Bound By Blood.

ch.6~ Shadow.

"Theres another constant in this war, Riddle. Your inability to ever be consistent  It was always your biggest flaw."

Recovered translated correspondents between Order Member Alexandra Brooks, to Death Eater Mattheo Riddle, 2004.

Hogwarts, 1997.

Mattheo.

I stood there, fists clenched at my sides, the last echoes of her words ringing in my ears like an unwelcome bell.

"Remember your place." Why did her voice linger in the air, gnawing at me?

Why the actual fuck did I just do that?

I felt a flush of heat spill across my cheeks, a mix of anger and embarrassment that made me want to lash out.

She may be the only person alive able to say they embarrassed me.

How dare she?

Deep down, I felt a cold dread settle in my gut.

Why did I even care?

Why had I stepped in at all?

It was a moment of weakness that I couldn't afford in my world.

A slip of the mask I wore so carefully.

And now that mask had cracked, and her words were the hammer that had shattered it.

I hated how she had turned my intent on its head, how she had snagged me in her web of irritation and frustration. I felt like I was losing control, a feeling I despised more than anything.

Why did I even get up from my table?!

I couldn't let her see how much her words affected me.

I wouldn't give her that power.

Why the fuck had I tried to help her?!

Yet, the more I repeated it in my mind, the more unsteady I felt.

I wanted to scream; I wanted to punch something. Instead, I was left feeling like a fool caught in her game, every nerve burning with humiliation.

She had some nerve, hadn't she?

She always has.

To threaten me, to act like I was the one who didn't know my place.

I recalled the fire in her eyes, that fierce challenge she threw at me.

It infuriated me to realize that, beneath my anger, there was something else—...something that made the thoughts swirl in an uncomfortable dance.

Before I could dwell on that too long, I shoved my emotions down deep where they belonged.

I was not going to let her win; I was not going to let an annoying, insufferable, know it all rattle me.

I had far more important things to think about.

I needed to regroup.

How was I so stupid?!

Grinding my teeth, I trudged down the hall, forcing my mind away from her heated words, from her smug smile, from the residual annoyance that still echoed in my chest.

I had a reputation to maintain; She would not be the one to crumble it.

As I walked into the common room, where the boys sat, they looked at me with a mixture of confusion and concern, prying into my state of unrest.