The Mark of Death

Harry woke Wednesday morning with a start, he had been dreaming about the night Sirius was killed and his scar was searing with pain. He slowly sat up, wanting more than anything for the pain to be gone and the memory wiped from his head, but the harder he tried not to think about it, the more it seemed to replay itself over and over; Sirius falling backwards into the veil, Bellatrix screaming triumphantly, Sirius's vacant, lifeless eyes...

"Harry?"

He nearly jumped out of his skin when Ron put his hand on his shoulder, looking at him with a bewildered look on his face. He reached for his glasses to see better, the reality of the dream still effecting him, making him slightly confused about his surroundings.

"What?" .

"You ok, mate? You were muttering a lot in your sleep," Ron whispered, looking behind him at Neville, who obviously had also been wakened by whatever noises Harry had made.

"I'm fine, I'm ok, I was dreaming about Sir..." He couldn't bring himself to say it, he closed his eyes and lay back on his pillow, not wanting to give way to the feelings he had been putting off all summer long. "I don't feel well, I think I'm going to skive off classes today."

"You don't want to see McGonagall, do you?" Ron said, proving that he was starting to know Harry almost as well as Harry knew himself - Harry knew they had a double Transfiguration class first thing in the morning and he was still sore at her for getting her into Snape's NEWT levels when he hadn't met the requirements. "That and it would be a perfect opportunity for you to miss the Occlumency lesson, too."

Harry opened on eye to glower at Ron, but he was amused, too.

"Come on Harry, as a Prefect I demand that you go to your classes, no skipping, unless of course, it's Potions, because I have a spare and we could practice Quidditch."

"Bugger off," Harry smiled, despite his gloomy thoughts of Sirius's death, and got up and dressed to go down to breakfast.

Hermione, Neville, and Ginny soon joined them and took their seats, all involved in deep conversations about Quidditch.

"Well, now that Harry's able to play again, I think I'll try out as a chaser. Angelina finished last year, so her spot is open, and I think Dean says he might try out for one of the Beaters." Ginny smiled. She had taken Harry's place as Seeker last year, but had admitted to wanting the Chaser position instead, saying Harry was the better player. He managed a smile but was still shaken by his dream.

"Weasel," Draco Malfoy's cold voice spoke from behind him, "the Head Girl wants a word with you."

Ron looked utterly bewildered. "What about Hermione? Doesn't she want to see all the Prefects?"

"Just you," Draco replied curtly, glancing around the table with his cold grey eyes, stopping on Hermione, "she's probably is excluding Mudbloods, she was smart enough to make Head Girl, right?"

Draco walked off, and it was probably to his advantage that Snape walked in at that moment; Harry, Ron, Neville and Dean were all reaching for a large plate of scrambled eggs to throw at him, changing their minds as the greasy-haired Professor glared their way.

"I wonder what that's all about," Hermione muttered as Ron got up and walked over to the Ravenclaw table to see Cho, "usually the Head Boy and Girl give us all instructions, not just individually."

"Who knows?" Harry shrugged, not giving it a second thought as he reached for some pumpkin juice. "Ron will tell you soon enough, I'm sure. We'd better get to class, he can catch up, we're going to be late if we wait for him." Harry grabbed his things and walked to Transfiguration with Hermione, Neville, and Dean. They likely would have made it in time had Peeves not blocked off a corridor with what looked like every single suit of armor in the castle, some in very rude positions, and had to take a longer route.

They walked in to see Professor McGonagall, standing at the front of the class looking angrily at Pansy Parkinson; who's hair had gone from pale blonde to jet black, with a white stripe down where the part should be. Her cheeks were red as though very embarrassed and was looking at her wand in her hands as though she would like to snap it.

"Take your seats," McGonagall snapped at them as they came in, "and please take a look at Miss Parkinson as an example of why we do not attempt human transfiguration on ourselves unless we are accomplished Animagi!"

