Chapter 58 is now up at AoOO. For complete chapter and complete story, go to my profile here and click on the second link.
From Chapter 58:
Albus Dumbledore conjured some fresh ice for his tumbler and squeezed some lemon into his third glass of whiskey. Tears flowed freely into his whiskers. He had only barely managed to hold things together all afternoon as he dealt with the aftermath of the vicious attack against Astoria Greengrass.
It had been very trying, though ultimately gratifying, to have spoken with the parents of the victims and the primary attacker. Albus hadn't expected to find new allies in his struggle with the new Minister and the pureblood supremacists in the Wizengamot.
And not just the Patils and the Greengrasses.
Mr Lovegood had declined to press charges, suggesting that his reputation may prove counterproductive to the cause of expelling and prosecuting the Nott and Malfoy boys. But he had offered to henceforth curb his instinct to publish sensational material about oddities, and promised to focus on hard journalism and the failings of the Ministry instead. And a new free edition of the Quibbler would be available to all in the morning, to counter whatever lies the Minister's Mouthpiece was sure to tell.
Most surprising of all was Narcissa Malfoy's pledge of support-not only against the current administration at the Ministry, but also against the Death Eaters who had not yet thrown in with Minister Umbridge. She had whispered of dark rumours and the hopes of those who remained loyal to Voldemort.
But Dumbledore's own hope was not enough to assuage his heartbreak. He had forced himself to examine the memories of the Patil's daughter, before having them delivered to Madam Bones. Twice today, he had allowed his mind to be assaulted by a pain which he had never again wished to endure personally.
Albus touched his fingers again to the glass covering the small picture of his sister Arianna which he kept in his desk and he wept. It hadn't been fair that his father had been punished for delivering justice to those who had assaulted her surely as brutally as Draco had intended to violate Astoria. Those boys-young men really-had deserved everything his father had done to them.
Just as Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott had deserved the means by which young Harry Potter had prevented them from harming Astoria any further.