Christmas
Mattheo Riddle
Mattheo slowly opened his eyes to light filtering in through the window. After they left Blaise's room last night, Enzo and Mattheo had the farthest way to walk. They didn't see anyone, but Mattheo heard arguing behind his parents' door. Awkward.
Today was Christmas Eve. Fucking lovely. Another dinner with the residents of Riddle Manor.
Mattheo did not move from his bed once for the next 40 minutes, until Enzo came in their shared door.
"Happy Christmas Eve my little darling boy munchkin," Enzo laughed, trying to pinch Mattheo's cheeks.
"Fuck off Enz," Mattheo groaned, hitting him with his pillow.
"You're not very festive," Enz said, sprawling out on his bed and taking up all the space.
"So what did you buy Snape for Christmas?" Enzo asked.
"You're so fucking weird," Mattheo laughed.
"I'm not going to lie, with all of this Grindelwald shit and Snape on our asses I haven't bought anyone shit," Enzo said.
"Me neither, do you think mom went on a little shopping spree for us?" Mattheo joked.
"Oh, absolutely. She probably bought us a bunch of good little pureblood Slytherin heir shit," Enzo responded.
"Ah, but we're not Slytherins anymore brother," Mattheo pointed out.
"Holy shit, yeah. Does Durmstrang have houses?" Enzo asked.
"Yeah, I think 4 of them," Mattheo said.
"Wait, so there's a chance we won't all have the same house?" Enzo said incredulously.
Mattheo only nodded.
"Well fuck this shit, then," Enzo declared. "Beanie!"
"Yes young master?" Beanie asked after popping in.
"Are the non-psychotic members of this house awake?" Enzo asked.
"Beanie doesn't understand," Beanie said, looking nervous.
"He means Theo, Draco, Pansy, Astoria, and Blaise," Mattheo grumbled, his head still smushed on a pillow and eyes half-closed.
"Oh! Beanie can check," the elf said.
"Will you wake them for us and tell them to come here?" Enzo asked.
"Yes young master," Beanie said, popping away.
The rest of the morning, at least once Mattheo accepted he wasn't going to get any more sleep, was spent with his friends playing cards and complaining about Durmstrang. They were leaving the day after tomorrow. Like what in the actual balls.
"Beanie where is everyone?" Mattheo asked.
"Beanie thinks Masters Malfoy, Nott, Rosier, and Dolohov are all not at the Manor, but all of Beanie's other Masters are," the elf responded.
"Are the other elves cooking in the kitchens?" Mattheo asked, the others shooting him a confused look and Astoria shooting him a knowing one.
"Yes Young Master," Beanie responded, also confused.
"Great! Let's go," Mattheo declared, standing up and walking toward the door.
Astoria got up after him, and the others eventually followed after they realized he wasn't joking.
"Matty," Enzo said, catching up to him and slinging an arm around his shoulder, "you know I love you mate, but why are we going to the kitchen?"
"I want to help," Mattheo said.
"Help what? Poison the food?" Enzo asked.
"No, help cook," Mattheo said, rolling his eyes.
"Wow, I didn't know we had a Gordon Ramsay living among us," Theo said from behind him.
"Hey don't judge, Mattheo and I helped make that vegetable stew Mrs. Weasley gave us," Astoria said.
"Yeah we're pros," Mattheo added, running down the steps to the corridors he knew led to the kitchens from his exploring as a child.
After a few turns Mattheo smelled a mixture of aromas, and pushed open the doors to the kitchen. The house elves all looked up at their arrival, pausing what they were doing and looking very surprised.
"Do young Masters need anything?" The elf called Tippy asked.
"We were wondering if we could help in preparing the feast," Mattheo offered.
"Oh is Tippy not working fast enough? We will have the feast ready early!" The elf said, seemingly very stressed.
"No not at all Tippy, I just am interested in cooking," Mattheo said.
"But...Tippy doesn't understand," the elf said, looking helpless.
"That's okay Tippy," Mattheo said. "Is there anything you need to do that we could do to help?"
"Well, if Young Masters really want to, Tippy could use assistance in shredding the cheese, cutting the vegetables over there, washing the berries, cutting the pineapple, baking the sugar cookies, baking the pie, and making the mashed potatoes," the elf said, unveiling a parchment that reached the ground with tasks to do.
