Author's Note and Disclaimer (as if you care): Okay as usual I don't own anything

Author's Note and Disclaimer (as if you care): Okay as usual I don't own anything. Andrew Park and my ex-friend Cindal Scott belong to their parents. I know you guys hate the story, that's evident through the lack of reviews I got, and I know that I'll get no reviews for this one too so you know what if you want me to just give up then fine I will. I wish I could apologize for not writing fast enough but due to lack of support I feel that it un-necessary for a "I'm sorry". Read and review if you have a decent bone in your body. BTW, I'm sorry but I don't know much about the city of Southampton so if I get the description wrong then don't take it out on me.

Chapter 8

Four years later…

The Daily Prophet "More Deaths for the Ministry to Ignore"

The "new Dark Mark" hovers over many homes of the wizarding community leaving a trail of victims and mourners reports Rita Skeeter. Yesterday at 2am tragedy struck when another attack on a prominent wizarding family shook the community. Neville Longbottom, famed Herbologist, returned home at the early hour of the morning from a research trip in Russia only to find his family inside brutally murdered. "They've moved past using the Killing Curse to take their victims," says nearby neighbor Seamus Finnigan, "they want us to truly fear them. That's why they now kill their victims by first slitting their throats, letting the blood spill all over the crime scene as a gory sign that this will also happen to the next victim." Mr. Longbottom's wife of 18 months, Parvati Longbottom, was found in a pool of blood having been slashed to death. The couple's one-month-old baby girl was found later in the nursery underneath a pillow undoubtedly used to suffocate the innocent child. After having broken out in a fit of hysteria Mr. Longbottom was taken to Saint Mungo's Hospital and will remain there until the shock of the murders has subsided. This reporter obtained the information that Neville is not the first Longbottom to be committed there, his parents Frank and Nancy Longbottom are also being held there after having been tortured to insanity by Death Eaters so many years ago. These two recent deaths only add to the hundreds more that have accumulated over these past years. The wizarding world is still in shock over the massacre that took place only a week ago at the McMillan family reunion that left over 30 family members dead. Why hasn't this new evil been put to a stop? What is the Ministry doing to keep our community safe? Not much according to former Auror, Janice McKenzie who was willing to share her thoughts with this reporter on the subject. "The Ministry lacks the leadership it once had, no way this should have gone on for this long. HE and Lord Nived should have been stopped before they had the chance to gain supporters and the power that they now possess. They knew, the Ministry knew that the two were gaining followers years ago, no one wanted to admit it. No one wanted to believe HE had turned." Of course the "HE" Ms. McKenzie referred to was none other than the Boy who Lived whose name is now no longer spoken out of fear and only referred to as "HE" or "HIM". One wonders if maybe this former hero was evil all along, the mystery of his escape from death at such a young age from his predecessor He-who-must-not-be-named leads some to think his power was the reason he was on You-Know-Who's hit list. "Definitely, I've known all along he was evil. That's why You-Know-Who wanted him dead, because of the fear that HE was going to overthrow him later." comments Justin Finch-Fletchly, former classmate of HIM. No matter the reason I'm sure the wizarding world wants to know just what the Ministry is doing while its people wait in fear wondering who will be the next target praying silently it won't be themselves.

Hermione angrily slammed the paper back down on her desk as Fred walked in handing her a cup of coffee as he sat down on her desk taking a drink from his own.

"So I take it you've seen the paper?" he said with a sigh.

"Rita Skeeter." Hermione grumbled through clenched teeth. "I should have known. Sometimes I wonder why I ever let her out of that jar!"

"Yeah, well at least she isn't writing the normal rubbish she used to."

"Only now she's pointing the blame at the Ministry!" Hermione screeched now getting up to pace the semi-large office that she shared with Fred, Andrew, and Cindal. Each member had their own desk in their own corner of the room although it was rare to see the four all at their desks at the same time. The Ministry kept them busy, if they weren't in the office researching they were out in the field helping in the fight against the evil forces who are steadily growing stronger by the minute.

"Hermione, listen don't let Rita Skeeter get to you. You know what she's really like. She's hoping we'll all react badly, make a statement to the press in defense, and then have her twist our words like she normally does to make us look even worse."

Hermione stopped pacing and looked him in the eye, a mischievous glint visible in hers.

"A theory like that does take a lot of thought, something you don't often do. Did you come up with that all by yourself Fred?"

"Yeah I did. I thought about it after I read it in the daily memo which I stole off your desk in case you're wondering why you didn't get one." He countered.

"Oh, Fred you're such a…"

Hermione didn't get to finish what she was saying because at that moment their locator stones glowed and vibrated signaling the request for them to drop everything and report for a meeting. Fred pulled out his wand and tapped on the stone.

"Conference room 5" he announced upon reading the silver letters that trailed his wand for a few seconds then disappeared.

"No, really? I couldn't read the trailing words telling us where to go." Hermione muttered sarcastically as they walked out of their office towards the room (they were already on level 5).

"Someone's panties are in a bunch. That time of the month again Hermi?" Fred taunted matching her stride.

"No, I'm only like this around you, Weasel." Hermione shot back as they maneuvered their way around the maze of cubicles, lounge areas, coffee and tea stops, and other doors that only the few with a high enough Ministry position could enter.

