LUNACY ll Mattheo Riddle x Reader

59. ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴇꜱɪꜱᴛᴀɴᴄᴇ

so, like, this chapter is gonna feel HORRENDOUSLY long for you guys, not just because it actually is the longest chapter i've ever uploaded(at a whopping 4545 words), but also because i decided that our lil breakup with husband wasn't gonna feel very authentic if he was popping up every other chapter as if we HADN'T broken up???

so... say hello to an outrageously long chapter with 0% mattheo and 100% dramatic siblings + certain green-eyed orphans who just HAVE to come in and steal the show every once in a while :)

rest assured, the progress with the plot that's gonna be happening in this chapter is most definitely gonna result in SO MUCH angst and bitter resentment + yearning between us and mattheo in the chapters to come!!

"They're camping out in the Room of Requirements. Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, all of them," my brother informs me one evening. "Bet we could find a way inside if we wanted to. Your ingenuity, paired with my incomparable knowledge of the room."

"Why are you being so nice, Draco?" I frown from my seat by the fireplace. "Also, remind me again why I should care about what the other students are getting up to in their free time?"

"Figured you could use a distraction after what happened last week," Draco refers to the engagement ball. "I could use one, too. I think I've pretty much lost all the friends that I had by choosing to stick with... Well."

"You never did tell me why you chose to remain by Mattheo's side," I frown. "I would've thought that you of all people would be the first to leave him, with the history between you two and all."

Draco shrugs. "Got to know him better last summer. Found out that the two of us aren't as different as I would've liked to believe."

"You were literally telling me to break up with him last month."

"Rightfully so. The bloke's still criminally insane, always has been, and always will be. But it's different for you and me. I can't get hurt by him on as much of a personal level as you."

A bitter taste rises in the back of my throat, but as I haven't yet managed to work up the courage to tell my brother just what Mattheo did to me, all I can do is sigh, "You've got other people you can talk about your problems with, Draco."

"Yeah, but he doesn't. And with you having dumped him... Can you imagine how much he'd spiral if he really did have no one left?"

"So what you're saying is, you're doing the world a social service?"

"Precisely."

I roll my eyes at him. "Tell me more about the Room of Requirements."

Draco straightens up in his seat. "Weasley and Longbottom are the ones who started it, of course. MacMillan rounded up the Hufflepuffs, Patil brought in the people from Ravenclaw. They've got about two dozen students in there, sticking together because a false sense of morality's definitely the right thing to be having in these delightful times."

"And you want to drag me into this plan of yours to catch them out?"

"I'm not going to report them or anything. I just need something to do."

And as that logic is sound enough for me, I follow Draco out the next night and join him in his little stakeout. We lounge on the windowsill a single corridor down from the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy, passing a packet of Bertie Bott's between us until we've emptied out the whole thing.

"Draco," I nudge him in the shoulder, for just as he's started to nod off, two students have appeared at the other end of the hall. Lavender Brown, I think, and the girl beside her must be Parvati Patil.