Scarlett took a deep breath and knocked on Mark and Melie’s door. She knew it was time to face her fears, specifically her fear of fire and herself. Fears were always worse when they came from within and Scarlett was determined to take some control over her power. She thought that if she could master the fire within her then other fires outside of her would not appear so frightening.

The obvious person to help her do this was Mark since he controlled water. Scarlett felt that this way she was insuring the safety of those around her since her other fear was the damage she knew her power was capable of doing. So she stood outside Mark’s door in a set of flameproof robes, clutching another set of them in her arms. She just hoped Mark was in.

It had been a lazy day, Mark had homework to do sure; but that was just an inconvienience to be finished as late as possible in his opinion. He lay perfectly still but awake on his bed staring at the ceiling, a stray pixie had floated in through the window so now Mark was following that with his eyes. Then a sudden knock on the door caused Mark to jump suddenly and the pixie to take off at full speed back out of the open window.

Wondering who it was he slid off his bed and walked over to the door, opening it slightly he poked his head round. "Oh hey Scar, Whats up?" he asked as he moved away and opened the door fully. He noticed a set of robes in her hands and they looked very similar to the set she was wearing herself. They had a wierd shiny look about them and Mark knew what ever it was Scarlett had come for it was going to be fun.

"What we up to today then?" he asked as a huge grin spread across his face.

"Well uh" Scarlett hated asking for favors and Mark had already done so much for her, but she needed this or she would always be afraid of herself. She took a deep breath and plowed on, "I was wonderin' if you'd help me practice with my power."

The grin on Marks face widened as Scarlett spoke about using elemintist powers. "A chance to show off with my ANWA powers....?" he said as he stroked his chin in jest. "....im not so sure." he finished before returning to seriousness.
"Of course i can help, most people have their own spark wich help them control thier powers but id be happy to help as much as i can. Plus if theres a learning fire elementist in the area who better to be around than a water elementist?" he asked moving back into his room and grabbing afew things from the trunk at the foot of his bed.

He stood back up and looked over to Scar, "The one thing im afraid i can't do though..." he said looking down at the robes in his friends arms, "...is wear them. I'll just trust my powers to keep me safe." he finished with a wink.

Scarlett hadn’t realized how much she had missed having Mark around until he began to tease her. She knew all the chin stroking and dithering was just his playful nature. She smiled broadly at him and said, “Thank you. I figured it’s be safest if I practiced with you.”

She watched him collect some supplies and when he told her he couldn’t wear the robes she laughed, “Well I just figured I’d offer you the same protection that I got for myself. I’ll bring ‘em with me just incase you change your mind, or incase someone else joins us who is not as gifted as you. I figured we’d head down to the lake. It seems like a good idea to have a large body of water around.” With that being said Scarlett turned and headed for the lake.

Remy was out by the lake feeling really bored. He had a small bag of rocks in his hands and was flinging them out to the lake trying to see how many times he could make htem skip. The most he had managed to accomplish was 3 but he knew there were some people in this castle who could do 5 or 6 so he kept trying. Remy hated being second best at anything even something so trivial as rock skipping.

With every step Scarlett took towards the lake her excitement grew. She was finally going to learn how to control her powers. Maybe then she wouldn’t have to be afraid of them anymore. The thought almost made her want to skip to the lake.

Her happiness faded a bit as the she arrived at the wide sandy place on the shore that she had decided would be perfect to practice and found that it was already occupied. And by Remy. It was one thing to have Mark see her burn herself and possibly singe her eyebrows, but she didn’t want to make mistakes in front of Remy. He was not patient and understanding like Mark. He was cool and slick and intimidating. Usually Scarlett loved these things about Remy because it made him a blast to hang out with, but when it came to exposing your greatest fears to someone those weren’t really desirable qualities.

Scarlett tried to quickly and quietly, hoping Remy had not heard her. She and Mark could find a different place to practice.

Remy noticed the air change slighly as scarlett walked by the lake and he grinned. "what are you up to today" he said as he turned around and looked at her. He grinned as he saw what scarlett was wearing "whats wrong scar? your other robes being washed or something" he asked her.


ooc: i know mark hasn't posted being in the lake so i didnt want to saw he was there yet. i guess hes a few steps behind you?? in any case i havent seen him

OoC: Well you know how Mark is. He probably stopped to do card tricks for his adoring fans. :P And of course you know that I want you to be in this thread, but Scarlett would be nervous.

Too late she was caught. “Oh hi Remy.” She looked down at the drab baggy robes that would protect her from fire and she couldn’t think of a thing to say. She hated to be dressed this way. “I was um, well Mark is gonna help me practice with my ANWA power. He was right behind me a second ago. But if you are skippin’ rocks here, we can find somewhere else to practice.” Scarlett was hoping that Remy would not want to exert himself by practicing anything.

Mark had been following Scarlett down to the lake, thinking how to best help her harness her powers properly. He regained concentration and realised he was walking aimlessly through the dungeons, "What the....?" he finally muttered looking around at his surroundings. He must have wandered off track and Scarlett was prob half way down to the lake by now!

Sprinting out of the front doors of the castle he spotted Scar in the distance, talking to Remy by the lake. As he approached he doubled over and spoke clearly out of breath. "Sorry....i ....was lost." he said gasping for breath betweeen each word. He managed to straighted up as his lungs took more oxygen on board.