Draco laughed, "Tippy does not play around man. You asked for this," he said, hitting Mattheo on the back and walking past him to the list.
"Alright Tippy, let's break some eggs," Enzo announced.
Mattheo laughed at how bad of a joke it was.
The next few hours were spent with the house elves very reluctantly teaching them how to properly cut, shred, season, and cook almost everything in the feast. Although, there was a little bit of a fight involving flour halfway through, and now they were all covered head to toe in it.
"No, Tippy said to mince the garlic, not chop it," the elf scolded at Enzo next to him.
"Tippy I'm going to be 100% for real with you, I don't know what either of those two words mean," Enz responded.
"Look at it this way, if I want to cut your head in a million pieces then I will mince you. If I want to chop your head off, well then that's a bigger piece," Pansy said, smirking at Enzo from where she was mixing a bowl.
"Watch out Pansy, I'm not afraid to throw more flour in that hair of yours," Enz warned.
"No! Beanie says no!" The little elf shouted, walking over to join Tippy and levitating the flour onto the highest shelf.
"Tippy I'm confused why does it say roll the sugar cookie dough?" Mattheo said, face scrunching up at the instructions on the parchment.
"Young Master needs a rolling pin," Tippy said, summoning one.
"Whoa! That looks like a beater's stick, Theo come here so I can test it on you," Mattheo called, waving the wooden bat around threateningly.
"Get the fuck away from me, I mean it, I'll throw more flour at you," Theo warned.
"Get the flour before he does!" Mattheo whispered to Enzo.
"You're such an instigator," Blaise said, rolling his eyes and walking over.
"Aw, Draco I didn't notice! The flour matches your hair," Astoria laughed.
"I think I can find something to match yours, Astoria," Draco said, picking up a bowl of hot fudge.
It all went to hell from there, much to Tippy and Beanie's chagrin.
Most of the feast had been prepared, but Mattheo was finishing up rolling the dough for the sugar cookies. The others had gone to clean up, and maybe it was the flour clogging his ears that made him miss his father's entrance.
"I have to admit, the last place I expected to find you was the kitchen," Mattheo heard his dad say, and he was a little startled but didn't show it.
"I like cooking now," was all Mattheo said.
"Hm," his father said, walking closer. "When did you get exposed to it?"
Mattheo hesitated to answer, but figured it didn't matter if he told the truth. "Mrs. Weasley taught Astoria and I a little bit," he said, still looking down at the dough and grabbing the cookie cutter that would make the shapes.
"Ah, well I am sorry to inform you there are no cooking classes at Durmstrang. Though, there were none at Hogwarts either," his dad said.
Mattheo rolled his eyes, stabbing the cookie cutter down a little harder each time. Why did everyone keep talking about Durmstrang? It annoyed him.
"You're not excited for Durmstrang," his dad stated. No shit Sherlock.
"I'm ecstatic," Mattheo mumbled. "I'm leaving my friends, my home for the past 5 years, my professors and classes, and I am going to a place where we know no one."
"You're going with the children here, including your brother and cousin. I also believe that everyone there will want to know you, Mattheo. You will be quite popular there I expect," his dad said.
"They want to know Mattheo Riddle. Not me. There's a difference," Mattheo said, still not looking up from the dough.
"Ah, but my son, you are Mattheo Riddle. You need to embrace that, your name holds power," his dad said, obviously not getting what he was saying.
"Yeah and power is everything, right?" Mattheo asked sarcastically.
His dad only sighed. "I hesitated to make this decision, because at Hogwarts you were closer. However, Durmstrang allows us the ability to visit you freely, and if you ever need one of us, myself or your mother or Lucius, we will come. We could not do that at Hogwarts," his dad said.
As if Mattheo would be using that option.
"I think you will enjoy it there. They have an incredible quidditch facility, and the academics are challenging and delve into concepts within the Dark Arts not even mentioned at Hogwarts," his dad said again, clearly desperate for Mattheo to have an open mind. He wasn't going to.
