Hermione had been back at school for nearly a fortnight before her father sent her the time and date for a Death Eater meeting. Hermione was thrilled to receive the message and instantly vowed to do whatever it took to attend. So far school hadn't proved overly exciting and Hermione was eager for anything that would add some excitement in her life.
In the time since they'd been back the only semi-interesting things that had happened had been in Defence Against the Dark Arts. In the first lesson of the year Umbridge made it clear to everyone that the Ministry believed Harry and Dumbledore were lying, therefore there would be no need to teach any practical magic, her lessons would be purely theoretical. While that made for some boring lessons, her constant dismissal of Harry's arguments regarding Voldemort proved entertaining.
Despite only been back at school a few weeks, Harry was practically a pariah. Even one of Harry's dorm mates, Seamus Finnegan, had accused him of lying and he'd had a go at Harry claiming that his lies had nearly made his mother refuse to allow him to come back to Hogwarts. Seamus's opinions of Harry lying were echoed throughout the school and barely a day went by without someone hurling abuse at him.
The only other glimmer of entertainment Hermione had experienced was a very brief encounter with Draco up in the owlrey. The entire exchange had only lasted a few seconds as he snarled an insult at her, but Hermione had been pleased by the event. The fact that they were alone meant he didn't have any of his Slytherins friends to impress or her friends to wind up, meaning the insult was genuine and wasn't staged to make him look nastier than he was. While Hermione wasn't over keen on being insulted, she was pleased that Draco thought so little of muggleborns and automatically dismissed her because he thought she was one.
Not wanting to let herself get distracted by thoughts of Draco, Hermione dismissed the blond from her mind and gathered up her bag. Heading down to the common room, she found Harry and Ron settled in the corner playing wizard's chess.
"I'm off to the library for a couple of hours." She told the duo.
"Have fun." Ron mumbled, not looking up from the chess board.
"See you later." Harry smiled briefly at Hermione, before turning his attention back to the board.
Satisfied the boys would be occupied for most of the evening Hermione left the common room. Instead of heading to the library however she took a secret passage to the fourth floor and headed towards an abandoned classroom at the end of the corridor. The door to the classroom was locked, but Hermione quickly opened it with magic and slipped inside. Once inside the classroom she relocked the door and pulled her locket out from under her jumper.
"I hope this works." Hermione muttered to herself as she opened the locket and pressed her thumb over the emerald stone.
Hermione felt a sharp tug in her stomach, similar to the feeling of apparition, and for a second the world went black around her. When the blackness disappeared Hermione found herself standing in the familiar room of her father's study.
"You're here." Voldemort beamed, from his seat behind the desk.
"Yes, I'm here." Hermione nodded, thrilled the locket had done its job.
"Before we go to the Manor, I want to talk to you." Voldemort said to his daughter. "Sit down."
Hermione sat down as Voldemort told her all about the letter Lucius had received from Draco. He then told her how he visited the Nott house and tricked Mrs Nott into asking about his daughter.
"What have you done about him?" Hermione asked. While she was angry that her father's instructions had been ignored by Nott, she was impressed by Draco's loyalties to them.
"Nothing, yet." Voldemort replied. "I was wondering if you wanted to teach him a lesson at the meeting. It will show everyone not to mess with you and reinforce my instructions not to speak out of place."
"What do you want me to do?" Hermione asked.
"Nothing too bad, I was thinking using the Cruciatius curse on Nott would be a sufficient lesson."
Hermione nodded as she bit her lip nervously. She'd practised the curse over the summer and knew how to make it hurt, but she'd never used it one anyone and was nervous about doing so. If she messed up in front of the Death Eaters she would never live it down and they would never take her seriously.
"You don't have to do this, if you're not ready." Voldemort said, sensing Hermione's nervousness.
"No, I'm going to do it." Hermione said determinedly. This was her chance to prove she was just as formidable as her father and she was going to grab it with both hands.
"Excellent." Voldemort beamed proudly at Hermione. He understood her nerves, but he was pleased she'd overcome then and decided to show just how powerful she really was.
Voldemort's obvious pride helped settle Hermione's nerves as she opened a cupboard in her father's study and pulled out her long, deep red cloak. Once she had the cloak on, she placed her ring on her finger and waved her wand over her nails, painting them blood red. Satisfied she was ready Hermione placed her wand inside her cloak and followed her father over to the fire where they flooed to Malfoy Manor.
Upon arrival at the Manor, Lucius greeted them both and once Hermione had raised the hood on her cloak they set off for the dining room. Unlike all the previous meetings, where the long dining room table had been in the centre of the room, the room was bare when Hermione followed her father and Lucius into it. The Death Eaters were all standing around the room and Hermione could sense the nervous atmosphere in the room, this was a very different meeting and everyone knew it.
"It has come to my attention that a certain person has been talking out of turn." Voldemort started, walking into the centre of the room. "It has always been understood that what happens in a meeting, stays in a meeting. And I will not tolerate people speaking out of turn, especially about my daughter."
