Somehow, Sam was the last to arrive in Lily’s room despite living right next to it. Ordinarily, someone might have commented on it or at least made fun of him for it a little bit, but this wasn’t an ordinary room call. Everyone could feel it as soon as they stepped into the room. Anya was curled up in a blanket, staring at the bed in complete silence. She wasn’t reacting to anything, just staring at a slightly blackened spot on the bedcover.

This was unusual for many reasons, the biggest of which being that Anya was never quiet. Or still.

Even after everyone had situated themselves on various surfaces in the room, only one of which was actually meant to be sat on, the silence persisted. It seeped into their bones, soaking into them and corrupting them to feel like an outsider, like the group wasn’t supposed to be in this one place at this point in time.

“Sooo… What’s up?” Carla started the impending conversation with.

“A lot.” Anya mumbled.

“Cryptic,” Carla said and snorted before adding, “I’d personally love some context.” They looked around, and everyone nodded in agreement. Anya borrowed further into her pile of blankets.

“Anya is probably still shaken from before,” Lily said, receiving a nod in response.

“What exactly happened then?” Felicity asked quietly.

“So I didn’t believe Anya about a thing because quite frankly it sounded stupid and I… might have threatened… to call the psychiatrist?”

The reaction to Lily’s confession was immediate. Carla, Felicity and Sam all started shouting some combination of the words “no” “why” and “what the fuck”.

“Okay I got it already! Very bad idea! We got over it though and Anya wasn’t that traumatized!”

“Yes I was” Anya said, smirking at her friends and slowly shedding the fleece blanket from around her.

“Shut the fuck up, Anya.” Lily’s words may have been harsh, but she seemed happy to see her friend be back to normal.

Or well, almost normal. There was still the whole magic thing.

“Okay so what exactly sparked the worst idea you’ve had in a decade, Lily?” Sam asked from his position sitting on Lily’s desk.

“Well, uh, it’s kind of hard to explain?” Lily shrugged.

“Magic exists and my mom is from a magical realm, oh and the dreams that I’ve been having since I was a kid are actually memories that were repressed with some sort of magic thing to keep me safe or whatever,” Anya butted in, wanting to get this ordeal over with. The stunned silence that followed was, in Anya’s opinion, a pretty positive reaction. No one had doctors on speed dial, at least.

Carla was once again the first to speak. “So that makes no sense and I am taking away any grudge I might have had against you earlier, Lily. What the fuck?”

“Yeah I’m seconding Carla,” Felicity piped up from Lily’s desk chair.

Sam was the only one quiet.

“I’m aware it sounds completely stupid and makes absolutely no sense but it’s the truth.” Anya said, starting a glaring contest with Carla, which very clearly made Felicity nervous. Anya dropped the intense staring but she still had a point to prove.

“What about you, Sam?” Felicity looked up at the only quiet one.

“If Lily believes Anya then there must be some proof, yes?” After receiving a nod in confirmation from Lily, he continued. “So, why don’t you show us that proof too? Unless Lily had finally gone crazy from all the pressure she puts on herself.”

“Rude,” Lily retorted.

“It is kind of true, Lily,” Felicity pointed out.

Anya was busy searching her pockets for the crystal to really pay attention. She had proof goddamnit but she might have… lost it a little bit? Anya checked her pockets three times before giving up and looking up at Lily, who was staring at her and extending her hand towards Anya. With the crystal in it. Oh.

Anya triumphantly grabbed the stone, which was much less hot than it had been before. The warmth of the stone reminded her of an overheated phone. it had stopped burning up, but it still radiated warmth like her old iPhone 4 when she had once watched youtube videos for four hours straight. She held the stone between her fingers and showed it to the rest of the room with a proud expression on her face.

“This can make fire.”

“So can a lighter, Anya.” Carla got up from the floor, betraying their disinterested words by going closer to Anya to see the crystal better.

“What Anya means is that it caught fire, made a 20 inch pillar of flame and burned a part of my new bedcovers,” Lily said.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that, by the way.”

“It’s cool, I’ll get new sheets,” Lily said, shrugging.

“So you’re going to set it on fire again? That’s your proof?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, I mean, I did just hold it in my hands and it caught fire when I panicked so… I’ll do that again?” Anya inspected the crystal closer. How exactly was she supposed to recreate something that had happened accidentally?

“Great! Let’s go outside, I don’t want you burning anything in my room again.” Lily clapped her hands together and grabbed Anya by the arm, leading the small group outside where they would hopefully not burn down the neighbourhood.

God, Anya hoped this would work.

