The Marked

"There they go again!" Seamus Finnigan sighed as Dean Thomas burst into as loud a whisper as he dared. "What could possibly be so important that they'd sneak out of the dorm at three in the morning? Do they have a death wish?"

"Calm down, Dean! You know those two! They're always off with Hermione doing something they shouldn't be." Seamus rolled over and pulled back the curtains on of his four poster dorm bed, watching Dean do the same a few moments later. The only sound to be heard in the room was the soft snores coming from Neville's bed.

"Yeah," Dean sighed as well, "but doesn't it bug you that they never even attempt to involve anyone else? I mean, I think at this point I'd settle for a daily 'hullo' from either of them!"

Seamus snickered. "You just want to be able to tell your grandkids that you were real chummy with the famous Harry Potter in school!"

"Bah!" But despite his best friend's protests Seamus could see he was lying in his eyes.

"We'll have to ask Parvati and Lavender if they heard anything from Hermione tomorrow at breakfast." Even as he spoke the words, he lost faith in them. Parvati and Lavender, Seamus and Dean's two closest friends other than each other, had already made it known that Hermione was a lockbox and getting information from her was as likely as Snape awarding Gryffindor fifty points.

"Those three are going to get themselves killed one of these days! If Dumbledore and McGonagall hadn't taken such a liking to them, I'll bet they'd already have been expelled!" Dean propped himself up on his elbows. "Well, maybe not Hermione, I'll bet Hogwarts hasn't the likes of her brain in some time!"

"Yeah..." Before he could say more, a yawn escaped his mouth. "Let's talk about this in the morning, ok?" Without waiting for a reply, he closed his curtains and fell back to sleep immediately.

***

Breakfast was always a rushed affair. Dean was a boy (although he preferred term man but Seamus could never use it without snickering) who took quite some time to prepare for the day, and Seamus took forever to just plain get out of bed.

"Seamus," he heard Neville's muffled voice through his thick comforter, "you're running late, even for you. Dean's already packing his books for the day." This made him sit straight up and turn to see that indeed, Dean was filling his bag with the days books. He really was running late!

"Oh man!" He groaned. "If I don't hurry I'm going to miss breakfast!" With speed he very rarely showed he slipped into a fresh set of robes, slid on his favorite pair of boots (a necessity as they added several inches to his height and most of the girls in their year were taller than him), and jammed the days books haphazardly into his raggedy bag.

Dean was already on his way to the Great Hall when Seamus flew down the steps to the common room, nearly breaking his neck on the stooped form of Harry on one of the last stairs.

"Gah!" His foot, boot laces still untied, skimmed the top of the other boy's back as he performed an incredibly poorly executed leap over him, sending him tumbling down the last few steps, Harry rolling down after him having been knocked off balance by the accidental kick. "Oof. Sorry 'bout that Harry."

"My fault." The raven-haired boy stood immediately, offering Seamus a hand. Seamus noticed that there were faint circles under his eyes. He and Ron must not have gotten back until late. Maybe Dean or Neville had heard them come in, he'd have to ask. "You ok? I didn't think anyone was left up there, otherwise I would have waited till I got down here to tie my shoe," he gestured down to his untied sneakers, to which Seamus grinned.

"We're in the same boat there," he stuck up his right foot, the boot now hanging loosely off of it. "I'm fine though." They both began jogging to leave the common room. "Running late too?"

"Er, yeah kinda," Harry shrugged. "I've already eaten breakfast though." They reached an intersection of four hallways. "Well, I'm going this way, and I'm assuming you're heading to breakfast so, I'll see you in class!" Without even so much as a wave, he took off in the opposite direction as Seamus, leaving the other boy wondering if he'd imagined the entire encounter. But then he reached up and wiped at his nose, frowning at the trickle of blood he found, and knew he'd be feeling the aftershock all day.

***

"About time you showed up, sleepy head!" Parvati Patil pulled her stuff off of his place at the Gryffindor table as he walked in. Glancing up, she gasped as she took in battered appearance. "What happened Seamus?!"

"Huh? Oh!" He took his napkin and wiped at his bleeding nose. "Tripped," was all he told her. Right then, all he was concerned with was eating his fill.

"Seamus, Seamus, Seamus," Lavender Brown sighed at him from across Parvati. "What are we going to do with you? Always tripping or blowing something up."

"Hey!" Dean came to his friend's defense. "He hasn't blown anything up in...four days!"

"What about yesterday?" Lavender's eyes traveled to Seamus's slightly singed eyebrows. "Remember Potions?"