"Narcissa has laid out an outfit for the Christmas Eve dinner, which is in an hour at 7. As entertaining you are covered in flour, I do believe you should wash up," his dad said, running his hand through Mattheo's hair that was doused in flour.
Mattheo slightly pulled away, under the guise of reaching for the cookie pan.
"I'll be there at 7," was all he said in response.
"Alright my son, happy Christmas Eve," his dad said.
When Mattheo offered no response, he turned and left.
"Young Master, Beanie and Tippy can finish the cookies," Beanie offered after the door closed behind his dad.
"Thank you Tippy," Mattheo sniffed, walking out of the kitchen and dreading the dinner about to occur.
On his bed laid a cashmere green and blue plaid sweater with hints of yellow and red, a white collared shirt for underneath, and black dress pants. Very Christmas, very Narcissa. Mattheo was just surprised it wasn't as formal as he was used to. Last year she practically had to force Enzo, Theo and himself into dress robes. Draco wore them willingly like the fashion prat he was.
Mattheo noticed that at some point someone unpacked his luggage, and he rushed to check the false back of the trunk, sighing in relief when he saw that no one found his stash of maybe not approved upon substances.
Why would they even bother unpacking if he was leaving tomorr... oh.
Mattheo looked through his drawers one by one, that would normally contain Slytherin jumpers and robes, and instead saw Durmstrang robes and sweaters and even pajamas, and the closet held Durmstrang fur coats rather than his Hogwarts coat. They just replaced his entire life in a few hours.
Mattheo sighed in relief when he saw a chest in the back of his closet that held all of his old Slytherin things. He packed half of them out of spite.
After showering and changing into his Christmas dinner, aka perfect pureblood son, aka new Durmstrang student, aka son of the Dark Lord outfit, Mattheo walked through their shared door to Enzo's room.
Enzo was wearing the exact same outfit.
"Oh she fucking did not," Mattheo laughed, gaping at Aunt Narcissa's audacity.
"Oh she did," Enzo said, equally gaping. "Do you think Theo and Draco are matching as well?"
"Oh most definitely, Draco may throw a fit," Mattheo responded.
"Has she gotten into those muggle Christmas magazines?" Enzo asked.
"I don't know mate. This is wild, even for her," Mattheo said, plopping down on his bed.
Their mom walked through the door after a few minutes, and Mattheo could see his dad behind her.
"Come on, we said 7!" She said, waving for them to get up.
They both just continued laying on Enzo's bed staring at her.
"Now!" She added.
Mattheo sighed and sat up, Enzo following suit.
"Do we have to wear this?" Enzo asked her.
"Yes, I think you both look dashing," Bellatrix smiled.
He hated her.
"We look like fucking oompa-loompas" Mattheo muttered, earning a laugh from Enzo as they followed their mother into the hall.
"What was that?" She asked, clearly not having ever watched a muggle movie in her life.
"Nothing mother," they responded at the same time, earning them a suspicious look from both their mother and Mattheo's dad.
They walked to the dining hall as his dad and mom made conversation in front of them, mainly with each other. They even shared a small kiss halfway through, which made Enzo and Mattheo look at each other and mimick gagging.
They walked past the first parlor and Mattheo noticed a grand Christmas tree there that he hadn't seen earlier, with piles of presents underneath and ornaments covering it from head-to-toe.
As they reached the dining hall, Mattheo was amused to see that Draco and Theo were indeed wearing the same sweater, as was Blaise. Pansy, Astoria, and Daphne were all wearing dresses with the pattern, and they did not look happy about it. The adults were also wearing outfits that were similar to each other, and Mattheo smirked at the thought of Lucius and Snape wearing the same suit. Snape must have been miserable.
Mattheo was very happy they adopted the same seating arrangement as last night. He was not about to sit next to his parents for the whole feast.
If Mattheo just smiled and nodded he would be fine. It was Christmas, after all. This was Narcissa's world and they were all just living in it.
After they all sit down, familiar looking dishes appeared all around them. Mattheo watched as Bellatrix grabbed some carrots he himself cut, and he wished he had poisoned them like Enzo recommended.
