The Umbra had a quick meeting several yards away from the strange person who'd appeared from the forest.
"Is this any different than anyone else who wants to join?" Pansy demanded. "Sure, she's an adult, but you want adults to join, don't you?"
"She already knows Hermione is the leader," Blaise shot back. "The others who didn't already know Hermione thinks she's just a leader of a local sect."
"It's possible that she heard from somewhere and pieced things together herself," Theo said cautiously. "Then after watching the ritual, she felt confident in approaching you."
"Maybe she wants to join you because you're a New Blood," Harry said thoughtfully. "That's how she identified you, right? Not as the Valkyrie."
Draco was uncharacteristically silent, looking over at the newcomer periodically as they discussed. The woman who'd called herself Eve seemed content to wait patiently, looking around the woods and baby groves with curiosity and interest.
"Draco?" Hermione asked, drawing his attention back to the matter at hand. She could practically see his thoughts refocus as his silver eyes met hers, and she gave him an encouraging nod. "What do you think?"
Draco was silent for a long moment as he pondered.
"I think," he said carefully, "that she came alone and stayed afterward for a reason."
Hermione gave him a quizzical look, and Draco exhaled slowly, controlled.
"Everyone else just approaches you and joins in," he said, his voice even. "But this woman – she stayed after, and she approached you in private. I think—" he faltered, then took a deep breath to continue, "I think you should check her for a dark mark."
Hermione's blood ran cold.
"You think she might be a Death Eater?" she whispered, looking over at the woman with new eyes.
"I don't think it would hurt to check," Draco said steadily, his voice carefully neutral. "You'd need to ask her questions before letting her join anyway, right?"
That was as fair a point as anything, Hermione realized – she'd let Daphne and Neville get as involved as they had because she knew them, but anyone else would be subjected to a detailed interrogation before learning the secrets of the ley lines.
"Shall we interview her, then?" Hermione asked, glancing around. "All of us? Or just some of us?"
"Just you and a few others, I think," Susan said, looking at the woman. "You want her to feel at ease so she opens up, not like she's at an interrogation." Her smile was grim. "Even if that's what it is."
After a discussion on the matter, Hermione and Harry, Blaise, and Draco went over to talk to the newcomer, while the others finished up and took the ley line home.
"Eve, is it?" Hermione said, approaching the woman once more, the others following behind her. "If you have some time, we'd like to ask you some questions about how you came to come here, if that's alright."
"That's fine," Eve said immediately, and to Hermione's surprise, she gave her a deep bow. "My time is yours."
That was weird, Hermione thought, but the woman was already very weird. What kind of woman purposefully went bald?
They all sat on the ground, cross-legged, and after a moment, the strange woman followed suit, crossing her legs under her overly large robes.
"Why don't we start with you telling us a little bit about yourself?" Hermione prompted. "Who you are, how you came to be here, that sort of thing."
Harry snorted, which Hermione determinedly ignored. Who cared if her interrogation sounded more like a job interview? It wasn't like she knew what she was doing.
The woman blinked.
"I am Eve," she said. "I came here to join you. I walked."
That, Hermione thought, was a very direct answer – one that answered what she'd asked but none of her actual questions.
"Why do you want to join us?" Blaise asked. "How did you hear about us?"
The woman looked thoughtful.
"I don't fully remember where I originally heard," she said. "It might have been from a person? Or it might have been in the paper."
"The paper?" Hermione said, confused.
"Yes," the woman said, nodding. "You have been in the paper many times."
Hermione began to wonder if she was missing something, but Harry was on it.
"Which stories do you remember?" he prompted.
"The first was when she slayed the basilisk," Eve said immediately. "That was the first time I heard of New Blood. Then later that summer, when she testified in the Rookwood girl's trial – she could not say she was Muggle-born while in the Truth Circle—"
That hadn't been in the paper, Hermione was certain.
"—and when she was elected to the Wizengamot," the woman finished, nodding. "Each time, the paper mentioned she was New Blood, and I learned what that means."
Harry looked over at Hermione pointedly, triumph glinting in his eyes, and Hermione gave him a nod of acknowledgement.
