"Hello?" called Harry. There was silence. Harry got to his feet and peered around the tree. It was too dark to see very far, but he could sense somebody standing just beyond the range of his vision. "Who's there?" he said. And then, without warning, the silence was rent by a voice unlike any they had heard in the wood; and it uttered, not a panicked shout, but what sounded like a spell. "MORSMORDRE!" And something vast, green and glittering erupted from the patch of darkness Harry's eyes had been struggling to pene- trate: it flew up over the treetops and into the sky. "What the--?" gasped Ron, as he sprang to his feet again, staring up at the thing that had appeared. For a split second, Harry thought it was another leprechaun formation. Then he realised that it was a colossal skull, com- posed of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent pro- truding from its mouth like a tongue. As they watched, it rose higher and higher, blazing in a haze of greenish smoke, etched against the black sky like a new constellation. Suddenly, the wood all around them erupted with screams. Harry didn't understand why, but the only possible cause was the sudden appearance of the skyll, which had now risen high enough to illuminate the entire wood, like some grisly neon sign. He scanned the darkness for the person who had con- jured the skull, but he couldn't see anyone. "Who's there?" he called again. "Harry, come one, move!" Hermione had seized the back of his jacket and was tugging him backwards. "What's the matter?" Harry said, startled to see her face so white and terrified. "It's the Dark Mark, Harry!" Hermione moaned, pulling him as hard as she could. "You-Know-Who's sign!"

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