Harry Potter and the Dark Mark

Chapter Six

"And so, firstly we have Harry up against Lavender, Dean up against Ron, myself against Colin, Ginny against Adriel, Parvati against Hermione, and Neville against Derek," Seamus yelled over the babble. Harry was laughing to himself as Lavender seated herself opposite him and set her Gobstones down sulkily. It was obvious the only reason she had decided to take part in the competition was to get Seamus' attention, and she had been drawn against Harry. He wasn't worried. He was willing to bet Lavender had only played Gobstones once or twice before. He wasn't wrong. He beat her easily. Ron was out, and so was Colin, and then Adriel, Parvati lost to Hermione, and Neville to Derek.

Next, Hermione was drawn against Seamus, Dean against Derek, and Harry against Ginny. He was still quietly confident, and felt certain that the three who would play to win would be himself, Dean and Seamus. He was in for a shock. After his first move, his face was so wet with the foul Gobstones liquid he had to keep cleaning his glasses because it was trickling off his eyebrows and down his lenses. He had only managed to get Ginny squirted twice. She was highly amused.

"Poor Harry!" she teased. "Did you think I'd be a pushover?"

Harry took his time responding. Years of teasing Hermione had proved to him that one slip up and life was not worth living for the next few days. "I definitely hadn't imagined that I would be this wet by the middle of Round Two," he answered carefully, keeping his face expressionless.

"So at last, we've found something the magnificent Harry Potter can't always succeed at!" she joked again. Harry laughed too. He didn't mind that when she said it, but if Malfoy had said it, the words would have burned like hot candle wax.

"I wouldn't say magnificent."

"Oh, the rest of the school would, Harry. Well, perhaps not the Slytherins. But definitely most of the girls," Ginny said seriously. She stuck her tongue out, concentrating, and then made a move that got Harry squirted again. After wiping his face he replied.

"Girls?"

"Yeah. I'm one, if you hadn't noticed. So's Hermione, and Lavender and Parvati, and Katie and Angelina and Alicia, and..."

"I know that!" he said over her. "I was wondering what you meant," he asked in a calmer manner, making a counter move.

Her eyes glittered mischievously. "Surely you must have noticed half the school is lovesick for you?" she asked.

"Erm... I can't say... hah!" Harry crowed triumphantly as his Gobstone squirted her in the face.

"Oh, but you are! Parvati used to be very keen, I used to be," here she blushed slightly, "and you heard my friends. And it's just like Malfoy said last year, everyone's waiting to see whether Hermione will go for you, or Ron!" she crooned. Harry's face was hot. He didn't know if it was because he wasn't used to being teased or because he was getting angry.

"You're just a silly little girl!" he hissed back vehemently. She drew her fingers back from the Gobstones sharply, as if she had been burned. After a moment, she looked at him, and he could see that her eyes were brimming; yet she still looked oddly cheerful.

"And so's Cho..." she continued. Neither of them stopped staring fiercely at the other.

"What would you know about Cho?" he asked icily.

"I thought you two wer--"

"Well you thought wrong!"

Ginny nodded, and looked down. She moved her piece, and all of the Gobstones squirted Harry. "I win," she added simply. She looked into Harry's eyes again. She seemed to be searching for something in them, but what, he had no idea. It looked as if she hadn't found it, because she stood up and turned to the rest of the Common Room. "Harry Potter's been beaten by a silly little gi--rl!" she jeered. To everyone else, it looked like a joke, and they laughed as if it was, but Harry could see the bitter tears spilling down her cheeks. To everyone else, they looked like Gobstone juice. She glanced back at him with something that resembled contempt.

Harry felt empty. He rubbed his hand across his face, wiping the Gobstone juice off.

"Awww, don't look so sad 'cos you lost, Harry. It's a great honour to lose to Ginny. She really knows her stuff, you know," George consoled, patting him on the back.

"So she should! We taught her how to play!" Fred chipped in.

"Yeah, we had loads of fun until Mum realised we'd enchanted the set to squirt chocolate sauce..." George reminisced.

