Finding The Key (Elliot)

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Almost a month now it was since the last devastating attack on Hogsmeade, and slowly something akin to normality was returning to Hogwarts. The teachers really tried their best to keep up the routine, and that of course meant studying, homework and other kinds of assignments. Which, for a studious Ravenclaw such as Eirian of course meant visiting the library. It was good to have this routine again, it helped you not to overthink things. All her injuries had healed, even the singed parts of her hair had grown out, and she was able to walk and play Quidditch again as if nothing at all had happened. Like always, she was also thinking on a riddle right now as she was sitting over a Charms essay of two parchments, and however much she tried, the solution would not come to her. If you break me, I do not stop working. If you touch me, I may be snared. If you lose me, Nothing will matter. What am I?.

If she hadn’t loved riddles above everything else, she would sometimes get angry about how illogical they seemed to be. What would still work if one broke it? Was it only a figurative breaking? But what, please could be only figuratively be broken, or damaged? One’s reputation? No, that would not tie in with ‘broken’. Silence maybe? But one could not touch silence… and really not snare it. And if one loses this thing, nothing will matter. Existance maybe? But that wouldn’t tie in with the other verses… ah, it was crazy! But she would not give up on this one, Eirian decided, she had never given up on a riddle in all her life! Eventually, the solution would come to her and then she would feel silly for not having thought of it earlier. It always happened that way! Gladly, this riddle at least was her own and not the latest password for the Ravenclaw Common room, no, that one had been much easier to figure out.

To unravel me You need a key. No key that was made by locksmith's hand, But a key that only I will understand. What am I? Please… of course that was a cipher, Eirian of all people who loved ciphers and coding methods should know that! Every riddle in itself thought also needed a key, a cipher to unlock its mystery. Which reminded her… something needed to happen with her other kind of studies or the dream of becoming a Curse Breaker would stay a dream forever. Sighing, Eirian bent her head over her books and rolls of parchment again. There was nothing to be done about that right now, she first needed another lesson with Elliot. But of course he was busy too… they all were busy trying to cram into their heads what had been missing through the last, turbulent month.

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“You look comfortable,” Elliot commented as he walked up. He had entered the library with an armful of books, intent on studying. He had a Herbology assignment that was being a pain in his side, and his usual helpers were all too wrapped up to help him with it. He seated himself next to her, mostly because he figured she wouldn’t care. Also because he enjoyed being around her and speaking to her. A grin slowly spread over his face as he surveyed her, with her head bent down over her rolls of parchment and books. She was always so studious!

“Hope you don’t mind me sitting with you,” he said as he glanced around the room. There were other tables he could have gone to-- and he saw one with a fellow Hufflepuff across the way-- but he had chosen her instead. He didn’t think about it too deeply; there wasn’t much to think about right now anyway. He liked Eirian. He enjoyed her company, so he sat next to her even though he had someone else he’d known longer there. It was just natural to him. They’d been spending a lot of time together and he found her fun to be around. “I have some work to do too.” He moved a hand to encompass his books and the parchment he had brought with him. “Essay for Herbology. It’s going to be the death of me, I swear.”

He craned his head to better glimpse what she was working on. “Is that Charms?” He asked politely. He wasn’t sure why he was trying so hard to start a conversation, but he wanted to get her speaking. Usually talking about course work and such got Eirian to talk with him relatively easily, so that’s where he instantly went towards. She seemed to enjoy doing her own class work, while Elliot just put up with it. It was a means to an end for him, after all. He didn’t like studying or school, but he did know that he had to do it in order to obtain a better life later on down the line.

“Thankfully I have nothing in that class for today,” he said with a sigh. That would have taken him even longer. “Herbology is going to take me a better part of three hours, more than likely.”

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Eirian’s head snapped up from her work when she suddenly heard a very familiar voice, and a smile crept onto her face as she watched him approach. Elliot. One of the few people she really called friends at Hogwarts, and he was more than just a friend. He was a battle-buddy so to say, for lack of a better expression. They both were working on mastering their complete opposite phobias, and his calm and sensible manner had helped her through many a panic attack. She trusted him. There was nothing illogical about all that, not even about how happy she suddenly was to see him. Of course one would be happy to see a friend, even more so when it was unexpected.
“Why would I mind? Last time I checked you did not have any catching diseases”, she replied nonchalantly, but with a smile, pointing out the lacking logic in his question. Of course, it was being polite, but it was still odd sometimes, how politeness and conventions went so completely against common sense.

