CHAPTER 28: A SURPRISING SAMHAIN EVENING
If October 31st marked the celebration of the Samhain festival for many students, a day to commemorate the spirits of departed loved ones and ancestors, it held a different significance for a Hogwarts student. For him, it was the anniversary of his victory over the most terrible wizard, now a decade ago. Matthew, as he was named, particularly enjoyed this day. Before celebrating a victorious confrontation he couldn't even remember, he saw it as the perfect opportunity to replenish his candy stash without spending a single coin. Defeating Lord Voldemort had earned him an immense fan club within the magical population of Great Britain. Dozens of gifts, mostly sent by admirers seeking recognition, quickly filled the Gryffindor table at Hogwarts.
In addition to gifts, there were letters of love, various pieces of silverware sent to him despite their uselessness, and diverse requests for commercial partnerships or advertising contracts. The result was that, to this day, Matthew had received countless gifts, even during classes and to the displeasure of his professors. However, no one dared to comment on it because no one wanted to anger, challenge, or reprimand "the survivor" for any misconduct. Matthew felt at home in Hogwarts, and the princely life he led at Potter Manor continued in this school without Dumbledore, the school's headmaster, finding anything to criticize. In fact, one could argue the opposite. If someone suggested that the headmaster encouraged Matthew's behavior, it wouldn't be far from the truth.
Following in James's footsteps, Dumbledore had employed the gentlest method to gain his student's favor: corruption through numerous gifts, flattery to satisfy his oversized ego, and compassion for Matthew's misunderstanding of a magical community that seemed hostile to him. His behavior had worsened upon his arrival at Hogwarts about two months earlier. Initially, everyone wanted to befriend the survivor and become his friend, but within a week, things changed. Only a portion of the Gryffindors still defended their comrade's constant disrespect; the others, more often than not, preferred to ignore his existence.
Dumbledore belonged to the first group, explaining the arrogance, conceit, and narcissism Matthew displayed as youth's foibles, flaws that, according to some, tended to increase with time, making Matthew extremely unlikeable in their eyes. However, when Dumbledore expressed a firm opinion on a matter, the rest of the teaching staff blindly followed. No one dared to question the word of one of the most powerful wizards of this century, even when it was tarnished during the trial against him, and the mysteries surrounding this case persisted. Trust had been somewhat broken, but most people still mistakenly believed that Dumbledore's word prevailed above all else. So, when he asserted that Matthew's character was only temporary and that one of the reasons for it might also be the absence of the unworthy mother, Lily Potter, reactions oscillated between approval and resignation.
There was only one man who openly opposed him at Hogwarts: Severus Snape. Despite the director's recommendations and threats, the Potions professor refused to submit to the "little brat" he despised as much as his father. Each class in Matthew's presence often ended in a verbal skirmish, during which Matthew caused Gryffindor to lose a significant portion of its points or earned himself a memorable detention cleaning all the cauldrons in the classroom. Unlike other teachers, Severus knew why Lily Potter had fled her home, taking her other two children with her, and his hatred for James only intensified each time he thought about it. As for Matthew, if his appearance was a mix of his two parents, his character was that of his father. His teacher intended to make the son pay for his and his father's behavior when the latter tormented him at school.
Matthew was well aware of these things and, in truth, took delight in perpetuating his father's work, even if he generally never had the last word. The furious look from his teacher was enough to bring joy to him and James. A glance at the teachers' table assured him that the antipathy he felt toward Snape was mutual, but he quickly cut short their staring contest as a precaution. Dumbledore had warned him multiple times about Snape's ability to read people's minds with a simple visual contact, and he preferred to avoid Snape discovering any of his little secrets to use against him. Instead, he enthusiastically attacked the dish in front of him, trying to ignore the grumbling and noises coming from the mouth of his best friend, Ron Weasley.
"Granger isn't here," he noted, looking at their entire table.
"That's normal," replied Neville Longbottom in a small voice, avoiding eye contact. According to Parvati and Lavender, she spent the entire afternoon in the fourth-floor toilets crying, and no one managed to get her out.
"Great, we can finally have a meal without Miss Know-it-all ruining it again by flaunting all her knowledge," Matthew declared, satisfied."