A couple of times either Lucius, Tiberius, or Greengrass managed to engage him in conversation about the Quidditch World Cup, but other than that Mattheo didn't say a word. He felt eyes on him throughout the night but he didn't look past Draco and Blaise in front of him, and Mattheo would call it a very successful Christmas Eve. The Daily Prophet would later report that they had a grand feast, as usual, with guests named- excluding the ones supposed to be dead, in Azkaban, or teaching at Hogwarts. The newspaper said the dinner was full of laughter and familial conversation. It was a lie, but it worked, so props to Narcissa's assistants for crafting it.
Mattheo was staring at the table and almost didn't even notice when everyone got up to leave dinner. Theo grabbed his arm and hoisted him up, and he went to walk in the direction of his room when his mother approached and hugged Enzo and him. He tried to pull away, but she wouldn't let go. He hated it when she hugged him.Pretty soon it was both Enzo and Mattheo very obviously unhappy with it and trying to pull away, but she just continued holding them.
"Bella, come to bed," his dad said, grabbing one of her arms that was on Mattheo.
"Hold on," she responded, hugging them tighter. Mattheo wanted to cry.
"Come on Bella," he heard Aunt Narcissa say, joining them at Enzo's side and pulling at her arm.
"I'm just going to miss my boys so much," their mother said.
What the fuck is this lady talking about? They have been here a total of two days. They're always at school. How could she miss them? She never did before.
Mattheo felt a ripple of relief flow through his body as she finally let go, like he could breathe again. Though, he tensed a bit more when he felt his dad's hand on his back.
Go to bed Mattheo, come on you can get there.
So that's what he did. He ignored the people around him and walked past his mother and aunt toward the corridor. He heard Enzo right behind him, but didn't turn around. They both needed to leave.
Enzo closed the door behind them while Mattheo fell onto his bed.
"Dude she's mental," Enzo sighed.
"She's going to miss you, her little darling Lorenzo," Mattheo joked.
"Shut the fuck up Matty," Enz said, grinning back.
"She's acting like she's sending us to our deaths," Mattheo stated.
"Maybe she is, or maybe the dementors finally got to her brain at Azkaban. Who the fuck knows," Enzo said.
"Maybe dad gave her a muggle lobotomy," Mattheo joked.
"Dude he totally did!" Enzo exclaimed.
They just talked for a while about stupid shit, and Mattheo was so glad he had Enzo. His family might be fucked to hell, but his brother was one of his best friends, and they could deal with it together.
They both fell asleep in Mattheo's room at some point, still in their clothes from dinner.
-
"Why are you still in those clothes," he heard a voice exclaim from somewhere in the room.
Mattheo groaned and turned his head into the pillow.
"No, get up, both of you! It's Christmas and you two are over here looking like two muggles," the voice said again.
Aunt Narcissa.
"What?" Enzo said from next to him.
"Look here I even laid out pajamas for you," she said from somewhere in the closet.
"No..no...yes this will do....no...yes this matches perfectly," she said, rummaging around his things.
"Lorenzo Berkshire Black go get dressed I already laid out your outfit," she shouted.
Enzo just groaned.
"Get up now!" She shouted, and Enzo reluctantly left through their door.
Aunt Narcissa resurfaced from the closet, holding clothes that she promptly laid on his side-table.
She pulled back the blankets and Mattheo had a staring contest with her, refusing to get up.
"Everyone is already awake in the parlor and waiting for you!" She said, sternly pointing to the door.
"Fine, I'm up," Mattheo said, discarding his sweater on the ground and picking up the new clothes.
"Thank you, Happy Christmas Mattheo," she smiled, leaving the room.
She had laid out a dark green sweater, collared shirt, and soft linen pants for him to wear, and he changed before entering Enzo's room.
"Let's go," Mattheo said, staring down Enzo who was currently laying on his floor.
Enzo just dangled an arm above him for Mattheo to help him up.
"What are you doing on the floor," Mattheo asked as he hoisted Enzo up.
"Connecting with nature," Enz responded, dusting off his gray sweater.
"Yeah Narcissa's 40000 galleon rugs are very wild," Mattheo retorted.
"Let's just get this over with," Enz responded, walking toward his door.
They bickered over whose outfit was worse while they approached the parlor, and noticeably slowed down as they got close. Mattheo held out his hand as they stood outside the closed door, and Enzo grabbed it and did their handshake, grinning as he pushed open the door.
