A.N- Hi guys! I know that my title is confusing, cuz it's all like "HUH! WHY WOULD SHE NAME IT THAT!" But it will all get normal(ish) later, I hope. For now it's all insanity! (PS this is a weird chapter. If it's blah then review PLEASE and tell me so. I SWEAR I'll change it!) No without further ado……..
CHAPTER NINE- OCCLUMENCY
"Now Granger, I'm supposed to be teaching you Occlumency to block out the Dark Lord. So try and learn this quickly, not as if that's such a hard task for you." I flashed him a look, and he continued.
"The first thing that you do is close your eyes and clear your mind. Stop all emotions and thoughts."
I did what he said. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind as best as I can. "Legilimens!" exclaimed Ferret-Boy, making memories come pouring out in front of me. I had failed, but I still tried to get them to stop. I needed to succeed, but it was too hard after the second memory. I saw my most painful memories and thoughts, and he probably did too.
My face covered in black fur…Harry fighting the Hungarian Horntail…Ron being carried off by a big dog into the Whomping Willow…My mother in the hostpital near death…Dementors coming at me, Harry and Sirius…kids pointing and laughing at me, calling me freak…the reflection of the basilisk in my mirror…and then I fell to my knees. The horror had stopped.
"I…snake…was that a-?"
"A basilisk? Yeah, that was the creature in the Chamber of Secrets," I said, getting up, trying to look like the memories hadn't affected me." "Good thing Harry killed it, am I right?" I flashed him a grin. He was teasing him. He had no idea about any of this, and I knew that right off the bat.
"I noticed that you had stopped after the second memory. You need to try harder Granger."
"I AM trying hard, you insufferable git! This is my first time!"
"Well just try harder. You have to master Occlumency if you want to do this without getting caught, because if we do, it's both of our lives."
I swallowed. He was a hundred percent right, no matter how hard it was to say that.
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"There he is! It's Dumbledore at the staff table!" exclaimed Ron.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "We noticed, you idiot! Do you think that we weren't looking for him too!"
"Oh, right. So we're going to go to him after dinner?"
"That's the plan," answered Harry.
"And rescue Hermione?"
"Yes, Ron!" He was beginning to become a little bit of a pain.
When we rescue Hermione, I will be the hero, and she won't be able to help but fall for me. She will finally be mine. I will be the brave knight, and she will be the beautiful damsel in distress. It's just like in a fairy-tale.
Ron wanted Hermione even more now that she was gone.
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"Professor! We really need to talk to you about Hermione!" exclaimed Harry. "We think that she may be in Malfoy Manor. We also think that it's a trap for me by Voldemort." Ron flinched at the name.
"I told you three to stay out of it. Miss Granger's fine. Mister Malfoy is fine. Hermione is back at home. Something happened with her family. Now please go back to your dormitories."
The three students went back to Gryffindore Common Room, talking. "I think that he's lying," said Harry.
"What if Dumbledore is telling us the truth? Maybe it's just a family matter."
"Hermione would have told us," said Harry.
"No, Ron could be right. If it was an urgent emergency, Hermione could have left too quickly to tell you two. Or maybe it was too personal to share," said Ginny.
"I still think that something is really fishy here."
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It was already an hour-and-a-half, and I had made some progress with the Occlumency thing. I managed to keep Malfoy out for thirty seconds already, which doesn't seem like much, but it's much harder than you think. After another half-an-hour, I had gotten to a full, solid, Malfoy-Free minute. I was really getting the hang out it. Once I was able to get him out for two minutes, but then my stomach rumbled, so it ruined everything.
Once he stopped bringing the memories, I asked, "Time for lunch?"
"Time for lunch," he answered. Malfoy was apparently hungry as well as I was. We made our way into the kitchen, where Bitsy had sandwiches made for us. I reminded myself to thank her later for all of her great work.
The two of us sat at the table across from each other. Not a word was heard from either of us until I broke the silence. "I never really noticed what this would mean. Imagine me showing Harry my mark!"
"I would pay good money to see that! I can picture the look on his face now. Weasel would be yelling about you being a bloody Slytherin or something, Potter would be raving about betrayal. You in your Death Eater's robes! Now that's funny!"
What he said made me finally understand what this meant. I would be a Death Eater. That tattoo would be on my wrist until the say I die, and ever past that. It would be there as I rot in my casket. It was eternal.
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By the next day, I had managed to get Malfoy out of my mind until he finally gave up on trying to bore it. Mind you, it had taken 27 hours to get it, but I finally did. Now the next step was to do it with my eyes open. By the day after that (as I had to sleep) I had mastered that too. Now I was up to the next step: how to act in front of the Dark Lord, and more importantly calling him the Dark Lord.
