CHAPTER TWO
riddle me this.
—
"i don't get it! why can't we enter for the tournament?" mattheo angrily yelled, slamming down the pillow.
"okay, mad hatter. you heard dumbledore, the tournament that occurred last year was discontinued because of a death toll." daphne said to him, mattheo rolled his eyes and groaned in annoyance.
madison entered the common room with her boyfriend, ethan harrison. a slytherin in his 6th year. his family is known to be wealthy, maybe number 8th in the list of the wealthy pureblood families. they got together when madison was in 3rd year, and their relationship had just started blooming into more once she started 4th year.
"i told you, it's gonna be great." ethan said to her, chuckling. both of them ignored the looks madison's friends were giving them.
"god, i hate him so much." mattheo mumbled under his breath, watching as both of them give heart eyes to each other.
"aw, don't be mad matty, you'll find love on your own." pansy teased, patting his thigh. mattheo glared at her. "i don't care about love, or that type of shit. i don't know what maddie sees in him. he lacks in quidditch, if i'm gonna be honest!"
"same here. he's got this aura that i'm not really sure of, but i hate his aura." daphne commented, theo nodded to her. "same. i feel like he's taking advantage of maddie."
"why, because she's a sweet, naïve little girl?" draco queried, raising an eyebrow.
"no, you idiot. maddie's kind, yes. but there's just something about that harrison dude, like he's toying her." pansy says, mattheo snapped his fingers then pointed at pansy. "exactly my point."
blaise shrugged. "i don't know, they seem pretty happy."
"yeah, until you find out what his true intentions are. i bet he's just trying to get in her pants and continue the harrison bloodline." enzo snorted, flipping his book over.
"or better, the riddle bloodline." daphne added, snickering.
"both of you are disgusting."
"they're talking about us again." ethan quietly whispered to madison making her glance at them, her friends suddenly looked away and acted like they were doing normal things. she chuckled and turned back to him, "they're just worried."
"worried about what? you're perfectly fine. at least fine with me."
"they're just protective of me." madison smiled, defending them. ethan clicked his tongue, "i know. but i still don't like it when they get touchy touch with you. especially nott."
"what? what do you mean? theo's my friend." madison says, chuckling.
"he gets touchy."
"he gets touchy with all of us. that includes daph and pans."
ethan sighed, "whatever. let's just talk about this tomorrow. let's go to bed, sweetheart."
"oh, alright." both of them stood up, and the group immediately looked at them, watching as they whispered to one another and madison softly giggling.
"everyone in favor of getting rid of harrison, raise your hand." mattheo said, raising his arm. the group followed, raising their arms simultaneously.
—
the snakes stood at the hallways of hogwarts, watching students pass by and get to their classes.
"i have divination first. that sucks!" daphne exclaimed out loud as she looked at her timetable.
"so glad i dropped divination." madison smiled, daphne lightly smacked her arm making madison laugh.
pansy groaned in frustration, "i also have divination!"
"good. now we can suffer together." pansy rolled her eyes as daphne threw her arm around pansy's shoulder, both of them starting to walk away. "see you guys!" daphne exclaimed.
"make sure you guys still have legs when we see you!" enzo shouted at the two girls, madison giggled and felt enzo wrapping his arm around her.
"now, dear maddie, what class do you have first?"
"five feet apart, berkshire." mattheo sneered as enzo ignored him, watching madison look through her timetable. "i have potions first." she frowned, enzo clicked his tongue, and shaked his head. "sucks to be you, maddie."
"i also have potions." theo spoke, putting his timetable in his bag. madison whined, "can't i just skip potions?"
"on your first day? want snape to take our points?" blaise raised an eyebrow, theo grabbed madison's arm and urging her that they need to go to class, making her whine even more.
"don't worry, maddie. you'll be fine! hope you make it out alive though." enzo teasingly grinned, madison hit him with her book making him groan in pain.
madison always hated potions because of snape, even though she needed it in order for her to become a healer. not really the type of job you would see a slytherin pursuing for.
