Fighting Fate // Mattheo Riddle ♣️

Chapter Fourteen - Voices

Word Count: 2,193.

Warnings: None.

"He just ignored you?" Draco asked me, taking a sip of his drink.

I nodded, piercing a sausage with my fork and biting the end off it. "He basically told me to fuck off. It was..." I paused, "worrying."

"What happened?" Mattheo asked, joining the conversation.

The three of us were the first awake in our Common Room and we had all quickly made it down to the Great Hall for breakfast. The room was gradually getting louder as more students entered through its doors.

I shook my head. "I don't know," I told him. "He came back looking quite odd the night after that party and since then he's been as distant, if not more, than you were last year. I'm worried."

"Could it have been Umbridge? Maybe she caught him leaving the Gryffindor Common Room," Draco suggested.

I shook my head. "I doubt it."

"She couldn't have done more than scold him if she did," Riddle explained but Draco turned to him.

"She's been hurting students," he told the boy.

Mattheo turned to me. "What?" he asked.

"Umbridge has a quill. I saw it in her office, but it doesn't use ink. Harry had detention with her the other day, and he had to write lines. Only when he tried to write on the paper, it ended up scribing itself into his hand," I recounted.

Riddle's eyes widened. "You're fucking with me."

"I wish we were mate," Malfoy told him.

"Wait," Mattheo turned his gaze back to mine. "What were you doing in Umbridge's office?" he asked me.

I sighed. "I went to talk to her about what she did to Harry. I was quite riled up," I started.

"Why do I miss everything?" Riddle asked, looking to Malfoy for a moment.

Draco shrugged his shoulders. "Lyra Black doesn't have a schedule that everyone follows."

"Anyway," I continued. "I was there to complain but before I could enter I realised that there was someone else in there with her. Arguing with the toad."

"Who was it?"

"I don't know, but the way they were talking." My gaze moved to Riddle's collarbone where his Dark Mark sat. "It sounded like she was a Death Eater, or at least working for your father in some prospect."

Riddle's eyes widened further. "Merlin," he sighed.

"She was complaining about how she was an 'utter menace' and that she needed to be punished," Draco continued for me.

"And we can only assume that she was talking about yours truly," I added, pointing to myself.

"But then he said something about he wants her left alone or, what was it?" Draco asked me.

"The man said that he had a plan and for that work, this she needed to be left alone and the way he said 'he' made me think he was talking about your father."

Mattheo bit his cheek. "I knew he had spies in the Ministry, but in Hogwarts? I would have thought that Dumbledore wouldn't have let that happen."

"He didn't have a choice," Draco cut in. "Fudge ordered Dumbledore to take on Umbridge as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. If he didn't, the Ministry could have taken his position as Headmaster."