By the way, this sentence brought a smile to his face, and at the mere thought of this girl crying her eyes out because of him, Matthew felt not a shadow of regret. Hermione Granger was, along with Draco Malfoy, the Slytherins, the student he despised the most at Hogwarts. Even though the reasons were mostly different, he had no difficulty lumping together the heir of the Malfoy family and the Gryffindor mudblood. Proud, authoritarian, boastful, and arrogant, his fellow student did not fit the typical profile of people who could please him. Her tendency to constantly play the know-it-all and give lessons to all the students had driven away more than one person in her path, to the point that today she had practically no friends.
Their first encounter took place on the very day of the school year, and neither of them had good memories of it. From the start, Matthew had no intention of befriending this particularly clingy girl, but the point of no return was reached when, unintentionally, Hermione laid out one of the pieces of information she had gleaned from the multiple biographies she had read about him: the disappearance of his mother and the rest of his family. Matthew had seen red at that moment and had violently thrown her out of his compartment, shouting at her. The carriage driver had even had to stop the vehicle for a few minutes to try to calm him down. As a result, the driver was accused by the survivor of intentional violence, leading to his dismissal and legal action initiated against him by James. Matthew knew very well that all this was not true, but unfortunately for the driver, his need to unleash all his anger and resentment against someone had made him a collateral victim, disregarding the repercussions his lies could have in his life and the lives of the poor victims of his villainy.
Hermione had not finished with Matthew's anger, and over the next two months, she became the target of relentless reprisals. Sarcasms, insults, physical violence, humiliations—everything was done to her, and other students even joined in, wrongly thinking that it might make them friends with him. Ron, in particular, was the most virulent towards her. In the hope of winning Matthew's favor, whom he followed like a shadow, he frequently engaged in what he called "the beaver hunt," alluding to Hermione's prominent teeth.
However, despite this sad introduction to the magical world, she held on without ever complaining, and especially by earning numerous points for her house through her good answers in class. However, after the last spell lesson in which all the students learned Wingardium Leviosa, and she stood out as the only one to achieve a satisfactory result, Ron's jealousy had prompted him to utter words that hurt her more than the petty remarks about her appearance: "What a nuisance this girl is!" he said, chuckling. "No wonder she has no friends! Who could stand a beaver hopping on a chair all the time?!"
The simple act of reminding her of this sad truth had put her in deep distress. For now, Matthew was mainly thinking about finding other moments when he could use this weakness against her, forgetting that she herself could, out of vengeance, touch him where he still suffered painfully: the absence of his mother.
Lily's disappearance had been experienced as a cataclysm for him, and the absence of his mother had been felt in his life for a long time. But, following the discussion he had with Dumbledore, his feelings towards Lily had radically changed from sorrow to anger, from missing her presence to a fierce determination to deny her existence, from deep but timidly expressed love to visceral hatred that often led him to scream the worst insults at her. In simple terms, Lily no longer existed in his eyes. To those rare few who could bring up the subject in his presence, he simply stated that his mother had died the day she left, and even to those who spread the worst rumors about her, especially about her running away with one of her lovers, Matthew let them talk without replying, even approving some of the remarks.
The fault lay, of course, with Dumbledore and James, and both were delighted to see that now Lily could die in front of her son, and he wouldn't lift a finger to try by any means to save her. The first, of course, acted as a puppet master on him, an adviser pretending to be a grandfather to mask the horrible game he played on his mind. Between the reflections he instilled in his student by dramatically talking about his mother's behavior outside the family circle, the rumors circulating about him within the magical community through him, and especially the few articles mentioning the horrible mother Lily Potter was, according to curiously anonymous sources, he had ended up painting the worst picture not only in the eyes of the heir of the Potters but also sowing doubt among the wizards.
As for James, although still deeply in love with Lily according to his words, his departure also coincided with the appearance in his life of multiple women who could often be found in Potter Manor. All had in common being Muggles, sometimes much younger than him. However, after the infamies read in the press, some wizards managed to find excuses for James's multiple liaisons. Even pure-bloods approved of his behavior, arguing that they themselves occasionally enjoyed a bit of fun with charming strangers.
"I would almost envy him..." Lord Smith had once declared to some of his friends between sessions at the Wizengamot. "Who could dare say that he wouldn't take advantage of his wife's absence to spend the night without having to answer to anyone? A man must exert himself, otherwise he would wither away!"
His remark had caused a lot of laughter in the corridors of the Ministry, but deep down, many wizards agreed with him. This sudden sympathy towards the current Lord Potter might surprise many, and the trial during which he had been humiliated and denounced by the entire assembly was only a few years ago. However, with their multiple contacts, James and Dumbledore had managed to turn the situation in their favor, especially in the press and through word of mouth, transitioning from accused to victims in the blink of an eye, and Lily from the respectable woman to the worst mother.
