Chapter 10: The Dark Mark

Sage reached the entrance way by the Great Hall, clutching his arm against his stomach. He felt strangely like he was suffocating even though he was breathing heavily. His mind screamed along with the recollections of his mother's screams that night, the night Voldemort murdered his father. He noticed his stomach dry heaving and clutched his arm tighter around it. He grasped for something to hold onto to hold himself up, but all he found was the wall. The cold stones were inviting as he pushed his body up against them. It smelled strangely like a mixture of dirt and clay.

Snapshots flashed before his eyes as his mind soared back into things he did not want to remember. His father, wearing silvery dark green robes, lying dead on the ground. An evil laughter coming from a man covered in black robes with a large black hood.

Sage tried to pull in more air. The faster he breathed the less he seemed to be getting in. His fingers dug in between the crevices of the stone, trying to hold onto something to prevent himself from falling over.

The baby screeched. That hissing cackle filled the room once more. Sage swore he was there, that he was the baby again. A flash of green, burning flesh, the pain of a thousand knives.

He let go of the wall and wrapped his other hand over his forearm, pushing it so hard into his stomach, it made him heave. The side of his head scrapped against the wall as he tried to regain control of himself and his senses. His lungs were pulling in the air as fast as they could, but he felt as if he were fading more and more. Vaguely, he felt his body and face scrape down the wall. He fell to his knees. His arm was on fire, he squeezed it and then started to dig at it with his nails through his sleeve.

"What's wrong, boy," he heard through his delirium. It was Madame Pomfrey. She was touching his head. He moved backwards and almost fell completely onto the floor. "Come one, come with me."

"No," he rasped, "No, you can't. No one can. I can't."

"What are you talking about, Mr. Snape. You need to come with me."

"No," he hissed. "Uncle. Get him. Please."

She stood with her hands on her hips and was about to yell at him when she noticed him begin to twitch, his face contorted with pain and anguish. Suddenly she thought better and ran to get Severus. He was the one that gave Sage the potion, and he had not given her any. Something of a fight between them.

Now alone, still scratching at his arm violently, Sage fell to the ground. His body felt as if it were being put through a coffee grinder.

Another vision suddenly consumed his mind like a fiend fire.

Voldemort's slit like nose was flaring as his hood flew up momentarily as he cast the curse. A puff of deadly green light and the tall, black-haired man fell like a dead-weight to the ground. An unearthly cry came from the woman, his mother. Time zoomed by. His mother pleaded, "He is a Magi." At this, the man suddenly became interested. In the back recesses of his mind, Sage knew that those were the words that had kept him from his father's fate. Those were the same words that caused his mother to go mad, and eventually kill herself. She had thought she had sold her son in order to save his life. Her greatest fear was that Sage would not be able to escape what happened that night. The Dark Lord knew what he was, knew how useful he could be. The Dark Lord had claimed him as his that night, he had the Dark Mark forced upon him. He had been only nearly two years old. Time passed again in a great whirl of random scenes.

A stout man was talking to himself, frightened, it seemed. There was a woman with him, although she was acting funny. She was too, too unanimated. She seemed like a robot. Next a forest seemed to close around him. A great black shadow passed leaving a small dead animal behind it. It ended.

His eyelids finally worked through the pain and managed to open. He squinted, the dim light being too much. He groaned as he made out the form of his uncle running toward him. Struggling, he tried to sit up, but the pain was too much, he pushed his face against the floor and pulled his knees towards his body, clutching his arm tightly. He gasped for breath, not realizing he had tears streaming down his face.

Sage walked slowly out by the fire where his uncle was sitting with the evening edition of the Daily Prophet. The man stood up abruptly and blocked him. His uncle stared down at him, his lip curling on one side.

"Foolish boy," he hissed, hitting him on the side of the head slightly with the paper.

Sage cringed, his head was pounding, the light fwap was enough to send the needed message.

"You've just given that girl the power to decide upon your life or death!" Severus exclaimed, emphasizing the last few words by dragging them out twice their length.

Unable to fight his light-headedness, Sage sat down on the couch and held his head between his hands, fighting for the room to stop tilting. "You saw?"

His uncle glared before he slowly said, "Obviously."

"And my death has already been decided upon, sir," he answered, looking at the floor and holding his head as if he were going to throw up.

Severus paced in front of him, growling at Sage's ignorance.

"Your impertinence-." He stopped and ran his hand through his hair to calm himself down. He took one breath. Nobody rattled him like this bloody boy. "Don't you consider the consequences of your actions? She will tell Potter and Weasley, by tomorrow the whole school will know, and by Monday I daresay Fudge will be here for you."

Sage looked up, his face pasty. "Fudge?"

Severus stopped pacing and glared down at his nephew. "You have no idea, have you. You do not even understand." He let his hand drop down to his side. "Sage, if Fudge finds out about that Mark, he will have you killed!"

Sage's mouth fell open.

