11 Chapter 11: Demon Mark

Harry's dream….

He was standing in a room he didn't recognize and he heard something. In the center of the room he saw a child draped in black robes, radiating blood red magic.

"Voldemort?" his dream self said.

An evil laughter sounded all around him and the black mist from before started to seep from Voldemort's host's form.

As soon as the mist touched him his scar suddenly started to burn and throb as if someone had stuck a knife through it.

As Harry screamed in pain, images came into his mind. He saw Kiara and Amara dying at the feet of an unknown figure, his parents being killed by the killing curse, and he saw Regulus with his wand pointed at Sirius who was screaming in pain.

"No!" Harry yelled as he woke up.

…

"Stop yelling, Potter. Some of us are actually trying to sleep." snapped Ron.

"Sorry," Harry whispered as he stumbled out of his bed to the bathroom. As he washed his face he saw drops of red in the water.

"What the?"

He looked into the mirror to see a trail of blood coming from his scar.

"Damn it!" Harry mumbled as he got a cloth and cleaned the blood off his face. When he returned to bed his dorm mates were already fast asleep again.

"Sure wish I could sleep like that," said Harry as he climbed under the covers and lay back, feeling a heck of a headache coming on. Harry didn't sleep a wink that night.

Early the next morning Harry gave up trying to sleep and decided to go out for a fly around the pitch, to help clear his mind.

He was out there for about an hour when he saw another figure fly into the field. It was Malfoy.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" he asked as he got closer.

"I could ask you the same thing, Malfoy," said Harry calmly.

"I would say it's none of your business!" said Draco with a snarl.

Harry flew around Draco lazily.

"Hmm… I would probably say the same thing, too," he said thoughtfully.

Comma after thing too also

Draco rolled his eyes and proceeded to fly as far away from Harry as he could.

Harry shrugged and continued flying through the air. 30 minutes passed and Draco looked very annoyed that Harry was still flying in the pitch.

Harry finally had enough of the Slytherin glaring at him and went over to him to figure out what Malfoy's problem was.

"Malfoy I am shocked you haven't told me to get lost yet. With all that glaring you're shooting at me, you obviously don't want me here." said Harry.

"If I had told you to leave, would you have?" asked Draco.

"No, but if you had asked nicely I might…" said Harry.

"Fine! Can you PLEASE leave me ALONE!" Malfoy yelled.

Shocked by the sudden burst of anger from the boy, Harry backed away. Seeing frustration and hatred in Draco's eyes Harry decided to let him be.

"Alright" he said as he turned his broom towards the school.

As soon as he was out of the pitch he heard a scream of rage. Letting his curiosity get the better of him Harry turned around and saw Draco Malfoy of Slytherin House sobbing on the floor of the pitch.

Harry knew he should have left the boy alone and let him sort his emotions out with some privacy. But he couldn't take his eyes off Draco, he had never seen anyone cry with such hatred before.

Harry watched from above as Draco eventually stopped crying and just lay on the Quidditch Pitch ground and fell asleep.

Feeling sorry for the boy Harry flew down towards him and cast a levitation charm on him. As he levitated Draco back to Hogwarts he saw something on the kids left arm. Fearing the worst Harry gently pulled Draco's sleeve up and what he saw made him gasp.

It was the dark mark, it was new not even 2 hours old, the skin around the mark was still burnt and swollen looking.

"Of all the things dear old Lucius has done, this has got to be the sickest and most evil thing yet," Harry snapped.

"Having his eleven-year-old son take the dark mark, heck! For some reason I didn't even think Voldemort would stoop this low"

Harry quickly got Draco back to the Slytherin common room without being seen. After he put Draco to bed he went to Snapes office. He couldn't let what happened to Draco go unnoticed, and he knew Snape cared for the young Malfoy heir.

He knocked on the Professor's door loudly knowing he was probably still asleep. About two minutes later a sleepy, but murderous-looking Severus Snape opened the door.

As soon a Snape saw Harry standing at his door he immediately shot out the scariest glare he could muster and hissed out slowly,

"Potter if you want to keep on living in the next 10 seconds you will tell me why you have woken me up at 5:00 in the bloody morning, and it had better be a damn good reason."

Harry nearly gulped, but managed to resist.

"It's about Draco, Professor," he said.

"Potter, if you woke me up to tell me about you petty problems with Malfoy, you are 5 seconds away from never being able to see the light of day again," said Snape threateningly.

"No, Professor, it's not that. I saw him in the Quidditch pitch this morning."

"Tattling on him won't help you at all Potter," snapped Snape, becoming even angrier if it were possible.

Harry had had enough.

"Will you just shut up for once! I am trying to tell you Draco has been given the dark mark!"

Snape's eye widened, then he dragged Harry into his living quarters.

"What!?" asked Snape dangerously.

"Draco Malfoy has the dark mark," said Harry, calmly this time.

"Potter, if you are lying, I swear you won't live to regret it," snapped Snape.