"it's just 50 minutes, maddie. you'll be fine." theo reassured, patting her back gently. madison pouted, making theo softly chuckle at her.
—
after 50 minutes of pure torture, madison exited the classroom along with theo. enzo and blaise were waiting for them outside. and upon seeing the pair, enzo grinned. "how's potions?"
"pure torture." she groaned, leaning onto blaise as he wrapped his arms around her and patted her back gently. "why don't you just drop it?"
"no, i can't drop it. i heard my father exceeds in potions." she states, frowning.
"so?" enzo raised an eyebrow. "what do you mean, so? mattheo exceeds in potions and of course, i need to be good at it too."
"wow, that's a lot of pressure coming from someone who doesn't know her father."
"oh, shut it, zabini!" madison exclaimed, hitting his head. he laughed while rubbing the back of his head. the four of them headed to their next class, which was care of magical creatures — hagrid's class!
madison had both of her arms wrapped around theo and enzo as she happily walked down to the grounds where hagrid's class was being held at. her favorite subject had always been care of magical creatures, only because she get to see creatures that she only saw in pictures.
as the group arrived, they overheard hagrid talking about a creature, blast-ended skrewts. "on'y jus' hatched," said hagrid proudly, "so yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"
"and why would we want to raise them?" draco's cold voice made everyone swivel their heads to the newly arrived slytherins. madison bit her bottom lip, removing her arms off of enzo and theo.
hagrid looked stumped at the question.
"i mean, what do they do?" asked draco. "what is the point of them?"
hagrid opened his mouth, apparently thinking hard; there was a few seconds' pause, then he said roughly, "tha's next lesson, malfoy. yer jus' feedin' 'em today. now, yeh'll wan' ter try 'em on a few diff'rent things. i've never had 'em before, not sure what they'll go fer, i got ant eggs an' frog livers an' a bit o' grass snake — just try 'em out with a bit of each."
"first pus and now this," muttered seamus.
madison made a face of disgust as they watch the gryffindors try to feed them.
"ouch!" yelled dean thomas after about ten minutes. "it got me!
hagrid hurried over to him, looking anxious.
"its end exploded!" said dean angrily, hagrid a burn on his hand. madison exchanged a worried look with theo, they certainly didn't want to feed the skrewts after that happened.
"ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off," said hagrid, nodding.
"eurgh!" said lavender brown again. "eurgh, hagrid, what's that pointy thing on it?"
"ah, some of 'em have got stings," said hagrid enthusiastically, lavender quickly withdrew her hand from the box. "i reckon they're the males, the females've got sorta sucker things on their bellies, i think they might be ter suck blood."
"well, i can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive," draco said sarcastically. "who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting, and bite all at once?"
"just because they're not very pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful," hermione snapped. "dragon blood's amazingly magical, but you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, would you?"
after hagrid's class, it was time for lunch. the group arrived at the great hall and sat down, madison sat beside her brother as enzo talked about a party coming up. "maddie, hey." she looked up and saw her boyfriend, who sat down beside her.
"hey, ethan." she grinned, giving him a piece of her bread. "oh, why thank you." madison giggled.
"heard what happened in class. is it true?"
"yeah. bummer, actually. i was so looking forward for feeding the skrewts, but i backed out last minute." ethan let out a chuckle that ended up being a small scoff. "why would you look forward to his class? and feeding the creatures?"
theo looked up from his plate, staring at ethan while madison tells him the story about what happened in today's class.
"well, hagrid's nice! and i really love care of magical creatures. you know, the skrewts are pretty cute, but they're dangerous. i'm kind of disappointed that i didn't get to feed them."
ethan chuckled, "why would you want to feed a skrewt?" madison opened her mouth to reply, but ethan quickly interrupted her.
"nevermind that. i'll see you later at dinner, okay?"
