Closed Reach For The Shelf

[Eoin Armati]

A lot of problems could be solved with magic, Eoin was very aware of this fact, but he still refused to use it out of principle. He had survived for eleven years without a wand and magic and he was quite sure he could continue to do just that. Magic was a crutch, and he was refusing to use it. And besides, he was sick and tired of how much better magical kind seemed to think they were than Muggles - and they were the ones using quills and had owls delivering their letters.

"Come on," the teenager muttered to himself, standing right up on the tips of his toes to try and reach the book he wanted on the top shelf. While he was over six foot tall, six-two, last he had checked, not even he was tall enough to reach all the way at the top. And sure, a simple wave of his wand would fix this problem and get the book in his hand within seconds, he wasn't going to do that. He didn't even carry his wand around anymore. Currently, it was locked in his trunk and not likely to come out unless he was heading down to the lake. In the end, Eoin gave up with a huff, dropping back to his feet before looking around for a step-ladder of some kind he could use. There was probably one around, though, knowing wizards they probably thought they didn't need one if they had magic to solve all their little problems.

 

[Weston Stirling]

By some miracle, Weston had passed his OWLs. He had nearly collapsed in relief when he got his exam results back and saw that he'd done well enough to continue with all his classes. Now he just needed to keep his grades up and pass his sixth year classes as well. Luckily, it was that point in the school year when everything was still fresh with possibility, and it was this optimism that drove Weston to the library to get a head start on studying.

Now that he was actually in the library, however, Weston felt a lot less motivated. His textbooks this year were unbelievably dense, and it had taken him ten minutes to read a single page. Clearly he needed a break. Or more interesting reading material. Abandoning his books, Weston headed for the shelves but stopped suddenly when he saw Eoin. Every conversation with his roommate seemed to end with a string of hurtful insults, and Weston didn't want to get yelled at today. But he also still wanted Eoin to like him. Maybe if he helped Eoin get the book he was struggling to reach, Eoin would finally be nicer to him. Plus, they were in the library. Surely Eoin wouldn't shout at him in a library. Mind made up, Weston approached the other Ravenclaw. "Hey Eoin. Do you want me to get that for you?" he asked with a hesitant smile. He was much shorter than Eoin, but that didn't matter when he had a wand and he briefly wondered where Eoin's was.

 

[Eoin Armati]

He continued to reach up, trying to reach as far as he could, fingers wiggling as they only barely brushed against the spine of the book he wanted. It was only when he heard a familiar voice did he stop, huffing as he dropped his arm. He only briefly glanced towards his roommate, refraining from rolling his eyes somewhat. It was well established by this point that Eoin did not really think all too much of Weston, and that was very unlikely to change. "Absolutely not," he huffed, finally turning away again and going back to trying to stand up tall to reach on his own, "I can manage just fine without your help." Or the help of magic. Maybe he could just go and find a footstall or something. There had to be something like that around he could use to help him reach better.

 

[Weston Stirling]

Weston tried not to flinch when Eoin glanced at him. He never really knew what might set his roommate off. Well, he knew mentioning the man-eating eels was a bad idea, which is why he generally tried not to do that around Eoin anymore. His face fell when Eoin refused his help though he wasn't about to give up. "Are you sure? If you tell me which one you want, I can summon it for you," he offered, taking out his wand. Weston paused as it occurred to him that maybe his roommate didn't trust him to get the book. After all, Eoin used to be his tutor. "I promise I know how to do the spell." Weston was actually pretty good at magic, especially charms; it was the theory that he had trouble with. Besides, the Summoning Charm was basic first year stuff. "Or you could borrow my wand and summon it yourself." For some reason, the idea of someone else using his wand bothered Weston, but he was willing to ignore that feeling. He really wanted Eoin to be his friend again.

 

[Eoin Armati]

Eoin would have thought telling the other boy he didn't need help would be enough to make him go away. But, apparently not. Weston persisted to try and offer his help and it was simply making Eoin more and more annoyed. "I don't need, or want your help. For god's sake, get the picture already." He huffed eventually to try and shut the other boy up, spinning around to properly face him."And you do know that you can't just borrow other people's wands, right? There is a reason we have to be matched to our wands and can't just use any old one. Some wands might actually take offense to being wielded by someone else." He would have thought that obvious, but Weston continued to prove himself to be an idiot.