"So you are here because…" she prompted.
"To follow you," the woman said immediately. Her eyes were wide, and for the first time, Hermione wondered if they were wide with awe or reverence, instead of something else. "You are the first New Blood of an era. Magic is guiding you and blesses us through you. I want to help and support you however I can."
The members of the Umbra exchanged glances. It was an unusual motivation, but Hermione wasn't sure it was any less worthy than anyone else's.
"What do you think that means?" Hermione finally asked. "To follow a New Blood?"
"To increase magical Britain and serve Magic," Eve said immediately. "To help magical people reclaim their power through rituals." She paused. "It means change. Elevating new people to positions of political power, to the Wizengamot. Stripping away the power of old, unworthy families that cling to it because of their name. You will join the Sacred 28 when you come of age," she said abruptly, her eyes suddenly piercing on Hermione's. "But will you be the only one?"
"The only one?" Blaise echoed, and Eve turned to him.
"Yes," she said, as if it was obvious. "If Magic has returned to bless us, there will be other New Bloods among us – ones that must be found, nurtured, and guided to thrive. They would join the Wizengamot too."
The idea of other New Bloods had never really occurred to Hermione, and her eyes went wide. It was an idea, though – if she could identify Muggleborns with particularly strong work ethics very early, maybe duplicate the admission book Hogwarts had, and then train them on how to exercise their core…
She shook her head, pushing the matter from her mind.
"You aren't wrong," Hermione said, giving the woman a crooked smile. "We're working on restoring magical traditions and ability to people now, planting druid groves, helping the hedgewitches learn new ways to channel magic."
"I support this," Eve said immediately. "I support the ways of Magic."
"Do you?" Harry asked curiously. "Why?"
"I am a witch," the woman said, looking at Harry strangely. "I am a servant of Magic, meant to keep it always pure. Magic speaks through the New Blood, so I will follow her."
It sounded so simple, coming from this odd, bald woman. Her single-mindedness was somehow unnerving, as was her devotion. Hermione could understand people joining because they wanted more magical power – that was a clear motivation – but this selfless 'servant of magic' narrative had her on edge.
"Hermione leads the Shadows," Draco told the woman, his silver eyes sharp. "We are the liminal, the space between Light and Dark."
The woman breathed in deeply, her eyes wide, and nodded.
"This makes sense," she said. "Magic is potential and power, not white or black. You are the Shadows, the shades of gray."
"As such," Draco said, piercing Eve with a look, "followers are required to follow the ways of the Shadows, and only the ways of the Shadows."
At this, the woman went very still.
"Would you be able to swear such a vow?" Draco pressed on. "A person cannot have two masters. Would you swear allegiance to Hermione, and only to her?"
To the gnomon, not to her, Hermione thought uncharitably, but she stayed quiet, watching Draco and the woman.
"I… cannot," the woman said finally. "Not yet."
Draco's sharp intake of breath made Hermione's heart chill.
"Show us," he commanded, and the woman hung her head, ashamed, before slowly pulling back the left sleeve of her robe, and Hermione's hand flew to her mouth, holding in a gasp.
There, on the woman's arm, was the Dark Mark.
It was horrifying to behold.
The Dark Mark did not look like what Hermione thought it would – she'd been expecting a skull with a snake for a tongue, similar to what she'd seen glittering in the sky after the World Cup. And while there was a skull with a snake for a tongue, it was so much more than what she'd thought.
First of all, the skull was decorated with intricate lines and patterns all over it – a sugar skull, Hermione realized belatedly. There were eyes in the skull, too, with heavy eyelashes, though where the eye sockets would be was darkened and black. There was no nose – just the black, open nose cavity – and no lips, just a mouth of teeth. With this skull, though, the tail of the snake was emerging from the mouth as the tongue, while the rest of the snake wrapped up and around the skull in a way that made its scales and coils look like hair. It was incredibly detailed, with dark, dark blacks and shades of gray lightening to clean skin in places.
Some of the lines of the tattoo, however, looked angry. They were a raw-looking red, as if they'd been cut into her skin somehow, or scarred, and when Hermione looked up at Eve in horror, she turned away in shame.
