Marked

The Hurricane

Chapter 16: The Hurricane

Theo's Mark was burning again and it was more than a little distracting. Not that it mattered. None of these Potters were the right Potter. He could disapparate now and be done with the whole thing.

Not really, of course. And he was getting ahead of himself.

There was nothing he could do about the Mark. Narcissa had given him something for the irritation and the pain when he'd first taken it, and it had, as she'd predicted, calmed down after about a week. But since discovering the muggle who'd seen Draco, the Mark had gradually become inflamed again, and Theo had scratched relentlessly at it until the entire expanse of his inner arm was raw and red. It had gotten so bad that the balm that Narcissa had given him no longer had any effect, and he'd almost failed to notice when the Dark Lord had used it to summon him.

It seemed his true feelings were starting to break the skin.

Not very good timing, considering the danger he would be in, hovering above the muggle neighborhood that contained Potter's only living family.

"He will be leaving the home of his muggle relatives the moment he turns seventeen and his trace is broken," Snape had informed them the previous week, his voice a silky monotone and his face equally expressionless. "I believe that he will attempt to leave the home of his aunt and uncle as soon as he is without the trace, and that he will be defenseless at such time," Snape had added.

An unpleasant smile had slithered its way across the Dark Lord's face. "Of course," he'd said softly. "Harry Potter will not be able to resist a fight the moment he is able."

Theo had agreed, though he wasn't happy about it then and he certainly wasn't happy about it now.

A number of potential problems had flitted in and out of Theo's wary mind. For one thing, there was the vague possibility that Draco might be somewhere near Potter. The Grangers' muggle neighbor had not mentioned any knowledge of Weasley or Potter being around, so it was certainly a possibility that Draco and Granger had split off from the other two - but frankly, Theo doubted Potter would be willing to be without Granger for long. It was fairly common knowledge, even for Theo, that Potter was essentially incapable of doing anything without Granger's assistance. If Potter were indeed staying with his muggle relatives, how likely was it that Draco and Granger were very far away?

The thought had given Theo an uncomfortable pang in his chest.

Please, he'd thought fervently, trying to suppress his nerves as the Dark Lord continued to plot, going as far as to take Lucius Malfoy's wand. Please let Potter not be stupid enough to walk right into an obvious trap. Please let that fucking arsehole be smarter than he looks.

He had hoped they would show up and nobody would be home - something like what had happened at the Grangers' house. He figured he could handle another brief conversation with a nosy neighbor - though if that were the case, any muggle the other Death Eaters encountered would almost certainly find themselves facing a far harsher fate than the innocuous obliviation he'd performed. Still, it was a favorable option, considering the many darker possibilities.

Unfortunately - or fortunately, he supposed, depending on one's stake in the whole mess - that was not the case; the house was obviously occupied and even Theo had been able to feel the pulsing evidence of the numerous magical wards preventing their entry. He and the others had been hovering in the air on brooms, keeping a distant watch on the ongoing activity, waiting with reasonable patience for the inevitable lifting of the blood wards on the home.

Which of course brought him to this moment - to his bitter realization that they'd been conned.

From where they'd all lain in wait - mounted on brooms and hidden behind disillusionment spells that would have looked, to a muggle or even an unsuspecting wizard, like an evening enshrouded with fog - it had come as no surprise when known members of the Order had surfaced from inside the house en masse. It was even unsurprising to see the whole lot of them mounting a variety of flying implements, including creatures Theo had never seen before - fucking winged horses with terrifyingly skeletal bodies. Panic had struck, though, when each of those in his party seemed to identify more than one Potter.