Harry Potter and the Dark Mark

Chapter Thirty One

Hermione reacted the fastest. "Contego!" she gasped.

"Protego!" Ron choked.

Harry was still busy looking for the snakes Voldemort had just spoken to. He had the extra burden of knowing what they had just been ordered to do. It was not pleasant. The two shields expanded around them, encasing them in a bubble that reminded Harry of pink bubblegum.

"Do you really think you can stand up to me?" Voldemort cried in theatrical disbelief. "Three teenagers taught by doddering halfwits, one a Mudblood, one a penniless goon from a family that breeds like rabbits and the other an orphan?" He laughed in amazement. "Don't forget who killed your parents, boy!" he sneered at Harry.

"I never will - even when you're long dead!" Harry spat.

"What makes you think you'll outlive me? I have to say, your chances are looking rather grim," Voldemort jeered.

"Of course we'll outlive you!" Hermione piped up. "You're nothing but a pathetic power-crazed old man who didn't quite manage immortality!"

"I'd say the odds are in Harry's favour," Ron added sturdily. "How many times have you tried to kill him and failed? And you're outnumbered!"

"You're not going to kill Harry this time either! We won't let you!" Hermione panted. Harry could see that maintaining the shield was exerting physical pain upon her. It had not occurred to him that Voldemort might be using wandless magic to try and break it down.

"DO NOT PRESUME TO SPEAK TO ME IN THAT MANNER, YOU DESPICABLE PIECE OF FILTH!" Voldemort raged. Hermione flinched and sobbed. Harry could see her shield weaken visibly.

"Harry, whatever you're going to do, do it soon," Ron wheezed, the beads of sweat standing on his brow and glistening in his fiery hair.

"Yes Harry, what fantastic and miraculous escape are we going to pull off this time?" Voldemort mocked. "Do tell!"

Harry felt his anger broiling and churning within him. Holding his breath, he let it expand and contract like molten glass until it was ready to burst. He kept running through the people Voldemort had hurt in some way or another; his parents, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Cedric, Dumbledore, Sirius, Dennis, Colin, Malcom, Owen, Natalie, Lisa, Mandy, Madame Maxime, Fang, Members of the Order out in the Hall, Neville's parents and Neville himself, Moody... and these were just the people he knew.

"Why?" he demanded helplessly. "Why do you do all this? What did any of these poor people ever do to you?"

"They have knowledge that I wish to have complete and irrevocable control of," Voldemort explained simply.

"But immortality is impossible now the Philosopher's Stone has been destroyed!" Harry cried in frustration.

"Just because you have spoken to Craw, it does not mean you know all the secrets stored in this hole!" Voldemort hissed triumphantly. "The particular gem of information I am searching for does not concern my search for eternal life. Actually, it concerns you!"

As if he had been given a cue, Wormtail staggered towards his master with his head bowed, hands curled around a book bound in brown leather and sealed with gold fastenings. "I have found it, Master," he spluttered.

Voldemort lost interest in Harry immediately and summoned a table with a mere gesture of his hand. Wormtail dumped the book there and hovered awkwardly, watching the book as if it were a hallowed gift.

"Don't just stand there, fool!" Voldemort shouted. "Get back to work!" Wormtail hopped and skipped in haste to start piling books from the shelf next to Hermione onto the fire.

Voldemort inspected the book with an increasingly victorious expression painted on his grotesque face. "Locked!" he growled. Then, as if his attention had never been off them the whole time, he whirled round and held his arm outstretched to Hermione, palm flat and fingers splayed.

"No!" Hermione begged softly. She was too weak. Unwillingly she began to stumble towards the Dark Lord, the shield dissolving around her as she moved.

"Not Hermione!" Harry and Ron shouted in unison.

"Yes. I want to make the Mudblood do me a little favour," Voldemort crooned. When Hermione reached him, he grabbed her wrist and forced her hand over the book so that her wand was directly above it. "Say Effringo Cessi. Go on, say it!" he thundered as Hermione tried to resist him.

"Effringo Cessi," Hermione sobbed. Harry looked away as Hermione shuddered and her face became a mask to whatever horror she was witness to in her own mind. He could hear Ron's ragged breath at his side and feel the fury beating from him in waves. Then there was a soft thud as Voldemort let Hermione go upon the click of locks opening.

