A few weeks had passed since Esmerelda had went into the forbidden forest with Mattheo and Hagrid. In those few weeks, Esmerelda had not said a single word to Mattheo. Not like he was the talkative type anyways. 

Esmerelda and Larisa walked into the potions classroom where Slughorn was already standing there waiting for all of the students to arrive.

"Sorry we're late professor." Esmerelda said as she put her stuff down on a table next to Larisa's as they both went and stood next to the other students.

"That's quite alright Ms. Morgan and Ms. Berkshire. Now as I was saying before, today you will be making the draught of living death potion. Does anyone know what it does?"

Hermione, expectedly raised her hand high in the air and spoke when Slughorn pointed to her. "The draught of living death sends the drinker into a death-like slumber for an indefinite amount of time."

"Correct! And today you will be making the potion in class with a partner that I have chosen for you." Slughorn said as there were groans in the class for having to work with a partner.

..."Ms. Berkshire and Ms. Parkinson and Mr. Riddle and Ms. Morgan. And those are the partners you will have for the rest of the semester." Slughorn finished. 

Esmerelda looked over at Mattheo. Why was she always stuck with him in the end? She thought her avoiding was going good and now she was going to have to talk to him nearly everyday. 

As Larisa walked over to Pansy's table, she shot Esmerelda a wink. Esmerelda rolled her eyes as she grabbed her books and joined Mattheo on his table.

"Alright everyone, the first pair who gets the potion completely accurate will be keeping a flask of liquid luck! Get started!"

All of the students hurried to their desks and opened their books eager to get the liquid luck potion.

Esmerelda opened her book as well and read the first step to making the potion: 'add the powdered root of Asphodel.' She was just about to add it into their cauldron when Mattheo grabbed her arm. She looked at him a little wide eyed, shocked at his movement.

"That's wrong, the infusion of wormwood goes first." he said and added the substance in. 

"But the potions book says to add the powdered root first." Esmerelda protested. 

"It's wrong." was all he said. "Now we add the powdered root of asphodel." He held out his hand and she handed him the bottle that had the powder in.

"How do you know that the book is incorrect?" she asked, curious.

"I'm Voldemort's son aren't I? I know everything." he said and even smirked a little.

Mattheo continued to follow the steps that were apparently in his brain and they were the first pair to have finished the potion. Not even Hermione finished it before them.

"Alright, let's test it shall we?" Slughorn said as he dropped a single drop of the potion onto a piece of paper. As soon as the potion touched the paper, the paper just disappeared. "I see, you have done it correct and made an even stronger one than the one in the book. " he eyed Mattheo suspiciously.

All of the students looked shocked. Hermione looked annoyed. This was probably the first time where she hadn't won something. 

"Now as I promised, these 2 flasks belong to the two of you." Slughorn said as he handed Mattheo and Esmerelda a tiny flask full of a clear liquid. "And remember for your homework you have to write an essay on the thunderbrew potion with your partner!"

All of the students nodded and walked out of class Esmerelda thanked the professor as Mattheo just walked out of the classroom. She grabbed her books from the table and ran out of the class to catch up with him. 

"Mattheo!" 

He turned around in the corridor. 

"Uhh, I wanted to thank you for correcting me in potions." she said nervously.

"I'm your partner so if you did something wrong, I would get affected too."

"Y-Yeah of course." Gosh she was so stupid. "And when are we going to work on the essay?"

"We'll work on it when I have time. I'll tell when that is." And with that he walked off. 

Esmerelda started to walk back to the slytherin common room. Mattheo had changed quite a bit. When he first came here, he looked like he would've murdered the first person that came in contact with him. But now, he was alright to talk to. It was still kind of awkward and she probably still wouldn't be friends with him, but at least they were getting along alright.

When she entered, she found Larisa sitting down on the couch reading a book.

"Larisa, how come you didn't wait for me?" Esmerelda asked as she sat down beside her.

"Sorry, I wanted to give you some alone time with hot Mattheo over there." 

"I was just asking him when we were going to do the essay since he's my partner for the rest of the semester. Where is Enzo these days?"

"He's been hanging out with Draco a lot. But now I think he's practicing for the quidditch match coming up against ravenclaw next week. Do you wanna go see?" Larisa asked as she got up from the couch and put her book down.

"Sure." Esmerelda got up from the couch too as they both walked out of the common room and out into the cold and wet weather to watch the slytherin quidditch team practice.

Larisa and Esmerelda went to the benches high up so they could see everything. She looked at each of the team members of the slytherin team and noticed Mattheo.

"Is he in the team too?" Esmerelda gestured to him.

"Yeah, he's starting out as beater first but Enzo said that he's going to swap over with Draco and become seeker pretty soon. His skills are pretty impressive." 

Esmerelda and Larisa watched their team and talked until it started to lightly sprinkle. 

"Let's go in now, it's getting pretty cold out here." Esmerelda got up.

Larisa was just about to get up too when she yelled, "Esme watch your head!"

Esmerelda spun around to see a bludger flying towards her like the speed of light. Before she could do anything, she saw a flash of grey as a player flew in front of her with the bludger in their hands. As they turned around, she noticed it was Mattheo. 

He didn't ask if she was alright, instead he flew straight to the other slytherin players in the sky.

"Esme, are you alright?" Larisa hurried over to her.

"Yeah I'm fine, the bludger didn't even touch me." she said as she hurriedly walked down the stairs with Larisa straight behind her.

"Buuut, it was pretty romantic how Mattheo grabbed the bludger before it hit you."

"Oh shut it."

But he was pretty quick. If he hadn't caught that, she probably would've been laying the hospital wing right now with a huge bump on her head. 

She was going to have to thank him again.