Morgan le Fay Institute for Magic

Chapter 22 - Disturbing Darkness

"The Dark Mark," Ravenna gulped, looking up at the green, smoky skull in Ravengrove's sky. She'd seen it in the papers, but it was so much worse than she'd imagined. The veil-like sluggishness in her head lifted even more as horror clutched her heart. She wanted nothing more than to go home and crawl underneath her bedsheets. To forget any of this had ever happened. But it wasn't an option.

Her knees trembled as she watched the group of Death Eaters stride past them. Every now and then they'd shoot a spell in a seemingly random direction and something would blow up; another shop window shattering, a tree with all its leaves burning, a jack-o-lantern blowing up to enormous proportions before bursting into a million small, sticky pieces that landed everywhere.

"Let's go." Her voice clawed its way up her throat.

A few of the Death Eaters glanced their way, but they barely paid them any mind. Nobody talked to them.

She'd barely moved when someone behind her exclaimed, "I don't want to go! Look at what they're doing... I don't want to be a part of that."

She whirled around to the girl with the chimaera mask. "If we don't go, they'll do the same to Morgan le Fay! Is that what you want?"

The shock and fear in her eyes was visible even beyond the mask. She didn't respond.

"Right then," said Ravenna. She balled her hands to fists, ignoring the churning of her stomach. "Let's go."

As the last few Death Eaters passed them, she finally stepped forward, her hand on her mask to make sure it was still in place. Dan was right beside her, as she marched in stride with the nefarious group ahead of them. She made sure to keep some distance between her and the razing Death Eaters, but it wasn't enough. She felt part of the destruction, as another streak of red tore through the air, this time collapsing someone's shed. When a woman wailed, she lowered her head, unable to look at the damage they were doing any longer.

They rounded the corner into a smaller street. This one, too, was filled with Halloween decorations, but they were already shattered and scattered about. People ran along the edge of the street, trying to get away, but in the chaos they couldn't find a way out. The Death Eaters had fanned out now, catching runaways and chasing them back towards the main group.

That's when a flash of red light caught Ravenna's eye. A Death Eater near her cackled as the targeted man tripped over his own feet. Her heart stopped as he lay still. Is he...?

Before she could do anything, another streak of light, white this time, hit a young woman in the back as she was fleeing. Her arms flung to her sides and her legs snapped together. Stiff as a board, she fell down, face-first onto the cold ground.

"What are they..." Raw panic gripped Ravenna's heart. "They're hurting them. They're attacking people. People who are just trying to get to safety."

Dan grabbed her hand as he looked around. "Willem... Where is he?"

"I don't know." He'd been right there behind them, but his dragon mask was now nowhere to be found in the crowd of frightened students. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat away, but it wouldn't budge. "I don't know. What do we do?"

Dan glanced around some more, before saying, "He'll be fine. As long as he's not stuck in this mess, he's better off than we are."

Ravenna tried to believe him, but she wasn't even convinced her best friend believed himself. Her heart thumped when another scream tore through the air. She turned her head just in time to see a few boys, younger than herself, get knocked back by a Confringo. They clutched their heads when they knocked against the nearest shop, and even from this distance she could see blood dripping down one of their faces. She clasped Dan's warm hand like a lifeline.