The Dark Lady
Chapter 6 – The Ceremony
By gracie5412


Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter or any of the other charters/places from the book.

Immortal-Dark-Butterfly,
BabyGooGoo2,
Jessica-McConell,
Kendra is cheese,
JKIJ

A/N I want to dedicate this chapter to JKIJ, my best reviewer ever and who somehow is always able to wake up my ideas and get them out onto paper. So thank you!

A/N 2 – so I finally got it done! Sorry it took a while but I've been super busy. Monday I went swimming, Tuesday I had a full orchestra rehearsal (I play double bass) Wednesday I helped back staged with mum's work's Christmas production. Thursday I had an essay to write and tonight I've been at my dad's school 'till eight helping taking kid's pictures for calendars. I'm also in a lot of pain while I write this as someone pushed me over in P.E today and I skidded across the concrete and have skinned all my knee real bad and it has now decided to swell up. This really sucks as I'm wearing a knee length dress for the Christmas concert I'm playing in next week so everyone will be able to see it. Typical, first time I wear a dress all year and I have to hurt my knee!


Hermione woke early that morning eager to add three new names to her ranks. She jumped out of bed and bounded into the shower. He suddenly remembered her conversation with Ginny and Harry and came to an abrupt halt. She washed and threw on a pair of plain robes before going down to breakfast. The dinner hall was almost empty as it was still very early and Hermione was hoping that she would be able to slip out unnoticed. That was not the case though. As she bumped into Ron, Harry and Ginny as she was walking out.

"Herms! Come sit with us!" Ginny smiled and grabbed her arm so she really had no choice. She sat and watched as they all piled unbelievably large amounts of food onto their plates and start cramming it into their mouths.

"So guys what time is this ceremony?" She asked.

"Oh it's not until this evening. Before dinner so I think it'll start at about four. Why?"

"Oh I was thinking that I might go and get a new pair of dress robes for the occasion. Mine are quite old now." Hermione lied as she stood up. "In fact I think I'll go now while the shops will still be quiet." She walked from the room and into her own. She sent an owl to Malfoy telling him to prepare the Ceremony Hall and gather the deatheaters straight away. She quickly hurried into the town and into a new dress robes shop. She quickly found a robe of gold and red that she decided that everyone would like and quickly purchased it.

Back in her room she hung the robes on her wardrobe door before apperating to the Riddle House.

Two witches escorted her to her room. She was dressed in a dark green dress that flowed to the floor. With a velvet bodice and partially see through belled out sleeves. The skirt was made of silk and was trimmed with woven silver. It was the most gorgeous thing she had ever seen. After it had been zipped up and smoothed down the maids started on her hair. Adding pieces of threaded silver and emerald jewels to it.

A half hour later she was finally ready to receive her dark mark. She had decided not to do this in the ceremony as it would take too long and she had to be back straight at Grimmauld Place for two. The mark she received on her left arm was smaller than normal but it was very powerful as spells were put into it so she could activate all the dark marks by just touching it and saying a spell word.

Twenty minutes later the death eaters arrived and started to assemble in the Ceremony Hall. The three teens were taken to a room to the side of the hall to be prepared. They were bathed in water blessed by a priest of the Dark Arts and dressed in the jet-black uniform of the death eater.

The hall glowed orange from the light that the candles hung magically in the air gave off. Portraits of many great men and women hung from the wall and watched the people carefully and silently. Everyone fell silent and stood to attention as Hermione entered the room. She was now wearing a silver cuff around her wrist to cover the dark marks she had. A small silver snake, about six inches in length, wriggled around it with emerald eyes and a ruby tongue, hissing at random intervals. Hermione stepped up on to the raised platform at the front of the hall and started speaking.

"My fellow death eaters, you join me here today as we welcome three more to our army. Day by day we are improving plans, making new ones and finding out more information. You are all blessed to be here today and we thank the great Salazar Slytherin that you are here and able to finish what he started. We ask him to watch over us and aid us as we do it!" Hermione exclaimed and everyone cheered. "Bring in the boys!" she yelled. The door was opened and three boys were pushed out into the crowd. Nervously, they made their way to the front along the gap that the other death eaters had made for them. When they got to the front of the hall they knelt at Hermione's feet.

