The Mark of Death

For the next few weeks Harry had to endure more grueling Occulmency lessons, more bickering between Ron and Hermione, and many failed attempts to speak with Dumbledore. Many times Harry found himself standing outside his office by the Gargoyle hoping to catch the Headmaster, but would be told by either McGonagall or some other teacher that he was far too busy to speak to anyone at the moment - or he was away from the school altogether. Malfoy's classes were turning out to be different too; she seemed to have a difficult time meeting Harry's eye, a couple of occasions he had made a sarcastic remark that she had certainly heard - her eyes had widened and she had straightened her back - but she wouldn't say anything about it - she was avoiding Harry completely almost as though she were scared of him.

In early October she made an announcement during class, "Saturday evening we will be attempting the Dueling lessons in the Great Hall, I realize you have had them in your second year, but from what I have heard you weren't properly instructed," she said smoothly. "In a real Duel you don't take turns throwing curse for curse, waiting for your opponent to take a turn - you throw as many as you possibly can in the hopes of at least one making contact, deflecting your opponent's curses if not cursing them."

Hermione raised her hand. Malfoy looked at her curiously, "Yes?"

"Isn't it simpler to just disarm your opponent? This 'eye for an eye' method..."

"I see," Malfoy said quietly, staring intently at Hermione. "Disarming is good, but if you are unable to speak you can't exactly utter the incantation, and if your opponent Silences you... what other choice do you have? What if they have more than one wand? Sometimes it could be a case of kill or be killed."

This made the room go very quiet, people were glancing at each other nervously, Harry knew many of them were probably wondering if she was planning on teaching the Killing Curse. She picked up a piece of parchment off her desk and looked at it before looking back up at the class. "Tonight I want to see a few of you," she began listing off the paper, "Hermione Granger, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Justin Finch-Fletchley..." Harry tuned her out when he noticed the look on Hermione's face; she was startled and looking around the room at the other people Malfoy had listed. Harry realized none of them were Slytherins - Draco was already stuffing his things into his bag as though he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

"After dinner would be good, here, at six o'clock."

The bell rang and they poured out quickly, Draco pushed Hermione out of the way so hard that her books spilled out from her arms. "Jerk," Hermione muttered, grabbing the books that Ron had already managed to pick up for her. Cho walked by in the hall at that very moment, stopping to look at what was happening, glaring at Hermione then looking over at Ron. Harry was under the impression that she was deliberately not looking at him.

"Ron, you have a spare now, right? Would you like to go to the Pitch and throw a Quaffle around?"

"Er- uh," he looked apologetically at Harry. Harry just shrugged it off to tell Ron he didn't mind. "Sure, why not then?"

Cho grabbed Ron's arm, giving Hermione another loathsome look before the two walked off. Hermione just shrugged and looked at Harry. "We'd better hurry, I don't think it would do you any good to be late for Snape's class."

Harry nodded, agreeing, Snape had been worse than ever to Harry, likely he had been looking forward to a Harry-free year, and instead was getting him for Occulmency as well. "So- why do you think you have that detention?" Harry muttered as they walked through the Dungeons towards Snape's classroom.

"Oh Harry! You didn't notice?" Hermione looked at him horrified, her voice down to a bare whisper.

"I noticed she's not taking in any Slytherins, but they all hate her..."

"It's all the Muggleborns and partial Muggleborns in our year! Don't you find that odd, given her history?" Hermione interrupted as they took their seats in the classroom. Before Harry could answer her the door to the Potions lab slammed shut; Snape was looking murderously at everyone.

"Which fool left his Monkshood near the window last class?" He was looking directly at Harry.

"Er- was I not supposed to?" Harry felt his face burning red as Nott and Pansy were doubling up with silent laughter, Draco was only shaking his head with disgust, as though he knew that Harry shouldn't be there. Snape glided over towards Harry, reminding him almost of a Dementor, standing menacingly over him.

"If you had enough sense to research your work, you would know that sunlight causes the plants to create sugar, a process of which even the Muggles are aware of," Snape smirked, glancing up at the Slytherins at the other side of the room. The rest of the class fell silent.