"Ah look who finally graces us with their presence," Lucius announced, the occupants of the room turning toward them.
There were four large sofas and three armchairs in the parlor. On the first sofa sat Blaise, Theo, Pansy, Draco and Astoria. On the next sofa sat Astoria's parents and sister and Pansy's parents. The third sofa sat Contessa Zabini, Narcissa, Bellatrix, and Rosier. The fourth sofa only sat Snape, and Enzo and Mattheo made their way over to sit next to their least favorite teacher. Tiberius, Lucius, and Mattheo's dad naturally all inhabited the armchairs, and Mattheo was glad almost none of the Knights were there.
Christmas at this manor was so fucking stupid. It was just Aunt Narcissa acting like they were a perfect family who were all obligated to give her this one morning of the year. Mattheo felt bad for her, he really did. Her sister was a lunatic and her husband was one of the best friends and loyal followers of a crazy dude who her crazy sister was in love with.
"Let's start presents," Narcissa clapped, getting up from her sofa and dragging Lucius up by his tie.
Mattheo leaned over to whisper in Enzo's ear, "how many?"
"9 easily," Enz whispered.
"Nah, I'm going 7," Mattheo whispered back. They were referring to their annual bet, and Mattheo almost always won. It was a bet to see whoever got closest to the number of cursed objects or dark artifacts underneath the tree.
Mattheo looked over at Theo and held up 7 fingers. Theo smiled and help up 8 back, Draco holding up 5. Pansy held up all of her fingers, and Astoria rolled her eyes at this and chose to hold up 5 like Draco. Mattheo watched amused as Draco argued Astoria couldn't copy him.
"What are you two doing?" Snape asked, and Mattheo had honestly forgotten the man was next to him.
"Nothing," Enzo and Mattheo responded at the same time.
"Ah Bella! This one is for you from myself and Lucius," Narcissa called, walking over to Bella and handing her a small present, wrapped in empire green and silver. It was some necklace that stole absolutely none of his attention. The presents pretty much just continued like that. The most intriguing present that Mattheo received was from his aunt and uncle, who bought him and his friends all the newest Firebolt model. Other than that he just mainly got pureblood heir shit, like heirlooms and cuff links and a watch. Everything from his parents was addressed from both of them, and aligned with the idea of what Mattheo Riddle should receive from wealthy, powerful parents that did not know their son.
None of them gave any of their parents or each other anything, though Daphne gave Astoria a wrapped present that Astoria promptly ignored.
However, there were Dark objects being unwrapped. One of them went to Blaise, some weird pendant from his mom, but the majority were between the adults. Mattheo counted 5...6...7.....7. He looked at Enzo and then the others and grinned. Enzo reluctantly handed him every piece of candy or sweet he received during the day, as per their tradition, though it all ended up getting back to Enzo anyway.
"You two are an enigma," Snape muttered from next to them.
"An enigma gone from your hands for the next 6 months," Mattheo retorted.
"Yes well, we'll see about that," Snape muttered back.
By the time they were done with presents it was almost 12, meaning that Narcissa’s annual Christmas party was about to commence.
Now, Mattheo loved parties. Parties with acid, parties with hot girls, parties in the Slythein common room. What Mattheo did not like were Narcissa’s Christmas parties.
Those who attended were high enough in society to receive the invitation, but they also had to either be too afraid of the Dark Lord to mention his presence or be a devout follower of him. Not quite Mattheo’s crowd. Well, it was exactly his crowd, but not one he wanted to be a part of.
Mattheo grappled with reasons to skip the ball and hide in his room with his friends, as he did annually, but Narcissa saved him from that when she announced she had forgotten to give out something.
Enzo looked at him with a look of triumph, as if it could be another cursed project, but instead she pulled out a stack of envelopes. She handed one each to Mattheo and his friends, and he noted the Durmstrang crest on it. Oh how wonderful.
She motioned for them to open them and Mattheo unceremoniously tore it open, revealing a long parchment with a long acceptance paragraph that he entirely skipped over, and at the bottom, a rather hefty list of school supplies that he most definitely did not have.
