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Chapter 26: Exile

Lily Potter sat in the Wizengamot court room, her eyes widened in shock. She expected it to be possible, but she had hoped that her speech the previous day would have persuaded enough members of the court not to vote for Malfoy. Yet, Lily couldn’t deny what she saw. Lucius Malfoy had somehow, some way, become Interim Minister of Magic. Lily watched with disgust as Lucius rose to his feet, with a pleased smirk on his face.

“Thank you fellow wizards for understanding that we need to maintain the stability of running the Ministry like it always has been,” declared Malfoy in a triumphant voice. “I feel you did an admirable job in understanding the importance of the old families maintaining control of the Ministry, as these new radical muggleborns would strain and then collapse underneath the pressure of keeping up the stability of the Ministry of Magic. I hope that as your Minister, I will eliminate any and all threats to the stability of the respect of the entire Ministry of Magic.”

Lily rose to her feet and walked towards the exit of the Wizengamot. Truthfully, she didn’t need to hear any more of Malfoy’s carefully constructed rhetoric. Lily had an ever growing feeling of dread that the time until Voldemort decided to just take all of his forces and roll over the Ministry was greatly reduced by Malfoy becoming interim Minister. As her steps quickened down the corridor of the Ministry, Lily wondered how much longer the world had before they were greeted by the return of Voldemort. As Lily stepped towards the exit, she heard the sound of someone just Apparating a few hundred feet behind her.

“Leaving so soon, Mudblood?” taunted an all too familiar voice. Lily spun around and peered towards the shadows, to see a female figure cloaked completely in black with a Death Eater mask obscuring her face. Yet, the black hair poking from underneath the mask and her voice left no question about her identity.

“Lestrange,” said Lily in a cool voice, as her eyes narrowed at the figure and she pointed her wand forward, ready to defend herself at the slightest hint of an attack.

“Ah pleased to see you remember me, Lily,” taunted Bellatrix in a happy voice. “It’s always nice to see that my victims know who they’re about to be tortured by.”

Lily’s eyes just narrowed coolly.

“I think Azkaban deprived you of what little bit of sanity you did have, showing your face in the Ministry of Magic,” said Lily, as she held her wand forward with a steady hand. “All these Aurors here, you’re bound to be caught soon.”

“Oh, the Aurors shouldn’t be much of a problem, after all, they are around the area of the Wizengamot courtrooms, acting as security,” said Bellatrix. “Leaving the rest of the Ministry quite unguarded and unmonitored.”

Then, without warning, Bellatrix fired a silent organ explosion hex straight at Lily’s heart. Lily’s reflexes kicked in, all her years of training as an Unspeakable of the Department of Mysteries coming back to her, putting a shield up which caused the curse to strike the shield. The curse shredded the shield to bits but stopped any lethal damage.

Lily shot a series of razor sharp ropes from her wand in an attempt to detain Lestrange. The insane female Death Eater stepped to the right, before throwing a cutting curse at the ropes at a ninety degree angle, which sliced the ropes into dozens of pieces. Lily used this momentary distraction to dart behind Lestrange and blast a set of iron manacles from her wand. The manacles spiraled towards Bellatrix and caught her unaware. They snapped shut on her legs, causing her to fall flat on her face.

“Sorry, Lestrange, but you’re going to have to do better than that to beat me,” said Lily as Bellatrix struggled to get to her feet but her legs were bound.

“Crucio!” shrieked Bellatrix desperately, but Lily was ready, causing a stone shield to materialize in mid air. The Cruciatus Curse ricocheted off of the stone, flying back at Bellatrix, who barely had time to throw herself out of the way and out of the path of the returned curse.

Lily raised her arm to knock out Bellatrix but the insane woman still had another trick up her sleeve. Before Lily could counter, Bellatrix sent a bone breaking hex aimed directly at her wand arm. The curse struck Lily’s arm at full blast, which caused her to fall to the ground in pain. She wouldn’t have been surprised if it had broken every bone in her right arm. It was fortunate that she trained herself to use her wand with both arms.

Lily shook off the momentarily pain and rose to her feet, but Bellatrix had managed to melt the shackles. Bellatrix watched as the Mudblood cradled her arm with a wince of pain before aiming her wand a bit shakily with her left hand.

“Normally I like to stick around and play but….AVADA KEDAVRA!” yelled Bellatrix at the top of her lungs.

A green jet of light soared towards Lily but the muggleborn witch quickly and silently levitated a small section of the floor, which blasted into bits and caused Lily to fly backwards. Lily landed on the ground with a thud and she remained unmoving

“Finally, the Dark Lord will have to accept me as his most trusted servant,” said Bellatrix, as she looked down at Lily’s body, under the assumption that she was dead. “I finished the job he started all those years ago. He’ll have to reward me for…”

Lily pulled herself shakily up to her feet, the stone floor section having absorbed the majority of the impact, and in a snap sent a cutting curse right towards Bellatrix’s face. The curse split her Death Eater mask in half and also opened a large, gruesome gash slightly to the left of her right eye. Another centimeter or so, and Bellatrix would have lost an eye.


Bellatrix barely had time to regain her composure. She looked up at Lily, as blood gushed from the gash right next to her eye, as the Mudblood pointed her wand towards her with a nearly sadistic expression on her face.

Lily pointed her wand, forward and sent Bellatrix hurtling towards the wand with a very powerful silent Banishing charm. She watched Bellatrix wince as a result of the velocity she was sent flying in the wall. She had been waiting for this moment for eighteen years, to get revenge on Bellatrix for killing her parents the summer before her seventh year at Hogwarts. Lily used her wand to hoist Bellatrix into the air and fling her directly towards the other side of the room. A large crack echoed throughout the room as Bellatrix awkwardly plummeted to the floor.

Bellatrix’s eyes were glazed over and she watched her foe walk forward, with a murderous glint in her eyes. Bellatrix felt the closest thing she had felt to fear in years but she wasn’t going to let a Mudblood get the better of her.

Bellatrix pointed her wand upwards and set a couple dozen razor sharp thick arrows cloaked in an ominous black light right into the ceiling above Lily’s head. The ceiling began to crumble above Lily, which mandated that she had to take her attention off of her revenge and start blasting pieces of debris away with her wand to avoid being flattened.

“Sorry to cut this short!” yelled Bellatrix, with blood splattering from her mouth as she spoke, with the cut on her face also oozing. “I hope you won’t feel too flat!”

