The Revelation
After they were done talking with the Death Eaters, they moved away from the group. "Ready for your Initiation, Nevra?"
"Depends. Is it as bad as the Test?"
"Just a formal ceremony." Draco said casually.
"Oh my god." Nevra realized something.
"What?" Blaise tensed at the sound of panic in Nevra's voice.
"Will this bond - to the Inner Circle - come before the Dark Trio…I take it after I took the Innocuroso."
Draco sighed in relief. "No. Anything connected to the Dark Mark or the Dark Side…including the Initiation will be second to it. Because we cut over the Dark Mark…you know."
Together they Apparated to the site of Initiation. The Inner Circle formed a ring around them. Voldemort approached.
"Do you stand ready to accept the responsibility of Initiation?"
"I do."
"Are you loyal in every way to the Cause we serve?"
"I am."
"Who here will welcome her to our Circle?"
Draco and Blaise stepped forward…two were required, and the Initiated would ask two members before her Initiation to stand for her. That had been easy for her…the Dark Trio was loyal to each other first, which meant they would stand for her whether she asked or not.
"Who here will deny her entrance?"
No one came forward, although Lucius Malfoy made a start. No one would anger the Dark Lord by rejecting his selection.
"So are you bound," the Dark Lord said as he pulled up her sleeve and made a long cut down her inner arm, spilling her blood onto the ground. He did the same for his arm. Then he pressed them together, mixing their blood, binding them.
She tensed at the pain. Pure Dark magic flowed into her, making her stifle the screams that rose. Blood was always the best conduit of magic. Magic thrived in the life blood. It seemed appropriate that the Dark Lord's blood held pure Dark Magic. Even the worst of humans held a mix of good and bad. Her suspicions were true - the Dark Lord wasn't even human anymore. He couldn't be.
Suddenly, the pain disappeared. He had pulled away his arm. She looked down at the thin scar covering the pale skin of her arm. How had it healed? She forgot what she was thinking when he removed his mask. His eyes glowed in the darkness as he smiled.
"You are strong, Nevra. You will do well. Welcome to the Circle."
The Inner Circle stepped back a pace, leaving a spot open for her. She stepped back into it. Voldemort spoke.
"The Dark Trio lost a member recently. Pansy Parkinson has been replaced. The Alliance is once again complete."
Draco stepped forward. "We welcome a newcomer to our Alliance. She stands under our protection…and has the gift of our guidance. She brings her own strength to the Alliance. A strength that you can be sure we will use." His voice carried hidden threats that did not go unnoticed by the Circle. Everyone was tense.
Blaise now stepped forward. "She brings her wit, her strength, and her cunning. Her independence and all the traits that the Dark Lord values in his followers. Above all, she binds us to the common Death Eater."
Finally Nevra stepped forward. "I am an Ally. The Dark Trio is complete." At that, all three took off their masks, revealing their faces to the Circle. Draco's father took a step forward, his mouth open and wand unsheathed.
Draco said nothing, merely stepped up to meet his father. A solid magenta shield went up around him. Everyone looked at Nevra, but her wand was not out. Draco smirked. "We have gifts that are rare and precious. Ones that people know not."
Lucius sputtered futilely. Finally, he backed down. The shield, however, remained. Sneak attacks were common in the Dark Side. No need to invite them. Draco stepped back to Blaise and Nevra as well. "Thanks." He whispered in the redhead's ear. She nodded in reply, not looking at him, but instead at the Circle surrounding them.
The Revelation was complete. The Dark Side knew of the Dark Trio and of the Inner Circle. The path she traveled grew ever more dangerous…but it was one she must travel.
The Breakdown
Voldemort stepped forward. "Now that our newest member has been Bound, we must get back to business."
They all turned to face him. He looked at each pair of eyes through their masks before speaking. "We attack Hogwarts in 3 days. Be ready. This meeting is done. I will call you at the time of the attack."
Nevra, Draco, and Blaise all Apparated to Draco's flat. Tears were running down her face as she turned her back to the boys.
Draco and Blaise looked on in shock as she ran to a room and shut the door, blinded by her tears.
"She went into my bedroom!" Draco said indignantly.
Blaise smirked. "So go get her." Draco hesitated.
"Blaise…is she ready?"
"I don't know."
"Am I ready?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know or you won't tell me?" Draco asked suspiciously.
"You know the answer to that." Blaise said smugly. He smirked as Draco walked over to the door and opened it, shutting it behind him.
Blaise smiled to himself. He loved it when people were forced to grow up. Stop pretending. Stop being stupid.
Maybe he would read that book about Felis Semper bonds that he had wanted to look through since a few months ago. They would probably be closeted in there for a long time.