"oh. okay." madison smiled, letting ethan kiss her cheek as she watched him walk away to his friends.
theo scoffed under his breath, shaking his head slightly before looking down at his food. he absolutely hated the way his friend was letting her boyfriend treat her that way, especially when he knew that madison gets sad when people aren't listening to her.
"yo, theo!" blaise called him, theo looked up as enzo tossed him a box of rolled up joint. "got it from my muggle friend. astronomy tower tonight."
"yeah, sure." theo grinned, staring at the box of weed before hiding it in his pocket, looking around to make sure no one saw him.
after lunch, the group went to the entrance hall, draco picked up some newspaper and a cunning smirk spread across his face. "check this out, guys." he said, showing the newspaper to his friends.
"holy shit, is this real?!" pansy exclaimed out loud, grabbing the newspaper from draco. and just in time, the trio had also entered the entrance hall. madison looked back then looked at draco who snatched the newspaper from pansy.
"don't you dare, draco—"
"weasley! hey, weasley!"
harry, ron, and hermione turned. draco and his friends stood there, and draco was looking thoroughly pleased about something.
"what?" said ron shortly.
"your dad's in the paper, weasley!" draco said, brandishing a copy of the daily prophet and speaking very loudly, so that everyone in the packed entrance hall could hear. "listen to this!"
"it seems as though the ministry of magic's troubles are not yet at an end, writes rita skeeter, special correspondent. recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the quidditch world cup, and still unable to account for the disappearance of one of its witches, the ministry was plunged into fresh embarrassment yesterday by the antics of arnold weasley, of the misuse of muggle artifacts office."
draco looked up from the newspaper, smirking down at harry and his friends. "imagine them not even getting his name right, weasley. it's almost as though he's a complete non-entity, isn't it?" he crowed.
everyone in the entrance hall was listening now. draco straightened the paper with a flourish and read on.
"and there's a picture, weasley!" said draco, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "a picture of your parents outside their house — if you can call it a house! your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"
ron was shaking with fury. everyone was staring at him.
"draco!" madison scolded, pansy and daphne tried to take the newspaper from him but he merely ignored them and avoided their hands.
"get stuffed, malfoy," said harry. "c'mon, ron..."
"oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, potter?" draco sneered. "so tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"
"you know your mother, malfoy?" said harry — both he and hermione had grabbed the back of ron's robes to stop him from launching himself at draco,"that expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?"
draco's pale face went slightly pink.
"don't you dare insult my mother, potter."
"keep your fat mouth shut, then," said harry, turning away.
pansy finally grabbed the newspaper from draco and madison's hand went to his cheek, the loud slap echoed throughout the entire room. she continued on, smacking him with her bag. "you.. don't.. ever.. stop.. being.. an..ass.. do.. you.. draco?!" she said, in-between hits.
"why do you care, madison? it's true though!"
"you reacted the same way ron did when harry insulted your mother! don't be such a fucking hypocrite!"
"okay, calm down. many people are looking." theo said, pulling madison away from draco. draco will never stop bullying a person, even though how many times madison scolded him for it.
"that git's got to be put in his place." madison muttered to theo who caressed her head.
"i'll make sure to do so. just calm down, maddie." theo says, glancing over his shoulder to see blaise whispering things to draco. each time blaise spoke, draco kept scoffing and rolling his eyes.
madison and draco never got close, even though they were in the same group. the two of them fought one another, mostly madison shouting at draco. draco malfoy perfectly got on her nerves. it was a shock for people to learn that they were in the same friend group. however, the two of them had their moments of course, when draco had brought her chocolate frogs back then in second year. he was only sweet to her during their first and second year, and they started arguing over little things after that.
draco malfoy, was one intolerant, conceited and grouchy kid. at most times, he's quiet. he likes to peer over his friends and listen to their conversations, say a snarky comment if he has to, but overrall draco malfoy is quiet who hid the negative personalities under that snarl of his. he acts on his impulsive thoughts, and is insensitive. but his friends only know the façade he had been putting on under his bad temperament.
draco malfoy is one mysterious kid.