Lady Potter's mistake had been not to give her own version of the events and to remain completely discreet about it. Her opponents had seized on the breach caused by her silence so that, in the end, people began to doubt the true reasons for her absence.
James and Dumbledore's situation had thus improved a lot since that day, even though the beginnings were very difficult for them. Although both had not yet recovered all the functions that were theirs before this affair, there was no doubt that soon, in one way or another, the headmaster of Hogwarts would regain his position as the Grand Pooh-Bah of the Wizengamot. For this, it was still necessary to hope that the untouchables would be lenient towards him, but given that most of these families still had a bad opinion of him, one could not count on their support for the moment, especially since James himself had not yet regained his seat among this small circle of privileged individuals.
A glance in Neville's direction reminded Matthew that he too was a future member of this circle, but if Neville had the title, he certainly did not have the stature. Shy, fearful, easily influenced, and without a hint of courage, his Gryffindor comrade could easily become his puppet if he wished, and that was why he had been trying for weeks to be friendly and sympathetic to him. Dumbledore had advised him numerous times to establish contacts with him and the other heirs of the prestigious families of the Wizengamot so that he would not forget him, but besides Neville, no one else wanted to deal with him, which considerably complicated his task. How could he influence the future decisions of the untouchables if the majority formed a coalition against him? It was difficult in the current state to govern alone, but Neville could be useful in this matter. Through persuasion, kindness, and false displays of sympathy, the heir of the Longbottoms could act in his favor with the others. At least, he hoped so.
His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by Ron's repugnant satisfaction-filled munching sounds. Faced with Ron's sauce-speckled face, Matthew couldn't help but emit a growl of fury at his best friend's shameful manners as he gorged on chicken thighs.
"If I wanted to dine with an animal, Ronald, I would have gone straight to the Hogwarts stables. I'm even certain that Thestrals have more dignity when they eat than you do. So, mind your behavior, or I'll ask Professor Dumbledore to have you eat outside this school in the future, so you don't disgust me during my meal."
"Sorry..." he mumbled, involuntarily spitting out some crumbs into his plate. "I forget that we're not at the Burrow sometimes."
"On the other hand, you don't forget to have the manners of a beggar even at Hogwarts," Matthew added absentmindedly, rolling his eyes.
Ron's ears reddened slightly at this remark, but he didn't dare to retort to his friend. His mother had already lectured him enough on the matter, almost ordering him to accept all of Matthew's criticisms without a word, to the point where he didn't even bother glaring at him anymore. However, the students surrounding them couldn't hide their disbelief at the condescension Matthew displayed towards his "best friend," especially Ron's almost submissive reaction to his disrespect. Anyone would have reacted negatively to such behavior, but Ron's attitude left them baffled. Was he foolish enough to let himself be walked over without protesting? Ron's interest in Matthew's popularity was no secret, but allowing himself to be humiliated without resistance was beyond comprehension. Even Percy, who was usually one of the first to butter up Matthew every time he saw him, looked at his younger brother with a disappointed expression, as if he hoped Ron would succeed where he and most other Gryffindor students failed: putting an insolent and disrespectful eleven-year-old in his place.
"What are you all looking at?" Matthew snapped, noticing the disappointed looks from some students.
"Nothing at all," one of them replied, shifting attention back to their plate, quickly followed by the rest of their peers.
"Yeah, leave him alone," Ron chimed in immediately, looking particularly at a black-skinned student a few seats away. "A black shouldn't have the honor of laying eyes on the Dark Wizard Slayer..."
Dean Thomas, as it was, clenched the utensils he held so tightly that the joints of his fingers slightly whitened. However, perfectly composed, he didn't hold a grudge against his dorm mate's remarks and instead engaged in an animated discussion with his friend Seamus Finnigan about the recent classes. Other students, who had just pitied him a few seconds earlier, radically changed their opinion, and disgust was now easily perceptible in the glances they cast at him. Fred and George, Ron's twin brothers, were among them. Not only because they didn't approve of their brother's words, but also because their best friend, Lee Jordan, was a mixed-race student and the son of a former slave. When someone attacked someone dear to them, the person who made that mistake quickly regretted it.
"I wonder what Weasley said this time to make you all look at him like that," a mocking voice said just behind Matthew.
