Fire On Fire

1: More Difficult Than She Thought

The snow falling outside the window was more than a big enough sign to indicate that Christmas was coming. Since it was nearly time to return home for the holidays, most students were packing. El, a professional procrastinator, still wasn't packed and instead was spending her time helping Emma pack. Except helping wasn't exactly the right word. She was sitting on Emma's four poster bed, watching her pack, while talking non-stop.

"So, are you gonna ask him out or what?" El asked Emma.

She had been pestering her for the past couple of months about the boy Emma had been flying with, her childhood enemy, Cedric Diggory. However, it hadn't been only that night that they had flown together. They flew together once a week, calling it "practice for the next year," but El refused to believe that that was the real reason for it, especially considering the fact that they tried to play it off as though they hated each other but in most people's point of view, you don't practice flying so often with someone you hate.

"I told you, I'm not going to ask him out," Emma said exasperatedly for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Right, right, right, you're going to wait for him to ask you, smart girl, you are a smart girl," El sighed out.

"El," Emma stuffed her pajamas in her suitcase and turned to look at her sister, "I'm not going to date him in the first year. And I don't even like him!"

"Fine, fine, whatever you say," El put her hands up in surrender.

Emma turned back to continue packing when a yell reached the girls' ears. They made eye contact then both rushed out of the dormitory and to the Hufflepuff common room to see that a young Hufflepuff first year had caught the sleeve of her robe on fire.

"Out of the way!" a male voice shouted from behind the two sisters watching.

They quickly moved as Cedric dashed to the fireplace where the young girl was. He worded out an unknown incantation but it must have been the extinguishing spell because the fire on the Hufflepuff student was quickly gone. Cheers erupted from the common room as Cedric had basically saved the girl.

"That was fun," El said and looked at her sister only to see that she was staring at Cedric in awe. She snapped her fingers in front of Emma, "Anybody home?"

Emma pushed El's hands out of her face and rolled her eyes, "C'mon, let's go hear what happened."

She grabbed El's hand and pulled her to the fireplace where the Hufflepuff student still was. The two girls sat down on a yellow armchair, sharing a one person seat.

"Vadie, how'd you get your arm caught on fire?" Emma asked intriguingly, seeming to already know the girl.

Somehow, Vadie couldn't help but laugh at her own clumsiness, "I was playing Exploding Snap and the explosion scared me, I fell backwards."

"Are you okay?" El questioned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Vadie shrugged, "I was a little freaked out at first, but you know, Cedric helped."

She motioned her head to where Cedric was walking over to a group of his fourth year friends.

"He always does," Emma said quietly with a smile, nearly zoning out into space again. She never even realized when this would happen, though it happened quite often. El liked to call it the Charm Study, for obvious reasons.

"Excuse me, I was sitting there."

Emma and El looked up to see Lily standing in front of them.

"Whoops, sorry," El said, quickly hopping out of the seat.

Lily thanked El then looked back at Emma who hadn't moved. In fact, Emma hadn't even taken any notice of Lily. Lily cleared her throat to get Emma's attention but still Emma ignored her. She cleared her throat once more and this time, Emma looked up.