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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Ember must of screamed and writhed for the better part of an hour. She kept muttering 'It wasn't her fault.' and 'She didn't know.' Ember eventually passed out from exhaustion, her body past the point of endurance. Harry never wanted to see Ember, or anyone else, scream that way again. He had never seen anyone in so much pain. Harry and Ron carried her over to her bed after Hermione cleaned up all the blood of her. Nymeria kept nudging her gently with her head, her size was currently that of a labrador. Nymeria kept whining as she nudge Ember before she finally curled up next to Ember, laying her head on her chest.
Ember was never the same after that.
Seeing the state she was in, Hermione suggested that maybe they should try to find the sword of Gryffindor. To have a back up option, incase Ember wasn't up fir doing it.
By day, they devoted themselves to trying to determine the possible locations of Gryffindor's sword as well as Horcruxes, but the more they talked about the places in which Dumbledore might have hidden it, the more desperate and far-fetched their speculation became.
Ember remained laying on the bed, staring unseeingly at the bed above her. She hadn't said a word in days.
Cudgel his brains though he might, Harry could not remember Dumbledore ever mentioning a place in which he might hide something. There were moments when he did not know whether he was angrier with Dumbledore or himself.
Dumbledore had left him with virtually nothing. They had discovered one Horcrux was destroyed but Ember had destroyed a year ago: The others were as unattainable as they had ever been. Hopelessness threatened to engulf him. He was staggered now to think of his own presumption in accepting his friends' offers to accompany him on this meandering, pointless journey. He knew nothing, he had no ideas. Worse of all it looked like Ember would never speak again.
"It's been over three days and she's hasn't said a word." Ron whispered to Harry. "What do you think she saw?"
"I don't know. Nymeria's calmed down enough to leave her to find food so maybe she's communicating with Nymeria through their link." Harry said.
"Still. Do you think she'll talk ever again?" Ron asked, concerned.
"Maybe. When she's processed everything that happened." Harry said. "She just needs time."
They were spending many evenings in near silence, and Hermione took to bringing out Phineas Nigellus's portrait and propping it up in a chair, as though he might fill part of the gaping hole left by Ember's silence.
Hermione had taken to helping Ember eat and stay hydrated while Ember seemed barely respondent. Hermione would then help her lay back down abd tuck her in. Harry was convinced Ember wasn't sleeping. Just lying there, trapped in her own mind.
Despite his previous assertion that he would never visit them again, Phineas Nigellus did not seem able to resist the chance to find out more about what Harry and Ember were up to, and consented to reappear, blindfolded, every few days or so. Harry was even glad to see him, because he was company, albeit of a snide and taunting kind.
