The Chamber of Secrets
Mattheo Riddle
"You guys are fucking insane," Pansy laughed as Harry and Enzo chased her around holding shrieking Mandrake seedlings in Herbology
"Boys stop it!" Professor Sprout shouted from across the Greenhouse.
Mattheo just laughed, handing Dean their shared tools.
It had been 4 weeks since Grindelwald disappeared and Mattheo saw his dad, and he had grown considerably closer with the Gryffindors in his year ever since. They had always shared a lot of classes, but once you get past the fact that their families were on two different sides of the war, they had a lot in common. Mattheo was getting to be pretty close friends with Dean and Seamus, who stood on each side of him while they worked on pulling the Mandrake seedling out of the pot.
The alliance between the 6th year Gryffindors and Slytherins was highly disturbing to the rest of the school, and that just made it even funnier to them.
"Holy shit!" Seamus yelped as Mattheo pulled out the Mandrake and it screamed.
"Go, go, go" Dean yelled as Mattheo threw it in a pot and the three boys rushed to cover it in soil.
"Fucking trying to kill us at this school," Seamus muttered shaking his head.
"Aw you don't like gardening?" Mattheo teased.
"I like tulips that don't try to bite my head off," Seamus sighed.
"Wow didn't know you were a flower guy, Seamus," Dean laughed.
"Oh shove off," Seamus said, grabbing dirt and throwing it at Dean, which landed on Mattheo midway and resulted in Mattheo throwing some back. The three boys were covered head to toe in dirt 10 minutes later, and laughing from their dirt fight.
"What in Merlin's name happened here?" Professor Sprout exclaimed. "Go get cleaned up, the lot of you. Go!"
They shoved each other, laughing as they walked back up to the castle, and talked about stupid things.
"Dude, did you see Neville's face when the Mandrake started screaming? Poor lad," Dean said as they walked through the main entrance, but Mattheo didn't get a chance to reply.
Mattheo's face dropped as he saw four very undesirable people standing in front of him, seemingly interrupted by the three boys.
Uncle Lucius, Contessa Zabini, and Tiberius Nott, and Snape all stared at Mattheo, and looked him up and down.
"Mattheo," Lucius said, "I'm glad to see you've recovered. What happened to your...robes?" She asked, eyeing his company and current state of dirt-covered attire.
"Herbology," Mattheo blankly replied, and Dean grabbed his arm so that they could walk around the adults, who didn't stop him as they walked away.
"Dude, what the fuck was that?" Seamus asked, as they climbed the stairs.
"I don't even fucking know," Mattheo said. "You just walked past all of my legal guardians," he laughed.
"No shit? Which ones?" Dean asked.
"Well I have some godfathers who weren't there, but my actual legal guardians are Lucius Malfoy and Tiberius Nott," Mattheo explained.
"That's insane. Why are they here, anyway? Yule's in like a week, and don't they think you're still going?" Dean asked.
"I don't know, maybe Snape found out. Let's go in here," Mattheo said, pulling the boys into the second-floor girls lavatory.
"Mate this is for girls," Seamus said.
"Yeah but no one comes in here because of Moaning Myrtle," Mattheo answered, walking into the bright room and starting the sink.
"Isn't this where the Chamber of Secrets entrance is?" Dean asked, looking around.
"Yup," Seamus said.
"Hi boys," a voice called.
"Myrtle we're just trying to clean up," Mattheo warned, cupping water and throwing it on his face.
"I can help you..." she said with a smirk, coming up behind him in the mirror.
"You know my father killed you," Mattheo blatantly said.
"Ugh you're no fun" Myrtle frowned, turning away and setting her sights on Dean.
"And who might you be?" Myrtle asked, circling Dean.
"Alive," Dean deadpanned.
"Ugh! Boys these days are so mean!" She wailed, flying back into her toilet stall.
"That girl is so dramatic," Mattheo sighed, attempting to rub the dirt off of his neck, but succeeding only in turning it into mud.
All of the sudden they heard voices approaching the entrance, and Mattheo looked at Seamus and Dean as they all decided to run and pile in a stall and close the door.
"What was he doing with two Gryffindors?" Mattheo heard Nott ask.
"Mattheo has made a number of interesting and unpredicted moves lately," Snape sighed.
"Are you sure you can say it?" Contessa Zabini asked.
"Yes, the Dark Lord taught me himself," Lucius said, saying 'open' in parseltongue.
Mattheo heard the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets creaking open, and looked at Dean and Seamus. They looked at him with expectant eyes, as if Mattheo would know what the fuck was going on. Mattheo just looked back bewildered. Mattheo had done his fair share of sneaking into the chamber, merely out of boredom, but he never set the Basilisk on anyone in second year. That was all his father. However, now the Chamber was merely a cavern that honestly resembled more of a muggle sewer, so why the adults were going down he had no idea.
