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Chapter 36: Destination Hogwarts Part Two:

The Death Eaters laughed as they held Hailey and Ginny, there wands out of reach.

“It’s a shame that Potter didn’t see it fit to show up but I guess the dirty blood from his Mudblood mother flowing through his veins reduced his spine to jelly,” drawled Lucius, causing his fellow Death Eaters to laugh and Hailey and Ginny to both scowl at him.

“Harry isn’t afraid of you, Malfoy,” spat Hailey. “My brother would be here but..”

“Ah, excuses, such a dutiful little sibling of the Boy-Who-Fled,” replied Darthmorth. “I’m sure you have some fantastic tale cooked up to explain why Potter didn’t come here but I’m afraid we don’t have time to hear it. The Dark Lord’s work will be done shortly, and then we’ll leave your fate up to the Master.”

“Exactly what is Voldemort up to?” asked Ginny desperately, attempting to distract the Death Eaters long enough to reach her two way mirror so she could contact Harry and see what was taking him so long.

“As if we’d tell a filthy little blood traitor like you,” said one of the Death Eaters who was standing right by the door, apparently listening for signs of life outside of it.

“Or it’s just take maybe, just maybe, Voldemort doesn’t think enough of you to let him in on his plans,” hissed Hailey through gritted teeth.

“The Dark Lord has his reasons for anything all of his actions, more than you could understand,” replied Lucius in a cold voice.

“Oh I understand, Malfoy, especially since it appears that most, if not all of you denounced him when Harry knocked him out of his body,” declared Hailey bolding which caused MacNair to spin her around and grab her by the throat, attempting to throttle her.

“Ease up MacNair, the Dark Lord told us not to kill anyone without permission, even through the impudent little whore is making it very difficult for us to remember orders,” declared Darthmorth. “Perhaps the Dark Lord will let us find other uses for that mouth of yours, my dear.”

Ginny watched as Hailey attempted to pull herself out of MacNair’s grip but the larger man grabbed both of her arms roughly before yanking her back. The mirror was out of Ginny’s pocket and she flung it to the floor, before attempting to vainly bent her neck downward, in an attempt to discreetly contact Harry.

Unfortunately, the clatter of the mirror hitting the ground caught the attention of Lucius Malfoy, who reached down with a curious look and picked up the mirror. After he examined it, a smirk burst onto the face of Lucius Malfoy, as he realized exactly what the mirror was.

“A two way communication mirror, extremely clever, a safe and secure way of communicating, well I never said Potter wasn’t crafty, just a coward,” declared Lucius in a gleeful voice. “Let’s see if Mr. Potter will answer, shall we. Harry Potter!”

The mirror remained motionless for a few seconds before the face of Harry Potter appeared on it.

“Malfoy!” exclaimed Harry in a shocked voice. “How did you get one of my mirrors?”

“It seemed that your girlfriend dropped it when we caught her and your sister snooping around here, in a pathetic attempt to derail the Dark Lord’s plans,” replied Lucius. “Two foolish girls, really, is that the best the great Harry Potter can do? I guess you had few options when everyone realized what a spineless fool you truly are.”

“Spineless, Lucius,” replied Harry with a confused expression on his face.

“Ah, denial Potter, the true refuge of the coward,” retorted Lucius in a confident voice. “Allow me to humor you. I, after I completed the swift rigging the Ministry of Magic elections, a truly brilliant move if I do say so myself, came here to have a nice little chat with you but you decided to instead flee rather than be sent to Azkaban for your crimes.”

Little did the Death Eaters know, Harry had just slipped from behind a tapestry and was standing right behind them at this very moment. Harry paused for a few seconds before retorting.

“So, says the man who decided to fake being put under the Imperius Curse to avoid being tried as a Death Eater,” said Harry in a cool voice.

“Potter you may be bold right now, hiding in some slimy rat or, perhaps turtle, infested hole in New York but I doubt you can say those words to my face,” said Lucius. “If you were here Potter, I would curse you within an inch of your pathetic life before presenting your battered form to the Dark Lord.”

“Well, I’d suggest you get a start on that little endeavor,” said Harry calmly and that caused Lucius to spin around, backing off slightly, as the other Death Eaters gasped.