"Arise boys. Be seated the rest of you." The three boys stood up as everyone else sat down. "We are here today to witness three new members into our family. Boys please draw your wands." They each held out their wand and she took them from them and dropped them into a cauldron that had been placed behind her. The liquid hissed and bubbled for a moment before stilling.

"Boys remove your hoods and roll up your left sleeve." Hermione instructed and the boys rushed to do so. "You boy." She said pointing to the one on the left "You shall be first. Repeat after me. I, John Fin, solemnly swear to serve my Mistress and have total trust in her words and actions. Never will I leave her side or stray from her orders." The boy repeated the words and stepped forward. A man lifted a branding iron and pressed it against the boy's arm. When the iron was removed it left a jet-black dark mark against his pale white skin and no burns were visible.

This was repeated again for the other two boys until all three had their dark mark. Hermione then turned back to the cauldron and reached inside. Its contents had now evaporated. She pulled out the three wands that lay at the bottom.

"Boys your wands have now lost their Ministry trackers, so you are now ready to start your training. A tutor will be assigned to you in the morning. I wish you luck and much knowledge." She smirked at the boys and turned to the hall. "Men, women I ask you to join us for a feast in the dining hall."

Ten minutes later Hermione was in the Entrance Hall with Draco.

"I have to get back, everybody thinks I've been shopping. They'll start to get worried and stuff. Owl me if you need anything."

"Of course Mistress." Draco gave a small bow.

Hermione disapperated with a 'pop' and appeared in her bedroom she quickly changed from her green dress into the robes she had been wearing that morning and went to find everyone. Ginny, Harry and Ron were all sat in the living room in front of a roaring fire. Ron and Harry were playing a game of wizard chess and Ginny was sat in am armchair looking positively bored.

"Hermione! Finally! Did you find something to wear?" Ginny asked as Hermione walked in.

"Er yeh. Wanna come and have a look?"

"Of course. In fact I'll help you get ready."

The two of them quickly went up to her room and Hermione put on the dress robes and showed Ginny.

"Oh my God Herms! You look great!" Ginny gushed. "But you're going to need to take the wrist band off it clashes." She reached over to take it off and the snake quickly darted round and bit her. "OW! What the hell was that" Ginny asked nursing her finger.

"Oh I was trying out a animation spell. I wanted to see if I could get just the snake to move and I think I did it a little strong." Hermione quickly covered.

"But seriously take it off. I've got a gold charm bracelet you could borrow if you want something to wear."

"No. It's ok thanks but I'd rather keep this on. It's special to me."

"So why have I never seen you wear it before?" Ginny asked growing suspicious.

"What? I wear it all the time!" Hermione laughed. "How about I charm it so it's gold for the day then it won't clash."

"Take off the bracelet Hermione." Ginny said quietly, backing her into a corner.

"No." Hermione whispered, looking around for a way to escape.

"Come on Hermione just for a while." Ginny coaxed.

"I said NO!" Hermione yelled suddenly feeling a rush of anger. Red flashed in front of her vision and she knew her eyes had flashed to same colour as Ginny was now backing away rapidly.

"What's happened to you Hermione?" She whispered.

"I don't know what you mean Ginny. I feel fine. In fact better that fine. I feel power." She smiled as Ginny tugged on the locked door. "Obliviate." She whispered and Ginny was thrown to the floor. Hermione quickly changed the colour of her wrist cuff and changed the snake to a phoenix before rushing over to Ginny.

"Ginny are you ok?" She asked looking worried.

"Wh-what happened?" Ginny asked weakly.

"You fell. Don't you remember? You were talking about how perfectly my new wrist cuff went with the dress and you tripped and I think you hit your head. Do you feel ok? Should I get the nurse?"

"Oh no I'm ok thanks Herms." Ginny said as she was helped up.

"Oh gosh. Look at the time we'd better get down to the Hall. The ceremony starts soon." Hermione said and rushed out the door. Ginny stayed still for a moment, something didn't seem right to her, but she couldn't put her finger on what. She shrugged and followed Hermione.

The ceremony went by without a glitch and Hermione used it as perfect time to see if she could figure out who was the key holder as almost everyone was there. It was, of course, impossible to tell and she soon got frustrated and gave up. She noticed that Ginny was still looking at her slightly oddly so she acted as normal as possible and even started a conversation about books for good measure. Pretty soon the night was over and everyone started leaving. Hermione went up to her room to plan her next move for the plan she had discussed a few days before with her death eaters.