The Mark of Death

That night Harry had felt more sick than ever before. He couldn't understand why Professor Malfoy seemed to be in so much pain even after he had finished cursing her and wondered if his Cruciatus was more powerful than most. Not wanting to run back and forth to the toilets to be sick he grabbed the Legilimency book and headed down to the Common Room with a bucket.

He seemed to be reading the same words over and over again; he was sure he had not been taking any of it in, drifting off to sleep and jolting awake when a new wave of nausea would suddenly hit him. He continued to glance at the large clock on the mantle of the fireplace every so often, noticing it was almost two am before he began drifting into a sleep again.

He was in that room again; Voldemort's round room... Voldemort was sitting in his high-backed chair, his horrible red eyes fixated on a tall, hooded man who knelt before him. Harry wanted to see who it was but from his angle he could only see the back of him.

"Soon my friend... soon. Once we have completed this series of projects we will have order, you will be free to go about as you had before."

Harry craned his neck, wanting to see. He could feel Voldemort's pleasure... he was anxious... something was soon going to happen.

"You will get your revenge too, do not think I have forgotten." The Dark Lord smiled, a horrible twisted smile, his high pitched voice seemed to echo and make the scar on Harry's forehead ache. "Be sure to do your task faithfully, you have succeeded to mislead them thus far, I am certain you shall have no trouble continuing to do so. Go. You have yet to let me down."

The man stood up and strode quickly out of the room through the heavy wooden door behind Voldemort, Harry didn't see his face but he knew that it was someone familiar to him...

The Dark Lord's horrible red eyes fixed upon Harry's suddenly, sensing him. Harry felt horrified, closing his eyes in an attempt to block him out, concentrating hard, then opening them again to see Ron and Neville standing over him.

"Bugger OFF! Don't do that!" Harry leapt to his feet with his wand outstretched in their faces, a look of terror on both of them.

"Harry... er, why are sleeping down here?" Ron glanced confused at Neville and Harry realized that the Common Room was busy with students flowing out of their dorms and through the Portrait for breakfast, many glancing curiously at Harry.

"I was feeling ill," he snapped, rubbed his eyes, glancing at the empty bin realizing one of the Elves, likely Dobby; had cleared it. "I didn't want to wake anyone."

Harry felt queasy for the rest of the day, but managed to get through his classes without any major problems - though he had nearly lost his glasses permanently while practicing Disappearing Charms in Professor Flitwick's class.

What he had been dreading the most soon had come. Shortly after dinner in the Great Hall he had found himself working his way slowly to the dungeons to see Professor Snape for his Occlumency lesson. He had been reading and rereading the Legilimency book every spare moment he had but felt that he hadn't taken any of it in, and wasn't sure if he would want to use it, knowing it came from Professor Malfoy and thinking there was a chance using it could get him in more trouble than not.

Just as Harry was rounding the corner of the corridor where Snape's office was Draco came around it, nearly colliding with him.

"Potter!" Draco hissed, glowering at him with an eerie coldness in his eyes that sent chills down Harry's spine. He had never been afraid of Malfoy, but the lack of emotion in his eyes reminded Harry much of a predator ready to attack his next victim.

"Move it, Malfoy," Harry said, pushing him to get by, not wanting to be late and have Snape even more angry at him.

Draco grabbed Harry's arm roughly in a pincher grasp; slamming him backwards against the wall. "Don't push me Potter. You don't have your friends with you... actually..." Draco paused, looking around with a horrible smile spreading across his face, "You don't have any friends down here at all."

Harry felt another wave of nausea as his back hit the wall, causing him to shudder violently. He was certain other people didn't feel this horrible after learning the Cruciatus, but then again, he doubted victims typically reacted as badly to it as Professor Malfoy had. Draco seemed to have the same thing on his mind.

"My mother's in the Hospital Wing, Potter. Snape told me you would know why..." Draco smirked, holding his wand between Harry's eyes. "Why is she in there?"

Harry stared at Draco, trying to think of a way to get rid of him before he got sick, which would be inevitable if Malfoy pushed him again.

