Protego Diabolica
Mattheo Riddle
"What do you want?" Blaise asked.
"His father," Grindelwald said, smiling down at Mattheo.
"Listen mate," Enzo started. "I'm just going to give it to you straight-Blaise stop kicking me I'm going to fucking talk. Let me lay it out for you. My name is Enzo, and I'm Mattheo's brother. We're Bellatrix Lestrange's sons. It's very nice to meet you. Anyway, we are all kind of under the impression that you want to kill Mattheo. And here's the thing, we actually have zero problem with you killing the Dark Lord. In fact, those present in this room would actually encourage it. But- you don't have to kill my brother Mattheo here just to kill his dad. I think we could figure out a lot of ways to make this work where the Dark Lord ends up dead and Mattheo gets to live in a world without his dad. Oh-and if you don't mind killing Bellatrix too I would really appreciate that."
Grindelwald just stared dumbfounded as Enzo ranted, and Blaise put his head in his hands.
"I'm guessing you're here to get revenge on Mattheo's dad, but you can't reach Mattheo's dad, right? Cause he's locked up in an old castle with a bunch of minions. But...we could help draw him out. Mattheo could help you draw him out," Theo offered, adding onto Enzo's pleas.
"And does the heir himself have anything to say?" Grindelwald finally said.
"If you kill my father and mother, I will remain loyal to you. If you kill me, my father will torture and kill you," Mattheo deadpanned.
"And your loyalties do not lie with your father?" Grindelwald asked.
"You obviously haven't been that bird for a while because you would have already known that from our conversations," Pansy said.
"Speaking of which- where the fuck is my bird?" Draco asked.
Grindelwald only sent him a look.
"Good riddance," Pansy muttered.
"Fuck you Pansy," Draco said, "if I had my wand-"
"Have we come to an arrangement?" Blaise asked carefully, interrupting Draco.
"I believe we have," Grindelwald said, chuckling.
"Perfect," Enzo said, clapping his hands together.
"Your father was aware that I was here before, is he aware I am still here?" Grindelwald asked Mattheo.
"I don't think so, but as you heard, Greyback and his pack are still in the forest. Our potions professor works for him, though, so if he sees you then he will alert my father immediately," Mattheo answered.
Grindelwald paced.
"If you don't mind Mr. Grindelwald, can I get my wand back? My hair is all out of place," Astoria said in her fake innocent way.
Grindelwald sent them all back their wands.
Mattheo could curse the man right now. Mattheo had to choose a side, Grindelwald or his father. He guessed Grindelwald knew what side he would take by the fact that Mattheo now had his wand. No shot Mattheo chose his dad, not until their lives depended on it.
"Are you worried about Dumbledore?" Pansy asked.
"He cannot harm me , we have a blood pact," Grindelwald said, "and he is currently away with his gamekeeper in the alps of Switzerland."
"What? He was here just last night," Enzo said, completely skipping over the blood pact thing.
"Evidently Albus is not aware that I am still here. I will make it look like I am going to kill you, Mattheo, and your father will be called undoubtably. He will not attack me if I am holding a wand to your throat, and when I tell them to all lay down their wands, I will attack. If it comes to it, will you join me?" Grindelwald asked.
"Yes," they all replied without hesitation.
They discussed the plan for a little while longer, and Grindelwald wasn't actually the homicidal maniac Mattheo thought he was. Mattheo and his friends didn't support blood purity, but they also didn't reject it. They just didn't care, and that's exactly what Grindelwald was like. Grindelwald wanted the Statute of Secrecy down, and for wizards to be able to live without fear of being found out.
It all sounded great to Mattheo, and Grindelwald thought he could take down their parents, so Mattheo was immediately on board.
"I will return to the castle in the morning," Grindelwald promised.
"Bye mate," Pansy said.
"Goodbye," Grindelwald chuckled, shaking his head and turning back into the bird, flying out the window.
"I want my fucking bird back," Draco complained.
-
Mattheo woke up to an envelope on his bedside table. Probably the letter Lucius made his dad send, Mattheo thought to himself.
He considered burning it before reading it, but ripped it open anyway. Only one sentence was on the parchment, in his father's handwriting.
Do not go gentle into that good night
Oh great dad. Tell me to fight while dying. Thanks a lot. His dad was hitting on the one thing he ever did with Mattheo, when he read him that poem. Mattheo was pretty sure his dad only did it to make him seem all-powerful, because the poem was about death being inevitable, while his dad was basically immortal.
He didn't know why, but he shoved it under his pillow instead of burning it like he did with all of his other letters. It was good life advice, if anything.
It was 20 minutes until Grindelwald arrived, and Mattheo spent the minutes staring at the ceiling.
