The Secrets of The Sighted (Golden Trio Era) {3}

The Dark Mark

Harry knew his shot at apparition had worked before he even opened his eyes. The smell of salt, the sea breeze had gone, and the sound of the waves crashing no longer hit his ears. He and Dumbledore were shivering and dripping in the middle of the dark High Street in Hogsmeade. For one horrible moment Harry's imagination showed him more Inferi creeping towards him around the sides of shops, but he blinked and saw that nothing was stirring. The town was eerily still, the darkness complete but for a few streetlamps and lit upper windows. Not a soul in sight. 

"We did it, Professor!" Harry whispered with difficulty; he suddenly realised that he had a searing stitch in his chest, making a mental note to have Mikayla look at it later. "We did it! We got the Horcrux!" Dumbledore staggered against him. For a moment, Harry thought that his inexpert Apparition had thrown Dumbledore off-balance. That's when he noticed the look on Dumbledore's face, he is paler and damper than ever in the distant light of a streetlamp.

"Sir, are you all right?" Harry asked genuinely concerned for the old man's health. "I've been better," Dumbledore commented weakly, though the corners of his mouth twitched. "That potion... was no health drink..." And to Harry's horror, Dumbledore sank to the ground. "Sir, it's going to be okay, sir, you're going to be all right, don't worry-" He looked around desperately for help, but there was nobody to be seen and all he could think was that he must somehow get Dumbledore quickly to the hospital wing. "We need to get you up to the school, sir... Madam Pomfrey..." Harry tried but Dumbledore quickly refused his plan. "In my pocket, Harry, there's a potion. Can you-" Harry cut Dumbledore off, telling the frail Professor that he would get him the potion.

Harry finds the potion instantly in Dumbledore's robes right pocket, he recognised the vial as one of Mikayla's that she keeps in her little blue bag for emergencies potion brewing. The letters AA were carved into the side of the vial, and the potion inside was a pastel minty colour, like no other potion Harry has seen Mikayla make. He pulled the stopper out, passing the vial to Dumbledore, who immediately poured it down his throat. Harry watched as Dumbledore's pained expression faded away simultaneously with the colour returning to his cheeks.

"We must hurry, Harry. I need to go to Professor Snape, he can help me. Mikayla's potion will only last an hour at most..." Dumbledore trailed off as his eyes scanned the street, "But I do not think... I can walk very far just yet..." Dumbledore admitted quietly, as though he fear someone would overhear him professing his weakness. "Right, sir, listen. I'm going to knock on a door, find a place you can stay. Then I can run and get Madam-" Dumbledore cut Harry off stating clearly that it was Severus Snape who he needed. "All right then, Snape." Harry gritted his teeth as he spoke the DADA teacher's name, "but I'm going to have to leave you for a moment so I can-"

Before Harry could even make a move, he heard running footsteps, getting louder and louder as they got closer to where he and Dumbledore stood. Harry's heart leapt in relief, somebody had seen, somebody knew they needed help, and looking around he saw Madam Rosmerta scurrying down the dark street towards them on high-heeled, fluffy slippers, wearing a silk dressing-gown embroidered with dragons. "I saw you Apparate as I was pulling my bedroom curtains! Thank goodness, thank goodness, I couldn't think what to- but what's wrong with Albus?" She came to a halt.

She was breathless panting, from all the running, as stared down, wide-eyed at Dumbledore, who was still holding onto Harry as he didn't trust his own legs to hold him up alone. "He's hurt." Harry answered instantly, looking away from her at the struggling Professor. "Madam Rosmerta, can he come into the Three Broomsticks while I go up to the school and get help for him?" Harry asks, sounding rather desperate, as his eyes pleaded with the barmaid.

"You can't go up there alone! Don't you realise- haven't you seen the-?" Harry wasn't even listening to her protests as he asked her to help him support Dumbledore to get him to the pub. "What has happened?" Dumbledore asked Rosmerta with a grave tone to his voice. "Rosmerta, what's wrong?" He asked again, getting rather inpatient with her after she didn't immediately answer him the first time. Rosmerta looked to the floor, pain and sadness flashed across her expression as she told them, "th-the Dark Mark, Albus." And she pointed into the sky, behind them, in the direction of Hogwarts. Dread flooded Harry at the sound of the words... he turned and looked.

There it was, hanging in the sky above the school; the blazing green skull with a serpent tongue. The mark Death Eaters left behind whenever they had entered a building... wherever they had murdered someone... "When did it appear?" Dumbledore questioned as his own expression morphed into worry, and his hand clenched painfully upon Harry's shoulder as he struggled to get on his feet. "Must have been minutes ago, it wasn't there when I put the cat out, but when I got upstairs-" Dumbledore had heard enough, he cut the barmaid off, claiming that he and Harry had to get back to Hogwarts at once.

"Rosmerta..." Dumbledore began and though he staggered a little, he seemed wholly in command of the situation, "we need transport- brooms-" Rosmerta cut in explaining that she has a couple of brooms behind the bar, "shall I run and fetch-?" Dumbledore shook his head at her question, which he interrupted before she even got the question out of her mouth. "No, Harry can do it." Harry raised his wand at once before casting the summoning charm for Rosmerta's brooms. A second later they heard a loud bang as the front door of the pub burst open, two brooms had shot out into the street and were racing each other to Harry's side, where they stopped dead, quivering slightly, at waist height.

"Rosmerta, please send a message to the Ministry," said Dumbledore, as he mounted the broom nearest him. "It might be that nobody within Hogwarts has yet realised anything is wrong... Harry, put on your Invisibility Cloak." Harry did as he was told, pulling his Cloak out of his pocket and threw it over himself before mounting his broom. "But Albus, they do know! I saw some Aurors head up to the castle about five minutes before the Dark Mark even appeared." Rosmerta spoke quickly before the pair could fly off, and Harry felt some relief knowing that the Order had arrived to help his friends.

"Yes, of course, Mikayla would've ensured that everyone was safe... but I doubt she alerted the Ministry, she doesn't trust them. Send the Ministry a message anyways, say that Hogwarts has been breached by Death Eaters and ask for their assistance in fighting them off." Dumbledore told Rosmerta, who quickly nodded before taking off back towards her pub as Harry and Dumbledore kicked off from the ground and rose up into the air. As they sped towards the castle, Harry glanced sideways at Dumbledore, the old man was bent low over his broom, his eyes fixed upon the Mark, his long silver hair and beard flying behind him in the night air.

And Harry, too, looked ahead at the skull, and fear swelled inside him like a venomous bubble, compressing his lungs, driving all other discomfort from his mind as he asked himself a multitude of questions. How long had they been away? Had Mikayla, Ron, Hermione and Ginny's luck run out by now? Was it one of them who had caused the Mark to be set over the school, or was it Neville, or Luna, or some other member of the DA? And if it was... he was the one who had told them to patrol the corridors, he had asked them to leave the safety of their beds... would he be responsible, again, for the death of a friend?

As they flew over the dark, twisting lane down which they had walked earlier, Harry heard, over the whistling of the night air in his ears, Dumbledore muttering in some strange language again. He thought he understood why as he felt his broom shudder for a moment when they flew over the boundary wall into the grounds. Dumbledore was undoing the enchantments he himself had set around the castle, so that they could enter at speed. The Dark Mark was glittering directly above the Astronomy Tower, the highest of the castle. Dumbledore had already crossed the crenellated ramparts and was dismounting as Harry landed next to him seconds later.