A quiet ripple of conversation went around the gathered crowds and from the nervous looks on a few people's faces Hermione guessed that more than Nott had been speaking about her. She just hoped that the rumours wouldn't go any further and the Order wouldn't hear them.
"Nott!" Voldemort bellowed. "Get out here."
Hermione watched as Nott hesitantly stepped forward, until he was standing on front of her father. With his silver mask in place and his hood up Hermione couldn't see her face, but she could imagine the fear that was etched onto his features. A second later she could see the fear as her father reached forwards and tugged the silver mask off his Death Eater before throwing it to the floor in disgust
"You've been speaking out of line, Nott." Voldemort hissed, his voice low and dangerous. "You're wife knows about my daughter."
"I'm sorry My Lord, it just slipped out." Nott apologised. "I didn't mean to talk."
"It's too late for apologies now." Voldemort shrugged. "You must be punished."
Nott hung his head and waited for the punishment to occur, but to everyone's surprise Voldemort backed away before walking over to his daughter and standing beside her. Voldemort gave Hermione a little nudge and a reassuring smile as she stepped forward. Hermione nodded at her father before she sought out her mother in the crowds, after a reassuring nod from her she strode purposefully into the centre of the room.
Making sure she had the entire room's attention Hermione slowly withdrew her wand and pointed it at Nott. The Death Eater gulped nervously, but to his credit he didn't attempt to shy away, he merely stood in front of Hermione waiting to receive his punishment.
"I'm sorry, My Lady." He whispered, his quiet voice clearly audible in the silent room.
Hermione nodded in acceptance of the apology, before steadying her arm. "Crucio!"
Nott dropped to his knees as the pain coursed through his body. Hermione kept her wand pointed firmly at the writhing man, knowing she couldn't show any sign of weakness. She was sure her father's curse would have been far worse to endure, but she was clearly causing Nott some pain and more importantly all the Death Eaters were watching her ruthlessly torture a man without flinching.
Hermione continued to torture Nott for nearly ten minutes. A couple of times he cried out with the pain and Hermione was surprised to find the noises gave her a warm glow inside. Eventually deciding Nott had been punished enough, Hermione dropped her wand.
"Let that be a lesson to you all." She announced to the room. "We will not tolerate people speaking out of turn."
Turning around Hermione nodded to her father, who was smirking proudly beside Lucius. Voldemort stepped forward and after reminding the Death Eaters once again to keep quiet about their business, and more importantly Hermione, he dismissed them. As the Death Eaters left several of them bowed respectfully at Hermione as they passed her on the way to the exit.
"I think people will think twice before gossiping again." Lucius chuckled once the room was empty.
"Yes, I think they will." Voldemort said. "That was very impressive Hermione."
Hermione pushed back the hood of her cloak and beamed at her father and Lucius. "Thank you."
"I take it you enjoyed it." Voldemort said, taking note of his daughter's exhilarated expression.
"Yes." Hermione nodded. "It made me feel so powerful."
"As long as you remember not to abuse that power." Voldemort told his daughter. "It's all very well using your power to keep people in line, but you must be careful not to over exert it. You want people to be wary and possibly a bit scared of you, you don't want them to hate you. People who hate you are more likely to turn on you and betray you."
"I understand." Hermione nodded. "While you need to punish the bad behaviour, you also need to reward the good."
"Exactly." Voldemort smiled at Hermione, pleased she was learning so quickly. "You should probably be getting back to school. I've got a few more things to discuss with Lucius, so tell your mother I'll be back in an hour or so."
Hermione nodded and said goodbye to her father and Lucius before making her way back to Lucius's study. From there she flooed home and took off her cloak and replaced it in the cupboard. She then removed her ring and placed it with her cloak and removed her dark nail varnish, leaving her nails clear of any colour.
Before heading back to school she found her mother and passed on her father's message. She also took a few minutes to talk to her mother, who expressed how proud she was of Hermione and how strong she had appeared. Thanking her mother, and making arrangements to write soon, Hermione opened her locket and transported herself back to school.
Once back at school Hermione stayed in the empty classroom for nearly ten minutes, calming herself down and trying to stop smiling. If she went back to Gryffindor Tower so obviously hyped up, Harry and Ron would ask questions and as much as she loved to read she doubted an evening in the library could get her so stimulated.
Eventually Hermione had calmed down enough to sneak out of the classroom and head back to Gryffindor Tower. When she arrived in the common room she found Harry and Ron in the same corner, looking as though they hadn't moved. When she approached them, they seemed surprised to see her and were quite shocked when she told them she'd been gone for a good couple of hours.
Leaving the boys playing chess, Hermione said goodnight and headed off to bed. Once she was in bed, with the ruby hangings drawn around her, she lay awake for hours reliving the night's events. After tonight she'd surely proven herself to her father's followers and hopefully that would make things easier in the future as she became more involved in her father's plans.