LUNACY ll Mattheo Riddle x Reader

31. ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏ ᴍᴀʟғᴏʏ

"Expelliarmus!" comes my brother's terrified shout, then a thud that has nothing to do with the disarming spell he just cast. Dumbledore stands at the edge of the Tower, an empty hand raised, while his wand skitters to a stop many paces from where any of us stand.

"Good evening, Draco," the Headmaster says.

Draco steps forward, his gaze flickering over in the direction where Mattheo and I stand hidden, before his eyes fall upon the two brooms hovering at Dumbledore's feet.

"Who else is here?" Draco demands, but he's got none of the assertiveness that Mattheo can summon at will. Which is probably why Dumbledore is perfectly calm as he answers, "A question I might ask you. Or are you acting alone?"

Draco's eyes shift back to Dumbledore in the greenish glare of the Dark Mark. "No," he whispers. "I've got backup. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight."

"Well, well..." Dumbledore muses. "Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"

"Yeah- Right under your nose, and you never realized!"

"Ingenious," the Headmaster breathes. "Yet... Forgive me... Where are they now? You seem unsupported."

"They met some of your guards. They're having a fight down below. They won't be long... I came on ahead. I- I've got a job to do."

"Well, then, you must get on and do it, my dear boy," Dumbledore says softly.

The staggering weight of silence. Draco does nothing but stare at Dumbledore, and old age really must be getting to the man, because he smiles. "Draco, Draco, you are not a killer."

"How do you know?" Draco blurts out, then his ears turn pink when he realizes how childish that sounds. "You don't know what I'm capable of- You don't know what I've done!"

"Oh yes, I do. You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts... So feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart has been really in it."

"It has been in it!" Draco shouts. "I've been working on it all year, and tonight-"

From somewhere in the depths of the castle below comes a muffled yell. Mattheo has to clamp a hand over my mouth to keep me from gasping out loud.

"Somebody is putting up a good fight," Dumbledore says conversationally. "But you were saying... Yes, you have managed to introduce Death Eaters into my school, which, I admit, I thought impossible... How did you do it?"

But Draco says nothing. He's still listening to whatever is happening below, seeming just as paralyzed as Mattheo feels- The curly haired boy has gone completely rigid behind me, turning his grip on me almost painful.

"Perhaps you ought to get on with the job alone," Dumbledore suggests. "What if your backup has been thwarted by my guard? As you have perhaps realized, there are members of the Order of the Phoenix here tonight too. And after all, you don't really need help... I have no wand at the moment... I cannot defend myself."

Draco just stares at him.

"I see," the Headmaster says kindly. "You are afraid to act until they join you."

"I'm not afraid!" Draco snarls. "It's you who should be scared!"

Meaningless lies and baseless threats. I still remember his screams from that day Agnes's necklace strangled her to death, the way he threw up at the sight of the scarlet line circling her wrinkly neck.

My brother is no killer. I know it. Dumbledore knows it. And it seems, for the first time, that Draco is discovering it, too.

"But why? I don't think you will kill me, Draco," Dumbledore says, as if to prove my point. "Killing is not nearly as easy as the innocent believe... So tell me, while we wait for your friends... How did you smuggle them in here? It seems to have taken you a long time to work out how to do it."