“Potter!” yelled Lucius raising his wand before sending a stunner at the Boy-Who-Lived, who deflected it in the blink of an eye before flicking an exploding shuriken onto the ground. The shuriken exploded, obscuring the Death Eaters vision with a thick fog and allowing Hailey and Ginny to break free from their grasps and make their way towards their wands.

“PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!”

The body binding hex blasted fired carelessly by one of the Death Eaters accidentally caught another Death Eater, causing the Death Eater’s arms and legs to snap together before falling to the canvas. Before the Death Eater could register what he had inadvertently done, a cutting hex flew from out of nowhere, slicing his wand hand. The Death Eater yelped before a figure rammed into him, sending him clattering into the wall.

“Regroup, blast this fog out of the way, damn Potter and his ninjitsu tricks, doesn’t fight like a proper wizard!” yelled Lucius as he barely managed to put a shield charm up to avoid an explosion hex before whipping his wand around madly, attempting to make the fog vanish.

Harry looked up as the fog appeared to be about to clear and saw the massive form of MacNair facing off against him. MacNair shot a jagged black jet of light that Harry recognized as the skin rotting hex. Harry quickly summoned a table in front of him to take the blunt of the blow before blasting the table towards MacNair. The table crashed against MacNair’s ribs as Harry watched another Death Eater’s arms and legs get snapped shut in shackles by Ginny. MacNair put his wand away before pulling his Executioner’s Axe into the picture. He swung the axe at Harry but Harry used his quickness to avoid being decapitated by the hulking form of MacNair.

Darthmorth and Hailey stood face to face, as Hailey ducked under a deadly curse.

“CRUCIO!” yelled Darthmorth in a wicked voice and sure enough, Hailey found herself shrieking out in pain by the Cruciatus Curse. Harry pushed Darthmorth’s axe back with his blade, looking on desperately but unable to help his sister as her loud, shrieking screams echoed throughout the hallway.

Ginny ducked underneath a slicing curse aimed right towards her throat before putting up a shield to block a stunner. She darted over to the side and sent a bone breaking curse towards the Death Eater named Yaxley. Yaxley’s ankle shattered and he fell to the ground before a silent stunner put him down for good. Avery managed to catch Ginny off guard with a banishing curse, sending her flying into the wall with a loud crunch. Avery raised his wand before making a slashing motion but Ginny threw herself out of the way before sending thick cords from her wand, wrapping them around the arms, legs, and waist of Avery, incapacitating him.

Harry managed to levitate MacNair’s axe out of his hand. The Death Eater reached for his wand but Harry managed to grab MacNair by his arm before using the man’s strength against him, flipping MacNair over to the ground. A loud thud knocked MacNair out and when he managed to pull himself back to his feet, a body bind curse snapped the arms and legs of the executioner together.

At this moment, Lucius Malfoy cautiously stepped back before quickly walking down the hallway. He needed to inform the Dark Lord that Potter had arrived at Hogwarts.

Darthmorth laughed as he released the Cruciatus Curse on Hailey.

“A little pain, makes for character you see, I’d forgotten how fun this was, even more so then destroying the reputations of people with my articles,” cackled Darthmorth as he raised his wand to finish off Hailey but a spell blasted him from the side, causing Darthmorth to sail backwards.

Darthmorth scrambled to his feet and looked in the eyes of Harry Potter.

“Oh, you want to match wands with me, Potter, one of the most ruthless Death Eaters that the Dark Lord has ever…” started Darthmorth but his boasts proved to be his undoing as thick cords wrapped around his arms, legs, and torso. His wand fell to the ground as Harry jerked his arm backwards, causing the bound Darthmorth to fly straight into a window, shattering the glass.

Darthmorth screamed in agony as his body was sliced with the glass. He found himself dangling at the window from the mercy or lack there of Harry Potter.

“Let me up Potter!” ordered Darthmorth. “I am a pureblood, I am your better and…”

“One more word and I slice the ropes and let you drop,” answered Harry coldly. “And after all the lies you spread about me, my friends, and my family, I can tell you that I wouldn’t shed a tear at all.”

