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The third Parent; Chapter Five

When Severus made it to the girl's room he saw that Ron was indeed an unnatural shade of green, if he had been into interior design he would have called it electric lime and try to capture the exact shade in paint and fabric before the subject died. He did some spells to determine what was wrong with the young Weasley and found, surprise, that the idiot had drunk all of Harry's supplemental potions. When mixed together and taken in small doses it would not harm someone who was healthy. However if a person were to ingest a large amount of said potions that could be quite alarming. Fortunately it was easy enough to get rid of, all he needed was a bezoar and some aloe Vera leaves. He had had the foresight to grab them when he heard of the boys fainting spell. There might also be some need for full immersion in cold water and a small amount of blood letting. Joy, blood letting being done in the ancient halls of his families' ancestral home, well at least some of his relatives would be pleased. Severus applied the bezoar to a small cut he put on Weasleys arm and wrapped it with the aloe leaves. It should only take a few minutes to draw out enough of the potion to bring him back. Severus then dragged the boy to the washroom of the boy's bath and stripped him. He was just about to throw him in when he saw the mark on the boys arm. Not any mark, the mark, the dark mark. Severus quickly dropped him in the tub and got a house elf to ensure that the boy wouldn't drown and locked the room door behind him. He then went to round up the other Weasleys. This was not going to be a happy day for Molly and Arthur.

When Harry saw Snape drag Ron into the bathroom and start to strip him, he was not happy. Of course when he saw the skull and snake tattoo on Ron's left arm he was more than a little startled that his friend had become a death eater. He was so bloody surprised he didn't know if he should shit or go blind. Of course Severus was finished with Ron by the time he had processed this information and was walking towards him.

"Draco, Harry, pack your things you're staying in my quarters until we get to the bottom of this. Oh, never mind, I'll pack for you." Severus made a sweeping motion over the room and their things landed neatly in their respective trunks. Snape then shrunk them and stored them in his pocket. "Come on, we're leaving." Then without a backwards glance he hustled them out of the room and sealed it shut behind them. He summoned an elf to him and had him round up the rest of the house before he led Harry and Draco to his apartments. He gave them a rather nicely done room with a giant bed in the middle of it.

"There is only room for two beds in these apartments, and I don't suggest a solution with either one of you winding up in my bed. This bed in here is the only one that there is room for in this area. So either resign yourself to being bedfellows or to one of you two sleeping on the floor. It is up to you but no casualties from disagreements. Now I'm going to meet with the family Weasley to see what their take on this whole fiasco is. I'll see the two of you later."

They sat on the giant bed in silence until Draco turned to Harry.

"Right, you take the left side I'll take the right, and whatever happens in here stays in here."

"Sounds good to me, think they'll find out why Ron did it, you know become a Death Eater?"

"Don't know. Harry, do you snore?"

"I don't know, no ones ever told me. I do have a tendency to flail around though."

"Can you get yourself ready for bed?"

"Sure."

Severus Snape had Matron Round up the boys from the guest suites and take them to their parent's room. They were all surly looking and did not appear happy with him. Yet somehow Severus was sure he'd find the strength to carry on. He waited until they had all made themselves comfortable before he dropped the bomb that would ruin their evening.

"Earlier this evening Miss Granger told me that Mr. Ron Weasley had had a fainting spell. I deduced that this was caused by him drinking all of the supplemental potions that I had given Mr. Potter in order to counteract some of the results of being temporarily insane as well as abused most of his life. Taken in small quantities they are harmless, but there was almost a full bottle of each. So I had to withdraw some potion from his arm using a bezoar and aloe leaves. I then had immersed him in a tub full of cold water to help bring him back to consciousness. While doing this I noticed that he had the Dark Mark on his left forearm. This would be the relatively insignificant reason for me to have the lot of you woken up and dragged out of bed at this time of night. Now what are your thoughts and or comments on this innocuous discovery?"

"Ron's a Death Eater?" One of the twins blurted out.

"No way. He couldn't be!" That was the other twin.