Bellatrix sent a jagged black light towards Lily before disapparating in a flash. Quickly, Lily blasted one of the stone pieces of debris at Bellatrix’s parting shot, causing the stone to blast into pieces. Lily waved her wand, slowly the descent of the debris. Despite the fact that Lily was battered with a bruised face, torn robes, and a few lacerations, she managed to disapparate before the room, despite its magical reinforcements, caved in and crushed her flat.

Meanwhile back at Hogwarts, in the chamber underneath the Slytherin library, Harry meditated. He felt as if he was closer to achieving his Animagus form then ever before so he decided to take advantage of his break period before Dinner to do so. A little more concentration and Harry felt he would have it. Concentrating with all of his might, Harry found his body slowly shift and then slowly levitate high into the air, shrinking in form.

Before Harry knew it, he found his newly acquired Animagus form, a black raven with green eyes and a small white mark on its forehead in the shape of a lighting bolt scar. Harry felt pleased with achievement, as the form seemed to be rather fitting as ravens tended to be very intelligent birds and were greatly considered by some to be rather dark in origin. Two traits which Harry believed suited himself quite well. Not to mention having an animal that could fly tied in with Harry’s love for Quidditch and his natural talent in the air.

Harry tested his new room before he easily set himself down, transforming back to his human self. An exhausted look was etched on Harry’s face as he collapsed to the ground, but in all of the books he read, he found out that the first Animagus transformation was always the most draining. After a few transformations, the process of turning into his form would become much easier.

Harry shook his head as he shakily pulled himself up to his feet. He felt hungry and it was nearing Dinner, so he decided it would be best if he used his Portus-Amulet to transport himself to the Great Hall.

Arriving at the Great Hall, Harry saw the very grim looking faces of Ginny, Hailey, Hermione, Daphne, and Theodore waiting for him. Harry had a sinking suspicion that he knew what this was all about but decided to walk over to confirm his suspicions nevertheless.

“Malfoy is the new Interim Minister of Magic,” said Hermione grimly.

Harry just blinked, thinking about all the possible outcomes of Malfoy’s new found power. None of them would end up in Harry’s favor.

“Now what?” asked Theodore breaking the silence in a tone of forced calmness.

“Yeah Harry, what should we do now?” asked Daphne.

“Nothing,” said Harry in a curt voice, without missing a beat.

“Nothing?” whispered Hermione in a skeptical voice. “You just want us to accept Malfoy, one of Voldemort’s top supports might I add, becoming Minister of Magic and do nothing.”

Harry just sighed, shaking his head. This was going to be a joy to explain. Ginny and Hailey looked at Harry curiously, if they had a good idea where Harry was coming from with this.

“I know what I’m doing, Hermione,” said Harry in a slightly irritated voice. “I’m saying no more on the subject.”

Harry turned his back and walked towards the table, with Hermione, Daphne, Theodore, Hailey and Ginny following him.

“Harry, I wouldn’t put it past Malfoy to attempt to get you sent to Azkaban on some trumped up charges,” whispered Hermione seriously. “Aren’t you even the least bit concerned that you might get sent back?”

“I know what I’m doing, Hermione,” repeated Harry, this time in a sharper tone of voice, as he sat himself down at the Slytherin table.

Harry prepared to eat. The truth was, the only reason that he didn’t try crush Lucius Malfoy under his foot straight because that would cause Voldemort to hesitating at playing his hand. Harry felt it was important to step back and watch everything unfold. That might be the only way that he could get some clue of exactly what Voldemort had in store.

Hermione kept glancing at Harry as if all the work he had been doing had finally lost his mind. Yet, Harry pressed upon his business of eating dinner as if nothing had happened, but the truth was he was on the edge of his seat, preparing to defend himself at a moment’s notice.

Fifteen minutes into dinner, the Great Hall doors creaked open, causing several of the students to look up in curiosity. Through the doorway of the Great Hall walked Lucius Malfoy and two grumpy looking middle aged Aurors. Malfoy had a smug expression on his face and he raised his wand, before pointing it to his throat, causing his voice to amplify a hundred times its normal volume.

“No one move, as we are here on official Ministry of Magic business,” boomed Malfoy. “It has come to our attention that the security of the Ministry of Magic has been compromised by the treasonous actions of Mr. Harry Potter!”

The Great Hall muttered as Malfoy paused for some kind of traumatic effect. Harry calmly looked up as if Malfoy and his Auror bodyguards were a minor annoyance.

“Now, where is Potter?” asked Malfoy in a demanding voice.

Harry looked over at Daphne, Theodore, Hermione, Ginny, and Hailey with a serious expression on his face.

“Do nothing,” whispered Harry coolly.

Ginny looked as if she wanted to protest but she decided against him.

“I am going to ask one more time before I search this Great Hall from to to bottom,” continued Malfoy. “Where is Potter?”

Harry stood up and walked calmly across the Great Hall.

“Potter, you are to come along quietly and the Ministry of Magic won’t have to use any brutality when we arrest you for treason,” said Malfoy coolly. “I am going to respectively ask you one time and one time only. If you refuse to comply then my Aurors are to stun you.”

Harry looked at the Aurors and he sensed that something was a bit off. Reaching into his pocket, Harry pulled out his sunglasses with the charms that saw through both invisibility and glamour charms before placing them on his face. Harry stared at the Aurors and his suspicions that something was wrong had been confirmed. He recognized the two faces from behind the glamour charms. In fact, they were two familiar faces directly from the Ministry of Magic’s most wanted fugitive list.

Indeed, the two “Aurors” were recent Azkaban escapees, Rabastian and Rodolphus Lestrange underneath heavy and quite powerful glamour charms.

“I see,” responded Harry coolly. “Well, I’m going to have to tell you to take your offer and respectively shove it up your arse.”

Malfoy looked like he had swallowed a lemon as he ordered his two “Aurors” with their wands raised, pointing at Harry.

“Come on Lucius, three on one,” taunted Harry. “Pathetic.”

“You aren’t in the position to be arguing about fairness, Potter,” remarked Malfoy as everyone in the Great Hall watched in anticipation at what would happen.

“No, I mean that I’ve fought worse odds then three against one before,” replied Harry dismissively.

Backed at the Slytherin house table, Daphne, Theodore, Hailey, Hermione, and Ginny were all watching with various degrees of shock.

“He’s baiting Malfoy,” winced Ginny. “Get out of there Harry, before it’s too late.”

“Harry, use your Portus-Amulet and get the hell out of there,” hissed Hailey, even through Harry couldn’t hear her.

“He seems to know what he’s doing,” said Theodore, attempting to put a positive spin on this.

