Ok ok, I know this has come later than I said it would. But I started writing it on the day I said. Last Friday. I just couldn't quite finish it. I'm seriously amazed with the hit counter. Over 400 hits! Anyway, reviews. Yay I got some : )

cherryblossoms21: That was so nice, thank you. It really is so great to have people who enjoy my story. It really helps inspire me to write. Thank you : )

Blahblahblah: If you read on, I don't know if you did as you reviewed at chapter 12, you find that Harry isn't such a nasty piece of work. I just thought that he went through a bit of a jerk phase in Order of the Phoenix and I figured that he may have reacted like that. Unfortunately I can't say whether this is going to be a Harry/OC fic. It finishes in this chapter and I don't think Raid will be with Harry. Thanks for the review though, although I'm a bit worried about the 'or else'. Heh.

Well, this is the final chapter, and it's the longest chapter I've written. Thank you to those who have stuck around to read this story, it's taken a long time. Anyway, I'll get on with it and write a note at the bottom.

Loyalty

Meeting Raid's eye at the breakfast table that morning, as he smirked, smugly over his pile of presents, he knew that she still remembered what was coming for him tonight. The Dark Mark. It would bind him to his master forever, and through his service he would become more powerful than he could ever manage on his own. Draco had often wondered at Raid's defiance in the face of joining Voldemort. His father had told him of Bellatrix's attempt to get Raid to join. It was odd, he thought, that with a mother so devoted to the cause, that Raid would not follow her. However, he realised with discomfort, there was a lot that he didn't know about Raid. Where she had stayed for Christmas, for instance. Despite Voldemort's skills, he could not find where she had been, it was like she had simply disappeared. She had told him she would fight against him, did that mean she had chosen to fight for Dumbledore? Draco scowled. The thought of a pureblood like Raid taking orders from that muggle loving fool did not fill him with glee.

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Draco applied himself to his presents. Books, some new robes, a lovely pair of dragon skin gloves of the highest quality, huge boxes of sweets, and a letter from his father. It simply said, 6.30 pm, Hogsmeade, Hag's road. Bring your broom. Draco stowed the letter in a pocket and collected up his presents, he strode out of the hall with a mixture of excitement and nervousness forming in his stomach. There would be a test, he understood, of his loyalty. He was unsure of what it would be, and didn't really want to think about what it was. It would be better not to think about what he had to do, he decided, it was for the cause.

Draco paid very little attention in any of his lessons that day. All he could think about was what would happen that evening. The fluttering nervousness in his stomach grew with each hour, he tapped his hands and fidgeted constantly. It wasn't until potions when Raid, who had been serenely ignoring him for the past forty-five minutes snapped irritably.

"Will you sit still for Merlin's sake. Or go and fret about your initiation in to a cult of murders somewhere else."

Draco glared at Raid, but said nothing and did try to stop fidgeting. He noticed Raid glare darkly at Snape as he walked past. This interested him, what did she know about Snape? And how? Again, Draco wished he knew more about Raid. The rest of potions passed with Raid stonily ignoring him. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he worked on his strengthening solution. As soon as the bell rang and Snape dismissed them Raid was gone, she joined Harry, Hermione and Ron and began to smile and laugh with them. The nervous feeling in his stomach was replaced for a moment by seething jealousy. Scowling he stalked out of the classroom to dinner. By the end of dinner he had forgotten his jealousy as his nervousness returned with a vengeance. He had barely touched his favourite beef casserole or his chocolate ice cream. As he left the hall, unable to sit still and look normal any longer, he felt Raid's eyes follow him out.

Sweeping in to his dormitory he threw himself on to his bed and lay, staring at the drapes of his majestic four poster bed. All his life, he had prepared for this day. His father had often spoken of it. When the Dark Lord returned, Lucius had said, Draco would enter a great service. He would help to purify the Wizarding race, right by Voldemort's side. Glancing at his watch, he saw that it was time for him to leave. He retrieved his broomstick from the trunk at the end of his bed and also pulled out a shimmering, silvery, invisibility cloak. As he walked down in to the common room and out of the Slytherin dungeons, everything seemed to be more focused, and sharper than ever before. He ignored Pansy calling to him and began to make his way to the entrance hall. Stopping in the shadow of a suit of armour, he covered himself and his broomstick with the invisibility cloak. He savoured the feeling of not being able to see his legs for a moment and then quietly set off in to the grounds of the castle. It did not take him long to reach Hogsmeade. Darkness had fallen and the chill wind that although had settled slightly, still whipped around Draco. Making his way along the shadowy streets, Draco was careful not to bump in to anyone, he had not removed his cloak as Hogwarts students were definitely not allowed out in Hogsmeade after dark. Hag's Road was deserted when he arrived there at just before six-thirty. Glancing around, he shrugged off his invisibility cloak. Almost immediately there was a 'pop' to the left of him, and Lucius Malfoy appeared. He glanced over his son appraisingly.

