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CHAPTER SEVENTY!
— Limerence
"People will expect Sirius to be the secret keeper."
THE WAR HAD GOTTEN WORSE. Months passed in days. Everything going quicker than the wine sitting on dinner tables at parties. Time had become more of an allurement by the ticking second. With every twenty-four hours that passed her mind, she was pushed more into the content place of time simply being a rouse for the human mind. It made no sense how Harry had just turned a year old and now it was already october.
With the time allurement, tragidy followed.
She could see the pain in Molly Weasley's eyes every time she glanced at the woman. New news delivered the fact that she was the last Prewett child left; Gideon and Fabian were dead, along with Ava. Molly had lost all of her siblings in a matter of years. Ember couldn't even begin to grasp the pain she was feeling. Skylar and Aries - though they've been hurt - had not died yet. Yet because it could always happen. She's learned that. She didn't think she was gonna get a letter from regulus after his death or Ophelia would never come back to the Potter home after that night.
Everyone was on their feet, more than they ever had been. Looking behind themselves at every light sound. It was becoming serious, more than it ever had been. On edge wouldn't even begin to describe the feeling they were all having.
With the realization there was a mole in the order, the marauders were becoming closed off, each one in their own little bubble. Remus and Sirius were observant of everyone. Of course, not including Ember, James, or Peter. No one would even think about Peter betraying anyone. He was quiet at the order meetings and missed many, claiming his mother was ill. The Remus-Blacks also didn't belive it to be Ember and James since they had made Sirius Secret Keeper.
Secret Keeper- a wizard who is designated to hide a secret by the Fidelius charm - a spell that conceals a secret -and embeds it into the living soul. They can't pass the information from blackmail, bewitching, or torture. They must give it up voluntarily. Ember and James chose Sirius, knowing the man would never willingly betray them.
Ember and James had became the most closed off. It was their family at stake if anything were to happen. The hardest part would be when they - and if - they found out the mole. Everyone in the order had become close family and even finding out one of them had been a death eater would be heartbreaking for them to accept.
Even with the war becoming worse every day, they still had their jobs. Ember still had to be a healer - which, she was doing great under the pressure and had risen her way to Kaylee's second in command in only months. She was well-known in Saint Mungos for her work.
James, Sirius, and Frank were all done with their Auror training. Usually, it would take longer but the war rushed many jobs. Including Auror jobs and healers. One of the reasons why Ember rose as quickly as she did- and the way she was incredibly advanced helped.
The security guard checked her by placing a quick spell, giving Ember a court nod. The blonde had made sure to get to know every worker in the building so there was never another Montgomery situation.
Ember's office was small. It was much more like a walk-in closet than anything. The walls were the normal white, reaching high. Paintings and Ember's healer license hung on the wall in frames. On her oak desk sat photos of all her friends and family. A grey rug was in the middle of the room, right under the two grey seats. Everything was cramped but it was good enough for Ember to stay in when she was on break and didn't have patients to look after.
That was rare, though. She nearly always had patients. It was clear from the war and the effects of it. Ember worked best under pressure, she had found out. So, when someone was severely hurt she was the one to be called to help them. Many times she didn't even get the chance to look at them before they were pronounced dead.
Slumping into her chair, she brushed her hair back and brought her hands back around to her face. The night before was tiring. James and Ember had called down Dumbledore, Peter, and Sirius to change the secret keeper to Peter.
"People will expect Sirius to be the secret keeper." James had explained, laying out the notebook he had scribbled with all his ideas. "If we change the secret keeper to Peter... No one going to think it's peter."
Peter was trustworthy, Ember knew that. He always had a place in the group and she didn't believe in a hundred years that the mousy boy would even let the thought of becoming a traitor into his mind. Not only did Ember believed he was too scared, but she also had faith in him.
She took the quill that sat on the corner of her desk. At first, she was just looking at all the patients she had been assigned by Kaylee... but the notebook caught her eye. The same notebook that Ember and James had jotted down their ideas was in her work bag. She furrowed her eyes, picking up the leather-back journal, and slipped it into a drawer.