"What are you three doing in my stall!" Moaning Myrtle suddenly yelled from behind them.
Shit.
Snape yanked open the door to their stall, and they all just looked up with sheepish smiles as they tumbled out from behind the door.
"What are you doing here?" Snape yelled exasperatedly.
"Pissing," Mattheo answered, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Out. All three of you, now!" Snape barked.
"Aye, aye sir," they said, saluting him, walking toward the door.
"Now, now Severus, don't be mean," Mattheo heard Contessa Zabini say as they left the room.
"Those people scare me so much I don't know how you live with them," Seamus said, shaking his head.
"They're all batshit crazy pureblood killers but I have the luxury of knowing that they would die if they hurt me, so I can do whatever the fuck I want," Mattheo said.
"Why do you think they are going into the Chamber of Secrets?" Dean asked.
"No fucking idea...but I can find out," Mattheo grinned.
"Come on mate," Seamus laughed, "let's go to lunch.
They walked towards the Great Hall still looking straight out of a mud-bath, but they didn't care.
For the past few weeks they had all been sitting at the Gryffindor table. Any Gryffindor who wasn't immediately friendly toward them after the Grindelwald incident turned around pretty instantly, as none of them liked the Dark Lord or Dumbledore at the moment, so they were all on the same page.
Mattheo sat down in between Theo and Dean, with Hermione next to Theo on his right and Seamus and Pansy past Dean, while Enzo was across from him and Blaise and Draco were on either side of him, with Harry and Astoria next to Blaise and Ron next to Draco. They made up quite the odd group.
"Where did you go after Herbology?" Harry asked.
"Mate do we have the story for you," Seamus sighed.
"Well go on then," Hermione said.
"Okay basically Professor Sprout told us to get washed off-" Seamus began.
"Yeah cause you look like shit," Pansy interrupted.
"Yeah well when we got back into the castle we walked in on...well...I don't exactly know all of their names," Seamus said, looking at Mattheo.
"Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Tiberius Nott, and Contessa Zabini," Mattheo sighed, avoiding eye contact with their respective children.
Blaise's eyebrows flew up while Draco just put his head down on the table, and Mattheo heard Theo curse next to him.
"That's not all, though," Dean started, "we went to the 2nd floor girls lavatory just because it was the closest one, and we got washed off, and now Moaning Myrtle has a crush on me which is super creepy. But anyway, we heard them coming down the hall while we hid in a stall and Malfoy opened the Chamber of Secrets," Dean said.
"What the fuck are they doing in the Chamber of Secrets?" Enzo asked.
"They found us before we could figure out what they were up to and Snape yelled at us to get out. I'm surprised they didn't obliviate us," Dean said.
"So...what do you think they're up to?" Ron asked.
"Knowing my mother, nothing good," Blaise answered.
"Well you can find out later, I'm sure Mattheo i already planning something" Astoria said.
Mattheo only nodded.
"I'll come with you Matty, they can't try to kill either of us," Enzo said.
Snape re-entered the Great Hall then, near the Head Table, and took his seat. Mattheo avoided returning Snape's stare.
"I hate that man," Astoria muttered.
"Yeah well we have him next class so put on a smile," Draco said, giving his best fake smile.
"You look like a clown," Hermione deadpanned.
"Hey! You look like a- a..." Draco started, searching for a word.
"You can't say shit because she's gorgeous, Draco," Pansy said, laughing at him.
"Meanwhile you look like a little ferret," Mattheo added.
"Not cool mate, not cool," Draco said, shaking his head.
"Hey, Mattheo, take this from under the table," Harry said.
Mattheo reached under and felt what he was handing him. The invisibility cloak. Mattheo had returned it to Harry a few weeks ago, as promised, but the map remained in the Death Eaters' care.
"You're sure?" Mattheo asked
"Yeah man, you'll need it," Harry said.
"It won't conceal shit if anyone decides to look at the Marauders Map and sees them sneaking into the girls lavatory," Hermione pointed out.
"We're just going to have to take that chance, sweetheart," Enzo said back.
"You two are suicidal," Hermione said, shaking her head.
"No, we're ambitious," Mattheo said back, grinning.
-
It was an hour till midnight, and Enzo and Mattheo carefully opened the door to their dorm room, stepping out in the hallway under the invisibility cloak.
They both stifled their laughs as they walked past a couple hooking up in the common room, and quickly walked to the exit.
"Bro never let me sit on that sofa again," Mattheo said.
