Creatures of Smoke and Shadow

Chapter Two: Mary

Ron didn't scream, but it was a close thing. The girl on his bed looked a little younger than him: about fourteen, or maybe fifteen. How she had come to be there Ron had no idea. He didn't recognise her face, and there was no obvious family resemblance to anybody that he knew. She was lying back casually on top of the covers, still dressed in faded jeans, and a pale yellow T-shirt. Her mousy-brown hair was long and thick, and it lay around her head on the pillow like an extravagant crown. Her eyes were a deep brown, and they stared into Ron's, completely unblinking. It was the mouth which was the most alarming though, given that it was fixed in a demented grin.

'You can see me!' the mysterious figure shouted, so loudly that Ron expected his entire family to come running.

'Of course I can see you,' he hissed back, mind screaming at him incoherently. 'You're on my fucking bed!'

His observation didn't seem to faze the girl.

'I knew you'd be able to see me!' she repeated, again not troubling to keep her voice down.

'Are you insane?' Ron spat out, clasping a hand tightly about her mouth. Unfortunately, that movement only served to remind him how little he was wearing. He released her quickly and shuffled away from her under the covers.

'Who are you?' he asked, 'and what are you playing at, Apparating into my bed when I'm asleep?'

'What's Apparating?'

'What do you mean? Apparition... The only way you could have gotten up here without being seen.'

Now Ron thought about it, the Burrow was supposed to have anti-Apparition wards on it. If she had bypassed them, then she was a far more dangerous witch than he was giving her credit for.

'I've never even heard of Apparition' she told him.

'What are you talking about? How does your Dad get to work?'

He grew more confused with every word this girl said, which was at least causing him to forget his embarrassment slightly.

'He drives a car, like a normal person!' her smile faltered slightly. 'At least, I think he does, I don't really remember...'

Comprehension dawned on Ron jarringly. This was a Muggle! That was why the wards hadn't recognised her, why she had been able to just wander in.

'And do you just walk into people's houses and climb into their beds at random?'

'No!' she protested.

'Well, sorry if I offended you,' he said, voice dripping with sarcasm, 'but the situation seems to suggest something different.'

'You'd be taking drastic measures if you'd had the same week as me.'

The girl seemed to have lost some of her insane energy now, and although Ron still wasn't anything like comfortable with her being there, she didn't seem particularly dangerous. She also seemed to be looking for some reassurance, something that Ron was getting used to giving.

'Believe me, I know about having a hellish life, so why don't you try me...'

'At least people can see you.'

'Huh?'

That wasn't what Ron had been expecting. He didn't think he could have been more wrong-footed.

'I'm invisible.'

'That's crazy! I'm looking right at you.'

'You're the first person to notice me in a week.'

'There's no reason for me to be able to see you, if nobody else can...'

That wasn't entirely true actually. Presumably, if this girl was a Muggle, she would only have been trying to contact other Muggles. So what could wizards see, that Muggles couldn't? He was hit by a flash of inspiration.

'...unless you're a ghost!'

'Typical. The only guy in the world that can see me turns out to be a spirit-world freak. There's no such thing as ghosts. This has a scientific explanation.'

'What does scientific mean?'

The girl let out a guttural moan, and swung her legs off the bed. As she stood, Ron noticed that she hadn't even removed her trainers to get onto the bed. She was still looking irritated, and when she spoke, the voice was despairing.

'I was really excited when you woke up and saw me, but I didn't think that you looked like an idiot.'

'No wait!' he shouted defensively. 'It's not what you think. I'm a wizard!'

The girl looked thoroughly disenchanted now, and more than a little annoyed.

'Go on then. Do a magic trick,' she taunted harshly.

'I can't. I'm not seventeen yet. It's illegal.'

She sighed, turned and walked towards the door, but it swung open before she reached it. Ron nearly died when he realised that it was his mother standing in the doorway.

'Mum... I can explain...'

'Are you alright Ron? I heard you shouting. Were you having another nightmare?'

His mother was apparently completely ignorant of the girl standing between them.

'What? Oh... er, yes, but I'm ok now.'

'Do you want me to make you a nice cup of tea?' she said, taking a pace forwards.

Ron forced himself to speak as normally as he could manage.

'That... that sounds lovely. Thanks.'

'Are you sure that you're ok? You sound upset.'

