Lady Darkness: Era Obscurum

I don't own Harry Potter...still don't. Wait! Nope, still don't.
I was waiting for this chapter for ages, so I really hope you like it! This chapter only focuses on the main parts of the two weeks, before skipping straight to the best bit! Hope you guys like it, especially the part with Ginevra Devia Weasley, that surprised you, didn't it?

Dedicated to: Everyone who reviewed!


FOUR

Don't Believe What You See

It was Monday, the day that we would be testing our potions. Ginny was quite indifferent about the whole process, but I was feeling very anxious. What happened if the antidote didn't work? I would be doomed, cursed even. I mentally chided myself, raking a hand through my extremely curly hair. I shouldn't be so worried, I trusted my Mother's potions skills and that was all I should need to re-assure me.

"I have a feeling that something unsettling is going to happen today," Ginny had groaned at Lunch, clutching her stomach. Harry shot her a pitiful look and kissed her cheek, before consumed his conversation with Ron. Ginny turned next to me and murmured, "It's a Seer instinct, probably nothing."

I nodded, dutifully, but I couldn't help but feel a bit twitchy as well. After Lunch, we headed straight to Potions. Everyone was eager to test their potions, and Mother told us to fill a flat bowl with water and drop a pinprick of blood and two tablespoons of the potion inside the bowl. Then we were supposed to record the results that showed up. Then she waved us off to do everything by ourselves.

I picked up the antidote and redid the actions Mother had shown us, and Ginny and I crowded around our shared flask. Sure enough, Hermione Granger flashed up, followed by my 'parents' Mark and Jean Emily Granger. After I managed to record ten generations of my fake family, I rinsed the bowl and handed it to Ginny. She smiled and then started on her own procedure.

I turned around and watched Harry and Ron crowd over their own potion, and Ron scratch his head, weirdly. I raised an eyebrow, thinking about how much he resembled a gorilla, when I heard a breaking of glass behind me. I whipped around, and saw Ginny looking around at the spilled potion and broken glass that surrounded the table. She looked very flustered...

"Miss Weasley," Mother strode over to our table, "What happened over here?"

"I-I slipped," Ginny said, blushing scarlet.

Mother raise a brown eyebrow, just like I had and then studied Ginny's face, "Well, Miss Weasley. I expect you to be in my office after dinner, and then we can run another test and make sure you don't...slip."

Her resemblance to Snape was uncanny, and I shuddered, before helping Ginny clean up the mess.

After Dinner, Ginny went to Mother's Quarters and I stayed back in out longue, and started working on my project. My theory was if I managed to duplicate four objects, making them emit lasers I would be able to analyse Azkaban. Basically, it would create a force field around the prison, analysing everything like an X-Ray. With that, we'd be able to locate the weak points in Azkaban and where the prison cells were.

I had just started my little project, when Ginny burst into our Quarters. I looked at her, "That was very quick."

"She took a pinprick of blood and then wouldn't show me the results," Ginny sighed, looking troubled, "She looked...shocked."

"Don't worry about it Ginny," I waved off, giving the red-head a comforting smile, "I'm sure it's nothing."

"Thanks Hermione," She smiled, "But I'd suggest you don't believe everything you see."

---

It was Saturday in our second week when Mother called us both to her Quarters. When she told us this at the entrance to the Great Hall, her tone wasn't exactly light. She sounded grave and very serious, as if it was a situation of life or death. The last time I saw her like that, she was grieving over Father's death...which she had to experience twice.

We met her there, of course and we made ourselves comfortable on one of her sofas, while she sat opposite us. She gave us a small smile, "Girls, I'm going to tell you a story, a very long one. Can you please bear with me, and keep your thoughts until the end?"

"We'll try," Ginny replied, her voice shaking the slightest. Passing it off as a Seer instinct, I nodded and watched as Mother leaned back on her separate couch.

"It all started near the end of the First War," Celena said, "Molly Weasley, or as she was known back then, Molly Ravenclaw was my older sister. A few years ago, I had proclaimed my disappearance, when I had actually gone off and married Tom, in secret. She was devastated, I bet if she knew I was teaching here, she would come immediately."