"That doesn't count," Neville interrupted from down the table. "He was working with me, remember?" The Gryffindor fifth years, minus Ron, Harry, and Hermione who weren't there, chuckled. Neville was becoming quite easy-going about his mishaps in Potions. Outside of class, anyway.

"Hey Neville, Dean?" Seamus set his cup down, looking at the other two boys. "Did either of you two hear Harry or Ron come in last night?"

"Nope."

"No."

"Hermione didn't stumble in until it was almost time for breakfast!" Parvati looked scandalized, as she always did when informing them with the latest gossip. "She looked a fright too. I hate to think what they're getting into this time."

"Well, we'd all love to stay and chat about it but," Dean stood, shouldering his bag, "we've got Transfiguration and McGonagall hates it when anyone tardy."

***

After Transfiguration came Dean and Seamus's favorite class. Divination.

"What do you think the old bag will spouting today?" Seamus was barely paying attention to Dean as they made their way to north tower.

"Dean! You watch what you're saying!" Parvati and Lavender always hated it when they spoke ill of Professor Trelawney, their favorite teacher at Hogwarts. Dean, who normally wouldn't miss an opportunity to bug the girls about the Professor, shrugged her off, turning instead to Seamus.

"Seamus? Hey, you ok?"

"Huh?" He turned to face his best friend. "Oh, yeah! I'm fine. I'm just thinking about what the Trio's up to." The "Trio" was their nickname for the three.

"Yeah, I suppose it is a bit weirder than normal, huh? Oh well, they'll never tell us anything." He stopped. They'd reach the tower. "Well, guess we'll be hearing another way for Harry to die."

Seamus grinned. "She's really getting quite inventive lately isn't she?"

Divination was much the same as always, boring. Seamus didn't understand what about the class interested Lavender and Parvati so much. Dean sat beside him, as usual, dozing on and off, and Neville was half-heartedly taking notes. Behind him, Harry and Ron weren't even pretending to be paying attention as they bowed their heads over some parchment, speaking in hush, anxious whispers so low, Seamus couldn't make anything they were say out.

"Mr. Potter," Professor Trelawney's voice sounded out harsh and annoyed. "I would think some of us would have learnt by now not to brush off the art of Divination."

Ron, his voice still too low for Trelawney to hear, muttered, "Yeah, you really would have thought so." Harry ignored him and merely said, "Sorry, Professor."

Their last class of the day was Care of Magical Creatures, and Seamus was glad to get out of the castle. It was chilly and wet, being mid November, but it always helped him clear his head when he was outdoors.

It was a pretty uneventful lesson, as far as Hagrid's lessons went. The most exciting thing to happen was the latest bout of name-throwing from Malfoy and Ron.

"When are those two just going to give up? The way the go at it," Parvati rolled her eyes. "It's pointless and really immature."

"Yeah but," Dean shrugged as they climbed the steps to the castle, "you know Ron, he's easily provoked and Malfoy loves to provoke him." He turned to Seamus as they opened to doors. "You sure you're alright? You're really quiet today."

"Yeah, I'm fine!" He glanced at his watch. Class had ended early and they had awhile before dinner. "Listen, I'm going to go for a walk. I'll meet you all at dinner." He started to walk off.

"You want some company?" Dean sounded concerned.

"No," he turned back around and grinned at them, knowing full well Dean hated it when he smiled like that. He said it made all the girls go nuts. "I'm fine. Go on and go daydream about asking Parvati's sister out!" The girls laughed whiled Dean blushed and stalked off. He had been quite taken with Padma Patil for about a year. Chuckling, Seamus strolled off, hands in his cloak pockets as he walked through the drafty corridors of the school.

He'd been walking for perhaps twenty minutes when three familiar voices, all sounding angry, echoed out from a nearby hallway. Seamus crept up quietly and peaked around the corner, not at all surprised to see the Trio standing at such an odd place. There weren't any classrooms being used in this wing, and no dormitories on the level, so he wondered what they were up to.

"We should just leave it be!" Ron was saying. "That's heavy stuff, that is! We've got no right to go meddling in it!"

"Ron!" Hermione was seething. "How can you say that? We don't even know what it is for sure!"

"If You-Know-Who's looking for it, it must be pretty big!" Ron's face was just about as red as his hair.

"We don't even know for sure if Voldemort's after it," Harry said to him calmly.

"You said you heard Snape say something about it though!"

"I said that I heard Snape tell Dumbledore Voldemort mentioned it briefly at one of the Death Eater meetings along with a bunch of other stuff." Harry turned to Hermione. "Now, why exactly did you bring us to a portrait of Fredrick Hundley? I thought it was called Delving's Curse?"

