On Safe Ground [Matthew]

Studying was fun. Arwen actually thought it was fun. She was pretty smart, she read pretty quickly, she got to jot down notes with her amazing, blue quill that she'd gotten for Christmas, she had a beautiful notepad, because the parchments she only used for homework and essays. Which was a lot of fun. She really enjoyed studying. And the place to study? The library. It took her away from the heights of the Ravenclaw tower, because with or without locks on windows, she did not like to look out of her dormitory window. She could've sat in the common room, but it was always so noisy. You'd think the Ravenclaw tower would be calm and collected because of being the most studious house (presumably), but no; it was noisy. So the library was the best place on earth to Arwen. Currently. Her best place on earth varied with her mood, so it might be something completely different an hour later.

But Arwen was making her way to the library, because it was currently the best place on earth. The long way down was never a pleasant journey, because Arwen was terrified that the stairs would suddenly change on her and she'd drop from high up above so she'd have time to see her life in flashbacks before she died. It was a morbid thought, and she absolutely hated it. Which was another reason for why she loved the library; it was on the first floor. And she could live with that. If only she'd been sorted into Hufflepuff. Not Slytherin. Slytherin was scary. She didn't like that idea at all. Well, Ariadne and Matthew weren't bad, she actually really liked Ariadne, and she felt pretty all right when she was around the redhead. But she'd heard loads of scary stories of how Slytherin was the evil house. And she believed the stories. She would always believe the stories.

As she reached the library, she walked around a bit before finding a table in the middle which was completely unoccupied. She put her new bag on a chair and hung her cloak around another before sitting down, spreading loads of paper and studious things around her. She'd found that this would keep strangers from sitting down on the same table as her. She couldn't deal with that. Sitting a few feet away from people while studying made her loose all sense of concentration. So she spread stuff around, basically making it clear that she'd need the space. No one would approach her now, she was certain! She felt a victorious grin on her face as she opened a book on charms that made people smile. It was pretty interesting, and she figured it could be very much fun to try it out on herself at some point. She buried her nose in her book, and jotted down notes, not noticing the world around her.

Matthew had a lot of favorite places at Hogwarts - like the covered bridge, and the lake because of all the trees that he could climb, and the Slytherin common room because sometimes he got to see the giant squid up close! But the place that Matthew spent most of his time was - surprisingly - pretty boring. The middle courtyard. Which was unusual because Matthew normally couldn't stand boring things. But sometimes, and more often recently, even Matthew had to try and take things more seriously. And if he was going to spend any time taking anything seriously, it was obviously going to be fire. Matthew's excitement about fire had always been just that - excitement. He loved fire. He was easily distracted by fire. He could talk about fire forever. It was cool! He could impress people with it, and be like a firebender and think about blasting Ari with it when she got annoying but not actually do it.

But as fourth year started, Matthew's interest in fire had been morphing - developing into more of a genuine, serious obsession. He didn't just want to be able to shoot fire out of his wand because it was cool, or light matches because it was exciting. He wanted to learn more about fire - to not only produce it, but to control it. To understand it. Which was why he was usually found in the middle courtyard when he wasn't anywhere else - it was the perfect place to experiment, because it was outside - but still sort of inside. Matthew usually sat on the stone walkway in one of the corners and practiced. Sometimes, he'd light parchment on fire and try to sustain it, or he'd make a slightly bigger fire and try to maneuver the flames in the direction he wanted them to go. Occasionally, he'd work on his aim, since his wasn't very good, but he preferred to work close up with fire instead.

On that particular day, Matthew had been practicing with bluebell flames. The bluebell flame spell was awesome, especially for practicing, because the flames weren't really that dangerous. They did burn you if you touched them, but they were convenient because you could pick them up from underneath without them hurting your hand. And they sustained themselves, so Matthew didn't have to worry about them going out. But Matthew hadn't spend more than twenty minutes practicing with the flames when, all of a sudden, he remembered! "Shit!" he said, sighing and gathering his things up. He'd forgotten that he had an essay that was due the next day! And the library would be closed if he waited too long to go and get the book he needed. He started to leave the courtyard, but quickly backtracked because he'd forgotten his fire. Reaching down, he scooped the blue flame up from the ground and carried it in his hand with him to the library.