Darthmorth whimpered as the ropes started to sag underneath his weight. If Potter sliced the ropes, there was no way he would survive.

“So, tell me, have you been writing any more slanderous articles about me even through I was given the word you were banned from the Daily Prophet?” asked Harry. “And I want the truth!”

“The truth is, Potter, is something you can’t comprehend,” started Darthmorth but his voice began to crack as Harry sliced two of the ropes and Darthmorth panicked. “I did it Potter! I wrote the articles, playing up the fact that you were a coward and that Lucius Malfoy had heroically ran you off! Now let me up!”

“No, I don’t think I will, Darthmorth,” replied Harry. “You are one less Death Eater I have to worry about and you putting Hailey under the Cruciatus Curse sealed your fate.”

“No!” yelled Darthmorth. “The Dark Lord…”

Those were the last words Darthmorth said as his attempts to pull himself free had snapped the remaining cords holding him and Darthmorth gave a brief shriek before plummeting to the grounds below!

Harry turned to Hailey and Ginny who looked a bit winded but other than that in good shape for having fought several Death Eaters.

“It’s a shame Darthmorth decided to struggle, he just caused his death sooner,” muttered Harry, shaking his head before turning to Hailey and Ginny. “You two alright?”

“Fine,” replied Ginny, massaging her side. “A little banged up but better than we can expected.”

“I guess I’m okay, the Cruciatus Curse isn’t a picnic through,” replied Hailey, massaging her forehead, as she felt a slight stabbing sensation throughout her body still. “Why did it take you so long anyway?”

“The pathway I took was a longer way around then I remembered,” replied Harry shortly, before looking at the Death Eaters. “Help me make sure this lot is secured, especially Malfoy, because we need him to get our names cleared.”

Hailey, Ginny, and Harry quickly moved, around, tightening the strings on the Death Eaters. Harry saw that the Death Eaters each had a Portkey on them, obviously a method to escape from Hogwarts. With a couple of spells, Harry disabled and then destroyed them, to make sure at least these Death Eaters didn’t escape.

“Uh, Harry, I think we might have a problem,” said Ginny in an uncertain voice, looking around at the unmasked Death Eaters who were bound on the ground. “Lucius Malfoy isn’t here!”

“He had to have escaped and he’ll surely warn Voldemort that I’m here,” said Harry, putting his head in his hands, before looking at Hailey and Ginny. “We don’t have much time, I’m going to go and try and find Voldemort myself but it won’t do any good if the Ministry doesn’t find out that he was at Hogwarts. So I need you to two to get to the Ministry of Magic and cause a disturbance so you can lure them into Hogwarts and make sure they see that Voldemort is back.”

Ginny and Hailey both nodded slowly before Hailey brightened up, the pain from the after effects of the Cruciatus Curse.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got an idea,” replied Hailey in a pleased voice just as Harry bolted down the corridor as fast as his legs could carry him. Harry had his back against the wall as Lucius Malfoy knew where Voldemort was in Hogwarts and Harry did not.

Harry managed to navigate two separate corridors without any difficulties but a third corridor caused Harry to stop in his tracks and point his wand to a weird type of yellow mist hovering uncertainly in the air. A couple of tests revealed that the mist only allowed people with a dark mark to pass through and those who didn’t would spontaneously combust. To test his theory, Harry pulled a dagger from his bag and promptly flicked it through the mist.

Sure enough, a loud bang was heard and the dagger burst into flames, before vanishing in mid air. Harry pointed his wand, moving as close to the mist he could as possible. Waving his wand, Harry attempted to concentrate to the best of his abilities, covering his body in a jet of ice cold water. Another tap set a time delay banishing curse and a second tap caused the water flowing around Harry’s body to freeze around him, incasing his body in ice.

Just as the ice set completely, the frozen form of Harry was propelled forward through the yellow mist. The ice began to melt but Harry was protected from the most lethal effects of the mist. The capsule of ice protecting Harry shattered and he fell to his knees, his hair slightly singed but with everything considered, it could have been much worst. Still, there was no time to dwell on the possibilities; Harry needed to keep on moving forward.

In the Ministry of Magic, Hailey and Ginny crept down a passageway.

