Disclaimer: I don't own it, I never did, I don't make no claim to any of it. It all belongs to her!

Authors Note: Yes, I know it's late, I know it's slow. My muse is erratic at best and now I have a new job, free time is hard to come by. Sorry

Amelia Bones' day had started so well and only gone downhill from there. First there were the Hogwarts alarms and now she was receiving reports that Hogwarts was cut off. "What do you mean cut off?"

Kinglsey Shackelbolt frowned. "It's like I said, the wards are up, new ones too from the looks of things. We can't get in. Every spell we try just bounces off and they are acting as a physical barrier as well. We heard some screams and sounds of running at first when we arrived, but now it's silent. One of our spotters claims he saw some movement in the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw towers, so I'm guessing that the students are in there. The Hogwarts Express was due to leave an hour ago and is still waiting at the platform. Basically, we need to make a decision; do we alert the parents to the fact that the Hogwarts Express will be late? And if so, what reason do we give? When we don't even know what is going on."

Amelia frowned and then sipped her tea. "I want you to maintain two squads at Hogwarts. Have the express stand by, it might be needed anyway. I want you to oversee the operations of things at Hogwarts until we get word as to anything happening. We have to hold off until we know something. In the mean time, why don't you contact Gringotts and borrow Bill Weasley. Take him up there and see what he can do in the way of identifying these new wards and find a way in." With that decision made, Amelia turned and began to work on the next problem.

Back at Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore was contemplating the new problems he was facing. The students couldn't leave the school and were most likely going to be a bit late getting to Kings Cross Station if they didn't leave in the next two hours. These new wards were more complex than he had initially thought, meaning that it would have to be Neville who lowered them, or the school would lower them herself when she choose to. Sucking on a lemon drop, he looked out over the front gate, where what looked like a dozen Aurors were trying to find a way through the wards to enter the school. Clearly they had been bought in from the Ministry when the power surges were detected. Sighing to himself, he made a decision to act, while the visitors were resting.

Bill Weasley was feeling torn. On one hand, he was being challenged by some of the best warding he had ever encountered, he could see the interwoven strands of the wards. He was amazed and awed by how interconnected these new wards were, how any changes to one would activate more. How traps were built into the warding itself. On the other hand, his best estimate was that it would be a minimum of a month, with his entire team, working around the clock, uninterrupted, to dismantle the first layer of the wards. There were, at his best estimate, at least six layers. He wanted to meet whoever designed these wards and first praise them, then hit them for being so damn good. To have put these up would have taken him and his team at least a two-week period and even then they would have to be balanced and tuned for the area. Somehow these went up overnight. Sighing to himself, he continued to map out the wards as he encountered them, trying to build a map that they could then use to break them to get inside Hogwarts. As such, he didn't notice the fact that the Headmaster was standing less than ten feet away, smiling broadly at the look on his face.

"Ah, Mister Weasley. I do hope you are enjoying yourself with our new wards?"

"Merlin's Beard!" Bill was so shocked he dropped his own wand. "Headmaster, is everything alright? What's going on?" His questions were interrupted by the approach of Kingsley.

"Professor Dumbledore? Is everything alright in there? We registered two massive energy spikes and when we came to investigate, we found that we were blocked from getting in."

"Indeed Kingsley" The headmaster stroked his beard. "The new wards went up significantly faster than expected, I do apologise for this. There is no danger or threat, thankfully. The Ministry will receive a full report of course, indeed, Please extend my invitation to Amelia to pay a visit tomorrow and all will be explained. In the mean time, could you apparate to platform 9 ¾ and let any parents know that the Hogwarts Express was held up at this end by a situation out of our control and as such, will be no more than an hour late in it's arrival. There a good chap" He smiled benignly and then turned and walked back towards the school. Leaving a very shocked curse breaker and Auror behind him.

It was a scant two hours later that the school children were pouring out of the castle in a flood, making all possible haste to the carriages that stood ready out the front. As the first carriage started to move, the shimmering dome over the school seemed to flicker then vanish. Allowing not just the cheering students to leave, but the dozen Aurors to enter the school.

In a not very well known tower, five people were currently doing something that they had dreamed of for over a year.

"Harry?"

"Yes Ginny?"

"If I promise to get you some of those butter biscuits you like so much, would you give me a foot massage while Neville washes my hair?" Her look of artful innocence towards the other four was heavily offset by the fact that not a single one of them wore a stitch of clothing between them. The bath, a deep inviting pool of bubble filled hot watery goodness had been declared big enough for all of them and they had literally stripped en mass as they passed through the living area and them jumped in. Savouring not just the hot water but also luxurious soaps and other delights they had either never had time for, or simply couldn't get.

"I could do that, but I could also ask a house elf to get me some of the biscuits and you'd have to find another way to bribe me" This was said as he took up one of her feet in his hands and started the massage, leaving Ginny, who was already on the verge of groaning from the sheer pleasure of having someone wash her fiery mane of hair, to whimper in the sheer indulgence she was experiencing. Harry just grinned at Neville, who was obviously trying not to laugh as well.

Ron and Hermione were slightly less active as they sat there, up to their necks, eyes closed, half asleep as they simply soaked.

"So Hermione" Harry finally piped up after about ten minutes of the only real noise being the occasional splash, whimper or groan from Ginny who was now half asleep.

"What do you have planned for Snape?"

