DISCLAIMER: All things Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling.

A/N: Yes, I am starting another fic again. I can't help it, it's another one of those ideas that just bashed me over the head and demanded to be written.

-- Blind Game Again --

The Lestranges' trial had just ended when suddenly the world went fuzzy and Bellatrix found herself standing alone in a room full of unmoving, time-frozen people.

Thin fingers closed over her wrist. She turned and found herself staring into Dumbledore's eyes, which were - for once - not twinkling but burning with intensity.

"Do you want to save your master, Bellatrix?" he asked, his voice grave.

She nodded dumbly, not trusting herself to speak. Why would the old fool be offering to help her, to help the Dark Lord...?

"Listen carefully. I am going to send you somehwere. I've set up an alias for you." He pushed something into her hands, a set of keys by the feel of it. "Everything you need will be provided, including a secure bank account. While you're there, you will need to burn your Death Eater robes and keep your Mark hidden at all times. Once you've gotten settled in, you will go to the local orphanage and adopt and raise a child called Tom Riddle..."

She didn't understand how this would save her master, but she would do anything - ANYTHING - to help the Dark Lord.

"Do you understand?"

"Yes," she answered.

"And you are willing to do as I've said?"

Again, "Yes."

"Very well then. I just need a drop of your blood on this paper..."

"I have to sign a contract in blood?" she asked incredulously.

"No, my dear," he answered, smiling indulgently. "Without your blood, the shikikami isn't enough to fool the dementors. But with the, ah, flavor of your aura about it, they will not realize that it isn't you... at least until the spell wears off and it reverts to a paper doll. It will be years before that happens, though, and by that time it will be too late for them to track the path of the spell that sends you... where you need to go. Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Alright, then, just a drop of your blood here... Good."

What had been a simple piece of white paper cut in the shape of a person moments before now looked like it could be Bellatrix's identical twin. It grinned at her - her own leering, sadistic grin - and she jumped away from it, startled.

"They will not realize it isn't you", indeed. The thought was tinged with sarcasm.

"And-"

Time started again.

-tbc-

A/N: Reviews are love.

+braces self to answer the question "What's a shikikami?" fifty million times+ (75 pts if you already know.)