—
theodore nott
we were sprawled around the common room, everyone was doing their own thing, pansy was doing homework with enzo, blaise and mattheo were talking about the quidditch match and their strategies, daphne was on prefect duties, madison was reading a book while i was just smoking.
the smell of my cigarette overpowered the damp, humidifier-like scent of the common room.
"hey, pans, can you come with me at the owlery?" madison asked, closing her book. pansy did the same. my eyes peered up at them as i watched madison's every movement.
"yeah, sure." both girls stood up, enzo looked up from his parchment and watched as the girls left the common room.
"weird." i look over to enzo.
"what's weird?" blaise asks.
enzo suddenly turns to me, my eyebrows slightly raise as i realize that he noticed me staring. "you noticed it?" he asked, making me let out a small chuckle.
"definitely."
"noticed what?" draco asked, suddenly butting in the conversation.
"hello? you haven't seen it at all? the girls are changing!" enzo whispered.
"changing, how?" mattheo asked.
"physically!" enzo says as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
it was true though. the girls had went through some changes like all teenage girls go through. daphne got skinnier, and taller. maybe taller than draco or harry. pansy had cut her hair short, and her voice definitely got deeper.
and madison, oh my GOD. madison. she definitely got curvier, and as respectful as possible, her breasts. not that i'm admitting i'm looking at them.
oh my god, theo. what are you thinking? she has a boyfriend for merlin's sake!
"madison though." enzo says, grinning at me. i glare at him.
"oh, right. madison. she definitely changed, right? her hair's kinda long. and she smells good. not that she didn't smell good last year but, it's like she has a new perfume?" blaise stated, i nodded at him.
enzo suddenly made an hourglass gesture with his hands, i let out a scoff and shake my head.
"can we stop talking about my sister's physical appearance?" mattheo says, raising an eyebrow at us. me and enzo chuckled as we shared a quick high-five.
i pulled out the joint from my mouth, putting away on the ashtray.
aside from the girls, we also had physical changes. blaise got taller, as tall as the weasley twins. mind you, the three of them are the tallest students in hogwarts. well, draco's the same, except he grew his hair slightly long and was able to take a break from that damn hair gel of his. mattheo's the same. except he was almost the same height as me. enzo too, is everyone just letting their hair grow longer?
"still got it?" enzo asked, mattheo scoffed and pulled up his sleeves, flexing his muscles. "show off." blaise jesters, chuckling a bit.
"how about you, theo?" the boy turns to me, a playful smirk playing on his lips.
i smirk back at enzo, lifting up my shirt as i poke on my abs. shrugging my shoulders full of pride. "still got it."
"motherfucking show offs." draco angrily mumbled under his breath.
"triste, draco? non che ti biasimi, non hai muscoli da mostrare."
(sad, draco? not that i blame you, you don't have muscles to show off.) i grin at him, draco rolled his eyes and snarled at me.
"whatever the fuck that is, fuck you, nott." i laugh at his face.
"what is this? a gym?" pansy and madison walked in, i looked over to them. madison's face was flushing red. i tore my gaze off of her, pulling down my shirt, as i totally did not forget to pull it down earlier.
"you okay, mads? you're red." enzo pointed out, i grin to myself. "i'm fine. it's just hot in here." madison squeaked, fanning her face with her hands.
so fucking cute.
—
i walk in the corridors with madison by my side, she insisted on going out to the kitchen. and me being (unfortunately) the only one awake, i had to accompany her.
not that i'm complaining.
as we arrived, madison tickled the pear and we finally entered. she breathed in the delight smell of breads and made a run for it. "slow down, the house elves are gonna hear you." i whisper, a soft chuckle following after.
"it's fine. they know me."
"you sneak in here all the time?" i asked, bewildered. she only gave me a smile and i already knew the answer to that.
i leaned against the wall while madison hopped on the table in front of me, i watch as she nibbled on the bread. i slightly smile at her, putting my hands in my
pockets.
"you never get caught?"