Without warning, she walked to Ron's bedside, directly through the girl. Ron winced loudly. The girl seemed unsurprised, as though this wasn't the first time it had happened.

'What's wrong?' his mother asked, kneeling and resting a hand on his forehead. 'You feel warm, and you're acting very oddly.'

'Nothing,' Ron tried to convince her, squirming all the while. The heat was mainly down to embarrassment, and fear of the girl's discovery (although that seemed less likely now).

His mum seemed to sense the embarrassment in the air, and although she couldn't have known its cause, she had raised enough boys to learn when to drop something. Instead of pressing her case, she turned and cast a spell at the window. The curtains flew open quickly, releasing a cloud of dust as they snapped to a halt. The mysterious girl made an odd noise - part wail, part cough - but it seemed that people's ignorance of her extended to sound, because Ron's mum didn't even pause.

'I'll just... go make that cup of tea then...' she said, uncomfortably excusing herself from the room.

There were a few moments of silence, before either of them spoke.

'So that's your mum?'

'Yeah...'

'She seems nice.'

'I suppose.'

'How did she do that thing with the curtains?'

'Magic.'

'Don't be glib.'

'What? I'm serious! I really am a wizard, my mum really is a witch, my entire family are for that matter... well, except for one uncle...'

'I. Don't. Believe. In. Magic!' she said, spitting each word out slowly, as though talking to a child.

'Look, you can be as sceptical as you like, but seeing as how you're the one that's invisible, how about giving me the benefit of the doubt for now. Maybe instead of telling me what you don't believe in, you could tell me something useful, like your name perhaps?'

'It's Mary Quinn.'

'And what happened last week right before you disappeared?'

Mary sighed exasperatedly, and ran a hand through her hair.

'I don't remember anything before last Thursday. I just remember waking up in the middle of a street, and everybody ignoring me. Then someone walked through me and I panicked. I made a run for it.'

'You woke up in the middle of a street? Maybe you were...'

'...I was not run over by a car! I am not dead!'

'How do you know?'

'Because, if I was dead, I wouldn't be hanging around chatting to you, would I?'

'I suppose that technically Muggles shouldn't be able to become ghosts, and I have to admit that you don't exactly look like one...' he paused. 'But still, it's the only explanation that really makes sense. Only witches and wizards can see ghosts. People can walk right through them. Ghosts can make themselves invisible to certain people. That all fits your story...'

'I've probably still got the handprint on my face from when you tried to gag me. You can touch me - how does that fit in with your theory?'

She was right of course. Ron inwardly cursed. This didn't make any kind of sense. What possibilities were left? Some kind of elaborate plot? Maybe a really skilled witch could perform the spells required to be invisible and incorporeal to everybody except Ron, but a fourteen year old would have her wand broken for even attempting it. Even if she had evaded capture by the Ministry, the Burrow wards ought to have detected her. And why bother? What could this girl possibly gain by breaking into Ron's house in such a state, claiming amnesia? Well, she could act as a spy, though surely it would be easier to watch the Weasleys if nobody could see her.

'Ok, ok! I'll accept that you're alive...'

'...good...'

'...but I've never heard of anything like this before. True, wizards have loads of ways to become invisible. My friend has this cloak...' Ron trailed off as he decided not to discuss Harry, just on the off chance that Mary was a spy.

'Anyway,' he continued awkwardly, 'the invisibility isn't the scary thing. It's the incorporeal thing that worries me.'

'It worries you?! How do you think I feel? I haven't eaten in a week, and I'm not even hungry. I don't get hot or cold. I don't need to sleep...'

Ron decided not to mention how closely this fitted the description of a ghost.

'Maybe you've been cursed. Did you ever do anything to offend somebody in a long cloak and a pointy hat?'

'I don't remember!'

'Oh yeah. Sorry.'

He thought about it for a moment.

'So why are you here? I mean, how did you find me? And why did you seem so sure that I would be able to see you?'

'I don't really know. I've been wandering for days, but I've always been heading in this direction. I saw your house, and I just...'

She paused, vaguely trance-like.

'I just thought that this was where I ought to be. It was like I was hypnotised or something. I walked straight through the kitchen, up the stairs, past all of the other rooms, and in here.'