"Sir, why would I lie about something like this? It would only get me in trouble when I was found out. That would just be stupid. Plus I haven't got anything against Draco, anyway." said Harry defiantly.

Snape looked into his eyes, searching for the truth. Harry let him in only enough so he could be sure he wasn't lying.

When Snape tore his eyes away he asked, " Are you sure it was the real mark and not just a fake?"

"Yes, I am positive it was real," said Harry.

Snape glared at Harry and asked, "What did it look like?"

Harry was about to answer when he suddenly thought of something.

"That's right, he doesn't know that I know about the change in the mark."

This time Harry looked into Snape's eyes and said, "A skull with red blood coming out of its mouth."

Harry could have sworn he heard Snape whisper, "No, it can't be!"

"Where is he, Potter!?" yelled Snape.

"He is sleeping in the dorm," Harry answered.

Snape put his black robe on and dashed out the door. He made no motion for Harry to follow him but Harry ran after anyway.

When they arrived in the first year dorms, Draco was still sleeping, but there was something not right about him.

Snape walked over to where Draco slept and kneeled in front of him. Draco was pale and had a cold sweat running off his face.

"He wasn't like that when I brought him here," said Harry.

Snape ignored him and rolled up Draco's left sleeve, and what he saw made him gasp.

Harry peeked over Snape's shoulder and said, "Okay it defiantly wasn't like that 10 minutes ago!"

Draco's left arm was all swollen and the dark mark was glowing a reddish-purple colour.

Snape seemed to snap out of his surprise and immediately jumped into action.

"Move! Potter!" ordered Snape as he lifted Draco up and rushed out of the room. Harry ran after Snape but only saw his back running through a portrait hole.

Harry sighed. He would most likely never find out what was really happening if Snape had anything to say about it.

"But I have never seen that kind of reaction before, hmm… Maybe I will ask Mum. She should be setting up the classroom by now." said Harry.

When he entered the defence classroom he saw Lily writing notes on the bored, James always teased her about writing the muggle way, when charming the chalk to write with magic was so much faster.

She said sometimes it felt good write with her hands for a change and it also reminded her of where she came from.

"Mum?" said Harry.

"Yes, Harry? You're here quite early." she said brightly.

"I wanted to ask you something," he said.

"Well, ask away then. That is what I am here for." she said with a smile.

"Well…" Harry hesitated. How could he ask this without worrying her?

"Do you know of any bad reactions to having the dark mark?' he asked.

As soon as he said this he heard the chalk in his mothers hand snap.

"I guess I was too blunt" thought Harry to himself.

"Why do you ask Harry?" she asked.

"I am still doing research about the mark and I keep on encountering that question and in every book I get a different answer, so I was wondering if you knew the truth." said Harry.

Lily stared at Harry with a look, as if to say, "I know you are not telling the truth"

However she conceded and gave him an answer.

"Bad reactions can occur when the person getting it really doesn't want it, and is forced, or if they're too young, or in very, very rare cases the very magic of the person is rejecting the magic that the dark mark gives off," Lily explained.

Harry's eyes widened and he took off out of the room.

"Thanks, Mum!" he yelled over his shoulder.

Lily shook her head as she watched Harry dash down the hall.

"He is heading into trouble again, I know it! And he really thinks I don't notice." Lily said to herself.

…...

Harry ran up to the headmasters office, quickly using his magic to bypass the enchanted statue. He hoped Snape was up there as well. He needed to talk to him about the new dark mark. There was no point in hiding it from him now. Heck at this point he trusted Snape more then he trusted Dumbledore. He could understand Snape, he knew how he thought. It had taken him a while to figure the dark potion master out, but he had finally done it.

Dumbledore on the other hand, the moment Harry thought he had figured him out, the old coot would go and do something completely unexpected. He was unpredictable and he couldn't be trusted for a moment.

He didn't bother knocking. The old coot had a very powerful identification charm surrounding his office, so the headmaster knew whoever came within 2 metres of the door. .

Once inside he saw Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall. All of them were talking about something until Dumbledore raised his hand and pointed out to the two professors that their conversation was no longer private.

"Mr. Potter, I was just about to send some one to go and get you. We need to talk about what happened with young Mr. Malfoy this morning." said Dumbledore.

"Yes, that is why I came here. How is Draco?" asked Harry.

Snape was the first to answer.

"His magic is rejecting the magic that is in the mark. He has been given a potion to slow the process down while we fine a way to stop the rejection before it kills him."

"Mr Potter, if you could tell us everything that you saw earlier this morning, it would be very useful," said Dumbledore.

Harry retold them about everything that happened between him and Malfoy earlier that morning.

"So that is it, then," said McGonagall. "The boy is so desperate to not have the mark, his own magic is trying to get rid of it."

It seemed that her two other colleagues agreed with her, as no one voiced an objection.

Harry, however, did not agree. Magic that was activated by desperation was unstable, and violent. When he had seen Draco just before Snape took him, it looked like the magic of the mark was attacking his magic not the other way around.

