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.”

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Nigel Yarwood/@"Daffodil Potts"

  

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Even when he wasn't working, Nigel was still working. Once he had something to research, he could get a little obsessed and relentless until he got through what he needed to. That pursuit of knowledge seemed never to be quenched when he was on the hunt for something specific.

Right now he was looking up lesser-known uses for dragons-based ingredients in potions, one large tome in hands as he walked through the house, still reading. He had the place memorized and could navigate it without really thinking, plus the staff usually saw him coming and stepped out of the way. At the moment he had exhausted the resources he had already pulled from their personal library, but knew of at least one or two more volumes he could pull to look at and make comparisons. He had a theory and he was going to find as much evidence as he could.

Making his way into the library through the pocket doors, head still down, so despite Miss Farris' best intentions, he was indeed, still startled. "Oh," he managed, trying to keep the flush of embarrassment from his cheeks. "No, no, I'm elbow deep in research in my office, I just came to pull a few more books. You're most welcome to stay." He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, the other still holding his current book open so he didn't lose his place.

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She might not be interested in marrying him (she was not very interested in marrying anybody at all, at seventeen, not yet out of school and with a whole world still to explore), but she did find the way he was wandering about with his head in his book a little bit charming.

Nor did he seem annoyed by her intrusion in the house, and Mattie was rather keen for a distraction, so Nigel Yarwood would do as well as anyone. “Thank you,” she said, with a beam, and crossed over to the library table to deposit her pile of books. Rather than sit and get back to her work, she merely leant against the table’s edge and inclined her head at him. “What are you working on? Are any of these –” she added, tapping the dragon-related books beside her she’d just stolen from the shelves, “– the ones you need?”

“I won’t mind if you take them from me,” she said, with a teasing, conspiratorial glint in her eyes. “I’m about ready for a break.”

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Nigel was somewhat dazzled by Miss Farris' smile, even if he wasn't sure why. Her easygoing nature was something he had envied in their short acquaintance, but it still put him out of sorts. As she motioned to her stack of books, he quickly scanned the titles.

Oblivious to her teasing, he shook his head. "No, thank you though. This is an oddly specific set I'm looking for." Nigel wasn't even completely sure as to whether he'd seen them here or not, but they did have an extensive collection, so he was hopeful they had copies. "What is it you're reading about?" Dragons clearly, but despite his brother's jokes, Nigel had not in fact, read every book in the Yarwood library; only most of them. He could make recommendations if she was looking for something specific however.

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Oddly specific. She sighed internally: of course he was on a mission. Some amusing distraction he would be, if he was too busy with his work as well!

But he had asked her a question, so at least this was not utter dismissal. “Just checking citations for my father’s bibliography,” Mattie explained, with a wistful sigh out loud this time, “and I’ve been working on an Astronomy summer project but –” she let out a bright little laugh, “there’s only so much I can do with that before nightfall.”

She had no idea if he would be impressed or dismayed by her tiresomely studious ways, but she was hopeful he had more tolerance for such things than most men his age. He was the brains between the Yarwood brothers, after all. She didn’t need to know them well at all to be sure of that.

“What are you after?” Mattie said, letting her gaze sweep the room and return to him with the light of a newfound quest in them. He hadn’t asked for it, but she had more energy than she knew what to do with, so she leapt at the chance to join in a hunt.

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"Riveting," Nigel found himself saying about the citations, before she continued on about the astronomy project. That at least was something interesting, hopefully to her. "We have a decent section on the subject, have you found it yet?" Nigel, though he had enjoyed the class at Hogwarts and had taken it the entire time he was there, hadn't touched the subject much since. Regrettably, he realized.

"We have a collection on dragon-based potions ingredients. I have a friend that is a potioneer and I've been diving deeper into the practice myself." It had never been his strongest subject, fortunately having Harry to help him limp along through NEWTs, but he did enjoy it. He enjoyed the finesse it required and the subtle changes one could make with simple tweaks.

"Would you like for me to show you the astronomy section?" He didn't mind taking a few moments to do so before returning back to his own search.

