It looked good on paper
so I sparked a match and lit it on fire
When you got too close,
I watched us go up in smoke
13th August, 1893 — Yarwood manor, Avalon Glen

Another day, and another outing to the Glen, dragged along on her father’s arm – because dragons did not care if it was a glorious bright day or a weekend or if Mattie might have possibly had other summer plans. No, her father had come and abandoned her at the Yarwood manor, as he often did, to make use of the Yarwoods’ excellently-resourced library to make progress on his bibliography.

The Yarwoods seemed perfectly hospitable people, and Mattie had no intention of getting under foot like a troublesome toddler, but her father was rather transparent to her sometimes. Bibliography notes, to be sure – her secretarial work this summer certainly had nothing at all to do with his newfangled scheme to see her marry into the Yarwood family. (Mattie fancied he would be pleased enough to have a stake in the library alone, never mind the dragons.)

The elder Yarwood son wasn’t here – no doubt he was at a quidditch match somewhere – so Mattie had settled for staying put in the library instead. She’d collected a pile of non-fiction her father needed checking, and gotten out a summer project she was working on for Astronomy, and was just flicking through another title from the shelf when the library door opened, and the other Yarwood son came in.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and flitted out from the shelf so that she didn’t give him a heart attack. “Sorry, Mr. Yarwood, no one told me you were home,” she said brightly, bundling the books she was holding more carefully into her arms and shooting him a carefree smile. Taller and older though he might be, he had always seemed rather too gentle in demeanour to be in the least intimidating. “Shall I leave you in peace? I can find somewhere else to be, if you like.”

---