Harry Potter and the Dark Mark

Chapter Ten

He had thought that man outside the pub had looked familiar. Harry's mind stumbled backwards in time, to the evening of Buckbeak's trial and failed execution. "The executioner... Macnair..." he whispered slowly. His memory skipped forwards to the night of the final task and the assembled Death Eaters. Macnair was a Death Eater, and he had just been outside the three Broomsticks. Now this had happened. If only he'd recognised him sooner...

"Harry, MOVE!" Colin screamed at him. Harry turned slowly, astonished. The air was thick and viscous around him, and all the noise seemed muffled. He could hear people screaming and crying and yelling, stampeding away from whatever evil was ahead. Harry could feel the pure malevolence flowing languorously down the road behind the people. It radiated out from the terrible apparition in the sky, it burned into him, and then suddenly his scar was throbbing as if a red-hot poker had been pulled from a fire and thrust deep into his brain. He cried out in pain, clutching his head and doubling over. People engulfed him and ran around him, pushing him about as if he were a rag doll.

Suddenly electric blue sparks started shooting in the air, and people screamed louder, anticipating a further attack. However, it was the staff of Hogwarts. They started the great task of shepherding people down to the Hogsmeade Train Station for shelter. All at once, the pain in Harry's evaporated, leaving him with a headache. He knew Voldemort had left. The screams had been replaced with muffled sobs now, which Harry felt were worse. Thoughts were darting through his mind all the time, and then they rested on one thought.

"Colin - we have to go see if everyone... if..."

"Dennis!" Colin abruptly barked, before plunging in amongst the heaving throng of people. Harry did not pause but dived in after him, reaching out with his arm to grab the back of Colin's robes.

"Wait..." he croaked. Colin shook him off impatiently and forged ahead. Harry was forced to follow more slowly. The mere echo of the pain in his head made him nauseous. His throat was dry, and there were snowflakes obscuring his vision through his glasses. It seemed like an hour before he was underneath that ethereal skull in the sky, but it was only a matter of minutes. Colin was frantically grabbing people and asking for Dennis. Most people ignored him or just asked him if he had seen the one they were looking for. Harry was stunned by the ruin that lay beneath the Dark Mark. The Three Broomsticks was a burning shell, the roof caved in at one side and fire flickering up the crumbling walls. Smoke was flying out of the one remaining chimney, and Harry could taste the acrid smell of smoke in the air. The heat was not intense, but hot enough to let Harry know there was unlikely to be anyone alive inside the building.

"Please, don't move! One of the teachers or another Prefect will come and get you soon!" a familiar voice suddenly shrieked.

"Hermione!" Harry cried hoarsely.

"Harry, help me round them all up! They're running away and we need to take them down to the Train Station, McGonagall says," Hermione said, without even taking her eyes off the first year she was dragging over to a line of students. She brushed the boy away from her and carefully put his hand in that of the girl next to him. They held onto one another pitifully. The girl was crying.

"Ok," Harry agreed. He turned round and approached a pair of girls who were staring, transfixed at the rubble. "You two, would you come this way please? We're taking you to a safe place now..." Numbly they followed him, and he put them in the line. When there were about twenty students, Hermione delivered them to Professor Flitwick, who chivvied them nervously down the road to the Train Station. For a minute this went on. Every time a burning beam fell, Harry flinched. Colin was ushered into the line by Hermione, despite all his protests about Dennis.

"Dennis is probably already down at the Station," she said kindly. "Go!" Colin gazed at her searchingly with his huge eyes and went with the next batch of pupils. He kept looking back at the pub.

Ron appeared once more. He had returned from taking a line of students to the train station, and he greeted Harry with a terse nod before helping Neville levitate an injured pupil. Neville wasn't good at charms anyway, and with his nerves at this moment he wasn't coping well at all. Then, just as they had sent the last remaining uninjured pupils down to the station with Professor Sinistra, a thin reedy cry rose from the rubble of the Three Broomsticks. Everyone froze, horror-struck.

"No way... no one can be alive in there..." Ron whispered.

"Someone obviously is, aren't they?" Hermione whispered back. The she shook herself and stepped forwards in a businesslike manner, raised her wand and cried, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The charred beam that had fallen across the doorway shifted slightly, but not enough. The Twins, and a few other older students, came forward and joined in the spell, strengthening it. Angelina and Katie performed a charm that sprayed water out of their wands, and started to drench the doorway, quelling the dying flames there.

"Constabilis," Harry cried, and as he pointed his wand, orange sparks flew out and settled along the edges of the stones in the tumbledown walls. That charm would hold the walls firm for a while. The cry broke off, and was replaced by a faint voice crying for help. Bleakly, Harry looked for a returning teacher. There were none. They were meant to be heading down to the Station themselves.

