Xenith
Chapter Thirty-five
"Fred!"
Fred rolled over at the sound of his brother's voice.
"Fred! Come on, I know you're in there! Open up!" George pounded on the painting.
Fred groaned and rolled out of Chris' bed, pulling on his clothes as he stumbled towards the entrance. "What's wrong?" Fred said, opening the painting and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"There's been another attack," George said, grabbing hold of Fred's arm and running with him towards the hospital Wing. "In Hogsmeade yesterday and last night, they've just told us. McGonagall's going round the common rooms and taking a headcount."
"Then why are we going this way?" Fred asked, pulling his 'F' jumper over his head as he kept pace with George.
"McGonagall said to get Ron and Ginny and them from the Hospital Wing. They were there with Harry and got locked in yesterday morning."
"They've spent the night there?" Fred said, increasing his rapidity.
"That's what McGonagall told me. She said Dumbledore locked them in and they haven't been out since."
"And how are we supposed to get them out?"
"I don't know, I assume she's unlocked them. I had to go get you so I volunteered. There wasn't time to ask much."
The twins were now outside the Hospital Wing door. George tore open the door only to have one very frazzled Harry Potter fall at his feet. "Harry!" George bent to help Harry to his feet.
"Fred! George!" Ginny cried, leaping to her feet and rushing to the door, Colin at her heels.
"Come on, you lot," George instructed. "Gryffindor Tower, McGonagall's waiting for us."
The five scurried out after the twins trying hard not to run as they rushed back to the Gryffindor common room.
"Do they know what---" Colin began only to be cut off by George.
"They don't know much. But there was an attack in Hogsmeade and several students have been abducted. They need to take a headcount and figure out who's missing." George said. Colin was stunned; he'd never heard George speak so much at one time. Outside of his family, no-one did. George was the idea man, both Fred and George both made the idea a reality, Fred handled marketing. It had always been like that, and seeing George in charge was nothing less than a shocker.
"Purple wigman." George gave the password to the Fat Lady and strode into the common room full of silent Gryffindors with more confidence than he felt, leading Fred and the five youngsters in.
"Good," Professor McGonagall said in lieu of a greeting. "Please, take a seat you seven."
Harry took a moment to take in the Gryffindors round him in the observing way Figg had taught him. There were more students than usually stayed for the Christmas holidays. //They're parents must've thought they'd be safer here than at home.// All had their faces drawn, some with tears making their way silently down their cheeks.
"Now, I'd like everyone to take a good look round you. Tell me if someone from your dorm is missing. I've already taken the names of those who have left for the holidays---" Professor McGonagall took a moment to collect herself. "Please tell me if you notice anyone missing."
Several hands shot into the air.
"My sister, Lauren McDonald," Natalie McDonald squeaked out.
"Sally-Anne Perks."
"Graham Cauldwell."
"Templeton Pritchard."
McGonagall wrote down the names. "Anyone else?"
"Where---where's my brother?" Colin hissed to Ginny.
"Dennis Creevy," one of the boys from Dennis' dorm said quietly. Colin sunk back into his armchair, the world going numb around him.
---
"I should have been there," Harry said, his head once again in his hands. "I promised to keep an eye on his brother . . . I should have been there---"
"Enough." Higgs said quietly from the corner he was perched in.
"What?" Harry lifted his head, searching out Higgs in the corner.
Professor McGonagall had sealed Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Higgs in an old Transfiguration classroom and told them to wait until she returned. Harry had done nothing but murmur to himself about his failure to society since.
"I said, that's enough," Higgs repeated, not moving from his shadowy nook.
"Who are you---" Harry started, jumping to his feet.
"Currently, I'm you babysitter," Higgs cut him off.
"Well, we don't need---"
"You don't know what it is you need, Potter, you're fifteen."
"You---"
"Why are we here?" Hermione broke in before Harry had a chance to hex Higgs.
"You're to get your marks." He answered simply.
"Marks?"
"And here I was thinking you were smart." Higgs replied snidely, he was getting sick of Harry and Hermione, all they ever did was nag and complain.
"You're to be inducted into the Order of the Phoenix, to get your marks." Ron spoke up for the first time since entering the classroom.
"Today?" Harry said, stunned. "Why now?"
"It was scheduled," Ron shrugged.
"Then why weren't we informed?" Hermione prodded.
"Ron shrugged again.
"Ron, how can you be so apathetic about all this? This is terribly important; you're the youngest member of the Order! I didn't even know children were joining the war effort until that meeting. Ron! Are you even listening to me?!" Hermione demanded.
"What does apathetic mean?" Ron said vaguely, he hadn't been listening. Not _really_ anyway.
"Oh, Ron, that's not the point!"
"The date doesn't matter," Higgs said. "You need to get marked and it's high time you did."
"Are you ready?" McGonagall said from the doorway, causing both Harry and Hermione to jump.
