58 Chapter 58: Repercussions - part 1

Seconds after Tom, the snake, was launched through the veil of death by Unspeakable Croaker, diverse reactions were happening throughout Europe. These are the recounting of some of the occurrences.

Hogwarts Castle, Somewhere in the Scottish Highlands

December 19th, 1992, 03:25 PM - Sunday

Professor Severus Snape was happily brewing some potions in his laboratory in the dungeons of the castle of Hogwarts. Happy because he had no classes to teach until the start of the new semester and because he could be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts classes in the next year. That he would not have to teach the first years was just a bonus to the man. His colleagues and students thought that he didn't like to teach because of his behavior in classes, but they were mistaken about it. At least partially mistaken. Severus Snape didn't like to teach newbs about potions. That was one of the reasons why his requisite to NEWT classes were so high, that being at least an 'O' in the Potions OWLs. Well, that, and the fact that he didn't like to teach Potions. He couldn't think why he had this problem about teaching Potions when he had no problems teaching Defense.

Severus Snape was cutting a new batch of ingredients needed for the potion that was simmering at the side when he felt it. His left forearm started to burn. It first started as just a small itch, but soon it escalated quickly and now he was feeling like his forearm was burning. Severus Snape quickly let go of the silver knife that he had in hands and pulled up the sleeve of his robes from his left arm. He then saw that the irritation origin was his dark mark. Severus Snape saw that the dark mark, or better, the slave mark in his forearm was fading, and while doing that, it was trying to absorb his magical energy to avoid it. The Professor then closed his eyes for a moment to think what he could do about it and then he opened his eyes again with a new resolve and fire showing in them. Severus Snape concentrated on his mental training in Occlumency and cleared his mind. He then started to regulate his magical energy, to trap it from his left arm, to let only the bare minimum of it flow naturally to it.

Then he watched. He watched the slave mark as the burning sensation diminished until it stoppped completely, and then, something that he could only call as a miracle happened. The slave mark started to fade. Its coloration, which was already light, started to fade even more. And it didn't stop. It continued fading until it disappeared completely.

Severus Snape remembered the talk that he had with Erik inside Gryffindor's Common Room, then he got happy. Happier than he ever remembered being. The Dark Lord was finally dead, and he was a free man again. After his 'euphoric' state subsided a little, he closed his eyes and meditated on his magic. The dark man noticed that his reserves of magic energy were a quarter down. The slave mark had sucked this quarter of his reserves of magical energy to give it to its master to fight, but it was a futile attempt. In the end, the mark disappeared completely, meaning that the Dark Lord was truly dead.

Severus Snape then fixed his sleeve and went back to his Potion. But he had a good idea of what he would be doing tonight: he would get wasted partying.

Malfoy Manor, Somewhere in Wiltshire - England

December 19th, 1992, 03:25 PM - Sunday

Lucius Malfoy was currently in his office. He was reading through letters from his various businesses and comparing values with the ones in his books when he felt his left forearm starting to itch. Lucius Malfoy absentmindedly scratched his forearm and continued to read the letters. He continued to scratch his forearm until the sensation changed to one of burning that he could not ignore anymore. Lucius Malfoy lifted his left sleeve to look better at his forearm and saw what was the origin of it. His Dark Mark. He had felt something resembling this before. It was eleven years ago, during Halloween's night, when the Dark Lord had lost.

The burning sensation intensified, and he couldn't resist the pain anymore and he started to yell. He kept yelling for a good ten seconds before the pain stopped completely. Lucius then sat right again in his chair, gasping for air. He then looked at his arm again, just to see that the Dark Mark was no more. Lucius Malfoy just stood there, looking at his arm absentmindedly. And it was in this way that his wife, Narcisa Malfoy, found him.

"Lucius, what happened? An elf came to me saying that you were yelling in your office."

The elegant woman said to her husband. Lucius Malfoy didn't hear what his wife had said, and continued to look absentmindedly at his arm. Narcisa Malfoy, seeing that her husband didn't hear her, called him loudly.

"Lucius!?"

That seemed to do the job, and shook him out of his state. The man looked up and saw his wife looking at him with a face full of concern.

"Yes, Narcisa?"

He asked his wife.

"Lucius, what happened? An elf came to me saying that you were yelling in your office."

Narcisa asked again, repeating her question. The man looked at her and then looked back at his arm.

"My arm. It first started to itch. Then it got worse and it seemed that it was burning. When I looked for the origin of it, I saw that it was my Dark Mark. Then the pain got worse. And then… And then it stopped. When I got my head back in place and looked at the mark again, it was gone. Look."

He then showed his arm to his wife. Narcisa saw that there was some red skin around where the mark used to be, but taking this out, his arm was normal. No signal of ever housing the Dark Mark.

"It's completely gone."

Lucius Malfoy repeated to his wife.

"I can see that, Lucius. But the real question is: What does it mean now?"

Narcisa said to her husband. Lucius Malfoy then looked back to her while thinking of her question.

