The Burrow
Mattheo Riddle
"Come on then, hurry up all of you," Professor McGonagall scolded as they ran into her office. "I said 20H!"
"We ran into Peeves," Ron said, his hair covered in some pink goo that Peeves was throwing. Bloody devil.
"Come on, you'll be traveling by floo. I have it outside the record so that if anyone checks, they won't see that this fireplace was ever used tonight," Professor McGonagall said, pointing to the floo. "Who's first? Go on then!" She said.
"Professor McGonagall, we cannot convey our gratitude," Blaise said.
"You can by getting out of my office Mr. Zabini!" She responded.
"Yes ma'am" Blaise said, walking into the fireplace and saying the location.
They followed one by one, and Mattheo found himself in a small, but warm-looking living room. The Burrow.
-
Mattheo had never been happier.
Three days, three whole days without a single sighting of any Death Eaters.
The Burrow was a dream. The Weasley parents might have been the nicest people he had ever met, and Mattheo felt like he was part of a real family here. He would go out and play quidditch at dawn with the Weasley brothers and his friends, because being out in the light was too risky, but the house was so entertaining that it didn't even matter he was cooped up in there.
They all slept on pillows and blankets scattered around Ron and the twins' room, and laughed until 3 in the morning each night over pranks and games and rumors like the one that Fudge was fucking his assistant, not to mention the twins' stash of illegal substances.
"Mattheo, Astoria, would you like to join me in the garden?" Mrs. Weasley asked, interrupting his daydreaming.
"Of course," Mattheo smiled. He loved Mrs. Weasley.
She instructed them to work on pulling out some radishes, carrots, zucchinis, and tomatoes, while she worked on the cabbage and onions, the whole while chatting about the newest things she saw in Witch Weekly and complaining about the twins' antics, or asking them about their favorite subjects.
"Come on then, I think this is a perfect amount to pick for now. Oh wow, look at that beautiful zucchini you two found! That's one of the ripest I've seen in a while!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed.
"Would you mind chopping those for me dears? I think a vegetable stew would be the perfect supper for everyone tonight," she said cheerfully.
Mattheo and Astoria both smiled at each other as they went to the kitchen, and he knew they were thinking the same thing. This is what a real mother acted like, and they loved it.
Mrs. Weasley showed them the perfect way to cut each vegetable, and the proportions of each to make a delicious vegetable stew. And Merlin, it was the best thing he had ever tasted. No house elves made this stew. It was Mattheo and Astoria and Mrs. Weasley. This was the first time he had ever helped cook anything, and he loved it.
Over dinner, and also over the past couple days, Mr. Weasley told them all about the muggle technology, which he obviously had interrogated Hermione and Harry about extensively, and Mattheo wished that their parents could see them now, learning about rubber ducks and electricity.
"Did you know that they have things floating up past the clouds? That send signals all the way down here and let them talk to each other?" Mr. Weasley asked.
"Satellites," Hermione confirmed.
"They sound more advanced than us," Blaise pointed out, and Mattheo nodded.
"That they are Blaise, that they are," Mr. Weasley said, pleased to see people who actually agreed with him for once.
Charlie Weasley had also come home for the holidays, and told Mattheo all about the dragons he had tamed while in Romania, while Bill Weasley told him all about Goblin traditions and rules that he was learning.
Suffice to say Mattheo was having the time of his life, so he should have known it was too good to last.
Severus Snape
Severus Snape had never been more stressed.
Three days, three whole days without a single sighting of any of the children.
All of the children's parents were obsessively looking, but it was as if they disappeared into thin air straight off of the Hogwarts grounds. Even with their resources, there were zero leads. The Dark Lord was at a dangerous level of anger, to the point that he wasn't violent, just focused. That was when the Dark Lord was to be feared the most, when he was focused.
They had decided the night before to send out a notice in the Daily Prophet, a 10 million galleon award to whoever had relevant information of their whereabouts. Money almost no one had, excluding the residents of Riddle Manor, of course.
The alert was sent out in the Daily Prophet this morning, but there were no legitimate responses yet. It was driving everyone in the manor insane. For Circe's sake, half of the residents of this castle had an unbreakable vow to protect Mattheo's life with their own, and they couldn't do that if he was nowhere to be found.
They thought that all hope was lost, until 19:23 that night.
Lucius burst into the library. "A response, from the head of the Fawcett family, a neighbor of the Weasley family. They say they have seen an unusual amount of children playing Quidditch in the early morning, children that are not Weasleys," he said, out of breath.
Of course. It all clicked into place. Snape didn't remember seeing the Weasleys board the train. Somehow, they must have gone home with them directly from Hogwarts.
"Get the Dark Lord," Snape urgently said to Rosier.
