Etched, Engraved, Everlasting (a Hogwarts Mystery Year 6 Retell)

10 - Em

I would have had a peaceful evening if not for Beatrice bursting into the common room, practically shouting at the top of her lungs that a new curse had befallen upon the school. 

Okay, maybe that was a little exaggerated, but I could only imagine the panic she felt as I saw the ghostly pale face at the door, her eyes wide with alarm. Tense silence rang through the common room the minute she made the announcement, and I saw Penny trying to reach her, but she just ran off to her dormitory in an attempt to avoid her.

Diego and I were sitting in front of the fireplace when this happened, while I was showing him the new tricks my rat, Cheddar, could do, from crawling up my leg right onto my arm to standing on its two hind feet in the palm of my hand while I held up a piece of cheese. I wasn't planning on training Cheddar for the circus, but he did seem to trust me a lot more over the last few weeks after Clara and I bought him in the Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley. It always seemed to amuse Diego every time I showed him, too. I suppose he just wants to make sure I'm happy. The minute the news came out, though, I felt ice freeze through my entire body, and I felt all happiness slipping away. I should have known the next curse would hit right about now, but I didn't imagine it to be now, not when everything still seemed so hopeful.

"No way. Not another curse," Diego murmured, turning to me and catching Cheddar when he started slipping off my arm. "It's too early for another curse."

"It's never too early for disaster to strike," I muttered back. "But you'll promise, right? You'll be there to help me out?"

"I already have, little Em. And I'll always be around," Diego promised yet again, his hand on my arm as he gently cradled Cheddar.

"I just hope it doesn't break me as much as it already broke my sister," I said. "I'm already worried about Clara. She's already lost a lot of sleep over the last one."

"What do you mean?"

In a hushed voice, I told him everything I witnessed last summer. I thought he would understand, even if he and Clara hadn't known each other for as long as she and Penny--and it felt right to tell him. After all, he did promise to protect me even if we still barely knew each other.

"Bill told us just about the same story when they returned from the Vault last year," Diego recalled. "Strange, isn't it? You think about the last Vault as if it happened so long ago, when it only occurred just so many weeks ago."

"And the longer I see my sister stressed over it, the more I worry," I agreed. "I know it's her fight, to find Jacob and reunite the three of us together as one happy family again. I'm just worried that what she'll see would break her even more." I sighed and glanced into the dancing flames of the fireplace. "I never really got to know Jacob before he disappeared. If Clara's gone...how would I honour them if they--"

His arms were wrapped firmly around me before I could finish the thought. I never thought about Diego's embraces, but the scent of cinnamon and nutmeg were enough to calm me, and I relaxed, trying hard to let go of the panic that gripped me. A gentle brush of fur tickled my cheek, and I smiled as Cheddar settled on my shoulder, curling up in a ball.

"Your sister is one of the strongest people I know," Diego said. "If she can get through this, she can get through anything. Just believe in her. I know I do."

He made no mention about Jacob, but I knew the same could apply to him. He's strong. He and Clara would do the right thing in the end. 

I just hope I could do enough to help them.

---

"You'd have thought that the last person to spread the news about the new curse would be the one who was deeply affected by the last one," Hillary muttered to me as she dipped her quill into the inkpot, scratching out another word in her Charms essay. "Yet somehow she was the first to discover it? I'd have run off screaming my head off if I saw something like that."