✔️ 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐎 → ℎ. 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑤𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦

21 | F E B R U A R Y

teenagers scare the living shit
out of me!

   "I THINK YOU should at least look what's inside." Ember watched Harry burry the wrapped package Sirius had handed him on the doorstep right before they left, into the depths of his trunk. "That's what usually you do with presents, you know?"

   The Hogwarts Express was starting driving out if London, and the snow covered fields and trees rushed by. Harry shook his head bewildered. "No, I won't", he said, his voice determined. "Whatever it is, he gave it to me to use it against Snape, and I won't do this."

   "Checking what it is, wouldn't force you to use it, Harry", Ember groaned, rolling her eyes. "You're being stubborn again."

   "And you're being annoying again", he snorted. "Lessons with Snape can't be that bad that it would be worth to risk Sirius gets himself in trouble."

   Ember shrugged, reaching into her bag for her book. As the train rattled on, she sunk into her story, for a while forgetting the world. A new hope had settled inside her, and she couldn't believe she owed it to Snape! Fact was, that the Occlumency lessons the potion master would give her brother, indeed would make things a lot easier. Of Harry would be able to close his mind from Voldemort's attacks, she finally could tell him about everything going on. She didn't need to tell Dumbledore. She didn't need to take that risk, or any at all. And for the first time for months there was this tiny spark of hope that everything would turn out just fine.

   As the weeks passed, and a snowy January turned into an icy February, time showed that fine obviously wasn't an option. The new year had started with a mass breakout from Azkaban. Harry's Occlumency lessons turned out as the greatest fail, first, because Snape used those lessons to torture Harry, what in retrospect had been ridiculously predictable, and second, because Harry just refused to even try to learn anything from Snape, what countless potion lessons should have pointed out long ago. Ember's spark of hope wasn't even flickering before it died, and the frown was plastered back on her face.

   "Let's talk about something more important", Susan said in a desperate attempt to distract Ember from her haunting thoughts, as the three Hufflepuff friends sat in the library, doing their homework. "Valentine's Day is in less than two weeks! It's a Hogsmeade weekend! We should get you a date!"

   "Me?", Ember echoed, an eyebrow shooting up. "How about minding for your own business? Or just get Hannah a date! How about that?"

   Hannah blushed from her chin und to the roots of her hair, and Susan showed her usual crooked smirk, than pouting her lips in the way she used to, when she was about to scold Ember. "I have a date", she said. "And Hannie is going to Hogsmeade with Neville, as — she swears — just friends, but we all know it's a date." Hannah — even though it seemed impossible — blushed even more, but Susan didn't even recognise. "Who is still without a Valentine cutie is you. So who will be your knight in shining armour that day? Maybe ... Malfoy?"

   Ember scoffed, rolling her eyes. She hadn't talked to Malfoy ever since the Quidditch match Slytherin against Gryffindor, and she didn't intend to change that. So she said, "No, definitely not Malfoy. I don't need a date. I don't want a date. Dating me is not healthy. The strongest armour wouldn't help that poor guy, even if it's shining brighter than the sun."

   "Oh Em, it's just a day, you don't need to spend the rest of your life with this guy", Susan groaned. "Just go out and — well, have some fun! You're so tensed lately, you definitely need some fun."

   "The way you pronounce fun is more cringeworthy than it should be allowed." Closing her book, Ember grabbed her bag as a sign for Susan that she would immediately leave the library if the redhead wouldn't shut up.

   "You exactly know that in front of innocent little Hannah I can't use words as make out by the Shrieking Shack with a sexy badass."

   "You do know that I'm no longer eleven?", Hannah revolted, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

   "And still you twitch when someone says penis", Susan dryly replied, commenting Hannah's little flinch with a satisfied smirk, before she turned back to Ember, telling her, "I wont let you waste that Valentine's Day with sitting in the common room and having those depressing thoughts about shadows and wars. You'll have a date."

   "I'll have a date, if someone asks me out. No, Susan, stop it", Ember snapped, as Susan got herself ready for another awful suggestion. "If someone asks me, I'll go. And now I need to hurry, I need at least some peacan pie before I have to face Smith on the pitch for practice."

   Ember didn't really know what had changed in the last three hundred sixty five days since the last Valentine's Day. None of her friends had ever made a fuzz out of it. But ever since this bloody Yule Ball last Christmas, every girl in this castle seemed to be unhealthily keen on a date for that bloody fourteenth of February. She seemed to be the only one thinking that there wasn't at least one thing in this world more unimportant than Valentine's Day.

   "Hey! Emmie!"

   She was halfway through the entrance hall after dinner, her broom over her shoulder, as his voice had her to stop. Turning around, Ron was taking large steps to cross the space between them, and Ember nervously tugged at the sleeve of her Quidditch uniform. She hadn't been alone with Ron ever since the night in Snape's classroom. Their detenion had been a row of uncomfortable silent evenings under Snape's long nose, and at Grimmauld Place they had barely talked. When returning to Hogwarts, they wordlessly agreed to no longer do their homework together, as none of them ever again asked for it. But now he was standing in front of her in an empty hall, with his red hair ruffled after his fingers ran through it, and his cheeks shaded pink.

   "Oh, Ron, I — I am in a hurry, I — Quidditch practice, you know?"

   "Had a guess that you aren't up for a swim", he chugged, his ears flushing red.

   "The broom disclosed it, huh?"

   "Kind of", he snorted, then rubbing his neck, he eyed his shoes, as he stammered, "Erm, see, I wanted to ask you — well, the next Hogsmeade weekend I — uhm, Harry's on a date and Krum is meeting Hermione in the Three Broomsticks, and I — I was wondering if you — as friends, you know — just hang out —"

   "S—sure", she stuttered, feeling her face burning. "I'd love to." He looked up at her in surprise, as if he hadn't expected that reply, and it was growing even more awkward, so Ember quickly said, "I really need to head off now, Heidi's going to kill me if I'm late again. I — erm — let's meet here on the morning of Valentine's Day, okay?"

   Without awaiting an answer, she turned around and ran away, with her heart pounding. She didn't see his face brightening up, and that triumphant smirk growing on his lips, having his saphire blue eyes sparkling.

—