Mattheo Riddle
Mattheo wanted to cry. He looked out the window into the sky, at the Dark Mark, and he wanted to cry. Everything was perfect. Mattheo knew it couldn't stay that way but...he just needed it to. Mattheo ran down the stairs, Enzo and Theo behind him.
Mrs. Weasley ran in front of him. "Sweetheart it's okay, go now. Take the floo, we'll hold them off," she insisted.
"No Mrs. Weasley, I'm sorry but I cannot let any of you get hurt. Thank you for everything," he said, sidestepping her and walking out of the kitchen door and into the garden.
Mattheo looked up at the Dark Mark, the green illuminating his face, as he heard the screendoor open behind him and his friends come out behind him.
"Dad?" Mattheo called.
His dad apparated at the end of the field in front of him, around 20 meters away, and Lucius, Nott, Rosier, and Snape all apparated next to him.
"Mattheo, come on son. Let's go home," his dad called.
"We'll go with you now if you don't hurt them," Mattheo promised, meaning the people still inside the Burrow.
His dad seemed to contemplate that for a second, and Snape whispered something in his ear.
"Very well, come on Mattheo," his dad called, holding out a hand.
Mattheo walked forward, the others next to him, as he took his hand and Enzo took his dad's other hand.
Mattheo felt the twist of apparation, and found himself in the dining room.
"Ah! Perfect timing my darlings, dinner!" Bellatrix said, smiling as wide as a fucking clown and reaching her hands into Mattheo and Enzo's hair. Mattheo hated it when she touched his hair, and he tried pulling away, but he only walked back into his father.
Tom grabbed Mattheo's shoulders and pulled back a chair for him, which Mattheo sat in without struggle. There was no use. Aunt Narcissa walked in then, and hugged Draco who just stood there. Narcissa came around and kissed Enzo and Mattheo's heads, but Mattheo just stared straight ahead, pulling any emotion off his face and burying any feelings he had.
Blaise sat in the chair across from him, and somehow Mattheo got lucky and was not sitting near his father, who was situated on the end. Instead, it seemed like his friends and him were all seated in the middle while the adults were on either end. Mattheo counted both of Astoria's parents and Daphne, her pureblood loyal sister, Blaise's mom, Pansy's dad, Theo's dad, Draco's parents, Rosier, Dolohov, Snape, and of course, Mattheo's parents. One merry fucking family.
A plate of food appeared in front of Mattheo, and he just stared at it. It was a Sunday roast, but it wasn't Mrs. Weasley's vegetable stew that he had only a couple of hours before. Theo, on his right, kicked his shoe, and he looked up to find most of the residents of the table staring at him. He was the only one not eating. Mattheo picked up a fork, and they all finally looked away.
Fucking dramatic bitches.
Lady Greengrass was the first to speak. "How have your studies been?" She asked, directed towards all of them.
"Perfectly well, thank you Lady Greengrass. I think I have truly realized the promising curriculum Hogwarts holds, and it has really enabled me to pursue my full academic potential,. I'm excited to finish this year at Hogwarts," Theo said in such a sarcastic way it made them all stifle their laughs.
"Did you tell them?" Rosier asked Snape.
"No," Snape answered, looking suspiciously at them.
"Oh please. It wasn't hard to figure out, what with the sealing of the Chamber and settling all affairs within the school," Astoria said. "I only wish you had the foresight to do it sooner in the year, disrupting our education like this is truly scarring for a young mind."
Mattheo looked down smiling.
"That's enough, Astoria," Lord Greengrass said.
"Oh my my, you have put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?" Bellatrix said, staring down Mattheo and Enz.
"So, enlighten me. You assumed that disappearing for Yule and returning back to Hogwarts would have prevented you from transferring to Durmstrang," Lucius said.
Okay, so looking back it hadn't been the best plan. But hey, they were under a lot of pressure in a small amount of time and what else were they supposed to do?
"So, it is true? We all must transfer to Durmstrang," Blaise asked, looking at his mother.
"Why of course, and any doubts I had before disappeared after you went missing. This change seems necessary," Contessa Zabini said.
"Have you had a lovely Yule so far?" Aunt Narcissa asked their side of the table while the other side had broken out into conversation about Durmstrang.
Mattheo was seated in between Theo and Enzo, while Blaise and Draco were across them, and their respective parents were all seated between them and the head of the table, where Mattheo's father sat.
"Yes mother," Draco shortly said.
"Oh I doubt that Cissy, it was with blood traitors!" Bellatrix exclaimed, like it was a sin.
"I am aware that thzt family has very little assets, it must have been hell living among the impoverished," Tiberius said.
Mattheo kicked Theo next to him not to react.
"I actually found that the family was quite wealthy," Draco said.
