The Mark of Death

The Dueling class had sparked an even stronger animosity between the two Professors. Over the next few weeks Harry had noticed the two of them glowering at each other at meal times or in the halls - Malfoy seemed to be utterly terrified of Snape. Her anger seemed to extend towards her own son, who had somehow become even more arrogant and sarcastic, showing up late for every class, deliberately shaking his lengthening hair back as he would sit down.

"Now that Draco has decided to grace us with his presence, we can get on with the Silent Curses," Malfoy muttered, trying to look calm but obviously very angry. Her wand was in her hand; she seemed to never let go of it anymore. "These are techniques where you only wave the wand without speaking, but it takes very high concentration..." she stopped talking to look over at the Slytherins; Draco was whispering quietly to Pansy - who was fighting off a huge case of the giggles.

"Draco and Pansy, is there something you wish to share with the entire class?" she said loudly, her eyes glittering angrily.

Draco sneered. "You missed a chapter, chapter thirteen. Any reason?"

She looked irritated at Draco, Crabbe and Goyle sniggering quietly. Harry opened his book to see what chapter thirteen was; 'Unforgivable Curses'.

"We won't be learning the curses on chapter thirteen," she said smoothly, looking like she was trying desperately to keep control, her wand gripped tightly in her hand again.

"Why is it in the text book then?" Draco demanded loudly, his arrogant smirk growing.

"It was the only book I could find that covered all the lessons for the term, That chapter is not one of them," she hissed, glaring at Draco and the other Slytherins, "No more disrupting the class, Draco. Ten points from Slytherin."

Harry could tell that Ron was trying hard to not smile, seeing as Harry was continuing to give Hermione the silent treatment for not hating Professor Malfoy. The Slytherins made a bunch of noise, Harry distinctly heard Draco say, "traitor" under his breath. She tried several times to bring them to order but they continued muttering profanities about her and saying how unfair it was. She walked over to the blackboard and scratched her long nails down it, making a horrible screeching noise that made many people wince and everyone quieted down.

"I'm sorry, twenty points - and detention Draco. Now back to Silent Curses..."

Care of Magical Creatures wasn't much better. It was unseasonably cold; the wind and the rain was hammering against the castle windows as they set out to meet Hagrid by his hut.

"Today we're gonna take the lesson inside," Hagrid hollered over the wind and gestured to his little hut.

"And how does he expect to fit us all in there?" Draco said to a bunch of Slytherins who were huddling together to keep warm. "He can barely fit through the door himself."

As much as Harry hated to, he was silently agreeing with Draco. While Hagrid's hut was very cozy for Hermione, Ron and Harry to take tea with Hagrid, it was by far too small for an entire class. The fire in his little fireplace seemed to have died down to almost nothing, the occasional silver spark crackling out from the grey coals. Hagrid stepped over to the fire and looked around at everyone, not seeming to notice they were all stepping on each other's feet. "Everyone, look at the fire, watch close there, yeh see where the embers are greying? Watch closely - er- Goyle, get off Neville's foot, alrigh'"

"What are we supposed to be seeing?" Draco said coldly, "besides, of course, these miserable living conditions."

Hagrid reddened but continued to point into the fire. Parvati let out a little shriek as one of the greyish embers began to move and grew rapidly, forming a long, winding shape. Harry watched with amazement as the grey ember turned into a snake, slithering out of the fire and towards Hagrid's sofa.

"WHAT ARE THEY?!" Shrieked Pansy, jumping onto a chair and watching with her eyes wide with fright.

"Ashwinders!" Hagrid said excitedly, as more emerged from the glowing coals. "They're real neat, too. Fires that are left to burn too long after usin' Floo powders an' such, these snakes grow from the embers an' lay eggs. The eggs are dead useful, too. ER- yeh'd better catch 'em though, an' put 'em in this bucket," Hagrid dropped a large metal bucket and slapped it down on the table. "Otherwise they could start a fire."

Everyone spent the entire lesson throwing the eggs into the bucket - quite a task - as they were small and scalded the skin. Harry noticed Draco stuffing a couple of the eggs in his pocket but instantly forgot when Crabbe purposely stepped on his foot. They finally managed to get all the eggs into the bucket before any real damage had been done, though one had scorched a hole in Hagrid's carpet. Hermione muttered something about Hagrid's wood hut being possibly the worst place to hold that class, but Harry ignored her. She gave him a very hurt look, and Harry almost apologized, but then Goyle kicked him in the shin, making like it was an accident, and Harry moved away to the other end of the room to help Ron, who was trying to stomp out another small fire out of Hagrid's floor.