Ron was a little disturbed by that. It sounded almost Imperius like. If this girl was being mind-controlled, then she could be a major threat to the family. He pushed back the doubts. Magical compulsion could be the result of a lot of different things, most of which were fairly harmless. The girl was still talking.

'You looked different to me. I don't know why, but you looked more... real than everybody else. I had to know, so I put my hand on your shoulder while you were asleep. You were the first person I could touch since I woke up in the middle of that road.'

'...and then you climbed into bed with me?'

The girl finally blushed. Ron was pleased to see it - apparently she did have human reactions after all.

'Yeah, sorry. I don't know why I did that. It's been an odd week.'

'No kidding!'

She had a point. If anyone had the right to behave unusually, then this girl did. In fact, Ron was surprised at how in control she seemed. Aside from the weird jubilation she'd shown after Ron had woken, and the irritation when he had mentioned magic, she was acting remarkably sanely.

'I reckon I can help you. We get some important people coming through here. I'll bet you a million Galleons that Dumbledore can see you. He'll have you solid again in no time.'

'Dumbledore?'

'Complete genius. He's as mad as a sack full of Jarveys, but he's probably the most powerful wizard in the world.'

'Probably?'

'Well, it's either him or... You-Know-Who...'

'I don't...'

'Don't what?'

'Know who...'

Ron suddenly realised what she meant, and promptly went white.

'Of course. You wouldn't...'

'Who is...'

'It doesn't matter. He'd be more likely to kill you than cure you. He might even be the person that did this to you...'

Mary looked really interested now.

'Why do you say that?'

'When something bad happens, he's always my first guess.'

'Who though? I mean... What's he called?'

'I can't say it.'

'Why? Is it really hard to pronounce or something?'

Ron felt strangely embarrassed to admit the real reason to a young girl. It was alright to be afraid of Voldemort's name amongst other wizards, because everybody was, but this girl wouldn't understand. She would just think that he was a coward. He tried to justify himself.

'Nobody ever says his name. They're all terrified. I guess it's a bit silly really, but only the really powerful wizards dare to talk about him.'

'Like God?'

'What?'

'Well there's some religions, where you aren't allowed to say the name of God, because otherwise... I don't know... he's supposed to hit you with a bolt of lightning or something.'

'Well, yeah. Except that obviously You-Know-Who isn't that powerful. He's still human, and I'm pretty sure he has to be in the same room as you if he wants to kill you.'

Mary let that sink in, before she spoke.

'I still want to know what he's called.'

'Fine. I have a piece of parchment in my desk. Turn around, will you?'

Mary did, and Ron threw himself out of bed and across the room, a cool breeze biting into his exposed thighs. After grabbing the parchment, and a thick pencil, he raced back to the comfortable warmth of his blankets.

He quickly scribbled the name down, and held it up for Mary to see.

'Lord Voldemort?' she scoffed. 'What kind of name is that?'

Ron was clearly getting used to hearing Voldemort's name spoken aloud, because he barely shivered at the outburst.

'It isn't his real name actually. He was born as Tom Riddle.'

Ron shook the parchment.

'He made this name up, 'cos he didn't like being named after his dad.'

'Considering that you can't even say this guy's name, you seem to know a lot of random facts about him...'

'As I said, I have a hellish life...'

'Want to talk about it?'

Ron was surprised to realise that he did actually feel like talking. True, the invisibility was still an unresolved issue, but Ron had the strangest feeling that he could trust Mary. He decided to go with his gut instincts. If she was telling the truth, then it wasn't as if she could spill his secrets, and if she was evil... well, she was a damn good actress.

He discussed his life as a wizard, before school, which Mary seemed to be very interested by, but she became hooked on Ron's words once he had reached the first year of Hogwarts. About half way through the story, when Ron had spoken about Quidditch, Mary had looked at him suddenly, as though he had gone too far. Ron silenced her quickly, by leaning over and sliding out his Cleansweep from underneath the bed.

There were no interruptions after that, until Ron reached the Triwizard Tournament, after which Mary seemed unable to digest any more.

'Am I supposed to believe all of this?'

'You can believe what you like...'

'I mean, I could sort of accept that maybe you are a wizard, even though that sounds beyond crazy, but I can't believe that you've done all of these things. You'd be a legend, a hero...'

Ron looked at her as though she was mad.