"The Dark Lord—he offered me the option of having my magic affect the mark, too," she said. "There weren't many female Death Eaters, and he'd heard word of me complaining to someone that the mark looked ugly and unfeminine." She hesitated. "I looked at pictures of pretty skull tattoos for weeks beforehand so my magic would have a guide to create something beautiful." She paused, contemplative. "I think if he liked you and you were respectful, you got to pick – you could choose the original, direct mark, or you could meld your magic with the mark to get one that was customized to you."
That was new, and Hermione had never heard of Voldemort doing such a thing before. The idea was fascinating, in an odd way. The design on Eve's arm looked like a muggle tattoo, and with a skull and snake motif, it could probably blend in as a normal tattoo. The angry red lines were all that indicated there was something different with it, and Hermione found herself wondering what other versions of Dark Mark tattoos there were out there.
"Unless you find a way to leave the Death Eaters," Draco said, his voice even, "you cannot join our cause."
Eve looked at him with large, dark eyes, incredulous.
"How does one leave the Death Eaters?" she asked. "Or rather – how does one leave the Death Eaters and live?"
"Why would you not?" Hermione asked mildly.
"The Dark Lord does not take deserters well," Eve said immediately. "He hunts them down and kills them."
"How would he find you?" Hermione asked, tilting her head. "How would he ever know?"
"He can track us with the Dark Mark," Eve told her. "There's not a way to undo the Dark Mark."
Hermione bet that there was – just not an easy way.
"I can help tear the Dark Mark magic from you, potentially," Hermione told her, and the woman's eyes widened. "But more relevant right now is the fact that you joined the Death Eaters at all. The Death Eater ideology runs contrary to what we believe."
"The Dark Lord promised power and restoring magic's greatest traditions," Eve protested. "You have similar—"
"The Dark Lord committed mass murder and genocide, of both muggles and magical people," Hermione said coolly, folding her arms and raising her eyebrows. "That's directly in opposition to what we stand for."
Eve faltered, looking at the ground, then fell silent for a long time.
"What's done is done," she said finally. "I understand you cannot trust me now, not yet, but give me a quest, a task – something I can do for you outside of your cult. Give me some way to prove to you I have changed and will follow you as best I can."
Hermione ignored her calling their group a 'cult' for the moment and bit her lip, considering.
She couldn't just give Eve a task, she knew. Even assigning a task would give away information, let her know that doing a thing was important and a goal. A quest could work, potentially – and if Eve went on a quest and never came back, the issue would be solved, too. But what kind of quest would she even give her? Hermione had already found the Fountain of Youth in the form of a rock, she had no desire for the Holy Grail, and she didn't have a ring that needed thrown into Mount Doom—
Her thoughts immediately screeched to a halt, reminding her that while there might not be a ring that needed thrown…
"I will give you a quest," Hermione announced, standing up. She looked down at Eve. "Do not return to me until you succeed, or you find a way to leave the Death Eaters and remove your Dark Mark."
The woman nodded eagerly, her eyes alight.
"I am collecting the artifacts of the Four Founders," Hermione told her. "You may have seen my photo in the paper over Yule – I have already found the lost diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. Your quest is to find me another." Hermione smirked. "Find me another legendary artifact from the Four Founders – either the Gryffindor sword, the Hufflepuff Cup, or Slytherin's locket," Hermione told her. "Your choice."
Eve nodded rapidly. "I understand. I will not fail you in this. Thank you for the chance. Thank you."
She stood, bowing to Hermione and the others, and immediately began striding into the dark forest, apparently already off on her quest.
Hermione watched her go, then looked back at her companions.
"That was weird, right?" she asked. "It's not just me?"
"That entire exchange was entirely bizarre," Harry said frankly. "I don't trust her."
"Apparently word of your greatness has reached the mental patients," Blaise teased her. "You shall lead armies not only of witches and wizards, but also the mad and insane."
Draco was silent. Hermione turned to him.
"Any thoughts?" she prompted. "You're quiet tonight."
Draco hesitated.
"I think, that just in case," he said, "you should figure out how to get rid of the Dark Mark sooner than later."