Stay - Mattheo Riddle

Enemies of the heir, beware

The Halloween feast had ended and Theodore Nott had insisted on walking the girl back to the Hufflepuff basement, but not before taking her on a small stroll around the halls, enjoying it while they wouldn't get in trouble.

"Thanks for inviting me to sit with you guys tonight," Kirra told him with a wide smile and he grinned over at her, "my friends aren't really talking to me right now besides the twins and my team, so its good to know that I have your support."

His smile dropped slightly, but he tried to keep a happy face for her

"of course princess. You're the only person in this school that I actually consider my friend," he told her honestly and she seemed shocked to hear it. It was clear that he preferred spending time by himself but she thought that he would have considered the others to at least be his friend.

Neither of them said anything for a while, the two of them just walked down the halls silently but then Theodore spoke up. "when I was 9, I saw my mum get killed" he muttered out to her, "you actually remind me a lot of her, she would have loved you"

Kirra was shocked and didn't know what to say to him, she wanted to ask what happened but then that would just be her being nosey and she definitely didn't want to be nosey and she didn't want to upset him either.

Kirra stopped walking and then pulled the boy in for a hug and unlike the last time, he didn't flinch at all. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her waist instantly and nuzzled his face into her neck. She rubbed his back and held onto him tightly, "it's okay" she muttered as she heard him sniffle and felt her neck begin to get wet from his tears.

"She killed herself," he muttered out "she killed herself because she didn't want me because I'm a monster just like my father," he cried and she hushed him softly her heart breaking as he broke in her arms

"You're not a Monster Theo and don't let anyone tell you otherwise." She hushed him and he pulled away and quickly wiped his tears off his face and smiled at her. He couldn't be more grateful to have her in his life and he was going to do whatever he could not to screw it up.

"come on let's get you back to your dorm," he told her with a smile and she went to interject but stopped as she heard the notorious voice again.

". . . rip . . . tear . . . kill . . ." It was the same voice, the same cold, murderous voice she had heard in Lockhart's office. She stumbled to a halt, clutching at the stone wall, listening with all her might, looking around, squinting up and down the dimly lit passageway.

"Princess, what're you — ?"

"It's that voice again — don't talk for a minute please, im sure im not imagining it —"

". . . soo hungry . . . for so long . . ." the voice continued, Kirra played with the hair tie on her wrist as she shivered

"Listen!" said Kirra and Theodore looked confused while Mattheo came around the corner quickly, concern on his face

"You're telling me that you can hear it?" He asked her and she and Nott turned to look at him too, both of them surprised that he could hear it

"wait so you can hear it? Its not just Harry and I?" She asked in shock.

Riddle felt worry course through him, why could she speak pastletounge? ". . . kill . . . time to kill . . ."

The voice was growing fainter. Kirra and Mattheo were sure it was moving away —moving upward. A mixture of fear and excitement gripped Kirra as she stared at the dark ceiling; how could it be moving upward? Was it a phantom, to whom stone ceilings didn't matter?

"This way," she shouted, and she began to run, up the stairs, into the entrance hall. It was no good hoping to hear anything here, the babble of talk from the Halloween feast was echoing out of the Great Hall.