✔️ 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐎 → ℎ. 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑤𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦

32 | C R O U C H

   "EMBER!"

   Her cry echoed over the grounds, and Harry's blood turned to ice. Krum next to him hadn't even the time to ask, Harry was already running along the edge of the Forbidden Forest, cursing his feet to do a better job.

   Harry was a fast runner. This resulted from the multiple times he had to run from Dudley and his gang when he was young. But the fastest he'd ever run was actually for Ember. They were seven years old back then, but the memory was still so fresh, it could have happened just yesterday when again Dudley's friends had hunted Ember all across the winded streets of Little Whinging. Her earpiercing scream was heard all across Surrey, even while mowing the Dursleys' perfect lawn Harry could hear all the agony in his sister's voice, and he did not waste any time to turn out the lawnmower, but started running like it was Dudley's gang being after him.

   They had hunted Ember to the playground, where she had tried to escape into the crown of an old oak tree, but had fallen six feet deep and broken her left arm. It wasn't that bad. Even though they didn't knew it back then, Ember's magic healed most of the damage, so when they arrived in the hospital the worst had already been mended. Uncle Vernon had been terribly angry, locking Ember in the cupboard under the stairs for a full week, but Harry, to this point, had never felt a comparable sensation of relief. For a moment, for an awful long moment, starting when Ember's scream exploded in his ears to when he found her with just a broken bone, he had had the shattering, horrific thought that he might had lost her. Seven year old Harry for four minutes and twentyseven seconds had lost Ember, his brain playing every possibility of what might had happened to her in front of his mind's eye, and every single version had been more gruesome than the last.

   All the same was now happening again, and Harry James Potter felt like being seven years old again, running faster than he did ever since, while trying to listen into the slowly falling night for another noise, another scream, anything. But all he could hear was the beating of his anxious heart, and the drumming of his feet on the ground.

   "Ember!" His sides were burning, but he could hear someone talking. It was her. It had to be her.

   Raven black hairs reflecting the last bit of the lights the dusk was sending over the grounds. Harry's heart jumped by the sight of Ember being okay, but then he noticed someone being with her, and he forced his feet to take the last remaining steps in full speed.

   "Harry!", Ember gasped, looking desperately and helpless at her brother. "He - He's strange. I think someone might have hexed him. He's talking weird stuff and -" She paused as Krum arrived. "He wants to see Dumbledore, but he refuses to follow me to the castle."

   "You're okay, are you?", Harry asked and she gave a quick nod, before Harry turned to the man. "Mr. Crouch?", he asked, waiting for a reaction that didn't come. Instead Crouch kept on talking to a tree. "Mr. Crouch!"

   "Forget about that, he won't react", Ember said, wildly shaking her head. "He's coming to sense every now and then, but it's just for a couple of seconds he does realise where he is. Harry, we need to get Dumbledore!"

   "Vosn't he a judge?", said Krum, staring at Mr. Crouch. "Isn't he vith your Ministry?"

   Harry nodded, hesitating for a while as he thought about what to do, then turning back to Ember. "You stay here, I'll get Dumbledore. I'm faster than you and - Viktor will stay with you." Eyes flickering back at the bully Durmstrang. "You will, will you?"

   "Sure."

   Ember didn't like the idea of being left alone with Crouch and Krum. She didn't like it at all. But Harry was right, he was the fastest runner out of them, and so she agreed with a nod.

   "You are Potter's sestra?", Viktor Krum asked, Ember's eyes following Harry running up the hill. Again she nodded, tearing his eyes from her brother as the night gulped him. "Vat is vrong vith him? Dis man?" His head jerked at Crouch, who told the tree that his son was graduating Hogwarts. He had to be kicked out of his mond really hard.

   "I don't know", Ember whispered, fascinated by Crouch's behaviour in a scaring way. "His son is dead. I think he's confused. Maybe he had been hexed, I - I don't know ..."

   "I ... escaped ... must warn ... must tell ... see Dumbledore ... my fault ... all my fault ... Bertha ... dead ... all my fault ... my son ... my fault ... tell Dumbledore ... Harry Potter ... the Dark Lord ... stronger ... Harry Potter ..."

   Ember jumped back in shock, but Crouch's hand had wrenched around her wrist, pulling her back. His eyes the size of golf balls, he was staring at Ember.

   "Harry is getting Dumbledore, Mr Crouch", she said, with her free hand trying to make a calming gesture at Viktor, who had raised his wand. "He'll be back in a heartbeat." She wriggled her arm out of his grip, and Crouch's eyes grew dull once more, turning back to the tree.

   "He's mad", said Viktor, shaking his hand, but not taking eyes off of Crouch. "Hope your brother is hurrying."

   "I'm sure he is ..."

   But it took him long, way too long, and Ember was getting nervous. Still Crouch was discussing family business with the tree, and Viktor and Ember herself were staring into the night for Harry to finally return with Dumbledore.

   "Can't take him much longer, maybe Dumbledore wasn't in his office", Ember whispered, looking back at Viktor, who had grown a even grimmer expression on his face than usual. He was opening his mouth, but suddenly a red flash of light was enlightening his features. His lips formed a perfect shaped 'o', and he collapsed on the floor. Ember's heart stopped, snapping up her wand, but her arm wasn't even halfway open, when a second flash of bright red light shot through the night. Ember saw a black shadow coming closer, and then nothing at all.

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