All heads turned again, but Matthew didn't need to do the same to recognize the sneering voice of Draco Malfoy. Instead, he stubbornly kept his eyes on his food, ignoring the desperate look Ron gave him, worried about facing his best friend's rival alone. It wasn't the desire to confront Draco again that bothered Matthew tonight, but he preferred to choose the moments when he would deliver cutting retorts to Draco. Doing it in the Great Hall in front of all the students and professors wasn't a moment he deemed suitable for that, especially since he usually lost at that game. Malfoy certainly wasn't someone commendable in his eyes, and he would rather spend an entire day with Neville than with him. However, if he acknowledged one quality to Malfoy that he envied, it was his ability to verbally provoke people. But beyond that, he didn't want to be seen near the son of a notorious Death Eater, especially when he also associated with his equally unworthy followers.
"So, Weasley? Not content with disgusting the entire school with your eating habits, you manage to turn your own housemates against you?" he said under the fat laughs of his two bodyguards, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. "That's interesting... Maybe Gryffindor isn't as pitiful as I thought if even they disapprove of the behavior of a wretch like you."
Ron's ears reddened immediately, but without any support, he just grumbled into his beard without daring to express himself more clearly.
"But well, it's understandable," Draco added with the same mocking voice that characterized him so much. "In my opinion, he has never seen so much food in his life, and in just two months, he probably ate as much as in the past eleven years."
"Shut up, Malfoy," Ron replied, reddening even more. "Go back to your little Death Eater friends; that's where you belong. As for you, you should be in a cotton field in Virginia, not in a wizarding school..."
The fat laughs Matthew heard behind him abruptly stopped, and out of curiosity, he finally chose to turn his head in that direction to understand why. A quick glance at the small group surrounding Malfoy assured him that the last sentence was directed at Blaise Zabini, a student also with black skin but who, unlike Dean, came from a powerful and ancient magical family established for centuries in Italy. Also in Slytherin, he was also very rich and belonged to a family known for its pronounced and unhidden use of dark magic - two positives in Draco's eyes. It was not surprising, therefore, to see him hanging out with Draco even if he didn't necessarily share the same views on blood purity and wizard superiority. Ron's racist comment didn't seem to have pleased him, and even Draco, who was usually the first to criticize and belittle Muggle-born students because of their blood, did not accept insults based on someone's skin color and origin. Such discrimination had no place in the wizarding world, especially in the oldest families in England, and the slavery of black people had never existed in their community. However, when one had closely interacted with Muggles, knew their customs, or was even from that world, the recent abolition of slavery was not yet ingrained in everyone's minds, and disrespectful comments about these individuals were still very common.
Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bullstrode, and Theodore Nott completed this group, but while Matthew had long formed an opinion about Draco, he couldn't say as much about them. Nevertheless, he knew enough about their families and the roles some of them played during Voldemort's time to avoid them entirely and disdain them as much as their titular leader, the heir Malfoy.
"Immediately take back what you just said," Draco ordered Ron, losing all amusement in his voice.
"Or what?" Ron asked mockingly, finally staring at him, mischief in his eyes. "Are you going to run and tell your daddy? Are you going to stomp your foot on the ground, waiting for me to give in to your threats?"
"Yielding must be very easy for you; you already know how to play the doormat for Potter," Theodore retorted harshly.
Laughs erupted from everywhere, and even some Gryffindors succumbed to Theodore's truthful words.
"You shouldn't mock, because you're no better than him," Draco reminded them, glaring at them. "You constantly criticize us for our ideals and our blood purity theory, but when one of your own insults someone because of their color, none of you react, and you let him continue spewing his bile. In the end, you're all as resistant as we are, and the funniest thing is that you don't even realize it. At least, we have the courage of our ideas and know how to defend them. You... Well, I don't think Godric Gryffindor would be happy to see the students representing him."
"Coming from a Slytherin student, I find the comparison exaggerated, if you ask me," Matthew replied, raising an eyebrow. "We don't need moral lessons from dark magic enthusiasts. And as for Ron being a doormat for me, the same can be said for your parents regarding Voldemort," he added, directed at Theodore.
"Think what you want, Potter, but when one is unable to control their nerves and has constant meltdowns in every class because they feel like all the professors or students are against us, they should be lecturing themselves and not others," Theodore replied before turning away to join his table. "The reputation of a spoiled brat you carry with you will catch up to you one of these days."
"Spoiled brat?!" Matthew repeated furiously, jumping up. "I'm not a spoiled brat; I'm the Dark Wizard Slayer! Show some respect!"
