Despite Harry's apparent disinterest in the conversation, Kenai pressed forward. He knew about the mark, and knew something of the night before because he'd seen his father bringing Harry back to their quarters late the night before and had come in to see what was going on. When their father had put Harry to bed (temporarily) in Kenai's bed, his father had told him, "It hasn't been a good night for him. The mark is having more of an effect on him than I thought."

Swallowing hard remembering the conversation that had followed Harry being put to bed about how the fledgling brand worked to weed out the unwanted apprentices of the Dark Lord, Kenai looked up at his brother, who stared resolutely into his soggy cereal.

"Harry." His voice was quite soft, but it got Harry's attention, and he looked up, eyes emotionless. "Let's get rid of Umbridge."

"How?" Harry asked. He hated the woman perhaps more than any other student there, but if the peeing candy hadn't worked, who knew what would. Aside from Umbridge, Harry was sure Kenai knew at least some of what had happened last night, and wondered how he could think of Umbridge at a time like this. Harry had been getting flashes of emotion and thought from his scar and was sure that Voldemort would call him any day now. The pressure was falling heavy on his shoulders, and he didn't want it. What if their plan didn't work and Voldemort killed him anyway? Then Kenai would be the orphan, and Ginny would be lost from him forever, or he would be lost from her.

"You've got the mark. Use it."

Harry frowned. This was the first time Kenai had spoken to him about the mark.

"What do you mean?"

"Show it to her. Let her know the Dark Lord is back and that you obey him now."

"But I don't obey him, and the less that know about it the better."

Kenai waived his wand then and a black Muggle marker appeared in his hand. "We'll all have one, and then when she runs to the Ministry spouting off about how he's back and they come to check, no one will have the mark, and she'll get canned."

"Smart, except when she looks at mine which doesn't disappear."

Kenai waved the marker and Harry saw that it had two ends. "One end draws, one end hides for quick fixes. Some of the Slytherins have tattoos of the house crest and hide it when they go home. Others just want something temporary and use this to make one like the real ones.

"You have a tattoo?"

Kenai shot him a look. "Don't lecture me about tattoos, and no. Dad knows what they do and he frequently checks when he thinks I'm sleeping. I don't want my butt handed to me."

Harry crossed his arms and sighed. "How can you think about Umbridge at a time like this?"

"Are you going to die?"

Raising his eyes to meet Kenai's again, Harry was aware that the serious question still hung there between them. He didn't want to answer, because he didn't want Kenai to feel the same pressure he was feeling now, but Kenai wasn't moving until he heard something.

"Probably, yes."

"Then stop and look at what Umbridge is doing to us now. You dying isn't going to prove her wrong about Voldemort being back, and she'll continue on making things terrible for us. If you won't do it for yourself, do it for Ginny and your other friends. Ron and Hermione have two more years here and Ginny has three. Can you imagine going through three more years with Toady?"

"So you're saying I'm going to die anyway so why not take care of Umbridge with no fear?"

"She'll be the one fearing us." Kenai sounded so certain.

"Show me the marker," Harry said, and Kenai pulled it out and made a straight line across the center of the disgusting mark on his arm. The ink disappeared, although Harry could still feel that the mark writhed there.

"When you want it to reappear just tap it with your wand and say, "Come back."

"I don't want it to come back," Harry said, but knew he'd have no choice when he was summoned.

"Are we really going to do this?"

Kenai stood up and said, "Let me get Draco. He's the artist and he'll have to draw them. You rally some others to get the mark so we can really give her a good scare."

Harry sighed and nodded. He wasn't sure if any of his friends would help. Draco possibly, but in reality the mark was no joking matter. As he made his way up through the castle however, and happened by Umbridge's office, where he heard a scream coming from inside from a blood quill detention, he was determined, and hurried to find Ron and Hermione.

* * *

This would be an all male endeavor it turned out. Hermione wanted nothing to do with it, and Harry and Ron wanted Ginny to stay out of it. The twins and Ron were in though, and so were Draco, and one of his sixth year Ravenclaw friends named Devon. All together that made seven of them, an appropriate size for a circle around Umbridge.