Later on that day Ron approached him very excited. "Guess what! I got the pitch booked tonight, we're going to do the tryouts! You'll be there, right?"

Harry looked down at the ground. Snape had told him after Potions that he would have an Occlumency lesson tonight, so he told Ron he'd try as hard as he could to make it for at least part, but it was doubtful. Snape seemed especially annoyed when he told Harry - possibly because Draco had told him about Defense class when he quietly explained to Snape why he was late, Professor Malfoy had held Draco behind to discuss his detention. He was not looking forward to tonight's session at all. After the rest of classes and dinner he slowly made his way down to the dungeons, pausing for a minute before knocking on the door to Snape's office and walking in.

"Potter, have you been practicing?" Snape muttered from behind his giant desk. He was sitting there again pouring his thoughts into Dumbledore's Pensieve as he glared at Harry. A large cauldron bubbled slowly on his desk along with the basin, letting off a blue fog making the room hazy.

"Yes sir," Harry replied, taking a seat opposite him, glaring back. Snape placed the Pensieve high up on a shelf next to a few jars that appeared to have shrunken heads floating morbidly in them before standing to face Harry.

"Let's hope you show some improvement, Potter, then we can both be done with this. Get your wand out," Snape took aim with his own wand, and Harry hurriedly took his out of his pocket and stood up to face Snape, "Try to repel me with your mind, but use whatever means necessary to block me out, Potter. Legilimens."

Harry watched as a load of memories slowly played through his mind again, this time he was four and watching Dudley and his friends eat birthday cake while Harry ate overcooked string beans... Harry was watching Aunt Petunia trying to cut his hair... he's talking to a large boa constrictor at the zoo... he was chasing Bellatrix Lestrange through the Ministry of magic, trying to use the Cruciatus curse on her... "Stop this" he thought, and the room came into focus and Snape was standing in front of him with his wand.

"That was a slight improvement," said Snape, a faint smirk on his face, as he lowered his wand, "were you trying to use the Cruciatus on Bellatrix there, before you blocked me out?"

Harry nodded, hating Snape.

"Not an easy curse to maneuver for the weak," Snape brought his wand back up, "We'll try again Potter, try and block me - now, Legilmens!"

Harry was in the stone room lit with candles again, sitting in the black velvet chair, a man dressed in black robes knelt before him sobbing. Harry couldn't see who he was, but was very angry at him. "You have failed me," Harry said to the man.

"I'm sorry, I just can't do it...I want out now," he sobbed, and sounded somewhat familiar to Harry. Harry felt himself laugh as he extended a long arm from the chair and pointed his wand at the man.

"You made commitment for which you owe me until your death. You will do it tonight if I have to make you, Crucio."

The man began to scream, and Harry watched, feeling very satisfied that the man was suffering the pain he deserved, then the room and the man disappeared and were replaced by Snape's office - and Snape on the floor yelling. Harry dropped his wand, feeling both surprised and terrified, knowing that he had just used an Unforgivable curse on Snape, and how it would look after Snape had just been tormenting Harry on his ability to use that very curse. Harry was out of breath and shaking, though not nearly as much as Snape, who was getting up slowly and glowering at Harry.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING THERE?" Snape shrieked, picking his wand up from the floor where it had fallen. "You need to practice, Potter!" Harry could see that Snape was very unnerved about the whole thing and he moved around to sit at his desk again looking very pale.

"Who- who was that man?" Harry asked delicately, not really expecting an answer. His scar was hurting as it usually was after trying to block Snape from his mind, but it was searing with pain now, making Harry feel ill, and as soon as the curse was placed on the masked man Harry's tattoo-like mark on his wrist began to burn and itch. He scratched at it furiously while wondering if he was going to be in a lot of trouble.

"Obviously he is a Death Eater," Snape mused quietly, rubbing the back of his neck as if it were sore, "one who has been asked to do something he does not wish to do. He will pay dearly I expect. It seems the Dark Lord is channeling his powers through you too, which makes it all the more necessary for you to practice..."

Before he could complete his sentence the door had burst open, Professor McGonnagal stood in the frame looking from Harry to Snape with concern. "What was the shouting about?"