"Good." He nodded.

Lucius was also carrying a broomstick.

"Come, we must hurry."

He swung on to his broom and pushed off in to the icy air. Draco followed him.

"Where are we going?" Draco asked.

"West," Lucius said.

They flew for about twenty chilling minutes before Lucius began the descent. The terrain had gradually become more and more wild as they had flown. They landed in a clearing in a large fir tree forest. Draco found the closeness in the forest slightly claustrophobic and looked around warily. Lucius glanced around before turning to Draco.

"Son, you are about to enter a great service. If you are afraid, do not show it. The Dark Lord does not accept fear. Do as he says without question and say nothing without being spoken to."

"Yes father." Draco said.

Lucius nodded, and in a rare gesture of affection he put his hand to Draco's shoulder and gripped it for a second. Within moments he was striding in to the forest. Draco followed, carrying his broomstick and wandering what had merited the brief gesture of fatherly concern. What was the Dark Lord going to ask him to do?

Draco could see figures and bright, flaming torches in a clearing through the trees ahead of him. As they emerged in to the clearing he noticed his father had pulled on his Deatheaters mask and hood. Looking around he saw ten other hooded and masked figures talking in small groups. At the centre of the clearing was a chair, tied to the chair was a figure, they were swathed in dark robes and a sack was tied over their head, the nervousness in Draco's stomach increased ten fold. And the with a jolt, he found himself in front of the terrifying figure of Voldemort. He stood, staring for a moment, before dropping to his knee as his father had done and moment before.

"Lucius," Voldemort said, although Draco thought it was more of a hiss.

Voldemort gestured with his hand and Lucius stood, Draco copied his father, but stood with his head bowed, staring at the hem of Voldemort's robes. He did not want to look in to that stark, white face, with the slit eyes and the flat nose of a snake.

"Draco." Voldemort said.

Draco forced himself not to flinch as he heard his name.

"Your father has served me well, and now you will join me and serve me equally as well as he I hope," Voldemort said to Draco.

"Yes Sir," Draco muttered.

Voldemort laughed.

"Few words, good! Well, let us begin." He cried.

The ten Deatheaters formed a circle around the chair in the centre of the clearing. The person tied to it was wriggling and twisting, trying to escape. Draco tried to look.

"Now Draco, kneel." Voldemort said.

Draco knelt at Voldemort's feet, still staring at the swaying hem of his robes.

"This boy will join us tonight." Voldemort said loudly. "He will be the first of many knew members to our circle. With new blood will come new power and new allies. He will be the first. Hold out your left arm Draco."

Raising his left arm he realised he was shaking. Draco tried very hard to quell to the shuddering of his body. He felt Voldemort grasp his arm in thin, pincer like fingers. A wand tip dug in to his forearm, pain lanced through his body, he gritted his teeth. He felt blood drip down his arm to the sleeve of his robe and began to drip on the floor. He barely heard the archaic chant Voldemort was reciting. His arm throbbed painfully as Voldemort carved his sign in to Draco's arm and he felt magic being imbued in to his skin.

Suddenly, Voldemort let go of Draco's arm. Draco opened his eyes, he did not remember screwing them shut.

"Rise Draco, and look at me." Voldemort commanded.

Slowly Draco stood, and with some trepidation, looked at Voldemort, but found himself looking past the deathly white face rather than at it.

"Only a show of loyalty to me will, finish this charm and bind you to me via the Dark Mark. Only then can it burn black."

"What would you ask of me, master?" Draco asked, he found that he could not bring himself to look at his left arm, he could feel it bleeding and throbbing, and he did not want to look.

"There must be a sacrifice." Voldemort cried.

Draco could feel the other Deatheaters excitement, he could feel their smiles. They were all watching him. Voldemort pointed to the figure sitting in the chair. They had stopped moving, stopped thrashing around, it looked like they had given up.

"You must want it Draco, with all you will. You must want to make the sacrifice." Voldemort said.

Draco nodded numbly. This was his task. He must prove his loyalty to bind himself to Voldemort. Turning around slowly, Draco took a few steps towards the chair. He took his wand from his robes. Lucius stepped forward and swept the sack off the persons head. Blonde hair fell in disarray around a pale and thin woman's face. She squinted as he eyes adjusted to the light, then her ice blue eyes locked with Draco and widened at the sight of him. Draco stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the woman he was to kill in horror.

