Little Kids and Adventures Go Hand-In-Hand (Matthew)

THIS THREAD IS CLOSED TO MATTHEW BENNETT

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Oliver was sitting on a bench-looking space by the Entrance Hall, he'd seen the sorting and even though he hoped Matthew had been sorted into Hufflepuff, he was glad to see his younger brother in a house. Slytherin was supposed to be evil and all, but he liked some of the students in that house, and now that Matthew was in it, it made it even better! He planned to catch up with his brother, but Oliver was busy with starting classes and getting homework on time. He had to help Hufflepuff win the House Cup, they had been so close last term! He sat there with some books on his lap, one for Transfiguration and another for Potions, along with some parchment and ingredients for studying and objects for transforming. He wanted to be top of his class, and he was getting ready for it from the beginning.

He glanced through the pages of his Tranfiguration book, and read the incantations for turning a rat into a goblet. He didn't have a rat, of course, but he had Kitty. He'd need to go and get him from the Common Room, though, and Oliver was comfortable where he was. Sighing, he turned the page over and tried the matchstick to needle spell. Holding the match up, Oliver took out his wand and pointed at it, saying the incantation as clearly as he could and watching as it turned silver. Not a needle, but just a silver match. Uggggggh.

Matthew thought the Slytherin common room was really cool! After all, who else got an awesome common room that was actually under the lake? Nobody, that was who! Just Matthew! And the other, more unimportant Slytherins. And it was awesome for other reasons - like when Matthew was hungry, he just had to run up the stairs and the great hall was right there with tons of food for the taking! This was one of those times, and Matthew was darting at his usual high-speed through the corridors.

But when Matthew exploded into the entrance hall, all thoughts of hunger subsided completely. Because Ollie was there! Matthew's face lit up into a huge smile and he bounded over to his awesome brother who was the coolest person ever immediately, shouting his name at the top of his lungs so that it echoed through the stone room. "OLLIE!" he shouted. "Ollie! Hi Ollie! Remember me, your awesome favorite little brother that you should be hanging out with all the time but don't?" Had Ollie forgotten that Matthew was supposed to be his best friend in the whole world? Apparently, but it was fine because Matthew had just reminded him! Now things would be better!

"Hey, are those matches?" Matthew asked, his attention turning quickly to the objects sitting beside his brother. "I love matches! Matches make fire! Can I light one, Ollie? Pleeeaaaseee? Nobody will teach me the fire spell! Will you?"

Oliver was caught mid-groan as he heard his name being shouted across the hall. Turning around like he'd just heard a troll was roaming freely around the castle, Ollie suddenly smiled. His little brother was there! Matthew! Matthew who was a butt but was too cool to not like! "MATT!" Ollie shouted back just as excited. "No, I haven't forgotten you, you git." Ollie laughed. How could he forget Matthew? Brothers don't forget each other.

He was about to say something about how it was mostly Matthew's fault that they hadn't spent any time together - Ollie's logic being that Matthew was too busy eating or doing things he wasn't supposed to - but his brother beat him to changing the topic. "Eh..." Ollie wasn't sure that was a good idea. He knew what Matthew could and would do with something as innocent as a match. But how could he not teach his little brother how to do the fire spell?! Besides, Ollie wanted to show of a little. "I'll teach you!!!" Grabbing his wand, Ollie looked around for something insignificant enough to set on fire for the time being. There wasn't much to choose from so he figured he'd burn a piece of parchment. I'll just get more later. Oliver stood tall, mentally prepared himself to cast the spell and then said "INCENDIO!" very loudly. The spell was quite easy, but they'd only learn the easy version during first year in Herbology. A small jet of fire exploded from his wand and shot right at the Transfiguration textbook. NOT THE PARCHMENT.

"Bloody-!" Ollie shouted, he had not intended to aim at the textbook.

Matthew's whole face lit up into a huge smile when Ollie saw him and seemed really excited to see him. Of course, who wouldn't be excited to see Matthew? He was the coolest person ever, next to Ollie. And together, their coolness was unparalleled. "Good," Matthew said, nodding his head determinedly when Ollie said he hadn't forgotten him. He might have gone on some more about how it wasn't fair that Ollie didn't pay enough attention to him, but Ollie was actually going to show him the fire spell!!!

"Really Ollie, will you?" Matthew exclaimed, his eyes widening with excitement. "I've been trying to learn it but I can't get it right and nobody else will teach me and it isn't fair." He watched very, very carefully as his awesome older brother stood up and went ahead and demonstrated the fire spell. Matthew's face lit up as fire shot from the tip of Ollie's wand - it hit the book sitting there, which Matthew thought was a strange target, but Ollie had probably meant to hit it. He probably was really smart and knew how to put it out and stuff right away.