'As I said, Harry did most of that stuff, and he really is a legend. He's been famous since his parents died, and he hates it. In some ways, I'm guess that I'm better off in his shadow.'

'But all that stuff. That suicidal move in the chess game, you'd have been younger than me...'

'I was, and it hurt, but I'd do it again in a second.'

Mary stared into Ron's eyes, for a very long time, trying to decide whether he was a genuine hero, or a Lockhart-style impostor. She suddenly broke his gaze, seemingly convinced.

'Why?' she asked simply.

'You'll understand when you meet Harry,' Ron replied. 'Now do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?'

- HPHPHP -

By the time Ron's mum had returned with the tea, Mary was almost up to speed on everything important that had happened to Ron at school. He had been very brief when talking about lessons, mainly because he had thought that the lessons were boring. He had also figured that she might appreciate seeing magic performed far more if she hadn't been told about the spells beforehand. Mary hadn't complained about the missing details. Once the story had gotten going, it was definitely interesting enough without them.

As his mum laid the tea tray on his bedside table, Ron wondered how he should explain the situation. His account definitely wouldn't contain any mention of the 'waking up next to a girl' incident.

'Are you alright now Ron?' his mother quizzed.

'Sort of,' he confessed. 'But there's something I need to talk to you about.'

'Well, I did think that something odd was going on...'

Ron decided to just get it out of the way, as fast as possible. If he sounded like an idiot, well, he was used to that. At least once he'd done it, it would be out of the way, and he wouldn't have to explain it again.

- HPHPHP -

Twenty minutes later, Ron had just finished going through the tale for the seventh or eighth time. The first time, his mother had thought it was some kind of abstract joke. The second time through, she had seemed worried about his sanity. By the fourth or fifth time, she had finally accepted that there might be somebody else in the room and had tried to communicate, although the tone she had used was patronising, and had earned unseen glares from Mary.

The fifth or sixth repetition of the story had been for Ron's father, although Ginny had also been present. Whilst Ginny looked sceptical, Ron's dad had immediately become defensive, first testing the wards on the Burrow, before running off to track down Dumbledore.

He had returned instead with Professor McGonagall, who had explained that Dumbledore was extremely busy. The sixth or seventh telling of the tale had been for her benefit. Immediately afterwards, she had run out of the room, and quickly returned with the supposedly busy Headmaster. Ron was deeply disappointed that the old man could clearly not see Mary at all, and was even more disappointed when he asked Ron to repeat the story one further time.

Throughout the entire thing, Mary had sat, legs crossed, on the end of Ron's bed, watching the whole debacle amusedly, occasionally prompting him when he forgot something. It seemed that, having listened to Ron's exciting life story, she believed he was capable of sorting out her problem.

Having listened to the bizarre tale, Dumbledore sat down lightly onto the bed, carefully avoiding the place where Ron had indicated that Mary was sitting.

'How curious!' he said happily, drawing his wand.

Mary sat up a little straighter.

'I wonder if you could assist me Ron?' Dumbledore added.

He waved the wand quickly in Ron's direction. Ron blinked as the jet of light shot towards him, but once the light had faded he felt nothing different. Then he realised that Dumbledore had magically dressed him. Even considering who it was, Ron was impressed. Conjuration was difficult enough as it was, but to clothe somebody who was lying under a blanket... Dumbledore was so cool.

He climbed out of bed, and reassessed his opinion.

The outfit that he was wearing was an exact match for Dumbledore's, which would have been fairly standard wizarding robes, if they hadn't been made of purple velvet. Dumbledore was so powerful that he could pull off purple clothes, but on Ron they just looked stupid. A round of energetic laughter followed his emergence from the bed, and Mary (who was unused to wizarding robes) continued laughing for the longest.

There was an odd moment, where everybody else thought that the room was silent, but Ron could see and hear Mary's manic laughter. Luckily the moment passed. Mary quickly sobered up, when she realised that Dumbledore was going to do some magic - maybe something to cure her.

'What do you want me to do?' Ron asked, anxiously. He couldn't exactly use his wand in the holidays.

'Just stand behind Mary, so that I can see where she is, and tell me what exactly what she says.'

Ron beckoned Mary to her feet.

'Wait!' said Mary, all of a sudden looking insanely worried. 'What the fuck is he going to do? I don't want him doing all sorts of crazy shit to me!'