"I didnt miss the show did i?" he asked looking from Scar to Remy and back again, remembering how Remy had helped him and Di with thier powers years ago.

Scarlett cringed a bit inwardly when Mark used the word show. She was still sensitive about how freak show her power seemed. She could hear the ring masters voice in her mind “step right up and pay your money to see the girl who spits fir!” and oddly enough the ring masters voice sounded a lot like Remy’s.

“No Mark,” she said out loud. “This is where I had planned for us to practice, but Remy is already usin’ it so we’re goin’ to have to find another spot. No big deal.”

Remy looked at mark and scarlett and grinned "today was looking a bit more interesting now" he thought to himself. He looked at scarlett and smiled "what is your power if you dont mind me asking" he said wondering why she would need any help. He dropped the rest of the rocks he had in his hands and smiled now there was no reason for him not to have fun with the gryffies.

“Well I can breath fire,” Scarlett told Remy. She was pleased to hear that her voice didn’t shake when she said it. “My power has been destructive in the past, so I thought it would be good to bring Mark along in case things got out of hand.” She watched Remy closely for his reaction.

"you breathe fire? like a dragon or something" remy said a bit confused then grinned "thats so cool so when do we get started on your training" he said inviting himself to her and mark's little gathering. He looked at scarlett and smiled as he brushed his hair out of his face with his hand

“Yeah just like a dragon,” Scarlett said smiling at Remy. No one had ever called her power cool before. “I guess we could get started whenever Mark is ready. Would you like to wear these flame proof robes?” Scarlett said holding the extra set of robes out to Remy. “Mark says he doesn’t need them.”

Mark grinned as Remy became part of the plan too. He had helped Mark out afew years ago and his presense could only help things. Scar then held the fireproof robes out to Remy. "They might protect you from fire but they'll definately get you in trouble with the fashion police too!" he finished to the Slytherin prefect with a grin.

Scarlett seemed to be uncomrtoftable with Remys presense which Mark wanted to change, afterall this was the perfect time for her to try out her fire breath, there was watwer all around for Mark to maniplute and make sure it didnt all get out of hand.

Remy was about to grab hold of hte robes when he noticed mark didn't have some on. "well if he isn't going to wear some then neither will i" he thought to himself as he took his hand away "no im ok" he said to scarlett. "Now before we get started i guess the question to ask if have you ever done this before? do you know what triggers your power from activating." he asked his freind.

Scarlett nodded. “Yes I know what triggers my ability. Anger and/or fear. I have managed to do it once on purpose in a sort of controlled way, but I had just been a little scared.” Scarlett thought about the time that she had lit a candle for Chase in the Gryffindor Common Room. She had managed to light the candle only scorching the carpet a little, though looking back she thought that it had been easy to produce the flame because just moments before when she walked into the common room she had been afraid that it was on fire because Chase had so many candles going.

"hmm well anger is a great way to get elemental powers started but lets try and see if we can can find a way to control this awesome power of yours" remy said as he looked around and pointed to a small tree in the middle of the lake and said "go ahead and try burning that" Remy waited to see if she would be able to do so on her own before saying anything else.

Scarlett looked at the tree Remy pointed out. It would make the perfect same target for her being surrounded by water. She found that she wasn’t in the least bit nervous or angry. Remy had totally put her at ease with his acceptance of her power. She inhaled as much air as her lungs would hold and blew out toward the tree. There were some sparks, but nothing else happened. Scarlett frowned and her brows furrowed. “Huh I thought the tree might be a little too far away for me to hit, but somethin’ should have happened. All I got was sparks,” her voice sounded a little worried.

Remy looked at Scarlett "have you ever tried using the pain of loss in order to try and control your power" he asked her softly. "I don't know what life would be like without dream or bratt in it and when i think about it i get so upset but i've learned how to use that to my advantage now and can use it to summon my power at will now why dont you give that a try"

Scarlett listened as Remy spoke her brow still furrowed. “I think I’d rather just be angry or scared, but I will give it a try,” Scarlett said. She took a deep breath and thought of her parents. At first her mind recoilded from the pain, but Scarlett forced herself to think of her mother warm smile and her father’s strong hugs and how she would never feel them again in this life. Tears welled up and flowed freely down her face. There was no sulfur taste in her mouth and she new even as she took the breath to blow fire that her sorrow had quenched her inner flames. She tried anyway and didn’t even get sparks. “I guess I am just not ready to do it when I am not mad,” Scarlett said a little forlornly.

Remy kneeled down and picked up a large stick. "no problem were not all the same which is a good thing otherwise it be terribly boring around here" remy said laughing then got serious again as he looked at his friend. "We'll find a way to get your power to work when you choose to activate it, i promise" he said as he grinned and suddenly threw the stick at scarlett's head.

Rampant terror of facial scarring and a possible broken nose blazed up in Scarlett and she screamed as a very dangerous looking stick flew at her. A smokey gout of red-orange shot from her mouth and engulfed the stick that Remy threw at her turning it to ash and continuing on its way. Scarlett realized what he had done and want to yell at him to duck, but she knew it would only send another fire ball his way. She waited fearfully to see if she had emolated her good friend.