 

[Weston Stirling]

This time, as Eoin turned to face him, Weston fully flinched. He was a little hurt by his roommate's words, but he was mostly just confused. "But you do...?" he said, unsure why Eoin would claim not to need his help. "Y'know, since you can't reach it yourself," he pointed out very helpfully. Weston was admittedly a little relieved when Eoin didn't take him up on his offer to use his wand. But once again, the reason Eoin gave didn't make sense. "I don't think that's true... My mum sometimes borrows my grandmother's wand." His mum usually didn't carry a wand around, so whenever they were at his grandmother's place, she occasionally had to borrow one. Weston couldn't understand why Eoin kept shooting down his suggestions. But then it dawned on him. "Are you... are you not good at the Summoning Charm? Is that why you don't want to use magic?" Admittedly, Weston was not very confident in this theory. After all, his roommate was one of the smartest kids in their year. But he couldn't think of any other reason for the other boy's behavior.

 

[Eoin Armati]

"No, I don't need your help, I can work something out without you having to interfere," and he would much prefer if Weston just kept his nose out of his business. Though he did have to let out a rather frustrated sigh when the boy, once again, just disagreed with something he said. "So what, you think we only get matched with our wand for fun? If we could just use any old wand, then what's the point of being matched with one then?" Honestly, sometimes he just needed to actually think about some things. Sure, you might use someone else's wand, but it certainly wasn't going to work out very well. And, as he said, some wands were incredibly loyal to their owner and probably wouldn't like someone else trying to use them. And the Weston said the stupidest thing he had said thus far and Eoin actually paused for a moment as he stared at him. "Seriously?" He continued to just stare. "You think I can't do a summoning charm? Really? Just stop talking, you lower the IQ of the whole room whenever you open your mouth."

 

[Weston Stirling]

Weston still wasn't sure what there was to "work out." Eoin was treating this as if it was a complicated maths problem, but Weston thought the solution was pretty simple. He just needed to get someone with a wand to summon the book down for him. At Eoin's next question, Weston had to think a moment. "Maybe it's just so you can find the wand that's the best fit? Like a pair of shoes. Other pairs of shoes will still fit, but they might not be as comfortable," he reasoned. It didn't make sense that there was only one wand out there for each person, like the magical equivalent of a soulmate. What were you supposed to do if you lost or broke your wand?

Eoin's usual look of frustration was nothing compared to the expression he was currently wearing, and Weston fidgeted uncomfortably under his stare. Even though he was used to Eoin's insults by now, the words still stung. He tried to focus on the bigger mystery at hand. "Okay... so... then why don't you just use it?" The Summoning Charm wasn't dangerous. It didn't take much energy to cast it. So why was Eoin avoiding using it?

 

[Eoin Armati]

"It's more to it than that," he just huffed with a roll of his eyes. He didn't know why he was even bothering to explain this as he doubted Weston actually had the brain capacity to understand any of it. "Yes, you can use other people's wands, but nine times out of ten when you do your spells are not going to work properly and will likely cause accidents. It's why handing down wands is not recommended because you are never going to reach your potential. And not to mention some wand woods and cores will get very angry if you just let some random strange use your wand. They are loyal to their owner and breaking that loyalty is probably not a good idea." Even while he might refuse to use magic and use his wand, he was certainly not going to let someone else use it.

"I got an O in charms for two years straight before I dropped the subject, so I think I'm quite capable of doing a summoning charm if I wanted to," he also had to add. He got O's in pretty much everything before he stopped caring and trying so hard in his classes. "The fact of the matter is I don't want to. How hard is that to understand? I don't need to use magic when I am perfectly capable of doing things without it."

 

[Weston Stirling]

Weston tried to follow Eoin's explanation, but as it went on and on and on, his eyes started to glaze over. And the parts that he did manage to catch still confused him. "How does a wand get angry?" Weston asked, his gaze dropping to his own wand. Eoin talked as if wands were sentient, but it was hard to imagine the dormant piece of wood that was his wand having feelings. "How do you know so much about wands anyways?" he wondered. It was rare that he saw Eoin even use his wand.

Okay, so Eoin was capable of performing the Summoning Charm. You couldn't get an O in Charms without being able to do one. But Weston still didn't understand why Eoin would put this restriction on himself. "But why? Magic makes things a lot easier. Why would you want to do everything the hard way?" He glanced at the books on the top shelf. "You can't get the book down by yourself," he pointed out matter-of-factly. From anyone else, the comment might have sounded snarky or combative, but Weston was just trying to understand Eoin's logic. "So shouldn't you be using magic to get it?"

 

[Eoin Armati]

"How do you think?" He snapped back. "Refusing to work properly. Fuddling spells. That sort of thing." How else would a wand get angry? Though he did suppose it was understandable to be asked how he actually knew these kinds of things, he still thought it was pretty obvious if you actually thought about it. "I read. You should try it sometime." Back when he was younger he had wanted to read every single book in the library. And even now he still spent a lot of time reading to learn more, even if he mostly disagreed with everything between the pages. It was still interesting and he was a man of knowledge.