Snape seemed to be thinking on the same lines as he was.

"Headmaster, when I was with Mr. Malfoy it looked to be the other way around. Like the magic of the mark was rejecting his magic." he said

McGonagall shook her head, 'but that doesn't make any sense. Why would he create a mark that could render a death eater useless? And even if he had intended it to be like that then why aren't the other death eaters being effected? They have the same mark as Mr, Malfoy." she said, very confused.

Harry thought for a moment and said, "Maybe it isn't exactly the same, Professor."

McGonagall looked at him. "What do you mean Mr. Potter?" she asked.

"Well, since the night Voldemort left Quirrell and went to a new host, all the death eaters' dark marks transformed into a skull with blood dripping out of the mouth. That would mean Voldemort's own magic has been permanently changed as well, as the mark is symbol of Voldemort's own magical soul."

"What is your point? We already know this, Mr. Potter." snarled Snape.

Harry rolled his eyes. "I am getting to it" he said.

"But correct me if I am wrong, the transformed marks have not been active since they were transformed." Harry paused a second wait if anyone did indeed correct him, but no one did so he continued . "Maybe Voldemort and his new host are tying to create a new active dark mark, and Draco is their test subject and this test went wrong. It reacted in a way that they didn't expect."

McGonagall frowned and shook her head. "Mr. Potter that still doesn't explain how the magic of the mark is eating away at Mr. Malfoy. Why would it do that? Or how can it do that?" she asked as if trying to search for a question that would stump him.

Harry was about to answer when he felt Casey enter the room. He quickly glance around, he couldn't see her body but her magic had defiantly there. Then he heard her voice in his head,

"You are very good, Harry Potter. You are very close to the answer that you seek. But I do not want certain people in this room to know that information as of yet, especially a certain manipulative Headmaster."

Harry got the not-so-subtle hint, but he felt a bit betrayed. Casey had known who the host was all along.

Casey, as if reading his thoughts, said to him.

"I am sorry, Harry. I know I told you I didn't know, but I had no choice. The only reason I can tell you now is because you practically already know, anyway."

Harry just rolled his eyes. "Well that sure is logical now isn't it?" he thought sarcastically to her.

He heard Casey laugh in his mind and she said, "Magic isn't always as logical as we would sometimes like."

"Potter!? POTTER!" yelled Snape.

Harry was abruptly snapped out of his telepathic conversion by Snape who had his hands on his shoulder and was shaking him.

"Will you please stop that?" asked Harry as he yanked himself out of Snape's hard grip.

"Are you alright, Mr. Potter?" asked McGonagall"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking, that's all." he said.

"They don't believe you," said Casey into his head.

"Well what else can I say? I can't very well say I have a half demon, half high elf princess talking to me in my head, now can I?" thought Harry.

"Well, no… but what was that saying I used to hear muggles say? Oh! "A Good Lie is easier to believe then the truth." So just make then believe something else." said Casey.

Harry looked at his three professors. He already knew that whatever he told them, they wouldn't believe him .

"Casey, at this point I don't think they will believe anything I say," thought Harry to her.

"Well, let me do the honors."

Before Harry had the chance stop her, Casey's magic flooded the room and his three professors went into a daze and their eyes seemed to glaze over.

"Casey, what did you do?!" Harry asked.

"I just made them forget you were here, that's all. You might want to get out of Dumbledore's office. They're waking up."

"Oh, gee, thanks for the warning," said Harry annoyed as he ran from the office.

Once Harry was in the hallway he no longer felt Casey in his head and her magic was gone, too.

"Well so much for talking to Snape." thought Harry as he sulked down the hall. "I will have to talk with Casey later. If I am right this time about who I think is Voldemort's host ,then I will need her help….."

…...

(Just after Harry left the Defence room)

"He is heading into trouble again, I know it! And he really thinks I don't notice." Lily said to herself, or so she thought.

"Spoken like a true Mother.." chuckled a rather sinister sounding voice.

Lily spun around, her hand reaching for her wand.

"Don't even try it, witch!" snapped the voice.

Then Lily's wand came flying out of her hand and Lily soon found herself on the stone ground.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" yelled Lily.

"Hmmm….. Really now, you are not in the position to be making demands or asking questions for that matter" said the voice evilly. "But since you asked oh, so, nicely, I will show myself to you. Although I must warn you, you will regret asking such a thing"

Then all the shadows in the room moved and converged on one spot where a figure walked through.

When Lily saw the figure she gasped.

"You're that girl. But Harry said we could trust you." said Lily.

The girl that stood in front of Lily looked exactly like Casey, in fact, with her long wavy black hair and pale face. The only thing that didn't look like Casey was the eyes, which were red and glowing.

The girl raised her eye brow in slight confusion. "Huh? Woman I haven't spoken to your son yet, how could…? Wait. you think I am Casey, don't you?" she said as she started to cackle.

Then she looked at Lily with an angry vengeance. "Don't insult me."

