Fighting Fate // Mattheo Riddle ♣️

Chapter Thirty-One - Friendship

Word Count: 3,582.

Warnings: None. 

BY ORDER OF THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC

Dolores Jane Umbridge (High Inquisitor) has replaced Albus Dumbledore as Head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-eight.

Signed: Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister for Magic

"He just vanished?" Theo asked, leaning across the table of the library.

I placed the newest addition to Umbridge's powers down on the table, attempting to return to my study of the book in front of me.

OWL's were fast approaching, leading all of us to the library to study. We had started out as to revise the Potion's syllabus but that hadn't lasted long, the conversation quickly falling into the events of Dumbledore's escape last night.

"In a puff of smoke," Draco answered.

"Phoenix ash actually," I corrected the blonde, my quill moving aggressively against the parchment I was taking notes on.

"I thought you couldn't disapperate in Hogwarts," Blaise added.

"There are ways around it," Mattheo told him, head leaning against his hand as he tried to read the page.

Theo, Draco, Blaise and Pansy fell into a whispering conversation, but I had turned my attention to my boyfriend.

"Are you still pissed at me?" I asked him, placing a gentle hand on his arm.

He sighed, placing his hand over mine and taking it into his hold, rubbing a thumb against my skin. "I was never pissed at you," he told me. "I just... I don't want to lose you." His voice broke as he spoke, eyes moving up to look at me.

"Whether that's losing you to my father or that voice in your head. Or if it is – " he cut himself off, closing his eyes for a moment. "Even if that's losing you all together, and I know that if you keep ignoring or deflecting these problems with your memory, that things won't go well. You know it too."

I took a breath, turning his hand over and opening his palm. I began to run circles around it with my thumb.

"If I think about the fact that there's a voice in my head that is capable of... taking over," I paused, letting out a shaking breath as my stomach knotted. "It scares the shit out of me. That I could be someone else, something else and no one would notice."

"I would notice," Riddle told my firmly, stopping my movements and clasping my hand tightly. "We all would." Mattheo then gestured his head towards the others who were still engaged in what seemed to be becoming a rather joyful conversation.

Riddle's hand kept a firm grip on mine. "You need to talk to me about it, alright? No... holding back. No secrets."

I nodded slowly, leaning forward so that our foreheads now rest against each other. "Okay," I replied.

"What the fuck are you two doing?" Pansy asked, directing the question towards the two of us.

We turned our heads, finding the four of them facing us. "Are you like doing some Kumbaya shit?" Blaise asked.

Theo turned to him. "What's Kumbaya?"

"Is that like some sex thing?" Pansy asked.

Draco shook his head, looking back down to his Potion's book he had opened. "Can we get back to Potion's?" he asked. "I still don't know the difference between a bezoar stone and a salamander eye."