"It is!" Hermione stepped closer to the large portrait they stood in front of. "But you see, Fredrick Delving only exists until 1756. He would have been about twenty-eight then. There's no record of his death, he just doesn't appear anymore. However, one Fredrick Hundley seems to appear three years later from nowhere! He's right about the correct age, too. I'm guessing he was shunned from the wizarding world for this Delving's Curse and he left, only to come back later with a new name and become one of the most respected wizards of his time!"

Seamus was amazed with this feat of information Hermione had just spouted, but Harry and Ron seemed used to it and went on immediately.

"What exactly is this Delving's Curse? It must be pretty bad if he was shunned for it." Ron was scratching his nose, eyes wide with bewilderment.

"Well, we don't know that, now do we?" Hermione rolled her eyes. "I agree though, it must have been something really evil. My guess is it's probably only mentioned in detail in books in the Restricted Section. The only thing I've come across about is that it gives the power of sight."

"The power of sight?" Harry looked up at the portrait. "That doesn't sound like a curse."

"Exactly, so there's obviously more to it. Come on, we're going to be late to dinner." The three stalked off down the hall, leaving a bewildered Seamus. Thoughts of all sorts were flying through his head. Snape was at a Death Eater meeting? The Trio was digging into You-Know-Who's plans? Harry called He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named by his name?

He reached up to scratch his head, then walked up to the portrait. It was rather boring as Hogwarts paintings went. The man, painted in his early-forties, sat in a large chair, moving on slightly. His eyes roamed over Seamus, almost seeming to be daring him to reach out and touch the canvas. Something about the look irked Seamus and found himself stretching out his arm and lightly brushing hand against the painting. Just along the hem of the coat he was wearing. Suddenly, something caught his eye.

The sleeve of Hundley's coat was pushed back slightly, along with his shirt sleeve, revealing a strange marking on his wrist. It was a line, the ends curling up into curlicues, a small circle intersecting the center of it with an X on top of that. On closer inspection, Seamus realized the X was actually overlaying swords, and the circle a shield of sorts. Gingerly, he brushed his fingers along the curving line, fascinated with it for some reason. As he reached the sword, the man in the painting drew back, his brown eyes narrowing in what almost seemed to be pain. Before he realized what was going on, Seamus found himself bathed in a gold light just before a wave of pain washed over him. He briefly heard the sound of his own horrified screams before the world around him went black and the floor flew up to meet him.

***

When he awoke, Seamus found that it was morning. An awfully bright morning, the sun hurt his eyes as it winked down at him through the windows of the Hospital Wing. How he got there, he could only guess. Groaning as pain flooded his head, he gave up trying to sit and remained lying down.

"Well look who's finally awake! Glad to have you back among the living, Mr. Finnigan," Madam Pomfrey bustled into the room, a bright smile on her face. "How do you feel? Any pains?"

"Just my head," he massaged a throbbing temple. "How long have been here?"

"A week yesterday. It's a good thing Professor Lupin took the long way to the Great Hall, otherwise you might still be lying in that hallway. What were you doing down there anyway?"

"A WEEK!?" That got him sitting. "I've been out for a week? What happened?"

"That, Mr Finnigan," a new voice interrupted, "is what we would like to know." The smiling face of Professor Lupin peeked in through the open door. He'd signed on again to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, much to the protests of many parents, though none had the heart to remove their child from the school. "Glad to see you awake."

"What happened?" This time, Seamus was asking himself. "I don't know I was just standing there and-" he strained his memory, he had been standing there doing something, but what? He couldn't remember. He'd overheard an argument from the Trio, about something called the Delving's Curse, and then they'd left. What had he been doing after that? "I don't remember. I was just standing there. And then there was light, a lot, and I was in pain. That's all I remember."

Lupin's smile had turned into a thoughtful frown as Madame Pomfrey gave Seamus some pain-relieving potion for his headache. "Hmm...what were you doing down there by yourself?"

"I went for a walk after Care of Magical Creatures. Felt like being alone for a bit." Seamus shrugged. "Just walked around aimlessly for awhile."

"I see..." Lupin frowned a little more, then shook it off. "Well, I'll go inform the Headmaster you're awake. In the meantime, I'm sure you'll to beg Poppy here to let you out before lunch, so I'll leave you to it."

Lupin was right, Seamus was dying to get out the Hospital Wing and see his friends, but it took almost a straight hour of whining and begging before she let him go. Eagerly, he ran all the way to dormitory and quickly threw on some fresh robes. Lunch would be served shortly so he figured he'd go head off his friends outside of their classroom. Right then, they had Potions.

Careful to keep a safe distance from the door as to prevent Snape from seeing and harassing him, he met all of them looking as they always did when they came out of Snape's class until they caught sight of him, pale and about to fall over.

