Reborn - A Harry Potter Fanfiction

i.xix chapter nineteen

Summer, 1992; The Trials

Ember screamed as she fell, her arms flaying about as they tried to reach for anything to hold, as if by instinct. Fluffy's jaws snapped at her but she and the others were already far gone; safe until the next time.

Thud.

"Is everyone okay?" Harry called out into the darkness. Ember groaned as she landed on something unusually soft.

"Yeah" Hermione called out from somewhere.

"That was close" Ron gasped. "Lucky this plant thing is here!"

"Ember, you good?"

"I'm fine" she said, her eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness. It was like what Ron said, some sort of plant habitat and all four of them were lying in it. "What is this thing anyway?"

"Dunno" Harry mumbled.

As if it had heard her words, the vines started moving. Wrapping themselves around the quartet's limbs. Ember looked down to see herself slowly starting to be engulfed by it. Oh no...

"AHHHHHH!" Ron screamed, flaying his arms about like some crazed banshee. His face had turned white and desperately he fought against the plant. Harry wasn't looking much better and neither would Ember if she hadn't looked across from her to see Hermione looking surprisingly calm.

"Stop it all of you" Hermione snapped. "It's devils snare, you have to relax, if you don't it will only kill you faster." Wrong choice of words...

"Kill us faster?! Oh, now I can relax!" Ron yelled, yanking his arms away from the wines, only for them to grab him again, this time tighter. Ember hated herbology with a passion, this only strengthened her loathing. At Ron's dismissal of her advice, Hermione rolled her eyes, laid still and suddenly sunk beneath the foliage.

"Hermione!!" Harry cried, his eyes wide and panicked with the disappearance of their friend. Ember's heart was going a million miles per second, but she knew she had to stay calm. She knew she could do this. What was Hermione saying?? Relax...she could relax...she could so relax.

Pinching her eyes shut, Ember held her breath as she submitted to the giant, suffocating plant and felt herself being pulled under. For a moment she couldn't move, see or breathe, but shortly she felt the space open up and suddenly she was dropped onto a cold, stone floor.

"Em! Are you okay?" That was Hermione. Ember snapped her head up, dazed and confused. She was alive. Furiously, she patted herself down and readjusted her dungarees.

"Yeah...what the bloody hell is that thing?" She gasped.

"Devil's snare...gosh, if the boys don't stop panicking soon it's going to kill them" Hermione panicked, looking up to where the plant still had possession of their friends. Ember could still hear the boys screaming. Moments later however, Harry fell through and quickly she rushed to his side.

"You good?" she asked, holding onto his arm as she helped him up. Harry looked just as confused as she was; his glasses askew and his already messy hair, somehow messier.

"Fine, thanks" he groaned, accepting her hand to push himself up.

"Harry?! Help! Hermione?! Em! HELP!"

Ron's screams could be heard from overhead.

"He's not relaxing, is he?"

"Apparently not" Harry frowned.

"We've got to do something!" Hermione panicked, racing her hands through her bushy hair. Ember racked her brain for anything on herbology. Why did she have to be so abysmal at the subject?! It was just earlier she was studying the book Neville had given her for Christmas: Perilous Plant's and their Purposes?? Something suddenly struck a nerve in her brain. A sentence she'd glossed over when reading by the lake today. Devil's snare, it's deadly fun, but will silt in the sun...