Harry watched for McGonagall to turn her back before pointing at Pansy and laughing. Hermione shook her head at him as if to say 'no', but he could see her eyes were filled with amusement. Pansy was often cruel to all of them. Draco, Nott, and Bulstrode all gave them murderous looks. Harry looked around and noticed almost everyone from his year was in the class; the room had been magically extended to allow for the extra desks. McGonagall must have pushed for everyone to pass their OWLs last term, it looked like the majority were in there considering it was a difficult class. He was delighted to see that Crabbe and Goyle were not there.

Professor McGonagall continued after putting Pansy's hair right. "This is your first NEWT year, I will be teaching human Transfiguration that we do on EACH OTHER' (she scowled at the Slytherins again) 'and not ourselves. You can end up with permanent damage otherwise. Can anyone tell me how our animal form is decided?"

Hermione's hand was the first to shoot up. "The animal chooses the Wizard, like wands."

"That is correct Miss Granger, the animal we share the most similarities to is the one we are to become, and Miss Parkinson, I hope that was a Badger or a raccoon and not a skunk, or you may want to take advantage of your Prefect status and use their bath."

The classroom was filled with gleeful faces, except for the Slytherins. Harry was regretting not being there on time to see what had happened, it would have brightened his day dramatically.

"Now, if you are not an Animagi, as I'm sure none of you are, you can still be transformed into an animal by someone else, but you can't do it on your own properly. And because this is highly dangerous magic I want you all to really research it well before we practice. You are all to read chapters one through ten over the next two weeks and hand in a four foot roll' (everyone groaned) 'on human transfiguration and the dangers it can bring. Don't look at me like that, Padma, it's crucial that everyone knows what they're doing or risk sporting a forked tongue for the rest or your life."

A few people giggled at this as they brought their books out and began quietly reading. The classroom door swung open and Ron slid through; his ears a bright pink. McGonagall cast him a dangerous look that would have impressed Snape. "Weasley, why are you late for my class?"

"Er-" he looked over at Harry and Hermione briefly, "the, er- Head Girl needed to talk to me, then I couldn't get back because Peeves blocked off a corridor... and Filch..."

"Let Miss Chang know that I will not tolerate tardiness for any reason, and to make her meetings with Prefects convenient for more than just herself. Miss Granger will fill you in on what you missed later, just start reading your book from chapters one through ten."

They spent the rest of the class reading quietly, Hermione's quill was the only sound to be heard, she had clearly already read the chapters and had began her homework on Human Transfiguration. Harry kept glancing at Ron, who wasn't reading; he had a dazed, yet somewhat guilty look on his face as he looked at Hermione.

After Transfiguration Harry and Ron headed to the Common Room, Hermione had passed her Astronomy OWL, but neither of them had; they had been too distracted during the examination to pay any attention. They now had a spare period before lunch. Harry decided to use this time to find out from Ron what had happened.

"Oh, er- it was like I had said, Peeves had blocked off a corridor, and then Filch came and accused me and Cho of putting the mess there, and..." Ron was looking very intently at his shoelaces, and Harry could tell he was avoiding something.

"What are you afraid to say Ron? Cho not planning on trying to take Hermione off the Prefects, is she?" Harry interjected, knowing that Ron had seemed anxious to not talk to Hermione after class.

Ron looked astounded at this. "NO! Er- if you really want to know, Cho asked me out - to Hogsmeade for the next visit." He looked sheepishly at Harry. "I didn't know what to say, I mean, you and her..."

"Oh that?" Harry forced himself to laugh, but he had not been expecting to hear that at all. "Go ahead if you want to, I don't care."

He suddenly found he was very annoyed at Ron, but he shouldn't be, should he? Cho had been horrible to him, she had proven to be a snob, totally jealous - why did he suddenly feel like pushing Ron and starting a row?

"Harry! If you don't want me to I won't! I didn't give her an answer, I wanted to be sure you were alright with it." Ron looked so torn, but for some reason this made Harry angrier. He was feeling all his frustrations begin to boil over - Sirius's death, Malfoy teaching, Snape and having to do more Occlumency, Professor McGonagall pulling strings to get him into a class he hated...

"DID YOU SAY THAT TO HER?" Harry yelled, disgusted, making a couple seven years who were sitting and studying turn and look over curiously. "GEE, THANKS FOR THINKING ABOUT ME! Just what I bloody well need, YOU of all people, pitying ME!"

