Granger Danger

(21) - initiation

It was the 28th! Hermione woke up in her bed at the manor by Pansy in her room, shaking her awake. Hermione looked around her room, completely confused.

"Where am I?" Hermione mumbled, rubbing her tired eyes.

"You've been unconscious all of yesterday because of your arm! The dark lord tried to call you by your arm but because you hadn't got your mark yet and you were a mud--muggle-born... the pain went right through your arm where your dark mark would be and into your blood, only infecting it for 24 hours! But Narcissa slipped you a sleeping draught to give you time to rest your body." Pansy explained. Hermione nodded and got out of bed.

"I'll meet you downstairs once I'm dressed. Do we have anything planned today?" Hermione asked, going to grab her brush to brush her messy bed hair.

"Jeez, Hermione, did you forget? It's your dark mark initiation in an hour!" A voice came from the door. Draco's. Hermione immediately dropped her brush and smiled widely as Draco went over and pulled Hermione into a hug, thankful that she was finally up and okay. But, after a few seconds of hugging back, Hermione pulled away.

"Wait.. What!? It's today!?!? OMG OMG OMG!!" Hermione squealed, picking back up her brush from the floor and running to her large mirror to brush her hair. Draco and Pansy chuckled and went quietly out of the bedroom to let Hermione get ready.

Hermione, after brushing her hair and straightening her messy curls (not like it would make a difference), she then started to flick through her many clothes until she found her dark robes that Lucius gave her and told her to wear them to the initiation. So Hermione put on a thin black long sleeved top and dark blue jeans, will the robes over the top. Hermione then slid on her black and white trainers, and went down for breakfast as she hadn't eaten in quite over 24 hours.

"Morning." Blaise muttered while sipping on his coffee. Hermione just groaned tiredly in return. "Not a morning person?" Blaise chuckled, Hermione just glared at him and reached for the coffee machine and a mug.

After breakfast, more and more death eaters were starting to arrive. The initiation was about to begin.

"You ready?" Draco questioned, watching Hermione pace back and forth in a separate room.

"No, I'm about to get a bloody dark mark!!" Hermione hissed, stressed and nervous. Draco walked over and hugged her tight, making Hermione immediately relax and hug back. Then Draco pulled away and kissed Hermione's right hand, stroking the promise ring.

"You'll do great. Just look at the promise ring to remind you that I'm in the crowd watching you. Okay?" Draco smiled reassuringly. Hermione, after hesitating, smiled back and nodded, taking a long breath.

"Hermione Granger!!" The cold, snake-like voice of Voldemort spoke from the other side of the door. That was Hermione's 'signal'. Draco went round the other doors into the crowd to watch and Hermione glanced down at her promise ring and smiled, before opening the large doors and stepping out.

Hermione glanced around at all the shocked faces of death eaters, Voldemort was standing at the front of the crowd and smirking. Some people looked angry, or shocked, or confused, or just curious. Murmurs and mutters filled the large room as Hermione continued to walk up to the front slowly, listening closely to all the mumbles.

"Why is she here?" "Granger? A Mudblood?" "How could the Mudblood be a death eater?" "No, we could do so much better than her?" "She is the smartest witch of her age, she could be a big help!" "Why would she want to join our side?"

The mutters were loud so Hermione could see them clearly. But then a loud shout was heard and everyone turned to face where it came from. "Everyone shut up!!! Just get used to the fact that she is one of us!!" It was Draco, standing in between Pansy and Blaise. Everyone immediately shut up and faced back to the dark lord. Hermione locked eyes with Draco and smiled in a way that said 'thank you'.

"Miss Granger, hold out your left arm." Voldemort demanded, taking out his wand and smirking. Hermione hesitated nervously, but then rolled up her sleeve to show her left forearm.

Voldemort's wand came closer to Hermione's arm and slowly touched it, digging into it slightly. He looked deep in thought. And then Hermione's whole arm started to sting madly, and Hermione had to hold in giving a loud squeal in pain as black stuff started to pour out of Voldemort's wand and start to form on Hermione's left forearm, still stinging badly.

When Voldemort removed his wand, he smirked and nodded once in a way of saying 'it's done, you're one of us'. Cheers and claps erupted around the room and Voldemort went to chat and boss around some death eaters. Draco, Blaise and Pansy approached Hermione.

"You did it." Blaise said, smiling reassuringly. Hermione just sighed and nodded, looking down at the floor and shuffling her feet.

"Hey, you okay?" Draco asked, making Hermione look up at him. Hermione's eyes looked watery.

"Come on, the party just started." Pansy spoke up. Hermione looked at her, looking confused.

"Party? What party?" Hermione questioned, looking in between all three of the Slytherin death eaters.

"Oh! After every dark mark initiation, there is a celebration party or something like that." Draco shrugged. Hermione just sighed again. "Come on, lets go grab some drinks." Draco added.

"I can't." Hermione whispered, looking down at the dark mark on her arm and letting a single tear fall down her pale rosy cheeks.

"What do you mean you can't?" Blaise asked, putting his hands in his pockets casually.

Hermione didn't answer him, she just looked from Pansy, to Draco, to Blaise, and back to Draco. After looking at Draco's concerned face for a few more seconds, more tears fell down her cheeks and she ran to the stairs, pushing past infamous death eaters who were wanted and were supposed to be in Azkaban.

As the three Slytherins continued to scream Hermione's name for her to come back, they quietened down as Hermione slammed her bedroom door closed and jumped onto her bed, sobbing into her pillow. She was crying because of multiple things. Too many things were changing, she just got the dark mark, she has too much pressure on her, her parents were dead, she was scared... Hermione couldn't handle it. Too many things had changed already.

..........

The next chapter: the ball. Pansy, only Pansy, comes to comfort Hermione and persuades her to come downstairs. So Hermione gets dressed and goes to the dark mark ball.