With a flick of her hand Lily was flung into the wall of the class room.

"Crucio!" the girl yelled.

The curse was on Lily for a number of seconds before the girl dropped it.

"I am not my useless twin sister. My name is Cassandra, and it would do you well to remember that, mudblood!" said Cassandra.

Lily didn't trust herself to speak properly. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't do anything. All she could do now was wait for help, since Cassandra had cast an unforgivable, the alarm system in the headmaster's office would go off and the staff would be sent to investigate. Unfortunately Cassandra seemed to know what she was thinking and quickly burst her bubble.

"I wouldn't be so hopeful about help coming anytime soon if I were you. I have placed my own special kind of shield up to block any magical trace of me or the magic I use." she said with a smirk as Lily's face became even glummer.

"Come now, Mrs. Potter, you don't have to look so depressed. I am not going to kill you, well, not yet, anyway." said Cassandra as she advanced to where Lily kneeled on the floor.

"Give me your left arm," she demanded.

Lily held herself tight although she knew it would do no good.

"I said give me you arm, you filthy mudblood!" yelled Cassandra.

As Cassandra yelled, her eyes narrowed and turned an even deeper red.

Lily began to feel as if claws were digging into her arm and pulling it toward Cassandra. She whimpered in pain as cuts were soon seen in her skin and the started to bleed.

Then Cassandra took out a wand and Lily recognised it right away.

"That's Voldemort's wand!" she said.

Cassandra chuckled as she drew her wand closer and closer to Lily's forearm.

"Very good, my dear," she said.

When the wand touched Lily's forearm it began to throb in pain and a reddish magic began to pulse into her arm . Lily tried to struggle against the magical hold she was under but she couldn't move, she couldn't do anything but plead.

"No! No! Stop please stop! Don't do this! Please! Have mercy." she cried.

Cassandra continued pouring her hate-filled magic into Lily's arm, ignoring her pain-filled cry.

Then Cassandra stopped, when Lily lifted her head to see what happened she heard a voice.

"Cassandra, forget about the mark. Just bite her instead." said the voice.

" Very well, as you wish. But why the sudden change in plans?" she asked.

"It may not be the best course of action. It seems the new mark has some unexpected side effects, which I'd rather not risk with her yet." explained the voice and then it left.

Cassandra turned around to face Lily again, this time her eyes were a pale purple and they rest of her face turned to a porcelain cold white. Long fangs grew from her mouth and her ears sharpened slightly.

She kneeled in front of Lily and used her magic to make Lily's head move to reveal more of her slender neck.

With an almost savage look on her face, Cassandra quickly sank her fangs into Lily's soft skin.

Lily screamed, it felt like her blood was turning to ice inside her, after that it felt like a dozen ice cold knives were cutting her up from the inside out. This, no doubt, was the most painful thing she had ever gone through.

When it was finally over Lily looked as pale as Cassandra and her green eyes were glazed over. If anyone had walked in at that moment they would have though Lily was dead.

After Cassandra cleaned her mouth of the blood she spoke.

"Lily Potter, you are to do anything I tell you to do. Do you understand?"

Lily nodded her head yes.

"Good. First you are not allowed to tell any living being about what has happened here, and you are to act as if nothing has happened. Second, anything that Harry Potter tells you, you are going to tell me. The same thing goes for that Dumbledore guy as well. Thirdly and last, you are to kill Casey Silverlight, my sister. Got it?" commanded Cassandra.

Lily nodded her head once again.

"Well, I guess that is it. Talk to you later." said Cassandra as she waved her hand and the shadows in the room converged into one again to allow her to walk through. Right when she was about to walk through she snapped her fingers and said

"Oh I almost forgot, you still look like you are half dead. Well we can't have that now can we?"

Cassandra whipped out her wand and a pink stream of magic poured out and hit Lily. When the light cleared, Lily was standing up writing notes on the board, looking like nothing had ever happened.

With that done Cassandra stepped into the shadows and disappeared….

If she had taken the time to look into Lily's eyes she would have noticed that her enchantment hadn't entirely taken effect. Lily's once dazzling green eyes were now dull and lifeless. In this case eyes were the window to the soul, and Lily's soul was replaced with a mere shadow of what she once was. This shadow also had strings on it and it was being controlled by the most evil and powerful creature to walk the earth.

…...

Harry was heading to the Great Hall for breakfast when a wave of pain washed over him. He managed to stumble to a nearby passage way before finally letting out a scream and passing out.

A Vision….

All he felt was pain, burning all around him, but yet he couldn't make a sound or move.

"It's like I am on fire!"

Then he could suddenly hear a noise at first he couldn't tell what it sounded like, as it became louder it sounded like a evil cackle.

Then suddenly everything went freezing cold and very dark, that was painful as well, like getting out of a hot tub and jumping into ice cold water right after.

Then he saw two pairs of eyes one pair was a pale purple, and the other pair was a fiery red.

