Behind the Mask | Mattheo Riddle

Chapter 23

A soft knock at the door steals my attention from the book I've been anxiously reading all day. Why hasn't he called me yet?

I suppose I was supposed to understand this is how things would be now. He would be somewhere so distant yet so close and I'll just be here waiting. It's the waiting that hurts the most, especially when you know your person is the one you're waiting for.

I get up quickly, hopeful I'll open the door and see him. It's a long shot considering he wouldn't be able to show his face at Hogwarts anymore, but a girl can dream, right?

The lock clicks and I turn the door handle, looking up to see Mattheo looking down at me, only, it's a shell of himself. His usual smirk is nowhere to be found and his eyes look... sad. "What happened?" I ask, desperate for him to tell me something, anything, but there's nothing.

"Come for a walk with me?" His voice is void of all emotions as he looks at me. His gaze sends a shiver down my spine as I follow behind him quickly. "Look I know things are going to be different now but we can make it work, muggles do this thing called long distance I've been researching it and I think we should try."

He continues walking, not even bothering to look at me. I don't pay attention, instead I continue to try and convince him. "If you love me you're not going to do what I know you are". He stops, he actually stops and I know I've hit a nerve. "I'm doing this because I love you," he says coldly, continuing to walk until we reach the astronomy tower.

The sky is dark and the stars are bright. A contrast I've always found so beautiful, light and dark. It really just proves that the light can always be found, even in the darkest of times.

Tears start to flood my eyes and I can't even look at him. Even if there is a light right now I can't feel it, I can't feel anything other than a hole in my chest matched with a pain like my heart has been wretched from me. "Alora, look at me, please." I shake my head, I can't look at him because it will only hurt me more. "Just do it; just say the words, just say the fucking words" I yell, getting more emotional than I had intended.

"I'm breaking up-" "You're a coward Mattheo Riddle. You're a coward and I would have never done this to you. You knew from the start, what your life was destined to become. Why make me fall in love with you if you had no intention of keeping me? Was this all a game to you? Did you laugh each time I said I loved you? Did you keep a score? God, I'm so fucking foolish I knew Hermione was right all this time."

I'm silenced with his hands wrapping around my waist, pulling me close as his lips land on my forehead. He prolongs removing them and it brings back an ounce of remorse because I can tell this is hard for him too. "I love you, Alora. You won't remember that but I needed to tell you one last time." Won't remember, what? "What do you mean, won't remember?" He takes a step back and raises his wand, and only now do I notice a new necklace around his neck, a vial.

"Obliviate"

───── 𓆚 ─────

I've never been afraid of being hurt, not that I could remember anyway. Sure I've been afraid during and after but never before, especially not when I never thought the ones hurting me would be the ones I trusted the most.

The only thing I know for sure anymore is how I feel about Mattheo. I wish I never met Mattheo, I never would have gone through anything that happened in the house, I would never have had to meet Enzo and believe he was dead and I would still be... me.