Disclaimer: I do not own the wonderful world of Harry Potter… it all belongs to the genius JK Rowling. Well, except for the plot and whatnot… that would be all mine. Also, I took the name from a song by Danzig.

A/N: I have come to the conclusion that I will not be continuing my stories on my old account, 'Natalia Malfoy'. I may include some of those storylines or even some of the chapters in this story. I have a few ideas but I'm not sure how it's going to work out yet. I hope I'm not disappointing any of the fans of those stories but most of you probably forgot all about them since I haven't updated in so long. Anyway, I hope you like this… please review!

A/N #2:This is now the Prologue instead of Chapter 1.

Blood and Tears
Prologue

Tom Marvolo Riddle. His name haunted her. No matter how hard she tried to get him out of her mind, he kept coming back. He is the one that made her do it. She had refused. Refused until he had brought back the nightmares. She would do anything he told her to as long as he would make the nightmares stop. She did not want to give in to him. Not again anyway - especially not this time.

Ginevra Adara Weasley threw the bloodstained diary across the bathroom. Tears were streaming down her face. Her arm was killing her. The pain. The pain was killing her. She could not stand it. She just wanted it to go away. She looked down at her arm. The Dark Mark burned into her pale skin. She hated the way it looked. How pale it made her look. She hated everything about it but she hated Tom even more for making her do it. She didn't even remember how she had gotten it. She had given in. She knew that. How he had gotten it on her was a different story. She had no idea. No memory of it. None at all.

She had woken up that morning feeling excruciating pain. Her arm had felt as if it were on fire. She could barely even move it. Then she had seen it. The Dark Mark. Voldemort's Dark Mark. The sign of the most feared Wizard in history. She was not his follower. She was his enemy but Tom did not want it that way. He wanted her on Lord Voldemort's side. His side.

A knock on the bathroom door startled her. She quickly pulled down her sweater, hiding the hideous mark. Before opening the door, she cleaned up her red face with a quick charm, hoping whoever it was would not notice that she had been crying. More knocking.

"Just a moment!" Ginny yelled as she turned the doorknob.

Hermione Granger, a seventh year Gryffindor and friend of her older brother, was standing in front of her looking worried. "Merlin, Ginny! I was beginning to get worried. You had been in there for such a long time!" she scorned. Hermione had the tendency to look after nearly everyone as if she was in charge of them… even though she wasn't. She was not picked to be Head Girl and it was really driving her mad. She was going around telling everyone what to do as if she were really Head Girl. Ginny had been getting most of it lately since everyone else in Gryffindor had already told Hermione off.

"Sorry," she mumbled. Ginny gave Hermione a slight smile and rushed off to the Common Room, forgetting all about the diary she left behind.

Lord Voldemort. Draco hated that name. He hated how that name had determined the majority of his life from the very day he had been born. He hated the fact that he had almost no control over his life. No control over anything, really. The only thing he controlled were his women… who he had in his bed and how long they stayed there. Even that was becoming boring to him. It did not make him feel as powerful as he wanted. He wanted to control something more. He yearned for control of his life.

Draco was sitting on the edge of his bed, looking intently at the silver carpet of his room. His mind was replaying the events of the past year, over and over again. From his horrid Death Eater initiation during the summer holidays to just that very afternoon when Ministry Officials and Aurors arrested Lucius Malfoy for association with Lord Voldemort. His mother owled him immediately, telling him every frightening detail. He rolled up his left sleeve and lightly outlined the Dark Mark with his fingers. He laid back onto his black sheets, still eying the mark carefully. He sighed and closed his cold grey eyes; sleep fell upon him immediately.

Draco Lucius Malfoy had woken up one morning from hearing the sound of a loud crash coming from somewhere outside his bedroom door. He stretched out on his black silk sheets before he finally sat up. He ran a hand through his gorgeous platinum blond hair before he cautiously stood up. He dressed in his nicest outfit before throwing on his most expensive new black robes. He slicked his hair back with a hair gel made especially for him and with one last glance at the mirror, exited his enormous bedroom. He heard another loud crash and a woman's terrified screams. Draco closed his eyes tightly as if it would drown out the sound of his mother's screams. It didn't. It never did.

When the sounds ceased, he continued on his way to the first floor of the Malfoy Manor. He walked down the elegant staircase into the front hall. He went through a door at the very end of the hall and found himself in the Malfoy's enormous dining hall. The room was empty when the teenage boy entered; sighing, he sat down at his usual seat. Out of an unnoticeable door come two house-elves with trays full of food. They sat the trays on the table in front of Draco, bowed, and left the room quickly and quietly. That is how it always was in Draco's home, the house elves feared his father and even though the boy had never laid a finger on any of them, they were frightened of him as well. He slowly took the covers off the food dishes – all of his favourites were there. Not as if that made him feel any happier.

