secrets & scars -- {dm x mr x tn x november greene}

ch. 1

With the carriage door shut and two lit cigarettes, the air quickly became acrid and stuffy. Draco's eyes watered a bit, sitting directly next to the stranger's cloud of smoke.

Pansy was checking out the stranger, unapologetically judging him. "Theodore, who is this?" She voiced the silent but obvious question the others were all wondering.

Theodore inhaled and exhaled a stream of smoke painstakingly slow before blinking those long lashes and addressing Pansy, gesturing to the new guy. "This is Mattheo Lopez. Lopez, this is everybody else."

"How do you do?" Mattheo Lopez offers his hand to Pansy with a corner of his mouth upturned.

"Splendid." Pansy shakes his hand, and she and Andromeda both look at each other. Andromeda raises a brow.

"I'm Andromeda Tonks." Andromeda offers.

"Absolutely charmed to meet you." Lopez replies without hesitation.

"And I'm Blaise Zabini." Blaise's voice cuts in, humorless. "Andromeda's boyfriend."

"Lucky chap, aren't you?" Lopez jokes.

Blaise's face remains stubbornly unamused, so Andromeda smiles in place of him.

Pansy offers her own name, and eventually they all turn towards Draco.

Draco looks up from the ring on his finger he'd been fiddling with and blinks at them "What? Is there something in my hair?" He runs a hand through it, though it is tame and impeccable as usual.

Pansy gives him an exasperated look and gestures to Lopez.

Draco frowns, as though he hadn't noticed him until now, "Who are you?"

"A transfer." Theodore blows a cloud of smoke into Draco's face, whose face twitches.

"Mattheo." Lopez clarifies.

Draco frowns, "Surname?" He prompts.

"Lopez, if you must. I'd prefer Mattheo." Mattheo says with an innocent shrug.

"I've never heard of a Lopez bloodline." Draco observes.

Mattheo seemed unfazed by Draco's cold and interrogating air. "Let's just say I'm not from around here."

Draco pauses, deems the answer acceptable, and adds, "Well, I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."

Something flickers in Mattheo's eyes. Recognition. "Malfoy? I had a feeling. How is dear old Lucius doing these days, anyway?" Mattheo taunts.

Draco's jaw locks and a vein pounds in his temple, "He's fine." Dear old Lucius was, in fact, dead.

Mattheo catches Draco's cold glare unflinchingly, "Oh, really?" He asks politely, not accusingly.

Draco forces his features to slacken, "Yes."

Mattheo seems to think for a moment before prompting again, "Really?"

"Yes." Draco emphasized, his patience wearing thin and his temper volatile.

Mattheo smiles to himself, leaning back against the chair and saying "Well, that's good to hear."

Draco watches, fuming, as Mattheo holds his cigarette between his index and middle finger, bringing it up to his lips. His hands are covered in padded black gloves with unblemished, fine leather fingerpads and inlaid iron studs at each knuckle.

"Could you put those foul things out?" Draco asks through gritted teeth as the smoggy environment in the carriage burned all their lungs and eyes.

Theodore chuckles at Draco's request and leans forward, blowing a stream of smoke into Draco's face.

Mattheo shrugs. "Sure thing."

He takes off one glove and proceeds to smother the cigarette into the bare pad of his left index finger, which was discolored, misshapen, and now bright red.

Andromeda lets out a small grimace and Blaise looks pointedly away. Without the sounds of pebbles hitting the underside of the carriage, the others may be able to hear the sound Mattheos skin made as it met the cigarette butt. Draco could hear it just fine, being seated next to him.

Draco yanks the hands holding the now put-out cigarette away from Mattheo's other ungloved hand. "What are you doing, dimwit?"

Mattheo frowns, flexes his fingers, and inspects his permanently warped and discolored index finger, as though this was a common practice of his.

"Are you insane?" Pansy asks wholeheartedly.

Draco lets go of Mattheos gloved hand. Mattheo slips his other glove back on.

Then, he replies, as though it were obvious and made perfect sense, "I didn't want to ruin my new gloves."

okay I know this was ridiculously short, and I definitely finished writing this chapter, like, a month ago. so sorry :) and really, I finished writing it, like, five months ago. I'm very lazy and slow to transfer my writing from my notebooks to Wattpad, so don't hate me. I had originally intended this chapter to be way longer but decided for my sanity I would break them up into smaller chunks.

But uh yeah there's that.

I will definitely work on getting the next part done.

Once I find my notebook.