Where the Flowers Used to Grow [Mattheo Riddle]

Chapter 21

June 2003

She blinked up to see colours flashing in front of her, hexes and curses flying around in a bright explosion of blood-curdling screams. She watched as the guards fell one by one, collapsing around her like crumbling pillars bringing everything down on top of her. She blinked up, her eyes landing on the man approaching her. She cowered on the floor until she saw the man extend his hand down towards her, his face calm and unnerved by the lifeless bodies strewn around him. When she refused to move he bent down and grabbed her, dragging her outside. She tried to shout out for Viktor but before she could the man disapparated with her in his grasp. She fought him with all her might, but she still  landed next to him, stumbling and falling onto the floor. She looked up around her, scrambling to her feet in the darkness. There was noise, loud and impending. As she stood she felt the salty breeze hit her, the waves crashing behind her. The man tried to grab her arm but she took a shaky step backwards, her bare toes landing in the shallow water, the damp sand rising and sinking her feet.

"Let her go." She froze, her eyes immediately closing. She hadn't heard his voice from his lips in five years, but she remembered it perfectly. She'd heard it every night she slept, every night when the cold entered her body, every night when he watched her die in his arms. She slowly opened her eyes to see a dark figure right in front of her. His wide silhouette perfectly outlined by the moonlight.

"Welcome home, little mouse."

---

May 1998

As they reached the end of the tunnel from Aberforth's house Mattheo stopped, grabbing Florence's wrist.

"Flora, there's something..." Mattheo looked towards the door. "I don't know if I should-" Florence lifted her hands to cup his cheeks, bringing his eyes to meet her smile.

"You shouldn't care what they think... I don't anymore." He stared down at her, digesting her words and realising that she was really and truly his, she no longer cared what her insignificant friends thought. He leaned down, pushing his lips into hers, his hands grabbing her and pushing her against the wall, pressing his body against hers. She whimpered into his mouth, only making his heart leap slightly as his fingers ran over her curves, grabbing at her flesh.

"Theo." She pulled his mouth from hers, looking up at him with her kind eyes. "It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. We're here. When Hogwarts needed us we showed up." He shook his head slightly in annoyance at her display of loyalty to something other than him. "Even if the school wasn't very nice to either of us." He smiled down at her.

"I would really prefer if you stayed down here." He lightly pecked her nose, his arms still pressing her into the cold stone wall. "This shit-hole is going to need my help to defeat dear old Tom, so I can't be running around after you." Flora laughed until her eyes read his serious expression. She sighed, lifting her fingers from his chest and reaching around her neck. She pushed herself up onto her tiptoes to gently place the chain around his neck, tucking the glass pendant under the front of his shirt.

"This way you'll always have a piece of me." She smiled up at him. His grip of her tightened.

"That's not what I meant, little mouse. If I have to choose between saving Hogwarts or saving you, I'll let this school sink into the soil, burying all it's students and professors; I'll let the memory of this place evaporate; I'll rid each soul of their chance to be happy, to live, to send their children here just to save you, just to have you for one more minute." Florence stared up at him, her eyes wide but her heart full. All she'd ever wanted was someone to do for her what she'd always done for other people: sacrifice. She threw her lips up onto his with such force he stumbled back, allowing her room to jump up and wrap her legs around him. The heat of her body covered him, shrouding him like a blanket as he dug his tongue into her mouth.