Herbology was his due then… ah! She had kicked Herbology after her OWL level, therefore she had no idea what he might be working on. She liked most of the Hogwarts classes, but Herbology certainly wasn’t in her top five ranking. “The death of you?” she repeated with a raised eyebrow. “Why, what are you writing about? Devil’s snare? Surely, it won’t be that bad?” Should she offer her help? It might be weird for her to try and give advice in a subject she was not attending anymore, and yet there were many things she remembered from last year, and her OWL studies. She had practically crammed then, and much of it must be still floating around in her head somewhere.

“Yes, I’m working on Charms right now”, she agreed then to his question, holding up a book about the intersections of Charms and Transfiguration. “Two rolls of parchment about how turning vinegar into wine can be viewed both as a Charm and a Transfiguration spell. There are a ton of those spells that can’t be sorted correctly, it’s interesting to study the magical theory of those discussions.”

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Eirian smiling at him did weird things to his stomach. Or maybe that was breakfast this morning? He didn’t want to think it was Eirian, because that was a strange territory to cross into. He was also quite sure that they were just friends, nothing more. He could think a friend was fetching, right? He wasn’t quite sure where he had come up with that word though. Probably from one of his mother’s chick flicks she watched during the summer when he was around. She only did it just to spite him. He had to stop allowing her to drag him in to watch them too. Mother-son bonding his left foot!

“I don’t have any catching diseases that you know of,” he pointed out with a huge, humorous grin. “I could very well be filled with diseases that the eye can’t see.” He shrugged. “But I assure you I don’t have any. Not that my word is reassuring now that I’ve planted a seed of doubt in your head, huh?” He teased and chuckled to himself.

“I’m writing about the correct way to juice Snargaluff,” he answered with a long suffering sigh. Glancing up at her, his lips quirked in amusement. “And I don’t mean that I’ll really die. You always approach everything so logically. See, I was being melodramatic for attention.” He flopped down onto the table and twisted himself to peer up at her instead, the side of his face squished up against his Herbology book. “Herbology is my worst subject, but I need it for the job I want to take later on. If I hadn’t taken it then I never would have been able to do what I love. I think Herbology is plotting my downfall though. I had to get a tutor just to manage to float by in this class so far.”

“Oh,” Elliot said when she listed what her homework is. That was the same as his! He was such a dunce; he always forgot that he had the same Charms class as her. “I already finished that one, thankfully. It took me a bit, and I had to ask another Hufflepuff for his opinion on it before I was able to force it out. I’d help you, but I think you’re better off than me, Eirian. Mine is slop more than likely, but it’ll get me a passing grade I hope.”

He wasn’t sure why it always slipped his mind that he had the same classes as her sometimes. It was nice seeing here there and waving from across the room. It’d be nicer if he could sit with her, but Ravenclaws seemed to stick together as much as Hufflepuffs did. His friends always tugged him away to be at a table with them. Not that he minded, it was just... it’d be nice to spend more time with Eirian outside of their personal ‘lessons’, you know? Or something along those lines.

Sometimes Elliot thought too much into things.

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“You’ve figured it out”, she retorted with a smile that was halfway mischievous and halfway acknowledging smile. “Now you’ve planted that seed, I will need a great amount of proof to be convinced otherwise. I can see that you look healthy, but that doesn’t mean you are. It could all slumber inside you and only break out when it’s too late, when realizing it won’t help.” Her voice was humorous, but the words she spoke were rather serious. After all, one did not really make jokes about diseases, right? You might turn around and catch one as payback if you weren’t careful. Or that’s what Trelawney would say, that crazy old bat! ”Anyway, I don’t care so much for diseases”, she added then, smiling. “If I haven’t caught them already being around you, they’re probably not worth catching.” Not that an illness he had would stop her from being around him… he was her friend, right?! Friends didn’t do such things.

“Oh, I’ve heard about Snargaluffs”, Eirian commented, a hint of mild excitement in her voice, excitement probably about the fact that she could help him… or knew something even though she was not taking the respective class. “Luna Lovegood, a fellow Ravenclaw said she had some of them in their garden, and sometimes tells stories about how her father and her try to best them with some weird tricks.” She snorted softly. “I heard the mentioning of music being played to soothe the vines, but I am not sure if that would have any effect. You could put it as a sidenote maybe, though I don’t know how that would benefit your grade.”
Eirian shook her head in amusement at Elliot as he called her out on being logical. “You should know by now that I am always logical and that tricks like being ‘melodramatic’ don’t work with me. If you want my attention, be reasonable, Elliot.”