"What the hell do you care? She's dead to you, isn't that what you said in the Owlery?"

"That's right, but I would still side with my own family over a filthy little half-blood like you." Draco uttered hatefully, his eyes narrowing into little slits.

"What is going on out here? Potter!" Snape hissed from behind Draco; who jumped away from Harry and quickly tucked his wand into his robes. "Leave Malfoy alone, you're late..." his lips curled into a nasty sneer.

"...for remedial potions. Ten points from Gryffindor for harassing a Prefect."

Harry followed Snape silently into his office as Draco disappeared around the corner, pausing to give Harry a triumphant look. Harry knew Snape always sided with the Slytherins, but this was ridiculous! He had to have seen that Draco was cornering him with his wand out.

The Pensieve was shimmering on the top of Snape's desk, Harry figured he must have been filling it with the thoughts he didn't want Harry seeing into it as Harry had been arguing with Draco just outside.

"If you know what is best for you Potter, you will not harass Draco again."

Harry opened his mouth to argue that it had been Draco harassing him, but closed it, knowing such an argument would be futile with Snape.

"So," Snape said softly, placing the Pensieve on the high shelf on the wall behind his desk then sitting down in his high backed chair to fix his gaze intently on Harry's. "This will be your final session with your wand, your mind will be your only defense in the future," he sneered again, "as flimsy of a weapon that may be."

Harry glared but said nothing, trying to keep his mind clear and empty as Snape aimed his wand at Harry.

"Legilimens!"

Harry instantly saw the usual images of his childhood slowly developing to the present; Dudley and Piers Polkiss chasing him... Aunt Petunia shaking a rolling pin at Harry threateningly as he had walked into the kitchen with muddy shoes when he was five... Harry going to Diagon Alley with Hagrid... Harry hiding in his room when Dudley had his girlfriend Jassmine over...

The next image became different somehow; it was Harry in his bedroom at Privet Drive, drifting off to sleep, only the room appeared to be veiled in a reddish hue... surreal, like he was seeing it more in a dream than a memory. There was an empty wrapper of Honeyduke's chocolate on his bedside table, and Harry was watching as the wrapper began to slowly crumple - a small, thin serpent about the width of a shoelace and no longer than a foot slithered it's way out of the wrapper; charcoal grey with unmistakable fangs that looked too large considering the size of the snake, dripping with venom...

The room was coming into focus again, Harry saw that Snape had lowered his wand and was looking at Harry with a strange look of curiosity.

"It seems as though you have a blocked memory Potter." Snape said smoothly.

"Do you recall seeing that Aspworm before?"

"Asp... what?"

Aspworm," Snape replied curtly, with an air of impatience. "Very small, intelligent and highly dangerous serpent rarely known even to a skilled Wizard. Why was it in your room?"

Harry shrugged. Obviously he had no idea, the memory was blocked.

"The Aspworm can be trained to take certain toxins to inflict on unknowing victims," Snape quietly mused, watching Harry calculatingly, sneering. "I am going to try and break the memory charm Potter, you seem to be wasting your efforts and not blocking me from your mind, I may as well make some use of it. Legilimens!"

Again, Harry was in his reddening bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed nibbling at some Honeyduke's chocolates, then getting up to look out the window... it seemed very familiar to him... he slammed the window shut and climbed into bed, staring at the bedside table where he had dropped the candy wrapper...

The snake started to come from the wrapper again... it was now moving with determination towards him, he could see it's tiny red eyes narrowing into slits as it opened it's mouth - dangerous looking liquid dripping from his fangs - and bit Harry on the forearm. Harry was writhing around on his back and holding his hand over his arm, he could see the Mark of Death was glowing under his hand but his eyes were rolling into the back of his head, he was convulsing, his body had gone rigid and shaking as though electrocuted, foam coming from the corners of his mouth...

Snape's office began to slowly come back into focus again, and Harry realized he was on his back clutching his arm painfully, reliving the moment he couldn't remember. Snape was standing over him, wand still outstretched in Harry's face.

