Vincent brought four butterbeers to our table at the Three Broomsticks and sat next to Greg across the table from me and Draco. He pushed two mugs our way and Draco took them both, nudging me slightly to get me to take a mug from him.

"Cheer up," he said, "you just need to explain what you need to teach them as your group, and that now that they're pledging their allegiance to you they can't ever back out."

"Easy to plan. Difficult to explain after I've told them what I'm really doing," I replied, scratching my wrist incessantly to the point that Draco grabbed my hand to stop me. We sat at the very back of the Three Broomsticks, away from prying eyes and ears. I had felt that, considering how loud it was there, no one could overhear us so long as we were out of sight. It was amazing how loud people were.

"You've got this," Draco whispered as Pansy and Millicent walked into the Three Broomsticks, followed closely by Blaise. A minute later, Becky came in with a strange look on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked Becky.

"Later," she shrugged. "Let the meeting begin already."

"Ookay…" I said, pounding my fist on the table like a judge with a gavel. "I have some explaining to do, but only once I've had all of you put these rings on tying your loyalty to me." I pulled out a box of rings I'd made with a curse similar to dad's tattoos. With Seraphina's help, I had the rings jinxed so that anyone who put them on it were under my laws and were incapable of taking them off unless I did it.

Shaking the box with resounding jingles, I held the box out for Becky who put hers on first. Then Draco, Vincent, Greg, Blaise, Millicent and Pansy. Once everyone had their rings on, I put everything away before dropping the bomb.

"Let me settle this right here and now," I started. "I do not believe in pureblood supremacy."

The table was dumfounded as everybody but Becky and Draco stared at me in utmost loss for words.

"The hell do you mean?" Blaise asked.

For whatever reason, I couldn't help it, I smiled mischievously. "It means exactly the way it sounds. Most of you may have grown up believing highly in pureblood supremacy but, so long as you are my followers, you will not act on your hatred of Muggle-borns and those who protect them — least of all myself. Any questions?"

Draco stroked the back of my hand supportingly as everyone turned to look at each other in bewilderment

"Since there's nothing you need to ask me, I also expect for everyone to tell me nothing but the truth. If you lie, there will be consequences."

"Like what? How would you even know if we're lying?" Pansy asked nervously.

"I jinxed the rings… have you ever heard the saying 'liar, liar, pants on fire?'"

No one spoke.

"Point given. That being said, what do you think will happen if you tell anyone — especially my father — about our group here, my secrets, and what I am representing?"

"Something terrible, I'm sure.." Blaise grumbled.

Millicent rambled at about a hundred words a second, at which I put my hands up and waved them until she stopped. If I could have whacked her on the head, I would've, but her resounding "Ouch!" would have caused the whole crowd to go silent.

"Say it slowly so I can understand you, Millicent."

Taking a deep breath every few seconds, Millicent spoke like a sloth might. "I thought…. You-Know… Who was… dead. Why… why did you… say that… we should… especially… not tell him?"

"Good question. That brings me to my next point, which ties into why I also said not to tell anyone about my secrets. All of you can't lie to me, so in return I will not lie to you. My father is alive, and I've been helping him return to his former glory since I was eleven… However, it has been done against my better judgement due to the future hope that with him at full power, Harry Potter can better destroy him."

"What is this group for if all you're doing is waiting for Potter to destroy him?" Blaise asked.

"This is an assignment from my father so I can help him in the future. Which leads me to the next commitment I ask of you… I need more recruits. You don't have to explain the point of the group, I'll do all the explaining when they put a ring on. All you need to do is say that the daughter of the Dark Lord is looking for recruits who will follow her as she climbs to power as a Dark Witch."

"How can you be a Dark Witch when you don't believe in pureblood supremacy?"

"I refuse to believe that pureblood supremacy is any type of important factor in becoming a Dark Witch. I'll practice different forms of Dark Arts and whatnot, but I will do better than most and keep it from consuming me. As for all of my recruits — due to the disappointment we have as a teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts this year — I will be teaching the proper jinxes, counterjinxes, and more for three nights a week after midnight in our common room."

"So we're just recruiting other Slytherins?" Pansy asked.

"Yes. For this year, that's what I need to stick with just to build up my own army. Maybe next year, I'll add more if Professor Umbridge is gone by then. All I need is upperclassmen, none of the younger kids."

They all sat there, staring between me and themselves as though they'd been brought into something they didn't want… well, it certainly hadn't been what they thought it would be. They'd get over it though. I would be better than my father. More forgiving, less killing. "Any problems?" I asked them.

I could tell they wished for the ability to just say "no" and get the meeting over with. But. They. Could. Not. Haha!

"I think I speak for most everyone here," Blaise stated, "when I say that this isn't what we expected. Why couldn't you have told us before we did anything?"

With a small smirk, I looked them all in the eyes one by one. "Can you honestly tell me that you would have joined anyway if I told you what I was really about?"

Everyone shook their heads silently.

"I thought not. That's why I'm doing it this way. I need Slytherins on my team so my dad doesn't get suspicious about me mainly picking students from other Houses when my primary target is supposed to be Slytherin House. The best part about it with all of you is that you were so eager to be the first ones in my group when you thought I'd follow somewhere close to my parents' footsteps.

"To be honest, I'd much prefer to follow my mother's because she didn't have any followers. She didn't want them and neither do I. Alas, I can't get away with it so I have to get a move-on."

Blaise sighed audibly before leaning forward to look me in the eye, "If we're allowed to ask you questions, then let me ask what you did for your father last year? If Potter's story was true, that You-Know-Who really killed Cedric Diggory, then what did you do to give him a new body?"