"I guess that's bad?" Harry muttered, feeling very embarrassed as everyone watched. Snape had them working on Wolfsbane Potion while the ingredients for the Polyjuice need their time to work, and it was a highly difficult potion to make.

"I certainly hope you aren't planning on brewing this for Lupin," Snape sneered, "sugar makes the Wolfsbane useless, though, I suppose you wouldn't make the same mistake twice if you were to actually brew it for a Werewolf."

During the rest of the class Harry had to endure more of Snape's taunts, getting more Wolfsbane from the cupboard, chopping and adding it carefully, not wanting to be humiliated by Snape again. Occasionally Hermione would look over and shake her head to tell him he wasn't doing it right. He felt completely relieved at the end of the class, rushing out to the Great Hall with Hermione struggling to keep up.

"Where's Ron?" Neville asked, sliding into a seat next to Hermione and reaching for a sandwich.

"I don't know," she said in a very irate voice, looking at Neville angrily. "Probably with Cho Chang still."

"Actually, Ronald is not with Cho," Luna Lovegood's voice rang from behind Hermione, making her wince and turn around. Luna was wearing some earrings that looked like little Golden Snitches; they even had wings that fluttered quickly. Harry thought they looked rather pretty, especially considering the accessories Luna had been known to wear. Her eyes were wide and her eyebrows raised, she almost looked like she was surprised to see them there. "He had been flying with Cho, until Professor McGonagall went out and called him into her office." She pointed to the Ravenclaw table to show them that Cho was sitting there giggling with a group of her friends.

"Is he in trouble?" Hermione asked quickly, "Did McGonagall see them doing anything they shouldn't..."

"HERMIONE!" Harry said angrily. "That's really none of your business!"

"What isn't?" Ron sat down and grabbed a sandwich, his hair tousled about from the wind. Harry had the sneaking suspicion that Ron was making it look that way on purpose, the way Harry's father used to.

Luna smiled and went back to sit at the Ravenclaw table while Hermione scowled at Ron. "What did McGonagall want Ron, were you in trouble for being late for class, or something to do with Cho?"

"Actually," Ron said coldly to her, "Professor McGonagall saw me on the Pitch with Cho and asked me to see her in her office to meet with me about my new Quidditch Captain duties, but once again Hermione, thank you for your vote of confidence."

"You're captain?" Hermione looked at him now with disbelief, as though she thought Ron too stupid to be on the team at all, "you've only been on the team a year, Harry's been on for six!"

"But Ron's been to watch most of the practices, he's grown up watching Quidditch - I think he's a brilliant choice." Harry said truthfully, feeling defensive of Ron. Harry knew that Ron would have seen it all from a different perspective than Harry had - he would have been able to see from the stands for a long while, and know the strengths and weaknesses of everyone, including the other teams. He felt genuinely happy for Ron.

Hermione didn't say anything more through their lunch as Harry, Ron, and Neville talked about great Quidditch games and plays, Ron saying they would soon have to hold tryouts for the two Beaters to replace Fred and George, and the Chaser to replace Angelina. Hermione finished quickly and stormed out of the Hall, slamming the door behind her.

"Was it something I said?" Ron muttered as he watched her leave. "Honestly, it seems I can't do anything right. Ah well, we have Divination now, perhaps Trelawney will predict Hermione's mood swings are coming from a tilt in Venus's orbit or Firenze will have his turn in telling us that the trivial things shouldn't get in our way and to stay focused on the looming war - it's honestly become a very difficult class with the two of them contradicting each other."

"At least they're not fighting though," Neville said quietly, while they approached classroom eleven. Neville was right, Harry was surprised that Trelawney didn't get angry at Firenze for contradicting her - in fact, she would often sit with the students on the grass and listen intently to every word he said, her eyes filled with admiration. Harry was finding the class far more bearable now, seeing as she hadn't yet predicted his death, and because it was still just the Gryffindors with him, the others taking Divination had separate classes too.

They learned today about the history of Centaurs predicting several disasters in the past that could have been averted had there not been so much bigotry amongst Wizards, Trelawney keeping quiet through the entire class except the end of it, to tearily say to Firenze how horrible she felt that his people were looked upon so unkindly by her own. Harry and Ron had to get out of there quickly to explode into fits of laughter in the Entrance Hall. "Her kind? What would that be, aliens?" Parvati and Lavender glared at them as they walked by.