She smiled through her tears, laughing, "Anyway, Molly was part of some sort of Order. She was given the job to seduce Tom and get as much information as possible. It was easier than she'd imagined, but she didn't know why. Molly had disguised herself as me and Tom had believed the illusion. He managed to...to...impregnate her, and Molly obtained information that Tom knew about the prophecy."

"Once Tom found out what had happened, he apologised profusely to me," Mother wiped her tears, "And I managed to forgive him, knowing that he hadn't meant it. Eventually he found out that Molly had given birth to a baby girl, which was actually his. So, as soon as she was born, he brought her here. She was nameless and had no name, so we adopted her as our own; caring for her like we cared for Hermione."

Ginny looked a bit sad, "I-Is she me? The girl, I mean."

"Yes," Mother nodded, sadly. I looked at her, gobsmacked and Mother finished her tale, "We named her Ginevra Devia Riddle. We had all the paperwork and everything. Then, the day Hermione returned from her Aunt's place, we found Ginny gone. Empty crib and everything! H-Hermione never even got to meet her half-sister, because she was claimed as Ginevra Molly Weasley. It was ironic that we had chosen the same name, but I was so cut off from the Wizarding world that I never really thought about the differences."

"So," I said, a bit shocked, "Ginny is my half-sister and she is actually a Riddle, who was then written off as a Weasley?"

"No," Celena shook her head, "You can't re-write a birth certificate, the magic doesn't allow you to. Ginny, your birth certificate only had Ginevra on it. Only the mother's name was filled, not the father's. There's another thing, though, every descendant of Salazar has a birthmark of a snake, which is invisible until the person acknowledges their past... "

Ginny was in tears, not sure how to react. I gave her a sisterly hug, and her voice cracked, and she looked at Celena, "Y-you're my mother...my adoptive mother?"

Mother nodded, her eyes watering again. Ginny turned to me, her blue eyes wispy. "Mione, y-you're my sister..."

"Yes I am," I laughed, my own eyes misting up.

Don't believe what you see – that was what Ginny had said and Merlin was she right!

---

It was Thursday and I reflected on the past five days. It had been a mix of emotional outbursts, more boring classes, forced outings with Harry and Ron – which were put in place so that we didn't seem like we were completely secluded – and extreme scheming. After that tale, Ginny and I had become closer, and were acting more like sisters every day. Mother often said we acted like twins, because whenever you saw one of us, the other was always close behind. I guess it was because we...supported each other in a way. We all went through changes and loss, and we needed someone who would stand by...

I sighed as I exited our Astrology class. It was free period and I was determined to see if the results Artemis brought back were good. I had finished my project a few days ago and immediately sent it off. The results should've been in today, which gave us three and a half days to plan our entrance route. It seemed a bit too rushed and not planned enough, but this was our best opportunity. Who knew when our next Hogsmeade trip would be?

Slowing down enough for Ginny to catch up, we grinned at each other and made our way to our Quarters. Once we were away from all the other students, I hissed to Ginny, "The results should be in by today."

"You told me that yesterday," the red-head snorted, fingering her Slytherin Clip and waving it in front of the door, unlocking it.

I plastered an offended look on and gasped, "Oh really!? You don't say? I suppose you haven't been blabbering about how difficult the third part of the potions is?"

Ginny play-punched me and grinned, "Hey, do you want to see the results or not?"

I rolled my eyes, grinning and headed straight to Artemis's owl stand. Sure enough, my gold-tipped owl was preening her feathers, right behind a large picture of Azkaban. There were several different colours, ranging from dark to light. It wasn't a perfectly clear photo, but it was exactly what I was looking for. I grabbed Mother's book on Azkaban and positioned the piece of paper exactly on top of the real Azkaban.

Ginny looked over my shoulder and I pointed to an extremely dark patch, "That is the weakest point in Azkaban, we'll enter from there."

I traced my finger to a large block directly in front of it, "It's quite an advantage for us, because the prison cells are located right in front of that. There are quite a few dementors, so we'd have to find a way to get past them and into the main part, where all the people are, and then we'd have to exit. Our original plan was to create duplicates, but that would take too much time."

"And," I smirked, "It would do us some good to stir up some...trouble."

Ginny rolled her eyes, but looked down at the map again, "So, your Mother can cover for us, saying that we're making up for the broken potion and she can get us two port-keys, one to just outside Azkaban and the other to your Manor, right?"

