Chapter 84
Yesterday June seventh at approximately 10.43am the mark of You-Know-Who could be seen high above the town of Hogsmeade. Panic etched through the small village as many of its inhabitants closed up shop and ran to the safety of near by Hogwarts.
While most fled the village a few remained to try and discover what had happened. A Mr. Aled Phillips, a regular of the pub the Hogs Head claims that he saw three masked men leave the post office just as the mark appeared. Ramblings of a drunken man maybe but the fact is that the post office was the site of a murder.
We at the prophet would like to pay our respects to one of our own. Yes our columnist John Martin, famous for his tough tongue and determination to see the truth printed was the victim at the village. Martin, 54, had been in the village meeting with a source for his latest column.
Head of the Auror department Barty Crouch claims that this was an act of revenge. Two weeks ago in this very paper Martin printed a story about deceit from within the ministry. In it he claimed that a number of high positioned officials including our minister are followers of You-Know-Who. (See page 6)
Martin has left behind his wife of twenty one years Mora and three children Chris (twenty), Susan (nineteen) and Katie (eighteen). Our deepest thoughts and sympathy is with them all.
Rita Skeeter
"Does it say anything else?"
"Just shows a picture of John Martin and one of the Dark Mark."
Amanda sighed as Branwen folded the paper in half. They sat silently as the countryside passed them by. She couldn't believe that they were heading home for the summer already. It was too soon. They had at least another two weeks left in Hogwarts. But the sign of the mark had scared people.
A number of parents had gone to fetch their children during the night. So many had turned up that letters had been sent to the remaining parents informing them of the early return of students. So at ten o'clock on that Sunday morning they had been marched down to the train station and boarded the Express.
Amanda looked away from the window as Ginny, Alice and Lily entered the carriage. They sat down opposite the two and looked around the place. They were all nervous about their return home but none so more than Amanda and Branwen. They had come to a silent agreement not to mention their summer agendas.
Amanda watched as the sky got cloudier as they headed south. The further from Hogwarts they got the worse her stomach felt. She almost wanted to cry out for them to turn the train around. A look at Branwen saw that she was becoming paler as they went.
"Bran."
"Umm…"
"Do you think we were wrong?"
Silence was her reply. The other three girls looked at them but it was clear that they had no idea what was happening. Just at that moment the door to the compartment opened and the boys appeared. Amanda noticed that Sirius too looked pale and withdrawn.
"Mind if we join you girls?"
"We got a choice?"
James laughed at Lily's words as the six boys pushed themselves in. It became quite a squeeze to fit. It wasn't like when they were younger and could all fit in now they were bigger and needed more space.
Amanda watched as James sat on the floor back against the wall while Peter sat at the opposite end with his back against the door. Remus sat at the same end as Peter on the seat with Ginny on his lap. Next to them sat Lily and then Joe with Alice on his lap. Branwen sat opposite Remus with Frank next to her. Slowly Amanda stood up letting Sirius take her seat positioning herself on his lap.
"So what are the plans for the summer then?"
Peter looked up at everyone but little was said. Ginny it seemed was the only one willing to give away her summer plans.
"New baby on the way. So my summer will be me and the two boys waiting for the little one."
"The two boys that be Gideon and Fabian or Bill and Charlie?"
Ginny grinned at Amanda and shrugged.
"Could be all four but I was expecting Bill and Charlie."
They fell silent again before Joe called out.
"Frank and I are going to America. That's got to be fun."
Amanda tuned out the conversation as she again peered out the window. It was strange how different one year could be. She had gone to Hogwarts expecting things to be great and they had turned sour. The only upside was that now at the end of the year all the problems had been sorted. Every one of them were now on speaking terms.
As the light began to fade and they got closer to their destination silence fell again over them. Amanda's heartbeat had increased at the thought of being so close to the city. She knew that in two weeks she would be expected to go undercover and she was more nervous now than before.
She was startled from thought as she heard Branwen's voice.
"We're doing the right thing."
"What?"
James sounded the word that seemed to be on everyone's faces. Amanda though smiled at the girl.
"No regrets about agreeing."
"No. We'll do this and we'll do it right."
"Are you two talking about that thing we're not allowed to talk about?"
"Yeah Si."
"You got doubts then Mand."
"I'm scared. But we'll do it."
"Do what?"
Amanda, Branwen and Sirius all shared a look before turning to Ginny. Amanda slowly closed her eyes before smiling.
"We'll explain everything come September. I promise."
Okay so yes it's not that long and I honestly thought I'd written more about the Quidditch game but finally year five is over with. Scary thought occurred to me… do you realise I've been writing this since I was seventeen, that's nearly five years!
So I had originally planned to post this and then start the next one when I get back, then I changed my mind and thought I'd start posting year six before I go. But you know what. I'm going to wait.
And I know that some of you won't like that. That some of you want more. Well one, this gives Lisa and some others that have started reading the earlier years a chance to catch up (see Lisa I'm thinking of you here!) And two now you don't get left with a cliffy.
But to keep you all waiting and get you ready for year six… I thought maybe I'd post a little teaser. So here we go…
…
The boy turned a fraction to look at Frank. Something must have been written over his face because the boy quickened his pace. Dark times were about now and the longer they were outside the more likely they could be attacked.
…
"We were being watched when we came here. Ever since we left the house actually."
…
There was a flash of light and then darkness surrounded ? as ? fell. ? hit the floor hard and laughter echoed through the room. Four pops were heard as a mummer of a curse unbeknown to most rang through the house. With the final pop ? was left to stare forever at the moon.
…
"This morning there was another Death Eater attack. I'm afraid that he went after your family."
…
"BUT I WANT TO DIE, I WANT TO BE AWAY FROM THIS MURDEROUS WORLD!!"
"SO DO I…"
Silence followed for moments
"Everyday I pray that I won't wake up, you wouldn't understand. I wish I were dead all the time. But I'm not and I'm lucky in some way. Yes this is a murderous time, but we're isolated, we're away from it all, we're all naïve towards death. Well this was our wake up call. We can either sit around drinking and do nothing or we can fight it. Voldemort did this; think how many others he's affected."
…
Okay so that's all the teasers that you get. As you can tell its going to be much darker than what's gone before. The one with the question marks are where I removed any indication of sex and names because that person who is killed BIG SPOILER is one of the main characters BIG SPOILER so I'm going to let you all ponder on that for a few weeks. See if any of you can work it out.
These clips are taken out of order… most are from before Christmas (I've gotten that far) but a few have been taken from later chapters that I've already written.
So have a good month… and I hope now you'll all be ready for year six when I get back.
Kris xx