As he felt himself start to wake up, faces started to appear around the eyes. The red eyes he quickly recognised was Voldemort. The other however was one he didn't recognise at first. It was the face of a girl with a small pointy nose.

Just as the dream world disappeared the girl's face smiled and two long fangs could be faintly seen…

End of Vision….

Harry opened his eyes and tried to lift his head.

"Woow… Not a good idea" Harry said as he felt a wave of dizziness descend over him once again. Once the dizzy spell passed, he slowly started to remember the images of dream/nightmare.

"Those eyes… I have seen them before, but yet I haven't. That's it! I have to be right this time. I have to find Casey! Where is she?" he asked himself as he tried to sit up again.

When he was finally able to stand and walk without getting dizzy he made his way out of the dark passageway.

Once back in the light of the hall he noticed his scar was once again bleeding and now that his body wasn't numb from his weird vision, he could feel it sting.

He used his wand to clean the blood and his face and cast a powerful concealment charm on his forehead. It wasn't powerful enough to make it disappear, just to make it look… well, normal.

"Alright…. This is going to be a long day. It feels like one already." Harry mumbled as he continued down the hallway, only with a little less energy.

Breakfast was nearly half over by the time Harry walked in.

Hermione was sitting at Gryffindor table waiting for him, "Hurry up, Harry, we are going to be late for Potions class!" she said.

"Hermione, we have at least 30 minutes before class starts…." he said exasperatingly.

"I know, but you still have to eat breakfast. Where were you anyway? I waited in the common room until breakfast started." questioned Hermione.

'Oh, I needed to talk to Professor Snape about something this morning, but I got held up in Dumbledore's office." he said.

Hermione eyed him, but didn't ask further.

"You look tired. Are you feeling alright?" she asked after a minute.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I am fine." said Harry distractedly as he looked over at the Slytherin table trying to spot Casey.

Hermione gave him a look again. This time she questioned.

"Alright… What is going on? I know something is wrong, and you are not telling me what it is." she said with a variety of emotions moving across her face: concern for him, annoyance from not telling her what was happening, and curiosity about what was going on.

Harry sighed. " I will tell you tonight," he whispered.

Hermione looked like she was about to protest but then thought better of it.

"Alright, in the common room after everyone has fallen asleep," she said.

After Harry had finished eating a little breakfast they hurried to Potions class. Once there Harry noticed that Casey wasn't there either.

"Well where is she? How come whenever I am looking for her she always disappears?" thought Harry to himself, getting annoyed.

A minute later Snape walked in and quickly started the lesson.

"Write down the notes on the bored, then pair up and get started," he demanded.

Just as Harry started writing down the instructions, when Snape called him.

"Mr. Potter, come here for a moment please."

"Yes sir?' he asked.

"I have a different potion for you to brew, Mr. Potter. Here is the list of ingredients and instructions." said Snape as he whipped out a piece of parchment and handed it to him.

Harry's eyes widened as he saw what the potion was; it was the Cormintis potion. It was a temporary dark magic blocker. It was also a potion well beyond the Ordinary Wizarding Level.

"Sir? This is a NEWT level potion." Harry said.

Snape glared at him, hissed ,"You don't fool me Potter. The material that we are covering you already know. How someone like you could learn all this I don't know, but the matter is you are adequate at brewing and I need your talents. Now get moving."

"Yes sir."

Harry quickly gathered his ingredients and got started. As he was chopping he happened to glance at Snape and noticed that he was brewing a potion too. From where he was standing he couldn't tell what kind it was, but it must have been urgent if he was brewing and teaching a first year class at the same time.

Once the class had ended he told Hermione he would meet her outside the Defence room after he had finished cleaning up.

After Harry had finished cleaning, he saw Snape just finishing his potion. At closer look, Harry recognised it and just managed to stop himself from gasping. This potion was of Snape's own invention,. It was called the Morriodis potion; it had the uncanny ability to increase the power of the drinker's magic by a factor of ten, for a short time. However as far as Harry knew, the potion had a pesky side effect. It caused the drinker to lapse into a coma because of the overexertion of magic at one time. The risky part was there was a 50 chance of the drinker waking up again or staying in the coma forever.

As much as he wanted to, Harry couldn't ask who it was for and why they were using it, because according to any potions book this potion didn't exist. In his old time line Snape would go public with his potion 7 years after it had been made. If he had his math right, this Snape would make this potion public in another 6 years.

"I don't recognise that potion," Harry said, hoping Snape would give him more information as to why he was brewing it.

Snape was quiet for a moment, then he answered.

"Indeed, it would be a surprise to me if you did recognize it Mr. Potter, as it isn't in any potions book in existence"

"You invented it then? What does it do?" Harry asked.

"That is none of your concern, Potter. Now if you are quite finished cleaning up, get out." Snape commanded obviously getting annoyed with how many questions he was asking.

'Yes, sir, but if I may, could I ask one last thing?" asked Harry.

Snape nearly growled but said, "Just one, and I may or may not answer it"

"Fair enough, Will Draco be alright, sir?"

