Lesson Fifteen: The Mark

Remus had soon forgotten the mysterious letter after he had spent the majority of his time wandering through his beloved woods and having countless snowball fights that lasted until dusk with his cousin. Only once during his last week at home did he revisit the note, and that was when he had found it in the pair of pants that he had placed it in come laundry day. When he had found it he had simply taken the piece of paper out and merely tossed it away, not wanting to be bothered with it until he absolutely had to be.

Yet now, he knew it was coming, as he shuffled a deck of cards so he could play slapjack with Kara. He knew that as soon as the others had boarded the train he'd have to talk about it. James wouldn't let him not talk about it; it simply wasn't in his nature.

"I win," he stated in a bored manner when the last card had been taken.

"Best two out of three."

Remus was about to protest when he was interrupted.

"Thank God I'm free!"

Sirius sauntered into the room smiling all excited like someone who had been at sea for years and had finally managed to get on real land again. Remus chuckled as the image of Sirius kissing the train's floor came to his mind, but quickly flitted away as his friend went on, "I swear, if I had to hear one more thing about how bloody disgraceful I am I'd have to kill someone."

He then plopped himself down beside Kara and smiled nonchalantly at Remus. "How was your Chrimbo?"

"Brilliant, got everything I wanted and then some, but it was really nice to just be home," he smirked slightly to himself, "and not have it be during the full moon."

"I assume you got a letter too."

Remus only nodded. Sirius accepted what that meant and went on to bug Kara about her Christmas activities until Peter came in, holding the letter James had given him in his right hand as if he'd just read it. He then plopped himself down next to Sirius, squeezing Kara against the window.

They sat in silence for a long while before James showed up and made himself comfortably next to Remus. He said nothing at first and then: "Everybody have a nice holiday? Mine was cold and boring for the most part. I didn't have anyone my own age to talk with."

Sirius laughed, "Yes, well, that happens when you're the youngest member of your very small family. All I heard the whole time I was at Grimmauld Place was: 'You disgraceful little (insert word here)! Why can't you ever do what we ask? (Insert word here, yet again.)'" He smirked bitterly to himself before he went on.

"It was great fun. But I loved it best when they acted like I wasn't right in front of them, because then I heard things like: 'Maybe we can get him resorted.' Then that was typically followed by, 'It's never been done before he is simply a black mark on the family name.' Which only made me laugh because the last name is Black and how does someone put a visible 'black mark' on black. They didn't think I was clever and sent me to my room for the remainder of the holiday."

"Well, I'm sorry your holiday was so horrible."

Sirius glared at Kara and opened his mouth to retort but Remus cut him off before he got the chance, "So, you didn't get…"

"No, he only does that when I do something particularly bad or he's simply drunk off his rocker. Overall, honestly, it doesn't happen that much."

"It shouldn't happen at all."

Sirius said nothing in return. James frowned at the two, before he opted to get straight to business. "Did you all get my letters?"

The three nodded as Kara watched them intently from her crammed position across from her cousin. James stared at them, slowly choosing his words.

"I over heard my dad talking over the floo network. I'm not sure who he was talking to exactly but I think it may have been Mad-Eye. Anyway, whoever it was said that they'd found more bodies. Three more bodies. No names were given, but they were killed the same way as the others. My dad said that if they ever figure out what the hex is it'll become a new unspeakable."

He looked them all in the face only to find that each of them was impassable except for Peter who had gone ashen at the news. He continued, "But there was something else, a mark, on the forearm of one of the victims."

James then pulled out a piece of parchment from his bag and placed it on the table. The others leaned in to look at it. Remus was fascinated with the drawing that had been haphazardly doodled on the page. It was disturbing to say the least, a skull with a snake entwined throughout the open cracks and crevasses until the head slithered out of the mouth.

"Cool." Kara stated blankly.

James cocked an eyebrow at her bluntness but chose to ignore it. "It's got to mean something."

The four sat in silence as Remus contemplated the drawing before him. He heard Peter squeak worriedly from his corner and saw Kara fidgeting slightly in her own seat, blowing, at least for him, her tough outer face she had just put on.

Then Sirius broke the silence, "I think I've seen that before." Four sets of eyes met his, "What? Met my family? They're evil." He shut his mouth for a second as he stared at the drawing, "I can't remember where I've seen it, but there's something familiar about it."

Remus looked back down at the drawing and felt his entire body seemingly go numb as the vacant eyes stared back at him. The silence in the room grew eerie as the dark picture continued to gaze, unseeingly, up at them.

"What do you think it means?"

Remus looked up from the drawing across from him where the voice had come from. He noticed the look of mild determination on his cousin's face and in her eyes a glimmer of worry. She looked at him, only for a brief moment before she turned her attention back to James.

"I don't know. The Auror seemed to have some ideas but my aunt pulled me away from the door before I could hear any of them."

Kara shifted a bit in her seat, unsure if she liked this news or not, when Sirius spoke up. "It's probably a cult."

"A killing cult?" Peter squeaked.

"It's pretty typical of cults to go on killing sprees. They probably do other things too, but yes, for now I guess that's how they'd appear."

"If that's indeed what they do." Peter pressed.

Sirius only nodded at the boy's comments, "You said the mark was on his forearm," James nodded, "well, usually marks like that mean something. Maybe he didn't do something the leader wanted or, for that matter, liked and he was killed for it."

"Or maybe it's just a cool tattoo." Kara stated bluntly, no longer wanting to discuss James' discovery.

"Perhaps, but you can't dismiss all the ideas." James stated fairly, "Maybe when the Auror's figure it out it'll make the paper."

Remus shivered a bit at the thought. With any luck the man with the tattoo would only be another ordinary victim. For if this grew to the depth that Sirius had suggested, things would get a lot worse before they happened to get better.

"Hey, Remmy," Remus focused in on his cousin and the dreadful nickname that lingered in the air, "here."

She handed him a card and he flipped up the face, an ace. He then stared at the others, all now with their own cards, "Werewolves of Bray Road?" he asked.

Kara nodded her head and explained the roles of each of the cards and how they had to find the "werewolf" among them before the whole "village had been eaten alive." Once all had gotten the gist of the roles of their character cards they set to playing. They played until the train reached the end of its trek to Hogsmeade.

Once the train had finally stopped the five boarded off of the train and headed to the awaiting carriages. Kara stared opened mouthed at the beasts pulling the stagecoach until Remus came up behind her, "They won't hurt you."

He then hoisted her up into the coach and followed her into it with the others behind him until they squeezed themselves into the tight space. The carriages, pulled by seemingly nothing to all but one, slowly began to creep up the cobbled path up to Hogwarts with an almost full room hanging dimly up above them in the dark night sky.