Marked

The Hurricane

"There," Selwyn had grunted first from behind his mask, gesturing down below. He was the first to spot the famously unkempt jet black hair as Potter exited the muggle house, slouching unhappily beside Mad-Eye Moody.

Crabbe Sr. had thrust an arm out, stopping him. "No," he barked, pointing a duplicate Potter that appeared next to a vaguely familiar man that Theo suddenly realized - unhappily, considering where their respective sides now placed him - was yet another of his former Defense Against the Dark Arts professors. Lupin, he recalled. "Look."

Realizing something was amiss, Theo had glanced nervously at Snape, narrowing his eyes when he caught the man's expression. Snape was certainly a man who betrayed little evidence of his true feelings - which, as a rule, made him exceedingly difficult to read. But Theo, being a person who regularly pushed others to their limits, and which he did masterfully with Severus Snape, knew the man's face when he was registering shock, or surprise - or even grim disappointment. This - his blank look of mild bemusement - was as false as any Theo had ever seen from him.

"There are six of them," Snape had remarked, his calculating eyes flicking from one form to the next as they spilled out of the house, his voice low over the sound of the scattered mutters between Death Eaters.

"Which is the real one?" Rabastan Lestrange had demanded, and they'd watched as the Order members began to take to the sky in pairs.

"Who cares," Bellatrix had cackled, her hands clasped in delight as they all brandished their wands. "Why not kill the lot of them, and ask questions later?"

"Bella," Snape had said warningly. "Calm yourself. You know he wants Potter brought to him alive."

Theo pursed his lips. Interesting that Snape was so quick to point this out.

The first in the air was a Weasley, the oldest, Theo had to assume, who was aboard one of the nightmare lizard horses. The Potter he was traveling with was clutching him tightly, a look of both fear and adoration on his face that mingled together in a way the real Potter's never would.

That wasn't him.

"Go!" Snape yelled to Crabbe, jabbing his wand hand to gesture in the direction of the first false Potter. "We'll have to split up."

Crabbe and Rabastan took off, quickly catching the beast that carried the order members, and sparks immediately began to shoot from their wands as spells were cast by both sides.

The various pairs, each consisting of one Potter and one high-profile Order member, took to the sky within perhaps a minute of each other, but Theo, the only one managing to keep his head, made an effort to look closely at each of them in order as he floated uncertainly next to Snape. Theo had a lifetime of experience sitting quietly and observing others, and it certainly paid off in dividends as he did so now. Two of the Potters were Fred and George Weasley, he was almost positive; they each wore insane, giddy faces that beamed mercilessly with mischievous delight. The memory of watching the twins ride away from Hogwarts during Umbridge's reign had floated instantly to Theo's mind upon seeing them; whether the features were Potter's or not, there was no disguising those expressions.

A fourth Potter was on a broom, but not particularly comfortable there; if they were smart, which they obviously were, the Order would put Potter on some other kind of flying mode of transport, so Theo dismissed that one as well, even though he was paired with Mad-Eye Moody.

The one traveling with Kingsley Shacklebolt on the nightmare horse was a possibility, but that one, too, did not seem to have quite the right Potter-esque quality to him. In fact, Theo thought he saw that Potter's hair begin to change color, as though he could not help it. Either the polyjuice was not especially well-brewed, or that one was a metamorphmagus who wasn't quite able to focus.