"Yup," I nodded, "But, the hard bit is figuring out how to get in and out without being confronted by Dementors."

"Well..." Ginny blushed scarlet, "I haven't actually told anyone, but when I was at the Burrow...in your first year, I was extremely bored so I found Percy's Anamagi book and managed to work through that...I-I don't know how I did it, since it's supposed to be extremely hard and some people over 30 can't even do it..."

"Not to worry," I grinned, "You're not alone...Mother taught me when I was ten as well, when I was determined to bring Harry Potter down."

"Good to see things haven't changed," Ginny smirked. "But who would've taught, the two daughters of Voldemort managing to become Anamagi at the age of ten."

I smiled, tracing my elaborate snake birthmark on the top of my shoulder. I looked up to Ginny, who was still smirking, her own birthmark on the side of her neck showing off against her red hair.

"Well, you did say not to believe what you see!"

---

"Are you sure you can't come?" Ron whined, as he kissed me on the lips.

"Sorry Ron," Ginny replied, "But I have to re-do the Nemus potion, I really want to come, but Professor Ravenclaw said that it was my punishment."

"What about you, Mione?" Harry asked, invisibility cloak in one hand, "You don't have detention or anything, right?"

"No," I said, combing my brown hair, "But imagine how lonely Ginny will be! Her detention is only half the day and most of the people staying behind are Slytherin seventh years."

"Icky," Ginny muttered, sticking out her tongue, childishly. Harry laughed at the action, and kissed her goodbye, before leaving with the rest of the group.

As soon as they were out of sight, I turned to Ginny and sneered, "I'm going to need a lot of soap after all this is done."

"You and me both, sister," Ginny laughed.

---

The air whirled and the room disappeared, being replaced by a black, stormy night sky. The portkey in my hand disappeared into the air, and I turned to Ginny. We were both dressed in huge black cloaks, which made it look like we had no face. We had appeared right in front of the place marked on my Azkaban 'Map'. Nodding at each other, we both concentrated very hard on our Anamagi forms and I felt my body tingle.

I looked down at my Anamagi form, feeling a bit too big. I had transfigured into a very slinky, curvy tiger. Only, unlike most tigers, my fur was coal black with darker stripes running around my skin. I suppose it was to help me blend in more. I turned next to me, where a very red fox was crouching down. I suppressed a laugh, it was so...Ginny...the skin of the fox was the same shade of Ginevra's hair and she had the same coal black eyes and black tipped tail.

I waved my paw, determined on casting a strong disappearing spell. It took me quite some time to figure out how to do wordless and wandless magic in an Anamagi form, but after six years, I managed to master it. Soon, we were barely visible, but I could feel Ginny's presence behind me. I turned to the block of wall and concentrated hard on making it a passage.

After a while, we managed to get past all the heavy wards and slipped through the passage. Immediately we found ourselves standing in front of Dementors, who were wisping around, looking around the walls. Unfortunately for us, the disillusionment spell took that moment to wear off, and soon we found ourselves face with three dementors.

"They are humans," I heard one Dementor hiss. I never knew that Dementors could talk! Quickly pushing the thought away, I growled a low sound.

The Dementors floated closer and I looked around, panicking. On my right I saw Ginny transform back to her original form and I realised that there was no hope escaping, so I turned back into my cloaked figure.

"Trespassers," the second Dementor said, "Let us attack them..."

"No!" I blurted out, before I could help myself. "You cannot hurt us."

"Why can we not?" The third Dementor asked, slightly annoyed.

Ginny, who was in a more practical mind than me, said, "We are here to offer you our services in exchange for something else."

"What exactly is that?" The third Dementor asked, and I could almost picture its eyes narrowing dangerously.

"Are you or are you not faithful to the Dark Lord?" I asked, snapping out of my thoughts.

The first Dementor spoke, "If you must know, we Dementors will always be faithful to the Lord, forever. Despite what the ministers speak of us, we are faithful to the Dark Lord."

"Good," I hissed, pleased. "We are the daughters of the Dark Lord and we are here to avenge his death."

"Liars," The three dementors chorused, "You lie! The Dark Lord did not have any daughters! He did not even marry!"

"That's where you're wrong," Ginny said, removing her hood. "We can prove it; behold the mark of Salazar Slytherin."

