two can keep a secret,

chapter ten.

Lilith.

I try to warn Warrington the next morning at breakfast. Does he listen? No.

For once, I get to breakfast before Riddle, and Warrington decides to sit where Riddle normally sits. I told him that Riddle won't be happy to know Warrington tried to take his spot. He didn't listen.

He slings his arm around my shoulders and starts eating some toast. Blaise looks at him weirdly, looking between him and his arm.

Someone clears their throat from behind Warrington. We all turn and Riddle stand there with his arms crossed.

"Get out of my spot, Warrington," he says blankly, glancing at his arm around me.

Warrington shrugs. "These aren't assigned spots, Riddle. I just want to sit by my girlfriend."

Riddle narrows his eyes at Warrington. "I won't tell you again, Warrington. Move."

Warrington shakes his head, moving his arm off my shoulders so he can look at Riddle better. "It's not that deep, bro."

Riddle grabs Warrington by the shirt collar harshly and gets in his face. People look over at us as Riddle pulls on Warrington's shirt. I can see the fear in his eyes.

"Riddle," I say, trying to get his attention.

"List here—"

"Mattheo."

He looks over at me. I raise my eyebrows. He tightens his grip on Warrington's shirt.

"Let him go, Riddle. Just sit next to Draco for today," I say.

"Don't tell me—"

"I know. Just, listen to me this once, please."

He waits a minute, turning back to Warrington. He pushes Warrington back against the table as he lets go of his shirt. He glares at him and walks around the end of the table before sitting down next to Draco.

"You okay?" I ask quietly as Warrington tries to smooth out his shirt. He nods.

After a minute, Blaise tries to break the tension. "So, quote of the day?"

"A liar's worst enemy is someone with a good memory."

Blaise, Pansy, and Draco nod in satisfaction.

"Quote of the day?" Warrington asks, looking at me.

I turn to him. "It's an everyday thing. Wise words from me each morning."

"Unless it's telling me to fuck off because you're hungover," Draco mutters.

"You're worse," I retort.

"Wait until she spends time with Dumbledore. He never makes any sense," Blaise puts in.

We all nod in agreement, and Warrington and I go back to talking. Mostly, it's him talking to me, but we switch off every now and then.

"Mattheo, you're going to bend your fork," Blaise says, cutting us out of our conversation.

I look over at Riddle. He's glaring at Warrington while holding onto his fork. His knuckles are white from him gripping it so hard. When he registers what Blaise said, he scowls and drops the fork.

This will be fun.

☯︎︎

In Defense Against the Dark Arts, Umbitch arrives just in time. She tells us to flip to chapter five in our books and read, then discuss with our table partners. Riddle and I have been giving each other the silent treatment since breakfast. We only glare at each other or roll our eyes.

I skim the reading, which is like thirty pages. It's useless. All about how, in theory, to defend yourself on the off chance that someone tries to use a spell on us.

I raise my hand, it'll make her happy.

"Yes, Ms. Snape?" Umbridge asks, perking up as she looks up at me. Everyone stops reading and turns to me. Even Riddle looks at me, more like I'm crazy and going to get in trouble than anything, but whatever.

"So, if we aren't going to do magic, learn magic, learn how to execute the defensive spells, could we at least learn how to use blocking spells?"

She looks at me like I'm both crazy and annoying. "As I have said before, Ms. Snape, I don't understand why you would need to use spells."

"We live in a world of magic. We kind of need to use magic here," I retort. "And we jinx each other all the time, it's not new information. Couldn't we learn about counter-jinxes at least?"

Umbridge shakes her head and makes a tutting sound. "Turn your book to chapter fifteen and read out loud what is says about counter-jinxes."

I flip through my book until I find chapter fifteen. I skim the pages, finding where is says anything about counter-jinxes. Found it.

"Well," Umbridge says, gesturing for me to go on. "Read it out loud. I'm sure everyone would like to hear it."

So I start to read the garbage. "'It is in full belief that counter-jinxes were indeed not named correctly. These spells should be strongly discouraged, as many other spells should be in general. The name counter-jinxes is only in our society for one reason. The name makes it seem as though jinxes are made out to be more acceptable if there is a counter spell to use against it.' Would you like me to continue?"

Blaise tries to stifle a laugh as I glare at Umbridge.

"What do you think about what you just read?" Umbridge asks, glaring at Blaise, but talking to me.

I cross my arms and shrug. "I think its bullshit."

Hermione gasps, Blaise tries to stifle another laugh, Riddle raises a brow at me, and Umbridge looks flabbergasted.

"There's no point in coming to a class at a magic school if we aren't going to use magic. Counter-jinxes were created for a reason," I say. "And, quite frankly, I could list all the different things in our society that need to be fixed and made unacceptable before we even think about jinxes."

"Go back to your assignment, Ms. Snape," Umbridge says.

"Are you afraid that I'm correct? That, I'm a fifteen year old girl who knows more that's wrong with the world compared to half of the adults here?"

"Ms. Snape," she warns.

"If we actually learned how to defend ourselves, maybe the rates of people in hospitals would go down. The hospitals are already overcrowded as it is. Perhaps it would help us all in the long run."

"Ms. Snape."

"You were correct when you said our curriculum was uneven, though that's what made it interesting. We learned new things every day, and we mastered those skills easier. We learned more then than we're learning now. When we have fun, we learn more. Otherwise, we don't want to be here, and we don't want to listen, so we don't learn anything. It's a waste of a class period."

"Detention, Ms. Snape!" Umbitch shouts. She quickly tries to recompose herself and giggles. "You now have detention for the next week." A satisfied smirk comes on my face, and her expression falters slightly. She doesn't know that this is what I wanted.

Don't try to teach a Slytherin this shit. We don't take it lightly. There's a reason we get what we want.