'She says that she's... er... a bit nervous...' Ron translated, '...and she wants to know what you're going to do.'

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

'If she said that, then she's braver than I would have guessed. I'm just going to cast a simple diagnosis spell. It's the variation that I usually use on ghosts.'

Ron stepped behind Mary, and before there was a chance for Mary to move, or even protest, Dumbledore cast the charm. There was no beam of light this time, although the air crackled with electricity as the spell slipped through the air. It passed right through Mary, and collided with Ron.

Dumbledore didn't seem upset. In fact, he smiled again.

'Apparently, Ron's new friend is a sixteen year-old redheaded boy.'

Everybody in the room looked at Dumbledore exasperatedly, especially McGonagall, whose expression suggested that she was more than used to this unconcerned attitude. Dumbledore must have noticed the tension in the room. He chose not to react to it, although the next words he spoke were less daft.

'I suspected that this might happen. I perceive a great many things - more than most people, yet I don't detect the slightest hint of unusual magic in this room.'

'Are you saying that I made this up?' Ron began, angrily.

'No, no, no... quite the contrary. I have known you for a long while. I personally awarded you a special award for services to Hogwarts. I do not believe that you are capable of such a childish journey into fantasy.'

'Then,' Ron replied more calmly, blushing at the praise, 'what are you saying?'

'I am saying that you perceive this situation better than I do.'

'What!?'

'If there truly is somebody else in this room, which I am quite happy to believe, then you are the only person who can see them. More astoundingly, you can touch this person, whereas I cannot even affect her with magic.'

'But, surely that can't be anything to do with me? It must be because somebody else wants me to see her. Or maybe she only exists inside my head - I might be going mad...'

'I don't think we need to worry about that just yet...' Dumbledore interrupted, still annoyingly chirpy. 'There is a test that we can do.'

'What is it?' Ron asked.

'I want you to cast the diagnosis spell.'

'I'll be arrested if I do that...'

'I'll divert the Ministry's detection spells, just this once, so that you can try. The spell is fairly straightforward, and given your experiences so far today, I don't think that you'll need to use the ghost variation.'

Dumbledore demonstrated the wand movement of the spell, and Ron memorised it as best he could. The audience was fairly daunting. Dumbledore, McGonagall, both of his parents and his sister - not to mention the charm's target - this Mary girl.

He made a few practise swings at the wall, until he had gotten the hang of it. Mary looked even more nervous now, but considering what had happened last time, Ron wasn't particularly sure why. If Dumbledore couldn't do this, then what chance did he have?

He cast the spell unconvinced, but the second it collided with Mary's chest, Ron's head filled with random facts. It was very odd, thought Ron, to suddenly know the exact height in inches, or the exact shoe size, of a girl you had only just met. He tried to rearrange his head, so that he could work out what was the most useful information. There was nothing emotionally revealing there at all, nothing about who Mary's family were, or where she lived. The scan hadn't even confirmed Mary's name. What it had revealed though, was an extensive physical knowledge of her body, inside and out. Ron turned bright red, as he realised that, if he had a single artistic bone in his body, he could have drawn a perfectly accurate portrait of Mary completely naked.

Ginny and Mary didn't realise what the embarrassment was about, but the adults looked sympathetic to Ron's awkwardness, if perhaps a little amused.

'I need you to concentrate, Ron,' began Dumbledore, '...if you can.'

Ron's father sniggered, and Professor McGonagall cast him a look out of the corner of her disapproving eye.

'Firstly, can you confirm that Mary is a Muggle?'

'Yes,' Ron said, quickly.

'And can you tell me anything about her physical condition?'

There was another, louder snigger from Ron's dad, and Ron was appalled to hear his mother choke back a suspiciously snorting cough.

What was he supposed to say? Mary was a slim, attractive girl with nice skin, and pert juicy... no, that wouldn't do. He tried to concentrate again. Dumbledore was an expert Legilimens, and the images inside Ron's head were not the sort that he wanted to broadcast.

'Er... she's fifteen years and seventy two days old. Other than that, I'm not getting a lot of information. Nothing about why she's invisible anyway.'

A third snigger. Ron couldn't believe how childish his parents were being. He felt as if his cheeks were going to explode. His ears were burning, and there were butterflies jumping around in his stomach.