Ron's flushed, looking angry now, too, and stood over Harry. "I'M NOT PITYING YOU! YOU'RE DOING A SUPERIOR JOB OF THAT YOURSELF!"

This hit Harry hard; anyone else could have said it and it would have rolled off his back, but hearing it from Ron was too much. "I- I'm not, feeling sorry for myself."

"You are," Ron said coldly. "I'm sorry Sirius died, I really am, but you did this to us a lot last year and I can't take it anymore. If you still like Cho, I won't go out with her, it's as simple as that. Friendship is more important to me."

"Go ahead, Ron," Harry said sincerely this time, "I'm not interested in her like that, I was just surprised, that's all. Seriously," he added, seeing Ron's look of confusion, "it's all right. Have a good time."

Harry actually took it a lot better than Hermione - who, after hearing this at lunchtime, grabbed her bag and left the Great Hall without a word, and continued to give Ron the silent treatment for the rest of the day. She even managed to 'slip up' in Charms class, hitting Ron's desk with a Shrinking Charm. It had caused the Slytherins in the class to laugh spitefully, and it took a while for Professor Flitwick to settle the class down and free Ron from the desk constricting him.

After a very tense, quiet dinner in the Great Hall with Hermione and Ron shooting angry looks at each other, Harry slowly made his way down to the dungeons for his Occulmency session with Snape, wondering why after last years conversation with Dumbledore he was being forced to do this again with Snape. Dumbledore said he should have taught Harry himself, yet here he was, once again, ready to be verbally abused and tormented by the Potions master.

Sure enough, Snape was not in a good temper when Harry had arrived in his office. He was sitting at his desk with the Pensieve in front of him, putting his wand to his temple and pulling out silvery strands of his thoughts to pour into the basin before so much as looking at Harry.

"Sit," he finally snarled, glaring hatefully at Harry after placing the Pensieve high on a shelf. Harry took a seat across from Snape's desk quickly, recognizing the dangerous tone Snape seemed to often have with him. "Before we begin I am going to make something very clear to you. If I find you going through anything in my office again I will not be at all accountable for my actions,' (Snape's eyes traveled briefly to the shelf where he had just placed his thoughts) 'I did not wish to do this last year, I sure as hell don't want to now..."

"Why can't Professor Dumbledore teach me, then?" Harry interjected quickly.

"Do not interrupt me!" Snape seethed, standing menacingly over Harry. "The Headmaster is far too busy with the Ministry and other business now to be bothered with your petty needs. Stand up and get your wand out."

Harry stood quickly and began to pull his wand out, but before he had it he heard Snape hiss, "Legilimens!"

Harry's memories hit him fast: he was suddenly nine years old and in the school bathroom being held upside down over the toilet by the ankles by Dudley, Piers Polkiss was flushing it as Dudley dunked his head into the filthy, yellowing bowl... he was kissing Cho... Harry was back at the Ministry of Magic, watching Sirius duel with Bellatrix Lestrange, the curse hitting Sirius and knocking him backwards through the veil... "STOP!"

Harry fought like mad to stop the prickly feeling behind his eyes from turning into anything more than that as he slowly lifted himself off the floor, glaring furiously at Snape, who wasn't meeting his eyes. He couldn't help wonder if Snape was fighting off a smile, he had hated Sirius so much that Harry wouldn't have put it past him.

"Well that didn't go very well, did it?" Snape said in his soft, quiet voice. Harry was very sure he had not mistaken the note of pleasure in Snape's voice, and shot him a murderous look.

"Might have," he snapped back at him, "had you at least waited until my wand was in my hand."

Snape's face reddened, his cold black eyes narrowed to faint slits. "The same rules apply as last year, Potter, do not speak to me in such a rude manner."

Not wanting to prolong this anymore than necessary, Harry nodded. "Yes, sir," he muttered, standing up again and holding his wand ready in case Snape decided to hit him again unexpectedly. Professor Snape raised his wand and aimed it at Harry when a sharp knocking at the door interrupted them. Harry let out a small sigh of relief as he hid his wand in his robes and sat at the desk while Snape opened the door to let Draco Malfoy in.