Too enthralled by the fire to notice Ollie's upset-sounding shout, Matthew bent down to stare at the blazing textbook. "That was so cool Ollie!" he exclaimed, beaming. "Is it my turn now? Can I try?"

Oliver stared, not knowing what to do, at the burning textbook. "Uh, no you can't try it now. Because..." He could get detention for destroying school property!!! How did he not think about that!? He certainly didn't want to get burned and have to go and explain his ridiculous stupidity to Mr. Stark again, but he HAD to stop the book from complete destruction. His brain quickly scanned all the files he had from Charms class, but he couldn't recall the water spell. It seemed so easy but now he was not sure of what he was doing anymore. Oliver began having a little panic attack.

"MATTHEW I SET THE BOOK ON FIRE WHAT HAVE I DONE, MATTHEW PLEASE LISTEN TO ME I AM A POOR EXCUSE FOR A WIZARD!" He was in full panic mode now, unable to think straight at all. "MATTHEW! WHAT'S THE WATER SPELL!" he demanded to know, a wild spark across his blue eyes. Ollie was so dead. He was so dead. Absolutely dead. He just hoped no professor would show up, and certainly hoped the Headmaster wouldn't be anywhere around to see the event. Ollie was jumpy and panicky, and it was probably funny to look at him as he was now but he didn't want to get in trouble and it made it worse that he couldn't remember the water spell.

"Hmph!" Matthew crossed his arms irritably at the news that he wasn't allowed to try the fire spell now. It wasn't fair, because Ollie had just done it and that should mean that it was Matthew's turn. But his irritation quickly turned into curiosity when Ollie began bouncing around like a madman and exclaiming that he hadn't meant to set the book on fire. "Of course you did, Ollie, you were teaching me the fire spell, remember? The awesome fire spell that you won't even let me try now even though it's my turn!" Hadn't their mother always taught them to take turns. Matthew was just about to tell Ollie that he was going to write to their mother and tell her that Ollie was refusing to let Matthew have his turn when finally, Matthew understood.

"Ohhhhhh," he said, drawing out the sound for a few seconds. "I get it now, Ollie! You mean that you meant to do the fire spell, but that you didn't mean for it to hit the book! I get it!" Matthew exclaimed excitedly, proud of himself for figuring out Ollie's incredibly vague and obtuse way of telling him such a thing. "The water spell? Of course not, Ollie, water is boring. Not like fire!" Matthew sighed. It seemed like Ollie really wanted the fire put out.

"Here, Ollie, maybe this will help!" he exclaimed, and dug into his bookbag. He emerged with a bottle of pumpkin juice that he'd stolen from lunch earlier in the day. "You know, Pumkin Juice is really good, Ollie! I don't know why we don't have any at home and - oh, right - " Matthew forgot that he was supposed to be helping Ollie put out the fire. Making a face - because fire was way too cool to put out - Matthew opened the bottle and poured its contents out onto the flaming book. "Ollie, you can stop jumping around like a crazy person, the fire's out!"

Still jumpy, Oliver almost lost his breath. "Yes! That is exactly what I meant!" he said, trying to calm down. He was such a bad wizard. How was he supposed to show his awesome brother how to do the fire spell if he himself couldn't even aim properly? He thought maybe he shouldn't let Matthew try it, because what if something bad happened with him too? Oliver thought there was no way that could happen. Matthew loved fire, it seemed natural for fire to love him back! Yes, the fires would obey Mighty Fire King Matthew. Yes, yes.

Jumpiness has become so familiar to him in those few seconds that he no longer knew he was doing it. He just...was. Oliver's head wiped towards Matthew as he started digging through his book bag, and his eyes grew wide as the solution to his little problem appeared right before his eyes. Pumpkin Juice! Yes! That would help put it out! Yes, definitely! Ollie was still jumpy, but no longer panicky. He was excited to see Matthew had come up with a way to save the day!

He just watched Matthew rescue him from certain academic doom. If he got caught, the few points he'd managed to gain for his house were gone. "Yesssss! Ollie gasped in relief. If his brother ever needed saving, Ollie would remember this. Then Ollie caught on to the words Matthew had said as the fire was dying, and he immediately stopped bouncing and stared at him. "I am not a crazy person. You are!" he said jokingly. "You're right, though. How come we don't have pumpkin juice at home?" Oliver thought about the general lack of juices at home, they didn't drink much juice. He drank milk most of the time, sometimes with chocolate. Their parents had tea literally every hour of the day, so Ollie figured juice wasn't needed much.

"Oh! The fire spell!" Ollie jumped up and down again, but caught himself and stopped before Matthew called him a crazy person. "Your turn!"