It was a typical day at Hogwarts... that is, until Hermione's magic quit working.

"Why doesn't my magic do anything?" pleaded Hermione.

"It's because you're a mudblood!" quipped Malfoy.

"9000 points from Slytherin!" said McGongle, or however you spell her name. "And your detention will be picking Hagrid's nose for him!"

"That's gross!"

"Oh, do you want it to be a MILLION points from your house?"

"We don't even have a - I mean, no ma'am." Malfoy went off to do his detention.

The professor turned her attention back to Hermione. "Maybe you should go see the school nurse."

Hermione did just that, only to find nothing particularly wrong with her. The nurse's best guess was that she'd just tired herself out with her recent showing-off; being muggle-born, Hermione had that much more to prove.

As it turned out, the problem wasn't confined to just Hermione. Other wizards and witches began having problems with diminishing magic. They were affected regardless of sex or level of "blood purity". By month's end, none of them were able to perform any proper magic. All classes were suspended until the problem could be solved.

"This blows," said Ron. "I miss being able to do magic!"

"On the plus side," said Hermione, "Voldemort and his followers-"

"AAAAARGH YOU SAID THE NAME!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "As I was saying, they too are affected by whatever's happening and, without their magic, they've proved to be no match for the Ministry. We've won!"

"I just wish we'd won a different way," lamented Harry.

"You're just mad 'cause your destiny was taken away."

"Maybe...?"

They then went on their Christmas break. Among other things, Harry had to explain to the Weasleys, yet again, that Coca-Cola did NOT invent Santa Claus.

Hermione, for her part, spent the time with her parents. Being muggles, they of course had NO idea what their daughter was going through, and at times things got awkward.

Thankfully, they were soon back at school.

Unfortunately, whatever problem they had was still unsolved. Worse yet, the ghosts had all disappeared. Peeves was still around, but his connection to our world was eroding. Also, their paintings were beginning to de-animate.

One day, the students were all called into the main hall.

"Greetings!" said Dumbledore. "I have some important and distressing news for you all."

He waited for everyone's attention.

"As you all know, our magic powers have been disappearing at an alarming rate, and and other things have been happening. The Ministry has been looking into this for this past month, trying to figure out what the cause is, and they've found the answer. You'd best all brace yourselves."

The students looked around at each other, than back to Dumbledore.

"Their conclusion is that magic itself has run its course in this world. It is disappearing and, sometime in the near future, it will crap out altogether and we will all become muggles forever."

There are no words for how quiet the room was upon that announcement.