Unexpected

I watched Cat out of the corner of my eye as she began to ascend the staircase up to our dorm and I bit down on my lip as she stopped in the doorway and looked over her shoulder at me. I knew what she was thinking and I tried to make it look like I was too into my book to even consider playing with the flames that were still shimmering in the common room fire place. With a heavy sigh she started up the staircase and was out of sight in a matter of seconds. Ever since we had gotten back to school yesterday afternoon I had been trying to practice my flame working but Cat kept reminding me that I had to keep my powers under wraps while we were at school and that if I lost control again then we’d have a heck of a time explaining to Madam Pomfrey how I got second and third degree burns. Either way, I was still going to practice. Cat’s training was going so much better than mine and I felt like I was falling behind.
“No fear,” I reminded myself before closing my book and setting it down on the plush chair that I had been sitting on before I had slid myself onto the floor and closer to the slowly dwindling fire.
I tossed my hair carelessly over my shoulder and stared at the fire in front of me as I heard the portrait hole open and then slam close as someone entered the common room.
“I thought that you would be in bed now, Mollie,” George said and I looked over my shoulder to see him placing his school bag down next to the chair I had been sitting in just a minute ago.
“I’m not tired,” I replied and smiled at him brightly before turning my attention back to the fire in front of me, “I thought that I’d use this time to relax before we have to start classes’ tomorrow morning.”
“By staring deeply into the fire?” he asked with a chuckle and sat down next to me.
“I’m just thinking,” I answered and smiled again before running a hand through my hair and sighing deeply.
“About what?” he probed and nudged me lightly.
“Don’t worry about it,” I nudged him back as I spoke and continued to stare into the fire longingly.
“What’s with your sudden interest with fire lately?” he questioned after a few seconds and I finally looked away from the fire and into his eyes.
“You’ve noticed that?” I asked in surprise.
“Of course,” he laughed, “I’ve been watching you enough to notice your sudden obsession with it.”
I raised one of my eyebrows at him and he slowly began to turn red as I rethought what he had said.
“What I meant was that I’ve been kind of worried about you since the whole Cat thing that went on and I’ve been trying to make sure that you were recovering well and so I noticed that you were…yeah...” he trailed off and looked down at his lap in embarrassment.
“Don’t worry about it,” I laughed, “I know what you mean. And no worries, I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me.”
I placed my hand over his reassuringly and he looked at it for a moment before looking up at me and smiling.
“The sudden obsession with fire still worries me slightly though,” he joked and I rolled my eyes before looking back at the fire again, “Cat told me not to let you play with fire you know.”
“Oh?” I questioned in response and I saw him nod out of the corner of my eye, “When did she tell you that?”
“At the ball after I figured out that it was her and not you,” he answered and I sighed, “She didn’t give me a reason though. She just said that I needed to make sure you kept it small and if you starting getting out of control to douse you in water. It makes no sense to me what so ever, just so you know.”
“It will in a minute, don’t worry,” I whispered and he looked at me confused as I turned my body to face him and held out one of my hands towards him.
“What are you-”
“Just watch,” I instructed him and he let his eyes fall down to my empty hand as I closed my eyes and tried to focus on creating a flame.
I was still thinking too much. That was my problem. Cat could whip water out of her hand and freeze it to ice without even thinking twice about it by this point and I was still struggling to make a flame appear in my hand.
“What the bloody hell is that?” George yelled and I opened my eyes to see him scrambling away from me in a panicked manner as a ball of fire painlessly engulfed my whole hand.
I swore loudly before shaking the fire off my hand and into the fire place as my eyes widened in surprise and shock. I had only ever managed a small palm sized flame before. How was I suddenly able to produce a flame so large that it encased my whole hand?
“Mollie, you better start explaining what the bloody hell that was,” George said as he stayed pressed up against the wall a few feet away.
“I can make fire appear in my hand,” I replied and smiled crookedly at him.
“I got that part strangely enough,” he responded and I bit my lip, “But why can you make fire appear out of nowhere?”
“Do you remember a few weeks ago when Hermione was telling us all about the legend of the Lady Moon?”
“How could I forget? She was going on about it for at least three hours,” he answered and then squinted his eyes at me, “Where are you going with this, Mollie?”
“She told us all about how whenever the Lady Moon feels like the world is in danger, she sends her spirit to be born into a little baby girl who will grow up and save the world.”
He nodded as I spoke and I tried to find the words that I needed to tell him the rest.
“George, Cat is the moon.”
“She’s the what?”
“She’s the moon. She has complete control over every single drop of water on this planet because she was the little baby girl who the Lady Moon chose to trust her spirit with.”
“But that doesn’t explain your…” he trailed off into thought and I saw his eyes light up as he remembered the next part of the legend that Hermione had told us about, “But when the world is in more danger then one sister can handle, the Lady Moon gets her sister to sun to send her spirit down into a different little girl.”
“Preferably a twin,” I whispered and he nodded silently, “George…I’m the sun.”
“The sun?” he repeated and I nodded as I bit down on my lip as I waited for him to say something, “That’s wicked awesome!”