If everything worked out, his dad would die today. He knew that was a good thing. He did. It was just hard to say the words.
"Ready?" Grindelwald asked after he flew in.
"Yeah," Mattheo said, glancing at Theo next to him, who nodded back.
"Blaise, you run straight to Snape and tell him Grindelwald's got Mattheo at," Draco said and checked his watch, "9:50."
"Alright, good luck," Blaise said, walking out.
"No luck over here, just mad skills," Enzo said.
"I sent a letter to Harry, telling him what was going to happen and to stand by us," Theo said.
"You're confident your father will show?" Grindelwald asked.
"Oh yeah, he'll show alright, probably bring a whole fucking army with him too," Pansy said.
"Our parents will be there," Draco confirmed, "they will try to get us on their side of the courtyard."
"They will have incentive enough to listen to my orders, don't worry, I'll be holding a wand to this one's neck,"' Grindelwald joked, ruffling Mattheo's hair. Mattheo doesn't trust easily, but he trusted this dude now, even if he was ready to kill him yesterday.
"Let's go," Pansy said.
They walked through the corridors, Grindelwald grabbing Mattheo and holding his wand to his neck in case they saw anyone.
They reached the doors to the courtyard, and walked down the steps until his friends were standing back by the steps and Mattheo and Grindelwald were standing down by the middle
They reached the doors to the courtyard, and walked down the steps until his friends were standing back by the steps and Mattheo and Grindelwald were standing down by the middle.
"Tom Marvolo Riddle!" Grindelwald shouted.
Mattheo heard the doors behind him burst open, but didn't look to see who it was.
"Drop the wand. Now." Snape yelled from behind him.
Grindelwald only chuckled.
Mattheo heard students piling out of the doors. "Get back inside the castle!" Snape yelled, but none of them listened as usual.
"Do not play with death, for there is only one end with this boy's father," Snape warned, circling around to stand a ways in front of them.
"Then where is he?" Grindelwald mocked.
Mattheo heard a voice whisper through his mind, and the crowd's screaming told him he wasn't the only one to hear it.
Right here.
One by one, Death Eaters started apparating into the courtyard, hundreds of them, and eventually the Knights appeared and stood next to Snape.
The last person to arrive was his father, and he looked murderous.
Mattheo took one glance at them and looked back up, straight ahead into the trees of the Forbidden Forest at the end of the bridge.
"Mattheo," his father called.
Mattheo didn't look at him, he just looked straight ahead, unmoving, unemotional, and absolutely unbothered.
"I'm glad you came," Grindelwald said, likely smiling, "drop your wands."
His dad probably whispered something in the Death Eaters' minds, because they all placed their wands in their pockets.
"Let him go," Tom said.
Grindelwald loosened his grip on Mattheo and pushed him into the students to Mattheo's left, where he saw people like Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan, who actually pulled him into them and put their arms in front of him, but they were angled to protect him from the Death Eaters. Weird. Mattheo guessed Harry had defended him to them and told the Gryffindors the plan because normally they hated Mattheo. The Knights' and Death Eaters' eyes followed him the whole way while his fathers' remained fixed on Grindelwald. Evidently they had jobs, protect him while his dad killed Grindelwald.
"A change of scenery, perhaps?" His dad suggested. That made sense. His dad almost never did things out in the open. Mattheo watched as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick burst through the front doors, and watched in horror at the scene in front of them.
"I don't think so," Grindelwald answered, smiling. "Protego Diabolica," he shouted, casting blue fire out of his wand.
The Death Eaters and his father all backed up, and the flames swarmed around Grindelwald.
"Mattheo," Grindelwald called, offering his hand and beckoning him over.
It was at this point that Mattheo reassessed his actions. If Grindelwald was successful, and he seemed pretty sure before that he could defeat the Dark Lord, then everything would be fine. But his dad was here...with an army. If he wasn't successful, well then. Mattheo was screwed. But fuck it, we ball, so he looked up at Grindelwald and stepped forward, past Dean Thomas.
Mattheo felt entranced, walking forward into the blue flames and expecting them to swallow him whole, but they only felt like a cool breeze hugging him.
"Mattheo!" His dad shouted, but Mattheo just focused on making it to Grindelwald.
Grindelwald took his hand when he finally reached him, and the flames spread out a little more, swallowing some Death Eaters.
Tom Riddle
Tom watched in horror as his son walked towards the flames, shouting for him to stop and expecting the flames to kill him instantly. After all, Grindelwald's infamous curse killed all who he considered an enemy. Mattheo just passed right through though, not even glancing at Tom, and taking Grindelwald's hand.