That wasn't hard for me to grasp. About a week-and-a-half after I grasped Occlumency, Malfoy had deemed me ready to go before the Death Eaters and plea my case. I was to tell them that Harry and I were in a love affair, and he broke my heart. I was to tell Voldemort-sorry, the Dark Lord-that I wanted revenge. I was to tell them all that I was sick and tired of always being in his shadow, and being unknown, even if I was smarted and more powerful than him. I didn't think any of those things, or do any of things, or want any of those things, but I had to say so and I had to convince them that I really meant it too.
Malfoy wrote a letter to Dumbledore telling him that I was ready, who told Snape. Snape took a day off, blaming it on sickness, and coming to these caves to take us to the Death Eater meeting. I was scared as hell, but I had to pretend. I had to pretend that I was really, truly evil. If you think about it, Voldemort would have to believe me. Just look at where Pettigrew is!
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"Now Granger, keep your head up, but show respect to the Dark Lord. Shwo how much you want to be brand. Keep your mind clear and thoughts basic, such as, 'Potter, that arse,' or something that will make him really believe that you want you revenge. Make them all see you in a different light than Potter's sidekick, or that know-it-all Gryffindore. Don't even BE a Gryffindore!" said Snape, before we apparated to where the meeting was to be held.
They all knew that I was coming. Well no, not that I was coming, but that someone from Hogwarts was coming. The story was that I came to Malfoy, as his name gave pretty much everything away, and asked to join the Death Eaters. I had to stick to that story. No matter how it went down, I HAD to get branded. That was how I would show my support of the Dark Lord.
When there will be an attack on Hogwarts, which Dumbeldore will anticipate, I will knock Harry and Ron out. I will throw some curses around, and get myself into the Inner Circle, with help from Nape and Malfoy. Then I will spy. Sounds like fun…
NOT!
I disapparated to wherever with Malfoy and Professor Snape, appearing in front of many Death Eaters, all very surprised to see me. All three of us kneeled in front of the Dark Lord. Snape spoke first.
"My lord, young Draco here came to me with Miss Granger here. I was very cynical at first, but you will find her story very true, my lord. She was shunned by her friends."
"Rise," instructed Voldemort. I kept my mind and face blank.
"Potter and I were having a love affair, when he broke my heart. I want my revenge. I want to kill him. I want to torture him and Weasley. I want them dead! I'm sick of being in his shadow, when I am so obviously smarter and better than the little shit. I want the world to see that I am not Potter's dumb, little sidekick. Please, my lord, brank the Dark Mark upon my skin and make me one of your own."
"She's a mudblood!" exclaimed one.
"She's Potter's friends!" screamed another. I didn't care.
"How much do you hate Potter?" asked Malfoy Senior.
"More than imaginable. He broke my heart, and I will brake him!"
"Why with the Death Eaters?" asked another.
"Why kill him by myself when I can kill him with the mark of the most powerful wizards on my skin?"
"What about your alliance with the Muggle-Lover Dumbledore?"
"What about it? He never gave me the respect I deserved. All I got was to be treated as if I was a child."
"What about your Muggle family? Would you be prepared to kill them?"
"Yes. If I swear to act by the Dark Lord, by the Dark Lord I shall act."
The He spoke. "Would you be prepared to join us now? Would you be prepared to have the mark burned into your flesh?"
"Yes, my Lord. Whether it be now or next week or next year, I will be prepared to be a Death Eater."
"Then come forward, and be bound to us forever."
I walked forward toward the throne of the Dark Lord, my head held high, my thoughts and emotions confined. This was it. It all went up from here. That is what I said in my mind, and I'm pretty sure that he heard.
I put out my bare wrist, ready for the pain. His wand touched my skin, and the words came forth: "Morsmordre."
The pain was indescribable. It was a thousand burning-hot knives cutting into my skin. It was a hundred pins put in the same area. It was the most pain that I had ever been in. But I didn't wince, nor did I cry out. I just stood there; blank, taking the pain as if it was nothing. When I looked at my wrist, there was the Dark Mark. To test it, the Dark Lord touched his wand to his mark, and everyone in the room-including me-felt a stinging feeling right where their marks were. This is where I got the coin idea for the D.A. from. If only they could see me now.
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After that, the meeting had been adjourned, and Malfoy and I went back to Hogwarts with Snape. We were to spy on Dumbledore. The three of us. What a happy thought!
A.N- Like it? Well if you do, than you would review!