𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭, ᵐᵃᵗᵗʰᵉᵒ ʳⁱᵈᵈˡᵉ

chapter 2

Charlotte hated potions. it used to be her favorite class, a time to gossip with Pansy and do her late Charms homework, but now, with Mattheo as her new partner, it would be unbearable. she could tell, by his prestigious posture and his neatly folded hands, that he would want things done perfectly, and charlotte, well charlotte was more interested in winging it, doing what felt right. this was definitely not going to go good.

as snape announces the potion their brewing today, charlottes stomach drops. drought of the living dead. why couldn't it be some stupid easy potion like dreamless sleep for once? with an agitated sigh, she turns toward mattheo.
"the fuck's your problem?" he asked, irritably.
"you."

after a few seconds of glaring at eachother, mattheo seemed to tire of bickering.
"i'll get the ingredients, you prep the cauldron." he stated, before walking off.
charlotte whips her head over to where pansy is working with her new partner, Luna Lovegood. god, charlotte would kill for a good partner like Luna right now. Eerily fast, Mattheo returned to the table, muscular arms filled with different viles and containers of ingredients. he stared into her eyes heavily, before she ripped her gaze off his, rushing to get the cauldron ready.

after she finished, he slid a piece of wormwood and a cutting board toward her. with a sigh, she lifted the knife to start chopping.

a hand reached out towards hers, stopping her movement. "no." mattheo said, his voice portraying heavy annoyance, "if you chop like that, it won't brew right."
"what would you rather me do?" charlotte inquired sarcastically.
with a angered groan, Mattheo pushed his chair back, and moved to stand behind charlotte's chair. he gripped her hands tightly with his, and went through the motions of cutting the wormwood "correctly".

for a moment, the feel of his hands on hers put charlotte in a daze, before she came to her senses and snapped, "get the hell of me."

mattheo laughed a little before muttering, "no."
he continued to show her how to cut the plant, his hands gripping hers tighter and tighter by the minute, before he suddenly let go. charlotte felt her cheeks go red in embarrassment at the encounter. she went back to slicing the wormwood her way, regardless of the enraged looks mattheo kept sending her way. she didn't care how mad he was, he had no right to tell her what to do. she aggressively chopped until the whole plant was cut into perfect cubes. she shoved the cutting board over to mattheo, making sure it bumped his arm.

"put it in the cauldron, don't give it to me." he said coldly.
with a sigh, she got up and walked to mattheo's side of the table and started to drop the chopped pieces of wormwood into the cauldron. with a plop, her prized possession, a ring her father got her before he was sent to Azkaban, fell into the bubbling hot cauldron. charlotte gasped, and lunged forward to reach into the cauldron to grab it, only to be pulled back by a strong arm.

"what the fuck is wrong with you?" mattheo asked her, clearly appalled by her behavior.
charlotte's lip quivered, despite her best efforts, "my ring fell." tears welled in her eyes, but she willed herself not to cry in front of her nemesis.
"and so you decide to reach into a deadly potion and get it?" he asked, condescendingly.
"my dad gave it to me before he went to Azkaban." she muttered again, a few tears slipping down her cheeks, against her will.
Mattheo sighed loudly before moving towards the cauldron. with his wand, he cast a spell, pulling the ring from the burning hot cauldron.

he threw it towards her end of the table and said, "there, quit crying and mix the fucking potion."
she slid the ring back on her finger, and nodded. she supposed she owed him a favor, so she did what he asked, just this once.