“Yes he does but there is a difference between confidence and being cocky,” replied Daphne in a quiet voice. “And Harry is getting close to leaping from the confidence side to the cocky side.”

Harry twirled his wand but Malfoy and his two “Auror” bodyguards didn’t attack. The reason for this was because Albus Dumbledore had just approached the scene.

“Minister, may I ask why you are at my school without my permission?” asked Dumbledore in a tired, cool voice. “Not to mention the fact you are harassing one of my students.”

Harry just rolled his eyes in disgust. He hadn’t seen much of Dumbledore all year but the old man was interfering at the worst possible time. He always didn’t feel satisfied unless he stuck is large, crooked nose into anything.

“Well, Dumbledore, it’s quite fortunate that you should show up,” remarked Lucius in a voice that indicated that he thought Christmas had come early. “You’re also wanted by the Ministry of Magic for treason against the Ministry, not to mention forming a vigilante group that contradicts the law and order our fine Ministry tries to uphold.”

“Harry, step aside,” ordered Dumbledore.

“Why don’t you step aside, you meddling old fool?” muttered Harry, but Dumbledore pretended that he couldn’t hear the boy.

“So, Lucius, you are perhaps under some mistaken assumption that I’ll all you to take me to Azkaban,” remarked Dumbledore as if he was discussing the level.

Lucius along with his two “Aurors” raised their wands at Dumbledore, apparently forgetting about Harry. While Harry could have escaped in the confusion, he decided that it would be much more amusing to step back and watch Dumbledore get humbled.

Three stunning spells flew right at Dumbledore but a large metal shield materialized in front of Dumbledore, causing the spells to absorb. Lucius angrily levitated the shield out of the way but Dumbledore wasn’t behind it.

“Never mind Dumbledore, subdue Potter,” ordered Lucius. Rodolphus and Rabastan hastened to obey, as the two Death Eaters disguised as Aurors aimed their wands at where Potter was and sent a pair of stunning spells towards Harry.

“Protego,” muttered Harry, maintaining the allusion for the benefit of Voldemort’s minions that all of his spells still needed to be spoken aloud. The shield absorbed the spell and Harry quickly went onto the attack. “Stupefy! Stupefy!”

The two “Aurors” ducked and laughed at Potter actually thinking that a mere stunning spell would drop them.

“Accio rug!” yelled Harry, pointing his wand at the rug underneath Rabastan and Rodolphus. The rug jerked out from underneath his adversaries and as a result, they whacked their hands on the floor, knocking them unconscious.

“Potter, that was resourceful but what makes you think these were the only Aurors that I brought to bring you in?” asked Lucius. “I might have lost Dumbledore, but I will not lose the chance to bring you in for your crimes against the Ministry.”

Lucius sent a silver stream of light through the doorway and seconds later, seven Aurors, with wands pointing at Harry surrounded the Boy-Who-Lived.

“I suggest you drop your wand,” demanded Lucius.

Harry just sprang up, knocking one of the Aurors back with an elbow. He vaulted underneath a stunning spell and another spell barely missed him. Harry found that he couldn’t reach his Portus-Amulet as he was too busy fending off attacks from the Aurors to reach his method of escape. The attacks were becoming more brutal as a series of thick cords flew from the wand of one of the Aurors towards Harry’s legs.

“Spiculum!” yelled Harry, sending a dozen razor sharp arrows forward, slicing the cords but Harry felt a spell sail from behind and snap his legs shut as a result of a leg locker curse.

Harry felt a surge of desperation. He now had his legs cut out from underneath him. He barely rolled out of the way of a couple of spells that were meant to subdue him, dragging his locked legs over to the side with him. The Aurors circled Harry like vultures going after their pray, with the two disguised Lestrange brothers joining the fray after recovering from being knocked out.

Harry mentally berated himself from getting caught off guard and he swiftly rolled out of the way of a stunning spell before pointing his wand to the other end.

“Protego!” yelled Harry, shielding himself from the attack while attempting to figure out a way to get away from his attackers long enough to use the counter curse for the leg locker curse.

At the Slytherin Table, Ginny was watching fretfully, her hand twitching and reaching for her wand. Harry told her and the others not to interfere but if someone didn’t do something, Harry was going to get captured in a matter of seconds. Daphne, Theodore, and Hermione also watched with similar quite uncomfortable expressions.

“That’s it!” snapped Hailey breaking the silence, as she watched her brother barely dodge a stunning spell as the teachers in the Great Hall attempted to gain some semblance of control. “Harry might be good but there is no way he can beat nine Aurors by himself.”

Hailey got to her feet and pulled out her wand.

“Hailey, Harry said to…” started Ginny in a tired voice but her half hearted words that she didn’t quite agree with fell on deaf ears as Hailey had her wand pointed at the nearest Auror.

“Stupefy!” yelled Hailey but the Auror had deflected the spell casually and sent a full body bind towards Hailey that she barely somersaulted out of the way. “Stupefy! Incendio!”

Hailey cursed as both of her feeble attacks were deflected and she quickly found herself blasted backwards by a banishing curse.

“Arrest, the Potter girl too, for attempting to aide a known fugitive!” commanded Lucius Malfoy in a sharp voice and one of the Aurors stepped forward to comply, looking a bit conflicted at what he was ordered to do but raising his wand nevertheless.

“Petrificus Totalus!” cried Ginny, barely managing to catch the Auror off guard. Another Auror fired a stunner towards her which she barely ducked underneath. “Expello!”

Her banishing charm sailed around the Auror but Harry had managed to use the counter curse to the leg locking curse, as he saw two of the Aurors put barrier spells right in front of the tables so no one else could intervene on Harry’s behalf.

“All right, subdue these children, now!” barked Malfoy and sure enough Ginny and Hailey were quickly subdued with tight cords wrapped around them. They fell to the ground, immobilized. With them out of the way, the Aurors turned their attention to Harry.

Harry leapt up and kicked Malfoy right in the side of the face. Lucius flew backwards, landing onto the ground. Harry quickly grabbed Malfoy up and kicked his wand to the side. The Boy-Who-Lived pulled out his double edged sword and held the blade right to Malfoy’s throat with one hand and his wand to the side of his head with the other hand.

“Unbind my girlfriend and my sister, or you will have to find another Interim Minister of Magic,” hissed Harry in his most dangerous voice possible. The Aurors pointed their wands at Harry. Lucius didn’t dare move as his throat would have been sliced by the blade under his throat or his head would have been blown cleanly off with his wand. “Do it!”

