IS THIS THE NEW MARK OF TERROR?

SPECTRAL SKULL DISCOVERED FLOATING OVER SCENE OF DEVASTATION

The Ministry of Magic was this afternoon alerted to a property in Truro over which a ghostly green skull was floating, the Evening Prophet can reveal. Upon investigation, the house contained the bodies of three people, one of whom is rumoured to be Goron Trevelyan, a senior member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The skull was still present when reporters for the Evening Prophet arrived at the scene.

'We're not sure of the meaning of this symbol, so don't ask us,' a visibly distressed looking official commented earlier this afternoon.

Mr Trevelyan, 43, last week passed a law that authorised new powers for Aurors investigating crimes involving Dark Magic, and there is speculation that this may be the cause of the tragedy.

This comes following the disappearance of Edgar Prince, head of the Muggle Liaison Office three weeks ago. A Ministry spokeswizard declined to comment on whether the two cases were linked, but said that the skull appeared to be the work of Dark Magic.

Article continued on page five.

'Here, look at this.'

Sirius looked up from the dinner he was trying to eat at breakneck speed as James slid a newspaper across the table to him.

Sirius took the paper. Most of the front page was given over to a large black and white photograph of a house. It was in total disarray, its front door hanging on its hinge and windows smashed while on the lawn in front of the house, scorch marks still smouldered. Hovering over the house was a large, ghostly skull. A shadowy snake was protruding silently from its mouth like some sort of grotesque tongue.

'Who is it this time?' Remus asked as he and Peter leaned in to look. There was a hint of forced calm in his voice. Sirius tore his eyes away from the photograph.

'Someone from the Ministry, it looks like,' he said as he quickly scanned the article. 'Department of Magical Law Enforcement.' Sirius frowned. It seemed that every other week the newspaper brought more stories of deaths and disappearances, always whispered to be the work of one man, one wizard and his band of followers…

'Got to be Voldemort,' James said darkly. 'And the Death Eaters.'

'Why the skull, do you think?' Remus asked.

Sirius shrugged, looking back at the photograph. 'No idea,' he said. 'It must mean something to them.'

'Maybe a warning or something?' James said. 'Looks like Trevelyan pissed them off writing that law.'

Sirius repressed a shudder as the mouth of the shadowy skull yawed silently and the serpent began to move and twist as if hissing menacingly. He was starting to get a creeping sense of dread the longer he looked at the photograph, yet he found he could not look away. The careless chatter of the students around them suddenly seemed far away and Sirius felt a chill, though the enchanted sky overhead was still a periwinkle blue and the sun streamed in through the high windows.

'I wonder how they can tell it was Dark Magic?' Peter said, his brow furrowed as he pulled the newspaper towards him.

'Well a giant ghostly skull over a house full of dead bodies isn't going to be a force of good, is it?' Sirius snapped sharply, irritation rising suddenly within him like bile. Peter turned pink.

He saw James raise his eyebrows and Sirius felt a sting of shame, but he did not meet his best friend's eyes. Beside him, Remus gave a little cough.

'Er,' he said awkwardly, 'you two best be going if you're going to map Professor Merrick's office before she finishes dinner.'

Sirius glanced at the staff table. Here and there teachers were talking to each other with grave looks on their faces, their brows furrowed. Professor Merrick, their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, was beginning to tuck into a plate of stew.

Sirius swore. Opposite him, James took one last, huge, bite of bread and stood up.

'If we're quick we can do Slughorn's office too,' he said thickly, showering the table in front of him with soggy breadcrumbs. A couple of seats along, a group of third year girls looked at him, disgusted. 'They're on the same floor. Then it'll be the whole of the second floor done. Map's coming along nicely.'

'Slughorn always takes ages at dinner,' Remus said. 'Then tonight we can do the Charms corridor and those disused classrooms so Peter and I can get some practice.'

Sirius could still feel James's eyes boring into him, but he resolutely ignored him. He glanced down again at the newspaper before snatching it off the table and stuffing it hurriedly out of sight.

'See you later,' he said hastily to Peter and Remus before striding off out of the Hall.

He was halfway up the marble staircase when James caught up with him.

'What was that all about?' he said, slightly out of breath.

