"I'm... what?" Matthew barked out, still hoarse with tears unshed-- and then, when he was certain he'd heard what Stephen said about him aright, he laughed. It wasn't a cheerful laugh at all, but the bitterest laughter that had ever escaped Matthew's lips -- in public, or in private. It scared him to hear his own voice making such a sound, in fact -- but then again, he was beyond fearing himself and his own actions. And there were oh, so many actions he was responsible for, that were fearful to behold, later on -- when the adrenaline rush ended and guilt set in for what he had done!
"Stephen, do you really think I'm a decent person!?" he asked through his sniggering -- but then, he stopped laughing, dead serious again as he remarked on all the things he had done that weren't the acts of any decent person:
"I mean, I killed countless people in their beds -- women and children, as well as the men of the house -- because they committed the crime of being a Muggle-born infiltrating our pure, wholesome society!" He paused briefly here to snort at his own stupidity in believing in such a "crime," -- much less that it was a capital crime! "I have killed others for fighting against the Dark Lord's plans for Great Britain--" again, here, he snorted shortly -- "And as for the people who dared to marry Muggle-borns, or even to beget children with them -- I helped to slaughter those people as well -- late at night, in their beds, again!
"Why, I even slaughtered people who were perfectly conscious of their fates as they occurred -- such as that one attack in Hull, back in 1978? That was my idea -- only because it was a port town and a den of sin! I mean-- you remember that, don't you? It was the front page of the Prophet the next morning! A death toll of over fifty Muggles and Muggle-borns... and I was responsible for that mission! I was the one who set fire to that ship in port... And I was the one who who gave the order to kill anyone who tried to jump to safety in the waters...!"
He closed his eyes briefly, imagining the flames licking at the hull of the ship, just as they would surely lap at his soul when he finally died and went straight to Hell...! He swallowed hard, and added, for no particular reason, "That mission was what earned me my place among the Elite -- the Dark Lord's Inner Circle...!" He smiled bitterly at his friend. "So tell me, Stephen, after hearing all that, would you still call me a 'decent person'...?"