Shadow Claw: The Life Story - The Fifth Chapter

Ch. 28 - The Dark Mark

Thought this song might 'improve' the atmosphere. >:3 Wasn't Expecting That - Jamie Lawson. This will be a longer chapter, I assure you all.

I remained with Jenny for a couple of days, as did James, while she healed over and all that was left was the memory of the ordeal. Shade was unsurprised by my love for my friends, and at a call from the Clan, he returned the majority of his warriors 

The evening was dark and gloomy, and Jenny's conversation topics were no different. She was mumbling on about things, and often Madam Pomfrey had to send her to sleep with some poppy juice. She woke on the third morning, and it seemed she was ready to speak up about everything. "Draco's- Shadow, please, don't- James, look-" She was panicking, so I placed a hand on her shoulder and blinked calmly. "Calm down first, Jenny, and then you can tell us."

She nodded, and I taught her my breathing technique to soothe herself, ridding us both of any previous negativity. "Now, what is it that you want to tell us?" I murmured. Shade shuffled impatiently behind me, and James, curled on the end of her bed as baby Grim, let out a low whine; Snowy and Tobias slept against his belly, purring quietly. Jenny took a deep breath and began:

"Draco and I are back together, and- and he's been sneaking into the Room of Requirements to fix this box called a Vanishing Cabinet. Apparently there's another in Borgin and Burkes. He- he told me nobody would get hurt, and he showed me his- his Dark Mark..." She pulled back her sleeve and tipped her arm, revealing a murky white outline of the Dark Mark. I sucked in a breath, "I copied Draco's, and I share his pain." A tear trickled from her eye, "And I d-didn't tell you. N-nobody was going to get h-hurt, but-"

There was a thundering flash and the atmosphere faded to a misty green. Shade touched my cheek very gently, and disappeared out of the Hospital Wing to investigate. "T-they're here!" Jenny wailed. I hushed her, and expect for James' low snuffling around my kits, there was a deafening silence that both unnerved and angered me.

Shade darted inside abruptly, panting hard. There was a trickle of blood sliding from his cheek that had been sliced in a shallow laceration. "Shade! What on Earth-"

"The Death Eaters are here, Shadow, they're everywhere. We need to leave, now!" He snarled, gathering our kits and shoving them into my arms. The door split open with a loud creak and Fenrir Greyback scattered inside, his features less human and more wolf. Blood ran from his chin, but it was not his own. Jenny made a dash for it, and somehow made it out. The wolf-man did not give chase, and she darted away into the darkening hallways.

I spotted the Dark Mark hanging from the skies, above the Clock Tower.

"I do like the taste of children..." The werewolf rasped, his odour reaching me. It was acrid and pungent, like sweat and blood with canine mixed into it.

Shade and I shifted, while Snowy and Tobias, awake and frightened, cowered behind James, who was not sure whether he must conquer his fear of Greyback, or flee the scene. "James, if you let my kits get hurt, so help me I will kill you myself!" I seethed at him, and he nodded, snatching my babies by their scruffs and leaping out of the stain glass windows. It shattered on impact and he disappeared altogether. Perhaps it was not time for him to stand against the man who turned him wolf-kind.

Shade and I advanced on Fenrir. He seemed to realise that he could not out-fight an Alpha and a protective mother at one time, and snarled furiously, backing up and fleeing down the hall with a horde of Death Eaters.