'Sorry,' Sirius said brusquely, still not looking at James. 'Didn't mean to snap at him.'

'Are you okay?' he said as they reached the top of the stairs.

'I'm fine.'

'You aren't acting like it,' James said. 'Last time you were this pissed off you'd just been kicked off the Quidditch team for chucking your bat at McCarthay during practice. We had to coax you down from the Owlery with Chocolate Frogs.'

Sirius gave a grunt. He remembered the incident, in their third year.

'I'm afraid I haven't got any Chocolate Frogs now or else you could have some.'

Sirius sighed and turned at last to face his best friend.

'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I really am, I didn't mean to snap at him so harshly.'

'What happened?' James asked.

Sirius sighed again and carried on along the corridor to the stairs that led to the second floor. James fell into step beside him.

'It's just all this stuff going on,' Sirius said, running a hand through his hair. 'All these deaths and everything, it seems never ending, week after week after week. More and more. Makes you wonder what's going to happen next.'

'Yeah,' James replied grimly. 'It's pretty scary what's going on out there.'

'And that skull,' Sirius continued hesitantly, repressing another shudder at the memory of it. 'Seeing it like that… it made it all very real... it really freaked me out.'

As he spoke those words a wave of shame crashed over him, but James just nodded.

'It scared me too,' he said.

He looked at his friend. Surprise must have shown on his face because James grinned and said, 'I think it's okay to be scared of a rampaging mass murderer, Padfoot.'

Sirius laughed and he started to feel a knot he hadn't even realised was there unclench from his stomach. 'I guess you're right.'

They walked in silence for a few moments. 'I'll apologise to Wormy when we get back, it's not his fault,' Sirius said as they began to climb the staircase to the second floor. 'Shame you don't have any Chocolate Frogs,' he added, grinning. 'I'm bloody starving.'

James laughed. 'We'll sneak something from the kitchens later,' he said as they arrived outside Professor Merrick's office. 'Here, check nobody's coming and I'll do the lock.'

Sirius glanced down the corridor while James bent down and took his wand out. 'All clear,' he said. James muttered under his breath, and with a click the door swung open.

'Can't wait for Moony and Wormtail to master this spell,' Sirius said as he and James stood back to back in the middle of the office. 'Wormtail would be great at creeping into difficult places.'

'Hopefully they can get some good practice tonight,' James said. 'Ready?'

'Yep.'

They both raised their wands. 'Homonculus charta!' they said in unison, bringing their wands down in a large sweeping motion. There was a warm glow of orange light and then silence.

'Let's check that worked,' James said. He reached into his robes and pulled out the folded sheaf of parchment that was one of the Marauder's most treasured possessions.

'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.' He tapped the parchment with his wand and ink spread from the centre to form an almost complete map of Hogwarts. Large swathes of the map were still blank, but here and there small labelled dots roamed the rooms and corridors.

Sirius bent over and scanned the map for Professor Merrick's office.

'There!' he said, pointing to the room. Within were two dots labelled 'Sirius Black' and 'James Potter'. 'Excellent.'

James grinned. The map was the result of years of roaming the castle at night, aided by James's cloak. Drawn mostly in their second and third years, they had mainly used to chart their explorations and discoveries of secret passages until Peter had come across the Homonculus Charm in a book in the library at the beginning of the year. With a bit of practice, James and Sirius quickly mastered the charm and the map was beginning to fill up with little labelled dots.

'Come on,' James said, checking his watch. 'If we're quick we can do Slughorn's.'

They left Professor Merrick's office and Sirius tapped the lock on the door as they closed it. The moment it clicked they heard a noise behind them.

'What are you doing?' Sirius whirled round to see a boy with a hooked nose and long, greasy hair coming towards them from the other end of the corridor. It was Snape. He looked from them to the door with a prying curiosity. Sirius felt a stab of irritation.

'None of your business, Snivellus,' he snapped. He saw Snape's eye's follow James's hand as he stuffed the map back into his robes. His lip curled.

'Always sneaking about, aren't you, Snivellus?' James said.

'Why are you not at dinner?' Snape asked, his eyes alight with suspicion, still looking at the place where the map had disappeared inside James's robes.

'Again, none of your business,' James replied.

