| Inked | (George Weasley)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Nearly a half hour had passed without hearing or seeing anyone. Ollie was half asleep by then, her eyes drooping and head nodding to the side. If she didn't catch herself, she would have found herself sleeping on George's shoulder... which she felt would have been extremely awkward. She was already wearing his jumper!

George was fiddling with some random items in his pockets, jingling around loose sickles, or fumbling around with one of the devices he and Fred were working on. He looked tired, but continued to shift next to Olive on the tree stump like he was waiting for something to happen.

Then George stopped, getting to his feet. He nudged Olive, who jolted awake almost immediately.

"Look." He said, pointing to the sky, his eyes furrowed with confusion and an emotion Ollie couldn't quite see.

Olive looked up at the sky, her brows furrowed. There was something cast in the sky- a large skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. It shimmered silver and foggy green, standing out starkly against the dark night sky.

"What is that?" Ollie spoke quickly and quietly, eyebrows raised with fear. She didn't know what the skull in the sky meant, but it couldn't be something good.

"I... I don't know." George said slowly, giving a tense look back to the Ravenclaw, "It doesn't look good, though."

The girl nodded, her blue eyes widened as she took in the scene. Obviously the mark had something to do with the Death Eaters. Ollie remembered reading something...

Her stomach dropped.

"The Dark Mark." She whispered, her clammy hands fidgeting and twitching. Ollie regretted not bringing her notebook. Writing always calmed her down.

"The what?" The ginger turned to her, quirking a brow.

"Th-The Dark Mark." Olive repeated, tumbling on her words this time, "I remember reading something... maybe some old Daily Prophets, I'm not sure... Death Eaters cast it... when they- when they kill someone."

George's expression didn't change. He just nodded slowly, taking in the information the sixteen year old just told him.

"We should look for the others." He said as he slipped his wand out of his pocket, twirling it around his fingers nervously.

Olive hesitated, looking around, "I don't... maybe we should just stay put, you know?"

Already starting to head away from the small clearing, George looked back at her, giving her a reassuring look.

"Come on, Ollie."

Hesitantly, Olive stood. She slipped her wand out of her pocket, gripping it with white knuckles. She was certain this was a terrible idea, but there was no stopping George right now, and she didn't want to be left alone.

Sneakers taking quiet steps, the Ravenclaw followed the ginger away from their little tree stump camp.

"This is a bad idea. We told Fred we'd stay put." Olive said once she caught up to George, sending the ginger a worried look, "George..."

"Hey, don't worry." He shrugged his shoulders, looking around him with a slight air of caution, like they were sneaking around the halls of Hogwarts at night, "I'm not going to let anything happen. Besides, the woods are packed with Ministry workers and aurors. We're perfectly safe."

Olive sighed, "I don't know."

She could hear other witches and wizards around them in the woods, little crackling fires casting smoke into the sky and filling the air with its scent. George was right, they were safer in the woods, but she was still nervous from earlier and couldn't stop thinking about what could go wrong.