Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [6]

⚡️ Chapter 51 ⚡️

Madam Pomfrey pointed into the sky, in the direction of Hogwarts. Vega's blood ran cold as she turned to look at the direction that the woman was pointing – there it was, hanging in the sky above the school: the blazing green skull with a serpent tongue, the mark Death Eaters left behind whenever they had entered a building... wherever they had murdered.

"When did it appear?" Dumbledore asked, and his hand clenched painfully upon Vega's and Harry's shoulder as he struggled to his feet, his eyes stuck on the mark as well.

"Must have been minutes ago," Madam Rosmerta answered. "It wasn't there when I put the cat out, but when I got upstairs –"

"We need to return to the castle at once," Dumbledore said. "Rosmerta –" And though he staggered a little, he seemed wholly in command of the situation "– we need transport – brooms –"

"I've got a couple behind the bar," Madam Rosmerta said, looking very frightened although it wasn't clear why exactly. "Shall I run and fetch –?"

"No, Vega can do it," Dumbledore said.

Vega quickly raised her wand at once, given that Harry was still underage despite the stunt they pulled in the cave, and said, "Accio Rosmerta's Brooms!"

A second later they heard a loud bang as the front door of the pub burst open; two brooms had shot out into the street to them and were racing each other to Vega's side, where they stopped dead, quivering slightly at waist height.

"Rosmerta, please send a message to the Ministry," Dumbledore said, as he mounted the broom nearest him. "It might be that nobody within Hogwarts has yet realised anything is wrong... Harry, put your Invisibility Cloak and share the broom with Vega,"

Harry pulled his Cloak out of his pocket and threw it over himself and Vega before they took their broom. Madam Rosmerta was already tottering back toward her pub as Harry and Dumbledore kicked off from the ground and rose up into the air. Harry held onto the Invisibility Cloak while Vega took hold of the broomstick to steer it.

As they sped toward the castle, Vega glanced sideways at Dumbledore, ready to grab him should he fall, but the sight of the Dark Mark seemed to have acted upon Dumbledore like a stimulant: He was bent low over his broom, his eyes fixed upon the Mark, his long silver hair and beard flying behind him on the night air.

And when Vega looked back ahead at the skull, and fear swelled inside her like a venomous bubble, compressing her lungs, driving all other discomfort from her mind.

How long had they been away?
Had Ron, Hermione, and Ginny's luck run out by now?
Was it one of them who had caused the Mark to be set over the school,
or was it Neville, or Luna, or some other member of the D.A.? And if it was...

Vega and Harry were the one who had told them to patrol the corridors, they had asked them to leave the safety of their beds... would Vega be responsible, again, for the death of a loved one? It was hard but she tried not to think too much about it.

As they flew over the dark, twisting lane down which they had walked earlier, Vega heard, over the whistling of the night air in her ears, Dumbledore muttering in some strange language again. She thought that she understood why as she felt the broom underneath her shudder when they flew over the boundary wall into the grounds: Dumbledore was undoing the enchantments he himself had set around the castle so they could enter at speed.

The Dark Mark was glittering directly above the Astronomy Tower, the highest of the castle – did that mean the death had occurred there?

Dumbledore had already crossed the crenelated ramparts and was dismounting; Vega and Harry landed next to him seconds later. The ramparts were deserted. The door to the spiral staircase that led back into the castle was closed.