She had three drawers on her desk. One where she kept patient information, a personal one with a charm that made it she was the only one that could open it, and a junk drawer that just held random parchments, quills, and little snacks. Ember had put it into her personal drawer. Merlin knows how horrible it would be if someone got it.
In the back of her head, her mind enters the instance where River found the breakup game parchment. She still found it amusing how she and James had made rules not to fall into love but alas they're married and have a son. Her imagination jumps back to the fascination shes had about the endless sea of time recently. The breakup game to their marriage and Harry was all apart of the time allurement.
She scrawled some notes down before she hopped up and left the office. Of course, she would take care of her typical patients unless someone that was incredibly injured was brought in. Only then would she drop the patients she was already assigned. "Ember!" A voice bellowed from behind her.
Ember whirled her head around, a smiling Kaylee looking at her. "Right, can you eat lunch with Erick today? Ya' know the full moon is next week and I'm absolutely swamped. He adores you and has been wanting to hang out with you for a while." Kaylee asked sheepishly. Erick, despite Kaylee adopting him, stayed in Saint Mungos because of his young age and his predicament. His transformations were almost always supervised.
Kaylee felt childish for asking such a thing from Ember but Erick eating lunch alone would break him and the older blonde knew she had no chance at making it in time.
Ember clinched her eyes. She was really hoping to just sleep during her lunch break since she barely got any sleep in the past week. Alas, she gave Kaylee a nod and said, "Yeah. I don't mind. I hope you have fun with those patients."
Kaylee's face lit up and she moved forward to kiss Ember's cheek. "Thanks, Em. You're the best!" the woman called out, backing to go to her next patient.
Ember sighed, rubbing her eyes before she disappeared behind a door to deal with her patients.
🖇
"Hullo, Erick!" Ember greeted the boy, throwing herself onto the couch in the room.
Erick looked up from his drawing, smiling widely at her. He was missing a front tooth, allowing her to see black in the hole. "Hello, Miss Ember! Are you eating with me today?"
She grinned, throwing him a strawberry. "Yes, I am! Kaylee won't be able to make it so she asked me to hop in here and dine with the amazing Erick Wilson." The woman told him, popping her own strawberry in her mouth. Really, all she ate for lunch was mac n cheese, strawberries, and a fuck ton of coffee because merlin knows Ember and sleep don't communicate very well.
"I'm happy you're eating with me. I know Kaylee gets busy but I do miss her... do you think I could visit Remus again?" Erick asked the blonde suddenly, playing with the red fruit in his hands.
Ember smiled sadly. Erick did feel out of place around everyone. No one other than the scarred man knew what he was facing every full moon. Sure, they understood it well enough to know what he was facing but never the full extent of it.
Remus understood. He understood the clawing at your mind and body. The urge to hurt someone so much it drives into your blood. He felt all of this at such a young age and Remus was the only one who could relate to him. If anything, Erick saw Remus as an older brother or father figure. Even in their short amount of time spent together they always got along. They were able to relate on being a lycanthrope and it made him feel normal to be around the older man.
She lifted up her fork, waving it back and forth a little. The cheese from her mac n cheese hung from the fork slightly, waiting for its exit patiently on the plastic. She pointed the untensil at grinned, "I will make sure Remus gets his butt over here at least once this week, Kapeesh?"
Erick brightened up, a toothy smile being released into the wild like a boar. "Realy? oh, that's amazing!"
"Look, Erick, I have to go. But, I'll visit before I leave today." Ember rushed at the sound of her familiar pager. It was be-witched to alert Ember and tell her where and what was wrong with a patient of hers or if a trauma case had came in.
Erick grabbed one last strawberry before he let her go, a quick wave from his hands sent her off into the wilderness of Saint Mungos.
Merlin, she just wanted to sleep.
ASHLEE SPEAKS!
This is a filler chapter. yes, but next chapter is THE chapter if you get where I'm coming from... So, enjoy this piece of shit :-)