While writing this story I completely forgot about Sirius for some reason... I'll add him in the next chapter!

Disclaimer: Still don't own Harry Potter.

Cornelius Fudge was happy. He'd been able to make sure that his Undersecretary would have a place within Hogwarts to keep Dumbledore in line. The killer that was known as Potter was in prison and there were no dark wizards within Britain. He'd made sure to ask one of the Unspeakable's that Lucius Malfoy trusted. All was good in the world.

Lucius Malfoy walked through the Atrium with confidence that he did not feel. The Dark Lord wanted the prophecy before he did anything and he had given the job of getting it to Lucius. Failure was not an option.

The Unspeakable had something deep within the ministry. It was called the hall of prophecies. Every single prophecy that had ever been spoken was within this grand hall. Everyone who knew about this hall also knew that you could not touch an orb unless it was one of the people that was written on the slip of paper underneath it or bad things would happen. No one knew exactly as to what would happen. Would it melt your brain? Would it kill you? Or maybe it would just make you unable to speak of it? Only the Head of the Unspeakable's knew what it did.

Lucius looked at the orb in fear. He'd been able to get this far because of the death eaters within the Unspeakable's but once they told him that they did not know what it would do to him he did not want to touch it. He'd already tried to summon it, to levitate it and to drag it off with his cane. It did not budge no matter what he did. He would have to pick it up with his hand and that was not something that he wanted to do.

"Perhaps the Dark Lord can wait until Potter is out of Azkaban?" Lucius looked at the Unspeakable with an unreadable expression and nodded his head. Yes, hopefully the Dark Lord would understand with the reasoning that he would use.

Dumbledore looked around his office. He'd lost a lot for trying to defend Harry but he had been able to keep his title of Headmaster. Barely. The board of Governors were watching him closely, just waiting for the moment he would slip. How had he failed so badly? Fawkes thrilled a couple of sad notes and Albus put his head in his hands in defeat. How could he fix this?

Hermione Granger, brightest witch of her generation, had been crying for the first week of summer. She'd kept her head up during the last few days of school but once back home she's just broken down. Her parents had been there for her but that did not lessen the pain. Now, well, she was tired of crying. She got out of bed and down the stairs to the kitchen where she knew her parents where.

"And there's our brave girl!" She smiled at her father's exclamation. Yes, they had been extremely worried. She sat at her place at the kitchen table and smiled as her mother placed her breakfast in front of her. They both watched her as they talked about what was happening in the neighbourhood and what was happening at their dental practice.

When she was done and about to go to her room they stopped her.

"We have something for you. Come to the den."

When she saw what it was she hugged them both while crying. Somehow, her parents had pieced everything together over the week and had bought her as many law books as they could find. They had also looked through some as she could see some sticky notes in some of the books. They also showed her some pamphlets for courses at universities and explained that if she wanted to she could take any course she wanted as they were long distance courses.

Once the explanation done they left her to peruse the books and pamphlets. It was good to be home.