After Bellatrix branded my arm and proceeded to terrify me with a large list of my new duties as a Death Eater, the crew of three vanished into the night as soon as they had arrived with a warped cacophony of disturbing laughter. She had made sure to scold me not to miss the crucial Death Eater gathering at Hogwarts at midnight, bluntly making it obvious that Draco would be devastated to see me show up.
I was left weeping, and I collapsed to the floor as my body writhed uncontrollably. My spine arched unnaturally as though possessed by an alien infection. I laid on the floor of the House of Black with no choice but to let the toxic dark magic engulf me fully like a flesh eating disease, crying out in the darkness alone. I tried to focus on counting how many steps there were in the seemingly endless stairs above. I thought of my parents, somewhere in France, enjoying wine and good food, unaware that I was transforming into a demon.
Finally, after it had finalized invading my being, the dark mark soothed to a dull roar. It still burned horribly, but had lessened enough that I could stand up. I instantly knew something was different. I felt callous and aloof, as though nothing could harm me emotionally.
I stood, straightened my dress, and chose several points along a grid to disapparate towards the check point in Denmark just beyond the base on Hesselø, where the prisoner camp laid filled with Order members.
When I finally arrived after carefully jumping several times they were all clustered at a fire beside their make shift tents and completely bewildered by my timing. It had only been just over two hours since we'd all departed. I walked up to Ron with a blank, directorial expression that I would never have shown him prior, "We should go now."
He looked at me with eyes wide as saucers, scanning my face in disbelief, "Yeah, okay."
They marched with me through the dense, low foliage and all the while I fought against a dreadful desire to hate everything and everyone. Black smoke kept swirling off of my shoulders as I walked and I could do nothing to stop it. I was being consumed by feelings that I couldn't describe, only getting worse by the minute. I walked quickly, hoping to hold the darkness back for as long as possible. Order members kept a weary distance from me like I was a wild cheetah that hadn't yet noticed them on the open plains.
When we reached the military base I took out my wand and diagnosed the ward. The dull lighting from within the windows shown across low shrubbery surrounding the timeworn facades of the brick development. The crowd around me breathed shallowly and quietly with anticipation in the bushes. They had waited years to make such a break through.
The ward was extremely basic, however they had been right; only someone with the mark could have possibly taken it down. I cast a disintegration spell and the shimmering before us vanished. I stayed put as Order members moved by me like assassins up to the building, then I shut my eyes and began my jumps back to England, not bothering to stick around for their invasion.
There was an overpowering, venomous, hatred boiling in my veins as I reappeared at the farm. I choked helplessly, unaccustomed to the noxious fog that now would follow me on every disapparition. The tulip stems in at least a thirty meter radius began to wilt and wither into dust from the Death Eater smoke that whirled around my approaching figure, mimicking a miniature black tornado. I was immediately struggling to control the awful emotions that accompanied the Death Eater mark, now scalding my arm in a similar fashion as the bequeathment mark.
I nearly fell to my knees as images of Draco bloomed in my vision. I couldn't hold it off any longer...My sensitivity began to vanish like smoke. Him locking me in the dungeons, a strong hand slapping my face harshly, his rejection and abandonment after he'd misread Harry and I's affections in the forest... A cruel snarl on his pointy features. The dark mark was burrowing into my heart, doing everything it could to poison any love that lived there. It was as though I could only recall the negative memories, and not only that they were being highlighted and shoved to the forefront of my thoughts.
It was late at night, close to midnight. The hour was dangerously close to exactly when the Death Eater gathering would begin. A lack of clouds in the sky made the landscape appear as if I were in a small glass globe; stars were bright and vivid above me. The moon shone like a flashlight on the buildings ahead. I scanned the farm house and rotating windmill in the distance for signs of life, but all of the lights were now off. The Order had fled to the jail in Denmark to free the rest of their army and to prepare.
On the porch with a straight spine stood Harry Potter, eyes wide and glued to me. His wand was outstretched at his side, pointed to the ground stiffly. All alone, he stood there, ready to hand himself to the dark lord on the chance that it could end the war. His Gryffindor bravery had never shone stronger.
I approached him forcing a straight face, but deep down I was fighting a battle against the horrific emotions emanating from the dark mark engulfing my heart. Overpowering senses of sadness, grief, anger, resentment, fear, and loathing all mixed together to create a black void that threatened to swallow my soul if I let my grip loose for even a moment. I wondered how on earth Draco had ever endured it, and for so long, yet had still shown so much love and compassion.