"Sever-" Draco started, but stopped short when he saw Harry and looked uncertainly at Snape. "Er- I mean, several..." Harry sat back, never having seen Draco act so nervous he was actually enjoying it.

"Is everything all right, Draco?" Snape asked quietly, glancing at Harry as if to remind him to keep his mouth shut.

"I had another disagreement," Draco said, glaring at Harry then looking pointedly at Snape, "but if you want I'll come back later."

"No," Snape said smoothly, looking at Harry coldly, "I was just giving Potter a detention for his usual ignorance," (Draco smiled at this - he loved to see Snape torment Harry) "but he's finished now. Potter - get to your Common Room."

Harry didn't feel any need to argue with this - as weird as the whole scenario had been, and grabbed his things and rushed out of there to go to the Common Room where Hermione was sitting waiting anxiously. Harry told her all of what had happened, but she sort of shrugged it off.

"Well..." Hermione started, nervously looking at a couple of first years who were playing exploding snap, "I had heard something - I thought it was a load of rubbish really, but I heard that Draco had a huge spat with his mother right at the beginning of summer and that he's been staying with Snape instead."

"But he seemed to be protective of her on the train," Harry replied, confused.

"Well, yes, of course he was - but she's still his mother," Hermione said, shifting in her seat to move closer to the fire, "and since the insults were coming from you that made them worse."

This made some sense to Harry, Draco wouldn't have liked Harry saying anything about his family even if he agreed with it. "I wonder how he came to staying with Snape then."

"Snape's his Godfather," Hermione said in a low voice as Dean and Seamus walked by.

"Where do you learn all of this?" Harry asked in awe. None of the Slytherins were very fond of Hermione, so Harry couldn't see them telling her.

"I was listening in on Pansy Parkinson talking to Destiny Moon - she's that Slytherin girl with the dark red hair, bit of a snob really. Anyways, that's why Professor Malfoy probably hates Snape so much."

Harry nodded, not really sympathizing with any of them, as far as he was concerned he'd like to see any of them miserable and suffering. He suddenly didn't want to talk about it anymore.

"Where's Ron?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, and Harry could hear a slight note of sarcasm in her voice, "With Cho, in the library. All the times I tried to get him to go there to study! Harry - this has to bother you, doesn't it?" She was positively fuming.

"Er- no? I mean, at first I was a bit surprised, but I don't really like her anymore." Harry could see it was bothering Hermione a lot more, but he didn't dare point it out. As Harry began to work on his Transfiguration homework, Hermione was glancing at the door, rummaging through her bag, pulling out a book, putting the book back in - glancing at the door again...

Ron finally came in just after midnight, looking startled to see them still up. Hermione threw down her knitting and stood up in front of Ron. "Where have you been all this time? The library has been closed for hours!"

Ron gave Harry a startled look; Harry just shrugged and began to put his quill away.

"I was with Cho! We walked around the Greenhouses, and..."

"RON! SHE'S ONLY USING YOU TO UPSET HARRY!" Hermione yelled at him, "SHE'S NOT EVEN INTERESTED IN YOU!"

Ron's face went red and he glared at her. "Oh, that's right. No one should actually take an interest in me, right Hermione? Let's see, last year you were sure my getting to be a Prefect was a joke, a bad Quidditch practice had to be my fault, and now this! YOU THINK I'M PATHETIC!"

Harry was suddenly under the impression that they had forgot he was there, and wanted to sneak upstairs unnoticed, but knew if he got up one of them would try and make him say what he thought of it all, so he kept watching silently, hoping they would resolve it quickly.

"You're dating Cho, that's reason enough to think that way!" Hermione cried, her voice seemed to be breaking as though she were going to cry. She looked at Ron; then at Harry, and grabbed her bag and stormed up to the girl's dormitory. Ron looked dumbfounded at Harry.

"What's up with her?" He asked as they headed up the spiral stairs to get ready for bed.

"No idea," Harry muttered, though he had a feeling he did know. "I don't think she's too happy about you seeing Cho though."