"That was foul, I could hear the clapping from the stairs" Enzo laughed.
"Bro come on before Peeves shows up," Mattheo said, dragging Enzo down the corridor.
They made their way down the corridors rather well with their lack of light, figuring it would be too risky. Mattheo was pretty sure that was how he and harry got caught by Snape before.
Mattheo cautiously peered into the girls lavatory, taking the cloak off of him and Enzo.
"Myrtle?" Mattheo questioned.
"Yes? Who's there?" The ghost questioned rather loudly.
"Shhh, it's just us," Mattheo said.
"Oh, hi boys," Myrtle said, smiling now, her body illuminating the space after she emerged from her stall.
"Myrtle, did the people in here before leave?" Enzo asked.
"Yes, they only went into the chamber for 15 minutes before they came out and left," Myrtle said.
"Did you hear anything that they were saying?" Mattheo asked.
"Oh everyone thinks Myrtle is just a moaning gossiper. I don't eavesdrop on anyone!" She yelled.
"Oh no Myrtle not at all. We just wanted to see if you could help us," Enzo said placatingly.
"Well then, no I didn't hear anything. They just talked about Mattheo and some change being good for him," Myrtle said.
"Change? What change?" Mattheo asked.
"I don't know, I didn't follow them into the Chamber," Myrtle said.
"That's okay Myrtle, thank you for the help," Enzo said, dragging Mattheo over to the sink.
Mattheo spoke 'open' in parseltongue but nothing happened.
"What the fuck? I think they sealed it," Mattheo said.
"What? That makes no sense. Why would your dad ask them to do that?" Enz asked.
"I have no fucking idea," Mattheo said. "Come on, let's go before someone realizes we're here," Mattheo said, grabbing the cloak and pulling it over them.
Mattheo thought about what Myrtle said on the way back to the Dungeons. What change would be good for him? The fact that the chamber was now closed? That was annoying but barely impacted Mattheo's life, it was more of a snogging spot that impressed some girls back in 4th year. Mattheo barely went down there now, and he was pretty sure Snape never even knew that he went down there in the first place.
Mattheo didn't know what to think, and that was scary.
What was even scarier was when Blaise and Astoria had no idea what it meant either, after Martheo explained it to them.
Blaise and Astoria had an answer for everything.
"There's no point in sealing it, unless for some reason Voldemort is settling all his affairs in Hogwarts. When you first said they were going down I thought maybe they would be setting up a mode of transportation to sneak Death Eaters into the castle, but then sealing it makes no sense," Blaise said.
"Wait say that again," Draco said, looking thoughtful.
"The mode of transportation?" Blaise asked.
"No the other thing before that," Draco said.
"There's no point in sealing it..." Blaise began.
"Go on, the thing you said after that," Draco prodded.
"Unless Voldemort was settling all of his affairs in Hogwarts," Blaise finished.
"Yes that!" Draco said, jumping up.
"What are you on about Draco," Theo said, sending him a bewildered look.
Mattheo was equally confused.
"Mate, think about it. What is Voldemort's only affair in the castle?" Draco asked.
"Snape...?" Pansy asked.
"No, Mattheo! If Mattheo was no longer here, or any of us for that matter, then he would have no cause to come here, besides maybe to beat up Dumbledore. Plus, Mattheo said Snape just threatened that his dad wanted to send him to Durmstrang, and why would Voldemort leave the Chamber open if he had no reason to come here?" Draco said.
"Fuck me you're so right," Mattheo said, running his hands through his hair.
"If he sends Mattheo there then the others will follow. If I had to guess I would say we'll all be at Durmstrang by the end of Yule," Astoria said.
"Okay but we're not fucking going home for Yule so Tiberius and all the others can fuck themselves," Theo said.
"It's Monday. Break starts Friday, we've got four days to make a plan," Mattheo said.
"Group suicide, who's in?" Enzo offered.
"I'll answer that on Friday," Pansy said, groaning and standing up. "Come on Astoria, let's go back to the girls dorm while these four idiots jerk off."
"Aw, feeling left out?" Theo said, shaking his head laughing.
Pansy just crossed her arms behind her and flipped us off while they walked out the door.
"Bye boys!" Astoria called.
"I feel bad for the girls who get roomed with them at Durmstrang. Those two will devour them," Blaise said, shaking his head.
"Dude we're not going to fucking Durmstrang," Enzo said, hitting Blaise with a pillow.
Blaise just sent a massive glare and reached for his wand.
"Okay okay! I'm sorry your royal highness," Enzo pleaded, raising his hands in surrender.
