AN: Black Cloaks are an elite force of warrior/bodyguards trained in both Muggle and magical defense practices. The Black Cloaks are not my original idea. They belong to Snapegirlkmf in the story Lily's Defender, so a special thanks to you for letting me play around with your idea and helping me develop my own. And in case you didn't already know; I'm not JK Rowling. So…..I don't own anything that may have come from the books in the Harry Potter Series that I love so dearly. Enjoy!

"Lissy?" I heard my little eight year old sister call as I stepped out of my room at the Leaky Cauldron. "Lissy!" She said running to me it had been two months since I'd last seen her at my graduation from The Black Cloak Academy. I knew that my family would be here because my dad's contract was to attend this particular social gathering. My dad is a Black Cloak coming from an extremely long line of well-known and celebrated Black Cloaks and I swear I've never seen him any more proud than he was of me the day I graduated. His contract, Jerald Duggurd, is a wealthy aristocrat and being so was expected to attend major events like the one being thrown by the Minister of Magic today for celebrating the ten year success of his son's marriage. Unfortunately, Mr. Duggurd had no next of kin therefore I was unable to contract anyone from his family immediately after graduation, which was the common practice. Black Cloaks often ran in families. A Black Cloak's children usually became a Black Cloak and a member of a contract's family would often hire Black Cloaks from the same family, usually by generation.

"Krissy!" I crouched down to hug her. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too!" She beamed at me. "You look so pretty!" I was wearing a tea length true blue dress that was just a shade darker than my eyes, with spaghetti straps; it hugged my body from the waist up and had a slightly poofy skirt. I had curled my long brown hair and pinned it back out of my face.

"Thank you little one. You are looking particularly beautiful yourself." She was wearing a light pink dress much like my own except hers had short puffed sleeves. Her short blonde hair was also curled but hung down naturally.

"Thank you," she said acting all proper.

"Where are mum and dad?" I quizzed her.

"Dad's with his contract and mum is getting ready. I snuck off to come and you."

"Krissy," I scolded her "you know better than to sneak off." Mum and dad probably knew that she was off to find me but still.

She frowned, "I'm sorry, are you mad Lissy? Please don't be mad."

I wiped the tears from her pretty blue eyes and felt a tug at my heart. "I won't be mad if you promise to never sneak off again." I knew that dad taught would have taught her that you never break promises for any reason, that's what made a Black Cloak so honorable. Honesty, Truth and Trust; a Black Cloaks motto.

"I promise," she smiled. We hugged and then headed downstairs to wait for mum and dad.

The party was going rather well. Everyone was mingling merrily and it was the perfect opportunity for me to search for a potential contract; to make a good impression. It's extremely hard to get your first contract seeing as you don't have any reputation, but even I, with my father's name/reputation behind me and graduating top of my class, was having a hard time. I had no experience.

"Ms. Cleary" I heard a voice behind me say. I'd been searching for the next person I should talk to but it seems someone had sought me out. I turned to find none other than Severus Snape, dressed in an all-black suit and honestly looking rather Malfoy-ish; in other words his appearance screamed Death Eater. "Or should I say, Black Cleary."

"Professor?" I said cautiously.

"Congratulations on your achievement; it's nice to see you again," he said politely.

"Yep." I said coldly.

"Well," he said drawing in a breath "I'm going to cut to the chase. I'm here on business. I need you to come with me."

"Ha," I laughed. "You expect me to just follow you to some unknown destination when everyone suspects you of being a Death Eater. Yeah, right. Way to walk to my death."

"It's Dumbledore that wants a word with you. Not me" He stated seriously "or the Dark Lord."

For some odd reason my instincts told me to trust him while my head shouted 'NO!' and if I'd learned anything at the Academy it was to trust my instincts over all else. I took a deep breath and a leap of faith, "Alright let's go then."

He looked at me like I'd just lost my mind, not that I blame him. Inwardly I was giving myself the same look.

"Okay then," he said finally. "This way." He offered me his arm like a gentleman. Instinct took over once again and I wrapped my arm around his. With that he led me from the ballroom through the entrance hall and out of the front door as casually as if he did this every day.

We walked for a good five minutes as the sun set and dark took over, rounding about a corner every few blocks. He led me down a dark ally and a chill crept down my spine as we headed toward the dead end.

"We apparate here." He pointed down towards the cement.

"Okay." I said. Beginning to doubt my instincts, but not giving myself time to think about it I grabbed hold of his arm for side along apparition, not knowing where we were headed and he wasted no time. Suddenly I found myself surrounded by the warmth of someone's home instead of cold darkness. A man was sitting in an armchair across from us obviously awaiting our arrival. My first thought had been that this man was Dumbledore but upon observing him I realized that he was not. This man was much too thin and looked far more burdened than I'd ever seen the bubbly Dumbledore.

"Abeforth," Professor Snape nodded politely towards the old man. "Thank you for allow-"

"Yeah, yeah, quit with the formalities and get a move on. I'd liked to go to bed." Snape was rudely cut off.