Tears In The Bedroom
Draco slowly eased the door open. Nevra, with her face buried in one of his silk pillows (those were expensive!), didn't hear him over her sobbing. He sighed, then sat down on the other side of the bed next to her.
At this, she turned to lie on her back, eyes bloodshot, cheeks red…still crying.
"What are you going on about, Nevra," said Draco resignedly.
She stiffened. "Go away. It's none of your business." He smiled, trying to hide his annoyance.
"Well, considering you are on my bed, ruining my bed sheets and my pillows, you made it my business."
She sat up. "You know what? You are a jerk, Draco Malfoy. I'm surprised I ever thought you could be anything else."
He hid the hurt behind eyes of steel. "Of course, Nevra. I never claimed to be anything other." She laughed bitterly, and covered her face with her hands.
"No, you didn't. I just thought…Forget it, Malfoy." She swung her legs onto the ground and stood up.
"Wait, Nevra. What is bothering you? I really want to know."
"Right now? You. What I was crying about? We've already discussed."
He reached out and grabbed her wrist, tugging her back on the bed. "Screw the bed…you're hurting. What's going on with you?"
She looked at him…his mask was down, eyes soft as ever. She resisted the urge to hold onto his hand (on her wrist) and the urge to curl up under his chin and cry into his shirt…he'd probably complain about the shirt next!
"Everything. Attacking Hogwarts, you, the Inner Circle. Just about everything."
"Why is the attack on Hogwarts bothering you?"
"Because I will be killing people I know. Because I will be destroying a place that has been a refuge to me for so long. After my family and friends turned me out, that was the only place I could go that didn't care about my past, just about who I was at that time, at the present. The one place I didn't feel out of place, or ostracized, or a failure."
Draco slipped his hand down from her wrist and held her hand, squeezing for an instant. He said gently, "Nevra, why'd they turn their backs on you?"
She spoke the lie that Dumbledore had prepared long ago for her. "Potter wanted to marry me, and I turned him down. I was in love with him, but I wasn't ready for that. My family and friends valued him more than me, I guess." She looked down, but she couldn't stop the single tear that fell onto her hand.
"Hogwarts really shouldn't bother you...Nevra, you've killed people you know before." Fury burned in her eyes, hot and sudden. What had he said?
"Damn it, Draco! It is not the same! These people are people who never did a thing to me…never hurt me! I have to kill them because they live in the wrong place!"
"You do what you must do, Nevra. That's the way the world works." Draco said harshly.
She jerked her hand away from his hold. "You bastard! You must kill two innocent children…two women who did nothing to you…two men who were on their honeymoons!"
Draco's eyes widened. "What the hell?"
She spat out poisonously. "Luna Lovegood. Fleur Delacour. Neville Longbottom. Bill Weasley." She let out a desperate sob. "Anastasia Longbottom. Elizabeth Weasley. They never even had a chance to live at all before you killed them, too."
His eyes burned with hurt, stormy grey with pain. "I did what I had to do."
"They never did anything to you."
"They worked for the Light. That was enough."
"The babies…they worked for the Light?"
"I didn't know they were pregnant."
"Liar. They both were stabbed through the stomach…you wanted to kill their babies, didn't you?"
Draco looked away from her disbelieving eyes. "I had orders." She threw herself at him in rage, hitting anything she could reach. He let her. She had the right.
"Draco, I loved them! You killed people I loved! How could you…How could you do that?" She said when she finally stopped hitting them.
Suddenly he was angry. He fought for the Dark Side and so did she. That did not make him a bad person. "I didn't love them. I didn't know you. And I had orders."
"You had orders? You had orders to keep loyalty to the Dark Lord first…it's not your first priority. You had orders to spy on me…you didn't."
"Wait, what?"
"Two years ago, when we were students at Hogwarts. Dumbledore knew about it, and told me when I went ranting about how you couldn't possibly be Head Boy. He told me you had refused, for reasons unknown to me."
"You never did anything to me. And spying on you would have betrayed my position…although it seems like the Headmaster already knew my position. Why didn't he eliminate me when he had the chance?"
"Those children you killed never did anything to you. The Headmaster is a good man…he believes people can change."
"Can they?"
"I pray they can. But then again, you proved me wrong on that point. But as you said, you are the exception to every rule. I'm just not sure that is a good thing anymore."
She turned to walk away. She had thought there was good somewhere in him. Prayed there was humanity left. But he was pure Dark Side…through and through.
"Nevra?" She turned to face him. To her utter surprise, tears filled his eyes.
"I am sorry…so sorry. About everything."
Impulsively, she turned back and sat next to him on the bed, wrapped her arms around him and let him cry into her shoulder as she held him. She had never noticed with her pain, that he was hurting too.