"Much wealthier than any of us," Enzo added.
The parents refused to respond.
"And Mattheo, have you anything to say about the holiday?" Aunt Narcissa asked.
Mattheo felt all eyes on him, including those of his parents. "I enjoyed it," was all he said, only looking at Blaise and Draco in front of him.
Mattheo heard Enzo laugh at his audacity.
"Yes well, it is a good thing we picked you up before Christmas. After all, Christmas Eve is only tomorrow," Aunt Narcissa said.
"Yeah well guess what not all of us thrive in freezing-cold dungeons," Mattheo heard Astoria say with a raised voice from down the table.
"The school will be a good thing," her father's voice insisted from the other side.
"It is incredibly detailed in its education of the Dark Arts," Rosier added.
"Yeah right. May I be excused from dinner?" Astoria asked, directing it towards Mattheo's dad at the end of the table, as always.
"Yes, Astoria," his dad sighed.
"May I as well, my lord?" Pansy asked.
Mattheo's dad only nodded.
Mattheo took that as his cue to leave, standing up without invitation and walking past the adults and his father, with Theo, Enzo, Draco, and Blaise at his tail.
They didn't try to stop them.
Mattheo walked into the hall and motioned holding a muggle gun up to his head when he saw Pansy and Astoria.
"I know," Pansy said.
"Where did we fuck up?" Theo asked.
"Come on let's get away from prying eyes," Blaise said, leading them to his room.
Their parents were all of Voldemort's highest ranking Death Eaters, excluding the Knights, so naturally they had taken up residence in Riddle Manor.
Blaise's room was in a different wing than Mattheo and Enzo's, and they walked past the parlor to get there. Inside the parlor was Yaxley, who gave them a look of suspicion.
"Ignore him, come on," Pansy said, pushing them forward.
Blaise locked the door behind them.
"We are absolutely royally screwed," Draco said, falling onto Blaise's bed.
"Looks like they already moved us out," Theo said, looking at all of the luggage and items from their dorm in Blaise's room.
"If Bellatrix touched my shit I swear to fucking Merlin. My stash better still be there," Enzo said. Mattheo tossed him his vape from his back pocket, and his brother grinned back.
"So what's the plan?" Astoria asked.
"There is no plan," Draco sighed.
"I can't go to Durmstrang, Draco," Astoria said.
"Well, what are we supposed to do? We're in a house with the people who run Magical Europe. We just have to listen to what they say, hope they don't give us the Dark Mark, and survive at Durmstrang," Draco said, sounding defeated.
"This is going to be hell. Every person at that fucking school is going to report to our parents, and they can probably visit us too," Blaise said, shaking his head.
"Not to mention, the son of the Dark Lord himself will be at that school. Every person there will try to earn your favor Matty," Pansy said.
"I don't want to be me anymore," Mattheo whispered.
"I know man." Enzo grabbed Mattheo's shoulder and pulled him into his side.
"Hey, maybe the students at Durmstrang are ridiculously attractive," Theo offered.
"True, I'm going to have so many new boys to play with," Pansy said, daydreaming.
"Yeah make sure the Cormac incident last year doesn't repeat," Enzo joked.
"Shut up I didn't mean to push him off the tower, it was his fault for leaning so far," Pansy said, rolling her eyes.
"I had to obliviate the fuck out of that poor kid," Theo laughed.
There was a knock on the door, and they all exchanged glances. "Put the vape away, Enzo!" Blaise whispered when Enzo showed no signs of hiding it.
Blaise got up to unlock the door, revealing Severus Snape. No one acknowledged him, besides Mattheo, who decided now would be the perfect time to flip off the man.
Snape sent him a glare. "This is not the ideal situation for anyone, but I do believe that you can thrive at Durmstrang. And, there may be an opportunity to visit Hogwarts," Snape said suspiciously.
What the fuck did that mean?
"Yo Snape, how'd you find us" Enzo asked nonchalantly, and Snape looked like he popped a blood vessel.
"He means Professor Snape," Blaise corrected for Enzo.
"We put out an award of 10 million euros for information regarding your whereabouts," Snape said.
"Who snitched?" Theo asked quickly.
"Someone close to the Weasley family. Now, please, listen. Do not neglect your studies at Durmstrang out of spite. I am acquainted with some professors there who are excellent and excited to have you as students. If...if upholding your family name means nothing to you, then at least uphold the reputation of Hogwarts," Snape said.
"They're only excited to teach us because of our parents," Draco said, stating the obvious.
"Just...go in open-minded. Now, please get back to your own wings," Snape announced, walking out.
"Fucking bitch ass coward," Mattheo muttered.
"I cannot believe you just flipped him off," Blaise said.
"Someone's got to keep things interesting around here," Mattheo responded, grinning.