Spirals || Mattheo Riddle

꩜ Chapter 61 ꩜

A/N: First off I would like to say, sorry for disappearing for a bit but I've officially finished my exams and now have time to write to my heart's content. Secondly, we hit 100K, WHAT?! I'm in shock to be honest. Thirdly, I would recommend going back and reading from Chapter 58 to here, just to catch up. Lots of love xx

Hot knives felt as if they were ripping through my consciousness, cutting away at my storage of memories. I heard my own scream as images of Mattheo flashed behind my eyelids. The sensation spread from a point on my forehead, a focal point for the blinding pain that drove me to the edge of nothing. I didn't know what would happen if I tipped over that edge but I was prepared to do almost anything to escape the pain that made my head feel like it had been submerged in boiling water.

And just as quickly as it started, it stopped. A voice cut through the ringing in my ears. "Oh my dear Mattheo. What have you done?"

A breath of air burned my lungs as if I had been deprived of it for all my life. My heart clung onto the name and I forced my eyes open.

Mattheo stood a short 10 feet away from me, his gaze trained solely on me and fury burning within them. Men and women with claws and teeth like blades surrounded us, their lips pulled back over their canines in threat. A puff of air against my neck made me freeze and I realised I was being held up, great big arms enclosed me and the smell of rotting flesh had my stomach rolling. We were in the Astronomy tower, high above the school and fighting below.

But the final thing that caught my attention, not the unfamiliar thing holding me in the air or the werewolves creeping around my boyfriend and myself, was the humanoid man just in front of me. His head was bald and pale like his hands, standing out against the black of his robes. Eyes like a snake's and a grin on his face like a deranged man, Voldemort stood tall and impending, his breath coming out in short laughs.

"I thought- oh this is not at all what I expected," he huffed another laugh, his voice like nails on a chalkboard. "I thought you had more promise than this. How disappointing to think that I was wrong."

Mattheo's eyes had not left mine. Swells of emotion rose like waves behind them but he didn't say anything, didn't call out for me or give any indication that he was going to try to get to me.

"I would apologise, but I'm not sorry," he replied curtly.

"Oh I can see that," the Dark Lord breathed. "I can see that quite clearly. Had I known the real reason Mr Holt had not been killed by your hand was because of a girl, I would have left more cuts in your body than you would have been able to survive," he hissed.

Mattheo flinched but kept his composure, his jaw clenching so hard I thought I may have heard an audible crack.

A stone dropped in my gut the second he broke eye contact with me. I willed him to bring his gaze back to me but he turned to face his father. I searched around us, trying to see something that I could use to fight. The arms around me tightened as the man holding me realised I was awake. I twisted my neck, looking back to see bloodthirsty eyes staring back at me. Greyback licked his lips and pulled in a breath of air through his nose, smelling the skin of my neck. I pushed away from him but it was no use.

I continued looking around, but my heart stopped as I looked over to see Pansy, Blaise, Theo and Draco lying next to each other, unconscious against the wall to my right. Pansy's leg was clearly broken and blood was smeared across Blaise's face. I waited, training my eyes on each of their chests to check for the rise and fall of their lungs. They were alive, if only just.

"Aunt Bella, can you walk?" Mattheo asked the black haired woman on the floor. I bit my lip as I concentrated, pushing past the fog in my mind to remember who she was. Bellatrix Lestrange. The insane woman whimpered and nodded, shuffling towards him. He offered her a hand and looked to his father. Voldemort only rolled his jaw, and Mattheo took that for what it was. "Go. Apparate and do not come back," he imparted.