BOOK 1: PHILOSOPHER. (Mattheo Riddle).

Chapter 23.

╔∘₊✧═══════════╗
PHILOSOPHER.
Chapter 23.
╚═══════════✧₊∘╝

Mattheo moves through the castle freely, the Disillusionment Charm allows him to move past ghosts and everything without being detected. He feels powerful, as if he could do anything right now, and no one would know that it's him.

The urge to sneak into Snape's room to haunt him is powerful, but he would likely be caught, and then expelled. So Mattheo is settling for a lesser form of rebellion.

"Alohamora" Mattheo tries on the lock for the Restricted Section. He's copying the movements that Lorenzo made when they snuck into Fluffy's chamber.

The staircase goes down into the Restricted Section, but it's gates off, and the lock has been charmed so it can't be opened magically. "It's never easy, is it?" Mattheo hisses. Why couldn't this one thing just go smoothly.

It takes him about an hour of rifling through the draws and things on Madam Pince's desk, only to find the key is hidden in one of the lantern.

The key is hot to the touch. The magic that is imbued in the key quickly cools it down enough for Mattheo to grasp.

"Stupid..." Mattheo curses, that's the type of hiding spot that he would pick himself, he kicks himself that he didn't check there first.

Once he's slipped the lock off the gate and slid it open, he descends down into the Restricted Section of the Library.

Even being down here makes Mattheo cringe, as the whole place seemed to radiate dark magic. There is no light down here at all, so Mattheo has to illuminate his wand to get a good view of where he's going.

Mattheo tries his best to look at the book titles on the spine, but they're old and faded and some are even covered in what looks to be dried blood. Mattheo chooses to leave the blood covered books alone. And he may have been imagining it, but from one of the books Magick Moste Evil he's sure that he can hear the hissing sound of whispers, but he can understand them at the same time.

Seems like as good a place as any, the last time he understood hissing it had saved his life, that day in the storm drain.

Mattheo takes the small black and silver book from its slot in the bookcase, it's chained in so that no one can remove this volume from the Library. Given that the book contains the most evil dark magic ever known to be attempted.

Mattheo unlatches the copy of Magick Moste Evil but he doesn't have to open the book, as if flips open on its own. The screams of hundreds of voice echo out of the pages and dark smoke fires up into the air.

Mattheo manages to slam the book shut before much of it can escape. But little flitters of black smoke still zip out of the Restricted Section.

"Shit" Mattheo curses.

"Who's there?!" The voice of Filch screams out into the darkness. Mattheo freezes in place, he's still invisible, but does it work against cats?

Mrs Norris is the first to come creeping down the stairs to the Restricted Section. Mattheo has no choice but to leave the book alone, he doesn't have the time to force it back into its shelf.