When you place a cup over a fire, the flame will be smothered. The loss of oxygen removing the ability for the flame to continue burning. If Katniss Everdeen is the Flame then Peeta Mellark and her little family are the Oxygen. Take them away and you snuff out the flame.

Except, it's not that easy. He has taken away the boy, and her job as a political image has her away from her family at all times, but she is still burning. He recalls a conversation he once had about the girl, "A little hope is effective. A lot of hope is dangerous." He'd known it then, and he was sure of it now.

Katniss Everdeen is dangerous.

Katniss Everdeen is dangerous, and he can't snuff her out. Removing her oxygen does nothing but make her stronger, and he can't think of anything else. Killing her companions spurred her on further and he is justified in his confusion. He had thought he had her figured out, that she was nothing but a bleeding heart, someone he could manipulate into shape. He's come to learn that he shouldn't expect anything of her.

Because Katniss Everdeen is an enigma, a virus that he can't eradicate.

She is frustrating and he hates it, hates her. He has destroyed an entire district all for her and, like a fungus, she has survived.

He knows that, in all likeliness, he will probably lose this war, he has never fought an opponent such as her. She has lost and lost, yet she continues.

It is infuriating.

She is infuriating.

The girl on fire cannot be smothered.