"M…Mother?" He whispered.

"Your mother is a Mudblood Draco." Lucius said.

"But…no.." Draco stuttered.

A few of the Deatheaters laughed, but were silenced by a glance from Voldemort.

"Yes Draco. Your mother was adopted. She is a Mudblood. Think about it, she looks nothing like Bellatrix does she?" Voldemort said mockingly, gesturing to a Deatheater.

Bellatrix removed her mask to reveal her sunken and waxy face, swathed in dark tangled hair. Even if she had been related to Narcissa it was unlikely a resemblance could be found now. Draco just stood staring at his mother. His own mother, was something he had been taught to loathe. It meant that he was not a true pure blood. Draco's world seemed to splinter and crash down around him.

"Show your loyalty Draco." Lucius hissed. "Rid yourself of this taint. Kill this Mudblood."

Draco just stared at those icy blue eyes that mirrored his own. He looked at his father, who had lied to him his whole life. All the ideals, the hatred, what did they mean now? There was a pounding in his ears. Looking at his mother, he knew he could never kill her, or even hurt her. Just as he knew now he could never serve Voldemort. His believe in the cause had been shattered. Glancing to his right he saw that his broom lay only a few feet away from him. Draco made his decision quickly. He turned quickly and picked it up. Some Deatheaters moved to grab him but Voldemort raised his hand and they stopped. As Draco swung himself on to his broom Voldemort called to him.

"Draco!"

Draco turned and for the first time looked Voldemort directly in his eyes. Voldemort said nothing but Draco felt memories stir unbidden in to his mind. He was staring at the drapes of his bed, he was sitting in potions, he was shouting at Raid in a classroom, he was looking in to Raid's deep black eyes. The visions stopped there, focusing on Raid, then suddenly stopped. Draco pushed off hard from the floor, his mind still a jumble of thoughts and emotions. Voldemort nodded to the Deatheaters and they all drew their wands and began firing spells at Draco. He felt the curses brush past him, burning his arms and legs, as he flew as high as he could. Then he felt one hit him in the back, he almost fell from his broom as he felt a long wound open on his back. But he held on tightly and urged his broom to go faster, in the darkness he heard Voldemort's cold voice.

"Leave him, he may prove useful yet."

Raid stared moodily at her plate of half eaten baked potato and cauliflower cheese. It annoyed her that she was still being moody over Draco, this was all his fault. Glancing up she say him leave the Slytherin table and walk out of the hall, she watched him go. After dinner, she and Hermione went to the library to do their Arithmacy homework whilst Harry and Ron returned to the common room to play chess. After an hour and half Raid could not concentrate any more.

"What wrong?" Hermione asked, after she had been watching Raid stare at the same question for the past five minutes.

"It's tonight," Raid said.

"What is?" Hermione asked, looking confused.

"Draco's initiation." Raid said quietly.

"Oh," Hermione said. "Raid listen, there's nothing you can do. You said it yourself, Draco has to understand that if he does this, you wont be with him."

"I know," Raid sighed, "I'm going to go back up to the common room, play a bit of chess, you coming?"

Hermione looked down at her work.

"Yeah I suppose so, I'm nearly done anyway."

In the common room, the girls took their seats next to the window as usual and played chess late in to the night. Hermione beat Raid five times, but she could see that Raid's concentration wasn't with the game.

"I'm going to bed," Hermione said, yawning. "You coming?"

"In a minute," Raid murmured. She was staring out of the window.

Hermione just shrugged and went up the stairs to the dormitory. Raid stared out in to the grounds, as the moon emerged from behind a cloud and lit up the grounds she thought she saw a dark shape plummet towards the ground and hit it with some force. Half standing she leant towards the window, staring hard. She saw a figure half stand and then fall again, the moonlight was reflected off something white- blond for less than a second, but it was more than Raid needed. It was Draco.

Raid focused her power hard and apparated quickly to the spot she thought she had seen Draco land. As always, the effort to bypass the spells protecting Hogwarts left Raid breathless and weakened but she fought it off and looked around for Draco. She lit her wand and scanned the dark grounds for him.

"Draco?" She called softly.

There was a groan to her left. She ran towards it and nearly tripped over a dark lump on the floor. Kneeling, she rolled him over, his pale face had an unhealthy sheen to it.

"Raid," He whispered. "Help…me"

"It's ok Draco, just lie still."

Raid looked him over and saw blood pooling on the floor from his back and also dripping from his arm. With a grimace she lifted his left sleeve and looked at the unsealed Dark Mark, oozing blood. Raid knew she needed to get Draco somewhere warm and get him cleaned up quickly. She saw something silvery hanging out his pocket, his invisibility clock. Pulling it out she draped it over herself. She pointed her wand at Draco.