“Aunt Narcissa, when are we to get these supplies?” Mattheo asked, showing her the list.
“Well, we had planned that for earlier in the Yule break but I suppose we can fit it in tomorrow. You will not have to leave for school until noon,” Narcissa answered.
Enzo seemed to catch on to Mattheo’s reasoning, saying “yes but we have the whole afternoon to shop now. Why don’t we go while you host your ball?”
“I don’t think that is a good idea, what with your track record as of late. You’re not always where you’re…supposed to be,” Rosier said. Mattheo sent him a glare for speaking. He hated that man.
“Mom, I am not waking up early tomorrow just to go shopping at the last minute,” Mattheo said, directed towards his mother.
Calling Bellatrix ‘mom’ always worked.
“They will be fine, it’s Diagon Alley after all. They have no fun in that alley,” Bella said, contributing to the conversation.
“Go, and Snape go with them, I know you share their hatred of parties,” his dad said, and his dad’s words were law in this room.
Thank Merlin.
"I will come as well, as much as I love your balls, Narcissa," Rosier said.
Oh fuck.
Mattheo must have looked very unhappy with that decision because Rosier only smiled at him, motioning to the floo where he reluctantly walked with Enzo. "Diagon Alley" Snape announced in front of him, disappearing in the fireplace and the others following.
Pretty soon Mattheo found himself in an alley that was rather busy for it being Christmas.
"Come on, we are making this a short trip," Snape warned.
"Aye-aye sir," Pansy said, saluting.
"Who has the supply list?" Blaise asked.
"I didn't bring it," Mattheo responded.
"Me neither," Theo and Enzo added.
"You children are incompetent," Snape said, shaking his head and accioing a letter all the way from the manor. That was impressive, but he'd never tell the man that.
Draco grabbed the list from the man, and they all peered down at it, disregarding the list of clothing that Narcissa already ordered.
1 Wand
1 Cauldron (silver, standard size 2)
1 set of crystal phials
Dragon-scale quill set
5th year potions ingredients
1 telescope
1 lunascope
1 set of brass scales
Students may also bring one Owl
Textbooks:
Filipendo Spellbook
Curses and counter-curses
The Dark Arts - Volume III
Magical Beasts and Where to Find them
Durmstrang: A History
Advanced Arithmetic Volume II
Advanced Potions-Making
"Hey we already have #1 we're so good at this. See Snape? We'll be out of here in no time," Theo said, grinning up at the man. They would not be out of here in no time, and they all knew it.
"Come on, let's go get your texts," Snape ordered, walking ahead with Rosier.
Mattheo looked at the others and smiled, as they all headed into Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour instead while their backs were turned.
"Hey, what are your favorite flavors," Enzo asked the young witch behind the counter.
"Well, butterscotch is very good," she said, motioning towards the case of it.
"Hm, could I get a taste test of that? Oh, could I actually just taste test everything you have?" Enzo asked, leaning against the glass and probably trying to look much older than he was.
"You're ridiculous Enz, leave her alone," Astoria laughed, going up to examine the flavors.
"Hey do you have an owl in here?" Mattheo asked, and once the cashier nodded he took out 30 galleons. "Here, I'll pay you this amount to borrow him to send one letter," Mattheo offered.
The witch happily complied, and pretty soon there was a letter on its way to the Burrow with the instruction to come to Diagon Alley. What? They were bored.
Mattheo was having a great time eating ice cream with his friends. He got this flavor called ‘Fudge’s mistress’ but quickly decided he liked Theo and Pansy’s better so he just ate half of theirs.
You see, he was having a great time, that is until Snape and Rosier burst through the door 20 minutes later looking very stressed and with 30 dressed-down secret death eaters behind them.
“It’s fine, you can go, we found them,” Snape exhaled, waving them off.
It’s not like they were trying to hide. Honestly. They just happened to find a perfectly nice booth seat concealed from the front window.
"What the hell is wrong with you! We almost called your father!" Snape exclaimed, looking directly at Mattheo.
"Why?" Mattheo nonchalantly asked. Mattheo knew not to get on these two men's nerves too much, after all, they were technically both his godfather ever since his dad found out there was no limit to godparents. Mattheo was pretty sure he had 11 godfathers and 6 godmothers, but a lot of them had to die before he ever had to live with Snape or Rosier. However, annoying them was a little too hard to resist.