"Okay well know they don't know yet, because I haven't gotten any howlers from my parents," Draco said, getting back to the situation at hand.
"How would we even join three months into the year? I'm aware our parents influence can get us in anywhere but there's no way we will be able to adjust there," Blaise said.
"You think our parents care? Every kid, parent, and professor at that fucking school is loyal to Mattheo's father, it's just more control over us," Theo said.
"Yeah and not to mention Headmaster Karkaroff basically owes the Dark Lord eternally for sparing his life after he snitched," Draco pointed out.
"We can't go, but we can't negotiate about it with our parents either, so how do we do this?" Enzo asked.
"Our first line of defense is quidditch. I think McGonagall is going to send out letters about that on Wednesday. That gives Snape two days to reverse it, so assuming he does we need a plan B," Blaise said.
"Well normally they will expect us on the train that night, Snape will be watching to make sure we board it. There would be no getting around boarding the train, but we don't have to get off at the destination," Mattheo started.
"Elaborate," Draco prodded.
"What if we put our luggage in mokeskin pouches and jumped off?" Mattheo asked.
"You're mental," Blaise deadpanned.
"Let's do it," Theo said.
"Both of you are mental," Blaise corrected.
"Then I'm mental too," Enzo agreed.
"We already knew that, Enz. How would we even get out? The roof?" Draco asked.
"Yeah," Mattheo blatantly said.
"And you don't think any of the seventh years of little Death Eaters are going to tell on us?" Blaise asked.
"Not if we're quick and quiet about it," Mattheo said.
"Plus this is only Plan B, although I don't think Plan A is going to work out if their plan is to actually transfer us," Theo said.
"Alright well we've got to avoid Wiltshire, since that's where the manors are, and London for that matter. What if we just stayed in Scotland?" Draco asked.
"Wait, holy shit. The Hogwarts train opens on both sides," Mattheo said, "I can't believe I didn't think of this before!"
"Think of what, mate?" Theo said.
"Hear me out, it's the same concept as before but we have significantly lower chances of dying. We get to the train a little early, Snape watches us board. Right before it leaves, we jump out on the other side's door. We walk back to Hogwarts and hide out in the Room of Requirement or some shit before Snape realizes we didn't arrive in London," Mattheo explained.
"It might work, alright that's Plan B, but Plan C is jumping off in case we royally fuck up," Blaise agrees.
"So, now that's settled, jerking off sesh like Pansy said?" Enzo suggests.
"You're so foul," Mattheo laughs, hitting him with a pillow.
-
"Shhhhh," Fred whispered.
"Sorry but your fat ass was in the way," Pansy whisper-shouted back.
Mattheo didn't know how he got himself into this situation. It was Wednesday and the train was leaving in two days, and somehow the twins convinced him that in order to make the plan flawless they had to scope out the area first.
So, that's how Mattheo found himself sneaking through the tunnels of Hogwarts to Hogsmeade after his last class with Pansy, Enz, Theo, and the twins. Really great group they got here. Very discrete.
"How much farther guys?" Enzo asked.
"Right...here," George said with a grin, pushing open a trapdoor on the ceiling that led straight into Honeyduke's cellar.
They piled out, Enzo shoving Mattheo to try and go first and them both eventually settling on squeezing through at the same time.
Pansy just rolled her eyes at them.
"Come on," Fred whispered, leading the way up the creaky stairs.
They emerged into the shop and tried to look inconspicuous. For Circe sake half of them were wearing jumpers embroidered with snakes and the other half had jumpers with lions. They were practically screaming Hogwarts students.
They made their way through the shop, Mattheo and Enzo grabbing some sweets and shoving them in their pockets as they walked out.
"You two might be the wealthiest heirs in the world and you're over here stealing sweets worth four sickles," Pansy sighed, shaking her head.
"Is that your rude way of asking us for some?" Mattheo questioned.
"Duh, hand it over dickwad," Pansy said, and Mattheo laughed as he handed her some jelly slugs.
Mattheo tore the head off of a jelly slug as he looked around the street and spotted Hogsmeade station.
"Alright, I'd say your best bet is to take off from the train and go behind those bushes there, make your way behind these pubs, through that alley right next to the Three Broomsticks, cross the street to Honeyduke's, and go back the way we came. If you're fast enough and we can distract students in that part of the train from looking out windows, I think you'll be safe once you're behind the bushes," George said.
"Alright mate, sounds like a fucking plan," Theo said, clapping his hands together.
"If anything goes wrong we can always run to opposite way to the Shrieking Shack and go through the shortcut to the Womping Willow," Mattheo offered.