She nodded slowly when he told her that Herbology was being a pain and an obstacle to overcome concerning his dream career. It was exactly like with her and Potions. If she could not get her NEWT grade somehow in Potions, she would never be able to become a Curse Breaker, and if they THEN learned that she was afraid of fire… they would just send her back home with a laugh. Well, she would probably do the same thing, minus the laugh. If someone was not qualified for a job, then he should not practice it.
What he said about his Charms essay though angered her a little. “No downtalking yourself, Ell, there is no reason!” she monished him raising an eyebrow. “I’m sure this will get you more than just a passing grade, and I am very open for inspiration. At the moment I don’t really know what aspect to focus on, since there are so many. Should I do it dialectical, or use a practical example? Should I compare the spell to others that can’t be easily listed under one or the other category?”

There was hardly a time Eirian talked so much than when it came to solving problems, be they riddle- or school-induced. She had found that when around Elliot she tended to think aloud, not necessarily even awaiting an answer sometimes. His mere presence seemed to help getting her thoughts into a logical order… and yet sometimes he made her feel not very logical at all. For example when he smiled… that smile could make you feel like nothing in the world could ever be so dire that you couldn’t handle it… but that was a dangerous notion. Of course it was logical that some things were too big for you, so getting into them without being duly prepared wasn’t the best option.

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Trust Eirian to be joking, but still seem so serious about it. His smile stretched even wider as he shook his head at her antics, amused. It was like a fond amusement, something someone felt for their silly friend who just never changed. She understood he was joking, but she still viewed it semi-seriously and spoke about it almost logically. “I assure you I don’t have any diseases,” he told her. “You can rest easy. Every summer my mum takes me to the doctor to get checked out and I’m always given a clean bill of health.” His mom liked to do with for both him and his sister just so she wouldn’t have to worry that they would suddenly fall ill while away at Hogwarts.

“I’ll put that as a footnote,” he said and reached for his quill, dipping it quickly so he could scrawl out a note to himself for later. “Everything I need to know are in these books I have, but it’s just such a tedious thing to look each thing up separately.” He sighed and shook his head. “It would be different if I enjoyed the subject matter, but Herbology... I just don’t like it. How weird is that? I love Potions, but dislike Herbology. Those two are the most likely to go hand-in-hand, don’t you think?”

“Reasonable,” he stated and he sat back up from writing down the note. “I tend to be a bit dramatic, I admit.” He glanced up at her with a half smile twitching at the corner of his lips, eyes amused. “I’ll try to tone it down for you though. No-nonsense Eirian! I should have remembered.” The laugh that spilled from his lips was good natured and he shook his head again before grasping one of his Herbology books and flipping it open. He fell quiet for a long moment as he looked up the pages he needed before carelessly flipping to them.

He tapped his quill against his paper as he studied the parchment in front of him, his Herbology book open to the side. “I’m sure whichever way you decide to go with the essay,” he told her, “will be brilliant, Eirian.” He grinned at her. What he said he meant it as true; she was logical enough that she’d be able to get herself through this. Elliot was usually dragging himself by the skin of his teeth, or attempting to make educated guesses most days. Sometimes he felt like he knew everything, but that rarely happened outside of Potions.

“Besides homework, how have you been lately? We haven’t been able to meet up because of studying and school work.”

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Eirian gave a good-natured little laugh as Elliot told her about his mom being all fussed over his health. He did not really say it, but she guessed he was a little annoyed about the fact, and she could not blame him in the slightest for it. “Mother hens can be a pain I guess”, she remarked, nodding. “I think your mum and my mum would get on very well concerning their over-protectiveness.” It was certainly true tat Iolana Hughes was always fussing over her children’s wellbeing and complained if she could not have them around constantly. Especially poor Meical was getting the hardest of it, with him constantly being engrossed in his training at St. Mungo’s. Alice was moping constantly that she would love to get a job just so she could get out of their mother’s claws, but Eirian only frowned on that. Alice was moping too much, without doing anything.