"The Slayer?" Draco mocked, staring at him. "A big, capricious baby, yes! Not a day goes by that you don't go cry to the headmaster! I bet you defeated the Dark Lord by crying, not with your magic! Given your grades, it's your mediocrity that could have scared him enough to kill him, not your wizardry talents!"
And with those words, the Slytherins left them there to join their friend, satisfied with the effect of the taunts they had thrown at Matthew and the others. Silence dominated among the Gryffindors, and Ron, who had been the center of attention for all the students, was now seething with so much anger that his hands, holding his utensils, trembled with rage, scattering around him what he was unsuccessfully trying to eat. As for Matthew, he had also turned red with anger, but being better at controlling his emotions than his best friend, he managed to channel his rage and reveal nothing.
Everything could have ended on this discouraging note for the Gryffindors, but as always at Hogwarts, nothing was as simple, and surprises were never far behind. The usual commotion of the Great Hall had just begun to surface when Professor Quirrell, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, burst into the room, running, his turban slightly askew, and his face distorted by terror. All conversations ceased at this sudden entrance, although some students took the opportunity to chuckle at their teacher's behavior as he collapsed in front of Dumbledore, breathing heavily.
"A troll... In the dungeons... I wanted to warn you!"
He then fell to the floor, unconscious. Immediately, screams and shouts were heard throughout the hall, but calm returned as soon as the headmaster sensibly made himself heard, sending sparks flying from the tip of his wand.
"Prefects, please quickly escort your fellow students to their respective dormitories," he said firmly.
The prefects didn't need to be told twice, and in no time, a dense crowd of Gryffindor students followed Percy Weasley as he directed them with pompous authority.
"That's funny," Ron suddenly said as they climbed the grand staircase.
"What's funny?" Matthew asked in a bored tone without turning his head towards him.
"Well... Dumbledore asked the prefects to take the students back to their dormitories, right? But since the troll is in the dungeons, the Slytherins will probably encounter it!"
Matthew immediately stopped, raising an eyebrow as he finally deigned to pay attention to his friend. A smile quickly appeared on his face as he assessed Ron for the first time, as if meeting him for the first time.
"That's true," he admitted thoughtfully, absentmindedly stroking his chin. "Maybe we'll be rid of those slimy snakes? I can easily imagine Malfoy crushed by the club of that beast!"
Satisfied with this idea, Matthew resumed walking, chuckling lightly. Ron was just a few steps ahead when suddenly, another thought occurred to him, a thought much less amusing than a hypothetical bloodbath in the Slytherin ranks.
"Wait, Matthew!" he called out, grabbing his arm. "Hermione, she's not..."
"Would you kindly remove your filthy hands from my arm?" interrupted his friend, pulling away abruptly. "Who gave you the right to touch me?"
"I... I'm sorry, I forgot..." he replied, blushing slightly. "But Hermione..."
"What's wrong with Granger again?" Matthew asked irritably. "I have better things to do than worry about a crybaby right now!"
Clearly, Matthew was not inclined to listen, and Ron quickly understood that. Knowing his friend's legendary impatience, he opted for simplicity by going straight to the source to avoid further offending him.
"She's not aware of the troll," he continued walking beside him. "Maybe we should warn her, or at least inform a professor that she wasn't eating in the Great Hall with everyone else..."
"And she can go cry to McGonagall because we were mean to her?" Matthew replied, shaking his head slightly. "My poor Ronald, your stupidity will be the end of you one day..."
"But what if something happens to her?" his friend insisted, feeling anger rise rapidly despite himself.
"She's crying in the first-floor bathroom, right?" Matthew reminded him impatiently. "The troll is in the dungeons, so it can't come up to this level without someone encountering it."
And without waiting for a response, Matthew continued towards the upper floors, not even bothering to glance at Ron to check if he was following. On the contrary, his friend remained in the same spot, motionless, watching the silhouette of the survivor climbing the stairs one by one as he pondered Matthew's words.
"It's true..." he muttered, glancing towards the grand staircase just behind him, indifferent to the crowd of students also ascending the steps to the dormitories of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. "Nothing bad can happen to her after all. Dumbledore is the greatest wizard of recent years; he must have the situation well in hand."
Reassured by his own words, Ron started running again, hoping to catch up with Matthew quickly, unaware that this false sense of security would cost much more than the material damage caused by a rampaging mountain troll.
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