"How's this going down?" Devon asked as Draco drew the tattoo on him in an unused classroom down the hall from Umbridge's office where a student still sat in detention.

"I'll do the talking," Harry said, seeing as how he was the one with nothing to lose. "Follow my lead and look menacing. Cross your arms and keep your wands out. Stand real close to her. It's all business from here out."

Draco nodded as he put the final stroke on Devon's tattoo. They compared to Harry's (whose was also fake as far as Devon was concerned), and were satisfied that they were all nearly the same.

"What's plan B if this doesn't work?" Ron asked, still a little uncertain despite what Fred had reported back to them the night before about Harry.

"Don't back down. There is no plan B," Harry said seriously, and with that he opened the classroom door, and together they marched down the hall with purpose to Umbridge's office.

Without knocking and waiting to be invited inside, Harry pushed open the door and allowed the group of fake henchmen to file in.

"What is the meaning of this Mr. Potter? I demand an answer now!"

Harry ignored her and looked to find the first year Slytherin student that sat crying at the desk with the blood quill.

"You're free to go," Harry said through gritted teeth. "Go to the Hospital Wing to get that looked at."

The student didn't hesitate and ran from the room, eager to get away from the evil woman.

"Mr. Potter, you have no right!" Umbridge said, standing now, but Harry turned on her with a glare his father would have been proud of.

"Oh, I think you'll find I have every right to do as I please," he said, and pulled up his sleeve for her to see the inky black mark writhing on his arm.

"That's not possible," she said, trying to sound certain but failing.

Harry snapped his fingers and knew that behind him six other men were yanking up their sleeves and then crossing their arms. Draco and Kenai laughed for good measure, having had experience with how real Death Eaters acted.

"Now you have once choice," Harry deadpanned. "Your tactics have caught the Dark Lord's attention and he requires your presence for initiation tonight. You can go, or you can choose to stay and see what happens."

"This is not a funny joke Mr. Potter, and I will have no more of it. You are all going to be serving detention for the rest of the year! And you Mr. Trent, I'm disappointed in you for joining in on this."

Harry turned to Devon who let out a low growl and brandished his wand threateningly at the woman, who stood back.

"I do expect there will be some punishment before the initiation," Harry went on, "what with the way you denied him for so long. And heaven help you if you have even a drop of Muggle blood running through your veins, because the Master will burn it right out of you before you can bear the mark."

"You- you have Muggle blood," she faltered, and Harry turned and lifted the back of his shirt showing where the curse had burned him the first time he'd been captured that year. There was still some scarring that they'd been trying to get rid of, but removing cursed scars was a slow process with the essence of murtlap.

"I- I- I-" she backed all the way up against her wall and Harry laughed as he allowed the other six to move in closer to her, Draco still chuckling eerily.

"They're fake, they're not real... the marks, they're just ink." To be certain she aimed her wand at Harry's marked arm and threw a spell at it that made Harry's arm feel like it was on fire, but the mark remained where it was and Umbridge let out a shrill scream before sending a spell at them that knocked them over like bowling balls. In the next moment she was gone, running right over Fred and Kenai, uncaring of whose face she stepped on to escape. They could hear her screaming all the way down through the castle in the distance.

"Reckon we'd better get these off before the auror's show up," George said, and Draco withdrew the pen and started scribbling fiercely over his fake mark and then over the others.

"Now yours Harry," Ron said, but Harry was gripping his arm tightly with his eyes shut tight in pain.

"Aren't we going to get out of here before they catch us?" Devon asked uncertainly, not noticing Harry's pain, and Draco waved him off. "Get Lucy to say you were with her the whole time. We've already got cover stories." Devon nodded and then was gone, racing down the halls towards Ravenclaw tower and his girlfriend.

"Harry?" They turned their attention back to their friend.

