The Villain's Son ~ Mattheo Riddle

Chapter 30

Once again I had quidditch practice. Now that it was cold and raining, I didn't enjoy it as much as in the summer. Nevertheless, I was still determined to become better at the sport. After the meal I spent with Mattheo I decided I should erase him from my thoughts. Last practice I had been way too distracted to do anything useful, that had to change. I couldn't let my 'experiment' have an impact on my daily life. It was out of curiosity to begin with, now it was time to get over it.

"Guys, I know it's terrible weather so please watch out! The brooms will be extra slippery and the balls will not always go the way intended." Grant warned before we went on our brooms.

As soon as I climbed onto my broom I could notice why. I had way less grip on my broom than usually. I saw some of my teammates struggling at first, but luckily they got used to it quite fast. This was one of the main reasons I hated Quidditch in the rain, the rain totally distracted you from the sport itself. Surely you could use a grip spell or some dragonskin gloves, but still. It was supposed to be played in nice weather with a full crowd on the stands.

I was doing an exercise with Jeremy and Roger, the other chasers and with Grant, our keeper. Two chasers had to score against one chaser and Grant. Compared to the previous practices, I was more focussed. Our Second match wasn't far away anymore. Since we already played Huffelpuf, we only had Gryffindor and Slytherin left, and they were tougher to beat. I was mostly excited to win against Slytherin, they're always playing dirty so they deserve to lose. Besides that they also had the best reactions. The Slytherins were sore losers which gave an added dose of satisfaction. 
With that as my  motivation the practice went by way faster and before I knew it was showering in my dorm. When the practice ended I jumped into the shower as fast as possible. My body had been really cold and was desperate for some form of warmth. The water of the shower was so hot that the whole bathroom ended up in steam. Luckily I had no roommate who could complain to me about it. After a long, long shower I jumped into bed. I had to push away millions of thoughts about Mattheo in order to sleep, but eventually I managed to drift away.

When walking to DADA I became quite nervous. This would be my first lesson with Mattheo since I sat next to him during dinner. Thinking about that moment made me cringe so hard. His friends had probably laughed about it with him after I left. The worst part is that I wouldn't blame them if they did, I kinda deserved it. I had been way too intrusive for absolutely no reason. Maybe this is what annoyed Cho and Athena too. If I just stopped trying so much, maybe people would like me more. 
As I walked into the classroom I saw Mattheo sitting at one of the tables. I didn't want to border the boy any more than I already had so I walked to another table. In the middle of walking to my spot I heard someone call my name. To be specific, Mattheo. I smiled to myself before turning around and facing him with a questioning face.

"I -" He sighed deeply. "-you can sit here if you'd like."

I had to stop myself from visually cheering but on the inside there was a party going on. Sure his face didn't hold any excitement, the opposite to be exact, but the fact that he had gone out of his way to talk to me said something. Maybe my stupid intrusivity had gotten me somewhere after all.

"Sure." I smiled happily and went back to my old place next to him.
"Thank you." I spoke once I sat next to him.

He shrugged and opened one of his books.

Now that I was close up to him I could see that the cut on his jaw was gone, as well as all the bruises. The only damage that was still visible was the redness on his knuckles that looked worryingly new. I had no idea where they came from. He hadn't been in a fight as far as I knew, but maybe he did. One thing was sure, it wasn't from that one fight.
Even though he had his book open it was really clear that he wasn't reading. He was either writing things down or he was looking around. This was quite odd because previously he had never done that. Also not when he was sitting alone. I was too focussed on him to miss something like that. 
So now something was different. Something had changed.  It seemed as if he was observing people. For what was the big question. I hoped it had nothing to do with the deathmark in the sky.

"How has your day been  so far?" I asked as soon as the professor had stopped talking.

He didn't react. Of course I should've expected that but somehow I thought he would speak. In disappointment I let out a deep sigh.

The sigh somehow got Mattheo's attention.

"Shit, sorry. Did you say something?"

"I asked how your day was." I chuckled at how out of it he was. I was also relieved he didn't ignore me on purpose. 

"Good."

His face told me differently. Even though he wasn't looking me in the eyes and he tried to keep an emotionless face, I could see the tiredness. I decided to just let it slide to avoid any more problems. It wasn't my place to push him anyways.

"Yours?" He asked back.

"Alright, I'm a bit tired but it's fine."

He nodded.

We continued having small talk until the lesson was over. I was really happy that Mattheo decided to give me the benefit of the doubt.

"What was that?" Athena asked, surprised.

She had obviously seen that Mattheo and I were sitting back together since she'd been in the same room.

"Well, I kinda made things ok again between us." I shyly smiled.

"That's great! But when did you do this?"

"You know yesterday, when I wasn't at dinner, I sat next to Mattheo to prove that I didn't mean it like that." I explained as we were walking down the stairs.

"And it worked!" Athena cheered excitedly.

I chuckled at her reaction, it was not at all like what I had expected from her. But her support felt really nice. Weirdly unfamiliar too.

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I hope you guys are just as proud as I am with myself that I posted yet another chapter. Crazy.
Ok but fr I still need to get back into the story. Like sure I can write but I'm not really with my mind in the story. Beside that I also really want to rewrite the earlier chapters but I think that's kinda unfair to all the old readers who just want new chapters. PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!!
Sure, this is 'my' story, but I need inspiration, motivation and feedback. I don't care if you completely bully me into rewriting every sentence. I need some feedback.

Thanks to all the readers, were almost at 9k which is almost 10k which is almost 1 mil.
Ok but fr thanks. I absolutely love this community
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