---

The group decided that the safest place to spontaneously set fire on things was by a large, intricate fountain in the Averton family’s backyard. Not only was it mostly made of stone but it had water, as most fountains do, where one could throw things (and people) to put out any unfortunate fires.

The group was sitting on a bench in front of the fountain, waiting for Sam to come back from the garage, hopefully with some kind of semi safe gloves to prevent burning any hands off. Anya had promised Lily to use her left hand this time, as the right one was still recovering from the first fire blast. It had been covered in a salve that was supposed to help with burns, as well as wrapped in a bandage. It made Anya look even more like she had been in a street fight.

Soon enough Sam returned with what seemed to be an oven mitt.

“Uh, Sam? Oven mitts aren’t fireproof,” Lily said.

“Eh, closest thing we had. Besides I know mom has wanted to get rid of these for ages.”

“Explains why they were in the garage. Suit me up!” Anya got up from the bench and presented her hands to Sam, who dramatically bowed before carefully slipping the gloves on.

“My liege, good luck with your impending battle.” Anya laughed at Sam’s theatrics but decided to play along.

“Thank you, wise mage. You shall be in charge until I return.” At this point both of them were trying to hold their laughter, only somewhat successfully.

“Okay you nerds, time to light shit up,” Carla said, grabbing Anya by the shoulders and leading her to stand by the fountain. Sam sat down on the bench, Carla joining him, while Lily and Felicity stood guard in case they needed to throw Anya into the fountain or run to get an adult.

“Right. Light shit up.” Anya took a deep breath and started focusing on the power she had felt the first time she had done this, which wasn’t easy since it had been an accident.

She tried to go back to that moment. What had she felt? What had triggered the reaction? She had been panicked, that’s for sure. But she didn’t want to harness the feeling of panic every time she would have to do this. What else had there been?

Fear of abandonment. Anya remembered the suffocating fear from earlier. She didn't want to go through that ever again, but she knew deep inside her that she needed to have strong feelings to access the magic.

Anya thought of her mother. Now that she remembered her clear as day, she also remembered her extraordinary magical skills. Using magic had always seemed so easy and flawless for her. Had she also used emotions? Or had she done it some other way? Anya was sure her mother had meant to teach her magic, but unfortunately their time together had been cut short. The reason for it was right at the tip of Anya’s tongue, but she couldn’t quite reach it. She took another deep breath.

Maybe it would help if she thought of a happy memory, like Hogwarts students did when casting Expecto Patronum. What happy memories did she have? Were any of them happy enough?

Anya briefly opened her eyes and saw monkey bars in the middle of the yard. She quickly closed her eyes again and started thinking.

She could remember when the monkey bars had been brand new. While the paint had now chipped off over years of use, it had once been flawless. Lily and Sam had gotten the monkey bars for their 7th birthday, probably to get the two go outside more instead of being stuck inside reading books all the time.

The whole gang had been there for the reveal. For a week prior to the party, a square shape covered in a sheet had been standing in their backyard. Anya knew this because it was the first thing the pair had told her and their group of friends when they came to school that Tuesday. The whole group had been dying of curiosity, but none of them had been brave enough to go take a peek. That Saturday they had the official birthday party that the children had spent eating cake and staring at the mysterious box shape.

The unveiling had had all of the kids screaming with joy. None of them had anything like it in their backyard, and now they didn’t have to go play in public parks where other kids could ruin their games of pretend.

But that wasn’t what Anya remembered the best about that time. No, what made her heart feel full and her eyes prick with tears of joy was the moment after it.

Maria Averton had handed each one of the children a permanent marker and instructed them to write their names on the perfectly white monkey bars. And they had, because writing your name on things right after learning how to was the biggest joy for a 7 year old.

Anya remembered sitting down on the ground beneath the bars after scribbling her name onto the cold metal, watching Sam and Lily finish the job with their names. After it, Lily had turned to the group with a big smile on her face and said:

“Now we’ll be best friends, forever.”

Anya, in the present moment, smiled just as brightly she had back then. But this time she felt a warmth spread from inside, traveling to her left hand and moving to the stone in her hand, which was slowly getting warmer again. Anya opened her eyes to see a small flame, not burning hot this time but pleasantly warm, flickering on her oven mitt covered palm.

She looked up at her friends. Lily looked proud, her smile reaching her eyes. Felicity, who stood beside Lily, was looking at the small flame in shock. Sam and Carla had both gotten up from the bench and were staring at the flame in awe. Anya smiled even brighter.

She lifted up her hand.

“There we go. Proof.”