Spirals || Mattheo Riddle

? Chapter 10 ?

Theo seemed pleased that he had taken the joke rather than getting angry. I suppose no one had good impressions of him after his first introduction. 

Pansy cleared her throat, bringing the attention to her. "So Riddle, what brings you to Hogwarts?" Her voice wavered slightly towards the end, not sure of her question.

The dark haired wizard pondered it for a second. "Nothing in particular, I suppose I got bored of getting tutored at home. Plus I heard the parties were something special." He shrugged, not really giving a proper answer. His eyes darted from one member of the group to another, analysing them in a way that resonated with me, because it was the same thing I did.

"Why didn't I see you at the start of year one then?" she inquired, twisting a bit of hair around her index finger. My chest tightened slightly at the sight of my friend flirting with him. A spike of jealously ran through me seeing him give that award winning smirk to someone else. 

No, fuck off. It wasn't jealousy, it was something else. Maybe there was something wrong with me? I was sick, having inhaled too many fumes in the potions classroom. 

"I wasn't really in the mood for the last one, though I did stop in towards the end." His eyes came to mine and captured me completely.  They smothered me in the strangest way and my brain itched at the feeling they placed in my belly. The dark brown was so familiar and configuring.

And then it clicked.

That night at the party, someone had saved me, carried me back to my dorm.

The dark eyes that had haunted my waking moments since then. Why hadn't I put it together sooner?

My breathing hitched as my brain caught up on all this information. I remembered it all, up until I passed out in his arms at least.

It could have been someone else, but I knew it wasn't. Goosebumps covered my arms almost in confirmation.

Those eyes of his were still on me though I had turned away. I could feel his gaze in the pit of my stomach and all of a sudden I couldn't take it anymore. I stood up abruptly while Theodore had been saying something smart and walked off to the dormitories. I could hear a couple calls behind me but other than that, my friends let me walk off.

My mind was still spiralling with the new memories, piecing it all together. Piecing it together that Mattheo saved me that night. He was the one who picked me up and put me in bed. I sat on my bed thinking about it all. From the party to the astronomy tower.

"What's going on in that head of yours Holt?" His voice came from the doorway near the end of my bed. I jumped from surprised and turned to tell him to get out but the words wouldn't form.

Instead I stared at him. Like an idiot.

He walked further into the room, going to lean against the banister of Pansy's bed. He was still closely watching me, even as he did this.

I couldn't help myself, I needed to know. "You were there that night. At the party."

He nodded, almost waiting for me to spell it out. He knew that I knew.

"You were the one that pulled that guy off me." He scowled and gave a single nod, almost like the memory disdained him as much as it did me. "And you carried me back here." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. He was hardly reacting, as if this wasn't big information.

"I'm surprised you remember really, you were so far gone," he said with a shrug. I didn't know why he had done it, I hardly knew him and he didn't owe me anything. This man, who had made an effort to disrupt and humiliate me at every possible circumstance, had saved me from a fate worse than anything I could imagine.

If it was anyone else, that would have made sense to me, you know, as they would be more likely to be a decent human being. But Mattheo? He was a sociopath at best. Someone who was so void of human emotion, he couldn't even recognise it in another person.

Or was he?

"Why?" He looked back at me with a confused expression. As if he didn't understand why I would be asking.

"You looked pretty helpless, Holt, you know what he was going to do." He shook his head. I noticed his hands were getting tighter, his nails digging into the skin on his palms. Above that, the sleeves of his white uniform shirt were pushed up, showing off veins from the clenching of his hands. 

Even under all my layers of confusion and questions, I felt grateful more than anything. "Thank you," I said softly. Mattheo's expression turned to surprise but he didn't respond. He leaned away from the bed and stood closer to my bed.

"No one should have to experience that." His gaze was hazy now, probably imagining ways he would have killed him. A slow death was always good. Subconsciously he was now gripping the banister he had been leaning against and the muscle in his jaw was pulsing.

"He was just drunk, it all turned out okay anyway," I consoled, trying to push this conversation over. There was nothing I could do about it now and sitting on it helped no one.

"And what if I hadn't been there?" He looked down at me, making me feel like he could see right through me, though his eyes were far away. The way he spoke was almost threatening and made me tense. "He shouldn't have touched you like that," he muttered lowly.

I stood up and lightly touched his shoulder. "Mattheo, it's okay."

He turned and grabbed my wrist as soon as I touched him, but didn't let go. I was pulled towards him slightly and now stood less that a couple inches away. His grip on my wrist was bordering on painful but I didn't put effort into pulling it away.

I looked up, finding his eyes boring holes into mine. My gut was filled with that funny feeling again and my chest tightened. Neither of us moved from there, both frozen in each other's presence. My nostrils filled with the smell of expensive cologne and mint with undertones of something sweet.

Why am I thinking about what he smells like? Fucking hell.

We stood like statues in a place of infinite space and time and not even my brain could work fast enough to figure out how to escape. It was like being put into a trance, where I was aware of what was happening but had no control over my own actions.

He broke when his eyeline flickered to my lips and back up to my eyes.

I will forever swear that I don't remember leaning closer to him, that it was him that moved so close to me we were breathing the same air.

It was silent in the room as we both got closer, my brain was no longer working and my heart was beating out of my chest. Mattheo still had a tight grip on my wrist and I could feel the beginnings of a bruise forming.

All of a sudden, the air in front of me was empty again and I turned just in time to see him walk out, slamming my door after him.