Several students were milling behind McGonnagal in the doorway, standing on their toes trying to get a look - many likely were hoping to see Snape in pain. Snape calmly stood and pointed to the potion. "The Potion Potter was working on burned me - I've been having to give Potter remedial potions, he had not met the required grade for his OWLs to make my class - as you should know well enough, being the one to pull the strings to get him in..."

"I knew it," Harry heard Draco Malfoy say loftily from outside the door, "I wondered why Potter was there."

McGonnagal's eyes narrowed angrily, her lip pursed together tightly making them barely visible and slammed the door shut so that it was just the three of them in there, then pointed her wand at it and muttered a charm. "How dare you, Severus. You know he was very close, he had a very high E, just missed the O by a hair - I let young Malfoy in my class in exchange and he hadn't come close to meeting the requirements I set. Who was yelling?"

"I was," Snape muttered, glancing at the door as if to be sure it was closed, "I was giving Potter an Occlumency lesson, he had a vision of the Dark Lord using the Cruciatus on someone and I believe he had channeled the curse on me through Potter."

Harry expected McGonnagal to look surprised, angry, or at least shocked - but instead she sighed with unhappily as though it was something she had been expecting but dreading at the same time.

"Potter, are you still having these visions at night?" she asked sharply.

"No- not as often actually, that was the first in a while."

She bit her lip and looked anxiously at Harry. "You must practice these lessons Potter, if You-Know-Who is channeling through you this way, well, I'd hate to think of what could happen to those who share your dorm."

Harry felt more scared by this than anything. It had crossed his mind last year that he might kill them in his sleep, but Ginny and Hermione had pointed out that this was not possible. Now it seemed to be very possible.

"Come on Potter, I want you to go to your dorm," she said softly, looking sympathetically at Harry and lightly taking his arm and opening the door. "You need some rest - HEY! Get to your dorms, there's nothing to see here!" some Slytherin students had been hanging around in the hall trying to see what had happened. As Harry walked through the halls towards the Gryffindor Tower he heard a few sniggers from some Slytherin girls. "HEY POTTER!" Pansy hollered musically, "Did you fail all your OWLs then? Are they just keeping you in all the classes because you're famous?"

Harry made a rude gesture at her before increasing his pace, not wanting to meet with anyone else. He slowly made his way up the stairs to see the empty Common Room and realized that most of the Gryffindors were likely at the Quidditch pitch, either trying out or watching the tryouts for the team. Relieved to not have to talk to anyone right away, he sank into his favorite chair by the fire and drifted off to sleep.

*

By Halloween morning, Ron had made the decisions for the new team members. Ginny Weasley and Collin Creevey were the new Chasers replacing Angelina and Alicia - and Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper were going to remain as the new beaters - both apparently had shown remarkable improvement since last year when they had taken over for Fred and George. Harry could not wait to get on his broom again - it would help to take his mind off of everything that was wrong. He had been trying as hard as he could to keep Sirius out of his mind but was failing miserably at it.

"Harry!" Ron said quietly while everyone else was still talking about the new moves, "Please talk to Hermione, I can't take much more of this. I'm too busy with Quidditch, my Prefect duties, and Cho to have to balance between my two best friends. Please?"

Harry nodded, in all honesty, he had missed Hermione too. Ron gave a sigh of relief. "She's in the Common Room still, she's got some nasty Arithmancy homework she's been working on, I'll meet you up there, I just need to take this list to McGonnagal."

Harry soon found Hermione hunched over a mess of papers, several books scattered around the table haphazardly. "Er," he said, trying to get her attention.

"Yes?" she muttered as she scribbled furiously on her parchment without looking up.

"I'm sorry," Harry blurted out, finding himself going red in the face. "I want to be friends again, can we?"

Her quill snapped from pressure as she jumped up and threw her arms around his neck, sobbing. "Er- Hermione?" He patted her back uncomfortably, not knowing what to really say or do. "Are you ok?"

"No! I mean, yes- I..." she stepped back and he could see her eyes were red as though she had been crying for a while. "You being mad at me, Ron dating that horrible girl - she's making me miserable! She's been giving me all these extra duties so that Ron would have free time, and I didn't want to say anything to him because he'll get mad at me again, too..." Hermione stepped back sniffling and wiping her eyes. "I'm sorry, you've got real problems and here I am dumping my petty ones on you."

"No Hermione! I want to help- why don't you try talking to Ron about all this?" Harry had never before seen Hermione lose it so badly, and he was confused as to why. She had always been able to take on twice the amount of work than any other student could handle, and he had a feeling there was more than meets the eye in this situation.