"uh, no." she sheepishly grinned at me, i chuckle softly.
silence fell again. i couldn't do anything but just admire her. "i have a question." she blurted, i hum in response, slightly tilting my head at her.
"if you could buy any type of food, what would you buy?"
"that's a random question." i laughed, furrowing my eyebrows a bit. "but i'd say, maybe pasta."
"is it because you're italian?"
"maybe?"
madison chuckled, eating the last piece of her bread. "so, how long do you usually end up here? i assume you're always here with pansy and daph."
"around 3am. and yeah, pretty much. especially when daphne's on prefect duties, we have a pass." she grinned, hopping off the counter to get one more bread.
"does ethan go here with you? i assume you two snog in here." i tease slightly, poking her sides. madison jumped and placed a hand on her waist, trying to protect it.
"don't do that! and no, he doesn't. he thinks it's.. you know.. a waste of time." madison shrugs slightly, a slight frown on her face. i close my mouth, not knowing what to say.
there are many reasons as to why we fucking hate ethan. first things first; he's always getting on mattheo's nerves during quidditch practices, second, he's a 6th year, and third, it's like he's more a friend than a boyfriend to madison. oh and to add, he's just fucking ugly. so we created a hate club for ethan harrison back in 3rd year, unfortunately snape found out and gave us detention for it so that's cancelled out.
after a while, we went back to the common room, slightly out of breath as we just had a running marathon from filch. damn peeves, he decided to tell on us!
"okay so, any girls you're interested in?" madison asks.
"i'm not interested with anyone right now, rosie." i softly chuckled. her nose scrunched up a little as i said that. "but didn't you snog with that one girl? what's her name again? jamie? jane?"
"it's jill. why are you suddenly interested in this?"
"because! you're the only one who doesn't have a.. you know, partner yet. pansy has a girlfriend, daphne's basically not allowed, blaise is seeing that ravenclaw girl, draco's the same as daphne, mattheo's an anti-romantic, enzo's.. well, you know how enzo is."
theo chuckled, "i'm fine being single, rosie."
"but why? i like that jill girl. she's good for you!"
"uh, not really." i shake my head. "well do you want me to set you up? you're highly popular with the ladies. what happened to the girls you snogged last year?"
"i was an idiot back then, okay? i'm not 3rd year theodore nott anymore." i laughed. madison did too.
back then, in 3rd year, i've always snucked around and snogged girls. i didn't know what hit me that day. maybe it was to make my feelings go away? i've been in love with madison ever since the day i laid my eyes on her. however, mattheo clearly said he didn't like any of us dating his sister.
"but seriously, why not jill?"
"maddie!" i raised my voice slightly, telling her to stop.
"joking!" she quickly says, chuckling after. "night, teddy." madison whispers to me, kissing my cheek quickly before running up to her dorm. i smiled gently as i stood there for what seemed like a minute, i finally went back to my dormitory.
—
"just to be clear, he isn't gonna.. kill us, right?"
madison worriedly asked. theodore looks down at her, concern written on his face.
"why the hell would a professor kill us?"
"cause.. he's known for taking in death eaters and filling azkaban! he's the reason why draco's auntie bella got captured."
"can you guys not call her bella?" draco snarled, glaring at them. they all stared at him back before turning to madison who was worried about their first DADA class with their new professor, mad-eye moody.
"anyways, yeah. auntie bella's known to be the strongest death eater." enzo jestered, draco let out a loud scoff.
"shut up, berkshire." draco snarled.
they all entered the class, and took their seats as the new professor's mis-matched eyes followed their every movement. maybe his normal eye, his blue eye was going in places.
but it somehow specifically targeted the twins, madison and mattheo. theodore looked over to the girl on his left seeing as she was nervously eyeing mad-eye moody. she was fiddling with her quill as the professor started the lesson.
"right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "i've had a letter from professor lupin about this class. seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling dark creatures. you've covered boggarts, red caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"
madison carefully examines the professor's blue eye. it seemed to be eyeing the twins and harry potter. madison quickly looked away when the magical eye was fixated on her.