Tom felt his heart race. For the first time he didn't know what to do. He planned everything in life to the very second, but this was out of control. The flames licked out even further and touched some of his followers, incinerating them. Lorenzo suddenly emerged from the crowd, walking through the flames and joining his brother, and Draconis and Theodore soon followed. This was planned, Tom thought. An act of betrayal by blood. Tom was angry. Not at Mattheo, not at Lorenzo, but at Grindelwald. How dare he?
His son was enveloped by the flames, and the rest of the Slytherin friends he had were in it with him now, as well. Then, Harry fucking Potter walked through, and everyone in the crowd gasped.
Tom turned to his knights, and they understood. He whispered into their minds two words:
Finite Incantatem
The effect was immediate with their combined strength, Grindelwald paled and the halo they created reached the flames, enveloping them and putting them out with an explosion that produced smoke to fill the courtyard.
Find him, Tom whispered in his followers' minds, meaning Mattheo. Tom was glad he told Bellatrix not to come, she might try to kill her sons. That would be unacceptable.
He felt his ranks and the Knights move around him, and focused on where Grindelwald was before, within the smoke.
Tom walked forward as the smoke cleared, revealing most of the students near the blast knocked unconscious, and the children within the explosion laying completely still on the ground. His son, completely still on the ground.
Grindelwald, though, was nowhere to be found.
"My lord, the heir has sustained non-fatal injuries," Severus said.
Tom reached down to brush the hair from Mattheo's face. "What was he thinking?" Tom muttered.
"I think it would be best to keep him here, at Hogwarts," Severus said cautiously.
"Why, so Grindelwald can reach his mind again?" Tom said, shaking his head at Severus.
"Merely because it will complicate things with the Ministry and Dumbledore," Snape started, "if you take him now they will have no doubts that he was with you and not Lucius. They may interrogate him when he returns, or evoke Lucius and Nott's guardianship."
"If he returns," Tom said.
"My lord-" Snape started.
"Durmstrang is a perfectly adequate school for the heir to the Dark Lord, might I suggest a change in education?" Rosier interrupted. "He would rule there," Rosier added as he stared down at Mattheo with Tom.
"While I agree Durmstrang could work, those who support Dumbledore will still demand to use Mattheo in finding the Dark Lord if he returns home now..." Lucius said, appearing behind Tom from the smoke.
Tom only sighed. "Fine, but he's coming home for Yule in 4 weeks," he demanded.
"I will ensure it, my lord" Severus promised.
"Heal him," Tom said, looking at Severus, "and tell him...tell him blood runs thicker than water."
Tom planted a kiss on Mattheo's head and walked back towards his ranks, what was he going to do with that boy? And what was he going to tell Bella?
-
"He got my babies?" Bellatrix screamed.
"No...he disappeared Bella," Tom said.
"Show me the memory," she snapped.
"No," Tom responded.
'Why isn't Mattheo here?" Bella asked.
"He's being tended to by Severus, as are Lorenzo and Draco," Tom answered.
"Well he'll want to come home as soon as he wakes up," Bella said.
'No...he won't," Tom tentatively said.
"Yes he will, we're his parents," Bella said.
Fuck it. She was going to find out anyway. "Grindelwald cast Protego Diabolica, Mattheo and the other children walked through without a scratch."
"What did you do? What did you say to him?" Bella asked incredulously. "I thought you had it under control, I thought you were watching him!" She shrieked.
"You dare speak to me that way? You don't think I am fucking trying? He is in a castle under Dumbledore Bella, the closest man I have to him is someone Mattheo avoids at all costs. I have no options to choose from Bella, no way to reach him!" Tom yelled back.
"Then fucking make new options," Bella screamed, storming off and out of the bedroom.
Tom could crucio her if he didn't think it was slowly making her insane.
Mattheo didn't even look at him.
Maybe Durmstrang was the right choice. Tom didn't know what else to do. He decided a long time ago to never torture his son, to never inflict that feeling of betrayal, and he would stay true to that promise, but it was difficult when his son was seemingly harboring a secret friendship with another Dark Lord. And Potter, walking with Mattheo like that? How were they even acquainted?
Tom exited his bedroom and walked past Mattheo's door. His son could be in there right now, Tom thought shaking his head. He made his way down to his office where he was to meet Rosier, Nott, and Lucius.
Tom entered to find them already seated, and made his way to his desk chair.
"Would any of you three like to inform me what the fuck just happened?" Tom asked.
"Two nights ago your son was found wandering the corridors of Hogwarts with Harry James Potter, and this parchment," Lucius said, handing over some very old paper.
"So they are acquainted? And you did not think to share this information with me?" Tom asked.
