War Of Hearts | Mattheo Riddle

Chapter Three; 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘇𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸...𝗮 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽

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Jadwiga had quickly gotten to work on her potion of Living Death. She didn't want the liquid luck potion, she just wanted to test her expertise in potions. She was slightly adept in potion making, it was one of her favourite subjects, but she was rather baffled.

On her table was herself and a Slytherin boy. He was tall, at least taller than her, and his face was soft. His dark eyes were scrunched in confusion as he continued to try and cut the bean that they were supposed to. Jadwiga gave up and put the flat side of the blade onto the bean, pressing down with a bit of force. When some juice came out, she grinned and laughed softly to herself, her eyes wide as she continued to follow the recipe.

"How on earth did you do that, Granger?" The Slytherin asked, his brown hair rather dishevelled from his exasperated hands grasping it multiple times.

"I crushed it." She replied, her voice airy due to her still feeling rather happy about her accomplishment. She was certainly having an easier time than the rest of the class. "When i realised that cutting the bean was near impossible, the simplest explanation came to my mind. It would be easier to squish it." Jadwiga took her eyes off of the potion for a moment, glancing at the Slytherin boy. She then, not really thinking about it, grabbed his knife and crushed his bean, smiling softly as she did so. "Now you can continue."

Jadwiga quickly returned to her potion, working away at the rest of the recipe. It was smooth sailing from there, maybe a few slight knots in the way from where things didn't seem to go as she'd hoped, but in the end, she got a better result than some. Seamus Finnigan's potion exploded, a girl from Gryffindor's had turned into some green slime that had a mind of its own, a Slytherin's had turned his ladle to liquid...yes, Jadwiga was doing better than the others.

"Lorenzo." The boy on her table suddenly said and she frowned, acknowledging the name but not looking at him. "My friends call me Enzo for short."

"Lorenzo, i suggest you focus on your potion." Jadwiga said sternly, her blue eyes glued to her cauldron.

"Did you really smell nothing in the amortentia potion?" Her breath hitched, her eyes twitched and her lips curled in annoyance. She refused to answer, hoping if she ignored him long enough, her problem would be fixed. "So you did smell something." Jadwiga huffed and turned, her glare was able to freeze Lorenzo where he stood.

"No," the girl stressed out, "I smelt nothing. If you wish for that potion to stay intact and not go boom in your face like Seamus' had done, i suggest you focus. Don't stick your nose into trivial matters that do not concern you."

"You speak funny." Lorenzo commented, slightly mumbling, as he continued to work on his potion. He wasn't sure what compelled him to speak to Jadwiga, he knew she was sort of a loner, but he couldn't help it. She was smart and he wanted to pass potions, why not exploit the opportunity and gain a semi-friend out of it? "It's as though you hope to piss people off so they don't talk to you."

"Excuse me?" Jadwiga said, hoping Lorenzo was just joking. He was serious. "You're a complete buffoon." She scowled, shaking her head. Slytherin's were all the same. Just as Jadwiga was about to place the last ingredient in her potion, Lorenzo spoke up once more.

"I'm just sayin' it how it is." He shrugged his shoulders, his expression showing he meant no ill intention or to make a mockery of Jadwiga. It made her guard slightly let up. "You're practically friendless. Everyone makes fun of you behind your back-"

"I know." Jadwiga sighed woefully, knowing what those at Hogwarts thought of her. They spoke about her like they spoke about Luna Lovegood. Although, from the whispers she hears, Jadwiga is given more rude names than anyone would ever call the younger Ravenclaw. "That's the way of world, Lorenzo. One gets used to the treatment received, and when that happens, their lives won't be the same."

"How so?" He asked. Lorenzo was intruiged, he'd never spoken to Jadwiga before. But he felt there was more to the girl than a nerdy Ravenclaw that spoke with smart words that were still insults to some.

"Once someone, generally a victim to "harmless" namecalling, bullying and any other mockery that may befall them, gets used to such treatment then they believe that is how they'll be treated by everyone." Her words sounded like a riddle to Lorenzo, but he still understood what she meant and he knew he felt sorry for her. He would hate it. He imagined walking through the halls of Hogwarts, constantly looking over his shoulder and keeping an ear out for any instances where someone would be whispering about you, thinking they all were.

"Do you struggle with that?" He asked her, putting in his last ingredient. "The treatment of others, i mean? Are you used to it?"

"Of course i am." She spat, frustrated but not at Lorenzo. The sigh that escaped her lips was a desperate yet shallow one. She didn't want to speak of it anymore, she didn't want to say too much about herself or her precious little feelings. But he was there. Lorenzo was offering a listening ear and she never really had that. She was intoxicated with the feeling of being able to trust someone, for he seemed trustworthy. "Thanks to your friends and every other damn student at this school." Her words were now venomous, like spitballs of acid rolling off her tongue. It wasn't elegant, however, it was full of hatred. She was being stupid, she was letting her guard down.

"I'm-"

"Don't apologise. If you do so now, i'd only despise you more." Her face relaxed and put on a cold emotional facade as she roled up her sleeves before tucking some loose strands of hair behind her ears. Jadwiga's eyes, the blue storm that they were, now refused to look in Lorenzo's direction. That's the way her world worked.

~

Jadwiga had tucked herself into the library. Her hair was loosely falling down her back instead of being pulled into a bun and her legs were crossed beneath her on the seat she sat. She was quiet.

Jadwiga wrapped her knitted cardigan around her body tighter, trying to stave off the cold atmosphere of the library. She didn't like the cold, but the solemn feeling of the room lined with hundreds of books felt special to her. It was a place she could be alone, away from prying or judging eyes. And so, as she read up on a couple of her classes, she missed the hushed chatter from the next colomn over.

When she did hear a scuffle of feet, Jadwiga peeled her eyes away from the book for a moment before shaking her head and looking at the book once more. She was fine, no one was there.

The book, you see, was Jadwiga's escape. She could read for a whole day, encased within the worlds people create on paper, but she couldn't quite do so with Divination. She was intruiged about the subject, sure, but the book was mere preparation. It was still easy to get wrapped up in reading it, however.

She got that wrapped up in the book that when the faint ringing of the grandfather clock within the library rang out twelve times, Jadwiga raised her brows. How stupid she was. It was midnight, way past her curfew, and she had to practically sprint to the other end of the castle, or what felt like it.

She scowled to herself and stood, stretching out her stiff bones with satisfying cracks. Without much thought, Jadwiga scurried to pack away her books and sling her book bag over her shoulder, grunting at the weight of the bag. Her legs worked quickly, pumping at a fast-paced walk to get out of the library before the librarian could scold her, but a loud thump made her stop in her tracks.

She remembered watching a couple horror movies over the summer and how in almost every one, someone was dumb enough to call out to the strange noise.

"I won't be imbecilic." She muttered, shaking her head and glancing in the direction the sound came from before sighing and turning. If there was a murderer, they could at least kill her once she lied in her comfy bed. Jadwiga continued to walk until her fingers softly pushed the library door open, closing it behind herself as she then walked on, careful of any prefects that may still roam.

She hoped it would be a smooth journey back.

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a/n

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