The Aurors bent down and used their wands to cut the ropes around Hailey and Ginny who shakily got to their feet and joined Harry. The two Death Eaters disguised as Aurors looked as if they really didn’t care whether Malfoy died or not but they didn’t blow their cover for fear of the consequences from the Dark Lord.

“Okay, Potter, you got what you wanted, now let the Minister go,” said one of the Aurors in a curt voice.

Harry stared at the Aurors before quickly flinging Malfoy onto the ground and grabbing Hailey’s and Ginny’s arms. Before the Aurors even had a chance to blink, Harry managed to activate his Portus-Amulet, pulling the trio from Hogwarts all the way to New York.

Lucius Malfoy popped up to his feet with an angry expression on his face.

“They got away Minister,” said one of the Aurors in a feeble voice. “They must have found a way around our anti-Portkey wards.”

“Some sort of illusion to make us think they have escaped no doubt, they can’t have gone far,” said Lucius. “Search the Forbidden Forest, the grounds, and Hogsmeade, and lethal force is authorized to bring these three dangerous criminals to justice. They cannot be allowed to undermine the law that the Ministry is supposed to uphold.”

A few of the Aurors looked a bit hesitant but in the end, keeping their jobs was more important then their ethics. Without another word, they split up and began to search the grounds as the teachers of Hogwarts attempted to divert the attention of their students away from the events that had just unfolded.

Meanwhile at New York, Harry looked at Ginny and Hailey with narrowed eyes when they had safely arrived in front of the Potter residence in New York.

“I could have sworn I told you all to do nothing,” said Harry in a forced casual voice.

“Yes, that seemed to be a good idea, when you were seconds away from getting dragged off to the Minister and being thrown to the Dementors,” responded Hailey in a sarcastic tone of voice.

“Harry, you would have done the same thing if it was one of us and don’t try to tell me you wouldn’t,” added Ginny calmly.

“Yes, I would have but that’s not the point,” said Harry in an irritated voice before shaking his head. “I suppose it really doesn’t matter right now, as now the two of you are now fugitives from the law as well for assisting me against those Aurors.”

“I know,” said Ginny in a tired voice. “It’s not like Malfoy wouldn’t have found a way to drag everyone close to you to Azkaban anyway.”

Harry admitted that she had a point, but he still needed to stick to the plan.

“That could have gone much worse through, but since I’m not there, and not to mention the fact that they forced Dumbledore out as well, Malfoy might become careless eventually,” said Harry.

“Yes, but how we will know if he slips up?” asked Hailey desperately.

“I have eyes and ears inside the Ministry,” said Harry. “All it takes is one slip up and the wrong person knows what’s happening.”

Harry yawned as he walked up the driveway of his house. Ginny and Hailey followed him.

“Of course, what is really bugging is the fact that I still don’t have any idea what Voldemort is up to,” continued Harry. “Maybe the incident tonight was Voldemort’s way of attempting to finish me off once and for all, but I don’t think so.”

“Why?” asked Ginny curiously.

“That’s the thing, Voldemort wants something before he eliminates me,” said Harry. “Something that would give him great power. Something that he wanted to get his hands on for a long time. I don’t know why, but I have a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that Voldemort needs this item if he wants to successfully complete his plans.”

Harry just pushed the door open and walked into his house with Hailey and Ginny following him. He saw his mother sitting at the table, looking a bit worse for wear.

“Mum, what happened?” asked Hailey.

“Oh, the usual,” said Lily. “I lost to Malfoy in the selection of the Interim Minister of Magic, decided to step out before Malfoy attempted to get me arrested on trumped up charges, and had a nice little run in with Bellatrix Lestrange.”

“Well, I just met her husband and brother-in-law,” replied Harry.

“What!” exclaimed Ginny and Hailey in unison, a bit rattled by this new piece of information that Harry had casually thrown out.

“Yeah, the Lestrange brothers, fresh out of Azkaban, seemed to be taking to disguising themselves as Aurors and helping Minister Malfoy do his dirty work,” replied Harry coolly. “Naturally, I pulled the rug out from underneath them.”

“They must have not completely shaken off the cobwebs of Azkaban yet, because they were two of Voldemort’s key followers back during his first reign of terror,” said Lily before straightening up. “I suppose this is why you three had to make a sudden side trip back to New York.”

“Yes,” answered Harry. “I figure this is the one place Malfoy wouldn’t follow us, as his dark mark would get him catapulted right into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean if he tried to enter the country.”

“But now we’ve got another problem,” said Lily. “The fact it will take a miracle on the grounds of Malfoy willingingly admitting he’s a Death Eater and getting booted out of the position, to get your names cleared.”

“I’m working on that,” said Harry quickly but he felt he had some work ahead of him. If he knew exactly what Voldemort wanted, he could plan out what he needed to do a lot easier. Until then, Harry was grasping around, hoping to inadvertently stumble on a plan.

“Mum will be worried sick,” said Ginny breaking the silence with a sad expression. “Her only daughter, a fugitive from the Ministry of Magic. She’s already worked up enough with Voldemort returning to power. I need to find some way to let her know that I’m okay. But I don’t know how, as I bet anything that the any owl post is strictly being monitored by the Ministry.”

“We’ll find a way Ginny,” said Harry in an even tone of voice as he grabbed her hand in a reassuring manner.

Hailey, Harry, Ginny, and Lily talked throughout the night, filling each other on the details of the events of the day. Harry made a mental note to make a trip down to the lair and fill in his brothers and Master Splinter on recent events, as it had been a couple of weeks since he managed to talk to any of them in detail. First, Harry would get a well deserved night of sleep, something that he had been putting off for quite some time.

At Hogwarts the following morning, the students were all greeted by the same message in all four houses.

Education Decree #26: New Hogwarts Headmistress and Revision to Hogwarts House Policy.

With the removal of ex Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, the position of Hogwarts Headmistress as been filled by current High Inquisitor Dolores Jane Umbridge.

In addition to this act, the Board of Governors, in conjunction with Minister Lucius Malfoy is evaluating the current Hogwarts house policy is one that best benefits the students of Hogwarts. We feel strongly that the unfortunate house rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin is the result of muggleborns being inadequately educated about Wizarding customs as they enter our world. In the next few days, we will vote on a revision to the Hogwarts school rules that will allow muggleborns to be better educated and integrated into the Magical World to avoid further embarrassing conflicts. We will offer more information to the students and staff of Hogwarts when this proposed legislation becomes law.

Signed,

Lucius Abraxas Malfoy

Minister of Magic.