Snape froze and then looked at Harry. "We are not sure yet….. you may leave now, Mr. Potter" then he turned around.

By the end of the day Harry was exhausted and he had a splitting headache. His scar wouldn't stop burning, no matter how much he tried to block his mind from intrusion.

He still had a few hours before nightfall, so he decided to take a walk before trying to explain things to Hermione.

As he wandered around the mysterious castle he allowed his mind to wander as well about everything that had happened since he used the spell to send his soul back through time. Who would have thought that doing things a little differently would change things so much?

He was pushed out of his reverie when he nearly walked into the hospital wing door.

"Hmm, Draco is in here. Maybe I can confirm what is wrong with him." whispered Harry as he pushed the door open.

When Harry walked into the hospital wing he saw Draco sitting up on his bed looking at his arm.

Then he heard Harry enter the room.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" he asked as he pulled his sleeve back down.

"I need a favour," Harry replied.

Draco eyed him critically. "What kind of favour would that be, Potter?"

"I need to run a magical trace on the magic that is in the mark on your arm," said Harry bluntly.

Draco looked at him again. "Why" he asked.

"Because I want to find out who made it," said Harry.

Draco looked at him as if he had a tulip growing out of his head. "Who made it? Is that all you want? Well I can tell you who made it! The Dark Lord, that is who! Any idiot would know that." he yelled.

Harry shook his head. "No, that isn't what I meant. I have no doubt that Voldemort had a hand in making this, but I think he had help. Don't you see it looks different? Instead of the snake, it is a trail of blood. His magic has been changed because of his new host and as far as I know you are the only person to actually receive this mark. Older marks transformed into the new one, but this one is the original with fresh magic. Pleas, as an heir to the Potter family, I ask for you to let me do this one thing."

Draco sighed. "Fine, get it over with," he said as he stuck out his arm.

As Harry placed his hand on the mark and gently started to probe the mark with his magic, he soon found out why the magic that radiated from it had tried to eat Draco's magic.

"It's Demonic," he said.

"What you talking about, Potter?" asked Draco.

"The magic that this mark is made up of is demonic. That is why your magic rejected it so quickly; the demonic magic was trying to replace your wizarding magic with itself. Malfoy, do you remember anything about who gave you this? Or any thing about what happened that morning?"

Draco, if it were possible, started to look nervous, but then he seemed to realize it and like any good Slytherin he quickly wiped the emotion away.

"There was nothing special except for the fact my fath….."

Draco stopped and placed his hand over his mouth as if to stop himself from saying anything more.

"Your what? Do you mean your father? What about him?" Harry asked, his detective mode kicking in.

Draco glared at him and then his eyes drifted to the mark on his arm.

Harry quickly put the two together.

"He made you get it, didn't he?" he asked.

Draco didn't say anything, he just continued to glare at the evil skull on his forearm.

Harry sighed and shook his head. Draco's magic would be tainted from now on and he would he much more vulnerable to dark magic addiction.

Right when Harry was about to leave, thinking he had got all he could out of Draco, Draco suddenly said something.

"All I remember after going in to the chamber is seeing red eyes. The next thing I knew I was back at Hogwarts."

Harry nodded his head.

"Thank you, Draco," he said and he turned to leave.

Then he felt something, a cold feeling, coming from somewhere and it was calling out to him. He felt drawn to a dark corner in the hospital wing that was covered in shadow.

He walked over to the corner and moved his hand over the shadow, stretching his magic out with it at the same time. Then his hand went right through the shadow, and even through the wall.

"Huh? What is…?". then he heard something. It was a small whine or a cry and it was coming through the shadow.

Harry looked over his shoulder and saw that Draco had fallen asleep, so he stared straight ahead at the shadow and walked in. What he saw in front of him made nearly gasp.

"Casey?"

She was floating on she back in mid air, and she was unconscious.

Harry walked over to her and touched her face. She was freezing cold and Harry could faintly see her magic leaving her.

"She is dying…" a voice said from within the shadows.

Harry immediately shot back up and stood in front of Casey.

"What? Who are you? What did you do to her?" yelled Harry to darkness around him.

"Hmmm.. Who am I? Well that is a good question, but I am afraid I can not tell you that answer yet although you may call me Rose, and as for what I did to her, well lets just say it I doesn't quite matter any more she will be dead in a matter of hours" said the oddly familiar female voice.

"Not if I can help it" said Harry as quickly placed his hand over Casey's forehead and spread his magic through out her body.

Casey's body started to glow a golden colour and the magic draining from her halted.

The voice growled in annoyance. "Placing her in a magic coma will only prolong the inevitable."

Then the source of the voice appeared before them in a long cloak.

Harry pulled his wand out shouted a spell.

"Stupefy!"

The spell hit the figure right in the chest but it didn't effect her. Instead the spell backfired and quickly made its way towards Harry.

"What the!?" was all Harry could say before his own spell knocked him unconscious.