When he got there, he went to the transfiguration section to grab his book off the shelf, and was going to just check it out and go back to the courtyard to continue what he was doing. But then, he saw a head of bushy, blonde hair, and he beamed. "Arwen!" he exclaimed from across the library, grinning and ignoring the reprimand he received from the librarian for shouting. He quickly bounded across the room toward her, transfiguration book in one hand, and a large blue burning flame resting in the other. "Hi Arwen!" he said brightly, kicking the chair across from her out with his foot since he didn't have any hands. As he took a seat, he set the transfiguration book down on the table and grinned at her. "What are you studying for? I have a transfiguration essay to do, and I was just coming to get the book but then I saw you and realized that I have something in my bag for you!" he told her in one breath. "I mean, I didn't put it in my bag for you, but I just remembered that I meant to give it to you a long time ago! Here, hold this for a minute," he said, reaching out to hand the flame to her. He didn't want to set it on the table, because it was covered in her papers and he didn't want to accidentally catch any of them on fire.

Writing down the sideeffects of the Cheering Charm, Arwen -in her own world- jumped and splattered some ink on her parchment when she heard her name called from the entrance of the library. Not a lot though, not at all, but her heart was racing when she looked up and saw her classmate. "M-Matthew," she whispered to herself, surprised. And then he was walking over, holding something in his hand. Something resembling fire, but it was ... blue. Arwen had to look down at her book after not too long, because he was looking so excited. There was nothing to be excited about. Arwen would do what she always did; mumble and nod her head and blush. And she'd never have anything interesting to say. But he came all the way over and greeted her again. "Hi," she said, giving him the best smile she could manage (which wasn't much) and then pretended to look back to her book to hide her blush.

When she'd taken a second to collect herself again, she looked back up at him, and once again looked at his eyebrows, not directly in his eyes. It was much easier that way. She was just about to ask what the blue flame was when he said he had something for her. Arwen blinked. What? Why? And then he told her to hold it. Arwen automatically flinched when he held the flame out to her. "Is... Is it s-safe?" she asked, her voice dubious. Sure, Matthew probably wasn't the guy who'd give Arwen anything that would hurt her, though considering he already knew how many things she was afraid of, she was surprised that he didn't think she'd be afraid of holding a ball of fire. Blue fire, but fire nonetheless. At the same time she was really curious to find out what it was he wanted to give to her, so she slowly extended her arm to take the fireball.

Arwen was probably the nicest person that Matthew knew at Hogwarts. Or, she was just too afraid to say all the mean things that she might be thinking about people. But he was actually pretty sure that she was too busy being scared of everything to think about anything mean. He beamed happily at her when she greeted him. "What're you reading?" he asked her, reaching across the table to push the top of her book down intrusively so he could see. "Cheering charms," he read - slowly, because he was trying to read upside down. "Those are fun! You know, if you ever need to, you could practice your spells on me!" he told her. "Right now I'm in a good mood, so there's no use trying to do a cheering charm. But sometimes I'm pretty angry at Ollie, especially since he left me for Norway, so those would be great times for you to practice! You can probably try any other spell any time, since I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter what mood you're in for most of them." Matthew stopped momentarily to take a breath at that point.

He shouldn't have been surprised that Arwen shied away from the fire, but he couldn't help giving her a disappointed look. Fire was beautiful! People were always so afraid of it, and nobody could actually appreciate it like Matthew could. But he smiled again when she ended up holding her hand out to take it from him. "Of course it's safe!" he said. But just to be sure, he put his free hand under hers to hold her hand steady her as he let the fire slide off of his palm. Because he'd feel pretty bad if he burned her by accident. "Just don't touch the top of it, it can still burn you," he told her seriously - because fire was a serious thing. "But if you just hold it like that, it's completely safe." When he felt pretty sure that Arwen wasn't going to drop it, he let go of her and grinned. "See, it isn't scary! And if someone bothers you, you can throw it at them and scare them away or something!"

