Where the Flowers Used to Grow [Mattheo Riddle]

Chapter 16

June 2003

"So, that's where you went."

"It's the one thing I don't regret." Florence stated openly. "I don't know what would have happened to me if I'd stayed there, Harry. I had to get out."

"And leave the rest of the students behind?" Harry interrupted coldly.

"None of them spoke to me anyway! I couldn't help them even though I wanted to-"

"Still, once again you disappear to play house with a murderer." Florence's head fell into her hands. She was exhausted, and knew the rest of the story only got darker, and it was only going to get harder.

"I would've come with you if you'd let me." She whispered into her palms. "I had to do what I had to do to survive, Harry. I had to survive without you, or 'Mione, or Ron. I was completely alone... a part from him."

---

December 1997

"Get up" Florence kicked him. She'd been hiding in her room for a month, only coming out to eat in silence. Seeing her in his room, her parents former room, immediately concerned him, and he quickly sat up. She blinked as the duvet fell off him, revealing his sculpted torso. She stared at how his body bent as he moved, how the muscles in his formed arms grew and receded.

"Florence." He bowed his head, trying to get her attention back. Her eyes widened as she snapped out of her trance.

"There were people talking outside. I have a bad feeling-" Suddenly the pair heard the downstair door open and multiple footsteps entering the house.

"Get behind me." Mattheo stood up and stared at the door. Florence obeyed, tucking her body behind his, holding on to his arm as he wrapped it backwards around her.

"Mattheo." She whispered, peering out from behind him.

"Shh." He clung onto her, responding to how she pressed herself against him. "Don't worry." He whispered as the door opened in front of them. She felt Mattheo sigh in front of her, making her lift her eyes around his arm.

"Draco?" Florence exclaimed involuntary. The man in front of her looked so different to the boy she'd known, his perfectly combed platinum hair contrasted dramatically with his slick black suit.

"Mattheo, you know she was supposed to stay at Hogwarts." Even Draco's voice seemed deeper, more menacing.

"Well, I decided differently." Mattheo hummed cooly, shrugging his shoulders. Florence kept herself pressed against him, but her head peaked further and further out from behind him.

"Carrow was watching her-"

"Now I am." Mattheo shook his head, grinning. "Is there a problem with that, lads?" He took a step forward, removing his arm from behind him leaving Florence standing alone like a statue.

"You know there is, Riddle." Draco hissed. Florence blinked. 'Riddle?' She thought to herself. Before she could continue her line of thought she saw Draco and the two men with him all extend their wands towards him. Mattheo relaxed his tense hand, lifting his arms up while smiling.

"Come on Malfoy, you know you can't hurt me." Mattheo took a step towards them, pressing his chest into Draco's wand. "Remember when I sliced you open, Malfoy? I watched all the blood spurt out of you like a fountain." Mattheo grinned. "Then came all the other shit, do you remember? All that fucking gunk and crap." Mattheo laughed loudly, turning back to Florence for a moment. "I'd cut through his stomach!" He laughed, shaking his head as his hands laid on his heaving chest. "But, we were young weren't we, Malfoy? We made mistakes then." Mattheo's grin moulded into a dark smirk, his hands raising in front of him. "We're too old for those now." As he scrunched his hands into tight fists the men either side of Draco dropped their wands as their fingers desperately began to scratch at their necks. Florence watched as their faces turned purple, their legs kicking frantically as their bodies levitated in front of her. She looked at Mattheo's back, at how he moved his fingers as if he was massing their oesophagi.

"Mattheo." Florence whispered, completely paralysed in shock. "Mattheo, stop now." She stated, her voice sounding distant and foreign to her. Mattheo looked back to see her staring, not in shock or horror but in disturbed amazement.

"As you wish, my dear." He smiled proudly, bringing his hands back to his sides and turning his back on the two men falling unconscious to the floor. He went and stood next to her, and to his surprise she immediately picked up his hands. Her fingers looked so small compared to his as analysed them with her touch.

"Riddle." Mattheo sighed, turning his eyes back to Draco.

"Malfoy be very careful-"

"We're here at your father's behest." Florence felt Mattheo's hands turn cold in her grasp, his body exuding a terrible feel of sharpness and pain. Florence dropped his hands, her brain only starting to dissect the name.

"Riddle." She whispered under her breath.

"Run, Malfoy." Mattheo stalked towards him, towering over him as darkness began to shroud over him like a hooded cloak. "Run and tell my father I am not under his command, that I will not bow and stoop to the levels of my former peers, such as yourself. Run back to daddy before I fucking gut you like the spineless pig you are." Mattheo's skin burned red despite the darkness that covered him like armour being ice cold. Draco ran, knowing full well not to say another word, scampering over his fallen comrades as he flew through the door.

"Time to go, Flo." Mattheo turned back to see her wand extended towards him, a strange expression on her face. "Flora, it's really not the time for this." He walked towards her but she backed away, keeping her aim straight and still.

"I know who you are." She spoke softly, her chaotic mind finally coming to a still. "Everything makes sense now." She smiled, an unfamiliar deranged grin growing on her lips. "I see you. I see you for what you really are, who you really are." Mattheo raised his eyebrows at her, watching the relief grow on her face as she realised she wasn't going insane, that there really was more to this story.

"Well, it took you long enough didn't it?" He smiled, his hand landing on her wand and pushing it down to her side. "I'm still proud of you though, little mouse." He leaned down and placed a cool, cold peck on her forehead. "But, we should probably-"

"Expelliarmus!" Florence raised her wand as soon as she noticed his hand falling into the back on his trousers. His wand went flying into the wall as he fell backwards onto the floor. She strode over him, landing her legs wither side of his waist.

"Talk." She stated, looking down at him as she crouched her body over his.

"You heard it here first hand." He grimaced. "I don't work for him, Lake." His hands landed on her ankles, his fingers slowly swirling their way over her skin, up her legs. "But at least now you know why I have such a bad temper." He grinned, slowly sitting up. "I get it from my father." Suddenly he grabbed her thighs, pulling her down to him. She gasped as her knees landed either side of him and she sat onto his thighs. Her hands landed on his chest, trying to keep her body from pressing onto his. One of his hands crept up to the back of her neck, pushing her head towards his, while the other began running up the inside of her skirt, her warm thighs warming his fingertips.

"Do you understand the risks I've taken for you now, Lake?" She felt his fingers dipping under her underwear, rubbing against her bum.

"That's why I'm confused." She stared into his dark eyes, knowing full well that her body would be his soon, but desperate to keep her mind. "You must really need me for something to take such a big risk." His grip forced her lips to his, his tongue parting her lips and pushing itself into her mouth. She gasped as his hand began to squeeze her behind, his fingers digging into her soft skin.

"Why can't you just believe that I'm trying to do what's right?" He grinned.