Reborn - A Harry Potter Fanfiction

i.xii chapter twelve

Autumn, 1991; Halloween

After the incident involving the three headed dog, the four young, Gryffindors were determined to keep themselves out of trouble. So for the next few weeks they kept their heads down and avoided breaking the rules. That was simple enough for most. Do what you were told and you'd be fine.

Ember decided to take a leaf from Hermione's book and committed herself to her studies. That very much paid off, long hours in the library resulted in full marks on many of her homework assignments, much to Snape's displeasure. The potions professor continued to be unnecessarily harsh towards herself and her fellow Gryffindors. They did not speak of the summer or their arrangement and as time went by, Ember found herself pestering Hagrid on whether he'd found her permanent guardians or not. However, the groundskeeper's answer was always...

"Sorry Ember, no luck today."

Despite the unfortunate news that always befell on her whenever they met. Ember enjoyed catching up with Hagrid. He's always go on about a new creature he'd read about or some fascinating new plant. Ember wished she could steal some of his knowledge 0f the flora and fauna of this world. Though she had great success in many of her subjects, herbology was proving to be a challenge. It was like whenever she was near a plant it would die...she just couldn't wrap her head around it. Perhaps she could get some extra work over Christmas? She certainly wouldn't be going back to Cokeworth and so would have plenty of time to work on the botanical subject then. However, that was ages away...they still had Halloween to go after all.

Whilst Ember had been occupied in the library, Harry had been at Quidditch practice most days. Oliver Wood, the captain, had him out on the pitch at seven most mornings and every time Ember saw her friend at breakfast he looked exhausted. However, she knew by the glint in Harry's eyes that he was loving it. Ron was being Ron of course, either eating or sleeping, just the way he liked it.

Time was simply going by, but for once, Ember was happy with the way it was. She had friends and a home, and though her life certainly wasn't perfect, at least she had a future. As the weeks went on, Ember started to notice the change in season. The leaves fell and turned colour to a beautiful array and burnt amber, orange and red. The whole school was bathed in a blanket of scarlet. Unfortunately, with the changing of the season, the brightly coloured leaves weren't the only things to be reintroduced. The common cold. Ember swiftly realised it was not limited to the muggle world.

It was one of those colder autumn mornings, when the air nipped at your skin; leaves blew all around outside and the wind wailed and moaned. Ember had wrapped up warm, piling her red and gold scarf around her neck and face. Charms had been a drag, despite the thrilling task of making a feather fly. She supposed she just wasn't feeling right today and thought perhaps she might be coming down with something.

"ACHEW!" Ember sneezed into her robe sleeve, her nose red and bright.

"Bloody hell Em, are you trying to bring down all of Hogwarts?" Ron teased as they hurried across the courtyard and to their next lesson.

"At this rate, you'll be more infamous for exploding things than I am!" Seamus grinned, which resulted in a heap of laughter from the boys.

"Shut up, I'm just - ACHEW!"

"Gosh, you are really sick..." Harry frowned. All Ember could do was sniff, she was so bunged up. "Maybe you should go see Madame Pomfrey?"

"Nope. I'm not sick. I'm FiNe" she said, trying to pronounce the words through her abundance of phlegm. Harry, Ron and even Seamus and Dean all looked at her with raised eyebrows.