Chapter 26: Exile

Lily Potter sat in the Wizengamot court room, her eyes widened in shock. She expected it to be possible, but she had hoped that her speech the previous day would have persuaded enough members of the court not to vote for Malfoy. Yet, Lily couldn’t deny what she saw. Lucius Malfoy had somehow, some way, become Interim Minister of Magic. Lily watched with disgust as Lucius rose to his feet, with a pleased smirk on his face.

“Thank you fellow wizards for understanding that we need to maintain the stability of running the Ministry like it always has been,” declared Malfoy in a triumphant voice. “I feel you did an admirable job in understanding the importance of the old families maintaining control of the Ministry, as these new radical muggleborns would strain and then collapse underneath the pressure of keeping up the stability of the Ministry of Magic. I hope that as your Minister, I will eliminate any and all threats to the stability of the respect of the entire Ministry of Magic.”

Lily rose to her feet and walked towards the exit of the Wizengamot. Truthfully, she didn’t need to hear any more of Malfoy’s carefully constructed rhetoric. Lily had an ever growing feeling of dread that the time until Voldemort decided to just take all of his forces and roll over the Ministry was greatly reduced by Malfoy becoming interim Minister. As her steps quickened down the corridor of the Ministry, Lily wondered how much longer the world had before they were greeted by the return of Voldemort. As Lily stepped towards the exit, she heard the sound of someone just Apparating a few hundred feet behind her.

“Leaving so soon, Mudblood?” taunted an all too familiar voice. Lily spun around and peered towards the shadows, to see a female figure cloaked completely in black with a Death Eater mask obscuring her face. Yet, the black hair poking from underneath the mask and her voice left no question about her identity.

“Lestrange,” said Lily in a cool voice, as her eyes narrowed at the figure and she pointed her wand forward, ready to defend herself at the slightest hint of an attack.

“Ah pleased to see you remember me, Lily,” taunted Bellatrix in a happy voice. “It’s always nice to see that my victims know who they’re about to be tortured by.”

Lily’s eyes just narrowed coolly.

“I think Azkaban deprived you of what little bit of sanity you did have, showing your face in the Ministry of Magic,” said Lily, as she held her wand forward with a steady hand. “All these Aurors here, you’re bound to be caught soon.”

“Oh, the Aurors shouldn’t be much of a problem, after all, they are around the area of the Wizengamot courtrooms, acting as security,” said Bellatrix. “Leaving the rest of the Ministry quite unguarded and unmonitored.”

Then, without warning, Bellatrix fired a silent organ explosion hex straight at Lily’s heart. Lily’s reflexes kicked in, all her years of training as an Unspeakable of the Department of Mysteries coming back to her, putting a shield up which caused the curse to strike the shield. The curse shredded the shield to bits but stopped any lethal damage.

Lily shot a series of razor sharp ropes from her wand in an attempt to detain Lestrange. The insane female Death Eater stepped to the right, before throwing a cutting curse at the ropes at a ninety degree angle, which sliced the ropes into dozens of pieces. Lily used this momentary distraction to dart behind Lestrange and blast a set of iron manacles from her wand. The manacles spiraled towards Bellatrix and caught her unaware. They snapped shut on her legs, causing her to fall flat on her face.

“Sorry, Lestrange, but you’re going to have to do better than that to beat me,” said Lily as Bellatrix struggled to get to her feet but her legs were bound.

“Crucio!” shrieked Bellatrix desperately, but Lily was ready, causing a stone shield to materialize in mid air. The Cruciatus Curse ricocheted off of the stone, flying back at Bellatrix, who barely had time to throw herself out of the way and out of the path of the returned curse.

Lily raised her arm to knock out Bellatrix but the insane woman still had another trick up her sleeve. Before Lily could counter, Bellatrix sent a bone breaking hex aimed directly at her wand arm. The curse struck Lily’s arm at full blast, which caused her to fall to the ground in pain. She wouldn’t have been surprised if it had broken every bone in her right arm. It was fortunate that she trained herself to use her wand with both arms.

Lily shook off the momentarily pain and rose to her feet, but Bellatrix had managed to melt the shackles. Bellatrix watched as the Mudblood cradled her arm with a wince of pain before aiming her wand a bit shakily with her left hand.

“Normally I like to stick around and play but….AVADA KEDAVRA!” yelled Bellatrix at the top of her lungs.

A green jet of light soared towards Lily but the muggleborn witch quickly and silently levitated a small section of the floor, which blasted into bits and caused Lily to fly backwards. Lily landed on the ground with a thud and she remained unmoving

“Finally, the Dark Lord will have to accept me as his most trusted servant,” said Bellatrix, as she looked down at Lily’s body, under the assumption that she was dead. “I finished the job he started all those years ago. He’ll have to reward me for…”

Lily pulled herself shakily up to her feet, the stone floor section having absorbed the majority of the impact, and in a snap sent a cutting curse right towards Bellatrix’s face. The curse split her Death Eater mask in half and also opened a large, gruesome gash slightly to the left of her right eye. Another centimeter or so, and Bellatrix would have lost an eye.

Bellatrix barely had time to regain her composure. She looked up at Lily, as blood gushed from the gash right next to her eye, as the Mudblood pointed her wand towards her with a nearly sadistic expression on her face.

Lily pointed her wand, forward and sent Bellatrix hurtling towards the wand with a very powerful silent Banishing charm. She watched Bellatrix wince as a result of the velocity she was sent flying in the wall. She had been waiting for this moment for eighteen years, to get revenge on Bellatrix for killing her parents the summer before her seventh year at Hogwarts. Lily used her wand to hoist Bellatrix into the air and fling her directly towards the other side of the room. A large crack echoed throughout the room as Bellatrix awkwardly plummeted to the floor.

Bellatrix’s eyes were glazed over and she watched her foe walk forward, with a murderous glint in her eyes. Bellatrix felt the closest thing she had felt to fear in years but she wasn’t going to let a Mudblood get the better of her.

Bellatrix pointed her wand upwards and set a couple dozen razor sharp thick arrows cloaked in an ominous black light right into the ceiling above Lily’s head. The ceiling began to crumble above Lily, which mandated that she had to take her attention off of her revenge and start blasting pieces of debris away with her wand to avoid being flattened.

“Sorry to cut this short!” yelled Bellatrix, with blood splattering from her mouth as she spoke, with the cut on her face also oozing. “I hope you won’t feel too flat!”