He sat there as he ate wondering why his father had been throwing things again. It was obviously something that had upset his mother because she rarely talked back to father – she knew better. Before he could even consider taking anymore of the food, the doors to the dining hall burst open revealing a very livid Lucius Malfoy. Draco winced inwardly; he hated when his father was angry. Lucius smirked at his son, as if he was proud, as if Draco had, for once, pleased him somehow. Draco was becoming worried – his father had never actually been proud of him. "It is time, my son," was all he said as he signalled his son to follow him down to the dreary dungeons.

Draco had not even bothered to question his father. He knew that if he was being sent down there for some kind of punishment it would be far worse if he said something on the way. As if Lucius had been listening to Draco's thoughts he said, "You'll be taking the Mark tonight." Draco quietly gulped. He believed in the cause the Death Eaters worked for but parts of him did not want anything to do with it. He saw how his father had to live in fear of being caught or worse - killed. He shook all the worries out of his mind and concentrated on following his father down the many stairs and corridors leading to the horrid dungeons.

Over the years, Draco had learned to stay out of those dungeons at all costs. When he was merely six years old, he had wondered into them during one of the many Death Eater meetings that had been held in the very same place. Draco remembered that day clearly, even though he despised the memory, as if it had just happened recently. The thoughts did not leave his mind that quickly. He had been beaten until he was unconscious, his own father had used an Unforgivable Curse on him, and he been forced to watch them rape and kill a helpless young Muggle girl who could not have been much older than Draco. Lucius stopped walking and Draco looked up, worried about what he was about to witness. Draco had not thought it was strange that they were holding this meeting in the early morning; he knew it would end up going on for hours, non-stop abuse, torture, and pain… Draco involuntarily shuddered inside at the thought.

Draco felt his insides tighten as his father opened the door to the dungeons. It made a horrible creaking sound that had always haunted Draco's thoughts. Lucius motioned his only son to continue to follow him. They walked straight into a room packed with fully cloaked men who were known as Death Eaters, Lord Voldemort's loyal followers. You could not tell who was who because the cloaks hid their entire bodies, even their faces and hands. He would not even know who was there until they were ordered to remove the hoods – if that even happened. Draco looked around the dark, dingy, bloodstained dungeon. Besides the cloaked figures, there were broken bottles, dried blood, and who knew what else the rest of it was.

Among the dried blood, he knew some of his own blood was lying on that very floor, dried up and forgotten by the person who had done it. Lucius Malfoy - he had absolutely no heart. Draco's eyes finally fell on his dear mother and he became frantically worried – even if he had not shown it. His mother never went to the Death Eater meetings – and never would – even if it was her own son's initiation. Lucius Malfoy would never allow it. Women were not allowed to see these sort of things… it just was not proper.

Draco sat up. He was sweating… shaking. He shut his eyes tightly as if that would keep the memory from continuing to invade his thoughts. When the memory had begun to fade out of his thoughts, he opened his eyes, scanning his bedroom. It was a single room instead of the dormitories the other students lived in. He loved having so much privacy. Being Head Boy really had its advantages.

Ginny sat in the library, flipping through a book on Potions. She had to study for a huge exam Snape was giving them next class but she just couldn't focus. She sighed and closed the book.

"Ginny?"

The voice pulled her out of her 'trance'. She turned around and saw Lavender Brown standing behind her. "Oh, hey," Ginny said. "Do you want to sit down?" she asked. Lavender nodded and sat down across from the redhead.

The two Gryffindors sat in silence. Silence, silence, silence. It made Ginny very uncomfortable. She cleared her throat, hoping it would make Lavender say something… anything. Lavender looked up from her hands, which she had been staring at since she had sat down. "Oh, right," she started, "I was just, you know, wondering…" Lavender looked uncomfortable, even more than Ginny. "Just say it," Ginny said, now becoming agitated. "Oh, yes. Do you know if… Ron… likes anyone?" she finally managed to ask. That's it? Ginny thought, rolling her eyes. All that uncomfortable silence I had to endure for a simple question about Ron!

Ginny tried to cover up the irritated look on her face by smiling but the look on Lavender's face proved that the smile hadn't worked. "I'm sorry, Ginny," Lavender said, nervously. "I just thought you might know… since he's your brother, you know?"

Ginny nodded. "It's alright, Lavender. I really don't know but I'm almost certain he's single. Why don't you just ask him yourself?" Ginny said as she gathered her books. "Bye, Lavender," she said quickly, hoping to get out of the library before the girl could ask any more questions.

When Ginny finally returned to her dormitory in Gryffindor Tower, she laid her books down on her bedside table. She reached under her pillow, looking for a certain 'book' but felt nothing. She looked around the room frantically, hoping no one had found it. The diary's ability to let whoever wrote in it communicate with Tom Riddle was ruined but Ginny still felt a need to keep it with her always since she had gotten it back in her third year.