AN: Another week, another chapter. This one gets a little darker. Enjoy!

"Matthew, where's the milk?!" I hollered through the hallway.

He poked his head out of his bedroom. "Did you check the fridge?"

I very nearly banished something at him, but managed to hold myself back. "No. I hadn't considered the rare possibility that the milk somehow managed to meander its way into the refrigerator, of all places. Let me go check." Committed to the ploy at this point, I spun around and opened the refrigerator. "Huh, that's odd."

"What's odd?" Matthew could be relied to set himself up, at least.

"There's no fucking milk in the refrigerator, Matthew." I said as he walked into the kitchen. "It's almost like I checked it before asking you."

He opened his mouth, then shut it. "I don't recall using the last of it."

"Was there any left after your monstrous bowl of cereal this morning?"

The light-bulb went off in his head. "Nope. I finished it then. Sorry."

I snapped a stasis charm on the food. "It's like watching a sunrise."

"What?" The clueless face was back as I walked by him to my album.

"When a light-bulb goes off in your head, it's like watching a sunrise." I muttered as I flipped through it, looking for the grocery store.

"How?"

"Because it's a sight to behold, and takes about half a fucking hour."

"That's-" My pop of apparation cut off his reply.

The trip to the store only took a few minutes. Thankfully, most people were having dinner at 7:30 on a Tuesday, so I could shop for mine in peace. Once out of the store, I walked towards a secluded corner, opened my wallet to the picture of the house, and then popped there.

Matthew was sitting on the couch reading when I walked in. "It's not fair when you do that."

"Do what?" I inquired as I snapped the food off of stasis to add milk and the powdered cheese.

"You make a smart comment, and then apparate before I can retort."

I raised an eyebrow as I magically shredded the sharp cheddar block. "I wasn't aware that there were rules of engagement for verbal sparring, other than taking things too far to be acceptable, given whatever social situation you're in."

"Leaving immediately after making a comment doesn't allow a continuation of the sparring without losing the pacing, which qualifies at the very least as poor sportsmanship."

"Hmm." I acknowledged while stirring my magnificent bowl of macaroni and cheese. "Fair point. I'll endeavor to not do that any longer. What time limit should we put on the beginnings of a rebuttal?"

He made a thinking hum as well, "Five seconds?"

"That's a bit long for my tastes, but it's acceptable. Do you wish to continue the previous match?"

He shook his head. "The time has passed for that. I'll save it for later."

"Fair enough. Mac and cheese?"

He peered at the pot, "Is it good?"

I shrugged, "Basically pasta and cheese, with butter and milk to add depth."

"Do you live on various forms of pasta and cheese?"

"It's been nearly a month, Matthew. What do you think?"

"Five points to Hufflepuff?"

"Not a month later, no."

"Damn." He went back to his book.

"OY!"

He jumped, "What?"

"Do you want some or not?"

"Sure. Your cooking is good, if a bit one-note."

"Hey now. I've learned to cook all sorts of things to help enhance my pasta and cheese diet."

He sighed, "The worst part about that statement is that you're exactly correct."

I snorted, "I feel like that's the worst part about most of my statements." I handed him a bowl of food as I sat down. "What are you reading?"

"It's a book on different types of earth magic. It's actually heavily Arithmantic, but I'm making a bit of headway on it." He continued to answer my unspoken question. "I'm still trying to figure out what Fiendfyre does specifically that makes it produce exceptional fertilizer."

"I don't know much about fertilizer, but isn't it based on the amount of neutral magic that's left over?"

He tilted his head, "Partially, but the main advantage is that the magic is willing to help so quickly. I don't know that it's neutral magic, to be honest with you. Most magic that's speculated to be truly neutral is more effort to work with, which would lead me to believe that it's earth-based magic. But that doesn't make any sense because it's clearly fire, which if anything, is destructive in nature, not creative."

I shook my head, "I think you're focusing too much on the elemental portion of this."

"What's the alternative? We're dealing with earth magic."

"What if..." I paused, trying to find a way to phrase what I was thinking without sounding like an idiot. "What if the magic is just generally more willing to help? What if it's not earth magic specifically?"

"I don't think that's possible..." Matthew was deep in thought.