"Who tended to you in St. Mungo's?"

"Wha- what do you mean?" Harry slowly got up and slipped into a chair, his knees feeling wobbly and he still felt weakened from being ill all night.

"It was a simple question, Potter," Snape said quietly, his eyes boring into Harry's, "Who did you see whilst at St. Mungo's hospital? You were there over the summer about the DeathMark on your arm, were you not?"

"Er, well..." Harry had a nagging feeling that he shouldn't say too much, but knew Snape would never let him leave without telling him what he wanted to know.

"Mr. and Mrs Weasley, Professor Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, Hermione and Ron... we ran into Neville on the way out."

"I see," Snape said. Harry could have sworn he heard a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Do you remember the name of the witch or wizard that tended to you?"

Harry remembered the young blonde healer. "I think her name was Medissa, though I'm not sure."

"I see," He said again, and Harry saw recognition is Snape's eyes at the name. "Well, I think it is best that we continue with the session, you now at least know what had given you the Mark."

Before Harry could gather his thoughts and realize what Snape had just told him he was hit with the Legilimency again; seeing memories of the Dursleys... being in the Weasley home for a summer... Sirius falling lifeless through the veil... holding his wand at Professor Malfoy; looking like Bellatrix, as Harry was torturing her...

"Legilimens!"

It had honestly slipped out, he hadn't done it deliberately. Harry had gathered his wits in time to see Snape draw back in shock, the blast from Harry's wand sent him hurtling backwards, hitting the wooden shelves that housed the Pensieve; which tipped over and poured it's contents over Snape's head, seemingly dissolving into it like liquid to a sponge.

At that moment Harry began to see memories... Snape's memories...

a young boy with his head turned down being pulled through what appeared to be Knockturn Alley by a man with a hooked nose... the boy cowering in the corner of a very shabby room, crying with his hands over his face watching in horror between his fingers as the hook-nosed man pointed his wand at a woman; a jet of green light bursting through his wand at her... Snape hovering upside-down as Harry's father and friends tormented him... Snape at the age of about sixteen or seventeen; kneeling in front of Voldemort with his arm outstretched, palm up - having the Dark Mark burned into his skin... Snape in his late teens to early twenties; standing over a red haired girl who was on the floor screaming, obviously using the Cruciatus on her as a few onlookers laughed from behind him... a darkened graveyard, men in hooded cloaks throwing curses at Harry as he was clutching Cedric Diggory's body and the Tri-Wizard Cup... vanishing...

"Potter!"

The room came into sharp focus around Harry as he fell to the floor; Snape had obviously used some sort of hex on him which had knocked him flat on his back. Snape seemed to realize what he had done and quickly removed the curse from him, looking at him bewildered and angry as he got to his feet.

"Where did you learn it Potter?!" he was hysterical; his wand was outstretched at Harry and his eyes kept darting at the door. "Who showed you that..."

"I- er..." Harry tried to get to his feet but felt as though his blood had turned to lead; he was too heavy to lift himself up, he knew Snape wouldn't take the hex off unless he told him what he wanted to know. "Professor Malfoy."

"How... Malfoy is not a Legilimens, nor does she know Occulmency..."

Harry remembered the Duel between the two professors where Snape had used it on her, and she seemed defenceless. "She gave me a book, I think she had taken it out of the Restricted Section of the library."

"Give the book to me Potter," Snape said dangerously, taking the hex off Harry.

He scrambled to his feet and opened his book bag, not wanting to argue - handing it to Snape; who ripped it from Harry's hands and began to leaf through it quickly.

"This is not a very conventional way to learn," he muttered quietly, narrowing his eyes at the fine script. "I will return this to Malfoy myself Potter, repeat none of what you saw. Get out."

Harry didn't need to be told twice; he grabbed his things and darted out of the poorly lit dungeons, racing to his dorm without a word to Ron and Hermione; who he had passed in the Common Room on his way up. He crashed onto his bed; staring at the ceiling to think about everything that had gone on in there.