And there it was, the questioning about his apparent hatred for magic. "Magic is also a crutch. People manage to go their whole lives without waving a stupid stick around." Muggles went their whole lives without knowing anything about magic, and that's what made them better. "People have also been getting things down from high shelves without magic. I just need to find a stool or something to stand on." Like normal people. That should be the first thing people thought of instead of 'oh let me just summon it down because I'm lazy'. "Not to mention how magic stunts creativity. Muggles are incredible and are always creating and researching. Wizards never bother. They are so full of themselves and believe magic is the answer to everything that they seem to think learning basic mathematics is a waste of time. They seem to think eleven-year-olds don't know that the earth rotates around the sun already and teach it to them. I learned that in primary school."

 

[Weston Stirling]

"Oh." Now that Weston thought about it, the answer to his question seemed fairly obvious. Did that mean every time one of his spells failed, it was because his wand was mad at him? He wondered if he could use that as an excuse next time he botched something in Charms. "I do read," Weston said, taking Eoin's comment at face value. "Or I try to," he corrected himself, frowning a little. "A lot of books are pretty boring." It was like their authors hadn't even tried to make them engaging.

Weston wasn't sure he understood Eoin's logic. There were people who lived without running water. Did that mean indoor plumbing was a crutch? "So what are you going to do if you can't find a stool?" he asked, glancing around to see if he could spot one. Of course, the easiest thing to do would be to summon one. He considered Eoin's argument about magic and creativity. "Wizards also create and do research. There are wizard astronomers, and new spells and potions are always being invented." It was a different medium, sure, but it still counted... right? "And maths is a waste of time. Most muggles don't even use it after school." He was pretty sure his parents didn't use maths aside from the most basic calculations, and they lived muggle lifestyles.

 

[Eoin Armati]

It really was not very surprising that Weston was not much of a reader. If he had shown any inclination towards reading then maybe he wouldn't be sixteen years old and still think that there was some kind of man-eating eel living in the lake. "That really does not surprise me," Eoin simply drawled instead, still focusing his attention on he book he was trying to get down instead of looking at his classmate's face.

"I will work something out." He did not need to rely on magic for every little thing. If he couldn't find a stool then there were plenty of chairs around he could stand on. Or he could find someone taller than he was to help out. Or something. It was getting a book down from a shelf, it wasn't rocket science. "Wizards only create new spells to make their lives easier so they have to do less work. One wave of your wand and the house is clean. Your meal is cooked and made for you. Magic is not the solution to every little thing. It's going to get to a point when the whole magical population is going to just stagnate. Why bother getting up when you can just use magic to do everything for you? While wizards are busy making their lives easier for themselves, Muggles are pushing boundaries. They're going to space and exploring the deepest oceans and always discovering. Magical kind can't even be bothered."

He hadn't meant to go on a rant about things, but Weston had gone and pushed it and very clearly wasn't understanding. And the last straw was trying to say that math was a waste of time, finally turning on the other boy. "Do you know what is a waste of time? Hogwarts. I have learned absolutely nothing of significance and wasted six years of my life stuck in this stupid school."

 

[Weston Stirling]

Weston wasn't sure why Eoin was treating this book like a complicated maths problem. The solution was simple: just accio it down. "Is that bad?" he tried to ask when Eoin mentioned that spells made people's lives easier. But his roommate was on a roll. Weston watched wide-eyed as Eoin continued to rant. He tried to keep up, but it was difficult. Cleaning spells, meals cooking themselves — weren't those good things? Why wouldn't you want to make life as easy as possible? "Magic people do explore," he said. Okay, so Weston wasn't sure if he'd heard of any magical astronauts, but there were a ton of tales of wizards finding all kinds of weird magical animals and plants during their travels. "Besides, isn't the point of inventing and discovering things to make life easier? Going to space is cool, but that doesn't help anyone. Magic does. It saves people time and makes everything easier, and that's a good thing." Weston had a feeling he was getting repetitive, but he couldn't understand how else to explain that magic making life easier was a positive.

He frowned as Eoin claimed not to have learned anything at Hogwarts. Weston wasn't sure how that was possible. Even he had learned a lot of stuff at Hogwarts, and he wasn't nearly as book-smart as Eoin. "Do you go to class?" he asked as it suddenly occurred to him that he'd never seen Eoin in one of his classes, not since second year at least.