Then, Matthew had to stop and think for a minute, because he was ninety percent sure he'd been meaning to do something after he gave Arwen the fire. Oh yeah! "Hang on," he said, digging in his bag for one thing in particular. "I know it's in here - oh, here it is!" he exclaimed, emerging with a thick, well-worn book. "Here you go!" he said excitedly, sliding the book across the table toward her. "It's the Lord of the Rings! You said you never read it, remember? I just happened to have it with me and I saw you and I remembered that I meant to let you borrow it! But you have to give it back when you're done, I only have one copy. But you can keep it for a while!" Another breath. "Here, I can take the fire back now. Thanks for holding it!"

Arwen's hands retracted when Matthew leant forward to read the cover of her book. What was with him? Why was he so intrusive? However, Arwen wasn't sure if she found it annoying or nice. She might not go as far as to call it nice, though. Okay, maybe? He was angry at his brother for leaving for Norway? Why would he even go to Norway? Oh! Durmstrang! Yes, Arwen had heard that the school's location was somewhere in the far north, and Norway was far north. But it was nice of him to offer, though. It'd be good for her to have someone to practice on, besides herself. She'd found that she was often too afraid of what would happen to herself if she jinxed or charmed herself. It didn't really seem like that was the right way to use a wand. But she would never in her life dare to ask Matthew to help her out. He stopped talking and took a breath. This was the point where Arwen was supposed to say something. What?! Arwen looked around at the paper spread around her and started fiddling with that. What should she say? In the end, she landed on: "T-thanks. That's really k-kind of you." What more should she say? Maybe something about his brother? "Di-did he take a transfer y-year at D-Durmstrang?" she asked, as annoyed with her stutter as always, but incapable of showing her annoyance.

Arwen noticed the disappointed look flash in his eyes, and she had to look down. She knew she was a scardycat. She was very aware. But that look just told her what every other person she'd ever talked to did: she wasn't good enough. She wasn't brave enough to be Matthew's friend. But she fought off the emotions, as always, because there was only ever one emotion she couldn't stop herself from showing: embarrassment. She kept looking at the flame as Matthew put it into her palm. It didn't burn her. She could feel a heat radiating from it, but it didn't hurt at all. It was more comfortable than anything. She decided she liked it. Maybe she should ask Matthew how he made the fire? After all, she'd definitely not mind having a spell that would help her get rid of people who only made her feel really bad and scared. But just as she was about to, Matthew bent to find something in his backpack.

The Lord of the Rings. She did remember them talking about it up at the Astronomy Tower. The thought of that place, so high up, sent shivers down her spine. She did suffer from acrophobia, her mother had told her that. She was actually acrophobic herself. So Arwen blamed it on her mother. Her fear, not just that phobia. He only had one copy of it, and she could keep it for a while. Arwen was a fast reader though, so she would probably not take too long reading it. She briefly looked through the pages and looked back at Matthew as he said he could have the fire back. Arwen blinked. She'd almost forgotten she held it! Wouldn't it have been awful if the flames had gotten on the book and it had burned up? Arwen quickly reached out her hand, terrified that this might happen and then, when Matthew had the ball of fire back in his palm, she looked closer at the book. "Thanks," she said again, this time without a hint of a stutter, and though her voice was still low, that could sound as if she was just keeping it down because she was in a library. For once in her life, Arwen had sounded like a completely normal student. Of course, she wasn't. And it had only been one word. She looked back at Matthew. "Um... What spell d-did you use to cre-create that f-fire?" she asked, her voice curious, but the stutter was as prominent as ever.