"You're ready already?" Sirius asked looking at the two.

"Ask her that," Harry said pointing towards Hermione who frowned.

"You don't get good seats if you reach the platform late, Harry," she said before looking around. "Where's Susan?"

"Here," they heard the girl and turned to look at her as she walked into the drawing room with her trunk before shrinking it to the size of a matchbox and putting it in her pocket."

"Your aunt left?" Hermione asked.

"U-huh," Susan said with a nod. "Another raid last night."

Everyone's face went grim at that. "I should stop feeling surprised over the Prophet not printing anything about it," Sirius said folding the paper before he stood up. "Well, I suppose with the decision that the ministry and the education board has taken together, I hope Dumbledore won't be getting in your way now," he said looking at Harry.

"It wouldn't surprise me if he still tries but I don't have a good feeling about this whole 'ministry's representative' thing," Harry said.

"Let's see how it goes first," Sirius said before he walked over to the floo. "So, who's first?"

00000

This summer had been something which Harry thought that he needed. It was probably for the first time when he felt like he'd spent some ample time with the people he could trust and call his family. He spent the first half of his summer holidays with the Greengrasses followed by the second half with Sirius which was the most enjoyable part of this summer according to him.

The godson-godfather duo was unstoppable, going to places – lavish or otherwise, enjoying their days trying out new things – muggle and magical. As the last week of the holidays arrived so did Hermione. After returning from her trip to France she, Harry and Sirius spent that week at Potter manor where she almost had a heart attack looking at all the historic and ancient books that were in the manor's library.

Her obsession with those books went so far that Harry had to ask one of the house elves to keep an eye on her while she was in the library so she wouldn't forget to have her meals.

Another good thing which happened during this summer was for Sirius where the man re-kindled his relationship with Amelia who had given it some deep thoughts and had decided that living by herself wouldn't be that good of an idea and she had liked Sirius' company before.

Harry couldn't have been happier for his godfather when he'd see him leave for a date with Amelia once or twice during weekends. Susan would join Harry at Grimmauld place as Amelia wouldn't have her niece stay home alone especially since Voldemort had returned.

While barely anyone was taking that thing seriously simply because Fudge and Lucius had the Prophet's reporters under control, those who knew and believed in his return knew that times were getting darker and dangerous once again.

Some Order members like Kingsley reported whatever took place in their meeting to Amelia who let Sirius and Harry to know about it as well. With everything happening Sirius often found himself thinking whether or not he should tell Harry about the prophecy. He knew that Harry needed to know it whether now or later but with Voldemort nothing could be said with certainly. That man was adamant on proving the prophecy wrong which is why even when he'd lost his body over a decade ago he still found ways to come for Harry's life. Now with his original body the dark wizard didn't have to rely on tricks and well-devised plans. He just needed to re-build his army which is what the Order members had spoken of from what Kingsley had told Amelia.

They were mostly pureblood families or halfbloods who had been cast aside by the horrible magical societies over the years. They all united for Voldemort's cause under the same hatred towards the people who'd cast them aside and although they knew that Voldemort's goal was to create a magical world with no one but pureblooded witches and wizards, if it gave them the satisfaction of exacting revenge on the people who had hated on them just because they were a little 'different' they wanted in.

This had caused quite a lot of people wanting to be death eaters and join Voldemort's army and in a few days, reports of crimes on missing persons and kidnappings filled the auror department burying Amelia, Kingsley and other aurors under piles and piles of cases for which the DMLE was barely prepared.

Fudge chose to ignore all of this obviously while some small reporters and news outlets kept asking questions from ministry officials regarding the reasons behind these many people missing and being kidnapped but because a large magical population read the Prophet the smaller news outlets barely ever managed to make people ask questions.

00000

Harry, Hermione, Sirius and Susan arrived at platform 9 ¾ and Hermione went straight for the first empty cabin she saw. Harry and Susan simply followed her along with Sirius who boarded the train with them and walked into the cabin as the teenagers put their belongings under the seats and settled in.

"You each have a communication mirror that I gave you right?" Sirius asked as others nodded. "Good. Remember, it's linked to all of yours and to mine so just let me know if you are in any sort of trouble. Don't lose the mirror. We cannot take any chances."

They all nodded when Neville entered the cabin and was a little surprised to see Sirius there. Sirius looked from him to Augusta who was standing outside also looking at Sirius with a raised brow. "I'll get down now," the man said as he left the four and got down the train.

Neville settled in, sitting beside Susan before the two shared a small kiss.