I stared at him for a minute before I burst out laughing and pounced myself onto him in a tight hug. He began to laugh with me and wrapped his arms around me tightly as my entire face broke out into a smile.
“So you can control fire?” he asked and I nodded.
“I can also make the land do anything I want it to,” I added and he pulled back and looked at me with a large smile still on his face, “Cat controls the air though, blame her if it’s a bad flying day.”
“Don’t worry, I will,” he teased and I smiled at him gently before pulling away and rocking back onto my heels, “So what else can you do with fire?”
“Not much yet, I’m still struggling to get the ball to appear in my hand.”
“It didn’t seem like you were just a moment ago,” he chuckled and I nodded in agreement, “What it is?”
“I’m not quite sure actually. I just…I’ve never been able to produce any amount of fire that easily let alone that large of an amount. I’ve only managed a palm sized ball and that took me a few minutes last time.”
“You must be getting better at it then,” he joked and pushed my shoulder playfully, “You’re going to be tormenting your sister with your superiority in no time.”
“I doubt that,” I laughed before falling backwards and turning my head to stare into the flames again, “She’s far more advanced than I am.”
“I doubt that,” he mocked me lightly and I rolled my eyes as he chuckled.
“She has more power than I do George.”
“Why would you say that?”
“I talked to Grandma Ashling about it before we left for Dublin last week…you know how I told you that our hair is like this because we were sick when we were little?” I asked and he nodded patiently, “And she was sicker then I was…and for so much longer then I was. It’s because it was the Lady Moon putting every last drop of her spirit and power into her. Her sister only gave me the necessary amount that I need to fulfill my training and assist in saving the world. Cat’s the real warrior. She has more than two times as much power then I ever will and it’ll be her who brings down whatever dark force we’re supposed to face in the future.”
“No pressure,” George joked and I sighed in an un-amused manor, “Sorry, force of habit. Do you really think that?”
“Grandma Ashling explained it all to me when I asked her why Cat’s powers come so easily to her and I had to focus so hard just to get mine to cooperate. Cat isn’t supposed to find out yet, so don’t tell her.”
“Don’t worry, your secrets are all save with me,” he assured me and I looked at him again to see him smiling brightly, “So what else can you do with this stuff?”
“I can make it fly,” I laughed and sat up before turning my body back towards the fire and looking over at George, “Want to see.”
“Of course,” he scoffed and scooted a bit closer.
My smile grew yet again and I lifted my hands out in front of me before I began to make pushing and pulling motions with them. The flames began to dance back and forth with my every move and George watched in amazement as I lifted my hands over my head and the fire jumped out of the fire place and began to travel around the common room as I moved my hands and kept my focus. As the flames gained more and more speed they began to grow but I didn’t dare back down from this new challenge.
“Mollie…” George warned me and I shushed him before making the flames do another figurate in midair, “Mollie, Cat specifically told me that I needed to keep you from letting the flames get too big or else you’d hurt yourself again.”
“That wasn’t my fault, it was Dorkfoy’s,” I replied sharply and continued playing with my beautiful flames, “If he wouldn’t have surprised me then I never would have dropped it on myself.”
“Dropped it on yourself!?” George demanded as his eyes grew wide and his eyes darted to the still growing fire trail, “Mollie, I think you need to stop!”
“I have it under control, don’t worry about it!” I laughed and watched in amazement as the flames began to turn an even darker red.
“Mollie!” George yelled and I looked at him to see him looking at me sternly, “Put the flames back where they belong!”
I glared at him as my anger got the best of me and I threw the flames back into the fire place with such force that the ball exploded and illuminated the dark room before shrinking back to a normal size.
“You don’t think I can do it, do you?” I asked angrily and he sighed lightly, “I’m not as weak as everyone thinks I am, you know!”
“I don’t think you’re weak Mollie, I just think that you shouldn’t be dealing with such large flames when you’re still at the beginning of your training,” he answered gently and reached out my hand.
“If Cat was doing it then you wouldn’t have stopped her,” I mumbled and looked away from him as I glared at the floor.
“That’s different!” he protested, “That would have been with water!”
“Water can be just as dangerous as fire, George,” I scoffed and stood up before walking past him and grabbing my book.
“Mollie, I’m not trying to start a fight with you! I just don’t want you to hurt yourself!” he yelled after me and I scoffed again before heading up the stairs and toward my dormitory.
“It’s about time that you came up,” Cat laughed from where she was writing a letter to Dorkfoy, “Why do you look so pissed?”
“I don’t want to talk about,” I mumbled before throwing my book onto the floor and then climbing into bed without bothering to change into my nightgown, “We’ll talk in the morning, alright?”
“Did something happen with the fire Mollie?” Cat questioned as she handed the letter to Artemis before she disappeared in a burst of blue flames, “You didn’t hurt yourself again, did you?”
“Contrary to what everyone may believe, I’m not going to hurt myself every time I produce a fire ball,” I mumbled before closing my eyes and ignoring her response.
Just because I don’t have as much power as her doesn’t mean I was incapable of controlling them.