Stay - Mattheo Riddle

Chapter 158

"Hello love," Fred and George both said to the Hufflepuff, George playfully rubbing the top of her head and messing up her hair. They grinned at the Hufflepuff before turning to the man

"Hello, Mr. Bagman," said Fred brightly. "Can we buy you drink?"

"Er . . . no," said Bagman, with a last disappointed glance at Kirra, "no, thank you, boys . . ." Fred and George looked quite as disappointed as Bagman, who was surveying Kirra as though she had let him down badly.

"Well, I must dash," he said. "Nice seeing you all. Good luck, Kirra." He hurried out of the pub. The goblins all slid off their chairs and exited after him. 

"So lil Hufflepuff, what have you been up to these days?" George asked with a grin on his face as the two twins smiled, peering down at the short girl

"Not much, busy with all the school work and the tournament stuff," Kirra admitted with a small, tired sigh, "and I'm worried about Hagrid." The twins nodded softly in agreement, the three of them making small talk for a while before Kirra noticed her impatient Slytherin boys beckoning her over.

"I'll see you two later," She excused herself and then Kirra went to rejoin Mattheo, Jasper and Theo.

"What did he want?" Theo said, the moment Kirrahad sa tdown.

"He offered to help me with the golden egg," said Kirra.

"Well that's brilliant! What did he say?" Jasper said in excitement

"He shouldn't be doing that!" said Kirra, looking slightly disappointed. "He's one of the judges! And anyway, I've already worked it out —"

"havet you?" Mattheo asked her with a raised eyebrow, knowing all too well that she was a huge procrastinator and likely had not figured out the egg and what it had meant

"Er . . . nearly," said Kirra.

"C'mon lil badger, you should have just taken the advice," Theodore told her but she shook her head

"Bagman was trying to persuade me to cheat, that would be so unfair for the rest of the contestants and it isn't right" said Kirra, still looking deeply disapproving. "I hope he's trying to help Cedric and Harry as much!"

"Who cares if Diggory's getting help?" said Mattheo. The rest of the Slytherins not so privately agreed.

"Those goblins didn't look very friendly," said Kirra, sipping her butterbeer. Mattheo reached over and grabbed her hand, rubbing his thumb against her skin as if he were telling her that he wouldn't let them near her

"What were they doing here?" Jasper asked in confusion

"Looking for Crouch, according to Bagman," said Kirra. "He's still ill. Hasn't been into work."

"Funny, goblins looking for Mr. Crouch. . . . They'd normally deal with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures." Mattheo said and Kirra nodded her head, for some reason she couldn't help but feel like there was something more to the problem, something just felt extremely off about the situation

"Crouch can speak loads of different languages, though," said Kirra. "Maybe they need an interpreter. I don't know why but something just feel wrong about this y'know, I mean I just have a really bad feeling and I'm kind of worried about the Goblins too"

" Goblins don't needprotection. Haven't you been listening to what Professor Binns hasbeen telling us about goblin rebellions?" Mattheo said

"No," said Kirra and Theodore together, the two of them sat next to each other in Professor Binns class and neither of them ever paid attention, Kirra would generally draw stuff on his arm or her book while he would not so subtly stare at the girl and colour in her drawings.