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She giggled at riveting. “Oh, how interesting,” Matilda offered at his own research. “I still take Potions as well,” she explained, to assure him that she wasn’t feigning her interest. “You’ll have to tell me what you discover.” She could quote his research in her essays.

“Oh, yes, that would be nice,” Mattie agreed, more pleased by his offer than the prospect of giving herself more books to read at the moment, if it meant he briefly put down his. She straightened up and smoothed down her dress over her hip before flitting to his side, waiting for him to take the lead. From a distance he was tall, but from his side he was rather a giant.

“I imagine the night skies are quite something out here,” Mattie said innocently, (as if the rolling Welsh mountains and wide open valleys were so incredibly different from Scotland). “Do you know of any nice stargazing spots? Away from the dragons, I mean.” She grinned.

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"I was never very good at it, but it is interesting." Hence his friendship with Harry, who had been his tutor in the subject. Still the prospect of learning more about dragons in relation to the subject was fascinating. He could however, use a break he supposed, so showing Miss Farris the astronomy section wouldn't hurt. Carefully folding his own book under his arm, Nigel, once she was ready, started off toward the far corner of the library.

"We have a small observatory with a decent telescope on the estate actually." He hadn't used it in a while, but had always enjoyed it as a child. It had come in handy when he was in school and wanted to work on his lessons over breaks. "It's been a while since I've ventured out, but I could certainly have the staff check on it, if you'd like to use it." Somebody ought to and if Miss Farris was truly interested in the subject, it would get good use that way. "But otherwise there's a small knoll on the far side of the grounds that is good for stargazing." Now that he had visited recently; it was his favorite spot to go and think.

Nigel took a few winding twists and turns toward the right section of the library, a lull in the conversation when he realized he should probably continue. "What is your project on?"

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It was perhaps too bold a comment, and Mattie didn’t actually believe it, but she said it to tease him anyway, her tongue in her cheek. “Oh, I doubt you could be bad at anything, Mr. Yarwood.”

But she oughtn’t push his goodwill or embarrass him too much, because he was being very obliging thus far – this little stroll across the library was already the most thrilling part of her day. (Mattie rather thought she had been wasting away this summer, if that was so.)

Still, she quieted to listen to him describe the stargazing options on the Yarwood grounds with interest. “Oh, I’ve some star charts to make, mapping the constellations and planets and comparing between summer and winter,” she explained – summer she could manage, but winter would have to be from references at this stage. “The observatory sounds lovely,” she admitted, toying with a loose strand of hair about her ear, “and so does the knoll. Perhaps... you could show me it sometime?” Her eyes darted up to him, wondering whether he thought she had overstepped.

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Nigel grimaced at her compliment; he was bad at many a thing indeed, but he wasn't about to get into detail about that.

Start charts and astronomy were a far more appealing subjects than his long list of faults. "Certainly, I would be happy to." He agreed with ease as he took another turn in the stacks. "I am not sure when it was last used, I will have to make sure it is not a mess beforehand." Nigel hadn't been out there in a while himself, he would have one of the staff give it a thorough dusting, or perhaps investigate himself to make sure the telescope was working correctly.

"Ah, here we are," Nigel found the shelves of astronomy books, a solid collection on the subject that spanned from floor to ceiling. "Was there anything in particular you were looking for?" He'd read most of it himself, and liked to organize it, when he had the time.

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He had agreed, but she wasn’t convinced he had taken the hint, that it was not really about the observatory or the stargazing at all and more about his company. (Perhaps she would just have to investigate the grounds herself and just happen to stumble across him in the particular knoll he’d spoken of sometime. Satisfied, Mattie filed this away in Future Schemes & Plans.)

The stars were not getting her particularly far in the here and now, however, even if they had gotten Mr. Nigel Yarwood talking more freely than he seemed accustomed to. A safe topic, she supposed, like his research. But he was quite chivalrous, and Mattie side-eyed him as he showed her the towering rows of the library section.