“Well we landed awfully close to Auror central, pretty damn good based off of a vague idea of a picture that I’ve might have seen,” muttered Hailey.

“I thought you said you knew exactly where the Aurors were in the Ministry,” responded Ginny calmly.

“I do, well kind of, sort of…we’re all most there, aren’t we!” snapped Hailey.

“Yes,” replied Ginny, looking over her shoulder. “Just remember, there is a Floo connection at the end of the corridor, so that’s the easiest way to escape harm, while allowing the Aurors to follow us.”

“Uh, yeah, I was getting there,” replied Hailey slowly, as she brushed her untidy hair from in front of her eyes, while pointing her wand forward. “Just stick to the plan; I doubt we have but ten or fifteen minutes, if that.”

Ginny and Hailey raised their wands, before Ginny opened the door, being more adept at wordless magic then Hailey was. The door opened and at least a dozen Aurors were working in the cubicles. The two girls exchanged looks before pointing their wands towards the ground before sending blasting loud percussion spells towards the ground.

A loud sound echoed throughout the area containing the cubicles for the Aurors of the Ministry of Magic, causing the Aurors to look up in a state of panic. They looked over to the side, their eyes widened at the sight of the two girls, who were deemed wanted fugitives. They pointed their wands at Hailey and Ginny threateningly.

“Run!” hissed Hailey, barely avoiding a stunning spell, and following Ginny in slipping out the door, before Ginny sealed the door shut behind them magically.

“Don’t let them escape!” bellowed the voice of the Head of the Auror Office, Rufus Scrimgeour, as the door began to crack and Hailey and Ginny made their way down the corridor towards the nearest Floo connection.

“We need to get to Umbridge’s office!” yelled Ginny which caused Hailey to look at her strangely. “Harry mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago that it is the only fireplace in the entire school that hasn’t been blocked off.”

Hailey nodded, hoping that Umbridge would not be too much trouble when they reached her office.

Meanwhile, back at Hogwarts, Harry’s hands clasped on a rope, as he pulled himself to the top of a slippery incline that was once a flight of stairs. Harry had moved approximately three floors without any sign of Voldemort, his Death Eaters, or anyone else for that matter.

“Well, what do we have here?” asked a sickeningly sweet voice and Harry spun around, to see the face of Dolores Umbridge. “So, Mr. Potter, you return. The Minister will thank me for bringing you down. You will not ruin his assessment of my school.”

“Your school?” asked Harry. “I’m afraid you are sadly mistaken, Professor. The students in this school follow one person and one person only. The students in the school may choose to disbelieve me under some circumstances but those are believe me are the future and thus are the only ones who will matter in the end. You live in the past, not wanting to let go of your perfect little Ministry that has been ran pretty much the same for about four hundred years.”

“CRUCIO!” shrieked Umbridge and her curse hit Harry. Her magic wasn’t as strong as those who had put Harry under the curse before and Harry managed to raise his hand, causing Umbridge’s break on the curse to shatter and the toad like woman to stagger backwards.

“The Unforgivable Curse, punishable by a one way ticket to Azkaban,” replied Harry. “You just sealed your fate, Umbridge.”

“Dead men tell no tales, Potter,” shrieked Umbridge before pointing her wand. “AVADA KEDAVRA!”

Umbridge’s wand lit up, causing a green light to fly a few inches before dying in mid air. She looked shocked that her attempt of murder did not work.

“I believe, Umbridge, you don’t have the power to pull off a killing curse, but I think it is safe to assume that I do,” remarked Harry in an off handed sort of voice which caused Umbridge to back off slightly in fear. “Why don’t you say we test out that theory?”

Umbridge shrieked in horror. Harry wasn’t going to kill her and besides, a quick death would be much more than someone like Umbridge would deserve. It was just so much fun messing with her head.

“You wouldn’t!” yelled Umbridge in a horrified voice.

“Yes, you’re right, why befoul my wand with an unforgivable on your behalf,” said Harry before flicking his wand and Umbridge sailed up to the ceiling before sticking to it by the top of her head. Her wand flew towards the ground and Harry expertly caught it. “I’ll just keep your wand nice and safe, so the Aurors can see that you tried to kill me.”

