𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭, ᵐᵃᵗᵗʰᵉᵒ ʳⁱᵈᵈˡᵉ

chapter 10- mattheo

as mattheo looked around the crowd of people surrounding the Slytherin quidditch team, he couldn't help but wonder where charlotte was. she had promised him the day before his match that she would come to the after party, but now she was nowhere to be found. his brow wrinkled in worry, but there was no chance something bad had happened to her, right? he assured himself that he was being dramatic, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad had happened to charlotte.
"i gotta do something real quick," he muttered to his teammate, Adrien Pucey, before walking out of the slytherin common room. he had no idea where charlotte could be, but he would search the whole castle if he had to. she was his bestfriend, the only girl he truly liked, or maybe even loved.
he didn't know what could be holding her up
for so long, but he was gonna find out.

he walked the halls, searching for her. he turned the corner to look around the east wing of the school, when all of a sudden he saw something in the distance.
"charlotte?" he called out, unsure of what to do.
"is that you?" he asked as he got closer.

charlotte was in front of him, laying on the ground, unconscious. he rushed over to her and lifted her into his lap to identify her injuries. she had a gash on her forehead, which seemed to have bled down her face, covering her in the sticky red liquid. even like this, covered and blood and unconscious, she was still the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. sometimes, he would wonder if he would ever meet someone who he thought was more beautiful than her. he had a high suspicion he wouldn't.

her head wound seemed to be the only one she had, so he carefully lifted her bridal  style into his arms, and turned to walk her to the hospital wing. she rolled over at some point during the walk there, and nestled into her chest, and he was once again reminded of how cold her body was. for once, this made him genuinely worry.
how much had she actually bled? was the wound infected? it seemed to be killing him that he had so little awareness and control over the situation. it was bad enough that charlotte was injured, but it was even worse that mattheo had no idea what was going on or how to help her. finally, he rounded the corner and came face to face with the hospital wing doors. he burst inside, not caring about disturbing patients or nurses, charlotte was more important.

he set her down on an empty bed before rushing over to madame promfrey. she was currently checking over a kid in his year, but mattheo didn't care.
"you need to take care of charlotte," mattheo said urgently.
"one second, mr. riddle." she replied, using her hand to shoo him away.
"no," mattheo said erratically, "you need to check on her now."

either because she was annoyed with his pestering or genuinely concerned about charlottes condition, Madame Pomfrey followed him over to the bed that charlotte was residing in.
"oh my!" she exclaimed as she took in the sight of charlottes bulging laceration. mattheo was sitting on a chair next to charlottes bed, holding her hand tightly. he didn't know what he would do if charlotte was in actual danger, he barely knew what to do now.

"what's wrong with her?" he asked, watching Pomfrey check her over.
"oh, she'll be fine dear," she said in an odd type of fondness mixed with pity, like she knew something he didn't, "just a little scrape is all, she probably fell unconscious from overexerting herself on the walk back to the castle, you should never walk with an open wound like this."

mattheo felt his shoulders sag in relief. she would be fine. he couldn't believe that instead of celebrating his win again hufflepuff, drinking with his friends, and partying, he was sitting in the hospital wing. he was happy to be there though, he was always happy to be around charlotte, no matter where they were or what they were doing.  he slumped back into his chair and loosened his hold on her hand. he didn't need to give her another injury while she was here.

"how long do you think she'll be out?" he asked, wondering how long it would be before he could talk to his best friend again.
"she'll most likely wake up sometime in the night." Madame Promfrey replied, as she hooked up an IV of some sort of medicine to charlottes left arm, the one he wasn't holding.

"i'm staying," mattheo said, in a tone that conveyed that nothing was gonna get him to change his mind. he thinks sometimes that he got his tones and expressions like that from his father, but then he realized that his father had never given him anything, everything he had was his. just his.
madame pomfrey nodded, just once, and walked off. mattheo was prepared for a night of sleeping in his uncomfortable chair, and that was fine, as long as he could make sure charlotte was okay.
almost as soon as Madame Pomfrey walked away, he heard a whisper of, "mattheo."

he whipped his head around in surprise, coming face to face with charlotte. one of the nurses had cleaned the blood off her face and bandaged her cut, and he was relieved that she looked like his charlotte again.
he smiled lazily at her, "yeah char?"
he watched as she scooted a little to the left and patted the spot next to her, "come lay with me."
mattheo laughed, but got up all the same. he took off his shoes, and climbed into bed with her. he was quite sure she was high off whatever poor quality pain killer pomfrey had given her, but he didn't care. she was still charlotte.
"i love this sweatshirt." charlotte muttered quietly as she curled into mattheos arms.
he laughed a little, happy at the comment, "you can keep it."
charlotte smiled up at him and replied, "okay." before snuggling even closer to him, and closing her eyes once again. once he was sure charlotte was asleep, mattheo allowed his eyes to drift shut, perfectly content.