She pulled back her red, curly hair to reveal her perfectly shaped birthmark. The Dementors inspected it, before having a silent conversation. Then they turned to us, bowing at our feet, and the second Dementor spoke, "We are now faithful to thou, we shall alert all Dementors not to harm you, please do as you wish."

As the Dementors floated off, Ginny and I exchanged shocked news. That had gone better than any of us had expected. We sure had a story for Mother when we got back. Quickly we replace our hoods and entered the large cells. We had gotten past the Dementors, but now it was time for the next part: Rescuing the worthy Death Eaters.

---

The room had a sort of musty feeling around it. We both quickly put our hoods on, before looking around at the rows of sleeping prisoners. Most of them were for silly reasons, and we soon came to realise that the further the prisoners were, the more dangerous they were. We quietly tiptoed to the end of the very long cell and I fingered the key the Dementors had provided us, as a 'token' of their appreciation.

The very first person I saw was Bellatrix Lestrange, and I knew we had to free her. We spent a few minutes calculating who we would free – anyone who was in Father's inner circle and was very trusted. After a few minutes, we took the key and unlocked the very first cell, Bellatrix Lestrange's. The wild Death Eater jumped up immediately, her wand in her hand (the prisoners had been allowed to keep their wands, as the cells were magic-proof, another mistake of the Ministry) and her eyes flashing dangerously.

"Calm yourself Bellatrix," I said, smoothly, "We are here to free you and the other Death Eaters."

"And who are you?" She snapped, eyes narrowed, "Why should I trust you?"

"We are freeing you, are we not?" Ginny replied, starkly.

Bellatrix was still very suspicious, but followed us as we unlocked every other cell we needed. Soon Father's inner-circle consisted of Bellatrix Lestrange, Reynolds Nott, Goyle and Crabbe Sr., Rudolphus Lestrange, Celso Zabini and a few other death eaters. There were two other cells that were situated near the top of the corridor and I eyed them. I unlocked the first one, and the eyes of Lucius Malfoy snapped open.

"Who are you?" Lucius asked his tone as imperial as ever.

Ginny sneered, "Who cares? We're helping you escape, so I suggest you don't ask any questions yet."

The next cell held to boys, one blonde and the other one dark skinned. I watched them stir in their sleep and the blonde one looked at me and then all the Death Eaters with wide icy-blue eyes. I smirked behind my cloak and murmured, "Well, if it isn't Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini."

"Huh," Ginny snorted, as she watched Blaise from the corner of her eye. I rolled my eyes, not wanting to get in the middle of Ginny and her 'boy feuds' and unlocked the cell with a swift click. Draco watched us warily, but quickly made his way next to his father, and Blaise did the same. I turned to them, sharply, an evil smile playing on my lips.

"Grab hold of someone else," I commanded, "We are going to Portkey to somewhere...safer."

All the Death Eaters quickly held on, not wanting to be left in Azkaban, and I felt the prison fade around me, being replaced by the familiar ball room of our Manor. I strode over to the stairs, followed by Ginny. I waited as everyone got familiar with their surroundings.

"This is Ravenclaw-Slytherin Manor!" Bellatrix screeched, "How did you find this place?"

"I was born here, of course," I sneered.

"Who exactly are you?" Lucius sniffed, watching us, shrewdly.

I snorted and at the same time, Ginny and I took of our robes. I was dressed in a dark green outfit and Ginny wore a similar design, in black. (Pictures below) At that moment, chaos broke out. I smirked as I watched everyone yelling out at random times and whispering to each other. Reminded me sort of like Hogwarts, when I let out the troll.

"Granger...Weasley..!" Draco shouted.

I collapsed on a red throne-like chair and Ginny smiled a malicious grin, "Actually, if you don't mind, we prefer Miss Hermione Cassandra Riddle and Ginevra Devia Riddle."

All hell broke loose, Bellatrix started screeching about liars, Draco started hissing to Blaise, Lucius started muttering with Nott, and everyone else shouted out random questions, not believing a word that we had told them. Suddenly Lucius's cool voice interrupted everyone, "If you were truly the Dark Lord's daughters, you will have the Slytherin's birthmark."

I raised an eyebrow at the smug blonde, before stepping forth. Ginny turned to the side, parting her curly hair to show off her own birthmark, while I flashed my right shoulder. The whole room quietened at the sight of our Slytherin birthmarks. I smirked, darkly, "Any more questions?"