"Guard her," Voldemort ordered imperiously. It took Harry a second to process that the last two words had been spoken in Parseltongue. The snakes were here.

"Harry!" Ron whispered. Harry looked to the floor. There, in front of him and Ron, were two huge snakes with black beady eyes and wide black bands breaking the creamy mottled pattern of their smooth scales. The snakes had raised the front third of their bodies and spread out their long necks and loose skin to from hoods with half ring patterns.

The third snake was twining itself around Hermione's unconscious form. Harry did not stop to think. "Get away from her!" he hissed in Parseltongue. The snake turned and stared unfalteringly at Harry. "Get away from her!" Harry urged, letting his anger, fear and desperation seep into his will.

This time the snake began to move away, but Voldemort turned with an angry gesture. "I do not have time for this! Wormtail! Kill the Mudblood and this red head dolt!"

Wormtail scurried forwards unwillingly. Shying away from the snake coiled at Hermione's feet, he raised his wand and took a deep breath. Just as he was about to speak he was cut off by someone bursting into the Library.

"Tom!" Craw roared. "Tom Marvolo Riddle, how dare you come back here and try to destroy those who made you?"

Voldemort turned away from his feverish deciphering of the book with malicious joy in his red eyes. "You didn't make me Craw, I made my own fortune. You simply helped me along the way." Without taking his gaze from Craw, Voldemort spoke to Wormtail in an insanely calm tone. "Wormtail, if you do not kill the Mudblood, I will kill you. So Craw, have you come to stop me?"

Things happened so fast Harry felt as if time had sped up. Wormtail, trembling like the coward Harry saw him as, raised his wand and began to lower it towards Hermione, opening his mouth to speak the fatal words that would end her life. Ron threw himself forwards to try and move Wormtail's wand so the curse would not hit Hermione, and Harry launched himself at Wormtail with the intention of firing the curse towards Voldemort.

As Harry collided with Pettigrew, the flash of green stole through the air and hit Craw. Ron's momentum sent him crashing to the floor half on top of Hermione, and quick as the curse that had just been diverted, the snake guarding Hermione sunk its venomous fangs into Ron's shoulder. Harry barely had time to register what had happened before Voldemort had bound him with a tight binding spell.

"Craw!" Harry said, shocked. He resisted the urge to say, 'But he was alive a second ago!' because after all, stating the obvious seemed rather pointless and childish.

"Harry, it bit me!" Ron whispered.

"You'll go into a coma soon," Voldemort informed him with vicious pleasure. "But Mr Potter, you're going to be keeping me company for a few more minutes yet. I want to finish what I came to do."

Wormtail scrambled back to his feet without a word and continued throwing book after book onto the fire which Harry was now uncomfortably close to. It was making the sweat dribble down his forehead and drip off his hair onto his glasses. The only good thing about being so close to the fire was that the three snakes avoided him completely, so they could not carry out their order of striking him.

"Ah, Wormtail! I gave you an order, I expect it to be carried out! Kill the Mudblood!"

Pettigrew turned reluctantly. Harry stared at him, tears burning his vision. Blind hatred shot through him. First this man gave up the location of his parents, leading to their death, then he poisoned Dumbledore, if not Hagrid and Madame Maxime too, and now he was to kill one of Harry's two best friends while the other one lay at her side, poisoned.

As Wormtail approached, Harry glared and choked out, "You're not even a rat - you're vermin!"

Wormtail flinched at the words and hovered indecisively. Then he made his way over to Harry and crouched down behind him to pour tainted words into his ear.

"You once saved my life, Harry Potter. Do you feel a fool now?" Voldemort swivelled his head round to see what his servant was doing, but once he realised Wormtail appeared to be tormenting Harry, he smiled cruelly and continued with his reading.

"Yes," Harry whispered bitterly.

"Well don't. Lily and James would have been proud of you--" Harry's mind whirled in confusion "--however, they aren't, because they're dead!" Wormtail permitted himself a small, breathless chuckle. He sounded terrified, Harry thought through his rage.

Harry grimaced in pain as he felt the flames of the fire flickering against his hands where they were bound behind him and then widened his eyes in surprise as he felt the magical bindings fall away from his body.

