Author's Note: For the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Season Two/Round Eight, substituting for Keeper of the Caerphilly Catapults, writing a fluff fanfic including the morsmordre spell. Also, for the If You Dare Challenge, prompt 957. Battle in the Sky.
A Morsmordre Counter
(Upon Voldemort's defeat, the victorious side decides they need a celebration mark of their own.)
"What do we do now, eh? Figure we can't put up the Dark Mark like the Death Eaters," said Ron. There was general agreement amongst those who were seeking peace in the Room of Requirement—Harry and Ginny, Hermione, Neville, and Luna. The immediate aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts had been dealt with, and for now they were trying to focus on the cheerful side of things, to escape the rest of it.
"Definitely not, Ronald;" Hermione scolded him just for the idea.
"We could put up a mark of our own," Luna said dreamily. "Just to show them."
"'S'not a bad idea," agreed Neville.
"That would be inventing a whole new spell!" Hermione protested.
"And what, you couldn't do it?" Ron asked her.
"Well," she started, "I suppose I could, but it would be a whole lot of work."
"Are we against that, now?" asked Harry, and there was some laughter.
"Well, what would it be?" Ginny questioned.
"What?"
"What would our mark be?"
Everyone was quiet for a second.
"What 'bout the Galleon? The coins we used for meetings?" tried Ron.
"That wouldn't mean much to anyone but us," said Hermione.
"Well, it would still be a Galleon, wouldn't it? Everyone likes Galleons."
"But then we could just use a rainbow or a heart or a peace sign or a lot of generic things!"
Harry cut in: "All right, so no Galleon. What else we got?"
"The symbol of Hogwarts," said Hermione.
Everyone looked at each other.
"There are some perfectly nice people who went to Beauxbatons or Durmstrang," Luna pointed out.
"Well, we did win the battle here," said Neville.
There was more quiet.
Ginny looked at Harry. "Lightning," she said then. "Like Harry's scar. Everyone knows that."
No one could argue, and so in the next few minutes they officially decided on the lightning bolt as their Light symbol.
"Well, what can we do with that?" asked Neville.
"We could create a counter curse to morsmordre," said Hermione. "Create a modification of the spell that has our mark instead of theirs."
"And I suppose you do know how to do that?" asked Ron.
"Of course," said Hermione. "Simpler than a whole original spell, really. First, Harry, let me see your scar."
Harry brushed some of his hair out of the way, and Hermione pointed her wand at him, creating a thin stream of silver light like the beginning of a patronus, tracing the scar. Then it faded, all at once, and she muttered, "We have the pattern... now, let me look up the origins of morsmordre."
As she said the words, bookshelves appeared along one of the walls of the room, and one book stuck out from the shelf. Hermione got up to go retrieve it, and flipped through the pages, clearly looking for something in particular that no one else was completely sure of.
"Here it is," she said, and then read for a minute. "All right, then. Our counter curse incantation should be legermarque."
She moved her wand in the lightning bolt formation, said, "Legermarque," and then flicked her wand. A red lightning bolt appeared in front of her. She tried it several more times, apparently doing complicated things to get it to work better, to stay longer, to be bolder, consulting with other books that poked out from the shelf.
"Someone else try it, now," she said.
"Legermarque!" said Ginny, copying the wand movement. A bold, red lightning bolt lingered in the air in front of her, too.
The rest of them all eventually got the same result, with little incident except for Neville almost burning it into his foot.
"Should we try it outside?" asked Ron, and everyone generally agreed.
It seemed like a good thing amongst the darkness, and so, like children again, they all eagerly rushed outside.
"Harry, want to do the honors?" asked Hermione.
"All right," said Harry, and cast his wand at the sky over the castle, drawing a lightning bolt in the air. "Legermarque!"
There was a pop sound, making several of the people working around them look up, and then the lightning bolt appeared in the sky, easily the size of a Quidditch pitch, huge, bold, recognizable, and bright red.
They all stood in awe and looked at it for several minutes.
As it began to fade, Neville cast another one high into the sky for all of their spectators, and said, "To life!"
"To Hogwarts!" continued Hermione.
"To Dumbledore's Army!" exclaimed Luna.
"To Harry!" Ginny finished.
They all broke into laughter, because finally it felt like they had won, like all of the horrible things that had happened in their journey had gone away, because here was proof that no one would see the Dark Mark in the sky again. Here was proof that friendship and bravery would always win out.
They all cast several more into the sky, each accompanied by a pop and an explosion of the mark in the air. It seemed that everyone was now looking up at them, with several oohs and ahs and applause.
"—Bloody big fireworks show you're putting on, Potter," said Seamus Finnigan, one of those who had come to watch. He clapped Harry on the shoulder.
"I give Hermione credit," Harry said.
"You won the war," said Hermione, and Harry smiled:
"We all did."
END