When nobody said anything, but was attempting to recover from their initial shock, Ginny took over, and addressed the whole crowd, "With the help of our Mother and you, we shall find a way to resurrect our Father, if it is the last thing we do. This time, the world will be plunged into eternal darkness and Potter and Weasley will not disrupt anything."

Ginny's face turned dark, so I quickly summed everything up, "Feel free to make yourself at home. Some of the doors are charmed for privacy, so do not attempt to open them. We have to leave soon, because Potter and Weasley are currently in Hogsmeade, so we have to be quick."

At that, most of the Death Eaters scrambled, eager to see the new Manor, but there were only four Death Eaters left. Ginny and I exchanged looks, and regally descended the white stairs. We were first greeted by a very calm Lucius, who looked at us, "So, you are the daughters of the Dark Lord, I would have never guessed, but nevertheless it is a pleasure."

He kissed both of our hands, before disappearing as well. I turned to Bellatrix and nodded, and she greeted us a bit warily, "I am very sorry for anything I have done to disrespect you; it is a great pleasure to meet you."

"All is forgiven Bellatrix," I interrupted, "After all, you were one of Father's best Death Eaters, he told me so himself."

That seemed to make Bellatrix extremely happy, because she scampered off to choose her room. Then I whirled around to see the remaining two people – the people we knew as Malfoy and Zabini. Blaise had a sort of charming look on his face and Draco had a bit of a confused face. Apart from the main changes, it was good to see that Azkaban hadn't changed their good looks.

Not that I thought that they were good-looking.

"So," Malfoy drawled, "You're the daughter of the Dark Lord?"

"Yes," I replied, in an identical tone, "Father just didn't want to reveal us yet."

"Hm," Draco said, thoughtfully, "Well, Riddle, I guess I will be seeing a lot of you."

"Malfoy," I retorted, "Good to see that things haven't changed."

I turned to wear Blaise was kissing Ginny's hand, making my sister blush a very, very dark shade of red. They were smiling and flirting with each other, just like Ginny did with almost any other male that reached her 'standards'. I rolled my eyes and then looked at Draco, who had the same look as I did.

"Idiots," we said at the same time, and then I turned sharply to him, a smirk tugging at my lips. I cocked my head, innocently and added, "I guess it wouldn't be too bad, now that I don't have to constantly pretend to be an idiotic know-it-all mudblood."

"You took the words right out of my mouth, Riddle." He flashed me his signature smirk.

I snorted, "That's not going to work on me, Malfoy."

I signalled for Ginny that we should be going and she sighed, reluctantly. I turned to Blaise who waved us goodbye. Draco was still studying us and then he said, "I still can't believe the Weaslette and the Mudblood are actually Riddles!"

"Don't believe everything you see, Malfoy," I winked, before disappearing from the room.

Don't believe what you see...


DON'T BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE

Thank you so much for all the reviews! I loved writing this chapter, as I got to make it really dark! Hope it wasn't to rushed and dark for you...and Draco is finally in the picture! Yay!

Okay, so here are the links for the outfits, replace 'dots' with actual dots and etc.

Ginny:

Www (dot) oliviasobsession (dot) com (slash) dg_short_black_dress (dot) jpg

Hermione:

Www (dot) prom-dresses2009 (dot) com (slash) wp-content (slash) uploads (slash) 2009 (slash) 03 (slash) 61 (dot) jpg

Okay, a bit confusing, but my profile won't co-operate, so you'll have to work with this. Otherwise, just search 'short green dress' and 'short black dress' and then use your imagination!

FashionStarlet, xx

BlackWerewolfOfPurpleRoses – Me too! That's why this chapter was my definite favourite!

Mindreader24-7 – I'm glad you are! :)

SciFi Lover 87 – Hehe, I'm sure this chapter answers that for you...

Leanora – Aww, thanks! I like your stories too!

Shadow-The Black Queen – I didn't know that! O_o – oh well, you did say that Intelligence is a Weapon (actually I said that), and thank you for that AWESOME review! It absolutely made my day!

Nature lover 95 – Well, I'm naturally evil, so I don't need any inspiration...hehe, well you got your Draco (wait, MY Draco) in this chapter!!

Anangelwithnoname – I know, hey! This one is shorter, though!