"Mobilarbus," She muttered.

Draco's groaning form was lifted from the floor. Raid somehow managed to arrange the cloak over Draco and began to make her way up to the castle. As quietly as she could Raid made her way through the deserted castle to the fifth floor. 'What I need' she thought 'is a place to help me.' A very solid door materialised on her right. Raid sighed with relief, she wasn't sure if she had come to the right place.

Once inside the room of requirement she place Draco on the soft bed on his front and cut away his robes covering his back to reveal and long, but seemingly shallow slice in his back. Looking at the jars on the shelves around her Raid found a healing poultice. Draco was unconscious, but Raid thought it would be better to wake him after she had tended his wounds. She gently smeared the salve over the slice and also put some on the open carving on his arm. The potion seemed to stop the bleeding and soon the cuts appeared to start healing themselves. Raid exhaled a breath of relief she hadn't thought she was holding. She went to the door and turned the lock, she didn't think it would be a good idea for people to find them. Pulling up a chair next to the bed, she settled herself to wait until Draco woke up.

Over an hour later, when Raid was nearly falling asleep, Draco stirred, he groaned and his eyelids flickered.

"Where am I?" He groaned as the room came in to focus.

"The room of requirement." Raid said quietly. "Don't move too quickly, you're not quite healed yet."

Stiffly, Draco pulled himself in to a sitting position, he winced as he flexed his arm. His gaze fixed on the scarring wound in the shape of a skull with a snake coming out of the mouth. He found that, as before he could not bring himself to look at it, now he could not take his eyes from it. Raid watched him quietly.

"What happened?" Raid asked softly.

"What do you care?" Draco snapped.

Raid rolled her eyes.

"Doesn't the fact that I saved your life show that I care?" Raid replied.

"I didn't ask you to help me?" Draco snapped again.

"Actually, I think you'll find that when you were out in the grounds bleeding all over the place, you did." Raid said coolly.

Draco looked sullen.

"I'll just go then. Don't bother thanking me." Raid said, her temper flaring.

She rose and began walking to the door.

"No, wait, Raid." Draco said, he began to get up, but stumbled as he got out of bed, gasping in pain.

Raid quickly retreated back to him, helping him back in to bed.

"I told you, don't move too quickly." She said.

Draco sighed dejectedly.

"Raid, I'm, I'm sorry." Draco said quickly.

Raid said nothing.

"I'm sorry about everything." He continued.

"Maybe you had better tell me what happened tonight." Raid said as she settled herself back in to her chair.

Draco fell silent for a minute, unable to form the words to describe what had happened. What he had been told. How he felt he had been betrayed. How he felt that his whole life was a lie. Then he found his voice, he poured his story out to Raid. When it came to telling her about his mother, he found that tears streamed down his face.

"I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it." He sobbed.

"Of course you couldn't." Raid said gently. "She's your mother."

"Don't you see though Raid? Can't you see what this means? I'm not a pureblood! Everything I've believed, all the ideals, they mean nothing, because I'm a half blood as well. I'm a Mudblood." He spat.

"But don't 'you' see Draco? That doesn't matter! None of it matters. It doesn't matter what blood you have or where you're from." Raid moved from her chair to the bed to look at Draco.

"I don't know who I am." Draco said.

"Well I do." Raid said. "You're Draco Malfoy. And no matter what blood you have, or you think you have. You'll still be the sarcastic, arrogant guy I've known. But you've shown me tonight, that I was right to believe in you."

"What am I going to do now?" Draco asked quietly.

"I don't know Draco," Raid said softly. "But I'll be with you."

Draco turned his head to look at Raid in surprise and she captured his month in a kiss. In that moment, Draco knew he was saved. He knew that when it was time for him to fight, he would choose a side, this time it would be the right choice, and it would be with the girl who had believed in him.

Well, that's it, the end. Probably. I know it's a bit of a sucky ending but there are reasons for it. Firstly, I didn't really want to have to write about Sirius dying, he was my favourite character. Secondly, I wouldn't be able to write big battle scenes and stuff I don't think. I just don't think I would be very good at them. But I've got a couple of ideas for a sequel to this, so it mighthappen.I'll work on it. I just wanted to leave it kind of open ended, with Draco turning out to be not such a bad ass, and him and Raid getting back together.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who has read this story, it's really meant a lot to me to have readers. Please, check out my other stories, I'll be able to write them without feeling guilty about this story now.

So, tell me what you think about this ending. I guess I might change it if I can think of a better one, but I don't know.

Thanks again.

J Xx