Ember. It means fire. Ember was never safe. Even before she was born she was coverted. Hunted. She's the last of her kind. Once there were many. Once there were four. Four families. One for each element. Air. Water. Earth. Fire. Every other family e...
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Exhausted but delighted with their night's work, Harry and Ember told Ron and Hermione everything that had happened during next morning's Charms lesson (having first cast the Muffliato spell upon those nearest them). They were both satisfyingly impressed by the way they had wheedled the memory out of Slughorn and positively awed when they told them about Voldemort's Horcruxes and Dumbledore's promise to take Harry and Ember along, should he find another one.
"Wow," said Ron, when Harry and Ember had finally finished telling them everything; Ron was waving his wand very vaguely in the direction of the ceiling without paying the slightest bit of attention to what he was doing. "Wow. You're actually going to go with Dumbledore . . . and try and destroy . . . wow."
"Ron, you're making it snow," said Hermione patiently, grabbing his wrist and redirecting his wand away from the ceiling from which, sure enough, large white flakes had started to fall. Lavender Brown, Harry and Ember noticed, glared at Hermione from a neighboring table through very red eyes, and Hermione immediately let go of Ron's arm.
Ember looked questioningly at Ron, not daring to believe it.
"Oh yeah," said Ron, looking down at his shoulders in vague surprise. "Sorry . . . looks like we've all got horrible dandruff now . . ."
He brushed some of the fake snow off Hermione's shoulder, Lavender burst into tears. Ron looked immensely guilty and turned his back on her.
"Okay, what happened?" Ember demanded in a whisper.
"We split up," Ron told Harry and Ember out of the corner of his mouth, "Last night. When she saw me coming out of the dormitory with Hermione. Obviously she couldn't see you two, so she thought it had just been the two of us."
"Well it's about time." Ember sighed.
"Ah," said Harry. "Well - you don't mind it's over, do you?"
"No," Ron admitted. "It was pretty bad while she was yelling, but at least I didn't have to finish it."
"Coward," said Hermione, though she looked amused. "Well, it was a bad night for romance all around. Ginny and Dean split up too, Em." She smirked at Ember.
"Really? What was it that finally did it?" Ember asked, returning her smirk as they both glanced quickly at Harry who was now definitely paying more attention.
Harry thought there was a rather knowing look in Ember ajd Hermione's eyes as Hermione told Ember this news, but they could not possibly know that his insides were suddenly dancing the conga.
"Oh, something really silly . . . she said he was always trying to help her through the portrait hole, like she couldn't climb in herself . . . but they've been a bit rocky for ages." Hermione said.
"Yeah, I had a feeling it wasn't going to last much longer." Ember said.
Harry glanced over at Dean on the other side of the classroom. He certainly looked unhappy.