The figure in black walked over to him and knelt down.

Light from the void opening illuminated a part of her face. Long red hair fell out from underneath the hood, and lifeless green eyes gazed at the fallen form of the boy before her.

"Very interesting…. You wouldn't happen to know why that happened would you Lily? No I didn't think so…" said Rose.

"Oh, stop your crying already. I am under no orders to harm your son, well, at least not yet." said Rose with a evil chuckle.

Rose slinked over to Casey's sleeping form and tried to touch her, but her hand was zapped away by the protective magic surrounding her.

"Hmm, your son is awfully annoying, Lily. Not only did he stop the magic drain, but he also put a powerful shield up. Huh? Hold on a minute, this shield is unlike anything we have ever seen. At the very least it isn't in any text book I have ever read. So where could he have learned this kind of shield from?"

Rose glance back at Harry again, who seemed to be waking up.

"I think it is best to keep a close watch on him, even more now. It seems there is more to your son that meets the eye, Lily." said Rose as she faded back into shadows moments before Harry awoke.

(AN: Just so no one is confused about Rose I will explain. When Cassandra bit Lily she wasn't turned into a vampire as it may have appeared. Cassandra used her stronger demonic magic and it created an evil Lily from the inside. Rose is in complete control of Lily's body and mind, although the real Lily is still there. That is why Rose can still talk to her. Because of Cassandra's bite, Rose also has a few new powers as well. Lily can see and hear anything that Rose does, she just has no control in anything that Rose intends to do. Anyway, from now on, when I speak about Lily I will call her Rose )

Once Harry woke up, he quickly floated Casey out of the shadowy void and made his way to the room of requirement. The spell he had placed her under would keep her stable for a few more days. After that whatever this Rose person had done to her would resume its deadly effect.

After he was sure Casey was safe in the room of requirement, he made his way back to Gryffindor tower to meet up with Hermione.

On the walk back he decided to tell her everything: Who he thought Voldemort's new host was, everything that had happened that day with Draco and his Scar bleeding, and about the encounter he just had with Rose. Who ever she was, she had a strong resistance to wand magic.

"There you are. You're late." said Hermione as he finally walked into the common room.

"Sorry, I kind of got delayed," whisper Harry.

"What happened?" asked Hermione, immediate concern written on her face.

Harry started from the beginning and told her about Casey and her sister Cassandra's situation and who they really were. He told her about his nightmares and their painful effect. He also told her about elven magic in his blood passed down from his mother and about the similar magic that was constantly being emitted from Kiara and Amara.

Basically he told her everything that he had discovered over the last month at Hogwarts.

"So you think that Casey's twin sister, Cassandra, is Voldemort's new host?" asked Hermione.

"Yes" answered Harry.

"Well it makes sense. With the demon magic that is in the core of the new dark mark, the only other person it could be is Casey herself. But from what you have said about her it seems she never wanted to do any of this, anyway. You said they asked her to die to complete this mission of theirs? That is just awful!" exclaimed Hermione.

"I know, Hermione. I will need your help in figuring out who this Rose woman is, and what she had done to Casey. The spell I placed over her will only last a couple days, and then her life magic will leave her again."

"Life magic? What is that?" asked Hermione.

"It is a very strong form of magic that is inside all of us. Even muggles have it. We only have a limited amount inside us. Once it is used up there is no going back and the person dies. That was what was happening when I saw Casey in that shadow cave thing." said Harry.

"Did you see what she looked like?" asked Hermione.

Harry shook his head.

"No. I tried to stun her when she first appeared, but for some reason when my spell hit her it just rebounded off her and hit me instead. I was knocked out for a few minutes. When I came to, she had already left." said Harry with a shrug.

"She sounded familiar though, like I heard that voice before, but not in that tone. You know what I mean?" Harry asked.

Hermione smiled. "Yes, I think I do. You may have heard that voice before. but not in the evil dark context that you heard tonight." she said.

Harry nodded, " That's it exactly. I just can't put my finger on where I have heard it before. It sounds alien but yet familiar."

"So, what are you planning on doing next, Harry? I mean, this is really big, bigger than we originally thought." said Hermione.

"I know. I think first we should figure out how to break that spell on Casey. She might be the only person able to get to her sister." said Harry.

"Agreed. And I think I may know how to do it." said Hermione.

…...

An hour later Harry, and Hermione were standing in the third floor corridor.

'Hermione you are a genius! How did you ever figure out the Philosopher's Stone was down here?" asked Harry truly shocked.

Hermione blushed at the praise and how she found out the knowledge.

"Well, I found out quite by accident really. I over heard Ron and Malfoy fighting in the great hall. Apparently Malfoy insulted Gryffindor, and the Weasley bravery and Ron challenged his insult and told him all Slytherins were cowards."

"I would like to protest to that" Harry mumbled.