"Because we couldn't find you, little Prince," Rosier retorted.
"Whatever, we're done here anyway. Thanks Donna!" Enzo shouted back to the cashier.
"Where to first?" Blaise asked.
"I'm thinking Magical Menagerie," Pansy said, pointing toward the pet shop.
"Pansy, for the thousandth time you are not getting a boomslang," Theo stated.
"What? I'm just looking," she said innocently, walking toward the shop.
"Pansy, no," Draco said.
"How about this, we all skip the pet store that no one actually needs to visit," Snape said, grabbing Pansy's shoulder and directing her towards the shop with their potions ingredients.
Snape and Rosier weren't technically supposed to be in public with them. Actually, now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure there was a warrant out for Rosier's arrest. Plus, if some Order members saw Snape with them they would know he was a fraud. The two men didn't seem to care though, proudly walking in the middle of Diagon Alley. To be fair, his dad pretty much owned the ministry now.
They were almost done shopping far too quickly, Snape running them around like a drill sergeant, and before long they only had to hit Flourish and Bott's.
Mattheo made Snape book shop for them while he wandered around Flourish and Blotts. Any second now, Harry.
Mattheo and Theo saw this cool shelf of these furry books that had teeth, and he reached to pick up one. However, when he opened it up it instantly started trying to bite his face off, and even managed to nick his nose and Theo's arm before they finally got it closed.
"Everything alright over there?" Rosier called, likely hearing the book's growls.
"Yeah," Theo gasped.
"Dude, can we buy one?" Mattheo asked, grinning as blood ran down his face.
"Whoa, wicked," he heard two voices say in sync behind them. Only two people were that synced, and they just so happened to be two of his favorite people ever.
"Fred! George!" Theo said, turning around and grinning as they reached forward to hug them.
Behind them Mattheo saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione emerging from the fireplace. Snape was going to freak out and it was going to be fucking hilarious.
"What are you guys doing here?" Hermione joked.
"These two are apparently getting mauled by a book," Pansy answered, walking over and hugging the new arrivals.
Pretty soon they were all talking like it was the Burrow three days before and sharing things about Christmas and Durmstrang, but of course Snape had to get done looking at books on the other side of the store 10 minutes in.
"No, absolutely not," Snape snapped, walking forward with Rosier.
"What happened to you two?" Rosier asked, glancing at Mattheo's bloody face and Theo's bloody sleeve.
"Book," they replied at the same time.
"Come on, we're going," Snape said, grabbing hold of Draco and Theo's and arms and nudging them to all follow him to the fireplace.
Mattheo sighed before going into the fireplace, saluting the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione goodbye before Snape pulled him in.
Mattheo coughed as the ashes came up around him. He hated the floo, but at least he got the dust all over the parlor rug. Apparently the party only lasted a few hours because Lucius, Narcissa, Bella, his dad, and Tiberius were all sitting in the parlor.
"How was sho- Mattheo what happened to your face?" Aunt Narcissa exclaimed.
"Nothing," he said, walking in the direction of his room.
"Don't ask me, they don't listen to a thing I say," Snape said sounding defeated, likely after they all looked at him for an answer.
When Mattheo got to his room he found two presents on his bed. Weird. One of them had handwriting that he wanted to avoid, so he chose the other one instead.
He unwrapped the wrapping paper to to find a folded parchment inside and a card that said:
Use it well,
Lord Prince.
p.s. do not make me regret this.
Well, thanks Snape. Mattheo unfolded the parchment to find-holy shit. It was the Marauders Map.
"Enzo!" he yelled, running into his brothers room.
"Dude!" Enzo shouted.
"Dude," Mattheo confirmed.
-
It wasn't until later that night that Mattheo remembered the other present on his bed, the one addressed in his dad's handwriting. Mattheo unwrapped it to find a book.
The New Cook by Mary Berry
Inside the front cover he found the name Merope Gaunt, his grandmother, and scribbles of additions and reviews and things she loved about each muggle recipe.
He didn't know what to think at the moment, so he didn't.