Madam Pomfrey cast this spell all the time - how did she keep a straight face? In fact, Ron realised with a start, Madam Pomfrey had cast the spell on him before now. Why was this spell even legal?

'What are they all laughing about?' Mary asked, concerned. 'What did the spell show you?'

'Er.. Mary wants to know why you're all laughing at me...' Ron told the room, praying for a little help.

'I'm sorry Mary,' Dumbledore said softly. 'The spell was completely necessary and it couldn't have been performed by anybody else, but it has given Ron an unfortunately revealing knowledge of your body.'

'What does he mean?' Mary asked, eyes widening. She had obviously understood correctly, but she wanted somebody to say it explicitly.

'I know what you're thinking, and I'm afraid you're right,' Ron confirmed as Mary went pale, 'but I had no idea that it would happen. Dumbledore didn't explain the consequences first.'

Mrs. Weasley looked at her son sternly, and hissed under her breath.

'Professor Dumbledore...'

She clearly couldn't believe how disrespectful Ron was being in front of the most powerful wizard alive.

'Its quite alright,' Dumbledore said calmly. 'I understand his annoyance. I have put the pair of them into a very awkward position. The only boy who can see Mary is now embarrassed to be around her.'

'So what are we going to do?' Ron asked desperately, hoping that his Headmaster had a plan.

The old man did not disappoint him.

'Simple. I am going to watch all of your memories from today, and then I am going to remove the embarrassing pictures from your mind.'

Dumbledore tapped his wand against Ron's temple, and withdrew a long silvery string of memory. He lifted the wand high into the air, and sucked the dangling thread into his mouth, slurping it down like a child with a strand of spaghetti.

For a moment, Dumbledore just sat there, head slightly angled, eyes not focussing on anything in particular. Then suddenly, he snapped out of the trance...

'Very interesting,' he stated, sounding almost impressed. 'I hadn't realised just how normal Mary appears to you. She might as well just be another corporeal human being...'

'So what does it mean?' Ron asked, hoping for some answers.

'I don't have any convincing theories.'

'But you have a hunch, right?'

'I have a few ideas, which would definitely merit investigation, but they all seem equally unlikely at the moment...'

'Want to share them?' Ron asked impetuously.

His mother tutted again, obviously appalled at his flippant rudeness. Dumbledore seemed as unconcerned as ever.

'Well, I'd rather not share my thoughts yet. Some of them are a little extreme. I wouldn't want you to worry...'

A little late for that, thought Ron sarcastically, but he didn't say it aloud, for fear of being assaulted by his mum.

'So what do I do?' Mary asked Ron, who relayed the question.

'Well, unless Molly has any objections, I suggest that Mary stays here until the school term starts. I'm afraid I can't solve this problem yet. I'll need to consult some old acquaintances, which may take some time. In the meantime...'

But whatever Dumbledore's advice would have been, Ron didn't find out. The conversation was interrupted by a piercing wail. The Headteacher fished a long golden chain out of his robes, and studied the pendant that was attached to it. It looked like some kind of crystal, and it was emitting a blood red glow which flooded the room.

'The wards have fallen at Privet Drive!' he yelled, over the shrieking sound. 'We need to go...'

'It's Harry!' Ron realised. 'Can I come?'

'Of course not,' his mother snapped, but seeing Ron's determined expression, she softened and tried to make him see reason. 'You're too young to use magic.'

'Another time,' Dumbledore promised, after silencing the pendant. 'You will have many more opportunities to help Harry, before the war is over.'

The old man turned to the adults.

'I have lowered the Apparition wards. Go to Privet Drive and get into your positions. I'll be right behind you.'

McGonagall and Ron's parents dissolved into the air with three quick pops.

'I have to go Ron, but trust me, I will look out for Harry. You need to take care of things here,' Dumbledore addressed the redhead, before turning to look at the foot of his bed. 'Mary, tell Ron everything you can remember about the last week. Even seemingly inconsequential things might be vital...'

Dumbledore stepped back, but just before he vanished he cast a quick charm at Ron.

'Obliviate!'

Instantly, all of the mildly pornographic images in Ron's head disappeared. He could still remember that he had seen Mary naked, he just couldn't remember what she had looked like. It was a relief. Now he could think clearly.

Dumbledore smiled at the boy's obvious gratitude, and dematerialised, raising the wards behind him.