"But why would he, it doesn't make any sense. Percy has the right personality for it, sorry mom but he does, why Ron? How could he possibly be a death eater?" Ah yes, Bill. He asked the technically smart question, there was no way he'd let on though.

"That is what I wish to know as well. If there had been a marking I would have been present. The last one was two days before the end of June last year. There wasn't one this year. And when that last one occurred there was no one that was going to hogwarts. As a matter of fact there are no death eaters at hogwarts. So how did he get that mark on his arm when there has been no marking this year and he was not present at the one last year?"

"Bad choice at the tattoo parlour maybe?" It was one of the twins again.

"No, they do not sell any tattoos like that in the wizarding world, and no mere muggle instrument could capture the dark mark so precisely. What other possibilities are there?"

"Oh my gosh, Percy's visit. He came to the burrow earlier in the summer, like right after school, and told everyone to shove it." Ginny was quite a font of information when she wanted to be. "When he was done Ron followed him outside to tell him off and he was out there quite a while. Professor is there anyway that someone could have taken him and given him the mark against his will?" Well, he wondered who would think of this possibility first, he thought that it would be Hermione.

"No, he couldn't be given the mark against his will. He could have been force to take a ghost mark of it. A ghost mark is very similar to the original mark except that it binds the persons mind and soul to the giver so that the receiver has no choice but to basically be a puppet."

"But if that were true who would have given it to him. It would have had to have been a death eater."

"Obviously, but I am unsure as to whether or not it is in fact a ghost mark. I may not have been at any of the organized and well thought out markings but that does not mean that he could not have been marked at an impromptu ceremony, as that would have made it difficult for anyone to know that he's a death eater, and therefore make him the perfect sleeper agent to kill Potter."

"But if that were true then why would he try to alienate Harry? It would work against him if he were to push his target away."

"True but we can never be too careful when we see someone with a rather fetching tattoo that happens to incorporate a skull and a snake."

"Is there anyway to tell if it's a ghost mark and not the real deal?"

"Yes, but it is time consuming and in order to destroy the ghost mark we would have to have an idea who it was that cast the mark in the first place."

"Well, let's just assume that it is a ghost mark as I can't see Ron doing this sort of thing. Now all we have to do is make a list of known death eaters who have had the time and the access to Ron to do this to him."

"That's Brilliant Hermione-"

"There's just one problem though-"

"Namely who, in the death eater community-"

"Hasn't had access to Ron-"

"What with the ministry of magic last year-"

"Barty Jr the year before-"

"Not to mention Pettigrew before that-"

"And the Defence against the dark arts teacher in his first year-"

"You know, the one with You-Know-Who on his head."

"See where there might be a problem?"

"Fine lets just start with Professor Snape and work our way back from people who have been seen with Ron then."

"That should be good, like I mean Ron didn't start acting weird until two weeks ago, so it should have happened around then right?"

"That is quite possible; however we can't discount the possibility, no matter how remote, that it was Percy who did it."

"But Percy isn't a death eater."

"Well it wouldn't be the first time someone turned death eater on a good family. Look at Pettigrew, as far as almost everyone is concerned he wasn't a death eater."

"Point taken"

For the next couple of hours they deliberated as to how to deal with this rather alarming situation. It was eventually decided that Ron would remain in the sealed room he was currently occupying until they had discovered what had happened to him. He was to have no contact with anyone and the house elves would see to his food and laundry but had the permission to protect their person should they need to. Over the next couple of days Severus Snape took what time he could to find the caster of Ron's supposed ghost mark. All he needed was a mirror some of Ron's hair and to speak the person's name that was suspected while incense burned and someone else repeated the incantation. It was rather quick to discover the identity of the person. When Snape did he was shocked and dismayed. The person who cast the charm would show up in the mirror while those who did not would not. Needless to say he had no idea how to break the news to the Weasleys but at least he could get rid of the ghost mark now. It was not turning out to be a pleasant week for the Weasleys first Ron with the ghost mark and now Percy as a Death Eater. They would not be happy with this news.

Author notes; Sorry for taking so long but with college and work i've been very busy:( It will be a while for the next update too, sry:( Till then wishing you all popcorn and slushies and all things yummy:)