The pain of last year hasn't been forgotten, as Valentina Black wishes. She has already lost her mother and sister, but now she has to live with the grief of losing Cedric Diggory.
Will she lose more of the people she loves and cares so much for? O...
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"Shouldn't Tina be back by now?" Enzo asks as they sit around in her room, twenty minutes after she said she was going to go see Harry.
Pansy nods her head in agreement and throws herself on Valentina's bed. "Surely it wouldn't take this long to talk to Potter."
"Her dad just died," Blaise cuts in while looking at Pansy. "Potter knew her father better than any of us. They're probably sharing memories about him or something."
"You have to admit she was acting different before she left," Draco chimes in as he looks at the oversized grey hoodie his cousin gave him.
"He has a point," Pansy says and sits up with a worried look. "She gave me half her clothes and Tina never gets rid of her clothes or shares them."
"She was writing something," Mattheo says and shoots to his feet. "She was writing when we came in."
Enzo shoots up onto his feet and starts to look through her trunk in panic as he realizes what Mattheo is implying.
"Why are you freaking out?" Blaise asks Enzo as he stands up too.
"Look for a letter. A piece of paper. Anything!" Mattheo orders as he starts to look through her textbooks and homework.
"Shit," Theo whispers as he rushes into her bathroom.
The six of them start to frantically look around her room but Mattheo freezes as his eyes land on a piece of paper—addressed to them all.
"Is that it?" Enzo asks as he stops behind Mattheo, also noticing the letter.
The others halt their searching and face Mattheo as he slowly picks up the letter and opens it, reading it out loud.
"By the time you read this, it will be too late for anyone to stop me, but please read the whole letter before you go looking for me,"—Mattheo's voice cracks as tears fill his eyes—"because my words will give you the answers. After Cedric died, I knew I could one day move on from the pain and grief of his death and that's why I kept going. In all honesty, if I didn't have you guys around to help me then I most likely would have still been high every day and slowly killing myself. But now it's a different story. I can't keep living through this pain any longer. My father was the last parent I had left, and we were mean to each other in the short moments we had. Now I'll never get to apologize to him and make things better, but with you guys, I can apologize. I'm so sorry for how I've been acting since the passing of Cedric, and it was never fair that any of you had to take care of me. I don't want to put you all through that again and I don't want to go through all this pain again. So, here is my apology to you all and I hope you can forgive me once I've passed—"
Mattheo drops the note and pushes past Enzo and Blaise before sprinting out of Valentina's dorm room, feeling his heart drop at the end of the note. He never thought she would try anything like this at all and now he can't help but blame himself for not noticing the obvious signs.
"Where are you going?" Blaise shouts from behind Mattheo as he follows with Enzo.
Mattheo doesn't stop or turn around as he sprints out of the common room, ignoring the confused glances. "Find Hermione!" He shouts to the boys and sprints for the astronomy tower, knowing that she goes there when she's upset.
His breathing turns shaky as he takes two steps at a time up the tower, feel more emotions than ever run through his body. He knows deep down that if he loses her then he will lose himself.
The air leaves his lungs as he hears sobs coming from the top.
"Princess," he whispers as he sees her standing on the edge, looking down at the ground below her. "Valentina, please don't do this."
Valentina looks over her shoulder at Mattheo with tears streaming down her face. "Don't come closer."
"We both know I don't listen," Mattheo says, slowly getting closer to her.
Another sob escapes her throat as she shakes her head. "I can't do this. I can't keep living through this pain, Matty. It's killing me."
Little did she know, this was killing him just as much, especially as she said his nickname that only she had ever used on him without knowing the effect it had over him.
"I'll help you get through this," he says as a tear slides down his face and his own heart drums in his ears. "Just come back over here, please."
"I never hated you," she whispers and his break breaks at her words. "I know we had our bad moments, but I never hated you, Mattheo. Please don't forget," she then turns around and faces the ground again, reaching her foot off the edge. "I love you all."
Mattheo leaps, closing the small space between them, and grabs her, pulling her into his arms just as she was about to fall off the edge.
"No," she sobs as he holds her against his chest. "Let me do this!" She yells and the tears silently fall down his face. "Let me go! I can't do this anymore!"
"I can't do that," he mumbles as he cradles the back of her head. "I can't let you go through with this."
"I give up," she cries while shaking her head. "I'm too tired to keep fighting."
"I know," he says softly into her hair. "But I'm here. Enzo will stay with you over the break and take care of you. Once you get back, I'll never leave you," he consoles her.
She sniffles and looks up at him, noticing the tears on his face and she hesitates but wipes them away as he looks down at her. "I'm sorry."
He gives her a nod and then places a kiss on her forehead. "I'm sorry that this is partly my fault."
"This is not your fault," she snaps and then apologizes. "You are not your father," she whispers, and another tear slides down his face. "You are better than him, Matty."
With those words, his heart warms up and he realizes that she's right. He will never be like his father, and he will not allow himself to get the Dark Mark like his father has been trying to make him over the last few weeks.
"Let's get you back to your dorm," Mattheo whispers and picks her up as she wraps her legs around his waist and tucks her head into the crook of his neck, closing her eyes.
•Author's Note• Andddd that's the end of book 2. I'll start to post the next book soon!