"It's simple Harry." She grinned faintly, "I'm going to break down any shield he raises, catch a few of his hexes then break his knees before forcing him to yield. If he behaves well, I may let him keep his wand."

"Ah" Nothing more needed to be said.

It was almost an hour after they entered that Neville looked up at the ceiling and grinned. "Wards are down. She's happy, kids have left and," he paused as there was a 'pop' and an ice bucket appeared next to him "The butter beers are nicely chilled." With that he passed the bottles out. "So what's the plan Streak?"

Harry leant back against Hermione, using her as a convenient pillow. "For tonight? We stay here. We sleep. Standard watch, of course. My Map should work here, but keep an eye out just in case. No one comes in or leaves except the House Elves. Comes the morning, I was all of us up and prepped at half an hour before dawn. After Hermione wins, we have breakfast. Then we get the headmaster to bring the Weasleys and Longbottoms here. We break the news of who we are to them, listen to Molly rant, and then we tell them the truth after they swear secrecy. After that? I have no idea. I'm still working on that. We may have to stay here for a bit and" he grimaced "do our NEWTS. We will need the qualifications and if any of you don't put your duelling evaluator for the exam in the hospital wing, then you have act as the minion of the rest for a week" he grinned at that while the others chuckled. "Seriously though. We are out of place here. It looks like they haven't seen any fighting since Tom died. I'd put odds on us being some of the most dangerous people in the wizarding world, and that means we need to be careful. My title means that the ministry can't touch me, Hogwarts is legally mine, though she has always liked Cub best" He grinned at Neville who blushed slightly. "However all this means we are going to be the targets of some nasty politics if we don't put the fear of God into them. Hermione, I want Snape down in less than three seconds. Don't toy with him, just put him down hard and fast. Neville, until the school year starts I want you and Ginny in the library finding out all the differences between our world and this one. Ron, I want a secure perimeter. I want detection wards out to two miles. If we are going to be safe here, then we need warning of any threats. Hermione, after Christmas I want you to visit the Ministry. I want your and Neville's masteries registered and stamped. If need be, baffle them with theoretical ward and potion theory. All of you, no mention of our animagus forms. Moony and a few others might guess by the names, but don't give them anything to play with. It's an edge we may need in the future." He sighed softly "Right, that's enough of that, I've got first watch. Lets dry off and hit the sack. It's Christmas tomorrow."

Dawn broke over Hogwarts to find a group of individuals, most of whom would rather be asleep, gathered in the front lawn. In front of them, two stood apart, dressed in duelling robes, they eyed each other. A sallow faced man glared at a stone faced young woman.

"Can there be no chance for peace between you?" Albus Dumbledore intoned the ritual question that preceded a duel. "Must the issue come to violence?"

"There can be no peace unless the words spoken are retracted and a public apology is made" Hermione spoke up. Her voice was as cold and emotionless as her face.

Dumbledore sighed. "Then so be it." He incanted some ancient words and a dome of faint blue energy surrounded the pair. "This is not to the death. The first to surrender or be rendered unconscious shall be the looser. Magic itself will enforce this. Let none question the answer. Draw your wands."

Snape elegantly drew his polished wand. His movements fluid and graceful, revealing long practise. His stance was perfect.

Hermione simply raised her hand. It was encased in a gauntlet made of dragonhide. On the palm glittered a faceted gem that covered most of the palm. A few other much smaller gems were positioned around it and on the tips of the fingers. Ignoring the quizzical looks from most of the gathered witnesses, she settled into a semi crouched stance, her eyes locked onto Snape.

"Begin"

That one word was enough for Snape's whip-crack of wand movement. Beautifully executed and technically perfect in it's style, he had sent an Expelliarmus down at Hermione less than a split second after the first syllable had left Dumbledore's lips.

He was a fraction of a second too slow.

His eyes widened as he saw her gauntlet seem to pulse and a startlingly fast bead of energy shot from the hand, with only a muttered incantation to identify it. In the time it took for his mind to realise that first of all, he did not recognise the spell, and that secondly he had to move out of the way, it had crossed two thirds of the distance between them. His own spell was less than a foot away from his own wand. As Snape's wand came up, a hurried Protego on his lips, his mind allowed itself the barest fraction of time to relax. He knew his shield was strong enough to stop most spells short of the darkest of curses.

He was wrong.

To the spectators, a display of incredible reflexes by Professor Snape was dampened by the fact that Hermione's spell simply punched through it. The shield cracked and shattered into shards of magical energy as the bead of light blossomed into a fist sized ball, seemingly activated by the shield that slammed directly into Snape's chest. He was out cold before he hit the ground ten feet away.

Hermione simply swayed her upper body slightly, allowing his spell to graze past her, doing no more than ruffling the sleeve on her robes.

The gathered professors and Aurors were speechless. None of them could even utter a single word.

"Nice one Brains" Ron was not so constrained. "Timed at one point two seconds. That's four tenths of a second slower than your best." He grinned, "Now, can we eat?"

Ron is a prat so much of the time, but the perfect guy to break the tension or mood grins

Next chapter...whenever. Not sure, depends how I go. I know this chapter was short, sue me.

Oh, Get thee hence to the Author known as Wargear, for his fics are stange and disturbing and funny. I should know, I helped him brainstorm some of them over lates nights and much caffine

Have fun kiddies and if you can't be good, be good at it

Cheers

Finbar