Bellatrix sent a jagged black light towards Lily before disapparating in a flash. Quickly, Lily blasted one of the stone pieces of debris at Bellatrix’s parting shot, causing the stone to blast into pieces. Lily waved her wand, slowly the descent of the debris. Despite the fact that Lily was battered with a bruised face, torn robes, and a few lacerations, she managed to disapparate before the room, despite its magical reinforcements, caved in and crushed her flat.

Meanwhile back at Hogwarts, in the chamber underneath the Slytherin library, Harry meditated. He felt as if he was closer to achieving his Animagus form then ever before so he decided to take advantage of his break period before Dinner to do so. A little more concentration and Harry felt he would have it. Concentrating with all of his might, Harry found his body slowly shift and then slowly levitate high into the air, shrinking in form.

Before Harry knew it, he found his newly acquired Animagus form, a black raven with green eyes and a small white mark on its forehead in the shape of a lighting bolt scar. Harry felt pleased with achievement, as the form seemed to be rather fitting as ravens tended to be very intelligent birds and were greatly considered by some to be rather dark in origin. Two traits which Harry believed suited himself quite well. Not to mention having an animal that could fly tied in with Harry’s love for Quidditch and his natural talent in the air.

Harry tested his new room before he easily set himself down, transforming back to his human self. An exhausted look was etched on Harry’s face as he collapsed to the ground, but in all of the books he read, he found out that the first Animagus transformation was always the most draining. After a few transformations, the process of turning into his form would become much easier.

Harry shook his head as he shakily pulled himself up to his feet. He felt hungry and it was nearing Dinner, so he decided it would be best if he used his Portus-Amulet to transport himself to the Great Hall.

Arriving at the Great Hall, Harry saw the very grim looking faces of Ginny, Hailey, Hermione, Daphne, and Theodore waiting for him. Harry had a sinking suspicion that he knew what this was all about but decided to walk over to confirm his suspicions nevertheless.

“Malfoy is the new Interim Minister of Magic,” said Hermione grimly.

Harry just blinked, thinking about all the possible outcomes of Malfoy’s new found power. None of them would end up in Harry’s favor.

“Now what?” asked Theodore breaking the silence in a tone of forced calmness.

“Yeah Harry, what should we do now?” asked Daphne.

“Nothing,” said Harry in a curt voice, without missing a beat.

“Nothing?” whispered Hermione in a skeptical voice. “You just want us to accept Malfoy, one of Voldemort’s top supports might I add, becoming Minister of Magic and do nothing.”

Harry just sighed, shaking his head. This was going to be a joy to explain. Ginny and Hailey looked at Harry curiously, if they had a good idea where Harry was coming from with this.

“I know what I’m doing, Hermione,” said Harry in a slightly irritated voice. “I’m saying no more on the subject.”

Harry turned his back and walked towards the table, with Hermione, Daphne, Theodore, Hailey and Ginny following him.

“Harry, I wouldn’t put it past Malfoy to attempt to get you sent to Azkaban on some trumped up charges,” whispered Hermione seriously. “Aren’t you even the least bit concerned that you might get sent back?”

“I know what I’m doing, Hermione,” repeated Harry, this time in a sharper tone of voice, as he sat himself down at the Slytherin table.

Harry prepared to eat. The truth was, the only reason that he didn’t try crush Lucius Malfoy under his foot straight because that would cause Voldemort to hesitating at playing his hand. Harry felt it was important to step back and watch everything unfold. That might be the only way that he could get some clue of exactly what Voldemort had in store.

Hermione kept glancing at Harry as if all the work he had been doing had finally lost his mind. Yet, Harry pressed upon his business of eating dinner as if nothing had happened, but the truth was he was on the edge of his seat, preparing to defend himself at a moment’s notice.

Fifteen minutes into dinner, the Great Hall doors creaked open, causing several of the students to look up in curiosity. Through the doorway of the Great Hall walked Lucius Malfoy and two grumpy looking middle aged Aurors. Malfoy had a smug expression on his face and he raised his wand, before pointing it to his throat, causing his voice to amplify a hundred times its normal volume.

“No one move, as we are here on official Ministry of Magic business,” boomed Malfoy. “It has come to our attention that the security of the Ministry of Magic has been compromised by the treasonous actions of Mr. Harry Potter!”

The Great Hall muttered as Malfoy paused for some kind of traumatic effect. Harry calmly looked up as if Malfoy and his Auror bodyguards were a minor annoyance.

“Now, where is Potter?” asked Malfoy in a demanding voice.

Harry looked over at Daphne, Theodore, Hermione, Ginny, and Hailey with a serious expression on his face.

“Do nothing,” whispered Harry coolly.

Ginny looked as if she wanted to protest but she decided against him.

“I am going to ask one more time before I search this Great Hall from to to bottom,” continued Malfoy. “Where is Potter?”

Harry stood up and walked calmly across the Great Hall.

“Potter, you are to come along quietly and the Ministry of Magic won’t have to use any brutality when we arrest you for treason,” said Malfoy coolly. “I am going to respectively ask you one time and one time only. If you refuse to comply then my Aurors are to stun you.”

Harry looked at the Aurors and he sensed that something was a bit off. Reaching into his pocket, Harry pulled out his sunglasses with the charms that saw through both invisibility and glamour charms before placing them on his face. Harry stared at the Aurors and his suspicions that something was wrong had been confirmed. He recognized the two faces from behind the glamour charms. In fact, they were two familiar faces directly from the Ministry of Magic’s most wanted fugitive list.

Indeed, the two “Aurors” were recent Azkaban escapees, Rabastian and Rodolphus Lestrange underneath heavy and quite powerful glamour charms.

“I see,” responded Harry coolly. “Well, I’m going to have to tell you to take your offer and respectively shove it up your arse.”

Malfoy looked like he had swallowed a lemon as he ordered his two “Aurors” with their wands raised, pointing at Harry.

“Come on Lucius, three on one,” taunted Harry. “Pathetic.”

“You aren’t in the position to be arguing about fairness, Potter,” remarked Malfoy as everyone in the Great Hall watched in anticipation at what would happen.

“No, I mean that I’ve fought worse odds then three against one before,” replied Harry dismissively.

Backed at the Slytherin house table, Daphne, Theodore, Hailey, Hermione, and Ginny were all watching with various degrees of shock.

“He’s baiting Malfoy,” winced Ginny. “Get out of there Harry, before it’s too late.”

“Harry, use your Portus-Amulet and get the hell out of there,” hissed Hailey, even through Harry couldn’t hear her.

“He seems to know what he’s doing,” said Theodore, attempting to put a positive spin on this.

