[Eng] Deathly Desire (Mattheo Riddle)

01

The first of September came quicker than Liz would have liked. Together with Luna and her father, they had organised everything for school, but it still felt surreal. Hogwarts was open again and the school year would start as if nothing had happened.

As if Liz hadn't been living with the Dark Lord's son for weeks.
As if her aunt and foster mother hadn't tried to kill her.
As if Mattheo hadn't just disappeared off the face of the earth.

"Are you okay?" Luna stepped into her field of vision and snapped Liz out of her confusing thoughts.

"Sure," she smiled encouragingly, although she felt anything but cheerful. "It's just weird that no one knows what happened to the Djinn." That had been her excuse for the last few days. She would be nervous about lying. As if she hadn't been lying her whole life.

She didn't enjoy lying to Luna, but Liz needed to figure out for herself what the past summer meant to her before she could be truly honest.

She grabbed one of Luna's suitcases and lifted it for the train attendant, who slid the luggage into one of the storage compartments.

Liz herself only had a tiny carry-on suitcase that contained almost exclusively school supplies. Once they were at Hogwarts, she would ask Professor Flitwick if there were any second-hand uniforms left, as she only had the one she had spent most of the summer in. Mr Lovegood had done his best when he had tried to save what could be saved, but somewhere even magic had its limits.

Out of the corner of her eye, Liz spotted a sea of copper-red. One by one, the Weasleys stepped through the barrier to Platform 9 3/4. As always, the dark hair of the almost-Weasley stood out from the group. Harry Potter.

Liz had never really bothered to find out anything about the 'Chosen One' - everything she knew came from Ginny.

The youngest redhead spotted the two girls in the crowd and immediately came over to them. "If you keep me in the dark for that long again, I swear I won't forgive you for the rest of my life!" she hissed angrily. "Would it have killed you to maybe send us an owl in between?" she snapped at Liz as she scowled at everyone who came within earshot.

Liz had only sent owls to Luna and Ginny from St Mungo's. Looking back, that really wasn't cool of her, but the risk of Bellatrix intercepting a letter had just been too high.

She felt guilty every time one of her two friends reminded Liz how worried they had been. Fortunately, the girls weren't particularly vindictive.

Ginny actually only scolded Liz for a few minutes before a shrill whistle interrupted her. The train was getting ready to leave.

The three of them looked for a free compartment and as soon as they were seated, Ginny started a new topic. The holiday in Egypt.

It was the Weasleys' first real holiday and had only been possible because Mr Weasley had won a nice sum of money in a raffle. Liz preferred to keep quiet when it came to money.

She didn't have a fortune like the Malfoys, but she was the proud owner of a safe deposit box at Gringots. The money her grandparents had put aside for her would get Liz through school without the support of the Lestranges or Malfoys - or any other branch of the family. And if she wasn't mistaken, she was the official heir to the Blacks and maybe even the Lestranges.

Bellatrix wasn't exactly someone who worried about retirement planning and her husband Rodolphus liked to act rich and important, but the current state of the Lestrange estate was a good indicator of his financial abilities.

Liz was still wondering whether anyone could really be crazy enough to buy the run-down property from her when the train came to a jerking halt.

"Are we there yet?" asked Ginny, who had lost track of time with all her stories of mummies and curses.