"I'll go fetch help," Hannah Abbott gasped, before speeding down the road.

"She won't be quick enough," Neville said quietly. "I'm going in."

"What?" Harry cried incredulously. Everyone looked round, shocked, except for the few moving the burning timbers out of the way. Neville ignored him, and strode purposefully towards the building. He disappeared into the burning ruin.

"More water!" instructed a Ravenclaw sixth year. Ron and Padma Patil rushed forwards to help. Harry continued making certain the structure was as safe as he could make it. Neville had been gone for nearly a minute. The voice had stopped, but no one was coming out. Harry began to fear the worst. Then he was there, carrying a limp form in his arms. The body looked dead, but Harry knew it was the person who had been screaming before. As Neville moved towards him, he could make out a yellow striped tie and a ponytail. He jogged over and helped Neville lower the girl to the floor. He could now see that she was a Hufflepuff second year, one he knew by sight but not by name.

"She's alive," Neville revealed, before sinking to his knees. He looked exhausted. He began to cough. Presumably he had breathed in a lot of smoke.

"Potter, give her to me," a gruff voice instructed. Harry moved aside and let Professor Moody attend the girl's prostrate form. "Take yourselves down to the Station, all of you. You've done well. Longbottom, are there any more alive in there?"

"Not alive, sir," Neville said quietly, watching as Moody levitated the girl.

Slowly, the dishevelled group made their way down the road. They passed groups of adults and young children milling around in mayhem, and witnessed the arrival of the Ministry officials, apparating into the street. When they arrived at the station, Harry was surprised to find that the waiting room had been magically enlarged, and that everyone was silent. There was none of the hysterical screaming and crying he had expected and remembered from after the Tri-Wizard competition last year. They were directed to the appropriate corner; Gryffindors were over by the far wall, and he sat down wearily on the floor next to a group of third years. They recoiled slightly from him, and then relaxed, as if it involved too much effort. The teachers were taking registers of each year group within each house. McGonagall noted down Harry and the other Gryffindors with a worried glance, and then went to confer with the other Heads of House and Dumbledore. After a moment, Dumbledore spoke.

"I am glad that you are here, and safe. However, there are still a few missing students, and we would be very grateful if any of you could enlighten us concerning their whereabouts. From Hufflepuff, we are missing Owen Cauldwell, and Laura Madley. From Gryffindor, Dennis Creevey and Natalie MacDonald are missing. Lisa Turpin, Mandy Brocklehurst, and Orla Quirke are absent from Ravenclaw, and Slytherin lacks Malcolm Baddock. Does anyone have anything to say?"

"Laura Madley is with Professor Moody," Hannah Abbott supplied. Harry realised that was the girl Neville had rescued. Dumbledore acknowledged her. A thin Ravenclaw put his hand up.

"Yes, Stewart?"

"Orla is with one of the Ministry Officials, in the ticket office, sir. She was a witness..."

"Thank you," Dumbledore said.

Harry looked round at his shell shocked housemates. Colin was staring blankly at the wall. Ginny was crouched next to him, her arm draped around his shoulder, and a cluster of second year girls were weeping quietly nearby.

After about fifteen minutes, a sombre looking official escorted a small group of students back into the room. No sooner had they rejoined their houses than Dumbledore asked for the first years to pair up. Silently they filed out of the waiting room, accompanied by the four Heads of House. After another quarter of an hour or so, the second years departed, accompanied by Professor Vector. Then it was the turn of the third years, and this pattern continued until Harry's year were ushered up the road to the enchanted sleighs which would carry them home to Hogwarts.

Upon arrival back at the castle, any injured pupils were conducted to the Hospital Wing, and the rest of them retired to their Common Rooms. Everyone was in their dormitories when Harry entered the Common Room. He felt exhausted himself. There was a notice on the Gryffindor House Notice Board informing everyone that lessons tomorrow would be cancelled, and that there would be a school meeting in the Great Hall at 2:00pm after lunch. Students were permitted to do as they wished within the castle until the meeting. Harry guessed the majority of people would be sleeping. He knew he would be.

Soberly, he turned and hugged Hermione to him, and then Ron did the same. She departed for her dormitory without a word. None were needed. Harry and Ron staggered up the stairs to their dormitory and clambered weakly into their beds. Harry laughed bitterly to see that Seamus had not even bothered to undress before getting under his covers.

"Lumen Nox," Harry muttered sleepily, waving his wand towards the candle sconces on the walls. The room was pitch black instantly, and Harry felt the welcome arms of sleep engulf him, and he sank gratefully into their embrace, knowing he would not be troubled by dreams of any kind. His fatigue was etched into his very limbs, and he wondered briefly what tomorrow would bring, before succumbing to his leaded eyelids and deadened mind.