Harry walked off, ignoring Umbridge’s yells to let her down. He had to find Voldemort and quick at that. Time seemed to have been running out.

In the library, Voldemort was levitating the scrolls from the metal canister. In less than five minutes, he would be able to completely pull them past the security enchantments and then he would be able to take the scrolls and flee Hogwarts before anyone was the wiser.

The doors of the library swung open and a very frantic Lucius Malfoy staggered inside, looking quite frantic.

“My Lord, he is here,” said Malfoy in a frantic voice. “He’s wise to the fact you are here.”

“Lucius, you fool,” hissed Voldemort angrily. Malfoy’s distraction had set him back and it would take a few more minutes then he had planned to liberate the scrolls. “Who is here?”

“Potter, my Lord!” declared Lucius frantically. “He captured the other Death Eaters in my team, I just barely escaped.”

“Lucius, take the Lestranges, Dolohov, and Greyback with you, make sure Potter doesn’t reach me, stall him for approximately ten minutes,” hissed Voldemort quickly. “I will alert you all when the process has been completed.”

Lucius nodded, quickly moving out to the area where the other team of Death Eaters was waiting. After walking a short corridor, he saw the forms of the Lestranges, Greyback, and Dolohov.

“Lucius, I thought that you had a team of Death Eaters guarding the bottom half of the school,” said Dolohov calmly.

“They have been captured, by Harry Potter,” replied Lucius. “We can’t let Potter pass and ruin the Dark Lord’s plans. No matter what, Potter must be detained.”

“Let me handle Potter,” said Greyback, licking his lips in a predatory matter. “He’ll think twice about meddling in our business, when I spill his blood.”

“Greyback, the Dark Lord has ordered us that Potter is only to die by his hands!” shrieked Bellatrix “As Lucius said, we just need to detain him and keep him from reaching the library. So be on the look out, as Potter is sure to have ways to find out where we are. This much the Dark Lord is sure of.”

The group of Death Eaters looked and sure enough, a figure scurried into the shadows.

“Potter!” yelled Dolohov, as he pointed his wand forward and a large vase levitated upwards, causing Dolohov to flick his wand and shatter it into pieces.

“He’s playing mind games with us,” muttered Rodolphus Lestrange in a disgusted voice and a tapestry was pulled from the wall magically and flung at the Lestrange Brothers. Rodolphus used a slicing spell to slice the tapestry to shreds.

“Come out and play, Potter!” cooed Bellatrix in a loud voice and she saw a figure in the shadows. “CRUCIO!”

The spell seemed to have missed Potter and Bellatrix shrieked as a pair of shackles came flying towards her legs.

Harry needed a concrete distraction to get the Death Eaters looking in the other direction, so he could make it to the library and face off against Voldemort with no external interference. Suddenly, a burst of inspiration came towards Harry and he could have slapped himself for not thinking of it sooner. Waving his hand around his head in a triangular motion, Harry created three holographic duplicates of himself, before sending them in three separate directions.

“There’s Potter, and Potter, and Potter,” shrieked Bellatrix, pointing out three separate duplicates of Harry Potter.

“The boy is obviously using some form of trickery and illusion!” snapped Lucius, pointing his wand and firing at one of the holographic duplicates but his spell sailed through.

“I’ll sniff the real Potter out,” said Greyback, pointing his nose into the air, as another spell sailed overhead, cutting Lucius Malfoy’s wand arm. The Minister of Magic fell to the ground with a nasty gash on his wand arm.

“Potter, come out and stop gallivanting in the shadows,” ordered Lucius in a pained voice, clutching his wounded arm.

“And face a six on one disadvantage?” asked Harry, who was standing behind a suit of armor, sending another duplicate from behind a tapestry to cause further chaos. “I was sorted in the Slytherin house for a reason, you know.”

A thunder of steps came down from the corridor right next to this one and Harry saw Hailey and Ginny stagger in, winded, followed by a dozen Ministry Aurors.

“Damn, the Aurors are here!” shrieked Bellatrix. “Now, we need to stall them, Potter, and these two girls!”