Again he wasted no time in grabbing my wrist and pulling me into the fireplace and flooing us to "number twelve Grimald Place."

The place oozed with dark magic and I began to regret my decision to trust the greasy git, but all that quickly went away when I saw the reassuring face of Dumbledore appear in the doorway.

"Ahh. Perfect timing Severus, as per usual. Melissa Cleary?" He nodded towards me. I simply nodded in return. "Good. This way."

He lead us into a small kitchen were a few other people sat. All members of the order; Molly and Arthur Weasley, Remus Lupin, and Kingsley Shackelbolt. I hadn't ever really known any of them but I'd met them all at some point in time. A Black Cloak never forgets a face or the name that goes with it.

"Come and sit." Dumbledore gestured towards a chair across from where he had just sat down. I did what he asked and while doing so noticed that all eyes were trained on me. What the bloody hell was going on?

"Ms. Cleary," Dumbledore cleared his throat "I'm sure you must be wondering why I had Severus bring you here?" I said nothing so he went on to continue. "You see, I am in need of your assistance. Severus is a spy, I'm sure you've observed that much. While he has done a marvelous job, we are in need of another body to do as he is and you seem like the perfect candidate and-"

"No." I cut him off with a stern voice, not liking where he was headed.

"We need you. You're perfectly trained and amazingly strong and talented. It's a well-known fact that you will most likely become one of the best Black Cloaks ever, having come from such well-bred line. "

"No." Didn't he understand what this would mean; that I would have to appear to turn back on everything I've known. This would ruin me and my family.

"And you don't have a contract yet. Offer him your service."

"No!" I shouted standing up, accidentally knocking my chair over, knowing full well that the "him" he was referring to was Voldemort. The others flinched, but Dumbledore met my eyes with determination. "There is no way in Hell that I will ever pledge my allegiance to a wizard that is practicing dark magic of any sort. I will not shame my peers in such a way." My breathing became uneasy and I was becoming overwhelmed by my emotions. I could never let my emotions get the best of me. Discipline. It's all about discipline.

"Ms. Cleary-"

"It's Black Cleary, and don't you ever forget that!"

I turned and made my way to the door only then noticing people that hadn't been in the room before standing in the way; Sirius Black, Nyphadora Tonks, and Alastor Moody. This was bad, how could I have missed their arrival? I'm supposed to be aware of my surroundings, no matter what. I wasn't going to be as good of a Black Cloak as everyone expected if I kept this up.

"My apologies Black Cleary. I will not stop you from leaving, but answer me this, if you had the option to protect one life versus saving countless others what would you choose to do?"

I turned back to face him. "I would save the countless others of course, given that I do not have a contract." I stated without a second thought. If there were a contract I would be obligated to save their life above all others.

"No matter the price it cost you?"

"Of course," No sooner had the words left my mouth than I'd realized what he was playing at. He had me. I knew it in that moment as well as he did. A Black Cloak would pay any price to save even one life and he knew it. Even if that price meant one had to seemingly betray their peers. Tears almost fell from my eyes as I said, in an almost inaudible whisper, "I'll do it."

I picked up my chair and sat down as everyone else move to sit in seats of their own. Apparently this was a meeting for the order. There was a small applause as Dumbledore announced, to those who had missed it, what it was that I'd be doing and officially introduced me as the newest order member. I said nothing the entire time and didn't hear anything else that was said the rest of the meeting.

I hadn't even realized that the meeting was over until I felt someone grab my arm trying to pull me out of the chair. It's lucky that Snape had quick reflexes because I nearly punched him square in the nose not realizing it was him.

"Bloody hell," he said standing up. "I know this must be hard for you but could you please try not to kill me."

"Sorry" was all I could muster. We were alone in the room, save for Molly cleaning up and her husband helping her. When had everyone left?

"You didn't catch anything from that meeting, did you?" he asked, reading between the lines.

I shook my head.

"Well," he sighed "We are supposed to go to the Dark Lord tonight."

"What?" I said shocked. How could Dumbledore expect this of me so soon? I have had no preparation.

"Yes, so pull yourself together unless you want this to be completely pointless. Oh, and you should start calling him the Dark Lord. He likes to be addressed as My Lord. He likes bowing and groveling and all that stuff that will make you want to puke. Be as straight to the point as possible and avoid eye contact until he decides you're worthy enough to look at him. Don't stare at him or his snake either." He shivered slightly. "The more loyal you sound to his cause the better. Your goal is to become as important to him as possible, understand?"

"Yes," I said my voice low.

"Be confident and use occlumency or he'll see right through you. At the same time you will need to allow him into your mind and not show him anything that will lead him to the conclusion of your true loyalty. Don't tell him that your part of the order as I am. He must think it as his idea which, obviously will have to come later. Got it?"

"I think so."

"Act like a snobby pure blood and don't 'think so', know so. At least you have a plus on your side."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're a pure blood, unless I've missed something." He paused making sure he didn't miss anything. "Let's go."