Memory Lane

Chapter 41

My arm sears hot, a bolt of fire up from my wrist to my shoulder and I hiss in surprise. Granger spins around and whatever she sees on my face isn't reassuring.

She ducks us behind another sculpted hedge and grabs for my arm. In the darkness, she leans close to see it. "Your arm is burning up," she murmurs. "The Mark is writhing on your skin."

"It's getting better," I tell her, and it is. But the burn is being replaced by a numbness I don't care for, a tingling in my fingers and palm. I don't use a wand left-handed but it's distracting. I don't want it to affect my focus.

Granger doesn't believe me, anyway. There's another crack of Apparition nearby, then a second, but she grips my arm when I try to move back and check our surroundings.

"I don't like this. Your arm is scalding hot but pale, like it's bloodless. Can you feel this?" She taps her fingers on mine and I shake my head. She shakes my hand lightly back and forth and looks at me questioningly. Nothing but vague tingles.

She drops my arm and starts rummaging around in her bag, the tiny one with the extension charm on it. This surprises me so much I forget about the Apparating arrivals. "What are you doing?"

"I think it's killing your arm. Refusing the call, I mean. I think the Mark is going to kill off the flesh. It'll be left useless, just hanging there. Eventually you'd have to amputate it or risk gangrene." She yanks out a tube of alba pellis. "Did you ever try this on your Mark?"

"I was afraid to. What if he could tell I was tampering with it somehow?"

"Well, if he doesn't know you're betraying him by now, he will soon. You haven't answered the summons. I don't think it'll be any worse to try it now." She squeezes some lotion onto her fingers and smacks it down on the upper swirl of the Mark, rubbing it in violently.

The pain is instantaneous and I choke back a scream. I still make a fair bit of noise, too much for staying hidden in the dark, and Granger silences me at once. This helps, since I don't have to fight the urge to scream, and she slathers on more.

I can't even tell what it's doing, visually. I hear more cracks of Apparition and know the fight is about to truly begin. That's why we're here, not this, and I try to get her attention.

She glances up with irritation on her face, and rapidly casts a series of spells. Disillusionment, another shield charm, muffliato. "Just a second. Let me work."

More lotion on my arm and the pain is incredible. Is this same thing happening to my father? To Severus?

But my father might have answered the call. No, he wouldn't have. Not anymore. He's cast his lot - he wouldn't have sent me here if he thought the Dark Lord was going to survive this. He definitely wouldn't come knowing I'd be fighting for the other side. And what about Severus? They both have access to more alba pellis, but will they even think to try it?

"Is it doing anything?" I cough out, forgetting she can't hear me through my excruciating pain. I try to remain still as she squirts out another huge dollop, rubbing it into my skin furiously with both thumbs. Fucking hell, this hurts.

Granger starts pushing the heel of her palm into my skin, twisting it, grinding the lotion in and I see black spots in front of my vision.

I sit down heavily on the pebbled path, small round rocks digging in beneath me. The only possible ray of light here is that she wouldn't still be doing it if she couldn't see it making a difference.

And if anything, this hurts worse than when I had the bloody thing tattooed on, so maybe that's a good thing now. Maybe that's what it takes to restore the skin cells. It hurts too badly for me to tell if the tingling is still there.