A/N: Thank you very much for all those who've continued to read, add my story to your favorites and follow list. But most of all, thank you for all those who've left reviews. Sorry for the delay. Just had a really rough year.
The Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeor was not a coward. He was tortured, almost stripped of sanity and a lesser man would have given way. He didn't. He wasn't as incompetent as Fudge, he had an idea what Harry was doing and a possibility of where he was. But he remembered his ideals as a wizard and later as minister in a ministry embroiled in an unseen war. He died knowing he did his duty.
But the ministry and the world he left fell under the invisible enemy whose continued existence his incompetent predecessor denied for so long. Voldemort took over the Ministry of Magic along with his faithful and deranged Death Eaters. Hogwarts, still reeling from the death of its former headmaster also fell to Voldemort's hands. He appointed a much hated Severus Snape as the new headmaster and his torturers, the Carrow siblings became teachers.
Hogwarts drastically changed; adjusting to the Dark Lord's whims and caprices. Students were subjected to torture in the guise of "detention", the Cruciatus Curse was given as freely as cleaning stables once were, sometimes given by other students to their fellow students. The Defense Against the Dark Arts just became Dark Arts and Muggle Studies became compulsory for all given how it was changed into a propaganda against Muggles and Muggle Borns. Suspicions and discords were rife.
As a result of this, a band of students began to fight back very early, led unexpectedly by the seventh year Neville Longbottom and sixth years Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood.
Kelly often wondered how much they could trust of Dumbledore's instructions. But she knows she is just a teenager and her limitations is in her lack of experience. For now, they just have to make do with it. When Albus Dumbledore died just some time ago, he left Harry with a final task of finding and destroying the remaining Horcruxes that Voldemort created at different points in his life. Over several months, Harry, Kelly, Hermione and Draco tried to locate the Horcruxes.
But it wasn't without its price. Hermione's parents did not of her existence much less that they have a daughter. Kelly doesn't know where her friend hid her parents. Draco had become sadistic in his killing those that chased after them, especially after Harry, Hermione and Kelly were taken when he left to get provisions and later Hermione was tortured in the very home where he grew up. There were times when he would hunt down "enemies" and at least Kelly had no illusions in that she knew he would torture them for information.
Kelly saw her mother when she wore that locket. She almost killed herself out of guilt that if only her mother hadn't been alone, if she, a witch, wasn't so far away; she could have protected her mother from assassination. While Harry grew more despondent and faithless in their success as time went on.
Draco was needed elsewhere, he had his duties. With a heavy heart, he bid his childhood sweetheart farewell and wished them luck in their mission as Ron led him away. Hermione thought it strange that the scion of two houses that have constantly been at each other's throat became trusted allies at the heart of adversity. War had a tendency of making children grow up too fast. They weren't young boys fighting over whose family is better. They are both fighting for their lives.
After they parted ways with the two; Harry, Kelly and Hermione who all donned the Cloak of Invisibility, apparated in the midst of Hogsmeade. But this caused a Caterwauling Charm set by the Death Eaters to go off. Several Death Eaters dashed into the street from Three Broomsticks. One of those in pursuit tried to summon the cloak but they had been in luck because it is one of fabled Deathly Hallows and as such mortal charms did not work on it.
But they were trapped and couldn't even Disapparate given how the Death Eaters casted Anti-Disapparation Jinx on Hogsmeade. They were surrounded by Dementors and as these closed in on them, Harry had no choice but to raise his wand to cast a Patronus, causing a silver stag to burst from his wand. Kelly closed her eyes, she knew that the Death Eaters had them now.
But before the Death Eaters could close in on them, they were quickly hustled inside Hog's Head Inn. Outside his inn, Aberforth Dumbledore, the proprietor and as an upperclassman once joked, a goat lover; cast a goat Patronus. He insisted that the Death Eaters may have mistaken his PAtronus for a stag and that it was him who set off the alarm when he let his cat out. Even though they were reluctantly convinced, the Death Eaters had no choice but to go back to the High Street.
Hermione came out from under the Cloak, and sat down on a chair. Harry drew the curtains shut, then pulled the Cloak off himself and Kelly. They could hear the barman down below, re-bolting the door of the bar before he climbed up the stairs.
Harry's noticed Sirius Black's half of his two-way mirror on the mantelpiece. He realized it was the barman's eye he had been seeing in the mirror, and that this must meant that the barman had sent Dobby to rescue them during the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor. From his resemblance to his late brother, Harry deduced that the man was Aberforth Dumbledore.
After feeding them, Aberforth told them to wait for daybreak, when the curfew would lift. Then, they could get out of Hogsmeade, up into the mountains, and Disapparate. Harry argued that they needed to get into Hogwarts to complete the task Albus Dumbledore set them. Kelly noted the anger on Aberforth's face when he said that people had a habit of getting hurt when he was carrying out Albus Dumbledore's grand plans.
He told them to get away from the school, out of the country if they could; forget Dumbledore and his clever schemes. Harry pointed out that Aberforth was fighting as well, he was part of the Order of the Phoenix, but Aberforth retorted that the Order of the Phoenix was finished. Aberforth then said that Dumbledore was a natural at secrets and lies, a trait he learned from their mother. Hermione timidly asked if the picture on the mantelpiece was of his sister, Ariana, and Aberforth confirmed this.
Hermione said that Professor Dumbledore cared about Harry, very much, but Aberforth said that many of the people his brother cared about very much ended up in a worse state than if he had left them alone. When Hermione asked if Aberforth was talking about his sister, he burst into speech. He told them that when Ariana was six years old, she was attacked by three Muggle boys, and that afterwards her magic turned inward and drove her mad, exploding out of her because she couldn't control it.
Aberforth revealed that his father, Percival Dumbledore, went after the boys that harmed his daughter and was locked up in Azkaban for it.
The rest of the family moved house, and because Albus was often too busy for Ariana, she liked Aberforth best. Aberforth could get her to eat when she refused, and he could calm her down when she was in one of her rages. Then, when Ariana was fourteen, she accidentally killed her mother. Kendra's death resulted in Albus having to put aside his dreams and settle down as head of the family.
Aberforth said Albus did all right for a few weeks, up until Gellert Grindelwald arrived. Here was someone as bright and talented as Albus was; and so Ariana was neglected as the two of them planned a new wizarding order.
After a few weeks of this, Aberforth confronted the two of them about their treatment of his sister, which made Grindelwald angry. There was an argument, and Grindelwald subjected Aberforth to the Cruciatus Curse. Albus tried to stop Grindelwald, and the three boys began to duel. When the curses stopped, Ariana lay dead by an unknown hand. But Kelly noted what Aberforth didn't say, Ariana probably became an Obscurus whose magic became uncontrollable and its host erratic. It would make sense, given how it is known that Grindelwald had been scouring the planet later on for an Obscurus. She also deduced that Albus Dumbledore had probably wanted to use Ariana as a weapon.
As Kelly was thinking things through; Aberforth then again told Harry to hide. But Harry knew that in war, sometimes you have to think about the greater good. Harry told Aberforth that Albus had taught him how to finish You-Know-Who, and he was going to keep going until he succeeded, or died. Relenting, Aberforth approached the portrait of Ariana and said "You know what to do." She smiled and walked along what seemed to be a long tunnel painted behind her. Aberforth said that there was only one way in to Hogwarts left.