"That was my mother... he was cursing my mother..." Harry thought bitterly. The red-haired girl which Snape had been cursing in his memory had certainly been the very same one Harry had seen previously in the Pensieve; stopping Harry's father from humiliating Snape. Harry was too frightened by Snape's reaction to him using Legilimency to bother saying anything, but he was now furious with himself for not trying to confront him about it. He had recognized the others there too; the ones who had been standing behind Snape - egging him on. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, Bellatrix and Rodulphus Lestrange... and someone who had looked so much like Sirius that it must have been his young brother Regulus.

So those were some of the memories Snape had been guarding, and Harry had a feeling there would have been more had he been able to continue. He knew Snape had to have been angrier than he had let on - Harry had seen a few very personal things; Snape's father murdering his mother right in front of him - he was surprised that Snape had taken it as well as he did. He seemed more angry at the fact that Professor Malfoy had given Harry the book.

"Harry?" Ron said warily, sticking his head around the corner, "do you mind if Hermione and I come in?"

"Sure."

Harry felt unsettled about so many things, Snape's calmness; considering what Harry had done Snape not having a fit was strange, but something else was all the more disturbing... Snape had been there!

Harry had always figured that Snape had gone back to spy on the Death Eaters AFTER the night Cedric had been killed. He had been there with Dumbledore and McGonnagal when they had burst through Moody's office shortly after he had admitted to being a Death Eater and stopped him from killing Harry - then he had provided Dumbledore with the Veritiserum to question him. Was there a remote chance that Snape was actually lying to DUMBLEDORE about his loyalties?

"Harry! You look as though you've seen a ghost! What is the matter with you?" Hermione said in a very worried voice as she rushed over and took a seat on a chair beside Harry's bed.

"Yeah Harry! You don't look so well!" Ron said, sitting down nervously on the edge of the bed next to Harry's feet. "How are you going to be able to play tomorrow?"

Hermione glared icily at Ron.

"Well it's a double-header! There hasn't been one of those in sixty seven years! And even then it wasn't one team playing two back to back..."

"I think the important thing..." Hermione seethed, "is that Harry is alright! NOT Quidditch, and if you had ANY sensitivity..."

"I think Snape may not be what he's letting on," Harry interrupted quietly, not wanting to deal with their bickering. The two immediately turned their full attention to Harry as he told them everything, from the events of Cedric's death - which he had never talked to them about... to Professor Malfoy teaching him the Unforgiveables and giving him the Legilimency book.

"It doesn't mean he's not on our side Harry, we don't know what he's been doing!" Hermione said in defence of Snape.

"Voldemort spoke of two Death Eaters that night," Harry said, "when he was walking around the circle he said there were two missing - one too cowardly to return, and one who has left them forever. I always thought he was talking about Snape as one of them."

"Obviously he wasn't, but if he had been, what kind of a spy would he have made?" Hermione asked gently. "I mean, he'd have to have been there for Voldemort to trust him."

"What if he transfigured into something small, like an Animagi? I can see him being a spider, he's creepy enough!" Ron said shivering. He hated spiders.

"Please Ron, Snape's smarter than that." Hermione said firmly. "What worries me is that you've been learning the Unforgivables! Harry! How could you not tell us?!"

Harry gave Ron a quick look to tell him not to say he already knew.

"Well... what have YOU been learning from her? On Mondays?"

"It's really not a big deal," Hermione sighed and looked out the window, then back to Ron and Harry. "The Ministry have put up restrictions on Muggleborns, not letting them learn a few things - saying it's for our "protection", but I was learning to Apparate, Disaparate, and make Portkeys."

"I thought you had to be seventeen to do that?" Harry said with confusion.

"I turned seventeen on the nineteenth of September!" Hermione sounded amused, but somehow Harry had the feeling that she was hurt that he didn't know. "You two will turn seventeen this year, but the way it works is people begin term at Hogwarts on the first September after they are born. Had I been born twenty days earlier I would be in seventh year now."

"That's it?" Ron looked incredulous at Hermione, like he was waiting for something much bigger. "Why are you keeping that a secret?"

