Disclaimer: I would have liked very much to have Lucius Malfoy writhing in pain on the floor at the end of J.K.Rowling's books but his character is set as it is, as with many of the other characters, by Ms Rowling herself - I claim no credit for it. I think I may do as I please with Callidus Auceps later on, though grins evilly
Yun Fei: The previous chapter was sort of a background thing for you to understand why certain things happened in the earlier chapters. This one is also slightly draggy with more explanations involved, but I promise the next one will be more action-packed. :) Thanks for reviewing anyway!
Professor McGonagall left Professor Dumbledore's office in a huff of anger. She could not believe how the wise…suddenly, she stopped. Striding towards her along the corridor was a swish of black cloak and unmistakeable blonde mop – the sneer was obvious.
"Good morning, Minerva, I see you have paid the Headmaster a visit!"
"Your cheerfulness is so genuine I could almost feel your optimism radiating," retorted Professor McGonagall, sarcastically. "What are you here for?"
"You sound so vehement this morning, Minerva. It is not good for your health," remarked Lucius Malfoy, with a smirk. "I am here, too, to pay the Headmaster a visit, and will be leaving in a while after I tour my son's school grounds. Albus looks as bright as ever, I must say. My words have not pushed him to the brink," he leant forward rather menacingly. "A sad thing, indeed."
"Nothing good!" McGonagall glared at him. "I suppose, this has something to do with your son's mysterious disappearance?"
"Why, Minerva, the Headmaster was not wrong in appointing you Deputy Headmistress after all. You are wise, indeed, but sometimes even the wisest may be fools."
"Don't think you can get away with the Quidditch incident even though Professor Dumbledore has completely forgotten about it due to the series of events occurring in our school," said McGonagall, seething with anger. "The lies we had to come up with to hide your ridiculous antics!"
"Yes, yes! So I heard!" Lucius guffawed, with an evil glint in his eyes. "That poor Whittington girl. Chewing gum…poor, poor Gryffindor…"
"It was a lie your son started and we have to keep up with it!" Professor McGonagall was restraining herself from hollering down the corridor. "Because we cannot afford to let our students know a Death-Eater is in the grounds of our school interfering with our affairs!"
"Not even…when another will soon live in the grounds of your school?" Lucius asked, rather sickly-sweetly, as he brushed past the pointy-hat witch, leaving her gaping outside the statues that guarded the entrance to the fortress of Hogwarts' Headmaster…
"Hermione!" cried Ron, as the door of the Gryffindor common-room swung open to reveal a pale, but much brighter-looking Hermione Granger. Harry and Ron swung themselves out of the couch and embraced her before anyone else could. Parvati and Lavender giggled at the side and beamed to see her much better.
"Hey," said Hermione, smiling faintly, as she held onto her two friends' shoulders. "How's everyone been?"
"Perfect!" Ginny's eyes danced as she went forward to hold Hermione's hand. "What about you? You just suddenly fainted during Transfiguration, I heard…"
"I'm fine," interjected Hermione, anxious to avoid the topic, though she really wanted to broach the subject of where Draco Malfoy was now. "Err…"
"Then that's all that matters," said Harry, smiling. "Say, will you be ready to go Hogsmeade with us this afternoon? We're planning to raid the candy stores for Honeydukes."
"AND Bertie Bott's!" Neville chimed in.
"Well…" Hermione looked uncomfortable. "Do you mind if I rest this time? I'm still a little – "
"Why, sure, we won't force you," remarked Ginny, as she clasped Hermione's hand. "We just need you to get better."
"Thanks," said Hermione, smiling.
As Ginny helped Hermione to her dormitory, Harry and Ron looked at each other and smiled faintly. In Ron's mind, he still suspected that her illness might be linked to that ferret and he wondered if her mind had been poisoned by thinking too much of him. In Harry's mind however, he was suspecting that although Hermione's faint was linked to Malfoy, somehow something about Malfoy must have been troubling her, and he was determined to find out what, but only after Hermione was in a better state of health…
girls' dormitory
Hermione sat on her bed, alone in the girls' dormitory. She pulled a book at the foot of her bed towards her, then gently dusted the cover. The Legend of Death-Eaters. She wondered for a moment why she had borrowed that book, and it only hit her that this topic had been troubling her for some time even before she had the premonition that Draco was going to become a Death-Eater. Why? OH. She remembered. She wanted to read up more about Death-Eaters so that she could help Harry in his quest to defeat Voldemort. She never understood how Death-Eaters wanted to serve such a dark force like Lord Voldemort.
She opened the book, rather tentatively, as though breaching a very sensitive subject. She remembered how Voldemort tortured Neville's parents into insanity, killed Harry's parents, and murdered Cedric Diggory. How could people want to satisfy his insatiable evil deeds? Worse still, how could Draco Malfoy, someone who was despite being spiteful and cold, want to subject himself to such degradation of being a minion?
"CHAPTER ONE
Death-Eater is the term given to a group of people who willingly give themselves up to the Dark Lord, commonly known in the wizarding world as You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, to be his slaves. They carry out his orders and do his bidding faithfully to the best of their abilities. These Death-Eaters are also known as "servants of death" for they serve death by bringing incapable creatures or defying oppositions to satisfy its need.
