Chapter Seven: The Date's Outcomes

Evelyn...

Last day was such a weird day; I went on a date with Mattheo Riddle. The worse was: it was not going to be the last time either. He opened a door for me, and I needed to keep it open. For Merlin's sake.

The thing that I learned yesterday, for the hundredth time in my life, was that: suspect everything and everyone, unless you are proved wrong. And when something is going so flawlessly, there must be something you have not noticed yet. The mission was going suspiciously effortlessly; Mattheo was walking right into the trap with his own will, and I couldn't do anything about it, except taking my steps more cautiously.

The lies started from that morning on, with the way I did not tell Pansy a word about my date with Mattheo. And, honestly, the feeling of not telling my best friend such a thing was more weird than I thought; I never thought the organs in your stomach were capable of squirming. But it was the start of a long mission in my way, which I was not supposed to tell anyone about.

I needed to prepare myself for the lies I was going to tell.

When we, I and Pansy, sat at the Slytherin table, with the Slytherin gang for breakfast, Mattheo was kind of more cheered up than yesterday when he looked like he wanted to kill someone.

"Morning, princess." He greeted me with an amused smirk when we sat down.

At his right, Theo smirked, looking down at his dish as if distracting himself.

No need to count it, but it was his first time precisely greeting me __ like a peculiar normal human being.

"Morning," I answered, made Pansy's eyebrows to raise, staring at me with a what-the-hell-was-that expression.

"Before anyone else tells you," I went on. "Last night, when I was at Black Lake, I was with him."

"With who?!" Pansy bellowed in disbelief, gaping between me and Mattheo.

"Mattheo Thomas Riddle," I said coolly. "He asked me on a date, and I didn't say no."

Mattheo smirked at the title, Draco winced on the other hand. The rest of the boys, Theo, Lorenzo and Blaise, kept watching the scene while eating their breakfast, as if they were watching an entertaining Quidditch match.

"A date?!" Pansy let out a furious chuckle. "Are you kidding me?!"

I gave her an insouciant look.

"No, she's not kidding, don't you see?" Draco taunted, receiving a warning elbow from Theo.

Pansy ignored him and turned to me instead. "He's your damn enemy!"

"He only wasn't my friend."

"And now you're going on a date with him?!"

"Pansy, can we talk about it later?" I breathed.

"You knew? Theo?" She turned to ask Theodore furiously.

Theo froze; he stared at her for some seconds as though seeing her for the first time in his life, then he said shortly, in a horse, quiet voice, "Yeah."

Pansy stared at him, as if not believing her ears.

"Perfect!" she said furiously, then she began to eat, cutting the egg so hard that the poor egg collapsed out of her dish.

Blaise sneered. Sometimes I doubted if he even knew how to speak, for he was quiet almost all the time.

"The Drama Queen," Lorenzo muttered with a smirk.

Theo eyed him in the way Mattheo was eying everyone murderously yesterday. "Watch out," he warned Lorenzo.

I guess that would be expected when you like someone.

...

The morning went, and the afternoon came by; with Pansy's annoying, stupid attitude all the day. She successfully didn't even look at me, not even a fast and small glance, like I didn't even exist, or I was somehow invisible. Though I had all the attention from Mattheo instead; he kept walking me around the castle all the day like a dog, starting some random conversations once in a while, pathetically boring and annoying, and I would forcedly play along with him.

The further it was going, the more I was thinking about my lessons with Dumbledore___ which did not happen since the last and the first time. If my lessons were not benefited from his own plan, I could easily say he had fully forgotten about it. But seeing it was not a possibility, telling myself he was only being busy, I patiently waited to be called.

However, since Mattheo hadn't had used Legilimency on me yet __ which I could tell, because my guardian were using it on me as long as I remembered __ I started thinking maybe he was still learning like I was, or else Voldemort hadn't thought of teaching him yet.

I still avoided making eye contact with him, whichever it was.

After dinner, Mattheo, Theo, Draco, Lorenzo, and Blaise Zabini disappeared into nowhere; had me hoping they were not going to explode the whole castle.

Their missing left me and Pansy alone, but she instantly met up with Daphne Greengrass to avoid being alone with me. And I, having nothing else to do, went straight to the library to study. Fortunately, the library was almost empty; except a couple of second-years, and Hermione Granger. Though, barely five minutes after I entered the library, she left, and if it wasn't because of my presence___ nothing would happen, because it was.

An hour of studying passed, and right before the curfew would start, I went back to the common room; sat on a cornered couch and pulled my sketchbook out of my bag.

Drawing was one of my favorite things to do; to pull all of my emotions out on the parchment, focus, and relax. Though, sometimes drawing was so annoying to me, not because of the drawing itself, but because sometimes when I wanted to draw, I would have no clue what to draw; my mind would be so busy thinking about the day that had passed and the day that was on my path that my brain would forget how to think properly, just like this time.

