A Marauder's Guide to Falling Forever

Chapter Twenty Four

There was another one that interested her more. And like a disembodied voice calling out to her from somewhere in the stacks, she was drawn away from row 81 and back out into the main aisle.

"Marlene?" Sirius yelled after her. "Wait! Where are you going? What about this bloody thing? I want to know what it is!"

"I need to see something," she called over her shoulder without bothering to wait for him. His shuffling feet caught up to her and they made their way swiftly to where a neat little plaque informed them that they were now at row 97.

It didn't take long to find it. It appeared to be filled with a thick fog; wisps of the greyish white smoke swirled around gently. The inscription made it quite simple to distinguish from all the rest.

S.P.T to A.P.W.B.D
Dark Lord and (?)

Sirius looked to where her attention had settled read the most notable thing about it, "The Dark Lord?" He shifted his focus to Marlene, attempting to capture her interest. "Marlene?" Impatient, Sirius reached out to grab for the second time and she quickly threw her arm at him to stop his fingertips from touching it.

"Don't touch it," she said with irritation.

"You keep saying that," he huffed, annoyed. "Why can't I touch it?"

"I don't know, I just know that you can't. I have to be the one to take it."

Her fingertips instinctively reached to grab for it...

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" an additional voice screamed at her, an echo of her own words. But it was too late. She had already reached out and grasped the spun-glass sphere and the swirls of silver silk within spun elegantly beneath her fingertips.

Immediately, the raspy, transfixed voice of a woman cut into the room, drowning out the sounds of the pounding footsteps that raced towards them. Marlene held the unusually warm glass sphere in her hands, staring fixedly at it. 

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

Marlene looked upwards from the orb to see Tom standing two feet behind Sirius, pale as a sheet and visibly shaking. She watched the multiple emotions compete for expression on his face; fear, anger, disbelief. He said nothing.

Sirius was staring at the glass, not bothering to acknowledge that they had been joined by another person. His face constricted into something comparable to disgust. "What the hell was that?"

Her lips quivered as the words tumbled out quietly, "What Voldemort wants."

Both Tom and Sirius looked at her with disbelief. Marlene could only concentrate on the words she had just bore witness to. This was surely what Dumbledore had been keeping from her, and she fully understood why it had been so important that she discover how to keep it from the hands of Voldemort. 

"You need to put that back," Tom's instructed, his voice on edge.

Marlene complied willingly, not really certain that she wanted to be touching such an ill-omened artefact. It hardly seemed real that the whole situation had even occurred, yet it had. And she didn't know how to feel about it.

"How the hell did you two get in here?" he continued angrily. "And more importantly, how did you do that?" His finger was pointed to where the orb in question sat lifeless back on the shelf from where Marlene had borrowed it.

"The first question isn't important," Marlene balked at him. "And as for the second one I have no idea what you mean?"

"Well you most certainly didn't just waltz in through the main doors." Tom shot a disapproving sideways glance at Sirius, likely internally blaming his influence for their reckless behavior. He chose not to vocalize this, however. "The door to this room was locked. Not even magic can get you in here. Not to mention the most important thing I'm baffled by; that thing should have cursed you into madness. Absolute madness."

"The door was locked." Sirius frowned. "Marlene was the one to open it."

"And you touched it!" Tom ignored him and frantically pulled at what remaining hair he had left on his head. "Anyone that attempts to touch them shall instantly be inflicted with madness. It happened to Augustus last year, he accidentally bumped the shelf and grabbed one to prevent it from falling. I saw it happen. I saw it."

Marlene's jaw tightened and her brows pulled downwards, "Augustus?" That name sounded familiar to her and she tried to remember why.

"Yes, Augustus Rookwood. He had to be hospitalized for months after the incident."

"But she's not mad," Sirius pointed out. "So maybe she's supposed to be able to touch it?"

Marlene glanced back at the now lifeless orb. It was not the prophecy that she had witnessed Cassandra make, but it didn't have her name inscribed on it either. "I don't think so," she chimed in. "I don't see how this pertains to me."

"There's only one other possible explanation then." Tom's face, already ashen, seemed to drain of all remaining color. His skin under the blue lighting made him look quite sickly. "Let me see your wrist, Marlene."

"I'm sorry, my wrist?" she asked, confused.

Tom pushed past Sirius, shoving him physically out of the way as he advanced on his goddaughter. Her body stiffened as he reached down to grab her arm and watched incredulously as he pushed her sweater sleeve up to her elbow.

But what was even more astounding was the small marking that hadn't existed earlier in the day, now prominently etched into the lines of her skin. Right below the palm of her left hand black ink intricately detailed the image of a key which resembled the shape of the letter 'K'.

She had seen that image once before. It was the same image from the parchment left behind by the intruder at Tom's house. The same one that had disappeared when she touched it...

"What is that?" she asked, a nervous edge to her voice.

"The key," Tom's voice rattled shakily. His brow furrowed as his mouth turned grim and he looked at her with a mixture of pity and remorse. She didn't understand why. He continued, "You have the key."

"The key to what exactly?" Sirius was peering over Tom's shoulder and fixated on the small tattoo. His eyebrows were pulled together in concentration and his lips parted slightly as though there was something else he wanted to either ask or say.

"The key to the Hall." Tom's eyes were filled with unrelenting sadness. "You asked me once who the Keeper of the Hall was, do you remember that Marlene?"

Marlene nodded her head, "Yes."

"Well," he said slowly. He let go of her arm and her wrist fell limply to her side. "Apparently it's you."