"Seriously though," Ron said between breaths, "I don't understand why Dumbledore is keeping the two of them, it's rather confusing."

"He's keeping Firenze for his protection, you know what the other Centaurs will do if he goes back, perhaps he pities her, I mean, who else would hire her?" Harry said with a shrug.

*

Throughout dinner Hermione kept glancing at the High Table to see what Malfoy was doing; Harry had noticed that none of the other teachers really spoke to her, nor did she to them. Occasionally her and Snape would exchange glares if they thought the other wasn't looking, but so far Harry hadn't seen anyone talk to her. Dumbledore was rarely to be seen around the castle, Harry guessed that he was off helping the Order of the Phoenix, or was speaking to the Ministry - seeing as they no longer could deny Voldemort's return they likely needed Dumbledore's advice on many things. Other students seemed to have realized that Malfoy only wanted to meet with those students that were not Purebloods, and were nervously glancing at each other every so often.

"I'm not going," Seamus announced boldly to anyone that would listen. "What can she do about it?"

"I'm going," Hermione said quietly. "She's not going to be able to do anything to all of us, she's out-numbered."

Hermione and Dean soon encouraged Seamus to join them, and Harry watched as other students, Finch-Fenley and a couple Hufflepuff girls - then a few students from Ravenclaw, and he then noticed something else; Draco Malfoy turning in his seat and glaring murderously at his mother as she walked out of the Great Hall.

"Sure wish we could have bought some Extendable Ears," Ron muttered quietly, dropping his fork and getting up. "Perhaps we should tell McGonagall what Malfoy's up to?"

"And say what, 'we think she's going to do something, but we don't know what' honestly Ron, she'll think we're a couple of paranoid nutters. None of the staff like her, I don't think she's going to do anything stupid yet. Let's wait in the Common Room for Hermione, you can put up the posting for the new players on the bulletin."

Harry finally talked Ron into it, and they went up to the Gryffindor Common Room. An hour passed by before Seamus and Dean came through the Fat Lady's Portrait, talking animatedly as they sat in the cushy chairs next to the ones Ron and Harry were lounging in, creating a notice for Quidditch tryouts.

"What happened?" Ron demanded sharply, "and where's Hermione?"

Dean shrugged. "Malfoy wanted to be sure we all knew what we were doing because she said she's sure the Slytherins would be merciless in the Dueling lesson, Hermione stayed back to talk to her."

"She WHAT?" Harry dropped his quill and looked angrily at the two boys.

"Calm down, Harry, they don't know about..."

"BUT HERMIONE DOES!"

Dean and Seamus shot each other some confused looks, not knowing any of what had happened with Sirius at the end of term last year. "Er," Seamus said, cautiously looking at Harry, "it wasn't a big deal, Hermione wanted a few extra words with her - it wasn't personal, she wanted us to demonstrate our abilities on a few hexes and such, she gave us all points... It's hard to believe she's related to that git Draco."

"I think it pretty much explains it all," Harry said coldly. "She's worse than he is."

Hermione climbed through the Portrait before Seamus or Dean could ask Harry why he hated her so much and hurried out of their seats and up the stairs, making Harry wonder if they were thinking he was nuts again as Hermione took the seat where Dean had been sitting.

"I think we might have been wrong about her," Hermione said quietly, sitting forward in her chair. "She is really concerned for what might happen to us against the Slytherins."

"Too bad she wasn't that concerned for her own family members!" Harry snapped, glowering at Hermione and shaking with rage. "She's the one that had Kreacher trick me into thinking Sirius was being tortured..."

"Harry, maybe you should hear her side, you don't know what happened, only Kreacher's side of what he had seen!" Hermione cried miserably.

"So, you think Dumbledore would lie then?" Harry said in a cold, quiet voice not unlike Snape's.

"NO! I think Kreacher could have been wrong - you know, like he only told Dumbledore what he thought had happened, if you just go and talk to her!" Hermione was close to tears, but Harry didn't care. She was defending one of the people Harry held the most responsible to happen to Sirius.