"Well, it should be easy to test." I reasoned. "Grab some of it, and try other types of elemental magic on it."

He nodded. "I can have a couple of the guys test that out tomorrow. Personally, I think it's insane, but if you're right, it could change everything. There's so much use in elemental-based magic." He laughed, "Enchanters would lose their minds."

I shrugged "You know quite a bit more about this than I do, so I'll let you handle the restructuring of the magical world, should it come to that."

It was roughly noon when I heard Matthew's apparition into the apartment. I leaned over in my desk chair and pulled the door open. "How did it go?"

He snorted, "It didn't work."

"Huh. That sucks." I figured I had a relatively low chance of actually being correct about the Fiendfyre magic, but I'd still been hoping for it.

"It only responded to earth magic." He continued.

"What do you mean, 'only?'"

He smirked a little. "Well, you'd think that fire-based magical remnants would respond well to fire spells..."

"Hold on." I stood up out of my chair. "It doesn't?"

"It actively resists it." He clarified.

"What the fuck?"

"It resists wind and water as well."

I blinked. "What does that even mean?"

He shrugged. "The Guild seems to think that I stumbled on an old book of family magic that contains a fertilizer-making fire spell."

I laughed, "But it's Fiendfyre!"

"Yeah. The fire on loan from hell is actually for rebirth."

I snorted. "Is it possible that Fiendfyre was originally made for that purpose?"

He gave me a sideways glance. "Fiendfyre eats everything."

I sputtered, "Sure, but it may have been bastardized to do that."

"You think Fiendfyre was originally a nice fire spell that only ate the things we didn't need?"

I shook my head, "I'm not an idiot, Matthew. Forest fires happen all the time, and they produce more fertile ground for the regrowth that happens after the fact. Fiendfyre could have been started as a way to help that along, before someone got ahold of it and changed it into something that's mainly only used for fear now."

Matthew shook his head, "That change would be impossibly drastic. Even a cutting charm and a severing charm are two different equations. You couldn't morph one into the other easily, and the only functional difference is an order of magnitude in power."

I held my hands up, "All right, all right. I'm not trying to argue with you. I simply can't think of anything else that makes sense."

Matthew shrugged, "I can't ask anything else about it at this point. Everyone wants to know what I'm doing to create the fertilizer. If I start asking about Fiendfyre, they'll figure it out, and then we could both be in trouble. Regardless of your views on the matter, Fiendfyre is classified as illegal by the British Ministry."

"It is?"

Matthew looked at me like I was an idiot. "It eats everything. Cast it in a house? No more house. In a forest? No more forest. On a body of water? It will just skate along the surface until it finds a house or a forest."

"That's not true. Regular water does douse Fiendfyre."

"Really?"

I nodded, "I tried it near a lake once. It produces an insane amount of steam, even compared to other types of magical fire, but it does not like water, and does not survive contact with it."

He took a deep breath, "That makes me feel a bit safer, actually. I guess that last bit is just a myth, then."

I nodded. "That would make sense. It's a spell that people are terrified of, and seems to be unstoppable. It's a logical conclusion to make, or at least to test out."

He nodded, but remained silent.

"You all right?"

"I'm nervous about what will happen if this gets out."

I shrugged. "Why would it matter? Aren't the Guilds given a bit of leeway over stuff like this?"

"That leeway won't come anywhere near covering Fiendfyre, Daniel. We could go to Azkaban for it. If I'm lucky, I would just have my mastery revoked."

"I didn't realize it was that bad..."

"You don't spend much time in the Wizarding World. There are whispers that the Knights of Walpurgis are on the rise again. Everyone is laughing about it in public, but people are also terrified. You'd be branded a Dark Lord immediately, Daniel."

I winced. "Wizards and their stupidity."

Daniel gave me a look, "I'm more inclined to be on the side of 'stupid, but also possessing self-preservation,' thanks."

I shrugged, "Suit yourself. I won't use it around you again. Let me know if you need more fertilizer."

Matthew shook his head, "Get off your high horse. I'm not judging you for it, Daniel. I'm just trying to see you live to 20 outside of Azkaban."

"Only 20?"

"One year at a time. You bring too much trouble to look at it any other way."

"Oh, fuck off."

Matthew laughed.