“Death Eaters,” muttered Scrimgeour before turning to his orders. “Never mind Potter and Weasley, make these wizards dressed as Death Eaters don’t escape!”

A barrage of spells flew overhead as the Death Eaters and the Aurors were engaged in a large firefight. Hailey and Ginny looked caught in the middle until a pair of hands pulled them behind a tapestry. They looked around frantically before realizing it was just Harry.

“Good work you two, the Aurors are here and the Death Eaters are…” started Harry but Greyback pulled back the tapestry, a hungry look in his eyes.

“Ah, the famous Harry Potter,” said Greyback licking his lips before grinning, showing several yellowed teeth. “I must say it is a good thing we meet, as I love the taste of underage witches and wizards!”

With a purely psychotic look dancing in his eyes, Greyback staggered forward grabbing Harry by the arms, attempting to gnaw Harry’s face off but Ginny managed to trip Greyback. The werewolf staggered to the ground and Harry quickly sent a pair of solid steel shackles, magically reinforced, to clamp Greyback’s arms and legs together. Greyback attempted to bite Harry so Harry waved his wand again, putting a muzzle on Greyback and preventing him from biting any further. Greyback gave muffled yells but he was completely subdued.

“What would have happened if he would have bit you?” asked Hailey.

“I don’t know, granted, he’s a werewolf but it’s not the full moon,” replied Harry slowly. “Never mind that, keep your wands on him. He’s pretty well restrained but I’m not going to take any chances.”

“And what are you going to do Harry?” asked Ginny, as she joined Hailey in pointing their wands at the restrained form of Fenrir Greyback.

“I’m going to catch up on my reading,” answered Harry absentmindedly as he made his way towards the library, where he overheard that Voldemort was.

In the library, the metal canister around the scrolls completely collapsed into a puddle and the scrolls floated a few inches in the air before dropping firmly into Voldemort’s hands. Voldemort pointed his wand to his throat before preparing to speak.

“Death Eaters, this is Lord Voldemort speaking,” boomed Voldemort, his voice amplified greatly. “I have the scrolls and in thirty seconds, your portkeys will be activated, bringing you out of Hogwarts and back to our headquarters.”

Harry clasped his hand to his forehead, he was too late, Voldemort had what he had come for, some kind of scrolls. He saw Lucius Malfoy take out his Portkey but Harry decided to take out his frustrations on not getting to Voldemort in time on Malfoy. With a quick flick, Lucius screamed in horror as a shuriken knocked his Portkey out of his hand. His Portkey activated but since Lucius did not have it in his hands, it sunk to the ground. Lucius pointed his wand at Harry but Harry blasted Malfoy with a disarming hex, causing him to stagger backwards. A full body bind from Harry disabled Malfoy further. Harry reached into his bag and removed out a vial of Vertitaserum. The Boy Who Live quickly dripped three drops into the gash on Malfoy’s arm, introducing the truth serum into his blood stream. Harry quickly tapped Malfoy’s arm, healing the gash but the truth serum was already flowing through the Minister of Magic’s veins.

“Mr. Scrimgeour, the Death Eaters have vanished!” yelled one of the Aurors in frustration, just a short while after he fired a curse at Bellatrix Lestrange, who deflected it and then a second later, she was pulled into midair.

“Not all of them,” replied Harry and he pointed to the bound form of Lucius Malfoy, who was lying on the floor, completely helpless.

“Potter!” yelled Scrimgeour. “I…”

“Should interrogate that Death Eater, as I am sure he would be happy to spill certain details and tell the truth about what has exactly been going on for the past couple of months,” answered Harry and several of the Aurors looked rather inclined to agree.

“Lets see who is behind the mask,” replied a female Auror who was in her mid to late thirties, reaching forward to pull the mask off.

“Minister!” exclaimed one of the Aurors, although Harry couldn’t help but noting that more than one of the Aurors didn’t seem too surprised.

“Minister Malfoy, why are you dressed up in Death Eater garb?” asked one of the Aurors.

“Because I am a Death Eater, one of the Dark Lord’s inner circle, you fool, as I have been for nearly two decades” responded Malfoy, the Vertitaserum causing the truth to spill out of Malfoy before he could stop himself.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you were under the Imperius Curse, were you not, Malfoy?” asked Scrimgeour calmly.