The Dark Lord himself chooses his Death-Eaters carefully. His intrinsic selection is onlylimited to that of Pureblood wizards, and these selections will then go through an induction ceremony. Overaged wizards will be inducted separately from underage wizards.
Underage wizards will undergo an induction ceremony whereby one of whom specially picked by the Dark Lord will serve as the leader of the group. Any orders required to be carried out will be transmitted from the Dark Lord to the group via the leader, because the Dark Lord deems the rest as merely slaves that are competent only to a certain extent. The leader will most likely be one chosen to lead even when he grows up to be an overage wizard. It is said that this leader will also have the potential to be the one closest to the Dark Lord in future. Such a leader will only emerge when the Dark Lord deems him/her competent enough. If there is no such character, the underage group will not be inducted until one is found."
Hermione stopped reading until there. Suddenly, her heart pumped faster than usual. Those premonitions I had, she thought to herself, her thoughts running wildly. Why was Draco bending down to the Dark Lord…facing him…induction…leader…
"Oh no," whispered Hermione. "He is the chosen one…that means…he will be a useful spy for Voldemort in Hogwarts…Hogwarts will be in danger!"
She shut the book with a thud.
"But doesn't Dumbledore know?"
Hermione scrambled out of bed, and flung open the dormitory door. The crowd of Gryffindors downstairs suddenly stopped their buzz of noise, and looked up at the sudden bang of the door, only to see a crazy mop of brown curls hanging from the railings above.
"Where is Draco Malfoy?"
Ron let out a vehement snort, while Harry looked worried.
"Isn't anyone going to tell me? I'm not going to faint or anything!" Hermione was very cross and annoyed.
Harry spoke up. "He didn't go to Defence Against the Dark Arts class. Professor Nell (A.N.: new teacher, by the way, he will be introduced in detail later) was hopping mad."
"Yeah," put in Dean Thomas. "I overheard Flitwick telling Sprout that he was missing from Charms too."
Hermione felt her blood grow cold. "He got permission to skip lessons?"
"Who cares about that bloody ferret?" Ron cursed under his breath, then he looked up at Hermione, raging within. "Why do you give a damn?"
Hermione ignored Ron and looked expectantly at Harry instead. The boy adjusted his spectacles rather uncomfortably. "Well…I have no idea…"
As quick as lightning, Hermione Granger sped down the stairway and broke through the stunned crowd of Gryffindors, heading straight for the door.
"Hey, wait, Hermione, WAIT!" and Harry and Ron ran out of the common-room after her. "WAIT!…wait!…w…"
Hermione skidded down the corridor and nearly crashed into a most bewildered Professor McGonagall, who could only make out a blur of brown sliding past and halting abruptly.
"Miss Granger!" Professor McGonagall finally recognised this dishevelled mess of curls. "You are alright!"
"Yes, Professor, much better," panted Hermione. "I…"
"You ought to be resting," frowned Professor McGonagall, but Hermione was in no mood to discuss her condition.
"Professor, I need to ask you something URGENT."
"Yes, my dear, what is it?" Professor McGonagall peered curiously beyond her spectacles, her heart thumping a little faster as she tried to anticipate what this genius of a Granger would be asking her.
"About Draco Malfoy."
Professor McGonagall bit her lip slightly, then looked rather hesitantly at a defiant Hermione. "What about, Miss Granger?"
"Is it true," began Hermione, trying to ignore the fact that Harry and Ron had caught up with her and were standing at the back trying to catch their breaths. "That Mr Malfoy has got permission to skip his classes?"
Professor McGonagall eyed the two panting boys at the back, then looked back at Hermione. "Yes, Miss Granger, but…"
"Why did Professor Dumbledore allow him to?" Hermione looked worried.
"There are some things that you must learn not to question sometimes, Miss Granger, it may only bring more harm to you than you can ever imagine," said Professor McGonagall quietly. Harry and Ron exchanged bewildered looks, while Hermione looked at Professor McGonagall with a mixture of sadness and eagerness. "Wouldn't you tell me? I…I know what he's doing now…I…I can't imagine why he's been given the chance to do it."
"What is he doing?" broke in Harry, unable to control his curiosity.
Hermione hung her head. Professor McGonagall looked across at the boys, her lip quivering.
"He has gone to become a Death-Eater."
Draco Malfoy curled his lip as he saw the flames engulf the screaming woman in the middle of the pyre. The flames seemed to curl around her and upwards, upwards towards the black sky in a twisting spiral of evil. The fire was like the Devil incarnate…wrapping itself around her…burying her cries of pain…and he stood there, laughing, laughing and laughing…oblivious to the misery and terror that lay in the final ashes of the ceremony.
"He takes pleasure in the pain…" the Dark Lord whispered to himself, an evil smile appearing. "Pleasure…"
Draco Malfoy turned, his eyes still glazing from the delirious nature of it all. "My Lord, it is done."
Then suddenly, as though he had been tied to strings, and now the strings were suddenly cut! Draco fell to the floor, limp. Instantly, his strong body began to turn icy pale and it gave a violent shudder. A horrified gasp was heard from the crowd of young slaves, but Draco continued writhing on the floor, as though he was being doused with icy water.
"COLD!" He cried in agony. "Collld…coooldd…cold….I'm soo colldd…some..bo-dy help…mmme…."
Lucius put down his wand, agony contorting his face for a moment, then it became straight again. "One must feel the pain in order to learn."