“Yes he does but there is a difference between confidence and being cocky,” replied Daphne in a quiet voice. “And Harry is getting close to leaping from the confidence side to the cocky side.”

Harry twirled his wand but Malfoy and his two “Auror” bodyguards didn’t attack. The reason for this was because Albus Dumbledore had just approached the scene.

“Minister, may I ask why you are at my school without my permission?” asked Dumbledore in a tired, cool voice. “Not to mention the fact you are harassing one of my students.”

Harry just rolled his eyes in disgust. He hadn’t seen much of Dumbledore all year but the old man was interfering at the worst possible time. He always didn’t feel satisfied unless he stuck is large, crooked nose into anything.

“Well, Dumbledore, it’s quite fortunate that you should show up,” remarked Lucius in a voice that indicated that he thought Christmas had come early. “You’re also wanted by the Ministry of Magic for treason against the Ministry, not to mention forming a vigilante group that contradicts the law and order our fine Ministry tries to uphold.”

“Harry, step aside,” ordered Dumbledore.

“Why don’t you step aside, you meddling old fool?” muttered Harry, but Dumbledore pretended that he couldn’t hear the boy.

“So, Lucius, you are perhaps under some mistaken assumption that I’ll all you to take me to Azkaban,” remarked Dumbledore as if he was discussing the level.

Lucius along with his two “Aurors” raised their wands at Dumbledore, apparently forgetting about Harry. While Harry could have escaped in the confusion, he decided that it would be much more amusing to step back and watch Dumbledore get humbled.

Three stunning spells flew right at Dumbledore but a large metal shield materialized in front of Dumbledore, causing the spells to absorb. Lucius angrily levitated the shield out of the way but Dumbledore wasn’t behind it.

“Never mind Dumbledore, subdue Potter,” ordered Lucius. Rodolphus and Rabastan hastened to obey, as the two Death Eaters disguised as Aurors aimed their wands at where Potter was and sent a pair of stunning spells towards Harry.

“Protego,” muttered Harry, maintaining the allusion for the benefit of Voldemort’s minions that all of his spells still needed to be spoken aloud. The shield absorbed the spell and Harry quickly went onto the attack. “Stupefy! Stupefy!”

The two “Aurors” ducked and laughed at Potter actually thinking that a mere stunning spell would drop them.

“Accio rug!” yelled Harry, pointing his wand at the rug underneath Rabastan and Rodolphus. The rug jerked out from underneath his adversaries and as a result, they whacked their hands on the floor, knocking them unconscious.

“Potter, that was resourceful but what makes you think these were the only Aurors that I brought to bring you in?” asked Lucius. “I might have lost Dumbledore, but I will not lose the chance to bring you in for your crimes against the Ministry.”

Lucius sent a silver stream of light through the doorway and seconds later, seven Aurors, with wands pointing at Harry surrounded the Boy-Who-Lived.

“I suggest you drop your wand,” demanded Lucius.

Harry just sprang up, knocking one of the Aurors back with an elbow. He vaulted underneath a stunning spell and another spell barely missed him. Harry found that he couldn’t reach his Portus-Amulet as he was too busy fending off attacks from the Aurors to reach his method of escape. The attacks were becoming more brutal as a series of thick cords flew from the wand of one of the Aurors towards Harry’s legs.

“Spiculum!” yelled Harry, sending a dozen razor sharp arrows forward, slicing the cords but Harry felt a spell sail from behind and snap his legs shut as a result of a leg locker curse.

Harry felt a surge of desperation. He now had his legs cut out from underneath him. He barely rolled out of the way of a couple of spells that were meant to subdue him, dragging his locked legs over to the side with him. The Aurors circled Harry like vultures going after their pray, with the two disguised Lestrange brothers joining the fray after recovering from being knocked out.

Harry mentally berated himself from getting caught off guard and he swiftly rolled out of the way of a stunning spell before pointing his wand to the other end.

“Protego!” yelled Harry, shielding himself from the attack while attempting to figure out a way to get away from his attackers long enough to use the counter curse for the leg locker curse.

At the Slytherin Table, Ginny was watching fretfully, her hand twitching and reaching for her wand. Harry told her and the others not to interfere but if someone didn’t do something, Harry was going to get captured in a matter of seconds. Daphne, Theodore, and Hermione also watched with similar quite uncomfortable expressions.

“That’s it!” snapped Hailey breaking the silence, as she watched her brother barely dodge a stunning spell as the teachers in the Great Hall attempted to gain some semblance of control. “Harry might be good but there is no way he can beat nine Aurors by himself.”

Hailey got to her feet and pulled out her wand.

“Hailey, Harry said to…” started Ginny in a tired voice but her half hearted words that she didn’t quite agree with fell on deaf ears as Hailey had her wand pointed at the nearest Auror.

“Stupefy!” yelled Hailey but the Auror had deflected the spell casually and sent a full body bind towards Hailey that she barely somersaulted out of the way. “Stupefy! Incendio!”

Hailey cursed as both of her feeble attacks were deflected and she quickly found herself blasted backwards by a banishing curse.

“Arrest, the Potter girl too, for attempting to aide a known fugitive!” commanded Lucius Malfoy in a sharp voice and one of the Aurors stepped forward to comply, looking a bit conflicted at what he was ordered to do but raising his wand nevertheless.

“Petrificus Totalus!” cried Ginny, barely managing to catch the Auror off guard. Another Auror fired a stunner towards her which she barely ducked underneath. “Expello!”

Her banishing charm sailed around the Auror but Harry had managed to use the counter curse to the leg locking curse, as he saw two of the Aurors put barrier spells right in front of the tables so no one else could intervene on Harry’s behalf.

“All right, subdue these children, now!” barked Malfoy and sure enough Ginny and Hailey were quickly subdued with tight cords wrapped around them. They fell to the ground, immobilized. With them out of the way, the Aurors turned their attention to Harry.

Harry swiftly kicked Malfoy right in the side of the face. Lucius flew backwards, landing onto the ground. Harry quickly grabbed Malfoy up and kicked his wand to the side. The Boy-Who-Lived pulled out his double edged sword and held the blade right to Malfoy’s throat with one hand and his wand to the side of his head with the other hand.

“Unbind my girlfriend and my sister, or you will have to find another Interim Minister of Magic,” hissed Harry in his most dangerous voice possible. The Aurors pointed their wands at Harry. Lucius didn’t dare move as his throat would have been sliced by the blade under his throat or his head would have been blown cleanly off with his wand. “Do it!”