Pettigrew stood up and moved over to Hermione's prostrate body, shaking like a leaf in the wind. Voldemort turned with a curling sneer to see Hermione die and then let out a livid cry as Wormtail transformed into his Animagus form.

"Ahh, a rat is up my leg!" Ron yelled wildly and incoherently as Wormtail dashed for cover.

"Fool! FOOL!" Voldemort screamed, firing curses this way and that in his search for his old servant.

Harry could not quite believe what had just happened. He seized his wand from the floor and turned to deal with the snakes, banishing two of them in black clouds of smoke as he had seen Snape do in his second year duelling club.

The third snake evaded him and pursued Wormtail the rat with a vengeance. There was a horrible snap followed by a satisfied silence from both Master and snake. Harry juddered as he realised Wormtail had perished, and in a most unpleasant manner.

Before Voldemort had time to curse Harry, a large mob of people burst into the Library, blowing a large section of the wall around the door away. Both Voldemort and Harry were thrown to the ground, and when Harry recovered himself, Voldemort was clutching the book in his long skeletal arms with triumph painted on his face. He was staring straight at Meryl, and then as if there were no one else in the room, the two began a duel of the most ferocious nature.

Harry scrambled over to Ron and Hermione frantically. "Ron? Ron!"

"Harry, I'm going all groggy!" Ron wailed an a panicky voice.

Shaking in his haste, Harry fumbled for Ron's arm and felt for a pulse. Even as he held Ron's wrist, the pulse quickened and fluctuated, becoming fainter and fainter.

"It'll be fine, the Order are here now," Harry found himself reassuring Ron. Ron nodded weakly and then Harry felt his arm go limp as he slipped from consciousness.

The hiss of water on flame caught Harry's attention and he knelt up to see what was happening. Meryl and Voldemort were still duelling fiercely, magic sparks flying where their curses collided.

Members of the Order were fighting savagely to defend their home, and they seemed to be winning. Others were trying to put out the firer that was threatening to consume their precious volumes of research and knowledge. Harry could se why Hermione had tried to stop Wormtail by herself. There must be more information in this room than in the heads of a hundred of the most elite wizards alive.

"Harry - the snake!" Hermione whispered.

"You've come round!" Harry grinned despite his fear for Ron.

"The snake!"

"Yes, it bit Ron," Harry explained, his smile vanishing again.

"Ron!" Hermione cried anxiously. She pushed herself up against the table and then grabbed her head as the room span before her eyes.

The beautiful sound of Phoenix song flooded the room as Cinders and other Phoenixes flew in and began helping the Order. Cinders descended on the third and final snake and began attacking it frenziedly.

To Harry's surprise, Hermione flailed at the beautiful bird and shrieked at it. "Stop it! Get OFF! Oh Harry--don't you SEE? It's an Indian Cobra! It can cure Dumbledore!"

Chapter Thirty Two

"Cinders! Craw is dead!" Harry yelled, hoping wildly that this would stop the bird. Cinders flew back up but instead of returning to finish off the snake, she let out a long mournful cry before swooping down to Craw's cadaver. She laid down her head against his cheek and began to weep forlornly. Harry looked away at Hermione, sick to his stomach. Hermione had tears shining brightly in her own eyes.

"It's so unfair!" she whispered. Harry nodded mutely, jaw clenched.

After a brief pause, he spoke. "I need to take care of the snake, Hermione. Can you summon a basket or something to keep it in?"

It was Hermione's turn to nod as she did what he asked. She handed the basket to Harry and then stepped backwards, clasping her wand between her hands.

"Get in," Harry told the snake gently. It was almost dead; Cinders had attacked viciously, intending to kill. The snake seemed too weak to move. In the end Harry was forced to pick it up and lay it in the basket as carefully as he could. It did not even try to attack him.

"Will it last long enough?" Hermione asked tremulously.

"Hope so," Harry answered. He turned to Ron and called out with his back to the sight of Craw's body. "Cinders, Ron needs your help, you're the only one who can save him! Please come and heal him with your tears."

The Phoenix let out a soft and haunting cry before flying to Ron in one small swoop. Hermione had moved to his side and was stroking the ginger locks back from his face. She pulled back the top of his robes to show where the snake had punctured Ron's shoulder. Cinders began to weep again, letting her tears fall onto Ron's wound. Hermione watched wide eyed as the teeth marks fizzled and healed.

