The Dark Mark (The Girl Who Lived part II)

The Portable Swamp part 1

The twins interrogated the boy. I thought he was going to cry. When the interrogating was done, the twins dished out the punishment. George said that he'd "pay in more than Galleons". When George finally let the boy go, he scurried off. Never had I ever seen a boy run that fast. When the store closed, I flipped the sign and locked the door as George and Fred turned off the lights. We went downstairs to the storage room, which was also where they invented many of their products, and where they slept. I sat on the floor while I watched Fred and George work late into the evening on their newest product. They used all sorts of tools. "Look at this, Scarlet. My very own creation". George said, as he held up a neon Dark Mark. It's likeness to a Dark Mark made me shiver. It was exact. "What I made was better. Look at this, Scarlet. It's a portable swamp". Fred said this. As he grabbed the box off the table, he dropped it on the floor. The box violently shook as if there were something inside trying to escape. A white light was emitted from the box. Almost as bright as the sun itself. "Scarlet!" The twins reached for my hands. We stretched our arms as far as we could, but it wasn't quite far enough. Our hands missed each other just by half an inch.

The light emitted from the box was the only thing visible. We were blown off our feet. I felt a cool sensation surrounding me. I opened my eyes, only to shut them as soon as I had opened them. My eyes had stung. I was surrounded by water. There was no where else to swim, but up. I began to feel lightheaded. The amount of my oxygen in my lungs was running low. How much longer did I have to swim upward. "Scarlet!" I heard my name being yelled from above. I wanted to yell back. To respond. But if I did, only oxygen in the form of bubbles would escape. I had to keep swimming upward. I felt my heart beat more than anything else. Every beat vibrated throughout my body. Any one could be my last.

I was tempted to breathe, but that'd only lessen the oxygen that had once filled my lungs. I felt myself slowly sinking downward. My swimming no longer seemed to have any affect. There was a force pulling me upward.  Up, and up I went until that cool sensation didn't surround me anymore. I was dragged onto a slightly damp, but solid surface. "Scarlet?" Can you hear me?" I felt the shaking of my shoulders. Even though I was on dry land, I still couldn't breathe. The words that were exchanged between the twins were fuzzy. My world spun. I had a difficulty telling fact from fiction. "She needs CPR. I'd better be the one to give it to her". I heard George say. Or maybe it was Fred. "But I actually took a class". The other twin argued. "Her pulse is fading. She needs CPR now. You do it". I felt a pounding on my chest. It was irregular. The pounding from the CPR did not match the constant beat of my heart. 

"You're not doing it right". I heard the other twin nag. "Then give me a steady beat". I heard a song being hummed in the background. I felt the water go up my lungs and out of my throat when I coughed it up. I placed my hand on the back of my head to help me focus. "Looks like Scarlet needs mouth to mouth". I heard George say as he leaned in towards me, lips puckered. I met his lips with my hand. "Not a chance". I said. "Well, looks like our dear Scarlet is doing fine". Fred said. When I removed my hand from my head, I examined it. My hand felt soaked. And it was, just not with water. It was covered in blood. "Scarlet, what happened when you were at Malfoy Manor?" The twins asked. The bandage must've fallen off when I was under water, causing the wound to open. "I fell down some stairs at Malfoy Manor", I lied. Fred ripped off a piece of his shirt and loosely tied it around my head as a replacement for the bandage. George examined the back of my head. "Looks like it needs another layer. It's bleeding through the fabric". George copied his brother, and tied a piece of his shirt around my head just as Fred had done.

"Let's get going. We have to find that box in order to return everything back to normal and get rid of this portable swamp". Said George. I finally got the chance to observe my surroundings. We were indeed in a swamp. The climate matched that of a normal swamp. Mild temperature, and a relatively high humidity. There was quite a bit of vegetation. Cypress and tupelo trees along with Spanish moss that hung from the branches, and duckweed that was on the surface of the water, could be found everywhere. There seemed to be no end. Even though a fog covered up the vegetation in the distance, it seemed as though the marsh went on for miles and miles. "It's quite authentic". I commented. "It's like we're in the real thing. Exactly, how long does it go on for?" The idea of being in a work room one minute and being in a swamp the next was rather a wild one. When I was nothing more than a member of the staff at Malfoy Manor, I imagined myself in far away places, on some sort of journey. Well, I was now in a far away place. And as I swatted one of the many mosquito's off of me, I realized that this wasn't as wondrous of a place as I had imagined it to be. 

We marched through the swamp, not stopping once since the twins had pulled me out of the murky water. There was no sign of the box anywhere. "Are you sure that the box is the only way we can get everything to return to normal?" I asked Fred. "Yeah". He answered, thoroughly searching one of the shrubs.I climbed one of the trees to get a better view of the swamp. Maybe the box would be more visible from above ground. I stood on two sturdy branches that were located at the top of the tree. My head stuck out of the top of the tree. "See anything?" I heard a voice say directly in my ear. "George! Don't sneak up on me like that!" I had a miniature heart attack. George had this way of soundlessly creeping up behind people. He wouldn't make his presence known until he was right behind you.

I quickly turned, to scold him. I forgot where I was, or rather, what I was standing on. The simple movement of my foot caused me to fall through the branches of the tree. "Scarlet!" I began to fall, the leaves whipping my face in the process. There was a sudden force that jerked me upward. George caught my arm. Everything but my left arm dangled in the air. "I've got you". He said. One of the branches George stood on, began to crack. I could see the branch slowly bending. It was about to break. I looked down. It was several stories from my feet to the ground. If I were to let go, chances were pretty high that if   didn't fracture or break anything, then I'd surely sprain something. "Scarlet, don't look down. Just focus on me". His voice remained calm, but his eyes panicked. The branch creaked again. This time louder than the last. The branch was about to snap in two. George's hands were sweaty, causing his grip on me to slip. "George, let me go. This branch isn't going to support the two of us for any longer.

"I'm not going to let go, Scarlet". With my other hand, I loosened George's loosened grip on my hand. When I fell, it felt like I was sky diving with a parachute that wouldn't open. Or better yet, without a parachute at all. "Scarlet!" I heard him scream as I fell through the beaches that scraped every inch of me on the way down. It made more sense that I just got hurt instead of the two of us. I prepared myself for the worst. For the pain to come. But none did. The landing I had wasn't exactly like landing on a bunch of overstuffed feather pillows, but nonetheless, better than expected. It was odd. My landing seemed cushioned. And indeed it was. At the moment, I was held by Fred who must've tried to catch me and fell to the ground himself into the shallow water upon impact.

"Thanks Fred". "I've got you. Always". First I stood up, and then he. "George. I'm safe. Fred caught me. Do you see anything?" I shouted from down below. A few moments later, a response came. "Nothing yet. Just a bunch of fog". Without the help of anyone, George was able to return to ground level in one piece. "Well, where to next?" I asked them. They glanced at each other and shrugged. So far, none of us had any idea where the box could be found. Little did we know that as we trudged through the shallow murky swamp water searching, a pair of yellow cold blooded eyes followed not too far behind.