The Dark Lady (Blamione)

Grimmauld Place

The summer passed all too quickly for Hermione's liking and before she knew it she was packing to spend the last week of the holidays with the Weasley's. Ron had wrote weeks earlier asking if she wanted to spend almost a month with his family, but Hermione had written back and said a week was all she was able to spare. Hermione wasn't overly fond of having to The Burrow go anyway, but after talking with her father she accepted it was for the best. Firstly she needed to keep up the pretence of being a muggleborn and secondly she would be able to pass valuable information onto her father.

Over the summer they had kept a close eye on the newspapers and Voldemort was thrilled that the Ministry were denying Harry's claims about his return. Most people seemed to believe that Harry and Dumbledore had lost the plot, much to Voldemort's amusement. While Harry was coming across as an unstable young wizard being influenced by Dumbledore, Voldemort had arranged for the Dementors to pay him a visit. The subsequent incident had ended up in him having to attend a hearing to determine whether or not he was able to return to school. Eventually he'd been cleared to return, but the entire incident had left him looking even more unstable.

After packing her new school books and equipment Hermione set about packing her clothes. When she was at home she favoured dark, well-fitting clothes but at Hogwarts and when she visited her friends she wore slightly baggier clothes and favoured light, pastel shades. Overall the Hermione that attended Hogwarts, dressed very differently to the daughter of The Dark Lord.

Hermione had just finished packing when there was a knock on the door. Shouting for whoever it was to come in, Hermione beamed widely when her father entered the room. Hermione had spent all summer with her father, learning new spells and advanced magic from him and attending Death Eater meetings.

"Are you all packed, princess?" Voldemort asked.

"Yes." Hermione nodded. "I just wish I didn't have to go right now. I could be staying here and learning more magic."

"We'll have plenty of time for you to practice some more magic." Voldemort chuckled at Hermione's enthusiasm to learn new spells. "Right now, I need another set of eyes and ears within the Order."

"Another set. Who's your other spy?" Hermione questioned.

"Severus." Voldemort replied. "I'm still not sure if I can completely trust him, but he did inform us about Dumbledore reforming the Order."

"I guess." Hermione frowned. She still didn't completely trust that Snape was on their side, considering he'd spent years in Dumbledore's pocket.

"Anyway, enough about Severus. I have a present for you." Voldemort smiled at Hermione as he handed her a small dark blue box.

Hermione eagerly took the box from her father and opened it. Nestled on a bed of sapphire satin, lay a silver heart locket on a long silver chain. Hermione picked the locket up and turned it over in her hands.

"It's beautiful." She smiled. "Thank you."

"This is how you'll get home to attend meetings." Voldemort explained, opening the locket and revealing an emerald heart on one side and a ruby heart on the other side. "When I've set the meeting time, it'll appear on the back of the locket."

Voldemort shut his eyes and Hermione felt and saw the locket glow. When she turned it over there was an inscription on the back of the locket. The lettering simply read 'Hermione' and once Hermione had read it, it disappeared.

"Impressive." Hermione nodded. "But how does this locket enable me to leave Hogwarts?"

"I've enchanted the stones inside." Voldemort said. "All you have to do is be in a secluded place and when you press the emerald heart it will transport you to my study. From there you can floo to Malfoy Manor and attend meetings. When it's time for you to return to school you just press the ruby heart and it takes you back to the exact place you left from."