The Aurors bent down and used their wands to cut the ropes around Hailey and Ginny who shakily got to their feet and joined Harry. The two Death Eaters disguised as Aurors looked as if they really didn’t care whether Malfoy died or not but they didn’t blow their cover for fear of the consequences from the Dark Lord.

“Okay, Potter, you got what you wanted, now let the Minister go,” said one of the Aurors in a curt voice.

Harry stared at the Aurors before quickly flinging Malfoy onto the ground and grabbing Hailey’s and Ginny’s arms. Before the Aurors even had a chance to blink, Harry managed to activate his Portus-Amulet, pulling the trio from Hogwarts all the way to New York.

Lucius Malfoy popped up to his feet with an angry expression on his face.

“They got away Minister,” said one of the Aurors in a feeble voice. “They must have found a way around our anti-Portkey wards.”

“Some sort of illusion to make us think they have escaped no doubt, they can’t have gone far,” said Lucius. “Search the Forbidden Forest, the grounds, and Hogsmeade, and lethal force is authorized to bring these three dangerous criminals to justice. They cannot be allowed to undermine the law that the Ministry is supposed to uphold.”

A few of the Aurors looked a bit hesitant but in the end, keeping their jobs was more important then their ethics. Without another word, they split up and began to search the grounds as the teachers of Hogwarts attempted to divert the attention of their students away from the events that had just unfolded.

Meanwhile at New York, Harry looked at Ginny and Hailey with narrowed eyes when they had safely arrived in front of the Potter residence in New York.

“I could have sworn I told you all to do nothing,” said Harry in a forced casual voice.

“Yes, that seemed to be a good idea, when you were seconds away from getting dragged off to the Minister and being thrown to the Dementors,” responded Hailey in a sarcastic tone of voice.

“Harry, you would have done the same thing if it was one of us and don’t try to tell me you wouldn’t,” added Ginny calmly.

“Yes, I would have but that’s not the point,” said Harry in an irritated voice before shaking his head. “I suppose it really doesn’t matter right now, as now the two of you are now fugitives from the law as well for assisting me against those Aurors.”

“I know,” said Ginny in a tired voice. “It’s not like Malfoy wouldn’t have found a way to drag everyone close to you to Azkaban anyway.”

Harry admitted that she had a point, but he still needed to stick to the plan.

“That could have gone much worse through, but since I’m not there, and not to mention the fact that they forced Dumbledore out as well, Malfoy might become careless eventually,” said Harry.

“Yes, but how we will know if he slips up?” asked Hailey desperately.

“I have eyes and ears inside the Ministry,” said Harry. “All it takes is one slip up and the wrong person knows what’s happening.”

Harry yawned as he walked up the driveway of his house. Ginny and Hailey followed him.

“Of course, what is really bugging is the fact that I still don’t have any idea what Voldemort is up to,” continued Harry. “Maybe the incident tonight was Voldemort’s way of attempting to finish me off once and for all, but I don’t think so.”

“Why?” asked Ginny curiously.

“That’s the thing, Voldemort wants something before he eliminates me,” said Harry. “Something that would give him great power. Something that he wanted to get his hands on for a long time. I don’t know why, but I have a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that Voldemort needs this item if he wants to successfully complete his plans.”

Harry just pushed the door open and walked into his house with Hailey and Ginny following him. He saw his mother sitting at the table, looking a bit worse for wear.

“Mum, what happened?” asked Hailey.

“Oh, the usual,” said Lily. “I lost to Malfoy in the selection of the Interim Minister of Magic, decided to step out before Malfoy attempted to get me arrested on trumped up charges, and had a nice little run in with Bellatrix Lestrange.”

“Well, I just met her husband and brother-in-law,” replied Harry.

“What!” exclaimed Ginny and Hailey in unison, a bit rattled by this new piece of information that Harry had casually thrown out.

“Yeah, the Lestrange brothers, fresh out of Azkaban, seemed to be taking to disguising themselves as Aurors and helping Minister Malfoy do his dirty work,” replied Harry coolly. “Naturally, I pulled the rug out from underneath them.”

“They must have not completely shaken off the cobwebs of Azkaban yet, because they were two of Voldemort’s key followers back during his first reign of terror,” said Lily before straightening up. “I suppose this is why you three had to make a sudden side trip back to New York.”

“Yes,” answered Harry. “I figure this is the one place Malfoy wouldn’t follow us, as his dark mark would get him catapulted right into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean if he tried to enter the country.”

“But now we’ve got another problem,” said Lily. “The fact it will take a miracle on the grounds of Malfoy willingingly admitting he’s a Death Eater and getting booted out of the position, to get your names cleared.”

“I’m working on that,” said Harry quickly but he felt he had some work ahead of him. If he knew exactly what Voldemort wanted, he could plan out what he needed to do a lot easier. Until then, Harry was grasping around, hoping to inadvertently stumble on a plan.

“Mum’ll be worried sick,” said Ginny breaking the silence with a sad expression. “Her only daughter, a fugitive from the Ministry of Magic. She’s already worked up enough with Voldemort returning to power. I need to find some way to let her know that I’m okay. But I don’t know how, as I bet anything that the any owl post is strictly being monitored by the Ministry.”

“We’ll find a way Ginny,” said Harry in an even tone of voice as he grabbed her hand in a reassuring manner.

Hailey, Harry, Ginny, and Lily talked throughout the night, filling each other on the details of the events of the day. Harry made a mental note to make a trip down to the lair and fill in his brothers and Master Splinter on recent events, as it had been a couple of weeks since he managed to talk to any of them in detail. First, Harry would get a well deserved night of sleep, something that he had been putting off for quite some time.

At Hogwarts the following morning, the students were all greeted by the same message in all four houses.

Education Decree #26: New Hogwarts Headmistress and Revision to Hogwarts House Policy.

With the removal of ex Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, the position of Hogwarts Headmistress as been filled by current High Inquisitor Dolores Jane Umbridge.

In addition to this act, the Board of Governors, in conjunction with Minister Lucius Malfoy is evaluating the current Hogwarts house policy is one that best benefits the students of Hogwarts. We feel strongly that the unfortunate house rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin is the result of muggleborns being inadequately educated about Wizarding customs as they enter our world. In the next few days, we will vote on a revision to the Hogwarts school rules that will allow muggleborns to be better educated and integrated into the Magical World to avoid further embarrassing conflicts. We will offer more information to the students and staff of Hogwarts when this proposed legislation becomes law.

Signed,

Lucius Abraxas Malfoy

Minister of Magic.