Perhaps actions would speak a little louder than words? She could have asked him to stretch up and retrieve a book for her, lanky as he was, but Mattie didn’t wait for that: she clambered up a few rungs of a library ladder and reaching over dangerously for a book. “Aha! This one will do nicely –” she began, but rather than descending the ladder gracefully, her foot deliberately missed a step before she could reach the floor, and she teetered like she was about to lose her grasp and fall. Hopefully Nigel Yarwood would be paying enough attention to do something about that.

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It seemed Miss Farris found exactly what she was looking for, climbing the ladder efficiently to reach what she needed. He was momentarily distracted by another title a shelf over and moved away to pull it from the shelf. He barely caught onto what she was saying, or her motions before he noticed her miss a rung on the ladder.

Nigel dropped the books in his hands hastily, trying to reach to steady her, but overcompensated, instead pushing the library ladder instead of grabbing it, which would up unsettling Miss Farris even further, her weight with nothing to catch it by him. Nigel managed to at least cushion her fall, hitting the ground roughly, his head hitting the wooden floor harder than he would have liked, stars appearing before his eyes as he blinked a few times. The wind knocked from his chest, he didn't have any air so as to inquire after Miss Farris for a moment.

Finally he managed to inhale enough, gingerly picking his head up from the floor to look at the predicament they found themselves in. "Are you alright?" He asked tentatively, cheeks heating up in embarrassment; Nigel had never been any semblance of graceful.

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She had hoped he might offer his hand, or place an innocent hand about her waist and spirit her down from the steps with heretofore unproved strength – but in fact the consequences of her ploy had been more dangerous and more drastic.

Mattie, briefly stunned as she was from the whirl of the fall, was delighted. He had actually managed to knock her off the ladder entirely, and she might have been irritated at him if he had not – accidentally or otherwise – presented his body as the perfect cushion for a fall. They landed in a tangle of limbs – he was really all limbs – and his chest had been a softer fall than the floor, so she recovered a little faster than he did.

(So she ought to have shuffled up, rolled off him and away to give him room to breathe – but pretending to be breathless still, she stayed exactly where she was against him.)

“That’s one way to make us see stars,” Mattie teased him, buoyed by her own cleverness and their sudden closeness, and breaking into breathless laughter at one or the other. (No limbs had been broken; she was perfectly pleased with herself – and hopefully he wasn’t too put out by his predicament, either.) Putting a hand to his chest to pick herself up – only to sit up a little, not ready to release him yet – Matilda observed him more closely, the flush in his face and his hair in disarray. “I’m quite alright,” she answered, smile softening. “Are you well?”

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He was seeing stars alright. Nigel's head was swimming, the headache already taking root in the back of his skull. At least Miss Farris claimed to be unharmed. If he had done anything right, at least he could say he chivalrously saved her from being injured, even at his own expense.

Gently he lowered his head to the floor, staring up at the ceiling, taking stock to see if any other part of him registered as sore. His back certainly, but the wind was coming back to his lungs, despite Miss Farris still being partially atop him. Mostly he just felt jarred from the landing. "I'll be alright," he managed, hoping to sound more certain that he felt. He would be alright, obviously, it wasn't as if he had fallen from a great height (just his own unnaturally tall form).

"Are you sure you're unharmed?" He leaned up a little bit, up onto one elbow to survey her carefully. He felt a little dizzy, but decided to ignore it.

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He didn’t sound convinced – or best pleased – but whether or not she had fared better than him, she was in no rush to get up again. No, at least this turn of events gave her the liberty of surveying him from a much closer vantage. “Just – a little dizzy, I think,” Mattie considered, deciding he wouldn’t be prepared to catch her a second time if she tried to feign a swoon.

She ran a hand over her hair, hoping it still looked neat, and then glanced at him again with newfound concern. “Let me see.” She didn’t know enough about medically recognising a concussion to make this an entirely selfless endeavour, but nevertheless – she reached out to gently angle his chin up with her hand, so that he was better looking at her, and so she could gaze into his eyes to check.

He was probably too disoriented to appreciate her face up close: more was the pity for that.

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   Nigel Yarwood

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