Higgs snorted derisively.
"You too Mr Higgs," McGonagall ordered.
---
Harry had never felt better in his entire life. What he was feeling now, what had just happened to him, far surpassed the surge of power he had felt on the Quidditch Pitch with Malfoy. No, now he felt almost wholey complete and content with himself. He felt . . . full.
Hermione too was grinning quietly to herself, examining her hip. The feather tattoo vibrant and gleaming against her pale, creamey skin.
Harry wasn't able to examine his own tattoo. The slender feather mark had been placed at the base of his back, just beneath his trouser line. Dumbledore had explained to them that the mark found the right place to situate itself on each person and wherever it decided to reside held a purpose that each would discover in due time. He couldn't see the mark, but he could feel it.
Indescribable warmth was spreading from the base of his back, permeating every molecule of his being, sweeping over him in tidal waves of pleasure.
"Harry?" He heard a voice call quietly to him from just outside the haze clouding his mind. "Harry, come on."
"Eurgh?" Harry grunted, blinking away the haze.
"Come on, it's time to go. You've got to sleep. It's Christmas morning tomorrow, you know." Fred's quiet, gathered face slowly came into focus before him; collected, as it had been, the last time Harry had been in Dumbledore's office with him. "Come on, kiddo." Fred repeated.
Harry nodded vaguely and let Fred lead him out of Dumbledore's office and towards the Gryffindor common room.
"How do you feel, mate?" Fred asked, slipping his arm around Harry's shoulder and helping him keep steady as he tripped over his own feet. Fred remembered all too well how he had felt after he was marked. He needed all the help he could get.
"Er---ummm . . ." For some reason Harry couldn't manage to string two words together.
"It's all right, just concentrate, focus, and it'll come." Fred supported Harry down the corridor.
"Everything's . . . blurry," Harry managed out. "I feel great, but I can't . . . I can't seem to foc . . . focus on anything." Harry tripped again, nearly taking Fred down with him.
"It's all right, kiddo, I bet'ch feel great though."
"Yeah, smashing," and Harry passed out, the smallest of satisfied grins playing across his mouth.
Fred scooped the lithe boy into his Beater hardened arms with more than a little difficulty and lugged him up to his dormitory and deposited him, fully clothed onto his four-poster. Fred chuckled to himself, wiped his brow, and padded his way out of the fifth year boys dormitiory.
---
¸..· ´¨¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ ·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ -:¦:- tbc -:¦:-
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´*
Chapter Thirty-five
"Fred!"
Fred rolled over at the sound of his brother's voice.
"Fred! Come on, I know you're in there! Open up!" George pounded on the painting.
Fred groaned and rolled out of Chris' bed, pulling on his clothes as he stumbled towards the entrance. "What's wrong?" Fred said, opening the painting and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"There's been another attack," George said, grabbing hold of Fred's arm and running with him towards the hospital Wing. "In Hogsmeade yesterday and last night, they've just told us. McGonagall's going round the common rooms and taking a headcount."
"Then why are we going this way?" Fred asked, pulling his 'F' jumper over his head as he kept pace with George.
"McGonagall said to get Ron and Ginny and them from the Hospital Wing. They were there with Harry and got locked in yesterday morning."
"They've spent the night there?" Fred said, increasing his rapidity.
"That's what McGonagall told me. She said Dumbledore locked them in and they haven't been out since."
"And how are we supposed to get them out?"
"I don't know, I assume she's unlocked them. I had to go get you so I volunteered. There wasn't time to ask much."
The twins were now outside the Hospital Wing door. George tore open the door only to have one very frazzled Harry Potter fall at his feet. "Harry!" George bent to help Harry to his feet.
"Fred! George!" Ginny cried, leaping to her feet and rushing to the door, Colin at her heels.
"Come on, you lot," George instructed. "Gryffindor Tower, McGonagall's waiting for us."
The five scurried out after the twins trying hard not to run as they rushed back to the Gryffindor common room.
"Do they know what---" Colin began only to be cut off by George.
"They don't know much. But there was an attack in Hogsmeade and several students have been abducted. They need to take a headcount and figure out who's missing." George said. Colin was stunned; he'd never heard George speak so much at one time. Outside of his family, no-one did. George was the idea man, both Fred and George both made the idea a reality, Fred handled marketing. It had always been like that, and seeing George in charge was nothing less than a shocker.
"Purple wigman." George gave the password to the Fat Lady and strode into the common room full of silent Gryffindors with more confidence than he felt, leading Fred and the five youngsters in.
"Good," Professor McGonagall said in lieu of a greeting. "Please, take a seat you seven."
Harry took a moment to take in the Gryffindors round him in the observing way Figg had taught him. There were more students than usually stayed for the Christmas holidays. //They're parents must've thought they'd be safer here than at home.// All had their faces drawn, some with tears making their way silently down their cheeks.
