The Villain's Son ~ Mattheo Riddle

Chapter 27

The next morning when I woke up all the memories of the night before flooded back. With the memories the worries and doubts also returned. I was hoping I could talk to Mattheo today. Or at least catch a glimpse of him. Seeing him would hopefully help me to  regain my trust and make the doubts disappear. Unfortunately it could also turn the other way around.
I finished my morning routine and walked out of my dorm to the common room. Yesterday me and my friends had decided that we weren't going to walk through the halls alone anymore, so I was waiting for them in the common room instead of the great hall. There were more people waiting and others were talking. Since I was quite bored due to the waiting, my ears catched the words of sixth year students who were having a conversation behind me.

"They're surely going to kick the Riddle boy out now, right? I mean, he is the only one who could have done it."

"If I'm being honest I wouldn't be so sure about that. Professor Dumbledore has done many what are considered to be  weird things before. Besides that, he always tries to see good in everything."

"But this is about our safety! He would have to put that first. Even if it will make his 'experiment' with Mattheo fail."

"I don't think tha-"

"Hey Gia! Good morning." Cho greeted.

With that she also pulled my attention away from the other conversation that I was eavesdropping. It probably was for the better anyways since it was only making my worries grow. Worries for my friends and all the other students and worries about Mattheo. 

"Good morning girls." I gave them both a warm smile.

"Shall we go downstairs?"

And so we went.

The closer we got to the big hall, the louder the yelling of students became. What was going on?

"Should we go in?" Cho asked unsure.

"Yes." Athena stated.

By her 'command' we walked through the big doors that separated the peaceful hallway from the big hall. As soon as we entered the room we could see what the fuss was about. In the middle of the room, between the Griffyndor and Hufflepuff table, there was a big crowd around two fighting boys. You could hear yelling coming from nearly everyone. Some were cheering and some were trying to stop the fight. The one sided audience made it clear who was fighting; the one and only Mattheo Riddle.

"Get him Dean!"
"Someone stop this before he gets killed!"
"Safe us from him Dean!"
"Left hook!"
"Take him away!"

I knew exactly why this fight was going on. The students were afraid, either by Mattheo or his dad. So they had to take it out on something, or in this case someone. Even though I still wondered where Mattheo had been yesterday, at the moment I wished he'd stayed away. Not because I think he's the danger, I'm still not sure about that, I wished it for his own safety. However, wishes weren't going to help at the moment so I had to do something else.
Without much thought I wormed my way into the crowd, finding little gaps to get closer to the boys. I could hear my friends behind me telling me to stop whatever I was planning on doing. Unfortunately for them I was too focused on my 'mission'. After much squeezing and bumping into people I managed to make my way to the inside of the circle formed by the crowd. From here I could really see what was going on. Mattheo was on top of Dean Thomas, beating the shit out of him. Dean somehow managed to get out of the strong grip and punched Mattheo on his nose. I, along with anyone else could see it was a hard punch, but Mattheo seemed unfazed. It was like he was made of steel. Maybe it wasn't as bad as it seemed but sooner or later it would end bad, really bad.
With big steps I dared to stand between the boys. From Mattheo's face could read he wasn't pleased with my actions, but he didn't continue the fight.

"Get out of the way." He said in a low, venomous voice.

His tone shocked me. It was like everything we had talked about didn't matter anymore. Like he didn't even know me. Mixed with his bloody uniform, face and knuckles it was a scary picture, I could deny that. But no words were going to let me continue this bullshit that was going on. I did not want Mattheo to get in trouble because of all the hate he was receiving from the students.

"Gianna go a-" He started again when I didn't move.

"Shut up." I said.

I walked to him, grabbed his upper arm and dragged him along with me. Knowing how strong he was, I knew it would fail. I expected him to drag me away instead or for him to stay in the same place. Basically I was only doing it as a sign that he needed to stop.
Surprisingly he let me drag him along. Surprisingly he didn't say anything, not even in his emotionless voice. And surprisingly the crowd let us through.

As fast as my and Mattheo's feet could walk I brought us out the great hall, into one of the boys washrooms , knowing there wouldn't be anyone with all this going on. Mattheo stood apathetically in the middle of the washroom whilst I held a paper towel under the tap. I made Mattheo stand in front of me so I could clean his face and sit on the vanity at the same time.

As I brought up my hand to clean his face, Mattheo opened his mouth.

"What are you doing?"

His voice laced emotion, but it wasn't mean anymore.

"Cleaning you up."

"I can do that myself."

"I know, but now you won't." I argued.

Mattheo decided to keep quiet after that and let me do my thing. Because I was so close up to him I could really see the damage Dean had done. Mattheo's nose was still bleeding from the punch, he also had a cut on his jaw. Furthermore his bruises were already turning black and blue and his knuckles were completely red, covered in blood. If I'm being honest, the blood made him look really hot. On the other hand it also concerned me, especially when I saw how unhealthy he actually looked. There were dark circles under his eyes, and I knew they weren't bruises. He was tired, very tired. Even though he hadn't spoken a word and his eyes held no emotion, you could tell. It seemed like every form of energy was sucked out of him.  I felt sorry, because I knew something was going on. I didn't know what, but I just hope it wasn't anything related to the morsmordre.

"What?" Mattheo asked out of nowhere.

My cheeks turned red knowing I was caught staring.

"N-nothing." I stuttered shyly.

It was silent again. I focussed on cleaning up Mattheo again and Mattheo was doing...Mattheo stuff. It had become a bit awkward but I tried to push that feeling away.

"Do you think it was me?" He asked.

"Truthfully I don't know. I'm not accusing you, but I can't close the door." I answered honestly.

Mattheo nodded, which I took as a sign that he accepted my answer.

"Did you? Or do you have anything to do with it?" I asked shyly.

I knew he wouldn't want me to ask it, since it made it seem like I was accusing him. Nevertheless I had too. For my own safety, for my friends safety, for the schools safety.

Mattheo scoffed and stepped away from me.

"You don't accuse me, you say?"

Humorlessly he laughed before walking further and further away until he wasn't standing in the room anymore.

I sighed in disappointment.

This was exactly the reason why I had been so careful all these time. But I couldn't keep turning around the fact that he was the son of a bloodthirsty psychotic wizard. I could imagine that it was horrible for Mattheo, but it wasn't weird that I was looking out for myself. Still I felt bad about him walking away. Maybe I had been the only person on his side, and now he had nobody. I still hope that he didn't  do it, but I stand by the fact that it could have been him. Technically everybody could have done it, and the chance of him being it was just a bit bigger.

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1,25 reads!!!! I'm sooo happy and grateful. I hope you like this chapter and enjoy the story so far. My question is whether I should make a playlist for this book or not, would you like it??

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