Riddle Me This

11

Later...

Ugh. I had detention. With the one person I wanted to avoid the most.

"Let's get going," I grumbled. Me and the rest of my group were lounging in the common room. Me and Mattheo stood up from our opposite sides of the couch.

"Good luck Mattheo!" Draco called as we walked to the door. I turned around to give him a glare. Everyone laughed. Mattheo chuckled.

"Come on, shithead," I said, grabbing his forearm and dragging him out the door.

"Okay, okay. No need to drag me, Potter," he said, smirking. I rolled my eyes. "If we're late, I'm gonna have to deal with you for the rest of next week," I said. "All the better," Mattheo said.

I huffed and began to quickly walk to our detention room. A.k.a Professor Dracula's office.

"Miss Potter. Mr. Riddle," Snapey's voice drawled from inside the room as we stood in the doorway. "What torture do you have planned for us today, Professor?" I asked, walking into the room. "Filch will accompany you two to the Forbidden Forest, where you two will proceed to find everything on this list. You have until 7:00," he said, handing both me and Mattheo a piece of paper. Lots of potion shit, like herbs and weird plants that we probably won't find in a fucking forest.

"Ummm, sir? What if we can't find any of these?" I asked cautiously. "Then I will just have to find them myself," Snape sighed. "I'm here, Professor!" Filch's voice said from the doorway. Me and Mattheo turned to see him standing there, accompanied, as always, by Mrs. Norris. 

"Ahhhhh, so these are the chatterboxes?" he asked, crossing his arms. "No it's the air," I grumbled. Mattheo snickered as Filch narrowed his eyes. 

"You may go on your way now," Snape said, waving us off. I rolled my eyes and followed Filch out the door, Mattheo right behind me. 

"Do you know where to find any of this stuff?" I asked as we walked down the corridors. I read some of the ingredients on the page. "What the fuck is gillyweed?" I asked, my brows furrowing. "I don't know any more than you do," Mattheo said, shrugging. "Great. Now we have to spend until dark searching for shit we don't even know a thing about," I muttered. "Tell me about it," Mattheo grumbled. 

"Let's hope we run into Hermione along the way," I said. We were nearing the entrance. Filch opened the gates, and let me and Mattheo walk in front of him. 

"To make sure that you two won't run off," he said. I rolled my eyes. "Do you think we could?" I asked. 

We walked in silence the rest of the way to the forest. 

"Well, you may begin your foraging," Filch said when we reached the edge of the forest. "We aren't gonna eat what we find," I grumbled. "What's with all the grumbling, Cae?" Mattheo asked, smirking. I let out a huff and began to look for things on the list.

After a while, me and Mattheo had come up with a reasonable portion of things on our lists. We decided that Snape would be satisfied.

"Mr. Filch? We finished!" I called. It was already dark out. I could only make out the shapes of trees and Mattheo next to me. 

There was no answer.

"Fuck," Mattheo muttered. "Mr. Filch?!" I yelled into the darkness. No answer. "Oh God. We're all alone out here!" I screamed hysterically. "Let's not freak out, shall we?" Mattheo asked. Screw not freaking out. I was fucking terrified.

Mattheo pulled out his wand. "Lumos!" he said. A small light grew on the tip of his wand. Now I could actually see a few feet in front of me. I saw that we were in a small clearing.

"Mr. Filch!" I screamed again. "Cae, no matter what you do, he won't hear you. He's probably left us here," Mattheo said. "Oh God," I said. The shadows danced in my eyes.

I saw death eaters peeking out from every tree.

I blinked.

They vanished.

I blinked again.

Voldemort stood in the clearing, cackling. I let out a scream and covered my eyes.

"Hey hey hey, it's okay. We'll find a way out," Mattheo said, wrapping me into a hug. I burrowed into the nook between his shoulder and his neck, sobbing. He rubbed my back in soothing circles.

When I had finally calmed down, I heard leaves crunching in the distance. Me and Mattheo froze. Then, Mattheo picked me up and carried me to hide behind a tree. 

"Where are you, you little troublemakers?" a raspy voice called out. I ran out from behind the tree and into the clearing. "Cae! Get back here!" Mattheo hissed. I ignored him. "Mr. Filch?" I called. 

"There ain't no Mr. Filch in these woods," the voice came from a dark space. My heart pounded in my ears. Where was this guy? 

"Cae," Mattheo whispered. I slowly backed behind the tree we hid behind and into Mattheo's chest. I expected him to maybe push me away, but he surprised me by putting his hands on my shoulders from behind. 

"We have to get out of here," Mattheo leaned down to whisper in my ear. His hot breath sent tingles down my spine. But I shoved away those thoughts and focused on the situation I was in.

"How?" I asked as quiet as I could. I could hear leaves crunching again, and my heart rate increased. Mattheo pulled out his wand. "Accio Firebolt," he whispered. 

I didn't expect anything to happen, but like a bullet coming towards us, a broom flew in our direction. Mattheo grabbed it in mid-air.

"Hurry, Cae," he whispered. I jumped onto the broom. "Oi! You two get back here!" the voice came again. Mattheo jumped on behind me and leaned forward. He quickly put his hands on the broomstick, kicked off, and we flew up into the air.

Long time no updates! Well, hope you're enjoying the book so far! Love y'all!<3

-Clare