I did not even know why I was staring at the white parchment when I knew I would come up with nothing to draw. Perhaps, if I wanted to draw anything random that was in my mind, I could've drawn Dumbledore going through my thoughts, the least ones that I would want him to see, or Mattheo, trying to kiss me... Merlin bless me. The worst part was, either way, I had to let them do it, anyway; I was stuck. Badly stuck. Stuck in a pathetic situation that I had accepted to get through.

"What are you doing?"

I came back from Merlin knows where I was in my head.

Mattheo was sitting on the couch, parted next to me. He was looking at me as though he had never seen me, and, which annoyed me the most, he was wearing his usual hideous smirk.

It took me some seconds to answer him, for I had no idea what I was doing. "Nothing."

Sitting up on the couch, he spoke, "Then... I'm gonna go get some air. Why don't you come with me?" He got up on his feet and stretched his hand out for me to ___ I don't know what he'd thought to himself.

Seemingly, the date's outcome were annoyingly good in spite of the pathetic date itself.

"For a lot of reasons." Not bothering to pay no attention to his outstretched hand, I answered his none-questioning offer haughtily. "You enjoy getting in trouble, assume?"

"Risk makes the world more interesting." His brows increased haughtily as he brought his outstretched hand almost close to my face.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Smoking, do you mean?"

He rolled his jaw, finally dropping his hand back to his side. "How're you not used to smoking yet?"

"People get used to good things."

He rolled his eyes then, the real Mattheo peaking out. "Yeah, but I think I'm starting to get used to you treating me like shit."

I tightened my jaw in an attempt to intercept my tongue from ruining the mission. "I rarely talk to a shit."

He hid his annoyance behind an amused smirk. "Then accept this poor shit's invitation?"

I twisted my eyebrows. "That is something I cannot do."

He growled wearily, the muscles in his jaw flexing. "You disappointed me."

I do not care.

I dead stared at him, which made him find the ability to speak again. "I guess I'm gonna go alone then. For now," he added with his eyebrows raised. "But tomorrow I'll take you out. "

My jaw tightened against. "And where to?"

"I'll tell you when I decide." He smirked. "Goodnight, Princess." Then he walked away, his sight slowly disappearing out of the common room.

Pansy walked into my sight just right after Mattheo had disappeared. Her eyes glanced at me for barely half a second for the first time today, but then she quickly turned and made her way straight to the dormitory.

I sat there for a minute, then when I made sure she was probably in our dorm room at the moment, I got off the couch and made my way towards the dormitory too.

When I entered the narrow, candle-lit corridor, the chilly atmosphere caressed my skin as I passed the doors from number one to thirteen.

I knocked the knocker with our password rhythm, and the door with the number 13 above it clicked. I pushed the door open and stepped in, without looking at Pansy, who was sitting on her bed, staring at me, I closed the door behind me and put my messenger bag on the ground.

I cleared my throat. "Hi."

"Hi," Pansy answered dryly.

I got changed into my pajamas, fifty dry minutes went by with no word spoken from me nor Pansy. Except throwing tense glances at me, she did nothing; she was sitting on her bed, leaning against the headboard, with her knees bent to her chest, and her arms were resting on them, like a statue, completely motionless.

"So, when's the wedding?" she said coldly after I got in my bed, some steps away from hers.

I sat up on the bed before my head would even touch the pillow. This was the least thing I liked about Pansy: she was so childish sometimes. And when her sarcasm would mix into her childishness, it would get even worse.

"Wedding," I repeated with a mock thoughtful expression. "I shall think about it."

"Ha ha ha, you're so funny!" She sat up on the bed manically.

"Pansy, stop this childish game." The moment those words left my mouth, I realized that I shouldn't have said them.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'RE DOING?!" she burst out furiously. "Are you actually dating with MATTHEO?!"

I swallowed; my mind was full of answers, but if I DID not want to blow up a war, none was to be used.

"He's your damn enemy, Eve!" she bellowed after I didn't say anything. "He's the Dark Lord's son!"

I wanted to tell her how much I hated him, and how much I was annoyed about the situation I was stuck in; I wanted to tell her the exact reason that I was in this pathetic situation was because he was the Dark Lord's son. I wanted to tell her that I just needed to pull the information out of him, but I wasn't supposed to tell her; and she wasn't supposed to know.

"Pansy, I know what I am doing," I said patiently. "You are not my mother."

She winced; but there was nothing I could do about it.

"No. If I were your DAMN MOTHER, I would've left you and never come back again." She shut off the light above her own bed furiously, turned her back to me, and pulled the blanket over her shoulders.

I sat there motionless, my eyes fixed upon Pansy's back, but they were out of focus. I didn't know how to feel, annoyed, furious, angry, sympathetic or pissed off.

My mind was racing, but it was not supposed to. I was supposed to empty my mind every night before going to sleep, but that night was so harder than I could imagine. So hard; almost impossible. But I had to force myself; I had to shut my thoughts down, I had to throw my emotions out.

I turned off the light above my bed, pulled my blanket on and lay flat on the bed.

Focus, Evelyn.

I took deep breaths; again and again. Told my emotions to go, my thoughts to leave. One breath, two breaths, three...