Mattheo's POV:

✿‧⁺˚*･༓☾✿☽༓･*˚⁺‧✿

Wow.

That girl is something.

And she's mine.

I grin and walk back to my room.

✿‧⁺˚*･༓☾✿☽༓･*˚⁺‧✿

The next morning I meet with Theodore on the terrace that goes around the back of the manor. We sit near the wild rose bushes.

I tell him about what happened with my doll. I spin her dagger in my hand.

"She left me a few gifts. This pretty knife," I spin the dagger in between my fingertips. The carvings on the silver are so intricate, and the embedded emeralds are high quality.

"And a few scars."

Theo raises his eyebrow at me. "Like the one across your mouth? That one looks nasty." He frowns slightly.

I nod. "Yeah. But so worth it. These bruises will heal, but my initials with stay carved into her skin." I grin, the scar across my mouth making me look like a mad man.

My best mate sighs. "You are so mentally deranged, Riddle. You are so obsessed with that girl. Whether it's love or not, only time will tell."

I pause before replying. Love? I've felt a lot of emotions; hate, anger, lust, sadness, happiness, fear, tiredness, indifference. But love? That's foreign to me.

"What are you talking about Theo? If you think I love that bratty girl, you must be crazy. I do love her body, but her as a whole?"

Maybe he's joking with me. But Theodore doesn't tease, or tell tales. He's straightforward with his thoughts.

I watch as he rubs his temples. "You have been in love with her since you met her. You met one girl who wasn't wooed by your looks and stood up to you, and fell in love." He accios two glasses and a bottle of fire whisky.

He pours the alcohol into both glasses. I take one and take a sip.

"You think I love the Lestrange bitch?" I ask. I'm curious of where he got these ideas. Me and her have clashed since we met; not once have we agreed.

"You are, Mattheo. Don't you remember how you were as little brats?"

Now that he said that.....

✿‧⁺˚*･༓☾✿☽༓･*˚⁺‧✿

I think back to the day we met.

I was 12 and she was 8, almost 9.

It's weird we hadn't met before, since we live in the same house. But Bellatrix always kept her daughters locked away like precious pearls. Or dangerous criminals.

It was summer break, and father let me invite Theodore to the manor. I was showing him around the manor, but he got lost.

I then had to look for him, and that's when I bumped into her. She was tiny compared to me, only to my chest.

Our momentum made her fall over. Instead of crying she got back up -- ignoring her scraped knee and palms -- and started yelling at me in French.

I was so confused. All the girls at school were too shy to talk to me and would blush and look away. And there was a little girl cussing me out in a foreign language, making full eye contact with me.

So I did the obvious thing. I covered her mouth to shut her up, quickly taking my hand away when she licked it, and asked who she was.

She couldn't have been a Hogwarts student, she was just a little kid.

"I'm Elizabeth Lestrange!" She yelled in my face.

Well it sounded more like 'Ewisabet Westwange' with her lisp and missing baby teeth. But I got the gist of it. I knew who Bellatrix Lestrange was.

I saw the resemblance between my father's most loyal death eater and the little girl. Messy brown curls, deep brown eyes that look black and a wide (slightly deranged looking) grin.

So I asked how old she was.

And here I got w double answer. 8 years old but almost 9, because her birthday is the 1st of September.

I definitely didn't memorise that....

Anyway...

I don't remember much else from the moment we met except her angrily telling me to watch where I'm running and her pulling a small dagger out of her flowery overalls and leaving a deep cut on my nose.

I still have the scar now.

From that moment, anytime we saw each other it was fighting, bickering and arguing.

When she came to Hogwarts, I remember us dueling the first night. On her birthday.

But weirdly enough, I remember also hoping she'd be in Slytherin. I never remembered that before...

Then when in her second year, my fifth, she made the quidditch team I was... happy.

What's wrong with me?!

✿‧⁺˚*･༓☾✿☽༓･*˚⁺‧✿

I snap out of my train of thoughts when Theo snaps his fingers in front of my face.

I blink a few times to focus. I see Theodore sat opposite me like earlier, but also my younger brother next to him. Theo takes a sip of his fire whisky and hands it to Tom, who also drinks some.

"Why are you here, brother?" I ask him. I run my hand through my hair. I have a slight head ache from thinking too much.

"Theo asked me to come. And Liz is not happy with you. She wants her dagger back" Tom sighs and answers. He then gestures to the dagger in my hand.

I don't even register that I'm still holding it until the dull throb of the blade cutting into my palm hits me. I look down. My hand has two large cuts in perfect lines, from holding the dagger by the blade.

"If she wants the knife she has to come get it. And why did Theodore ask you here?" I wipe my blood off the dagger and slip it into an empty sheath on my ribs.

"To help with your love dilemma." Theodore cuts in, unable to stop the smirk on his face.

I glare at him. "You told my little brother my personal matters?!"

All he does is nod and smirk.

How did I befriend such an imbecile?

"So I'm guessing you've told him your whole theory?" I ask my best friend. He nods. The two of them look at me expectantly.

I grab my glass of fire whisky and drink it all in one go. Better day this partially tipsy than fully sober.

Theo leans back on the small sofa and rests his arm on the back, his fingertips grazing my brother's shoulder. Tom also leans back, as if into his touch.

I take a nice, long deep breath and say what they're waiting for.

"I think I'm in love with Elizabeth Lestrange."

✿‧⁺˚*･༓☾✿☽༓･*˚⁺‧✿

Word count: 1090

So this is late. By two weeks. But I'm gonna try make it a double update, so you don't lose the chapter that was meant to be two weeks ago.

If the story is a bit mangled, that is my fault. I had an idea of 300 words and I had to stretch it out (If someone gave me plot ideas I'd love that).

Anyone see the new ship I'm trying to form here?

As always, THANK YOU for the reads, comments and votes. We're almost at 15k reads, which is insane. I seriously don't think this fic deserves that much.

Since I meant to post this earlier but someone didn't write it: happy mother's day, and happy April Fools.

Should I make a new cover for 15k reads?

Love you all my gorgeous readers.

-M♥︎