“I made the Ministry of Magic believe that, as did several of my fellow Death Eaters but it was carefully calculated ruse, to escape imprisonment in Azkaban,” answered Malfoy. “A few hundred Galleons and you fools at the Ministry become gullible enough to believe any lie we spin.”

“Voldemort has returned, of course,” said Harry calmly.

“Of course, Potter, you saw him, he used your blood to bring himself back to his body,” replied Lucius. “Naturally, you surviving messed up the Dark Lord’s plans so I had to formulate a plan to keep you quiet and to earn the favor of the Dark Lord once again. A plan, regarding the office of the Minister of Magic.”

“He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did not come up with this plan,” muttered Scrimgeour.

“He allowed me to run with it and gave me a rough skeleton of what he wanted accomplished, but the painstaking details were all mine,” replied Lucius. “It wasn’t easy, the Mudblood nearly ruined everything but a switching spell certainly set everything back according to plan. When I became interim Minister of Magic, I made sure Potter was falsely branded as a fugitive and the night that I tried to arrest him was the last time I saw him until tonight. I was under the assumption that he had cowardly fled around with his sister and girlfriend.”

“Your assumption was wrong Lucius, I was simply biding my time, waiting for the right moment,” replied Harry calmly before turning to the Aurors. “I assume you all can take it from here. You will find several Death Eaters bound and gagged three floors down, Greyback is behind that tapestry, shackled and muzzled, and the High Inquisitor stuck to the ceiling a short distance from here. Performing a test on her wand will reveal something very interesting and I have further evidence regarding her past crimes during her year at Hogwarts that I will be passing on to the Ministry within the next day or so.”

Scrimgeour nodded calmly, taking this information that Potter had loaded into him in stride. He turned to his fellow Aurors.

“You four, round up the Death Eaters that Mr. Potter told us about, and then collect Madam Umbridge and her wand,” barked Scrimgeour before turning to some more Aurors. “You three collect Greyback, but be warned, he is vicious and even if he is subdued, he may very well have a few tricks up his sleeve. The rest of you will keep the Minister of Magic company with me until we escort him to Azkaban with his fellow Death Eaters.”

Several days after the invasion of Hogwarts, everything within Hogwarts was back to normal or at least as close to normal as life at Hogwarts had ever gotten. The house system had been reinstated; the muggleborns were no longer segregated from the rest of the school, and Umbridge was no longer High Inquisitor, having been thrown into Azkaban for the attempted murder of Harry, not to mention her several other crimes during her time as Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, High Inquisitor, and Headmistress of Hogwarts. Dumbledore had been reinstated as Headmaster which Harry supposed may have been the lesser of two evils at the moment. Still, Harry vowed to keep a close eye on Dumbledore, as something about Dumbledore appearing to have cheated death almost thirty years ago and coming back looking as healthy as ever did not seem right at all.

In the Room of Requirement, Hailey, Harry, Ginny, Daphne, Theodore, and Hermione were doing their homework and chatting. Hermione seemed a bit unnerved at the fact that Ordinary Wizarding Level Exams were less than two weeks away.

“That blasted woman, I have to learn four months of lessons in thirteen days,” hissed Hermione angrily. “Harry, there are times I wish you would have killed Umbridge, after seeing how she crippled the education of so many muggleborn students and that’s not even counting her rubbish teaching as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

“Hermione, relax, you’re forgetting about the time distortion properties of this room and besides, I’ve never known you to flunk an exam,” said Harry. “You’ll have plenty of time, just stay calm.”

“I suppose you’re right Harry, it’s just a shock how little time there is,” replied Hermione, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

“I don’t think O.W.L.s will be that bad, through, we pretty much know all the material,” replied Harry.

“Yes, they’re only the second most important magical exam we’ll ever have to take, so no pressure,” said Daphne with a grin.

“And not to mention that it decides what classes we take in our sixth and seventh year,” supplied Theodore. “Nope, no reason I can’t see to fret.”

