✔️ 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐎 → ℎ. 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑤𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦

11 | P R O M I S E

   SPINE ARCHING AGAINST the cold concrete floor, Ember again and again closed her eyes, concentrating until her brain seemed to hurt. Nevertheless, the result she hoped for didn't come to fulfilment; every time her eyelids flung open, she still caught a glimpse of the plain grey ceiling.

   She couldn't move. Ever since she awoke a couple of hours ago, she could move nothing but her eyes, but lying with her back on the ground, there was not that much they could see but the thick, grey mass of stone above her.

   Ember felt a shiver running through her body, as she heard footsteps coming closer. Her mind was on fire; all she wanted was to hide, to run, or to fight whatever was coming for her, but her muscles had forsaken her and the foreigner neared mercilessly in slurping motions.

   "What have you thought coming here?", he spoke in a voice Ember had never heard before, yet it seemed familiar. She tried to catch a glimpse of him, but he was out of her eyes' reach. As she wanted to answer, her lips didn't move, no tone left her mouth.

   "You're in trouble", he said. "Big trouble." He circled her; she could hear his feet moving through the room. "All my efforts to keep you safe ... And you decided to walk straight into the enemies home." He stepped closer. Ember could see a pair of thick hands; one with yellowish fingernails, a wand twitching between his chubby fingers, the other one silverish and surreal.

   He bowed forward. Watery eyes, thin dirty blonde hair, a fleshy face with tiredness worn in every wrinkle, and hatred shot through Ember's synapses, her own hazel eyes narrowed to slits — the only sign of disgust she could send him.

   Peter Pettigrew sunk to his knees next to Ember. "I will let you speak. You won't scream, or I'll have to stun you. Keep your voice calm. We don't want Bellatrix to check on what's going on." He waved his wand and Ember felt the muscles of her face and throat loosen. Immediately, she opened her mouth, but Peter raised his hand to silence her. "Wait", he said. "I know there's a lot you want to throw at me, and even more you're about to ask. This isn't the time for it, nor the place."

   "So why even grant me to speak?", Ember hissed at her godfather, her voice swinging with disgust.

   "Tell me what you want here", he asked in a voice so calm it seemed unreal.

   "I know what you did to me", she spat. "And I know you can stop it! You can make it disappear!"

   "I can't. And even if I could, I wouldn't."

   "My parents trusted you! How could you?!" Her eyes were burning, but she swallowed the lump in her throat. This man wouldn't see her cry; she didn't intend to show him any more sign of weakness than she already did by laying here, defenceless and defeated.

   "I did what I had to do", Peter replied, his ugly face showing no signs of regret. "I knew what he was about to do to you. I actually saved you! It was the only way."

   "The only way?", she echoed. "There had been another way! How about not selling Harry to him? What about not betraying your best friend and his family?"

   He lightly shook his head. "He would have killed me."

   "Then you should have died!"

   Peter snorted, getting back to his feet. "You sound like Sirius. But you haven't been there back then. This fight was already lost. I saw it before anyone else did. It's just like now. Your brother's as good as dead, Ember. There's nobody and nothing to stop the Dark Lord. But you", he said, his wand pointing at Ember's face, "you are mighty. The gift I gave to you is what will save you." He lowered the thin wooden stick. "As long as you're willing to follow him."

   "That will never happen", she fiercely whispered.

   "You will, because I won't let you die."

   Ember snorted, pursing her lips. "I'm not like you. If I'm given the choice to follow him or die, then I'll die."

   "I swore to protect you. Seventeen years ago, I swore to protect you. I have to protect you."

   "Let me go then", she whispered, but Peter shook his head.

   "I'm not going to die." He stepped away from her.

   "Then you better befriend with the thought of breaking your promise, because I won't fight for your master. I won't obey him and he will kill me in the end." The wrath was boiling under Ember's skin, her shadows rising like tossing waves inside her. But whatever spell it was they put on her, it left her darkness caged beneath her bones, and herself powerless laying on the cold ground.

   "This isn't a promise to break, Ember", he told her in a cold voice. "And the only way to keep it, is by keeping you here. You'll give in. It'll just take a while. Bellatrix will care for it, you already know the procedure."

   Another shiver run down her spine by the sheer thought of the pain and torture that was coming for her. Just like two years ago, they would do anything to break her. But she wouldn't. Not this time. "I'm dead, Peter. Better befriend with that thought. If you really care about me, then —"

   "Care about you?", he asked with a toneless voice. "Don't live under the false impression that any of this ever happened out of something as care. I had to give you those powers. It was the only way to make you survive!"

   "So if you don't care about me, why are you so keen on keeping them from killing me?"

   "I swore to keep you alive", he repeated. "It were dark times back then. Unfortunately, I didn't know what was about to come. So I swore it. I did an Unbreakable Vow, Ember. And your bravery won't be my downfall. Silencio!"

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