A/N: I forgot to mention that this story was written for the Gauntlet challenge on MNFF, which meant I was writing blind, following a series of prompts. Because of this, there are a certain amount of loose ends.

Big thanks to my loyal reviewer, princess-of-all-things-sweet!

Padma followed quickly after Draco's bobbing silver head as it weaved among this maze of squalor, this time heading down to the bowels of the house. He walked faster and faster, forcing her to trot to keep up.

"Where are you going?" she hissed.

"Back rooms." He did not turn his head, move his eyes, or indeed to anything to acknowledge her presence. Still shaking slightly from shock, she dropped back a little. I did it. I actually did it. She glanced down at where she knew the mark to be. I'm a Death Eater.

Draco finally slowed his footsteps, head turning like a snake as he peered through the gloom for the room he searched for. An expression of relief crossed his face as he pushed open a door into an empty room.

"What is it?" asked Padma curiously.

"Nobody's here." He walked over to the table, flinging himself down into a chair so hard she heard it crack. As Padma's eyes travelled around the room, she realised that they were in an old kitchen. Cobwebs draped themselves between cupboards, their arachnid occupants waiting patiently for the next prey. Padma pulled out a chair and sat down, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

"So," she said, after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, "how long have you been here?"

He raised his head slowly, disbelief evident in his grey eyes. "What is wrong with you?" Taken aback, she could only stare. "You've just been made a Death Eater. A Death Eater. Don't you have any idea what that means?"

"Yes," she managed, snatching at her composure with fumbling fingers. "It means I have a chance of survival for the war ahead. It means there is a slight possibility that my family won't all die. It means I can compensate for my sister's idiocies."

His blank gaze did not leave her face. The numb despair she saw in his eyes began to unnerve her.

"You have no idea," he croaked. "No idea of what it's like. Can you imagine being forced to kill people because he says to? And if you don't do exactly as you're ordered, he … he…" Draco shuddered and turned away.

Padma was astonished. She didn't know Draco very well; to her, he was merely a rather obnoxious presence in another House. According to Parvati, he was rude, overbearing and narcissistic, although that wasn't the word Parvati had used. I doubt she could even spell it, Padma thought snidely. Immediately, she felt ashamed of herself. She didn't want to keep those ill feelings towards her sister, but old habits were harder to shake off than a Manticore.

She mentally pushed her train of thought back on track. Draco Malfoy. He certainly wasn't acting the way she remembered from school. His cockiness was gone, replaced by fear. Padma was still musing about this change and the implications it could have for her when the door opened.

Snape stood in the doorway, his face partially obscured by the usual greasy strands.

"The Dark Lord requests your presence, Miss Patil," he told her. "Draco! Sit up, and don't forget you're on door duty!"

"Yes, sir," she heard Draco mumble as she left the room.

"Do — do you know what the Dark Lord wants from me, sir?" she asked tentatively as she ran up the stairs after him.

"To see how useful you would be as a Death Eater, of course," he replied. He spared a glance down at her. "You didn't think you'd just join and that would be that? You'd immediately be part of his inner circle?"

"Of course not," Padma said, her heart sinking. Stupid, she scolded herself. Of course that was only the beginning. Now you're marked as his and can't escape.

"Useless Death Eaters tend not to last very long," he informed her, a shadow of a smile flitting over his sunken cheeks. Padma immediately began to formulate the many ways she could be of use to him.

He stopped outside the same room she had met the Dark Lord in last time. "And lying ones last even less time," he whispered as she entered. Padma's stomach contracted.

This time, only the Dark Lord was in the room. He turned from the window at the creak of the door, and waved a long-fingered hand (a skeletal hand, such as the Grim Reaper might have, it seemed to Padma in her frightened frame of mind) dismissively at Snape.

She stood awkwardly just inside the door, trying to keep the terror from her eyes and her thoughts from her mind.

"What special knowledge or service do you hope to offer the Dark Lord for giving you the honour of being among his followers?"

The question was sudden, unexpected. Padma groped wildly for an answer, all those she had thought of coming upstairs suddenly seeming weak and flimsy. The answer, when it came, surprised even her.

"I have a sister in the Order of the Phoenix." Her trembling fingers began to twist together, sweat making them slip and slide.

"And that should make me trust you?" The Dark Lord walked closer, his eyes looking into hers and seeing her mind. She felt bare, naked even, in his presence.

"We're twins. Identical twins." Her words came faster now, twisting and jumbling in the effort to convince him. She forced her fingers apart and held them at her sides.

He stopped a few feet away. "Go on," he hissed.

"It's very hard to tell the difference. I could — I could take her place without people noticing, if I was careful." Her hands gripped the sides of her robes tightly, tearing the cheap material.

"You will betray your sister for me?"

Padma looked away, feeling physically sick. Would I? Would I trick my sister, lead her into imprisonment and maybe death? Can I pay that price?

Then the words of her sister came back to her.

"Padma, I've got great news about the Yule Ball!" Parvati came running into Ravenclaw common room, giggling happily.

"Really? Did you ask him?" Padma was fourteen; young, naïve, and with a huge crush on Harry Potter.

"Ask who? Oh, Harry?" Parvati smiled. "Sorry, sweetheart, he's going with someone else."

"Who?" Padma asked, broken-hearted and on the verge of tears.

"Me!" Parvati leaped up and twirled around the room. "Can't you see it, Padma? Me, dancing with the Hogwarts Champion!" She continued on out, pausing to call over her shoulder, "You're going with Ron Weasley! You know, Harry's friend? I'm sure you'll love him. Suits you so much better."

It was at that moment that Padma had begun to hate her sister.

Padma looked up, hatred burning in her eyes.

"Yes."