"I do not have an accent!" Matt shot back.
Suddenly the compartment door slid open. In the door was a brunette pug-faced girl flanked by a large heavyset dark-haired girl and a taller blonde-haired blue-eyed girl. Behind them stood a familiar face to everyone but Matt, a large burly boy with broad shoulders, long arms, and short hair.
"What do we have here?" the pug-faced girl asked.
"What do you want Pansy?" Hermione asked, venom in her voice. Pansy from the doorway stared daggers at Hermione and Matt took an instant dislike her.
"Quiet! I wasn't asking you. Let's see we've got four blood traitors, one filthy Mudblood and one –" Pansy was cut off as Matt suddenly stood, unfolding out the corner seat and towering above the others. His usually warm brown eyes narrowed as he glared at the girl in the doorway.
"Do you know how utterly stupid you sound?" Matt spoke, venom, and hate in his voice. "Mudblood." He spat. "Do you know why blood is red? No? Let me give you a lesson. Blood is red because it's got something in it called iron." Matt's tone was condescending and as if he were speaking to a young child. "Do you know what iron is? It's a metal, it comes from the earth, from the dirt, from the mud." He stood right in Pansy face, not letting her look or see anything else. "And do you know what happens when it dries? It turns brown. See, we're made up of mostly water, that's also in your blood. But when your blood hits the air, you know, outside your body," Matt sunk heavy implication into his words. "It reacts with the air. The iron in your blood starts to oxidize, it rusts, and tuns back into brown. Just like the dirt and the mud." He snarled.
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Now I know for a fact, that all of us," Matt briefly turned and motioned to everyone in the compartment. "All bleed red. But maybe, maybe, you don't. Maybe you're some kind of green-blooded, inhuman, hobgoblin! Wanna find out? I'll be your huckleberry." Matt was standing less than inch from Pansy, his faced contorted with rage as he looked down on her. She shook her head.
"That's what I thought. Now, take your ugly, fat ass self and your useless little trolls and get out of here, you stupid little girl. This is an adult only compartment." Matt snarled backing Pansy and her henchmen out of the door before sliding it closed and locking it before turning to the others. His expression immediately softened, and he smiled at them.
Hermione leapt out of her seat to embrace him immediately. Matt looked shocked at the sudden display of affection but returned the hug and gently patted her back.
"Thank you." She whispered to him.
"Sure thing." Matt replied, not entirely sure what he had done to deserve thanks.
"Wow." Neville said in awe as the pair sat back down, Hermione suddenly sitting much closer to Matt than before.
"What?" Matt asked as all eyes were on him suddenly.
"It's just that…" Neville began. "Usually, I mean, Harry and Ron…" he stumbled over his thoughts.
"Let's just say, if Potter and Weasley were here, and it were me in the doorway…" Draco explained. "They would have just jinxed me into the hall and dealt with consequences later."
"It's just that…it's very refreshing to see someone use words rather than wands to deal with a situation like that." Hermione said.
"Ah! Well, I don't like to use violence if I can help it…" Matt started.
"Wait, what do you mean if you can help it? You helped Granger back at the station, didn't you? You were the mystery assailant everyone was talking about. The one who helped put Weasley in his place." Draco said. Matt closed his eyes for a moment a took a breath.
"Yes. No one is going to get away with hurting my friends." He said it aloud, but he was only looking at Hermione. His hand reached over, out of instinct, and gently clasped Hermione's for a moment. There was a slight blush on her cheeks. Draco observed the interaction and made mental notes.
"So, you'd call all of us, in here, your friend?" Draco asked.
"I think so. Let me see something though, really quick. Since I don't know you as well…" Matt said, knowing he should not out of hand trust a former Death Eater. Draco looked confused.
"Hold out your wrist." Matt instructed him. Draco stuck out his wrist that was half up his arm, the Dark Mark still visible on it. "Not that one, the other one." Matt admonished as Draco switched arms, the other the sleeve was still down on.
Matt held Draco's arm for a moment and leaned in.
"This is going to hurt for a second." He reached up and plucked a hair from Draco's head. He winced in pain but watched. Matt coiled the plucked hair on Draco's black sleeve. "What do you see?" he asked.
"I see a hair on a sleeve." Draco said initially. Matt simply fixed him with a glare. Draco thought for a long moment. "It's white on black, a contrast of opposites."
"Uh huh, keep goin'." Matt urged.
"It's light within the dark, balance, good in evil." Draco concluded.
"Very good. Congratulations Mr. Malfoy, you pass." Matt said and sat back on the bench.
"That was a test?" Draco asked.
"Sort of. I just wanted to see something. I think you have changed. I think, even though you've done bad things in the past, you're not inclined to do so now. Sometimes, in life, the paths we walk are easy. We can tell which one we should take. But sometimes we have to walk down a path before we know it's the wrong path for us to take. I think you might have had to walk down a path some way before you realized it wasn't for you. And maybe even had to keep going for a while until you had to find a way back." Matt said gesticulating with his hands for emphasis, moving them from side to side to show the paths.
Draco nodded. Matt gave him a smile.
"Since friends seem to be in short supply for you, yes, I think we can call each other 'friend'." Matt said.
"Thank you." Draco said he looked a little overcome with emotion. He turned to Hermione. "You know something Granger?"
"What's that Draco?" Hermione asked.
"I used to envy you and Potter and Weasley." Draco admitted.
"In what way?" Hermione asked. Matt could see by her expression things were clicking in her head and the gears were turning in her brilliant mind.
"Well, I never had what you all did. You three could rely on each other, were actually friends. I didn't have that with…with Crabbe…and Goyle." Draco looked down at the floor.
"I'm sorry Draco." Hermione said and grasped his hand for a moment.