'Now run along and play,' Sirius said. His hand twitched and he itched to jump to his wand, but they were cutting it fine if they wanted to get to Slughorn's office before he finished dinner. He and James turned and walked in the opposite direction. Sirius grinned knowing that Snape would find their unwillingness to engage maddening.

'Greasy slimeball,' James said once they were around the corner and out of earshot. 'Why is he always sneaking around? Did you see, he was dying to know what I'd put in my robes.'

'One day, I'm going to enchant that map so that if he ever tries to read it, it personally insults him,' Sirius muttered, looking back over his shoulder to check that Snape wasn't following them. His hand twitched towards his wand again.

James laughed as they walked quickly along the corridor to Slughorn's office. This time it was James who checked all was clear before Sirius unlocked the door with a tap of his wand.

Sirius was never quite sure how, but Slughorn's office always seemed so much larger than those of the other teachers. It was draped in rich hangings and peppered with comfortable looking furniture. Handsome pictures lined the walls and on a dresser, a collection of photographs glittered in silver frames. But something along the back wall caught his eye.

'Prongs, look at this!'

'What?' James came over to where Sirius was staring at a carved table.

'Woah,' James said, looking down at the contents of the table. 'That's quite the collection.'

The table was crammed with dozens of bottles of drink, from Butterbeer to wine, mead to Firewhisky. They were glistening and twinkling invitingly in the warm orange light.

'Well, I know where to come when I'm having a bad day,' Sirius said with a laugh.

He turned to James, a mischievous smile spreading across his face.

'Fancy a drop now?' he said with a smirk. 'I've always fancied giving Firewhisky a try.'

But before James could answer the door opened behind them. Sirius whipped his hand away from the bottle he was about to pick up and spun round to see Professor Slughorn's large bulk standing in the doorway.

'Boys!' Slughorn said in surprise, his mouth falling open at the sight of them.

Sirius's heart leaped to his mouth and he resisted a mad urge to laugh at the look on Slughorn's face.

'What are you doing in here? I'm sure I locked the door…'

Sirius swore to himself. They should have taken the damn invisibility cloak, he thought. His mind had gone blank. Why now could he think of nothing to say?

'We're sorry, sir,' he began, though he had no idea what he was going to say next. Again he fought a mad desire to laugh. 'We were just…'

'We were just wondering if we could come back to the Slug Club, sir,' James said from beside him. Sirius was pretty sure at that moment the look of shock on Slughorn's face was mirrored on his own and he hastily tried to rearrange his features. What on earth was James saying?

'You - you were?' Slughorn said, his eyebrows raising rapidly.

'Yes,' James was saying. 'We're dreadfully sorry about what happened last time. You see, my Dad always keeps on at me about coming back and what a wonderful thing it is to be invited. And well, he has such a high opinion of you, sir… And Sirius feels the same, I know, so we were just wondering, sir, if you might let us come back. We have missed it.'

It took all of Sirius's restraint not to turn around and knock the sense back into his best friend. Sirius most certainly did not feel the same way! If there had been anyone else in the room with them, he'd be convinced that someone had hexed James. Surely detention was better than having to sit through another of Slughorn's get-togethers with him wittering on about famous people he knew and fawning over the well-connected students. Slipping Babbling Beverage into the pumpkin juice had made the whole thing far more interesting. Unfortunately, Slughorn had not seen it in the same light and they were not invited back.

'Well, boys,' Slughorn said, finally seeming to find his voice. 'Certainly I didn't expect to hear… but, well…'

Slughorn looked from James to Sirius and Sirius could see the memory of their last invitation looming in Slughorn's mind. Sirius again repressed the desire to laugh.

'Well,' he said finally, 'as it happens I do have a little party this evening. I'm sure it wouldn't do any harm to have you both there, so long as you leave the Babbling Beverages behind.'

'Of course, sir,' James said, nodding fervently.

'Excellent,' Slughorn said. 'I will see you both at eight. You can tell me how your father is doing, Potter. Until then, boys.'

Sirius nodded mutely. He was not wholly sure he understood what had just happened as James once again thanked Slughorn and they quickly left the office, closing the door on a Slughorn that still looked somewhat bemused.