"but you're behind — very behind — on dealing with curses," said moody. "so i'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. i've got one year to teach you how to deal with dark—"
"what, aren't you staying?" ron blurted out.
moody's magical eye spun around to stare at ron, but after a moment moody smiled — the first time everyone had seen him do so. his smile made his heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless good to know that he ever did anything as friendly as smile. madison felt shivers running down her spine just by seeing his smile. something doesn't feel right.
"you'll be arthur weasley's son, eh?" moody said. "your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago..yeah, i'm staying just the one year. special favor to dumbledore. one year, and then back to my quiet retirement."
he gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.
"so — straight into it. curses. they come in many strengths and forms. now, according to the ministry of magic, i'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. i'm not supposed to show you what illegal dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. you're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. but professor dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and i say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better."
"how are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? a wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. he's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. you need to be you. you need to be alert and watchful. you need to put that away, miss brown, when i'm talking."
brown jumped and blushed, she quickly leaned away from patil.
"so... do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"
the professor pointed to weasley, who was raising his arm.
"er, my dad told me about one...is it called the imperius curse, or something?"
"ah, yes," moody said. "your father would know that one. gave the ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the imperius curse."
moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it.
moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. he then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "imperio!"
the spider leapt from moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. it stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.
everyone was laughing — everyone except moody.
"think it's funny, do you?" he growled. "you'd like it, would you, if i did it to you?"
the laughter died away almost instantly.
"total control," said moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "i could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats.."
ron gave an involuntary shudder.
"years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the imperius curse," said moody,"some job for the ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will."
"the imperius curse can be fought, and i'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked, and everyone jumped.
moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar.
"anyone else know one? another illegal curse?"
hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, to everyone's slight surprise, did neville's. even at himself, he looked surprise.
"yes?" said moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on neville.
"there's one — the cruciatus curse," said neville in a small but distinct voice.
moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes.
"your name's longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.
neville nodded nervously, but moody made no further inquiries. turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.
"the cruciatus curse," said moody. "needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," he said, pointing his wand at the spider. "engorgio!"
the spider swelled. it was now larger than a tarantula.
moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, "crucio!"
at once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. no sound came from it, moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently.
madison watched in horror, she carefully moved her head and saw her brother whose eyes were widened slightly, and he wasn't moving one bit.
"stop it!" hermione said shrilly. she was looking at neville whose hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified.
moody's raised his wand. the spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.
"reducio," moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size. he put it back into the jar.
"pain," said moody softly. "you don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the cruciatus curse. that one was very popular once too."
"right..anyone know any others?"
madison looked around, she met eyes with her brother, who was subtly shaking his head. slowly, she raised her arm and turned to moody.
"yes?" said moody, looking at her.
"the killing curse." she whispered gently, however moody heard her. the mention of it, made people uneasy. it was due to the fact that they heard of curse before, or worse, experienced it.
"ah," said moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "yes, the last and worst. avada kedavra.. the killing curse. your father's known for it. right, miss riddle?"
theo's eyebrows furrowed at this, he glanced at his friends who was glaring up at moody for the insensitive mention of the twins' father.
he put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. it started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.
moody raised his wand. "avada kedavra!" with a flash of green light and a rushing sound, the spider went limp and was now rested at the desk. it was unmistakably dead.
several of the students stifled cries.
moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor.
"not nice," he said calmly. "not pleasant. and there's no countercurse. there's no blocking it. only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."
both of moody's eyes fixated on harry, and everyone did too, stare at him. harry stared at the blank blackboard as though fascinated by it, but not really seeing it at all. madison let out a shaky breath, glancing over to harry.
she felt guilt ripping her apart as moody said that. she knew it was her father's doing, but now seeing as he was dead, she felt like she was at fault and was responsible for her father's actions. and people who've met her made sure she was responsible for it.
the rest of the class, they took down notes about the three curses. no one spoke, it was quiet after experiencing the effects of the illegal dark curses.
and when moody had dismissed them when the bell rang, madison quickly packed up all her stuffs and left the classroom, not even bothering to stay and wait for her friends.
