpeople's riddle and despite my attempts at trying to unscramble it, I was unable to warn Harry of what might happen later today. It was a simple word game. One that I should be able to solve quite easily, but lately my mind had been so muddled, that anything that needed more than my lowest attention seemed to just be too much for my brain to handle.

My homework was becoming worse, my grades slipping, and I was running out of past material to use repeatedly.

Slowly waking in my bed, I found my fingers reaching for the chain around my neck, twirling the stone in between my thumb and index finger.

Turning on my back, I looked up at the ceiling, sighing. Today was going to be interesting.

ᵜᵜᵜᵜᵜ

"Task number two, what are the predictions?" Pansy asked us as we made our way across Hogwarts towards History of Magic.

"It's going to be underwater," Draco told us, his hands nervously pulling at the end of his sleeves.

"How do you know that?"

"I saw them setting up stand by the Black Lake."

My eyes widened. "I knew it was Merpeople, the Black Lake? That thing is fucking deep. Any of them could drown." I fretted.

"Exactly my worry," Draco replied.

"Oh for fuck's sake, Dumbledore isn't going to let them drown," Blaise put forward. "Is he?"

"I wouldn't put it past the man," Theo spoke up.

Turning away from them, I spotted Mattheo quickly exiting the DADA classroom. Moody watched him leave from the door.

"I'll be late to class. Can you let the Professor know?" I turned to Draco. He followed where my gaze had been.

"Sure. Don't take too long."

"Wait, where are you going?" Theo asked as I began to walk away.

"To talk to Mattheo," I told him honestly.

"So, you're on speaking terms again?"

I shrugged my shoulders, watching him smile softly at me before I turned away and quickly caught up with the brown-eyed Slytherin.

"Mattheo!" I shouted, gaining the boy's attention. He gulped nervously before stopping to let me catch up.

"Hey Black," he greeted.

"Are you alright?" I asked him. "You were acting weird after Moody the other day and I just saw you walking out of his office again."

He nodded. "I just need extensions on a lot of my homework. Things are getting hard to manage."

I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, what's going on?"

He pursed his lips. "I can't tell you."

I took in a breath, dropping my arm. "Mattheo, I thought –"

"No Lyra, I mean I really can't tell you. It's not that I can and I'm choosing not to, it's that I physically can't," he tried to explain.

I shook my head. "Sorry, I've been muddled lately, can you put that plainer?" I asked him, feeling my temple begin to ache.