LUNACY ll Mattheo Riddle x Reader

70. ᴏʙʟɪᴠɪᴀᴛᴇ

The flick of his wrist gets my mouth moving again. Only my mouth, however, for the rest of my body remains petrified in place. Desperate to keep Mattheo from opening the envelope, I blurt out the first thing I can think of.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Mattheo gives me a long stare, effectively conveying to me that he could ask that of me as well.

"How are you here?" I amend, because there's no way in hell that our unscheduled run-in occurred through pure coincidence alone.

"What am I going to find in this letter, Y/n?" Mattheo asks me in a level tone. A stark contrast to the way my heart, unaffected by his Petrification Jinx, is beating up a storm inside my chest. "Would you like to answer me, or should I open it myself?"

"Don't!" I shout out, and because that's too suspicious, "It's personal business, Mattheo, business that's got nothing to do with you. Now you answer my question. What the hell are you doing, stalking me at half past two in the bloody morning?"

As I'd hoped, Mattheo appears stunned by what I said. Now, terrible as it is, if I could only guilt trip him into backing off properly...

"Stasis Protean Charm."

"What?" I shriek out, too stunned to even think about how loudly my voice is echoing through the Ministry right now. "When? How? Why?"

"Did you think I was going to let you walk around without any protection after what happened with Greyback?"

"So you- What, crept into my dorm that week and cast it while I was sleeping?"

"Don't you know how close you came to dying that night?"

"Mattheo!"

"While I was recovering from the exertion of Dark Magic, you came to my bedside and fell asleep. I cast it on you then."

I swear out loud. How long was I out for him to have been able to cast one of the most complex and grueling protection charms in existence?

"So ever since then, our two hearts have been beating as one?"

"Mine has been mimicking yours. Letting me know every time there was a spike in your emotions. Anxiety, anticipation, satisfaction, and tonight, fear."

"And your reaction was to follow me in the dead of night?" I shout at him.

"You were terrified, Y/n. I thought something had happened to you. If it had been another attack, just for your association with me- I wouldn't have been able to live with myself."

I can feel this conversation nearing its end. I need a new topic, another source for chatter, as I try to come up with a plan to steal that letter back.

"You still haven't explained how you knew I'd be here."

"The bartender at the Leaky Cauldron was ordered to inform the Augurey of any strange activities, should any occur. The place does happen to be a checkpoint for all witches and wizards visiting Magical London, after all. Mulciber was alerted of this, and after sending some rookies to go investigate, he was kind enough to inform me of the news."

"So your heart rate spikes up just in time for Mulciber's message to arrive, and you just decide that has something to do with me?"

"Something like that," Mattheo replies. "As for your Apparating point, half of Diagon Alley was shut down last year. There's only one place in London worth visiting anymore."

"The Ministry."

"The Ministry."

The seconds tick by in silence.