"I'm not talking to Malfoy, and as of this moment, I'm not speaking to you!" Harry grabbed his bag and stormed off to the boy's dorm, tossing his bag on the floor and flopping down head first onto his pillow.

*

For the rest of the week Harry didn't speak to Hermione, Ron seemed to want to try and patch it all up but was likely too afraid to suggest to Harry that he and Hermione make up out of fear of Harry not speaking to him, either. Ron was having problems of his own with Hermione, too; Cho had insisted he stop spending so much time alone with her, and now that Harry and Hermione were fighting, the only time Ron could be around Hermione was if Harry wasn't there, so he was opting more to hanging around Harry.

Saturday evening all of the sixth year students gathered around in the Great Hall; all the tables and chairs had been moved and they waited anxiously for the lesson to start. Hermione glared at Harry and Ron before walking over to Neville and talking quietly to him; he looked scared. The Slytherins stood away from everyone else, pointing and whispering - the odd giggle was heard from either Pansy or Destiny every so often. As soon as Professor Malfoy walked in everyone quieted down.

"Ok," she looked nervously at them all, the first time Harry had seen her have any kind of real expression on her face. She was wearing very unusual black robes; they didn't billow out the way most did - they were more fitted like Muggle dresses, but had small, silver snakes going down each side. "Er- Professor Dumbledore felt you needed more than just one teacher for this, in case it gets out of hand, so..." she was visibly upset, looking uneasily at the large doors. Harry realized why; Snape had walked in, his lip curled in the usual nasty sneer - she was obviously terrified of him but fighting madly not to show it.

"You're going to be paired up from this," she held up a small hat that seemed full of little papers in one hand, (Harry wondered if it was one of the hats Hermione had knitted for the Elves - it was very ugly), and tightly clutching a long, thin wand in the other. "I thought you could pair up but apparently that was unacceptable." She said this last word with obvious sarcasm, glaring at Snape.

"I suppose in a real duel you would choose a friend, Malfoy?" Snape demanded, his sneer getting more pronounced. Harry could see the Slytherins grinning, Draco watching intently.

"Everyone please take a number," she said quietly, trying to ignore him. "the number you get will match with someone else's, that will be your opponent."

Harry walked up and pulled out a piece of paper then walked back over to Ron. "I got thirteen, what did you get?"

"Four - I better not be with a Slytherin," he looked grimly at them; Draco was pulling a paper out and looking around anxiously. There was a buzzing of people trying to find their partners; Ron and Neville were matched up, Hermione was stuck with Nott and wasn't looking the least bit pleased about it. "Please not Draco," Harry thought desperately.

Professor Malfoy walked over seeing that Harry hadn't been paired up yet, Harry glared at her angrily but said nothing, passing her the paper. "Who has thirteen?" ('Ooh that's unlucky!' Parvati squealed.)

"I do," Millicent Bulstrode walked heavily over, looking Harry over like he was a pesky insect. She was so close that Harry could see little black hairs on her upper lip, and looked away with disgust.

"You're with Potter, then," Malfoy said curtly, walking off to the middle of the large room, still clutching her wand tightly. "You are going to try to hex your opponents, please refrain from the curses as they are not acceptable, I will be watching, anyone does anything harmful here will fail the term." she moved out from the center to the wall and stood against it. "Now."

Instantly, hell had broken loose. Several people had thrown the Impedimenta Jinx, others had stunned their opponents, some were clutching themselves or singing - Hermione was upside-down and floating in mid-air, with several Slytherins rolling around in hysterics as Hermione screamed.

"FINITE INCANTUM!" Snape shouted and the room immediately quieted down, Hermione had fallen hard and was rubbing her shoulder - Harry felt like going over and helping her but remembered that he was still angry; that and the fact that his legs still were shaking from the Rubber legs Jinx Bulstrode had issued to him. Ron and Neville moved over near Harry, the only two that seemed to have been behaving appropriately and not suffering from lasting effects.

"What in the hell are you thinking?" Snape seethed, striding towards Malfoy angrily. She said nothing, but Harry could see she was clutching her wand so tightly now her knuckles had become white, opaque sparks were flickering from the tip of her wand.

