Smoker (Mattheo Riddle fic)

6: Staircases

(20th of September) Days are going fast, we are already halfway through week 3, yet I feel like I've only just settled down into a routine. You would think after 5 whole years I would be getting better at this. Its Wednesday afternoon, I'm walking Pansy to her detention with Snape. She keeps bringing up Mattheo, trying to get a reaction out of me, but I wont let her have one.

"I mean, he's always got his eye on you Ev, how does that make you feel?"

I haven't spoken to him properly for a while. His breaks are filled with catch up sessions, and he spends a lot of time studying. Apparently if he doesn't pass these exams at the end of the term, he will have to drop down a year. Draco said he was quite academic, so he should be fine. I catch his eyes on me quite a lot. Sometime I feel them there, and I don't even have to look to know he is staring at me.

"Let me think." I respond eventually, once I notice we are getting closer to Snape's classroom.

"Well hurry the fuck up and think, I'm dying over here."

"Only if you hurry the fuck up and admit your feeling for Theo."

"What did you just say?"

We have reached the corridor leading to Snape's classroom, and I walk straight past, leaving her stood in the threshold with a panicked look on her face.

I walk around for a while and eventually decide to head back to my dorm. I take the moving staircases because its quicker. Usually Enzo makes me take the long way because he is too scared of them. They always seem to move when he is on them, and now he refuses to ever use them.

I've walked up maybe half of the flights of stairs when I hear someone shout at me from below. Cedric is stood on the staircase below me, and ,looking up at me as his case moves to the entrance to the library. I know he will have to wait for another one to move before he can reach me. I immediately turn back to the front, walking faster so I can reach the top before my own case moves. "Wait there please." He shouts as he waits impatiently, shifting his weight repeatedly from one foot to another.

I've had more interactions with Cedric in the first few weeks than I have had the whole of last year. I find myself looking around corners to make sure he isn't there. I can't stand talking to him so I always make a quick getaway. I reach the top, looking at my feet, and therefore walking straight into Riddle.

This is too cliché for me but I go with it.

"Watch where your going." He says, grabbing my arm to steady me. He obviously notices I'm in a rush and looks behind me to see Cedric staring up at us. I turn too, and smile to see the concerned and frustrated look on his face. Mattheo begins to walk towards the common room, still holding my arm to make sure I follow. I don't ask him to let go, I just walk alongside him.

"Evelyn!" Cedric yells from behind me. I begin to laugh and Mattheo's smirk reappears on his face.

We turn the corner and he lets me go. "Why does he hate you so much?" he says as we carry on walking.

"Ask him, I know he loves you."

"Is that so? Does that mean I've attracted the wrong sibling?"

I was holding back a smile, facing forwards. "I think you would make a good match."

"As long as you don't get jealous of us Ev."

He hasn't called me Ev before. Only Evelyn. "No promises." I reply flirtatiously, spinning to look at him, then reaching my arm out to the door behind him, brushing it against his side. The door swings inwards. He smiles at me, letting out a small chuckle, then turns to walk inside.