✔️ 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐎 → ℎ. 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑤𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦

00 | C E L L

I saw the devil today
and he looked a lot like me.

"THAT'S RIDICULOUS! IF I wanted, I could escape. Remus, c'mon, you know me! I'm myself now, I'm -"

"You're not", Remus replied with a cracking voice. "If you were, you wouldn't want me to free you. You would beg me to keep you locked in here. You're not yourself and you obviously aren't able to escape on your own."

He sunk into a chair in front of the cell the raven haired daughter of his best friend was locked behind heavy steal. Remus father once had constructed this room for his young werewolf son, back in a time where there was no wolfsbane potion to keep him a peaceful dog.

Ember Potter looked at him deadpanned, before her lips curved into an evil smirk.

"You know I'll come out here", she said in an icy voice. "I'll escape this and you'll be the first one to die. Then your wife. And I'll get Harry."

"You're not a murderer, Emmie", Remus retorted. "All you need to do is fight this darkness. You did it once, you can do it again!"

"Why should I fight it? It gives me so much more power than I could ever even dream of!"

"Nobody wants to take that power away from you." Remus shook his head. "But you for sure are abusing these forces for all the wrong things."

He watched Ember tilting her head, her long black hair half covering her face as she did so.

"The fact that you keep me locked in here like a filthy animal perfectly shows me that I wisely chose my side", she said. "Nobody is keeping me in a cage on my side."

"They once tortured you, remember?"

She blinked, her face all of a sudden became a frozen mask.

"You didn't choose your side voluntarily", Remus resumed. "You've been abducted, tortured, and they wouldn't have hesitated to kill you, if they hadn't have managed to break you. They once even tried to murder you, Ember. Remember the Black Lake?"

A shudder was running over her body, a shadow hushed over her face, leaving it even paler than before. Exhausted, yet hoping, he examined her eyes, searching for a sign, a hint ...

"Remus?", she asked, her hazel eyes - so equal to her father's - pleadingly piercing into his.

He lifted from his chair, getting closer to the cell door. Her eyes immediately rimmed red as tears started dwelling in their corners.

"Don't come closer", she half-sobbed, stepping backwards. "Stay away from me, I don't want to hurt you!"

"You won't", Remus reassured her.

"I cannot control it anymore, Remus, I feel him in my head", Ember hastily spoke, stumbling over her own words.
"The link he has to Harry's mind, I fear I have it as well and - and -"

"You need to fight it! You did it once, you can -"

"Pathetic." Her eyes now as black as a starless night, Ember was staring back at Remus. "There's no need to fight it. This is me now, and you better learn to accept it."

·

"How is she?"

When Remus arrived at the Burrow, the Weasleys gazed at him with eyes full of hope. The twins raised from their chairs, Mr Weasley leaned forward, an eyebrow raised.

"I am not sure", Remus replied. "She had a moment. I wish I could tell it was real and I could get through this darkness and have found access to her mind, but it's also possible she'd just acted like she would have if she was herself."

"Anything new about Scabbers?", Ron asked in a growl, his eyebrows furrowed.

Remus shook his head. "Unfortunately, Peter is a master at hiding. Twelve years, remember? I don't see a way to find him, if he doesn't want to be found." He walked over to the table, taking an empty seat.

"But you're sure it was him?", Fred asked, who had sat back in his chair as well, arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Peter knew what You-Know-Who was planning back then. He loved Ember, despite it all he loved her, and if he saw a chance in saving her that way ..." Remus burried his face in his hands for a second, before looking at the Weasley boy again. "Erebokinesis has to be planted. She wasn't born with it, someone gave it to her. If You-Know-Who intended to kill her, he wouldn't have gifted her like that. But if Peter knew his master was after his goddaughter ..." Remus sighed. "It was him. I knew it was Peter."

·

Drumming her fingers against the solid ground, the tips started to hurt after a while. She was trapped. Thank goodness she was trapped. Exhaustion and despair was what she breathed, but for this moment her mind was clear. She had it under control. The question was: for how long?

Ember stared up at the ceiling, hearing steps from the upper floor. Tonks. Ember begged for her to stay away.

She felt like being to close to a Dementor; all hope was gone and what was left was darkness. Unpleasant memories flashed her mind, playing over and over again, until she felt like drowning in it. Not even a Patronus could save her from this, even if she would be able to conjure one, and her thoughts travelled to her mother, wondering if she, Ember, could cast that spell, it would be Lily Potter she found in her shelter, just like James was Harry's.

Sinking back onto the floor, her spine pressed against cold stone, Ember's eyes filled with tears she didn't allow to flow. There was no room for weakness now, the shadows would creep back and poisoning her mind once more.

Try the train ride.

Ember snapped up into a sitting position, her eyes widening. The thought echoed like a cannon call in her head and her hands started to shake in excitement. The echo of Ron's voice ringing in her ears, she got to her feet.

Give it a try. The worst thing that could happen is nothing at all.

But there was something happening. Oh, it did happen. Her shadows crawled back, hissing as they did so, but she forced them further into the back of her conscious.

"You want to come out to play?", Ember whispered, and she felt the darkness inside her crushing waves against the barrier she'd built up. "Then you have to play after my rules." There was another attempt of her forces to overwhelm her, before it got still. "Fine. Get me out of here. Get me to the Burrow."

-