"Clearly you have never taught before, otherwise you would have demonstrated better judgment." Snape glared angrily at her.

"Ah, my mistake," she replied with a hint of sarcasm, her voice so low that Harry wondered how many others could hear it. He noticed Draco edging closer to see what was going on, a look of pure enjoyment on his face. "Yet... you were denied the job yourself yet again, what does that tell you?"

Snape looked homicidal, pulling his wand out of his robes and pointing it at her, seemingly forgetting there was a class full of witnesses. She looked startled at the wand pointing at her, yet brought her own up, causing Harry and several others to back away from the two. "I suppose you plan on demonstrating better judgement, then?"

Snape's hand made a slight motion, which seemed to unhinge Malfoy; she brought her wand up and made a diagonal movement with it - causing a red light that Snape quickly deflected with his own. A few students gasped, surprised to see a real duel break out in the middle of a lesson between two teachers. The Slytherins looked ecstatic, however, and were trying to get as close in to watch without actually getting in the way. Different colored lights were coming out of each of their wands, meeting and bouncing off each other - the two Professors not daring to break eye contact.

"Arachnius!" Snape muttered, and what looked like bits of powder flew out of his wand and made contact with Malfoy. At first Harry couldn't tell what it was, but it was all over her robes, and it was moving - and making a weird, small, screeching noise that seemed to be coming from Harry's left... but that wasn't coming from her, it was coming from Ron - Harry glanced at him; he was digging his fingers into his face making red blotches appear behind his freckles, and his mouth was open in a silent scream. Harry looked back at Malfoy and realized the stuff on her robes were actually spiders. She screamed and began to try brushing them off, the Slytherins were laughing hysterically again. Snape lowered his wand watching her struggle with the spiders, his lip curling to a sneer again.

She then moved suddenly, slashing her wand sideways and whispering something - and Snape was suddenly on his knees clutching at his throat and gasping for air. She watched for a moment, then she brought her wand up again in the opposite direction, stopping the curse and letting him breath, then looked down to try and shake the rest of her spiders off.

Snape got up quickly, looking furiously at her, pointing his wand again. "Placidus!"

Her wand fell to the ground, her eyes widened and she seemed to stiffen - a handful of spiders fell from her to the ground with a soft 'clink'. Then she followed, falling stiffly straight back - little shards of ice falling from her hair and robes as she hit the ground. Draco made a sudden movement from Harry's right, but when Harry glanced over he was smirking again as though hoping to see his own mother finished off. She sat up slowly, her lips were tinged a blueish color and her teeth chattering. Snape walked over and pocketed both his own wand and hers then put his hand out as if to help her up.

"You should know not to take pity on your opponent."

She glared up at him, then, with surprisingly fast reflexes for someone who had been frozen, she grabbed another wand from the side of her boot and pointed it in his face, a slight smirk on her face. "And you should know better than to put away your wand if your opponent is still conscious, shouldn't you?"

She lowered her wand and began to get up slowly. Snape; looking very angry at being defeated, quickly drew his wand out again and took careful aim, "Legilimens!"

Malfoy instantly dropped down on her knees screaming and holding her head, almost as though trying to physically stop Snape from entering her mind. Harry wondered if this was how he had reacted the first time, remembering how Snape had made the comment that he would do better to use his brain instead of yelling, and he had ended up on the floor the way she was. Harry found himself hoping that she hurts herself trying to stop him. Snape's eyes were focused on her intently, making quick, darting movements as he watched her thoughts move.

"What the hell is he doing to her?" Ron muttered quietly from beside Harry.

"Legilimency," Harry replied in a low voice; as Draco was nearby.

Snape stopped the curse, a very odd expression on his face of both surprise and anger, making Harry wonder what he had seen in Malfoy's memories. Malfoy grabbed her wand off the ground, stopping momentarily to glare at Snape before storming out of the Great Hall.

"Everyone get to your dorms," Snape said quietly, following her out the door.

"Well," Ron said quietly as they walked up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower, "If there is anything that I feel I learned in that class, don't piss off Snape."