"I think when Umbridge hit my arm he knew, and thinks I'm trying to remove it." He withdrew his hand and the mark was more black than ever, writhing and hissing. Without warning Draco grabbed his wrist and said, "Go to your dad, now! He's summoning you!"

Ron saw the panic flit across Harry's eyes then and Harry stood there uncertainly before Draco gave him a shove. If anyone knew the dangers of being a death eater, Draco did. Harry took off running, and was gone into the evening. How he had gotten there from that morning, eating a bowl of cereal and plotting with Kenai, he still wasn't quite sure, but the time had come, and the mark burned his arm the longer it disobeyed the summons.

The second Harry had burst into his father's office, Severus had taken hold of Harry's wrist and taken off at a run with him through the dungeons towards the secret exit out onto the grounds. "When we get there," Harry panted as they ran, "I have to tell him you tried to remove the mark."

"That was not part of the plan!" Severus said as they burst out onto the grounds by the greenhouses.

"But Umbridge tried to curse it off. I don't have time to explain. I think that's why he's calling now."

"Prepare yourself then, because we have no more time to get ready." Running into West Wood, which lay a lot closer than the Forbidden Forest at this point, Severus apparated them the second they had passed the school boundaries, and Harry found himself back on the same frosty space of land he had taken the mark on.

Heart pounding, Harry realized that they were still in a forest of some sort, but in a very wide clearing. There was a circle of death eaters around them and Voldemort waited in the middle of the ring, hands clasped before him.

"My, but what has kept you Severus?"

Harry wrenched his arm free from his father's and immediately fell to one knee in front of Voldemort, head bowed.

"My apologies Master, but he refused to bring me and I am not yet able to apparate. He was busy trying to curse the mark from my arm."

"Severus, is this so?"

Being unable to look at his father just now, Harry was sure his father was looking as nervous as Harry felt. This was it, and there was no going back now, not if Harry wanted to survive. He had gotten himself into this mess, but now his father would be the one to get him out, at any price.

"My Lord," he heard his father say before he fell to one knee beside Harry, "my apologies, but the boy is lying."

Heart jumping up into his throat, Harry wanted to squirm. That wasn't part of the plan! What was going on! Wasn't the whole point for Voldemort to believe Harry?

"We shall see," came Voldemort's cold words, and in the next second Severus was writhing on the ground in pain beside him, screaming out, and Harry knew Voldemort was in his mind, searching for the truth. In another moment, it was over, and Voldemort was chuckling. It sent chills down Harry's spine.

"My my, I see that you have kept much from me Severus. A Muggle wife, a half-blood son, spying done for the old codger that runs that school, and, trying to curse off the mark that is going to spare your son's life. What do you think your punishment should be?"

"Anything you see fit my lord. Please spare me," Severus voice was shaking, and Harry wondered how much damage Voldemort had done in his mind or if it was an act for Harry's sake.

"Oh but Severus, didn't you know? The choice no longer lies with me, but with your beloved son."

Harry looked to his left to see that a sword bearing a snake and three emerald rubies in the hilt was being handed to him by a masked death eater, and he stood to receive it.

Harry spit on the ground near his father and laughed as merciless a laugh as he could muster in front of the onlookers there, and said, "Some father you turned out to be. You will pay." And then before he could think of another plan, another way of escaping this mess he'd made, Harry drew the sword high up into the air with both hands and slammed it's sharp, deadly point down through the middle of his father's back.

Harry withdrew the sword swiftly and Severus fell over sideways, a shocked look in his eyes. He gurgled, and then his eyes closed and he moved no more.

Kneeling again before Voldemort and laying Slytherin's sword at the beast's feet, Harry bowed his head. "It is done my lord. Please spare me for the atrocities I have committed against you in the past."

"Give me your arm Harry Severus Potter. You have done well and I will reward you with entrance to the family you never had. Disobey me and you will suffer. Follow me, and you will be rewarded."