“You two are lucky that you don’t have to take them,” said Daphne, looking at Hailey and Ginny.

“I wouldn’t doubt that they would be able to pass them with flying colors through,” muttered Hermione calmly which caused Theodore and Daphne to look at her. “They’ve been with Harry for the better part of four months; Harry knows more magic then the three of us put together, so he had to have taught them something.”

“That’s true, considering Harry could pass his N.E.W.Ts if he wanted to,” said Theodore.

“Along with most of the Aurors in the Ministry and we know what he can do against Voldemort’s Death Eaters,” added Daphne.

Harry just sat back, quietly, barely listening to the banter of his friends. His homework was completed but the fact that Voldemort had successfully stolen some kind of mysterious scrolls gnawed away at Harry. Harry could not have begun to guess what the scrolls contained and was not put to ease by the very real possibility that nothing on those scrolls would do Harry any good whatsoever.

“Harry?” asked Ginny uncertainly.

“Just thinking about how badly that night where Voldemort and his Death Eaters went,” answered Harry.

“Harry, you did the best you could and besides, thanks to you, several of the Death Eaters are in Azkaban,” said Hermione.

“For the moment anyway,” said Hailey darkly. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Voldemort didn’t bust them out before we escaped Hogwarts.”

“Maybe, but he could want to let them rot in Azkaban for a while, to show his displeasure with them,” said Daphne.

“Some of the Death Eaters might have been put into Azkaban but many, many others are out there, doing his bidding,” said Harry. “We may have achieved a partial victory in one battle, but the war has barely begun and besides, Voldemort has those scrolls I was talking about.”

“Call me crazy, but I think the scrolls might be part of a larger, more detailed plan of Voldemort’s to take control,” suggested Ginny slowly. “They might not be as important in the grand scheme of things as you think, Harry.”

“Ginny’s got a point,” said Daphne. “All of the Death Eaters that were busted out of Azkaban last winter and the scrolls could just be the beginning.”

“Let’s not forget that Lucius Malfoy was Minister and Voldemort could have gotten his hands on some confidential information that only the Minister of Magic could get access to,” added Theodore, reminding something that Harry had thought of previously but had disregarded recently due to the fact he was obsessing over what information the scrolls Voldemort stole had contained.

“Yes, but we can only guess, until Voldemort plays his next move, we won’t know for sure,” concluded Harry, as he absentmindedly looked at his fifth year Potions book as the others resumed either doing their homework or in the case of the fifth years, preparing for their O.W.L.s.

In the depths of Azkaban, Umbridge shivered in horror in her cell. She would have run Hogwarts for the near future if Potter had not bungled things up. Much to her displeasure, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had returned and the Minister of Magic had confessed to being one of his top Death Eaters. Umbridge had never been a Death Eater, even through she had sympathized with many of his viewpoints.

“Madam Umbridge, I would like to introduce you to your new cellmate,” replied a harsh voice of an Auror.

“Cellmate?” quivered Umbridge, looking up and she saw a very unwelcome face being led into the cell in shackles. The shackles dissolved once her new cellmate had been placed in the cell.

“Evening Dolores,” declared Greyback, licking his lips. “Full moon tonight if I’m not mistaken. Perfect time for a chat about your hatred for my kind, if I may say so myself.”

“Auror, Auror, it’s a full moon tonight and this…thing is a werewolf!” shrieked Umbridge in horror.

“Don’t worry Madam Umbridge, this door has been magically reinforced,” replied the Auror in a bland voice, with the smallest hint of a grin on his face. “A fully transformed werewolf won’t be able to break out of this cell. In fact, neither will anyone else for that matter.”

The Auror walked off, ignoring Umbridge’s screams of terror as she was left along in a small jail cell with one of the most vicious werewolves alive today on the night of a full moon.

Moments later outside of Azkaban, the moon rose outside and a loud howl was heard from within Azkaban not too long after. A woman’s scream followed the howl, but only for the briefest of moments.

The following day, Auror patrol were greeted by a few torn pieces of flesh along with a puddle of blood of what they assumed to the remains of Dolores Umbridge and Fenrir Greyback curled in a fetal ball in his cell at Azkaban, obviously suffering from indigestion.