𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐨'𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐞 // M.R

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚢 𝚝𝚠𝚘

"Ella!" Arielle calls out for me. I walk over to her. I cringe at the nickname, she never calls me that, not since we were like 10.

Platform 9¾ is completely packed. There's people everywhere and I almost lost Enzo while finding our friends.

"Don't call me that, Elle." I mock. We thought we were so cool to use our nicknames as Ella and hers Elle when we were kids, two idiotic kids we were.

"What's going on here?" Regulus points a finger between us, Enzo shrugs.

-

"I can't believe they didn't give us tasks!" Daphne protests, after a few minutes inside the cabin. She's complaining about how the Dark Lord gave every student some sort of task to follow this year. And us? Nothing, nothing at all. I was glad for that.

"Of course they didn't, they don't trust us." Enzo scoffs.

"I don't mind." I shrug.

"Of course you don't." Arielle says rolling her eyes and chucking.

꧁꧂

Classes are starting and Mattheo is nowhere to be seen. Hasn't been since the party. He always does this, he comes to me, infiltrates in my life and disappears. It's a full circle.

I'm alone at my dorm, enjoying the peace since Arielle is out. Sometimes I wish I had my own dorm room, no one would bother me and I could do anything at any time.

I sit in bed preparing stuff for divination class. I don't see why we have this class in the first place. I get it, from first to fourth year it might be necessary no learn the basics but they shouldn't have made an O.W.L out of it. I flunked it of course.

The next day, I meet with Enzo in the common room so we can walk to breakfast together. We sit down next to the rest of the friend group. Arielle and Regulus are sitting apart, so are Daphne and Blaise, but she doesn't like his friend group. Me and Enzo look at each other and shrug, sitting down at the table.

I take a glance at my cousin. He looks pale, almost ill. He runs a hand trough his hair and rests it on the table again, while his other hand holds the fork, playing around with his food but not actually eating anything.

It's the task Voldemort gave him. Or maybe the mark is making him crazy like it did to Mattheo. After class today I'll check his dorm to see if he came to school after all, or if he just bailed on his father.

"What are you thinking about, Ella?" Arielle asked me.

"Will you stop calling me that? It's foolish." I scold her.

"Well let's get new nicknames then." She grins. I have no choice but to cave, I know she's been going trough a rough time in her relationship again and I need her to be happy.

"Fine. You're Ari now."

"No, that doesn't sound like me!" She cries out.

"Your name only has those two syllables, what do you want me to do?" I laugh lightly.

"Ugh leave it then. I can be Ari, you'll still be Ella." A moment later, she adds, grinning again. "Or would you prefer Dora?"

"I'll stick with Ella." I chuckle.

"Are you guys nervous for this year?" Daphne asks, scooting closer to the seat next to me.

"Nervous for what?" Enzo asks. Regulus continues not saying s word to any of us.

"Everything. Turning 18, the mark, even the N.E.W.T.s," She then whispers. "The headmaster being murdered."

I take a look at Enzo at Daphne's remark. Hoping that he hasn't forgotten our agreement. Him looking back at me with a smile plastered on his lips tells me just that.

"Why are you two lovebirds smiling?" Arielle asks.

"Nothing." We say at the same time.

After classes ended, I walked back to the dungeons. Entered the common room and waltzed trough the boys dorms. Mattheo's is the very last one, with only one bed.

I hold up my fist. Should I really be checking on him? Probably not. But this is no time to chicken out. I knock at his door and wait patiently for him to open it.

When he does, he's standing only with sweatpants on. I scan his body, his torso. Salazar why does he have to look so damn good all the time?

"Like what you see?" He asks in a cocky tone, leaning his side against the doorway.

Yes. "No." I cough a little.

"Be careful, you might fall in love." He rolls his eyes. "Why are you here, Clearwater?"

"Because I haven't seen you in weeks and I wasn't sure if you came to school after all." I tell him.

"Well I'm here, you can go now." He dismisses me.

I don't move. Instead, I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow. I know this idiot did not just try to get rid of me, luckily, I'm persistent and stubborn enough to disobey the son of the Dark Lord.

He sighs when he realizes I'm not going. "I'm just here to keep an eye on your stupid cousin. To do what he's probably not capable of doing." I'm a little surprised his father has given up on making him follow me.

"My cousin is capable of killing the headmaster." I argue. No he's not. My conscience tells me. "Besides, wasn't Snape supposed to do that?"

"Yeah, like my father would trust him for something like that. Who's to say he isn't infiltrated in the dark side like we think he is in the order?" He retorts. "And I'm sorry to tell you but Malfoy is far from being capable to kill anyone, for that matter."

"Snape made an unbreakable vow, how does that not tell you that he's loyal?" I question.

"He would die for Albus. You know it, I know it, gosh I bet dumb Potter knows it." He rolls his eyes.

"Whatever. See you around."

"You probably won't." He says, closing the door.

__

In potions class, a few days later, Professor Slughorn is showing us a few potions in class.

"And this—" He pints to a cauldron. "Is amortentia. Does anyone know what it is?" He asks the class.

Some random Hufflepuff shoots up her hand, reminding me of Hermione. My only friend in this class is Daphne. Enzo, Arielle and Regulus got paired with the Ravenclaws.

"Amortentia is the most powerful love potion in the world. It has the smell of what or who attracts you most." The girl says.

"Well done." The professor says. " Now if you all would like to come closer at take a smell. You don't have to share with the class if you don't want to." He smiles.

I come closer and inhale the smoke coming out of the cauldron. It's hard to focus on what's what but eventually, I realize what I'm smelling are books, cigarettes, spearmint, I can't tell the rest apparat.

Of course I know exactly who it is, it would be stupid to pretend I don't, or that I'm not attracted to him. Just the last time I saw him, shirtless, leaning against—

"Elladora!" Daphne shouts in a whisper, snapping out of my daydreaming. "Are you alright? You sort of just were drawn into the back of your mind as soon as the smell touched your nose, who was it? Enzo?"

"Something like that." I laugh nervously.

At the end of class, the professor asks us to stay behind for a moment. Me, Daphne and a few more students. He invited us to a special dinner that with his finest students. I'm guessing Enzo and Arielle won't be attending, they're complete disasters.

He tells us the hour and place of the event, and dismisses us.

_______
1246 words