"And now it seems Goyle is sided with Parkinson. I thought this whole time my family was paying for him to keep being in my class, so I was guarded. He's not very smart, you know." "I know." Hermione and Matt said in unison. She looked at him with surprise.
"Final grades are public record, remember?" Matt said with a grin. "And it's nice to finally put a face to a name. I never understood how he kept getting passed along. But I never considered someone was paying to keep him coming back and letting him skirt by with the bare minimum. I'm losing my touch." Matt lamented.
"What do you mean?" Luna asked.
"Fifth year me wouldn't have let something like that slip by…" Matt said and looked down.
"Matt don't be so hard on yourself. You're still not fully recovered." Hermione said it was her turn to put a comforting hand on Matt's shoulder. He glanced at her and smiled. His own hand reached up to pat hers.
"What does she mean, 'fully recovered'?" Draco asked.
"Yeah, and how did you get to Hogwarts anyway?" Neville asked.
"Ahh…right, you two don't know the story yet." Matt said, pointing between Neville and Draco. "And the rest of you don't know all the details either…but…you'll all find out soon enough anyway." Matt glanced at the door and pulled his wand out. He quickly cast a silencing charm on the compartment just to be safe.
"Alright, I'll tell you the secret origins of Matt Santini." He began. "So, it's common knowledge that Ilvermorny was destroyed under mysterious circumstances. I was there. At ground zero when it happened. I don't know the exact details anymore."
"Why not?" Draco asked, leaning forward.
"Well, I was pretty seriously injured and in a coma for almost a year. I was found by NoMaj's." Matt got confused looks from Neville and Draco. "Sorry, Muggles, and was taken as a John Doe to one of their hospitals. I was there for about six months before a former classmate of mine, a man named Kowalski, found me."
"That's fortunate." Neville said.
"Yes, it is. He was visiting a No-Maj, sorry, Muggle relative in the hospital, saw me and immediately wrote to some friends here. Apparently, he's well connected with the
Scamanders. Anyway, they felt the best thing for me was to be sent here, to Hogwarts. Madam Pomfrey's reputation precedes her. I was brought in, in secret, during the height of the war. McGonagall was able to slip me in under the guise that I was another student taken to the Hospital Wing. I'm told there were so many students coming in and out of the Hospital Wing during that time, for various reasons, it was easy to slip me in under someone else's name and then show me as discharged the next time that student came in and was fixed up. No one noticed a continuously occupied bed at the very end of the wing."
"After the fighting was done, Voldemort dead and the castle began to be repaired, I woke up. Now we all know that No-Maj, sorry, Muggle, medicine can only go so far. And unfortunately for me, some of the injuries, well, they're permanent. Damage is done and it's too late for magical medicine to help. So, I'm stuck with a limp and using a specialized wand." Matt drew his wand and snapped his wrist, turning it into its cane form and then back again.
"Whoa…" came the wide-eyed reply from both Neville and Draco. Matt simply grinned.
"It makes sense though; the Hospital Wing was busy under Snape." Neville said.
"It was, between the "classes" and curses. We all had it rough." Ginny said, making it very obvious she was using air quotes around the word classes.
"I never knew." Hermione said.
"I'm just glad you didn't have to see it." Ginny said. "You would have been targeted." Hermione nodded in response.
The Trolley Witch came by shortly afterwards and the group bought snacks, Matt refrained as he still had to get his bank vaults fully switched over. Hermione did not let him go hungry and split several Pumpkin Pasties with him.
As the train pulled into the station, the skies darkened, and thunder could be heard rolling down the valley and across the Black Lake. Hermione packed Crookshanks into his carrier as they departed the train.
"Firs' years! Firs' years this way!" called out a voice, and Matt and Hermione turned to see Hagrid herding a small group of young students towards the lake. "Alrigh' Hermione?" Hagrid called to her as she led the group consisting of Matt, Draco, Ginny, Luna, and Neville.
"Alright Hagrid!" Hermione called back to him with a wave.
"Good ter see yeh too, Matt!" Hagrid called to him.
"Same here Hagrid, see ya at castle!" Matt waved as the group walked up the carriages. The six of them found one and crammed inside. Matt slipped into a corner and Hermione squished against him, with Ginny beside her. Luna sat in the middle, opposite Hermione, Draco, and Neville on either side of her.
"Huh, is that Thestrals pulling the carriages?" Matt asked as they jostled up towards the castle.
"It is…you can see them too?" Hermione asked. She knew everyone in the carriage could, after the war.
"Yeah…always wanted to see one…never wanted to pay the toll to cross that bridge though…" he replied. Hermione gave him a sympathetic squeeze of his hand.
The skies opened up as it began to storm violently as the carriages pulled up the gleaming structure. Matt was quick to slip out first and pulled his wand out. He cast a protective shield and held his wand like an umbrella, the rain magically spilled over it. Matt enlarged the charm to be big enough to cover all six of them as they quickly stepped inside.
"I've never seen that particular spell before." Hermione said. Matt beamed at her.
"It's a little something of my own design. Just a couple of household spells in the proper proportions." Matt grinned slyly.
"Which ones are those?" Ginny inquired.
"Impervius, Protego and Engorgio." Matt replied.
"Oh, Matt, there's something I need to mention. You won't be able to sit with us right away. You'll have to be sorted first. I expect you'll be saved for last." Hermione explained. Matt nodded slightly glumly. It was the one thing he was nervous about.
He followed the others into the Great Hall and stepped off to the side as Hermione and the others took their respective seats at their individual house tables. Matt noticed that there were a lot of empty seats and the various years seemed to be split off from one another, the younger ones sitting further down, closer to the entrance with the older students near the staff table. He sighed and waited.