"In the end they both ended up daring each other to go to the Third floor corridor and see who could get the furthest inside," Hermione continued. "I decided both of them were being stupid, so I followed them and tried to convince them otherwise, but they didn't listen to me and the moment we set foot in the corridor Filch's cat spotted us. Malfoy was able to run out of the corridor before Filch also arrived, but Ron and I were stuck. We had no choice but to run further into the corridor and hide in an old room. Unfortunately the room we hid in had a three-headed dog in it! In our rush to get out, I tripped over an old enchanted harp.

"For some reason, the harp started playing on its own and the dog fell asleep. Just as we were about to leave I saw a trap door beside the dog's paw. Since the dog was asleep, I opened it to see what was inside. All I saw was blackness, but it was enough to spark my interest. Ron had been too freaked out and didn't care about it, so I had to research it all on my own. I had no luck, there was nothing in Hogwarts books that would tell me what could be underneath the trap door. Until I heard Hagrid the Gamekeeper talking to Professor Dumbledore about deal he got on his three headed dog and how it was perfect for guarding the stone.

"It only took me a little while of digging to find one of the only stones worth protecting to such an extent, the Philosopher's Stone. I read a little bit on it. It can turn any matter into pure gold and creates the elixir of life, which is some thing we could use to wake Casey up with." explained Hermione.

Harry stared at her, with a dumbfounded expression.

After every thing he had changed, she and Ron still managed to find Fluffy. Even Hagrid had given Hermione the answer again through his blabbing.

"Some things never change" he thought.

"That is excellent work, Hermione. You are a genius."

Hermione blushed again. " I..it was nothing."

"Umm.. We should go down to get it sometime if we use it on Casey." said Harry.

Hermione looked at him in surprise, "What? You mean we are going down there alone to go and get it? Shouldn't we ask for help?" she asked.

Harry raised an eye brow. "From who, Hermione? Dumbledore won't let us have it, especially with what has happened to Casey, which reminds me, he may get worried and wonder why she has disappeared. Oh, well we will worry about that later. But my questions still remains, who can we ask for help who won't go and tell everyone in Hogwarts we are looking for a way to get it." he said.

Hermione looked unsure 'I don't know. I just don't think it is a good idea to barge inside that trap door, alone when we have no idea what to expect." she said.

Harry continued to think until an idea stuck him. "I think I know someone who could help us. Hold on, I need to write a letter." he said and ran over to a table and pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill. He whispered a spell on it and began writing.

Hermione glanced over at the paper to see who Harry was writing to. She only saw the name before it seemed to vanish.

"You enchanted the ink to only be visible to the person you are sending it to," she said.

Harry nodded.

"Harry, you are a genius. Do you think he can help us?" she asked.

"Of course I think he will help us, Hermione. After all, it is his stone. I doubt Dumbledore actually told him what happened to the stone anyway." said Harry as he folded his letter up and walked to the stairs to his dorm.

"Hey, Hedwig, I have a highly secret letter for you to deliver. Be sure to keep out of plan sight. I don't want Dumbledore getting curious."

"Who…" said Hedwig as she soared out the window.

Many, many miles away in the middle of a huge forest was a large mansion with one window alight. That was where Hedwig flew and perched on an opened window sill. Inside was a man who appeared to be in his mid 30s. He had dark brown hair and was wearing dark red robes.

"Who….." voiced Hedwig to get the wizard's attention. The man turned his head in surprise apparently not expecting any mail at that hour.

"Hmmm, you don't look familiar. Are you lost?" the man asked.

Hedwig gave him a look as if to say, "Are you kidding? I NEVER get lost." and then stuck her leg out at him.

"Who!" she said again, but more forcefully this time.

The man laughed. "Alright, I am sorry if I offended you. Why don't you have a drink before you go again, hmm?" he said as he removed the letter from around her leg.

Hedwig ignored him. She flew over to the water bowl took a drink of water and one of the owl treats beside it and the flew back out the window again without another glance back.

The man shook his head. " I'd hate to be the one who really ticks that bird off," he muttered as he unfolded the letter.

He began reading,

"Dear Mr Nicolas Flamel,

My name is Harry Potter. You may mot know me , but I am a student a Hogwarts and I have reason to believe your stone is being held here. Whether that fact was known to you previously I don't know, but I have a favour to ask of you. If you could help us get your stone back I need it to help save a friend of mine.

I will await your reply.

Your ally,

Harry James Potter.

Nicolas' s mouth was hanging opened by the time he finished reading.

"What the bloody hell does a student need with my stone? Wait Harry Potter? Didn't I hear Albus talking about him, chosen one of a rubbish prophesy or something like that?" said Nicolas to himself as he continued to look at the letter. Something about this boy intrigued him. He could feel that this boy had a huge destiny before him.

He thought for a few minutes and decided he wanted to meet with the young man first, and they could go from there. So he mailed a reply back to set a place and a time they would meet.

A large golden eagle few to Hogwarts that night, right to the dormitory window of Harry Potter. Unfortunately, a certain pair of red eyes saw through the shadows of the castle and recognised to large bird and it eyes narrowed…..