"The Dark Mark got lighter for the first time in color on that night of Halloween. The night that the Dark Lord died. That same night, I felt something like today, but it was much more light in comparison."

Lucius Marlfoy said to Narcisa Malfoy. The elegant women frowned while thinking about the possibilities of this.

"I think you should talk to Severus about this. He is in a much better position to discuss this with you than I am."

Narcisa Malfoy said to her husband, who nodded with his head back in agreement.

"He will be coming here for Yule's dinner. We will talk about it then."

Durmstrang, Somewhere in the far north of Europe

December 19th, 1992, 03:25 PM - Sunday

Headmaster Igor Karkaroff was alone inside his office in the Durmstrang Castle. He was writing down some notes about what happened during the school's first semester when he felt his arm starting to itch. He, at first, didn't give it much attention and continued to write down his notes. But the itching got worse. He rested his quill aside and lifted his left sleeve to see if there was something happening to his arm. As he lifted the sleeve, he saw his Dark Mark, and the itching evolved to pain. The man gritted his teeth at first, trying to resist the pain, but then, it got worse. Igor Karkaroff started to yell in his office. He kicked his chair back in the middle of the pain and tumbled to the floor. And then, the pain stopped. Igor Karkaroff stood there, on the floor, recovering his breath. He then slowly got up and back to his chair. Igor Karkaroff then looked at his Dark Mark, but he didn't find it. His arm was empty of it. No Dark Mark whatsoever. He then frowned.

'What does it mean tho?'

Local Unknown, a National Park in east Europe

December 19th, 1992, 03:20 PM (England Time)

Fenrir Greyback was having some fun. He was baiting some Aurors to a predetermined place where he had laid a trap with his seconds in command, a couple of werewolves that were as feral as him while in human form. The baited Aurors were a squad that earlier that month had captured and killed a small squad of his pack that went hunting muggles during the full moon. When the Aurors were in position, the trap was sprung. Fenrir Greyback suddenly turned back and started to attack his pursuers, at the same time that his seconds in command jumped out of their hiding place and started to attack the Aurors.

The trap was a success. Two Aurors that were in the back were the first ones to fall on the ground. Then, one that was in the front of the group fell for Fenrir Greyback's sudden attack. After that, the fight stabilized in a three versus three fashion. The battle continued for a couple of minutes with it not looking good for the Aurors, when Fenrir Greyback got distracted with something. The Auror that was fighting him noticed that and capitalized on it. He was gaining some advantage in the battle against the most wanted werewolf when his enemy dropped on the ground and started to howl in pain while holding his left arm. The auror didn't want to know what caused the werewolf to start to howl in pain, but he, again, did capitalize on it and conjured a bunch of silver arrows and banished them to the downed werewolf. Most of his silver arrows hit their mark, one of them managed to hit the werewolf in the eye, killing him instantly.

Fenrir Greyback's seconds in command too got distracted by their alpha's howls of pain, allowing the aurors to gain terrain over them. Soon, the 'free' auror joined one of his companions and the situation got worse for the werewolves that were now in a three versus two battle. At a disadvantage, one of the werewolves soon fell to the wand of the Aurors, and blinded by the rage of losing its mate, the remaining werewolf redoubled his efforts, but it was in vain. He too fell for the Aurors wands.

As the Aurors recovered and confirmed the death of the three werewolves, they got to help their downed colleagues. Fortunately, they were not dead, yet, and the trio managed to stabilize and wake them up to rush to the nearest hospital after bagging the three werewolves bodies and sending them to their department's morgue.

At the emergency room of the hospital, with their hurt colleagues already being treated, two of the Aurors turned to the one that had saved their lives by taking care of Fenrir Greyback.

"Hey man, you saved our hides there."

"Yeah, great job at downing Greyback."

The two said to the one that had downed the most dangerous werewolf.

"Thanks, but I don't think that I deserve all that."

The man said back to his colleagues, who thought that the man was being humble.

"There's no need to be humble."

"Yeah, you did a good job out there."

The two replied to their colleague.

"I wish I was being humble, guys. But I'm not. In the middle of the fight, Greyback suddenly started to howl in pain and fell to the ground. I just didn't let the chance pass and killed him. And I am very sure that he was howling not because of anything that had hit him, because until that time, he had managed to dodge or defend from anything that I casted at him."

The Auror explained to his two colleagues, who were looking at the man with raised eyebrows.

"That's strange. For someone, even more Greyback, to start to howl in pain without any cause."

"Yeah, sure it is. But I'm glad that it happened. Or we would all be coming back home in black bags. Or worse, we could have been turned into werewolves."

"Dude, it could have been even worse. There is a rumor going that Greyback and his seconds were cannibals. We could have been turned into werewolves' shit."

"Well, that doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that we all got back home in one piece."

"Yeah. Let's go to the tavern and get wasted!"

"Dude, we still have to work today…"

*groan*

"Okay, but we are getting wasted after work is done, agreed?"

""Agreed!""

All three Aurors agreed to that, and went back to work. They had some reports to make.

-------------