Cinders flew back to Craw miserably just as Ron began to stir. Hermione gasped and Harry started forward and knelt in front of his best friend.

"Bloody hell, I've got a hangover!" Ron groaned.

Harry laughed despite himself. "You haven't been drinking, you idiot!"

"What would you know about alcohol?" Hermione asked in horror, before flinging her arms around Ron.

Ron pushed her off and sat up slowly. He rubbed his eyes and stretched. Instantly he saw Craw's body on the floor a little way away.

"Tell me I didn't do that..." he begged Harry. "Tell me it wasn't me who knocked that curse towards him!"

"It wasn't you," Harry said, his throat closing up and his mouth drying out. "It was me." Cinders turned and let out a small cry, staring accusingly at Harry. Harry felt salty tears burning in his eyes, so he wheeled round and pulled out his wand, determined not to cry in front of anyone.

In the last minute nothing had changed. The battle had been raging around them and yet Harry had somehow managed to block it out. Now he let it flood back to him, engulfing him and swallowing him whole. His blood stirred, his pulse quickened and his anger reared its ugly head once more.

Meryl was losing. Harry could see that as soon as he looked at her. Her hair was plastered to her head with sweat, her arm was shaking and her shield was weak and patchy. Voldemort knew she was weakening. He was smiling inanely, not even bothering to use his wand to break her down. Stalking her like prey, he advanced upon the leader of the Order of the Phoenix.

Behind Harry, Hermione and Ron were pouring water on to the blazing books with their wands. Harry ignored them, intent on the little battle played out in front of him. Voldemort had come here to kill and destroy. It looked like he would consider the expedition a partial success. Shelves of books had caught fire and many of the Order were dead. He had managed a lot of what he came to do.

A Death Eater who was on fire streaked past Harry, pursued by Sirius. "Help me, Harry?" Sirius yelled. Harry whirled round to follow the chase, watching with detachment as Sirius hexed the man in the back. The Death Eater stumbled and fell onto a table, sending a book bound in brown leather with gold fastenings flying to the floor. Harry's eyes widened as he realised that was the book Voldemort had wanted; the one with something in it that concerned Harry.

He sprinted across the room and reached for the book as Sirius leapt for the Death Eater. His running jump caught the book, and with a flick of his Godfather's heel the book was kicked across the floor and into the waiting flames.

"No!" Harry shouted, but it was too late. The fire devoured the book with flickering relish. Harry dropped his head in defeat. A flash of green light to one side let him know Meryl had finally succumbed to the Dark Lord. She was just another body now, another person whose life had been ended by an evil man.

Silence followed his cry. Harry looked round, startled. Of all the people standing in the room, Voldemort was the only one who was a Dark Wizard. With a snarl he ran towards the table where the book had been. Harry stood bravely and foolishly in his way.

"It burnt," he said in a deadly tone. "What did it say?"

Voldemort let out an angry screech and disapparated on the spot. Harry swore and threw his wand to the floor. Everyone stared in shocked silence.

"What are you all looking at?" Harry yelled in frustration. No one would meet his eyes. Shaking his head dejectedly, he traipsed over to Hermione and Ron and helped them fight the fire. As if he had given an invisible signal, the survivors of the Order began clearing up. No one cheered or celebrated that they had fought Voldemort off. They simply began to clear up the debris of his attack, downhearted and downtrodden.

"Dumbledore might know what it said," Hermione consoled.

"Dumbledore might not live," Harry reminded her.

"Ever the optimist!" Hermione snapped sniffily.

"I'm so so tired," Ron groaned as he doused a new tongue of flame.

"Mmm," both Harry and Hermione agreed.

The time they spent clearing up seemed to take twice as long as the battle. When one of the members began removing the bodies she tried to make the three teenagers go to the living quarters. Sirius refused point blank to let them leave the room.

"They have to see the consequences of the actions these people make," he insisted.

"Yes, but I think they've had enough of that! They'll only become numbed to it all if you make them watch!" the tall black woman argued. Her orange jumper was torn and singed and she appeared to quite literally have two left feet. She kept tripping over her bootlaces.

"Sandra, you need medical attention," another member of the Order interrupted. "Get yourself seen to and I'll sort this out," he soothed.