"Every time I've tried to talk to Ron about anything, Cho comes up and interrupts us." Hermione made a face and batted her eyelashes in a mocking way, and mimicking Cho in a very unflattering yet accurate voice, "OH RON! I need you for a minute! OH RON! Come and meet my friend! OH RON! I'm a total idiot that needs to chase a guy!"

She started to sob again and flopped down on her chair. Harry was bewildered at seeing this display, and had forgotten his vision and spent another hour calming Hermione down. "It's ok," he soothed, helping her to pick up her papers and books. Ron then came through the Portrait and slumped in a chair next to Hermione.

"You two are talking again! Great!" Ron beamed, looking at Harry and Hermione happily. "Sorry I took so long, after I showed McGonnagal the roster Cho..."

Hermione made a squeaking noise and threw a book at Ron's head before retreating up to the girls dorm. There was a loud "slam!" from up the stairs before Ron looked at Harry, rubbing his head with a bewildered expression. "Was it something I said?"

*

Later on the three of them made their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, the Hall was decorated with floating Jack-O-Lanterns, hundreds of live bats flying back and forth, and a brilliant show of lightning illuminating the tables from the enchanted ceiling. Harry scanned the High Table and was thrilled to see that Dumbledore was finally back, sitting and talking animatedly with Flitwick, Hagrid, and McGonnagal, Professor Malfoy was sitting; as usual, by herself near the end of the table looking sullenly at her coffee cup, and Snape was near the other end, looking through a paper with a sour look on his face.

"The Elves outdid themselves again!" Ron exclaimed, grabbing his second helping of treacle tart. "I think I'm gonna burst my robes!"

"Well then," Draco's quiet voice drawled from behind them, "Guess you'll look all the more like your mother, won't you?"

Ron jumped to his feet, followed by Hermione -who grabbed him. "Don't waste your time Ron! Lets go."

They left the table and made their way back to the Common Room. "Draco's a git," Hermione said, "but don't waste your energy, he's only trying to get a rise out of you."

Harry nodded to agree but felt his head was heavy - too heavy to nod... he felt very sick, his tattoo was itching... burning... his scar... high pitched laughing... distant screaming...

"Harry!" Ron and Hermione leapt to their feet and put Harry's arms over each of their shoulders to support him. "Come on, let's get him to the Hospital Wing!"

"No!" Harry hissed angrily, trying to focus the pains out, "get me to the dorm, I think it was something I ate, seriously, I'm fine," he lied, feeling tired and just wanting to sleep, not wanting to be fussed over, his scar and tattoo both still burning madly as he staggered up the stairs to bed.

*

The next morning Harry felt better, once he had gotten to sleep he had slept without dream, which was exactly what he had needed. He got up and dressed and went down to breakfast, knowing that he had a full day of grueling classes ahead of him, Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Malfoy to start.

A mass of Owls flew in to deliver the mail, Hermione had just pulled her copy of the Daily Prophet off of a small Screech Owl. She opened it up and let out a small screech of her own.

"What is it?" Ron grabbed the copy out of her hand and started to read, "Another mass breakout of Azkaban, two dead, one of the deceased an Azkaban Guard, name being withheld until next of kin is notified, other deceased was a prisoner who name is being withheld until next of kin... I wonder who it was?"

They soon left to go to their first class; Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Malfoy was quietly reading at her desk as the rest of the class came in and took their seats, then she stood up at the front.

"I think you all might be ready to work on a few..."

The door swung open, and Harry looked over expecting to see Draco coming in late again, but Draco was already in his seat. Cornelius Fudge stood there with his bowler hat in his hand, Professor Dumbledore, Snape, and Lupin behind him.

"Professor Malfoy, the Minister would like a word with you please," Dumbledore said quietly. "Remus will handle your class. Draco, could you please go with Professor Snape and I to the Slytherin Common Room?"

Both Draco and his mother exchanged a couple of bewildered looks as they followed the Minister, Snape, and Dumbledore out of the classroom, leaving a very confused class sitting and staring at Professor Lupin.

"Where's Draco going?" Pansy asked irritably, ignoring Lupin's attempts to teach them.

"He and his mother are likely going to St. Mungo's," Lupin replied quickly, looking as though he didn't know if he should tell them anything or not.

Harry looked at Hermione and Ron, who nodded at him; they were all fairly certain it was Lucius Malfoy killed escaping from Azkaban.