"No, of course you didn't think about that! Fudge doesn't care if you took the Mark willingly or not. All he will see is that you have it. He will believe that you are a threat worse than any Death Eater, perhaps worse than Voldemort. Someone with your powers that holds those ideals, Sage, why do you think you were told to hide it to begin with."

"You never told me that!"

"You were seven years old, I, we, didn't want to scare you. You eventually grew to know what the Mark meant. That alone should have been enough to keep you from showing it to anyone. Especially after all the precautions we took so that you could come here without anyone seeing it. Merlin, not even all of the staff knows."

"Sir, I."

Severus looked at him expectantly. "You what?"

"Hermione, sir, I'll talk to her. She won't tell anyone. She will understand."

Severus took a step towards him, "You are in no condition to do anything of the sort. As it is you have revealed enough. You would place yourself in even more danger with your liberal tongue. I will have a little chat with Miss Granger."

Sage cringed, "You aren't going to Obliviate her, I won't-."

"Silence! Close your mouth before your delirium allows you to say something that you will regret. And I will not be Obliviating anyone. You know better."

"Sorry, uncle."

"Sorry indeed." Severus crossed his arms over his chest and glowered down at his nephew.

Sage's hands started shaking, the color draining even more from his chalky face. His eyes grew wide. His spine grew chilled.

"It's happening again," he choked out, the veins popping out by his temples. Sage allowed his upper body to fall onto the couch before he fell forward onto the floor.

The professor put an arm on his shoulder and tried to pull Sage over onto his back, but his body was already jerking. Severus deftly managed to get some of the potion down the boy's throat sideways before the convulsions got worse.

The look of pain on his face never lessened at his body stopped moving wildly. The potion numbed the firing of his fast twitch muscle fibers, stopping the involuntary jerking movements. Severus had not yet discovered anything which would stop the pain, short of completely annihilating Sage's nervous system.

The problem was that the pain was not real, the phantom pain was generated by a pattern of neural firing identical to what it would be if the person was really experiencing the pain. The brain thought that the needles, knives, and burns were real and sent out according messages to the body. Severus could stop the body from acting out on the pain by disabling the firing of the muscle tissue. Unfortunately, the only way to stop the sensation of pain, was to get rid of the source of the pain, which lay within Sage's own brain as a response to the visions.

The professor did not blink as he looked at the twisted face of his last remaining family member. Sage could move slightly, because much of his slow- twitch muscle response remained in tact. He was clutching his arm again, his eyes rolled back in his head. Severus put out his pale, long fingers and closed Sage's eyelids. He watched on as always, feeling part of the pain, knowing what it felt like, damning the fact that there was nothing he could do to help the boy. He bit the inside of his mouth just like Sage was, he could taste his own blood, just like he could see the blood on the corner of Sage's mouth. It was only and always in these times that he felt guilt for things that he had done or had not done for and to his nephew. During these visions, Sage was still a seven year old boy to him, a seven year old boy that had done nothing to deserve the pain he was put through. He was not the impertinent, cheeky, teenager he had turned into.

PLEASE LEAVE ME A NOTE FOLKS!

AN

Sibyl - work hard, those AP tests are a savior when you get to college, many less boring general ed courses you will have to take. The Dark Mark is creepy isn't it, ironic as well, given what Sage is supposed to do. Snape does and did know about Sage's Mark. I think I shall show you how he found out in the next chappie, some lovely flashbacks and memories.

MCMish - you were the only one who got it right when I asked forever and a day ago what was up with Sage that I was hinting at. GOOD JOB, that means I foreshadowed but it wasn't too obvious. Glad you liked chappie 6, I was worried I got carried away. And yes, it is up to Dumbledore and Hermione to make a difference. So far, Dumbledore gets through to Snape part of the time, but we'll have to see how Hermione does!

Jewel Little Bird - Glad you were, umm, surprised! I didn't know I could pull the whole floor, but that's a new level to aspire to. Hope this answered how Sage got the Mark for you. I'm crossing my fingers that everyone likes this surprise, bc it certainly has its irony.

Jasmin Flower - You know, you were the only person who said something about Hermione being Sage's Lily, everyone else was floored by the Mark. I'm glad that you got that, because it is going to be an important thread in the story. As will the Mark. I hope you were surprised that he had the Mark, I hope it was a good surprise.

Carpathia - I am glad that you think I do well with my descriptions. Descriptions are very important to me, because as a reader I know what good description can do to a story. I want my story to engross people, like a movie, not like they are reading some 2 dimensional thing. ;-) I will email you about how I got my Rickman pic. I'll also add your email to my update list. Hope I don't make you wait too long. I don't have patience either.

V.D. - Sage says thank you for the cookies, he will be sure to share some with Hermione should he ever get passed his avoidance tendencies. He is certain she enjoys chocolate much more than he does. We'll also find out more about Snape and Lily in the chapters to come. I have a shocker planned, or at least a nice surprise for Sev/Lily fans. I certainly hope Sev gets reminded of how important Lily was to him, so that perhaps he will be tolerant of whatever Sage might want as well.