Standard Disclaimers Apply: I don't own Harry Potter, and unfortunately I never ever will.
Warning: Plot in progress, who knows where this thing will go...
Also, I am aware that this is a common story line- I'm hoping to make it interesting enough that you'll want to keep reading anyway! And as this is a WiP, I'm always open to suggestions via reviews! :)
Also, I'm calling this Chapter One, but it's really a prologue- keep reading to get actual action! :)
Chapter One
The Wizarding world had changed since the end of the Second War.
The changes were subtle. At first, the public enthusiastically backed the new laws that were emerging, laws that were supposed to keep them safe. The Death Eaters that had fled were slowly tracked down one by one to face harsher punishments than the average criminals. Stripped of most basic rights, those that bore the dormant but still visible Dark Mark were tried, imprisoned, and publically Kissed in front of jeering crowds.
Some were quick to be caught- the Carrows, Antonin Dolohov, and Walden Macnair, among others. Some hid for weeks or months before being discovered. And of course, everyone remembered the June day that Crabbe Sr, cornered in Diagon Alley, went mad and blew up half the street before being crushed by falling debris. Six civilians, including four year old Annalise Shaw, died that day.
Annalise Shaw became the poster child for the New Law. Outraged and terrified of the danger still present, the public demanded more from the Ministry- more protection, more arrests, more punishments. And the Ministry, weak and uncertain in the wake of the chaos left by Voldemort, latched onto the cause as something to unite the nation.
All those associated with the Dark Arts, now labelled Dark Ones, trembled in fear. By July, Knockturn Alley was closed down, with shopkeepers arrested and thrown in Azkaban. The Dementors had been removed, and only a few still existed for Kissing purposes, but the jailers remained as vicious as ever. And a new torture for prisoners was introduced- boggarts were put in every cell.
Silencing Charms became necessary for the jailers to keep their sanity. Mass graves were introduced, as most of the prisoners quickly went insane in the face of their greatest fears and killed themselves or starved to death. It made room for the ever-incoming prisoners.
Families of Death Eaters began to be arrested under charges of aiding and abetting fugitives, even if they claimed they had not seen their Dark One in years. Children in these families were placed with other couples to be raised and educated properly, away from the influence of their Dark blood.
Purebloods were the next targets. In the early months, those that were not arrested for suspicion of Dark activity had most of their wealth stripped from them under the reasoning that their "support" was needed to help rebuild the Ministry. The intelligent purebloods fled abroad to wait for the fervour to die down, and slowly returned to their homes only after the Ministry had moved its focus to the next targets.
As eager as the public was to condemn the Dark Ones to keep themselves safe from a new Dark Lord, practicality eventuality had to settle in. Even with the suicides and starvations, Azkaban quickly filled to maximum capacity. The number of Dark Ones to be Kissed was so great, many would wait years to reach their fate. And the vast number of people fleeing the country for fear of being targeted, purebloods and muggleborns alike, was starting to attract the attention and disapproval of outside governments, who began closing off communication with Britain. Policies had to change.
In August, an ancient law was remembered, one that satisfied the masses and solved all of their problems. Stretching back to the days of the feudal system, the law stated that any found guilty of performing "Magicks moste darke" were to be stripped of their vassal status and to be given in indentured servitude to whomever the Lord deemed worthy, to be educated and rehabilitated by their Light Lords. Adapting this law, the Ministry allowed those who had performed the least of Dark Arts to be given as servants to the heroes of the war and the "beacons of light." Finally, the public was calm, happy in the knowledge that the Dark Ones were being punished, and that free labour was available if one was able to prove their worth. Many minor Death Eaters and possessors of Dark artefacts were the first to be removed from Azkaban and placed on a list to be picked up, like cattle, by their "Light sponsors."
Which is how on August 18th, two weeks before Hogwarts was set to re-open, Draco Malfoy came to find himself shackled to a chair in an empty white room in the Ministry, awaiting his fate.