"Now, I'd like everyone to take a good look round you. Tell me if someone from your dorm is missing. I've already taken the names of those who have left for the holidays---" Professor McGonagall took a moment to collect herself. "Please tell me if you notice anyone missing."
Several hands shot into the air.
"My sister, Lauren McDonald," Natalie McDonald squeaked out.
"Sally-Anne Perks."
"Graham Cauldwell."
"Templeton Pritchard."
McGonagall wrote down the names. "Anyone else?"
"Where---where's my brother?" Colin hissed to Ginny.
"Dennis Creevy," one of the boys from Dennis' dorm said quietly. Colin sunk back into his armchair, the world going numb around him.
---
"I should have been there," Harry said, his head once again in his hands. "I promised to keep an eye on his brother . . . I should have been there---"
"Enough." Higgs said quietly from the corner he was perched in.
"What?" Harry lifted his head, searching out Higgs in the corner.
Professor McGonagall had sealed Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Higgs in an old Transfiguration classroom and told them to wait until she returned. Harry had done nothing but murmur to himself about his failure to society since.
"I said, that's enough," Higgs repeated, not moving from his shadowy nook.
"Who are you---" Harry started, jumping to his feet.
"Currently, I'm you babysitter," Higgs cut him off.
"Well, we don't need---"
"You don't know what it is you need, Potter, you're fifteen."
"You---"
"Why are we here?" Hermione broke in before Harry had a chance to hex Higgs.
"You're to get your marks." He answered simply.
"Marks?"
"And here I was thinking you were smart." Higgs replied snidely, he was getting sick of Harry and Hermione, all they ever did was nag and complain.
"You're to be inducted into the Order of the Phoenix, to get your marks." Ron spoke up for the first time since entering the classroom.
"Today?" Harry said, stunned. "Why now?"
"It was scheduled," Ron shrugged.
"Then why weren't we informed?" Hermione prodded.
"Ron shrugged again.
"Ron, how can you be so apathetic about all this? This is terribly important; you're the youngest member of the Order! I didn't even know children were joining the war effort until that meeting. Ron! Are you even listening to me?!" Hermione demanded.
"What does apathetic mean?" Ron said vaguely, he hadn't been listening. Not _really_ anyway.
"Oh, Ron, that's not the point!"
"The date doesn't matter," Higgs said. "You need to get marked and it's high time you did."
"Are you ready?" McGonagall said from the doorway, causing both Harry and Hermione to jump.
Higgs snorted derisively.
"You too Mr Higgs," McGonagall ordered.
---
Harry had never felt better in his entire life. What he was feeling now, what had just happened to him, far surpassed the surge of power he had felt on the Quidditch Pitch with Malfoy. No, now he felt almost wholey complete and content with himself. He felt . . . full.
Hermione too was grinning quietly to herself, examining her hip. The feather tattoo vibrant and gleaming against her pale, creamey skin.
Harry wasn't able to examine his own tattoo. The slender feather mark had been placed at the base of his back, just beneath his trouser line. Dumbledore had explained to them that the mark found the right place to situate itself on each person and wherever it decided to reside held a purpose that each would discover in due time. He couldn't see the mark, but he could feel it.
Indescribable warmth was spreading from the base of his back, permeating every molecule of his being, sweeping over him in tidal waves of pleasure.
"Harry?" He heard a voice call quietly to him from just outside the haze clouding his mind. "Harry, come on."
"Eurgh?" Harry grunted, blinking away the haze.
"Come on, it's time to go. You've got to sleep. It's Christmas morning tomorrow, you know." Fred's quiet, gathered face slowly came into focus before him; collected, as it had been, the last time Harry had been in Dumbledore's office with him. "Come on, kiddo." Fred repeated.
Harry nodded vaguely and let Fred lead him out of Dumbledore's office and towards the Gryffindor common room.
"How do you feel, mate?" Fred asked, slipping his arm around Harry's shoulder and helping him keep steady as he tripped over his own feet. Fred remembered all too well how he had felt after he was marked. He needed all the help he could get.
"Er---ummm . . ." For some reason Harry couldn't manage to string two words together.
"It's all right, just concentrate, focus, and it'll come." Fred supported Harry down the corridor.
"Everything's . . . blurry," Harry managed out. "I feel great, but I can't . . . I can't seem to foc . . . focus on anything." Harry tripped again, nearly taking Fred down with him.
"It's all right, kiddo, I bet'ch feel great though."
"Yeah, smashing," and Harry passed out, the smallest of satisfied grins playing across his mouth.
Fred scooped the lithe boy into his Beater hardened arms with more than a little difficulty and lugged him up to his dormitory and deposited him, fully clothed onto his four-poster. Fred chuckled to himself, wiped his brow, and padded his way out of the fifth year boys dormitiory.
---
¸..· ´¨¨)) -:¦:-
¸.·´ ·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ -:¦:- tbc -:¦:-
-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´*