It was definitely an oddity for someone to hate Herbology and yet love Potions, especially seeing as it was Potions that was usually more the detested subject out of these two. Eirian had gotten rid of Herbology, but she would have given anything in the world to be able to take Potions on NEWT level right now, even though it was by far not her favourite class. “There are weirder and more illogical things on earth I guess”, Eirian encouraged him with a smile. “You like the result and the means, not the ground principles. Not all plants and such can be used for Potions after all, right?”

She watched him in their amiable silence, as he worked on his essay. There were few people around you could actually be silent with, and Eirian was glad Elliot was one of them. He could be very carefree and cheerful, but he was no mindless chatterer, only talking so something would be said. He looked almost cute the way his head was bent over the parchment and his brow was slightly furrowed in an attempt to have it exactly right. If, that is, one were the person to use the word ‘cute’. Now she saw him working, it occurred to her that she also had come here to work and therefore she quickly bent her own head over the Transfiguration book, putting a strand of hair behind her ear so it would not hinder her sight.

“Thank you for your confidence”, she replied, almost feeling a little bashful despite herself. She didn’t think herself to be truly brilliant or anything like that, she just liked things neat and logical. “I think... the best way to do it would first try to discern what about the spell is typically ‘Charm’ and what is ‘Transfiguration’ and let the tally speak for itself. Maybe that would be a good idea in general to try and classify them... by means of what outweighs concerning specific spell aspects.”
He asked about her wellbeing outside school next, and it did occur to her that they had indeed not spent much time together outside of classes. Then again... he hadn’t missed that great a deal.

“I’ve been okay, thank you for asking. It is just weird to think how much has happened, and... things suddenly seem almost normal again. Like, the second attack on Hogsmeade... and now everyone’s waiting for something else to happen. Because it can’t just stop now, that would not make any sense.”

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Elliot didn’t glance up as he continued to scratch away at his parchment, crossing out a sentence that he didn’t care for. He was paying attention to what she was saying however, and a smile tugged at the edges of his lips. “We should introduce them someday if we get the chance,” he told her with a light hearted laugh. “I’m sure they’d bond over the fact that they both hover.” His mother hovered like crazy, and was always asking him the most annoying questions. Such as the fact that presently she kept sending him owls asking if there were any special girls in his life. His sister had thought it a good idea to write back about how he was spending increasing amounts of time around a certain Ravenclaw female, but thankfully Rachel hadn’t said a name.

“I hate growing plants,” he told her bluntly and he set down his quill for a moment to flip a page. He glanced over at her and grinned. “When I was little, my mum would make me help her in the garden. I detested it; I’d much rather run around and get dirty, you see, since I was a little boy. But she insisted and would haul me off to her garden to help pull weeds and make the plants grow. I still don’t like it! So Herbology just reminds me of that and that makes me dislike it greatly. I love Potions, and making the creations and such, but growing the ingredients? Not so much.”

Elliot stretched and held his arms above his head, glancing around at her. She was back to work as well and he smiled a little as he watched her. Everyone else around him were always so carefree and much like him, while Eirian was rational and sensible. He liked that about her the most. If he started to be a bit melodramatic she just tsked him and brought him back down to Earth. It was probably what made them such a good team with their own lessons on their phobias. He hoped he was helping her as much as she was helping him, because if he wasn’t then he’d feel bad. He was already able to step closer to the lake then he had been able to in ages.

Upon her speaking about her own homework, he snapped out of his thoughts. Ugh, what a creep! He’d just been staring at her without really seeing her, wrapped up in his thought. He turned back to his work and leaned over it, scribbling away once more. “That sounds good to me,” he told her. Truthfully what she was saying about her own work sounded a bit confusing to him, but he got where she was going with it. She’d probably score a really high grade with that approach. He had taken the easy way out, though he wouldn’t say that aloud. She would just hush him and tell him to stop detracting from his merits or something.

“I get what you mean,” he told her with a sigh. Everyone did seem like they were just waiting around for what would happen next. Walking on eggshells would be easier than waiting around like this, with baited breath and nervous hearts. Elliot himself was rather worried as well. He had slept through the last attack and hadn’t even been there when people-- his friends, even-- needed him! Last time Eirian had gotten hurt she had told him that he wasn’t to blame himself for not being there to help, but still he felt bad. He should have done something, right? “There’s bound to be more attacks to come, or something. They can’t just give up and walk away now, not after all of this.”

He sighed again and raked a hand through his hair, tousling it. “It’s rather childish and foolish, and I know it can’t possibly happen, but I just keep wishing that everyone will remain safe when that day comes. You know? The day when something bad happens again.”