00000

"Are you okay?" Daphne came out from her train of thoughts and looked at Tracey who was looking at her with concern.

"Yeah," Daphne replied before looking out of the window.

"You don't look fine," Tracey said. She and Daphne were the only two people inside the cabin with Astoria sitting in another cabin with her friends. "You can tell me," she said slowly.

Daphne sighed, not saying anything for a few seconds. She simply grabbed her bag and took out a small stack of letters tied together before handing them to Tracey following which she got up and applied a series of privacy charms on the cabin's door before coming back to her seat. By that time Tracey had opened one of the letters and had read its contents as she looked at her best friend.

"Are all of them like this?" she asked. Daphne nodded. "But there's something else, isn't it?"

"I haven't told my parents," Daphne said. "They don't know about these letters. I intercepted them the moment they arrived and hid them in my room so neither of my parents could find them. I can't have them know about these."

"But keeping them in the dark about these letters would put them at more risk," Tracey said. "You're not out there with them whenever your father is in the ministry or your mother is in her clinic. You are at Hogwarts for a majority of the year away from your parents and these people can do anything to them." Tracey then stopped as she realized what she'd said. "I'm sorry. I just got carried away a little," she said sounding apologetic.

"No, you said the right thing," Daphne said, "but I can't have them go through more tension from these so-called noble pureblood families!"

"Then how are you going to handle it by yourself?" Tracey asked. "How are you going to handle all of these betrothal contracts that these people have sent for you and your sister? With you-know-who's return do you really think that these people are just going to step back without saying anything if you or your parents reject their offers?"

"They won't," Daphne said.

"Exactly!" Tracey said. "At least if not the whole thing, then just tell your parents about it in a different way. Tell them that you were approached by a few boys hinting that they might be sending betrothal contracts for you and Astoria to your parents. They'll understand and figure something out."

Daphne said nothing. She simply nodded as for the moment she stopped thinking about it all. She needed to calm herself down and think about this thoroughly. For a moment she thought how Harry could help her in this matter…or perhaps Sirius?

00000

The train stopped at Hogsmead station as everyone got off. Harry took a carriage to the castle with Hermione, Neville and Susan. He saw Daphne, Tracey and Astoria along with one of Astoria's friends in another carriage just behind theirs as they all slowly headed for the castle.

Entering the great hall it felt a little weird. Just last term they had almost three times the students with Durmstrang and Beauxbatons coming to Hogwarts for the tournament and now the hall looked rather empty even though it was not. All the tables were almost full, waiting to be completely filled by the first years that were probably being given the 'house is family' speech by McGonagall on the other side of the great hall.

As Harry, Hermione and Neville sat at the Gryffindor table they didn't miss the new face sitting at the head table beside Dumbledore and in McGonagall's chair. It was quite surprising but seeing that they knew that this new woman in a rather sickly pink sweater was probably the representative that the ministry had sent to Hogwarts.

She had a fake broad smile on her flat, toad-like face as she looked around in made-up excitement and curiosity when the great hall doors opened and McGonagall let the first years in. Harry saw their house head stop for a second looking at the woman in pink sitting at her chair at the head table before she continued walking ahead as she brought the first years next to the small stool beside the podium and stopped.

Once the sorting was dealt with and McGonagall had found a seat beside Trelawney Dumbledore stood up and walked up to the podium, his face displaying a tired look.

"Welcome to the first years and to the rest I say welcome back," he said. "I hope you all had a great summer which you spent doing something good for yourselves." He looked at the students sitting in front of him before clearing his throat. "Ah, as some of you may know there has been a little change of sorts with the way things are at Hogwarts…"

"Ahem." Everyone including Dumbledore looked at the woman in pink sweater who audibly cleared her throat. She looked at Dumbledore with her rather large eyes as Dumbledore slowly turned around to resume his speech.

"To those of you who don't know what I am talking about the ministry of magic and the magical board of education for witches and wizards have collectively taken a decision to have a representative…"

"Ahem."

Dumbledore closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath before continuing. "…they have collectively taken a decision to have a ministerial representative amongst ourselves starting this term. I think it would rather be appropriate to have representative Umbridge explain the things to you."

Stepping aside Dumbledore walked back to the head table as the woman in pink sweater stood up and trotted to the podium which was obviously too tall for her short stature. This caused some students to laugh and snicker which didn't go unheard by her as she looked at them all with enraged eyes. Just then Filch came with a much shorter podium and put it next to her as she glared at the caretaker who had no reaction to it all. He just walked back to the door behind the head table with his annoyed expression.

