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-- Late January --

Albus was in his office writing a letter. He felt like all he had done for the last year is write letters. He had written at least once a month to Remus Lupin, to try to get the man to return to Harry's life. Each letter including updates of the young boy's antics and pictures. Remus was just about the only source of information available regarding Harry's life before his parents were murdered. Albus was as-of-yet unable to get Remus to return, though he seemed to be softening to the idea now that Harry has been living as long without his parents as he lived with them. Albus was also unsuccessful in getting Remus to admit that his friends were animagi. Albus implied in one letter that he knew something because of the incident when Sirius Black led Severus to the Shrieking Shack - nearly straight into Remus' transformed werewolf form. Albus asked how James Potter, who saved Severus, could have been at the shack when Remus had already transformed. Remus, however, would not betray his friends and did not respond to the headmaster's inquiry.

The headmaster had also been writing a series of letters to the Ministry regarding Hogwarts. Hogwarts was partially under Ministry control because of the simple fact that it was a magical school. Hogwarts actually got no funding from the Ministry, the funds to run it were came from tuition and donations. Albus' position as Supreme Mugwump and his role in the Wizengamot was helping him achieve his goal of making Hogwarts independent. The latest request by the Ministry was a reasonable one, that the Ministry hold a place on the Board of Governors of the school. Albus hoped that this would be the final request and the Wizengamot would be able to vote on it before the start of the next school year.

There were laws that Albus was trying to change or create. He knew these would take years but he began to lay the groundwork for them as soon as he realized he was sent back in time. One of the laws was that a person could not be given a Dementor's Kiss without a full and public trial. He knew that in his original life this was an issue both with Sirius Black (as an attempt), and Barty Crouch Jr.. He knew a law like this would not get passed now, at the height of the capturing of the Death Eaters, but he was hopeful that when things were calmer in a few years the law would go through.

Albus also wanted to change the laws regarding underage use of magic. The law, as it stood now, really only affected muggleborn wizards and witches. Since the user could not be detected, underage magic in a magical home was assumed to be adult magic. Albus wanted to rewrite the law so that underage muggles could use magic defensively (always) or as practice - with guardian's permission. This idea had a lot of opposition because of all of the secrecy laws. Albus figured that over the next five to ten years he would be able to work out a compromise with the leaders of the Wizarding World.

The letter Albus was writing now was to Bartemius Crouch. When Albus returned to this time, Bartemius was still a very high-powered individual in the Ministry. Albus did not cut his ties with the man when his status was reduced because of the arrest last year of his son, for torturing the Longbottoms. In the last year Albus had visited the Crouch home a number of times to talk to Bartemius, and visit with his wife who had fallen ill. Albus knew that it was around now that his wife and son would switch places with the help of polyjuice potion. He was hoping that his keeping up the letters and the visits would make the Crouches not switch places. Mrs. Crouch was very frail now, dying of a broken heart most say, and in Albus' other life died in the middle of February. It would not be long before Albus would know if the switch was made, and if it was he would have to decide on his next course of action.

-- Mid April --

There were some days that it just did not pay to get out of bed. That was what Albus thought as he sat in his office and stroked his phoenix's feathers. Fawkes trilled softly for him trying to calm him down. A few weeks ago, Bartemius Crouch had informed Albus that his wife has slipped into a coma. Crouch said he was going to maintain her magically as long as possible because he just could not bear the thought of letting her go - not after he lost his son to Azkaban. Albus had just come from visiting both the Crouch residence and Azkaban. Mrs. Crouch was indeed in a coma in her bed. Bartemius was casting daily charms, as recommended by the medi-wizards at St. Mungo's, to keep her alive. Only now that he was set in a routine and over the initial trauma of losing (but not quite losing) his wife, was Crouch going to be returning to work. When Albus left the Crouch home he went straight to Azkaban to check on the younger Crouch. Sure enough, there he was in his cell. Albus knew that Azkaban was difficult for its inmates, but Barty Jr. had totally lost his grip on reality. He was rocking back and forth against the wall of his cell, muttering about pleasing his master. It was sad to see someone so lost to Voldemort's evil. Once he was calm enough he put aside all his thoughts of the Crouch drama and went back to his (boring) administrative tasks.