Power of the Dark Mark

Draco was still sleeping. We both had a very long night, but I couldn't sleep. I was staring at my no longer bare forearm. I laid my arm across my chest, next to Draco's. Two identical 'tattoos' of sorts of a skull with a snake coming from it's mouth. The Dark Mark. Voldemort's mark was now on my arm. It was now on Draco's arm.

I was surprised with how well things went tonight. I didn't expect to make it out alive. To be honest, I actually felt great. When we got to the Manor last night, I didn't feel like this of course. I may have appeared to be calm and collected, but on the inside, I was so nervous. Draco held onto my hand like a lifeline.

"Leave your things at the door and follow me." That was the first thing Lucius said since we left King's Cross station. We followed him down a hallway I never been down before. Their was a spiral staircase at the end which I would assume lead down to the basement. It sort of reminded me of the Hogwarts dungeons and it gave me a moment of relief. I use to consider the walk towards the dungeons heinous, but ever since my, for lack of a better word, relationship with Severus, it was comforting. It was as if I was walking towards his comforting arms. Nothing could go wrong if he was there to protect me.

The brief moment ended abruptly, when we entered the dungeon like room where Bellatrix Lestrange stood over a limp body of a older man I've never seen before. By the satisfied look on her face, and the look of terror in his, it seems she has just been participating in one of her favorite activities. Torturing him with the Cruciatus curse. The thought alone sickened me, but I did my best to pretend it didn't.

"Lucius!" She shrieked with excitement. "You brought me a present." She cackled and immediately approached me, grabbing me by the shoulder and throwing me to the ground breaking my contact with Draco.

"Harry!" Draco yelled, and I noticed out of the corner of my eye, Lucius was grabbing his shoulder forcefully to stop him from coming towards me. Lucius shot him a dirty look, ignoring the fact I drew my wand while I was bringing myself to my feet.

"Is itty bitty Potter going to curse me?" She was walking around me, and I followed her with my eyes. Then she lifted her wand.

"Expelli-" I tried to disarm her but before I finished my incantation she bellowed, "Crucio!"

My whole body suddenly felt like it was on fire. I was no longer aware of my surroundings. All I could focus on was keeping my balance. I wasn't going to let her have the best of me. When she released me from the curse, she was cackling madly. I thought about sending a curse at her, but figured it would just get her to torture me again.

"Now, Bella, there's no need for that." Lucius said as she merely insulted my outfit. "He's not here for trouble. He wishes to join us."

"Join us?" She laughed. "Baby Potter wants to join us? What makes you think we want you?"

"It doesn't really matter what you want." I shot at her and she glared back at me with a look of pure evil.

"He's right!" Lucius said finally letting go of Draco who came over to me right away and tried to hold me but I only let him grab my hand. Bellatrix looked at us with disgust. "We shall call our Lord. He will decide what is to be done."

I wasn't feeling too good with the way they were speaking. 'What is to be done' sounded more like I was receiving a punishment. I don't know why I was even the slightest bit surprised though. I suspected something like this would happen. I could tell Draco was a bit upset by the way things were going, but I wasn't taking my eyes off Bellatrix, not even for a moment.

She looked over at me with a huge smile, that only made her look less human, and she placed her wand on her mark. Then as she walked towards me, waving her wand around nonchalantly, she spoke in a high pitch voice.

"Are you ready to die Potter?" Draco gasped, which made her laugh, but I didn't falter. I wouldn't allow her to get to me. Apparently, she got bored with the fact that I didn't care what she said and walked back to the old man on the ground.

A few minutes later, Voldemort himself appeared out of thin air. Lucius did a quick bow, where as Bellatrix practically ran to his side.

"My Lord, the filthy Potter boy is here. Says he wishes to join us. US!" She said scandalized. Voldemort didn't seem surprised one bit from this revelation and only made me more nervous. He ignored me completely and walked towards the limp old man.

"Did he give you any answers yet?" He said as leaning down towards the man and gripping his chin to get a view of his bloody and beaten face. The man looked vaguely familiar, but with all the bruises, I couldn't be certain.

"Sorry, My Lord, but he is not easily persuaded."

"Not for lack of trying I'm sure." She quickly changed her apologetic look to one of pleasure when she noticed she wasn't going to be punished. After removing his eyes from the man, he glanced where Draco and I stood, still holding hands.

"Lucius, you must feel very proud at this moment." He never removed his eyes off of us. "To have your son following in your footsteps." He finally began addressing Draco. "You will know power like nothing else. It is a gift!"

I could tell from the corner of my eye that Bellatrix was getting excited, which couldn't mean anything pleasant was about to happen.

"However, if you fail me in any way, I will be forced to punish you. I don't like to hurt my friends Draco," I didn't believe that for a second. And why was he referring to his Death Eaters as friends? Is that really what he thought a friend was? "Please don't give me any reason to have to punish you."

"I won't My Lord." Draco said as is practiced. I didn't like to hear him talk to Voldemort like that one bit, even if it was part of the plan. I don't think I would be able to do it, that is if he didn't kill me.

"Hold out your arm." Our hands were forced to separate as Draco held out his left arm, lifting up his robe's sleeve to reveal pale silky white skin. Voldemort placed the tip of his wand, and without whispering a word, the Dark Mark began to appear on his arm. It started from the center, where the wand was, and drew itself on his arm.

By the look on Draco's face, the ritual was utterly painless. I almost felt sick to my stomach when Draco dropped to his knees and bowed to the heir of Slytherin. "Thank you, thank you." He leaned forward and gently pressed his lips to his robes. "Thank you My Lord for this wonderful gift."