Opening and closing her fists a few times she then walked up to the shorter podium before clearing her throat. "Ahem! Good evening," she said in a sickly sweet voice as she looked at the students in front of her. "I am Dolores Jane Umbridge and I am the ministerial representative that minister Fudge has sent to look over things that are happening at Hogwarts. To those of you who don't know why this decision has been taken I am sure you will find something related to it in the notice outside my office. I will be observing the things that take place inside this castle which includes your curriculum which I have already seen is in need of a dire change along with a good number of rules and regulations. If you want to know more about me and are curious about the kinds of powers I've been given by the ministry and the education board you will find a list of it outside my office on the notice board. I will also like to tell you that I will be serving as your defense against the dark arts professor. This decision has been taken into account just to make sure I get to know you students very well." Harry could see she was looking at his direction. "I hope we all get along."

00000

The next few days that followed had given every student the sense of idea that Umbridge wasn't someone who wanted to let them learn anything related to the DADA course. She had them study books on unrelated topics none of which talked about defensive spells far less offensive ones.

The fifth and seventh year students were all worried about their OWLs and NEWTs for the DADA subject but there was someone who was even more worried and borderline angry on Umbridge for not teaching the students properly or rather not teaching them at all.

Just after the first day of their DADA class Hermione could be seen rambling nothing but bad things about Umbridge. While some Gryffindors found enjoyment in that others stayed clear from her as everyone knew how serious she took to these things.

Harry was amused to see students clearing out of her way as she would walk down the corridors. Even some of the Slytherins maintained their distances from her which, Harry was sure were because of some untrue rumors.

As the first week of their fifth year came to an end a new piece of information from Neville had surprised Harry and the rest. From what his grandmother had said Fudge was in belief that Dumbledore was planning to get him out of the minister's position by secretly forming an army of students. Harry had almost laughed hearing that as did Hermione while Neville was smiling the whole time as he told them about this.

But the fact that Fudge was still in denial of Voldemort's return was worrisome. The man was just not ready to let anyone even talk about it. He had already suspended two ministry officials after finding that they were talking whether Dumbledore was right about Voldemort's return.

Susan had also informed them that her aunt was secretly looking into the various small scale raids that were happening all across Europe. With the Prophet not printing anything about those raids people had no idea that they were happening. If things continued like this then the outcome of it will be worse than what had happened over ten years ago when Voldemort had first come to power but then one Friday morning the big headline on the front page of the Prophet had everyone talking about it. The incident was so big nothing could've been done to hide it from the normal public because it had happened right in their backyard.

With the big bold letters on the front page along with the picture of Azkaban's south section completely destroyed the news about the major breakout of all of the most heinous criminals of Magical Britain had everyone worried. Some major names amongst those who'd broken out of Azkaban in the incident were Bellatrix Lestrange, Fenrir Greyback and the Carrow siblings along with a few others who were in Voldemort's inner circle.

With all of this happening out of nowhere Fudge had locked himself inside his office and had ordered his secretary and everyone else to not let anyone bother him. The atrium of the ministry was filled with reporters from small to big news outlets, some even from other magical nations as people had started asking whether what Dumbledore had said about Voldemort was true. A breakout of this scale was unheard of and the people who'd profited from this breakout were the nastiest and the most high ranking death eaters.

00000

As Voldemort looked at his inner circle followers the smile never left his face. Bella was on her knees by his feet as he looked at her matted hair and torn clothes – a reminiscent of her being in Azkaban for all these years under the influence of countless dementors.

He put his hand on her head as she looked at him trembling. It would take her a while to get over the effects of all the dementors she had to live in the presence of but knowing how crazy she was Voldemort wondered if her experience of Azkaban had made her crazier than ever.

"M…My lor…lord," she said, baring her blackened teeth as she grinned looking at her master with hopeful eyes.

"Everything will be alright Bella," Voldemort said smiling. "We'll just have to wait a little longer…"

His words stopped midway as his painful shriek filled the room much to the shock of everyone present there, especially Bella who couldn't believe when she saw her master fall on the ground writhing in pain as he thrashed his limbs like a drowning man.

No one knew what was happening when after about a minute Voldemort stopped screaming as his screams turned into heavy pants. His entire body was covered in sweat as he lay there looking at the ceiling, his eyes opened wide more from the shock of realization than from the painful experience which he had just moments ago as he looked at Bella looking at her teary eyes and runny nose.

"The cup," he said slowly to her. "The cup in your vault. Someone just destroyed it. One of my anchors is gone!"

00000

Thanks for reading…