Mind Over Matter || Mattheo Riddle

E S S A Y

When Theodore and Mattheo walk into the guys' dorm, Draco and I are sitting on his bed while Lorenzo admires his newly painted nails.

I feel suddenly embarrassed being in here when Mattheo walks past me to the bathroom of his dorm.

But then, suddenly, I remember that I wasn't the one who came here. Draco and Lorenzo brought me here.

"What are you doing?" Theodore asks me as I paint Draco's last finger with top coat. He walks over to us, looking at his friend's hand.

"Jules painted our nails, look how cool!" Lorenzo says as he throws his hand in front of Theo's face. "The colour of the blood on your face would be so nice on Jules' nails, do we have a colour like that?"

Lorenzo quickly starts looking through the bin of nail polish the guys had in their room. It surprisingly has a lot of colours.

Theodore sits on the bed beside Draco, avoiding eye contact with me.

"Are you okay?" I ask quietly. He nods, but still doesn't look at me. I hear my name being called from the bathroom.

I don't want to, but I stand up and walk to the bathroom door. When I get to it, Mattheo opens the door and I walk into the bathroom with him.

"I know you're upset. You have every right to be." He starts, looking at me. His face is bloody and he has a black eye. "But I'm in so much pain, please help me."

I didn't want to. At all.

I wanted to tell him to fuck himself, that he wasn't someone who deserved my time of day.

But I couldn't.

I take my wand out of my back pocket and bring it to gently run along the side of his face. I mutter a silent spell, and the relief on Riddle's face is instant.

"I'm sorry, Thatcher."

Riddle's eyes are shut. There's a slight twitch in the side of his mouth. I notice his eyebrow twitches at the same time.

He's not used to apologizing.

I tuck my wand back into my pocket and he opens his eyes. He expects a response from me, but he's not going to get one.

When I step out of the bathroom, the three boys around the bed look at me. "I'm gonna go to my dorm. I need to work on my essay." I could have sworn I saw Theodore's lips resist a smile. "I'll see you guys later."

•••

When I walk into my dorm, I see a rolled parchment on top of my bed. It's held together with a thin green ribbon.

When I walk over to it, I notice a small note beside it.

I felt bad about you missing out on writing your essay for me.

Especially since I'm an ass.

Forgive me, please.

- MTR

When I unwrap the rolled piece of parchment, I see that Mattheo has completely written my essay for me.

And he copied my hand writing almost exactly.

I feel a little bit like shit about how I acted when Mattheo apologized earlier.

I feel like I need to immediately tell him that I'm sorry-even though I really shouldn't be-and it's overwhelming.

I turn and walk to the door of my dorm. When I open it, Mattheo's standing on the other side of it. I hadn't thought about what I was going to say, so I don't know what to say to him.

"I was going to knock, but I felt a bit like a dick being here." He says quickly.

I stand there for a minute, just staring at him. I can't think of what to say.

"Look," he starts, and I breathe for the first time since I opened the door. "I understand what I did. I was a dick. I shouldn't have done or said anything I did." I can tell how nervous he is. "You can hate me if you want, that's fine. I just... I have to go home tomorrow for the break. I hope to Merlin you'll still come with me, and I don't want you to hate me."

He lets out a deep breath, not taking his eyes away from mine. "Please don't hate me."

"I don't hate you, Mattheo." His face relaxes when I say his name.

*MATTHEO*

I want nothing more than to hug the shit out of Julia right now.

When she says my name it's like I'm being blessed by a million fireflies. My name sounds so right on her lips.

"You'll still come home with me tomorrow?" I ask stupidly.

She's going to say no. She shouldn't come with me.

When she opens her mouth to respond, I don't want her to. I just want to believe-for one more minute-that things can be like this for the rest of my life. I don't want our arrangement to be over.

"Yeah, of course. Why wouldn't I?"

That was not what I was expecting.

I shrug, not knowing what else to do.

"Thank you, Thatcher." I should have called her Jules, but I think that might be slightly more overwhelming. "Meet me at the front doors of the school at nine tomorrow, okay?"

She simply nods.

She looks perfect.

I leave before either of us can say anything else. I could hear her wanting to say my name, but I don't turn around. She needs time to think about what she wants to say to me, and it's a long ride home tomorrow.