I never thought Draco was that good of an actor, and I was a little mad at myself for believing he really wanted this. But there was no denying it that it looked just like that.

"Leave me now." I knew he wasn't talking to me. I knew that there was a good chance that this would be the last few minutes of my life. I could feel the lump forming in my throat. Lucius and Draco left, but Bellatrix remained behind. "Harry Potter. I can't say I'm not surprised to see you here. Especially after our last meeting." He said with a smirk on his face.

Bellatrix burst into a fit of laughter and Voldemort just watched her.

"Poor baby Potter misses his Godfather." Her cackling died out and she went back to her high pitched shriek. "Sirius Black, the blood traitor. Tainting my family. He deserved worse then what he got."

"Shut UP!" Before I even had time to think about what a dumb idea that was she yelled.

"Crucio!" This time I was unable to keep my balance. I fell to the ground and withered in pain. I kept wishing it would stop, but it was only getting more intense.

After what felt like forever, the pain started to ease, but didn't stop. I managed enough energy to get up on my feet. Once I was there it stopped and she was still laughing like mad.

"He fights it! Of course, that only makes it more fun for me. Crui-"

I probably should of let her torture me once more, but I figured I was going to die anyway, so I didn't want to give her the satisfaction. For the first time in my life, I said, "Crucio!" and meant it.

I watched her fall to the ground, shrieking in pain, and I laughed. I couldn't help it. It was the first natural reaction I had. After thoroughly thinking about what I was doing, I lowered my wand. She shot up off the floor, no longer laughing and lifted her wand up to my face.

"That's enough!" Voldemort yelled, and she immediately put her wand at her side. "Now Harry, I am rather curious to this change of attitude. Why would you want to join forces with me? What has changed?"

"I don't want to die." It was the first thing that came to mind. It was true. I didn't want to die. I wanted him to die. I wanted to kill him. For the first time, I wanted to murder him. He managed to get Draco to fall to his knees and kiss his robes. For that, I would kill him.

"No, there is no fate worse than death, is there Harry?" He walked behind Bellatrix and let his nail trace the side of his face, scratching her slightly. It looked rather painful, but she seemed to enjoy it. "No of course not. You think I will spare you if you join me." Bellatrix let a little laugh out during Voldemort's pause. "Reasonable offer you're giving me. I get all the inside information about Dumbledore from 'The Boy Who Lived' himself, in return for your life. That is the deal your presenting me with?" I nodded. "Dumbledore is a thorn in my side! I want him dead!"

Voldemort preceded to walk back towards Bellatrix and spoke quietly enough so only she could hear. Whatever he was saying, she wasn't happy about it. She had a look of horror on her face as she exited the room using the spiral staircase. Then he walked over to the man lying on the floor and kicked him with his foot so he was laying on his back. He was unconscious.

"You see this man Harry? He knows of a spell that would give the spell caster unlimited power. Complete control over anyone he pleased." I tried my hardest not to gulp. "Have you ever heard of such a thing?"

"No."

"No what?"

"No I never heard of such a thing." He almost smiled, but I didn't falter.

"Of course. You wish to join me but refuse to address me properly." He walked up to me and only stood a few inches away. "You don't want to work for me like that little boyfriend of yours, no. You want to work with me. I would expect nothing less. Is that what you expect?" He spat out rather angrily and I decided it best not to push my luck. I rather did enjoy living, and my chances were definitely looking up.

"No," I sighed, "My Lord."

This seemed to satisfy him to a high degree. "Hold out your arm." I held out my arm and pulled up my sleeve in the same fashion as Draco did before. As he brought up his wand to place on to my arm, I almost pulled away. What if I had the same reaction as Draco? I would never be able to live with myself.

The second his wand tip hit my skin, I could feel the spell coursing through my veins. It was power like nothing I ever felt before. I know exactly why Draco felt compelled to fall to his knees and thank him mercifully. It was a gift. An amazing gift. But I would not thank him for it, no matter how badly I wished to.

When he pulled away I looked down at my arm, which undoubtedly now carried his mark.

"Leave me now. You will return when I call you." I followed the steps up right away, thankful to be making it out of there. I went straight towards Draco's room, hoping he would be there. When I opened the door he was pacing back and forth but turned to face me.

"Oh Harry!" He jumped up into my arms. "I thought you were dead." He lifted my sleeve and saw my Dark Mark and sighed. "So that's it then?"

"Yeah, I guess so." I said staring at the mark. "It's not as bad as I thought it would be. I mean, getting it, it was well.."

"Amazing." Draco finished. I didn't want to word it that way, but he wasn't wrong. That was exactly how it felt.

"Yeah."

"So what happened after I left?" I really wasn't in the mood to explain everything that just happened. I was still busy processing it myself. Especially the part when Voldemort said that familiar looking old man knew of a spell. A spell which happened to have to same effects as the spell I was planning to use against him. It seemed like an awfully strange coincidence.

"I'm actually rather tired. Can we just go to sleep and talk in the morning?" He agreed and we laid down, where I pretended to be asleep until he drifted off. There was no way I was able to sleep. And now I lay here, watching our marks against one another.

I never expected to be here, at this given moment, looking at the Dark Mark on my arm, but here I am. And truthfully, I wasn't bothered by it. I actually felt rather relieved. It's as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulder. I can only hope I would still feel this way when he is defeated once and for all.

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