[Moving this away from the SCROLLBAR!]
Matthew had not, in fact, died in the interim, and indeed, he looked a little bit stronger, at least! In Stephen's absence, he seemed to have recovered himself somewhat, and now sat up properly, though he still looked rather like a ghost. "Thank you, Stephen. I'm sorry I caused... such a fuss...! I mean, for you..." He trailed off here, contemplating something.
"Stephen, why is it you still like me?" he finally asked.the other man. "I mean, the things I've done to you and your kind... How can you even respect me enough to p8ick me up off the floor -- much less want to talk to me?" He looked rather sad for a moment; he was, after all, pushing away his only friend in the world...
But even so, perhaps he didn't deserve any friends -- he, the coward who had avoided the Auror Purges to avoid seeing his sister there! He might have saved her, somehow, or at least comforted her with thoughts of Heaven in her final moments -- if he had only been there...!