The Keepers' Evil

Fifty: You don't create anything worthwhile without setting a few things on fire

Song- Issues: Julia Michaels

Trigger warning for sexual content.

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"You don't create anything worthwhile without setting a few things on fire."

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Happiness was the sound of a friend's laughter, it was the happy pain in my cheeks after smiling too brightly, it was the flush of my skin after letting my body dangle from the greenhouse table as I listened to Garreth's twinkle of jokes. Happiness was also being better than Sebastian, if I was to listen to Garreth of course.

I was unsure of when my spine had become pressed against the crooked wood of the Herbology desk, of when the ringlet curls had become straightened by the way that they hung from the edge of the desk. There was something therapeutic about it I supposed, letting the sun sprinkle onto the bridge of my nose as I let my weight be held by something that was not me. Comfort had not been the goal of course, but comfort was what was there.

"How many things have you stolen from Honeydukes' cellar now?" It was a game of catching up, and after Garreth had listened for more than an hour on the intricate difficulties of split hearts and notable magical abilities and barely made a fuss, the conversation had naturally taken to the number of exploded cauldrons, how many times a week he had spent his evenings with Professor Sharp, and most importantly- how often the secret passage of the One-Eyed Witch had been used.

I appreciated Garreth for his lack of pity, or rather the fact that I knew he drowned in worry, but did not say more than a simple hm before turning my attention to all of the things that should have been my main worry. I supposed that Garreth found comfort and closure in the truth of the past months, that someone he cared for had not gone silent because of him, that I had not been silenced completely.

I truly wondered when my twisted and tangled mind was going to allow me to believe that my magic did not detail me as dangerous, that people like Garreth did not see me differently for it.

I was not sure that laughter could end a person's life, but I feared that if I let myself laugh yet another time, I may have stopped breathing altogether. But of course, as Garreth began to pull numerous crumpled foils of emptied sweet packets and perhaps hundreds of crinkled containers of confectionary from his inner pocket, another bout of laughter did not end my life this time.

"I placed my payment on the shelves, don't stress. As much as I could have stolen these things and nobody would have known, I couldn't live with the guilt, Maddie, you know me." People often misunderstood being a Gryffindor for being physically brave, for fighting fears and confronting those against us. But Garreth seemed to be a playful example of the moral bravery that we held ourselves to, and it made a lot of sense for my own mind.

"I do indeed, Garreth. I know you that well that I know you have not been actually studying for the last few months, so enlighten me, what wild things have you been up to?" How Garreth had not been expelled was a mystery in itself, his spirited mischief and bubbly curiosity was welcomed by most, but to many he was considered trouble and I could see why in parts.

"Well, unfortunately our dear professors have been quite adamant about keeping me occupied, and - oh!-" Garreth paused, his audible exclamation tilting my own interest into what he had begun to dig from his pocket. His enthusiastic grin pulled my body from the desk that I had been laying across, lugging me upright to watch as he tugged and yanked at the fabric until it produced a small red token, a gold lion engraved across the centre.