I stopped at the edge of the porch and tried to ignore how his eyes wandered over the black flames that licked from my figure. He was nervous and on high alert in case I had betrayed him or switched sides entirely. The beauty of the Veela ancestry had morphed into a malignant and gruesome hybrid with the addition of the dark mark's magic in my veins. I could no longer prevent the flames from occurring, at least not so freshly into having merged the two. I was writhing in pain inside as the ink diseased every cell of my being. My hair floated lightly off of my shoulders as though I was about to be struck by lighting.
He swallowed hard and I noticed fear and remorse on his face. He took a deep breath, "I didn't expect you so soon. How do you feel? Your eyes, they're...completely black."
I raised my eyes at him fully, noticing him lean back from their newly polished glare. "It doesn't matter 'ow I feel. Let's go. We only 'ave one shot at dis, Potter." I muttered darkly, sounding more like a Malfoy than I ever could have anticipated.
It now made so much sense to me why answering questions back to back had been painful for Draco. The amount of effort and concentration it took to control the dark mark was unbelievably demanding. It was a full time job below the surface of the wearer just to present oneself calmly and without cruelty.
Harry nodded solemnly, taking in my unfamiliar personality with sympathy, "I'm so sorry it came to this Madeleine. This is...well it's not right. We'll do everything we can to find a way to remove the mark, after this is done." He stepped down the decrepit wooden stairs at a snails pace, peering around suspiciously as if expecting a herd of Death Eaters to suddenly apparate around us and take him out.
"It can't be removed, don't be a fucking fool," I spat nastily. My own words shocked myself; I had no attachment to where they were coming from.
I held my arm out, bent at an angle for him to grab. I knew my face was covered with a serious, pained expression. He frowned at me, obviously in shock at my newly transformed state. "You won't go back to him after, right?" He asked, pausing next to me, "After he's allowed this to happen to you?" He searched my eyes with outrage. He was blaming Draco for the fact that I was standing there as a Death Eater.
I felt my face soften and my eyes drifted away from Harry's keen ones, "I will decide dat for myself. You wouldn't understand. Draco is not what you think 'e is." The momentary reminder that I still had love in my heart had brightened me like a spark from a dying lighter, then it vanished without having further stimulus to feed off of. I pawed after it in my soul as it shrunk away from my grasp uncontrollably, and my face restructured itself into a snarl.
"Don' take all night to pout. It's midnight in five minutes," I held my hand straight out to him in impatience. He gulped, and in a second his skin met mine. I shut my eyes and commanded us to Hogwarts where the presence of dozens of other Death Eaters invited my newly established magical permissions to apparate into. The smoke was black and harrowing around us as we twisted away; it felt distinctly like grains of sharp sand against my skin.
When we reappeared in the hallway adjacent to the Great Hall I instinctively slammed him into a depression in the brick wall corridor. There were guards outside of the Great Hall looking lazy and chatting to each other. I bore my eyes into Harry's to command control, "It's time. Are you ready?" We were both breathing rapidly as he nodded eagerly below the pressure of my arm against his throat. His blue-green eyes were watery with trepidation. The flames from my arm were all around his throat, but I at least had the ability to control what matter the fire destroyed upon contact.
I peered over my shoulder at the entry way and then seethed back at him, "Don' attack unless you are sure he won't wait to make a public display of your death later." I pushed harder against his neck to emphasize the point and he nodded again, fighting not to choke on the remaining smoke lingering off of my body.
I took a deep breath, shut my eyes to banish any remaining weak emotions, and when I reopened them my vision had a slightly black tint to it. I felt an unbelievable surge of evil rise to the surface of my skin as I succumbed to the lure of the mark, prickling with horrific and chilling magical energy that combined both the dark mark and the Veela powers. I twisted my fingers in Harry's collar as he watched me transform deeper, looking entirely terrified of the stranger before him.
I walked into the main corridor dragging Harry Potter by the scruff of his neck with a positively lethal expression on my face. My blackened eyes bored into the guards as I approached and a trail of black flames charred the floor beneath my feet. They didn't hesitate to open both doors to the Great Hall, both shooting me shocked gazes.
As we rounded the corner I felt the my heart stop entirely. I was on the brink of losing myself to the dark magic, and I had to pause for a split second to lock away the final sector of my remaining humanity that I could hold onto. Then I stepped between the wooden doors with malice flicking off of my obsidian dress. My hair stood on it's ends around me flowing like a golden river. My eyes were pitch black and the dark flames caught on the empty benches and tables in the vicinity closer the doors. Harry was the only entity in my surroundings that was saved from the scorching that swallowed my entrance.
I ripped him behind me with power and authority, keeping my eyes centered on Voldemort in the distance.
At least fifty of the most esteemed Death Eaters were collected at the heads of the tables, nearest to the end of the hall where the dark lord sat himself, beady red eyes honing in on me. He was situated in a throne of writhing snakes, right over the spot where Dumbledore himself sat at one point in time.