"We swore to protect the heir's life," Rosier said.
"I would never lay a hand on my son, even for associating with Potter," Tom bit out.
"Yes, but there are some members of this castle who would, his mother for instance," Rosier argued.
Tom couldn't argue against that.
"Get to the point, Lucius," Nott said.
"Yes well, the Ministry's best curse-breakers could not break the barriers on the parchment. However, Peter Pettigrew saw the map when Dolohov had it this morning, and explained how to use it. Apparently it belonged to his friends and him during their school years, I guess the fat lump is useful for something after all," Lucius said.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," Nott announced, and a map of Hogwarts appeared on the parchment. Tom saw names moving around the castle, and every detail was mapped out.
"Is this...?" Tom asked.
"A fully detailed map of Hogwarts with the live locations of everyone inside, excluding the Chamber of Secrets and Room of Requirement, of course," Lucius proudly said.
"And my son had this?" Tom asked.
"Yes, Severus believes he has had it for some time," Nott said.
Tom's eyes scoured over the map until he saw his son's name in the Hospital Wing, the nurse and Severus standing right next to him and the other children on nearby beds, but no Grindelwald.
"This is incredibly useful, gentleman," Tom said, "is this how he was familiar with Grindelwald?"
"We believe so. It is possible that Mattheo saw him on the map and went to confront him...and they reached an agreement to protect Mattheo's life in exchange for your own," Lucius tentatively said.
"Well, I cannot fault him for self-preservation. After all, I taught him it," Tom sighed.
-
Mattheo Riddle
Mattheo opened his eyes to light filtering in from the windows. He tried to sit up, but Madame Pomfrey rushed over, pushing him back down. "Lay back down Mr. Riddle, you need to rest," she insisted.
Mattheo blinked some more so that the room could come into focus. The hospital wing. Huh.
Mattheo turned to his right and saw Theo, and Harry on the bed past him, and then maybe Pansy but it was hard to tell. Actually, the whole room was full of kids sleeping in beds now that Mattheo looked around. What the fuck happened?
Mattheo looked to his left, and saw Snape's back turned and looking down at Enzo. Snape turned around and caught Mattheo's eye, walking over and taking a seat next to his bed.
"Well, are you proud of yourself?" Snape asked.
"Very, what should I be proud of?" Mattheo asked, his voice cracking and face contorting in pain when he moved it. Mattheo tasted blood.
Snape grimaced, "you allied yourself with Gellert Grindelwald," he said.
"Oh, sick. Is dad mad?" Mattheo asked, already knowing the answer. Mattheo didn't know how he wasn't dead.
"Not at you," Snape answered.
"What do you mean he's not mad?" he asked, looking at Snape in disbelief.
"Mattheo, I don't know how Grindelwald and yourself became acquainted, and I do not want to know how. Your father sees this as an injustice against his son, and as you just trying to protect your life. The only person he is angry with is Grindelwald, and I expect you to stick with that narrative," Snape said.
Mattheo didn't respond. What...his dad thought this was some type of self-preservation? I mean, Mattheo guesses it kind of was but there were ulterior motives, namely the destruction of the Dark Lord and his followers.
"However, you are never permitted to speak to Gellert Grindelwald again, and if you cross paths with him you must call your father immediately. You and Lorenzo and the others are also not permitted to speak to Mr. Potter again. Your father is looking into a change of education for you, and providing another reason to make this change will only be a poor move on your behalf," Snape warned.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Mattheo protested. "What? He wants to send me to fucking Ilvermony? I'll kill myself before I go there," Mattheo said.
"Durmstra-" Snape started, but Mattheo interrupted before he could finish the word.
"No chance in hell am I going there," Mattheo said, shaking his head.
"Exactly, so do not give your father reason to enforce the change," Snape said.
Mattheo just sat back and inwardly screamed. It didn't fucking work. Grindelwald wasn't dead though, because Snape warned him not to talk to him, so maybe there was still some hope.
"Why am I not home?" Mattheo asked after staring at the wall a moment.
"Your father did not want to risk Dumbledore inquiring after your whereabouts. After all, the Dark Lord being seen and then his son disappearing is cause to believe you went home with him. He wants to maintain the belief that you live with the Malfoys and Nott."
"Oh right, I have to hide the fact that I live with two other homicidal maniac parents on top of my homicidal maniac legal guardians," Mattheo said sarcastically.
"Mattheo," Snape sighed, pinching his nose. "I cannot deal with you right now. Don't do anything foolish," he said, standing up. "Oh and- your father wanted me to share some words with you, he wanted me to tell you that blood runs thicker than water," Snape said, walking away and out the doors of the Hospital Wing.
What the fuck.