Sandra departed in a clumsy fashion, shaking her head dubiously. As soon as she had gone, Harry levitated Craw's body without a word. The others watched expectantly.

"Well? Are you going to tell me what to do, or not?" he demanded of the man.

The man shrugged. "Follow me," he instructed.

The bodies were floated to their own quarters, where they were deposited on beds and covered with white sheets. Harry counted nine of the Order lost in battle. Hermione said that she and Ron had helped move Death Eater bodies. There were five dead Death Eaters and one alive but badly stunned. He was either suffering from amnesia or at least pretending to.

Half an hour after the battle was over, Moody and a lot of Aurors came storming in. They could see instantly that they were too late, so they simply assisted in the clear up. Eventually Harry and his friends were able to rest. The fire had been put out, the bodies removed and the debris tidied away. The place still looked as if it had been hit by a thousand dung bombs though.

"What time is it?" Ron asked drowsily.

"Nearly twenty to five," Hermione sighed. She leaned her head on Ron's shoulder and closed her eyes. Ron leant his head on top of hers and began to snore softly. Harry sat a little away against a broken table, his head on his knees.

Sirius stumbled up to them wearily. "Come on you three. We can go back to mine for the night."

"Where?" Harry demanded, alert.

"I live on Arran," Sirius explained. "In a village called Blackwaterfoot. The family's lived there for ages. It's the ancestral home."

Harry clambered to his feet, nudging Ron and Hermione as he did so. "What are we waiting for?" he asked. "I'm knackered!"

"Not so fast," a gruff voice intervened. A hand clamped itself on Harry's shoulder. "Do you think that's a good idea, Black? These whelps need taking back to Hogwarts. Their teachers need to know they're safe so their parents can be informed. They don't need to take a trip to your house, and you don't need to be accused of abducting them."

"Don't be such a stick in the mud, Moody!" Sirius almost whined. "Harry's my godson!"

"Besides," Moody continued as if Sirius had not said a word, "I need you back today. One of our agents discovered something interesting, little though it helped us. The attack in Norway was a distraction, to make us think Voldemort was heading to Eastern Europe. The Røkesild Road... that's Norwegian for 'Red Herring Road.' Looks like our Dark Lord has a sense of humour these days."

Sirius called Voldemort a name Harry knew even Ron wouldn't say. After apologising to Hermione, he nodded unhappily. "Take them," he muttered, dropping his head and holding out his hands helplessly.

"Well... bye," Harry said, feeling rather lost. He shook Moody's hand free and hugged Sirius, not caring that people could see. "I dunno when I'll see you again," he said.

Sirius shrugged into Harry's embrace. "No," he said shortly, as if he had given up. "Give my regards to Dumbledore, if he's still alive."

"The snake!" Hermione cried, before dashing to fetch the basket.

"What snake?" Ron asked in confusion.

Harry pulled away from Sirius and began explaining to Moody and Ron at top speed. "Oh yeah! The snake that bit Ron was an Indian Cobra. We looked in a book here earlier and if you milk the venom and administer it to Dumbledore he'll be cured!"

"How do you know? Ron got bitten? Is he all right? Won't he need antidote?" Sirius strode forwards in trepidation.

"No, Cinders healed Ron. Hermione worked out Wormtail poisoned Dumbledore!"

"Peter? That little sh-- " Sirius started, but Harry cut him off.

"Wormtail is dead, Sirius! DEAD! He died to save us."

"What?" Sirius cried. "Never, it was some sort of trick... he..."

"No! Listen, I'll explain later. We need to save Dumbledore!" Harry snapped as Hermione returned. He looked at Moody urgently. Moody gave a curt nod and escorted them quickly towards the main door.

"Goodbye, and thank you!" a member of the Order called as they passed.

"Bye!" Harry yelled hastily. "Bye Sirius!"

"Goodbye!" Hermione and Ron called, the sound of their voices echoing up the tunnel behind them.

"Now to get you back to Hogwarts," Moody grunted as they hurried back to the lighthouse. Harry shivered in the cold. His robes were ripped, his throat sore from inhaling smoke and he ached all over. Presumably Ron and Hermione felt the same. None of it mattered however; nothing mattered as much as getting back to Hogwarts and saving Dumbledore's life.