"Have a sweet, Harry!" Fred thrust the brown paper packet in front of his nose. Gloomily, Harry retrieved some form of toffee and popped it into his mouth. It was lovely and creamy. He sucked on it, careful not to chew lest it should stick his teeth together. He concentrated on the game between Hermione and Seamus. Just as Seamus was beginning to get proper control of the game, Harry, with some alarm, noticed that instead of shrinking as he sucked it, the toffee was getting bigger and bigger. He turned with wide eyes to Fred and George, who were staring at him intently, with a look of mischief on their faces. He tried to spit it out, but it was too big now. Worried, he knew he would have to wait.

Ron nudged Ginny, who was wiping her face clean of the Gobstone juice. She saw, and started to laugh and nudge other people. Gradually all noise in the Common Room petered out as everyone turned to watch Harry.

"Oh dear, George! He'll suffocate if we made it wrong," Fred said solemnly.

"The thought had crossed my mind. Harry, if you die, promise not to haunt us?" George asked with an equally pan expression.

"Mmmmmf mmf!" Harry cried.

Just as everyone started to think the sweet would continue to swell forever, and just as Harry's jaws were beginning to hurt, the toffee exploded into nothingness. There was a round of applause and cheers at the marvellous invention.

"What," gasped Harry, "was that?"

"That was a Toffee Shock!" George informed everyone with a happy grin.

"Only seven sickles a bag!" yelled Fred. There was a flurry in response to that. Everyone scrambled for purses and coin bags, wanting a bag of the shocking sweets. Ron's face was a picture.

"Imagine Malfoy's face..." he cooed. Harry laughed. George handed him a towel, and he wiped the Gobstone juice off his face properly.

"No hard feelings?" George asked.

"No hard feelings!" Harry agreed. But when he looked at Ginny, and she scowled at him, Harry considered that there might be some hard feelings after all.

The last round was between Dean, Seamus, and Ginny. Ginny was drawn to play Dean first. She beat him outright. Dean played Seamus, and Seamus won. Eventually it was the long awaited last round. A lot of people were gathered round, silent apart from muffled screams and catcalls as the game progressed. The last few minutes were very tense - Seamus very nearly beat her, but Ginny emerged as the eventual winner. She clutched her voucher tightly in one hand and smiled jubilantly, her friends crowding round and congratulating her. Harry leaned over to praise her too, but was rewarded with a fearsome glare. He retreated to Ron and Hermione.

Harry slept fitfully that night. His scar was not burning, but itching. It had never done that before. He presumed it was the Gobstones liquid that was irritating it. His dreams were of the past, before he knew of Sirius, mostly of his second year, when he had saved Ginny. He dreamed of Ron's old rat, Scabbers, and of Hermione's cat, Crookshanks. In fact, as he turned over once in the night, he leaned out of his curtains to reach for the glass of water he kept by his bed, and he was sure he saw a rat scamper underneath Ron's bed. Uneasy, he fumbled for his glasses. When he had them on, he couldn't see anything in the gloom. He felt for his wand.

"Lumos," he croaked. The end of his wand gave off a soft glow, which he poked underneath Ron's bed. There was something under there for sure. Harry lay on his stomach, put his head right under Ron's bed, and then yelled in fright as something small and furry leapt into his face before scurrying off behind him. He was whipped in the face by a long, wormy tail.

"Harry?" a voice mumbled. Harry jumped and cracked his head on Ron's bed. He scrambled out, rubbing the sore spot. "Whayer doin'?" Ron moaned, rubbing his eyes.

Harry murmured so he wouldn't wake the others up. "I saw Wormtail! Under your bed!"

"Get away! You're dreaming!" Ron grunted.

"Nah-uh. He had a silver paw. And I'd love to know what he wanted with this." Harry held up a small glass phial. It was the leftover Streeler Venom from Herbology. Professor Sprout had said Ron could keep it to use in his garden.

Grimly, Harry and Ron checked the rest of the room, and at length returned to bed, resolved to sort this out in the morning, after they had consulted Hermione.

Harry returned to more fitful dreams, permeated by visions of that horrible, silver hand.