Harry raised his arm but also said timidly, "Thank you my lord. But if I may only have permission to kiss your hand first, then I will be fortunate in all my endeavors for your purpose and power." Harry knew the only way to win over this beast was to feed his ego, and asking to kiss his hand was the ultimate form of flattery. His father had told him to do it, and he would do it. There was no help from the man now but to continue on with the plan he had laid out for him.

"You honor me Harry Potter. You may do as you have asked." He held out his hand and Harry leaned forward take it in his own hand and kiss it, but instead of kissing it, something sharp on the inside of his hand caught Voldemort's skin and ripped it, allowing his black blood to spill out onto the ground.

"ARGH!" Voldemort screamed in rage and Harry jumped up as the man writhed in pain.

"What is this treachery?" Voldemort screamed as some of the masked death eaters came forward to help him. Beatrice Lestrange tore off her mask and fell at Voldemort's side as he fell to the ground in pain, clutching his injured member to himself.

"It's basilik venom my lord," Harry said. He flipped over his hand so that the man could see the point hanging off of the invisible ring that was around Harry's middle finger. "Actually that's not true," he added. "Because it's basilisk venom I've mixed in a doubling potion and added several other deadly poisons to. Fear not, it will be a swift death."

Voldemort began to gag then and fell to the frozen ground clutching his stomach. Within moments, he was dead, and Beatrice Lestrange was screaming in rage and horror over her master's body.

Those in the circle of masked men and women stood stunned at the death of their leader, but Harry stood straight and made a show of pushing Voldemort over with his foot.

"I have killed my own father before you. And now I have defeated Voldemort not once, but five times, this time once and for all. Bow down to your new Dark Lord, lest I destroy you all."
Uncertain, the death eaters looked at each other, but one by one their knees bent and they hit the ground around Harry.

Wand out now, Harry moved amongst them, tapping their wrists. As he did so their tattoo's changed from a snake and skull to a red Gryffin with wings.

"You want so badly after someone to follow, but I am not that man," he said when he was done, standing in the middle of the circle once more. "I have set you free from the reign of Voldemort, and you shall serve an evil master no more."

Confused, the death eaters looked down at their new marking and some of them cursed in outrage. Beatrix tried to throw a hex at Harry but found herself unable. When her wand had failed her she threw herself at him bodily, but at the last moment pulled herself back, unable to attack him physically either.

"You are free to do as you please," Harry informed her, "but not free to harm another living being in any way or fashion. I have done worse to you than imprison you in Azkaban, because I have taken away your livelihood. I doubt the aurors will see it that way however, so I suggest you move on and make a new life for yourselves... although your new lives will be forever on the run. That mark has branded your blood, and the aurors can track you wherever you go."

"Arrrrg!" One of the death eaters let out a scream of anger and then one by one they vanished into the night, beginning their run from Harry, and from the law. On the ground Beatrix screamed in agony and began to pull out her hair, but Harry's attention was instead drawn to Lucius Malfoy, who removed his mask and walked up to face him.

"You could have had the world in your hands," Lucius said calmly, in disbelief. "It was yours for the taking."

"I don't want the world," Harry said bitterly. "What right do I have to stake a claim on what isn't mine?"

"Watch your back Harry Potter... there are those of us who were unable to be here tonight... those of us without the brand that will still do the Dark Lord's bidding whilst he is gone."

Ignoring Lucius, Harry knelt down to his father and waved his wand over his wounds before tipping a vial of something blue into his mouth. "We'll be here... and we'll be ready."

Lucius frowned, but realized that he had been duped, along with the Dark Lord when Harry said, "Draught of living death. Slows bleeding and the heart rate." Severus sat up and coughed heavily before accepting a hand up from Harry. Harry touched the tip of his wand to his father's forearm, and the skull and snake disappeared entirely.

"Run Lucius," Severus said, leaning on Harry for support. "While my son is content to let you go, I am not." He brandished his wand, and Lucius turned on his heel and vanished into the night.

In the nearly empty clearing, Severus ignored Beatrix, still crying on the ground, and turned to Harry. "I never imagined my eldest son was so... Slytherin."

"Neither did Voldemort. Let's go home."