AN: Ha! What a short time between chapters... faster than last time at least...
Chapter 3 - The Mark at Number 94, Diagon Alley
Harry conjured up the memory of his first day in the magical world. He whipped out his wand and looked intently at the trash can.
Two up, three across, he thought.
He tapped the brick lightly with the tip of his wand three times. It wiggled and then the bricks spread apart to create the archway into Diagon Alley. Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked trough and headed directly to the large bronze doors of Gringotts. A uniformed goblin bowed them into the building. Harry walked up to the counter and presented his key to the goblin, sitting behind the counter, who called for another goblin to take them down to the vaults. This goblin, who's gender seemed to be 'undecided' as far as Harry could tell, seemed very irritable, though that was sort of expected with goblins. But at least Griphook, who was the goblin that took Harry and Hagrid down to Harry's vault, and later the Hogwarts high security vault, on Harry's first trip to Diagon Alley, had not simply walked by them quickly and motioned to them to follow them, while muttering under it's breath with a dirty look on it's face. They got to the cart which was sitting on the tracks just behind a door leading off from the hall, where he spoke his first word, which was 'sit.' They complied. The still unknown goblin lit the lantern, dangling by a chain in the front of the cart. It rolled down the tracks, slowly gathering momentum. The goblin forcefully applied the breaks about two minutes later, which caused the cart to stop in about three seconds. The goblin snatched Harry's key and hobbled over to the door.
"He seems nice," Ron said quietly.
"She- it's probably just having a bad day," Hermione matched Ron's level of voice.
"Hem-" the goblin cleared his throat. The door was now open.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione moved forward. The goblin stepped out of the way, reveling Harry's vault.
"Hang on…" Harry started, "I know I did not have nearly this much gold last time."
He was right, what had been heaps about four feet high, covering about half the floor, where now about six feet tall, and covered all but the area around the door.
"Interest?" Ron shrugged.
Hermione looked over at him and rolled her eyes.
"You received, which cleared in November last year, six hundred thousand Galleons, as said in Mr. Black's will. You received an additional two hundred thousand from Mr. Dumbledore, as written in his will," the Goblin said quickly, as though he really didn't want to.
"Ummm right," Harry said, looking back at the cornucopia of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts.
"This brings your total to one million, six hundred and forty-two thousand, nine hundred and eighty-two Galleons, nine Sickles, and sixteen Knuts," the goblin continued.
Ron stared. Harry eased forward and dumped about one hundred Galleons worth of money into a bag, which Hermione shrunk and put into their already shrunk luggage.
The goblin slammed the door and slowly made its way back to the cart and sat down. The trio followed it and sat down. The goblin said something incomprehensible, and then the cart slowly started to head back to the main hall.
The trio stepped cautiously into Fred and George's joke shop, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. They still had the 'U-NO-POO' sign from last year, an advertisement for a drug that you slip into someone's food or drink to create some bowel stopping fun. On the door was a sign that said, 'We re-open at 6 o'clock.'
Harry looked at his watch. It was 3:12.
Ron reached out with his wand. "Alohamo-"
Hermione quickly pointed his wand away from the door.
"-ra." Ron finished. The spell flew down the street, connecting with the rolling suitcase of a witch who was walking away from them. The suitcase popped open, spilling garments all over the cobblestones.
"What was that for?" Ron demanded.
"They aren't open," Hermione said.
"They are my brothers."
"Its still right to respect their-"
"Something's wrong," Harry interrupted, staring through the window. The lights were off, and there was a small box on the ground, just inside the shop, pulsing in a soft green light. There was a box of Nosebleed Nougat, one of Fred and George's Skiving Snackboxes, a product that made you sick until you took the antidote, so that you could skip class, smashed, its contents laying on the floor. There were various boxes on the ground. Harry could see that a tub of joke wands was overturned. Ron and Hermione both looked in too.
Hermione pointed her wand and the door and said, "Alohamora!"
As soon as they had entered, a bright burst of light appeared in front of Harry. It then dimmed a split second later, only to revel a green skull with a snake slithering out of its mouth, slowly rising up. Harry leapt back flicking his wand from his belt. Ron's face paled. Hermione gasped and put her wand at ready.
The lights turned on and the Mark vanished.
The trio looked around, expecting a high pitched laugh or a swish of a black robe.
"We still have that green pulse."
"Yeah, but last time it was a lot brighter."
Fred and George stepped out of a door that lead into a back room.
"What the hell was that?" Ron yelled.
They looked over to where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were standing, looking horrified.
"Oh… uhh… that was a new product."
"That's not funny!" Hermione said, stricken.
"Yeah, you could scare someone to death with those," Harry said, glaring.
"They aren't for the public!"
"What?"
"The ministry ordered it. They were really satisfied with the Shield Hats."
Hermione looked in deep thought.
"What would the ministry want with a box that spews Dark Marks?" Ron asked.
"They said that if they want someone to go into hiding, they can use it to ya know…" Fred said.
"Why don't they just cast it?" Harry inquired. "They know the incantation."
"What else does it do?" Hermione asked. "Can the box make more than one?"
"That's the beauty of it," George said.
"The box actually glows green because it charges from little magical storage things inside, and then goes off like a firework almost," Fred explained.
"It leaves no trace of the box because the box becomes the Mark," George continued.
"But," Fred said, "we still can't stop it from creating a small shockwave when it detonates. That's what all the mess is from."
Hermione sighed. Harry could tell that something was nagging at her. Sure, they wouldn't want to leave any trace that the mark was set by something other than the spell, and they obviously wouldn't want to be around when people appeared, but they could just cast it and apperate back to the ministry. He walked over to her slowly.
"This doesn't seem right," she whispered.
"Do you not trust Fred and George?" Harry questioned.
"No, I think they are trustworthy. Its just the ministry… There are many other ways that they can hide people."
While they were talking, Fred, George, and Ron had decided to that they all were going to go back to the Leaky Cauldron for some snacks.
AN: Expect another chapter by next sunday. (This is when I will try to update from now on... no promises though)