A/N: Apparently I've got a lot of hits- but you guys aren't reviewing! Only ForeverRain did (thanks)… Come on! I know you can do it!
I'm going to try to work some more cliff hangers in, so stay tuned!
Disclaimer: Yeah, I could pass for JKR… if I was about thirty years older…
My initiation was two days later. It was me, the Dark Lord, Severus Snape, and Bella. I had groaned when I had learned of this. Four people were needed to complete the magic in the ceremony, and they had to know who was beneath the hood. Anyone at my ceremony, if captured, could tell my name to the Ministry.
That's why the Dark Lord had chosen Bella- he thought that pureblood family rarely betrayed pureblood family. Right. Look what I had for a brother.
His other choice, Snape, made me wary. When Sirius and I had gotten along, he had told me of this slimy, greasy-haired git. I didn't want a part of tormenting him, but I had laughed along with the others as he had explained each and every detail of that week's prank.
I had also heard that the Dark Lord was considering him as a double agent, to pretend to work for Dumbledore and spy on us. That was just who I wanted at my back – a liar and a traitor.
Ah, well. Beggars can't be choosers. Together, we joined hands and chanted strings of meaningless ancient words that I had only just managed to memorize in time.
Then, the Dark Lord offered me his hand, and said, in English, "Do you accept this noble task and all that comes amongst it?"
I hesitated. Nessa… what would she think of me? I shook my head to clear it of its thoughts and put my hand in the one offered.
Instantly I felt pangs of pain running up my arm. I hear a cut being made on my middle finger, and quite possibly the Dark Lord's as well. The blood mingled together, and his squeezed through my veins and ended near my left forearm. He touched it, and immediately it blackened.
I had recieved the Dark Mark. I had become a Death Eater.
Bella enveloped me in a hug, but somehow, her usual warmth was gone. It was replaced by a grim, cold satisfaction. I almost started crying, for what I had lost, and what she would never have. I managed to pull myself together and steel myself for the Dark Lord coming towards me, smiling but, like Bella, it wasn't real. It was an imitation, and nothing more.
I wondered what kind of group I had just joined.
Next, I would be sent on my first assignment - to find and persuade my old Potions teacher to join our side.
If he didn't, he would feel the pain I had felt when I lost Nessa.
I had been told that he had a wife and a child.