"where's maddie?" mattheo rushed to theo, the boy whipped his head around to see that madison had already left.
"fuck." mattheo whispered under his breath, as he passed by theo and was about to run after his sister.
"riddle." a strong voice spoke behind him, mattheo turned around to see moody standing there. "may i have a word with you?"
mattheo glanced at theo who just gave him a nod, mattheo gave him a pleading look and theo nodded once again as if to tell him he'd handle madison for now.
"what is it, sir?" mattheo asked, moody tilted his head towards his office and mattheo reluctantly followed him up there.
the snakes soon left the classroom. "you reckon maddie's alright?" daphne asked. blaise scoffed.
"how? that professor mentioned voldemort and how he was known for mercilessly using the killing curse."
"theo, you should go talk to maddie. i'm sure she's somewhere in the loo. or myrtle's bathroom." theo nodded at pansy and walked away from the group.
madison was looking at herself in the mirror, a mocking laugh was heard right behind her. it was myrtle. "oh, poor you." madison turned around.
"don't talk to me, myrtle."
when word gone out that harry had defeated the basilisk and found out that tom riddle, or voldemort was behind the petrified students, the twins knew they were at risk. but they specifically targeted madison, knowing she was the most vulnerable twin than mattheo.
"but you should've known!" myrtle says. "he killed me, didn't he?!"
"is that my fault?" madison snapped.
"you should've known that the blame was going to be put on you ever since you stepped a foot into this school!"
"it isn't my fault that my father killed a fucking annoying girl." madison raised her voice, myrtle loudly gasped at this. madison's eyes widened, her hand flying to her mouth.
"myrtle, i didn't.. i didn't mean it—"
myrtle then broke into sobs as she floated away, madison ran her fingers through her hair and ran towards the exit. coincidentally, theo was walking towards myrtle's bathroom.
madison grunted as she bumped into theo's chest, theo grabbed her wrist before she could fall. "merlin, rosie. are you okay?"
"i'm fine." she says, slightly out of breath. "are you crying?"
"i'm not."
"you better keep an eye on your little girlfriend! she doesn't do anything but hurt people's feelings." theo turned to myrtle who let out a choked sob before floating away from them.
"what happened?" theo asked, pulling madison away from the bathroom. "i don't know, i just.. accidentally snapped at myrtle. i should've not raised my hand back there. god."
—
madison riddle
i shuddered. the mention of my father always have some weird effect on me and i hated it.
"even if you didn't, it would still have affected you badly." theo firmly says, not removing his hand from my wrist.
theo stopped and turned to me, i felt him intertwining his hands with mine. "maddie, you know that it's okay to speak to us about this, right?"
"yeah, i know. i just.."
"if something's bothering you, you go to any of us." i nod at him whilst he smiled. theo had always been there for me and mattheo, he looks out for us. i think it's because he knew what we've been through ever since 3rd year.
"hey, nott!" i turned around to see ethan marching up down to us, i glanced up at theo as he was immediately glaring at ethan.
he glanced down at our hands as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from theo. "reckon you wanna take your hands off my girlfriend?"
"i'm just comforting her, mate."
"does she need to hold your hand?"
"yeah, because unlike you, i know what she's going through. while you're too busy eye-fucking her from afar."
"theo, stop." i whisper to him. i felt ethan breathe heavily behind me, i turned around and placed a hand on his chest. "please, stop. there's too many people around here."
"mads, let's go. don't want you around this guy." theo scoffed, shaking his head as ethan tightly gripped my wrist and dragged me away from him.
i looked over to my shoulder to see theo giving me a disappointed kind of look. i quickly look away, knitting my eyebrows together as ethan and i continued to walk down to the dungeons.
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