Bound By Blood.

ch.74~ Over before it begun.

"I'm fucking sorry.

I'm so fucking sorry."

Recovered Translated Correspondents between Death Eater Mattheo Riddle, To Order Member Alexandra Brooks, 2004.

Ruins of Hogwarts, 2003.

Mattheo.

I was selfish, when it came to her.

I always had been, and I know I always will be.

I was always blindsided by her, by my need for her, by her big brown eyes that never failed to suck me in, by her.

When it came to her, the concept of right and wrong, what I should do, and what I had to do, it all blurred.

Only leaving her in front of me.

Even knowing this, knowing how consumed I was by her, knowing exactly how selfish and blindsided I was... it would have never prepared me for this.

I was too into the moment, too into her, into feeling her touch, craving it, that when she fully gave herself to me, I couldn't stop the rush of her thoughts, of her knowledge from pouring into my brain.

Legilimency, was both a blessing and a curse.

I knew that from the moment I discovered I had this ability.

And now, it was more a curse than I had ever imagined it would be.

I couldn't stop the rush of her thoughts, of her memories, flooding my mind.

I saw it all: the safe houses, the war tactics, the strategies she'd devised to take us down.

To take me down.

I saw the pain she'd endured, the sacrifices she'd made, the fears she'd kept hidden.

And I saw the depth of her feelings for me, the love and the hate that swirled inside her like a storm.

But I also saw the things she'd rather keep hidden.

The loss she went through after Fred.

Her leg injury, the healing, how much Enzo truly took of her soul the day he did that to her.

Enzo in himself.

The war crimes I'd committed, the atrocities I'd performed.

The ways in which I'd hurt her, betrayed her, and broken her trust.

And I knew, in that moment, that she hated me.

Truly hated me.

Not just the monster I'd become, but the man I'd always been.

She hated me to my very core.

And yet, despite it all, she still needs me.

She wanted me.

She defended me, blindly against Potter, and the Weasleys.

She always had an answer, an explanation.

That never lead back to me.

Because now I have the power to destroy her, to expose her secrets, to use her own vulnerabilities against her.