He blurted grotesquely, his long and deformed fingers pointed at our approaching forms with blackened nails. His voice was loud and intrusive in the hall as he pressed the elder wand to his throat, grinning psychotically at his army, "Introductionsssss I think are necessary. Please do applaud our mosttttt powerful member to date, Madeleine Malfoy." All eyes shot to me as I drifted down the isle like a human calamity, dragging their most coveted prize. Harry was tugging at my arm as he fought constantly not to trip on the stone floor and surrounding furniture.
The dark lord continued, "Sheeee who has not only proven herself an influential allyyy, but she who has accomplished what no others haveee." He stood from his seat, black robes flowing around him, and leered wickedly at Harry who was fighting to breathe comfortably in my grasp.
I stuck my chin in the air with arrogance as my eyes landed on the Malfoys, situated not far from Voldemort only a few chairs down. Lucius was still as stone, eyes widened in shock at the girl he had so greatly underestimated. Next to him, Narcissa stared down at the table in horror. And finally came Draco, who's eyebrows were pushed together in inconceivable agony. His face was painted with terror and regret as he watched me float down the center isle like a demon from hell, beautiful, but horribly mutated from the clash of overtly powerful magic in my being. He shook his head and I could see he was fighting back tears, his eyes floating downwards to the table with a trembling frown. His heart was breaking before me and for everyone in the room to see.
Death Eaters on either side leapt from their chairs in the isle to avoid being torched to oblivion as I neared the dark lord. I stopped before the long table that used to house the professors of Hogwarts, and my face contorted in a heartless sneer. I threw Harry forward onto the brick floor of the hall as rehearsed, trying to banish the hope that nothing terrible would happen to him. He fell with a grunt onto his hands and knees, scrambling to a stand. I caught a shocked glance from Draco as I did so and immediately averted my focus.
Lord Voldemort stood before the hall of now staggered and disoriented Death Eaters, chanting and laughing hysterically with his horrifically wide grin at the scene before him. He let belt a slow and threatening cackle, and bent to tangle his unearthly talons in Harry's jacket. He lifted him as though the boy were a feather in his hold, "Harry Potter has, finally, been brought to die." His sharp teeth glinted in the candlelight like a carnivorous dinosaur preparing to shred its prey. Harry gripped at the fabric of his gray hoodie that was now chocking him in the air.
There was a loud chorus of applause and chanting from the crowd in the room, save for Narcissa, Draco, and one Death Eater who had taken it upon himself to extinguish the flames in the lower parts of the pews that I had lit on fire during my dramatic entrance.
Voldemort's beady red eyes zoned in on me next and I bent my head obediently at his attention, flaming on the spot and feeling empty inside from the dangerous levels of magic flowing through my body. I stared blankly ahead at the stone floor.
The slithery voice of the dark lord cooed across the room mockingly, "And, dare we say it, the Malfoy name has been restored, by none other than a newly wedded female." His face swerved to Lucius who was cowering only two chairs down from him, barely making eye contact, "Luciussss, how embarrassing for you. Yet... you may consider this your salvation. This is a most notable contribution that your family has provided."
Lucius managed to squeeze out a weak nod or two before he flinched away. Draco's face was glued to the wall opposite of the scene, looking like he would hurl any moment. He was swallowing over and over again; I could see it in the way his throat was bobbing over the collar of his suit. His fingers were tangled in his dress shirt, clutching to something hard below the fabric in the center of his chest.
I only had a moment to narrow my eyes on him before Voldemort suspended Harry in a frozen state before him, "Take him, Yaxley. We will burn him in three days time, as a symbol of the new rising." I watched as a now familiar man with yellow hair in a pony tail used his wand to guide Harry's frozen torso down the middle of the hall and out the doors, which shut with a booming echo around the room.
Voldemort loomed over me then, and his icy, white fingers tugged my chin upwards. I was sliced by his claws in several spots along my neck as he did so. I locked eyes with his scarlet, serpentine leer, "Well done, Madeleine. Please, join your husband next to us. You have brought your new family great honor this evening." I obliged his guidance and moved around the long table before me. I sunk into the chair next to Draco, who mildly glanced at me before he controlled himself and focused on the wood grain once again. He was pale as a ghost and breathing rapidly.
Without changing my focus from where it was set straightforward, I reached across and tangled my fingers in Draco's dress shirt assertively, feeling for the stone that I had realized was below his clothing. Through the fabric of his dress shirt my family moonstone called to me, filling me with clarity and grounding me for the split second I left my hand there. His blue eyes drifted to mine pleadingly as the dark lord ranted in the background to his followers before us. My blackened orbs connected with his, filled with hatred, lost in the dark mark that now scorched my left arm. ft arm.