✔️ 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐎 → ℎ. 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑤𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦

02 | U N D E R R A T E D

take my darkest fears
                             and play them.

   SHE DIDNT KNOW what she had expected; it was obvious that she wouldn't be greeted with hugs and love after ignoring Harry for a full month, but she for sure didn't expect this.

   When Ember opened the door to Ron's room, Harry was already seething, screaming his lungs out. Hermione looked as if she was about to cry, and as Ron's eyes met Ember's the second she entered, it was like he was yelling at her to run and hide. But Ember knew that this would turn out unpleasant, and every single one living in this house did deserve Harry's rage.

   Harry, obviously noticing Ron's gaze, turned around in a quick move, his emerald green eyes colder than the Arctic, and Ember involuntarily flinched back. She did expect him to scream bloody murder, to yell, to fight, to insult her — but he did do nothing. He just turned back around to Ron and Hermione, as if Ember didn't exist at all.

   "See, Harry, we wanted to tell you", Hermione said in a shaky voice. "Dumbledore didn't want us —"

   "He didn't want you to at least tell me that my sister is here, and she's all well and alive, yeah?", Harry hissed, and Ember was glad she couldn't see his face from where she stood.

   "We thought that's obvious, mate!", Ron said, shrugging. "Dumbledore told you she's with my family, why wouldn't she be anything but fine?"

   "BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T REACT TO ANY OF MY LETTERS FOR FIVE WEEKS!"

   "I wasn't allowed", Ember whispered, hoping he would finally look at her, but he didn't. "Dumbledore told me — he told me it is to keep you safe. I don't get it myself, Harry, but it's Dumbledore. We gotta trust him."

   "It is you I trust, Ember", Harry said, voice still drenched in coldness, as he finally turned around. "At least you should have told me what's going on, but you chose to act like I didn't even exist, while you're here enjoying yourself and being informed about everything —"

   "I'm not informed about anything", she replied, still unable to move, but her anger started bubbling in the pit of her stomach. "I am not even informed about why it was so important to ignore your letters. And believe me, there's nothing enjoyable in cleaning this so called house."

   "BUT YOU WERE HERE! YOU WEREN'T ALONE!"

   "Define your meaning of alone", Ember scoffed. "It's not like I had the time of my life here. At least I was here with your friends, and your godfather, and I don't think that it would have made a difference to them if I wasn't here at all!"

   "That's not true, we —", Hermione started, but was cut off by two cracking noises as Fred and George apparated.

   "I don't care, and right now I don't wanna care!", Ember snapped, her hand on the doorknob. "I'm really not the one to complain, but my best friend just died, remember?"

   "Perfectly, yes!", Harry yelled back. "I was with him and I brought him back, remember?"

   "You know what?", asked Ember in a whisper. "I can't — I just can't now. Go on and put all the blame on me. Fine! I'm in my room and you can all go on acting like I don't exist!"

   "Emmie ..."

   But she had already banged the door shut behind her and ran back into her room. With another clatter the door fell into its lock. Ember closed her eyes, leaning her back against the wall.

   "You should stay away from the walls", an amused voice spoke, and Ember's eyes fluttered open, "there are Billywigs in the tapestries."

   "What are you doing here?", Ember asked, cocking an eyebrow at the smiling George Weasley sitting on her bed.

   "You probably did expect Fred, huh?", he asked, chuckling. "Well, he's having a little conversation with your dearest brother, so I took the honour to look for you."

   "I did expect no one", Ember muttered. But if she had expected anyone, it indeed would have been Fred.

   "Who's owl is that?" George nodded at Woody sleeping on the cupboard.

   "Mine."

   "You have an owl?"

   "For five days now", Ember hissed, eyes narrowed, "what you lots would know if anyone would give a damn about me!"

   "Emmie, Emmie." He shook his ginger hair. "You obviously have no idea what is going on in this house. See, we're well aware of Cedric. When we arrived here, you spend most of your time in your room, and to be honest, it didn't really need Mum to tell us that you need some time to cope with all of what happened." Startled, Ember stared at him, her chest heaving heavily. "But let me tell you that we didn't really grow fond with the idea of you having to deal with all of this."

   Ember tucked at the sleeves of her hoodie, wanting nothing more than George to disapparate and leave her alone. Her cheeks grew hot and she could feel them turning crimson. Still leaned against the wall, Ember felt unable to move.

  "But that doesn't give Harry the right to — argh!"

   Again with a loud cracking noise, the second ginger appeared in Ember's room, only a feet away from her.

   "He knows", Fred said, smirking.

   "He — what?"

   "He knows", Fred repeated, flinging his arm around Ember's shoulder. "Okay, he didn't say it explicitly like that, but deep down behind his glasses, I think he knows that he exaggerated. Like you know you exaggerated as well." Fred opened the door and pushed Ember through the door, leading her down the corridor. "So what we do now is going down to dinner and act like we love each other deeply. Because that's what we do, okay? We're a big, mad family, with overprotective brothers and creepy uncles, a kleptomanic cousin nobody wants to sit next to during dinner, and a house elf with a serious psychosis."

   Ember abruptly stopped, whirling around to look at Fred and George with her heart fluttering.

   "How do you always do this?", she asked.

   "What?", they asked unison.

   "Make me feel better!"

   "Well", George said, "that's our part in this family."

   "Yeah", said Fred, "we're the underrated undercover heroes, who in about thirty seconds will be scolded by Mum for a dungbomb in the saloon that we definitely did drop there!"

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