"Hey, if you need somewhere to go, any of you, just go to the floo and call out 'The Burrow.' We already talked to our parents about it, and you're seriously welcome anytime or for all of Yule
-
Today was the last day of classes, and Mattheo was not looking forward to potions. He and his friends had purposefully skipped breakfast because they knew McGonagall had sent letters out to the guardians of 'quidditch players.' Skipping breakfast meant no letters and no Snape.
Unfortunately, they still had potions this period.
Mattheo sauntered into the classroom and dropped in his seat, preparing his potion with Dean and following the board's instructions, absolutely refusing to look up at Snape.
"Snape keeps looking at you," Dean whispered.
"Maybe he's got a crush," Mattheo said, and they both laughed, conveniently missing the exact second to pour in the snake fangs and causing a small explosion, which earned them both a look of disapproval from Hermione in front of them.
"Come on let's start over before Snape yells at us," Mattheo said.
They actually created a passable potion, which was rare for the two of them, and they grinned at each other when Seamus looked over jealous. Seamus and Enzo's potion was a pile of black goo peaking over their cauldron.
Mattheo tried to pack his bag up but before the bell even rang Snape spoke. "Mr. Nott, Mr. Berkshire, Mr. Riddle, Ms. Parkinson, Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Greengrass, and Mr. Zabini, please see me after class."
"Are you fucking kidding me," Mattheo said under his breath,.
"Good luck mate," Dean said, clapping him on the back and leaving the classroom as the bell rang.
Mattheo sank back in his seat and crossed his arms as Enzo joined him at Dean's seat and they all awaited their sentence.
"I admit, I was surprised when Professor McGonagall informed me today that all quidditch teams were staying home for Yule, especially after I questioned some Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw players who insisted they knew nothing of the sort," Snape said, staring them all down.
"Were they alternates? They aren't always...necessary," Theo offered.
"Explain," Snape demanded, ignoring Theo.
"Professor, I'm sure you understand Professor McGonagall's reasoning. We have barely competed against these teams and scrimmages will let us actually play, " Pansy said.
"Like I said Miss Parkinson, this is seemingly exclusive to the 7 of you. Your parents are very distressed that their plans for Yule were interrupted," Snape said, trying to appeal to their good nature and sympathy for their parents. They had none.
"Professor, as badly as I want to decorate a Christmas tree with a manor full of Death Eaters over Yule, I would really rather assess our team and our strengths going into the House Cup," Draco said.
"Your parents want you home for Yule. This is non-negotiable," Snape said, with no room to argue in his tone.
"Tell my father to take his appeals to Dumbledore," Draco said.
"This isn't his concern. It's a simple matter of returning home for Yule," Snape sighed.
"Professor, kindly let my mother and father know that I have made alternative arrangements for this Yule and that I hope they have a truly enjoyable holiday," Mattheo said, standing up.
"Mattheo, no. You're going home," Snape said.
"Yeah? Fucking make me," Mattheo threatened, walking out of the room with the rest behind him.
The door closed behind them as they walked fast down the hall, towards lunch where everyone else was.
"Guys, we might need to take up your offer on coming to the Burrow, things are not looking good," Pansy said once they reached the twins and Golden Trio.
"Listen, we have transfiguration after lunch, let's ask her if we can set up a floo tonight. Then it will just be like you guys went missing and Snape won't be able to do shit," Harry said.
"Okay but we don't want to put your lives in danger. If that happens we're out, we'll go back home," Enzo said. "Even to Bellatrix," he heard Enzo mutter under his breath.
"I'm not hungry, I'm going to go to class early," Mattheo said.
"I'll come with you," Harry offered, and Hermione nodded as well.
They walked out of the Great Hall and saw Professor McGonagall sitting in the Transfiguration classroom, having also skipped lunch.
"Professor, we had something to ask of you," Harry started hesitantly.
Professor McGonagall looked up. "Of course , what is it?"
Hermione took a breath before starting. "Well you see, the original plan for Mattheo and the other Slytherins staying here during Yule is not working out as Professor Snape is intent on them returning home. And, well, Mr and Mrs. Weasley offered to host them for Yule. The only problem is that if they ride the train then there will be Death Eaters waiting for them," she finished, looking expectantly at Professor McGonagall.
"Ah, so you want me to set up a different mode of transportation for all of you?" Professor McGonagall questioned.
"That would be greatly appreciated," Mattheo said sincerely.
"I think I can make that work," the professor smiled. "Come to my office tonight with your things at 20H, you may want to shrink them and take a few trips under that cloak I know you and Mr. Potter have," she said.
Mattheo didn't know how this woman knew everything. "Thank you so much Professor," he said, taking his seat for class and thinking maybe everything would be okay.