I bit my lip, having tried specifically not to think about everything I did last year since I told Professor Dumbledore about my escapades. Last year from beginning to end was my downfall, and everything got destroyed. But, if I wanted to create trust with everyone that pledged allegiance to me, then it was best I come clean with everything I can.

"I made him a potion."

"How did it work? What was it?"

"You sure have a lot to ask about it!"

"Because if you really helped, then you won't mind dishing out all the details. There were a lot of holes last year that Dumbledore didn't care to fill in for the students. I don't care if no one else is supposed to know, so long as everyone at this table does."

I looked around. Even Becky and Draco's interests had peaked.

"Fine," I grouched, "It was a Flesh, Blood and Bone Potion. Barty Crouch Jr., disguised as our Professor Alastor Moody, helped me find the book in the restricted section of the library. I made it with my own hands and put some of my magic into it so my dad's powers could be fully restored as well.

"In addition to that, I foolishly hoped that if I put some of my emotions into it it would help my dad understand love. The most it has done is give me visions from his perspective and cause him to realize that he loved my mom." I choked up, and took deep breaths as Draco squeezed my hand.

"Why was him loving her so wrong?" Pansy asked worriedly.

When I calmed down, I was able to finish, "He still doesn't understand love. He's so afraid of it being a weakness to him that, the moment he realized the love was there, he had to kill her. And so he did."

The condolences were immediate, everyone around the table murmured a "sorry you had to deal with that."

Draco tapped the bracelet on my wrist to remind me, "Moving on. Why don't you all take a closer look at your rings?" As everyone did so, I put my arm on the table and held my hand up to show off my bracelet.

The rings and my bracelet were one and the same, gold with the head of two snakes holding a charm in their mouths. The charm was in the form of an eye, and in the enlarged pupil was the silvery shadow of a cobra.

"This charm is my sign. If I need you, all I have to do is press this charm like a button. Same thing you can do if you need me. As for visibility, there's a switch on the side where you can render it invisible."

"This is so cool, how did you do all of this?" Pansy asked, surprisingly not upset anymore about getting tricked.

I grinned, "I have a little bit of help this year. You all know Anastasia, well… she is not who I said she was. The form of Anastasia Capitani is an illusion. Her real name and face is Seraphina Morphine Selwyn."

Their mutters spread across the table.

"Of the Selwyn family?" Millicent asked in awe.

I nodded. "Indeed. She's my father's ally. She knows about what I really believe in, but I trust her. She helped me with all of this so that I could have something vastly different from my father."

It had been our project for a couple of weeks. While I understood I couldn't have her as my ally, she still offered some assistance in terms of keeping track of all my followers. I told her I didn't want to do tattoos like my dad, and in asking for some ideas about what I could do I wondered how she did it with her followers.

"First of all," she'd said, "I don't give my followers tattoos. That's stupid. Then it's too easy for the Ministry to find them out. No, the tattoo is only on me. All I did was tie their hearts to mine."

I furrowed my brow, "What does that do?"

"Simple. I know what lies in each of their hearts. When I feel even the slightest sense of betrayal, I can get rid of them. Or, if I'm feeling bold I can wait until they do — because when that happens, their heart explodes on impact."

I'd edged my seat away from her, aghast. "That's… mortifying."

She chuckled appreciatively, "Thanks darling, I do try so hard."

Clearing my throat, I changed the subject, "So um, where's your tattoo?"

Seraphina grinned and, undoing the clasp on her special green and gold choker, revealed a snake entwined around a type of bright red flower. "Do you know what type of flower this is?"

I shook my head, "I'm not into flowers like that."

"It's a poppy flower. I was into a lot of Norse mythology when I was younger, and the poppy was mainly associated with Morpheus, the god of dreams. This particular flower has hallucinogenic properties for taking you into a deep sleep. It could be considered as a dream within death, which is why I like it."

"Clever," I admitted.

"Well, how does my way sound?"

I held my hand to my throat uncomfortably, "I couldn't stand getting a needle to my neck, let alone feel like I'm being practically choked to death all the time!"

Seraphina burst into laughter, "We'll look into something without tattoos, then, but what about the other part?"

I shook my head profusely, "The one thing I will not do is kill anyone."

She held her hands up, "Suit yourself."

After I adjourned the meeting everyone went their separate ways, except Becky pulled me aside.

"Harry Potter is starting a secret group," she whispered quietly.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Fred and George told me before I came over here. I didn't want to go to the meeting or join anything yet until I'd done everything with you. But if I know Hermione, then she's going to have everyone jinxed or whatever to not tell Umbridge."

I nodded, "Well, if you want to join then go ahead. I can have an inside person even if you can't tell me anything."

Becky shook her head, "No, you goofball. Join with me."

"Please, they could do without me."

"No, they're teaching us Defense Against the Dark Arts and stuff like that so we can be ready for dangers to come. At least, that's how George described it, and he said it'd be good for me to learn too."

"Then go. I already know —"

"Hey!" Hermione walked sheepishly up to us, "I guess you know about our little group. George mentioned that he wanted you to join, Becky."

"Yeah, and I'm trying to get Melody to join too," Becky pointed at me like she was my sister trying to blame me for something.

"Look, it'd be pointless when I know everything already," I said, "Besides, it's not like anyone trusts me anyway. I've got enough problems to deal with."

"That's not true, Melody! Please —" Hermione tried to say.

"Becky can go ahead and join, I have some things to do," I said quickly, walking away as fast as I can.

I looked around as I walked to see that Harry and Ron stood a distance away. Ron looked merely confused, but Harry wasn't even paying attention as he grinned at the sky.