"Seamus!" Dean was the first to reach him, throwing off all airs of masculinity and locking his best-friend into a bear hug. "You had us so freaked out, man! What happened?"

"Dunno," Seamus shrugged and grinned as Lavender and Parvati both enveloped him hugs as well. "Glad to see you two too."

As they started walking to lunch, the Trio passed, giving him suspicious looks as they did, before smiling and waving at him. But, he noticed, their smiles didn't reach their eyes.

"Those three have been going at it full force ever since Lupin found you," Dean whispered to him as the Trio passed out of earshot. "You sure you don't know what happened?"

"No clue!" They took their usual seats at the table as they entered the Great Hall. "But I do have something to tell you," he shot the Trio a quick look, "later." They were quiet as they settle down to eat. Seamus was famished, this being his first meal in over a week.

"You really had us worried, Seamus!" Parvati told him. "We were just coming to look for you when Professor Lupin came running down the hall with you lying on a stretcher trailing behind him!"

"Yeah," Lavender nodded vehemently, her eyes wide with wonder. "You were as pale as a sheet! And shaking all over, too! Every now and then, you were muttering something, but we couldn't make anything out!"

The Trio seemed to have halted their own, private conversation and turned their attention to their fellow Gryffindor fifth years. They seemed casual enough, but Seamus had to wonder in his welfare was really what they had on their minds.

"Say, Seamus," Hermione spoke up. "What were you doing down that hallway anyway? I mean, there's nothing down there, right?"

"Oh, I just went for a walk. I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going," he broke into as real a chuckle as he could manage. "Good thing someone found me, I guess! I never would have made it back to the dorm!" Dean and Neville laughed as well, while Lavender and Parvati shook their heads, wondering how he could be so nonchalant about his predicament. The Trio merely gave him hard looks then went back to their business.

After dinner, Lavender and Parvati went off to the library, supposedly to research for their Potions essay, but Seamus had a sneaking suspicion it was to spy on their latest crush, some Ravenclaw seventh year who spent all his free time reading. Dean and Neville walked with Seamus back to the dorm, with the Trio walking along behind them. As they were climbing one of the sets of staircases, they came across Padma Patil, who seemed to be waiting for them.

"Hey guys!" She waved cheerfully at them, making Dean go weak in the knees. "Glad to you're feeling better Seamus."

"Thanks," he told her. Then just to rile Dean he flashed her that grin of his that Dean hated.

"Well, I was just wondering if you had seen my sister?"

"Yeah," Seamus answered since Dean's mouth didn't seem capable of doing anything but hanging open. "She and Lavender went to the library."

"Oh! I should have known!" Waving, she began to leave. "Nice seeing you! Bye Seamus, Neville!" She paused, then lowered her face and said in a much smaller voice, "Bye Dean," before walking off.

When she was gone, Neville and Seamus both burst out laughing.

"Look at that Dean!" Seamus slapped his best friend on the back. "She likes you!"

Dean groaned. "I can only dream! Let's go back to the common room!" Without waiting for an answer, he stormed back up the stairs, followed shortly by Neville. As he finally began to ascend once more, Seamus notice that the Trio was still following behind, having waited throughout their conversation with Padma. Something was definitely up.

***

"So they really are up to something!"

Seamus had spent the last hour going over everything with Dean in the privacy of their empty dorm room. Ron and Harry were downstairs working on Divination homework and Neville was working with Hermione on the Potions essay.

"Yeah. I just wish I knew what, and why they seem so keen on trailing me."

"Well," Dean gave him a look. "You got to admit, it looks a bit curious from their viewpoint. I mean, Lupin found you unconscious and thrashing about right where they had had a meeting...they probably think you're up to something."

"Hmm..." Seamus rubbed at his chin. "Maybe." He stood. "Right now, I need a shower."

"Yeah you do," Dean grinned and laughed Seamus hurled a pillow at him. "I'm going down to the common room to see if Hermione can maybe help me on the essay too." He waved and grabbed his bag, heading down out the door while Seamus gathered his stuff for his shower.

As he entered the bathroom that connected to their dorm room, he began to disrobe, pausing to glance at himself in the mirror when he was done. What he saw made him gasp.

There, on his chest right next to his left shoulder was some sort of mark. It almost seemed like a tattoo but not. It was a deep green, almost seeming to shimmer. He knew he recognized, that he had seen it before, but he couldn’t recall where. He gently ran his finger along the curving line of it, then traced the overlaying swords, bewildered by it. After a few moments, he went ahead and took his shower, deciding not to share this new little addition with anyone just yet.