"The Ministry have been making it more and more difficult for Muggleborns to get their licence," Hermione shrugged, picking at a loose thread on Harry's quilt. "They say it's for our protection now that Voldemort has come back into power - that he might track us... or that we're more likely to fail at it and Splice ourselves... so now we need to have a Sponsor... we need to pass with no less than one hundred percent on the test..."

"Charlie passed with only eighty!" Ron exclaimed.

"Charlie is a Pureblood!" Hermione snapped. "They're looking for reasons not to give us licences, and Professor Malfoy thinks it has a lot to do with Death Eater influence. She was going to be my sponsor, THAT is why I didn't want you two to know, I didn't want you Owling your mother Ron, and having her take the time to try and help me, she's too busy with the Order."

"So... you trust her then?" Harry asked carefully, speaking about Malfoy.

"Yes Harry, I do. She's a bit er... different, I'll admit that, but I think she is making an honest effort to change her ways and she doesn't deny any of her past if asked. Mind you, I don't understand why she would break your concentration on the Occlumency with that book knowing that Dumbledore wanted you to learn it..." Hermione looked thoughtful for a minute, "But she obviously doesn't trust Snape."

"Who the hell does?" Ron snorted. "That greasy git is hiding something I'm sure!"

"Dumbledore trusts Snape," Hermione said predictably, as Harry knew she always used this to defend Snape.

"Yeah," Ron yawned, taking his broom out of his trunk. "So you keep reminding us, but Dumbledore's judgement has been off before, hasn't it?"

"What do you mean Ron?" Harry looked at him with interest, as Hermione appeared to be scowling at him.

"I'm not saying that Snape isn't trustworthy, or that he wasn't..." Ron walked over to his own bed and flopped down on it with his broom and applying a coat of wax to it. "But Dumbledore was sure Sirius was guilty for twelve years, it's not like he's never been wrong before."

Hermione sat there gaping at him wordlessly, not used to being proven wrong. She muttered a goodnight and quickly walked out of the room, leaving the two boys to prepare for their games tomorrow.

*

Ron had completely lost his cool by morning and was pacing around the Gryffindor team at breakfast, making even Harry nervous. Katie had spilled her milk all over the table when Ron snapped at her about her reflexes; and Ginny was biting her nails rather than her toast.

"Does everyone remember the buddy system? Harry, who's back are you watching?"

"Ginny's."

"Kurt! Who are you looking out for?"

"Everyone sir!" Kurt stood and saluted Ron in what seemed a half sarcastic, half joking gesture. "And I'm making an extra effort to keep Sicamour and Bodger from knocking anyone off."

"Good..." Ron said quieter, looking over Harry's shoulder with a slightly irritated expression. Harry spun around to see Luna standing there; large gold lions dangling from her ears were barely peeking out from what looked like a Sombrero with a huge stuffed Raven perched atop it; wings outspread. Harry's green leather jacket draped was carefully over her arm and she kept glancing nervously at the Ravenclaw table.

"Hello Harry," she forced a smile and handed him the jacket, her wide eyes widening more so when he met them, and he felt her fingers deliberately push something into his. "I wanted to return this to you, I should have a long time ago."

"It's all right," Harry said, feeling a bit confused. Ron was glaring suspiciously at the Ravenclaw table where Cho and the rest of their team were watching intently.

"Good luck," she said in an obviously forced casual tone, "Hopefully I'll see you after you play Hufflepuff this afternoon."

Luna walked off quickly, but didn't go to the Ravenclaw table. Instead she walked out of the huge double doors.

"What was up with that?" Ron said angrily, still glaring at Cho as Sloper, Kirke, Ginny and Katie got up and started for the change rooms. "I think they're up to something, don't wear that jacket."

"They're definitely up to something," Harry said quietly, glancing at the note under the table where no one would see it, then passed it to Ron.

Harry,

I've heard things whispered. They're watching me. After you catch the Snitch, duck or if possible, fall off your broom.

Luna.