'No, I think you're only like this when anything comes up possibly related to Harry.' he thought silently to himself.

Fred had taken to watching Hermione every time they were called for a new assignment, he saw how she would tense up and how her mood would change suddenly. It pained him to see her like this, to see her reaction to the news about Harry, the man she once loved, whose reign of terror now exceeds Voldemort's evil reign.

"Fred!!" he heard Hermione yelling from a distance. He turned around to see that he had wandered down the hall past the conference room. "The conference room is this way." said Hermione, gesturing down the hall.

"HaHa! Very funny! Make Fred look like an idiot!" he said sarcastically then putting on a sad face.

"Oh, Fred! First of all you're not offended so don't give me that look, and second I don't have to make you look like an idiot, you do that yourself." she teased as they walked into the room and sat down.

"When did you turn so mean?"

"When she realized she couldn't steal me away from my lovely girlfriend." Andrew remarked as he stepped out of the nearby fireplace via Floo powder. The Ministry had its own Floo network separate from everyone else's that only worked within itself. Certain Ministry members had their fireplaces at home set up to this network.

"Oh, please! Cindal can have you!" Hermione retorted.

"Thanks, I think I will!" Cindal stated upon exiting the fireplace, walking to Andrew, and sitting down together next to Herm and Fred.

"Well, the two of you have finally graced us with your presence. It appears you were busy elsewhere." Fred commented pointing out the couple's rather disheveled attire.

Blushing furiously, the couple attempted to stammer out an explanation but were cut short when Emma Lane Head of the Enforcers stood to speak.

"In such a short time, many of you have risen to the top of the ranks. All of you are very much aware that Lord Nived and HIM have gained much support and power over these past years. They have gone on a mass killing spree. Muggles and magical folk alike have been targeted. The public is now getting restless, they want answers, and they want the evil duo stopped. Now I trust you have all seen this morning's headline," she stopped to show them all the day's copy of the Daily Prophet, the front page's headline was clearly visible. "and I know that many of you are offended by this. Don't take it personally, if it were easy to stop a couple of Dark Lord's You-Know-Who's reign would have been stopped long before it had gotten out of hand like it did. As you now the newly rebuilt Hogwarts is not strong enough against attacks as it once was. It's defense charms are weak and need to be strengthened. Part of the Charm team is going to be sent there in a few days but we are afraid of an attack on the team while they're there. We need a few of you to go with them and supervise the project, other Ministry security teams will be there as well for backup as well."

Eight people raised their hands to volunteer, she nodded to them in approval and continued.

"The Ministry had parents of muggle-born wizards and witches placed in a contained area full of muggles, where we hope to protect them. But we think that the dark side may have noticed this, now we were given two options. We can either get as many people as we can out of there or set up charms to protect them, since we can't get everyone out at once we have to do both. I need the remaining of you to divide into two teams, half of you work with the Charm team and the other half supervise the evacuation and protection of everyone we've got to move. Settle it among yourselves, we go to Southampton tomorrow morning. Dismissed."

"Okay I'll head the evacuation and protection team, who's with me?" Hermione stood up saying.

"Well you know the three of us are with you Herms." Andrew said speaking up for himself and the other two roommates.

"And I'll head the Charm team." Jonathon Taylor spoke up.

"The four of us will go with you John. I've always been a bit of a Charmer." one of the men spoke up.

"Okay that leaves the three of you." said Hermione gesturing to the three remaining people who hadn't said a thing.

"I'll go with you Hermione." Victoria Evans said standing.

"Well let's see evacuation or Charms? Sorry but I happen to know a delicious brunette on the Charm team assigned to this case that I'm dying to get to know so your wish is my command Johnny." Henry Cain said with a laugh.

"Then Granger I guess I'm going with you." Jezebel Harlow said a little to sweet for Hermione.

"Um…yeah sure. My group meet in my…er…our office in about two hours for a little last minute assignments." Hermione requested nervously.

'Something about her just doesn't seem right.' she thought.

Hermione and Fred walked quickly out of the room followed closely by Andrew and Cindal. No one said anything as they walked through the maze of cubicles that made up the fifth floor of the Ministry building. It wasn't until they were in their office that they finally broke the silence within the group.

"Hey Herm, didn't you say your parents moved to Southampton recently?" Cindal questioned.

"Yeah. They're on vacation right now, or are they…let's see. I think they were supposed to come back in about two days. Maybe a little earlier, they weren't really sure of when they'd get home, though."

"Moving on, is it just me or is Jezebel just a little too sweet, like…sinfully sweet." Fred said as he picked up a small ball on his desk and started tossing it up in the air.

"Sin is right, you know I get these bad vibes off of her. Something is definitely not right with that woman." Cindal added.

"You know when I signed up as an Enforcer I thought we'd be like secret agents and stuff, but so far all we do is supervise things." Andrew complained as he snatched the toy away from Fred midair.

"Duh, Enforcers enforce things, supervise, control. Hence the name 'Enforcer'. But we do sort of act as personal body guards sometimes and we do get to do research and stuff like detectives do." Hermione commented.

"Yeah, and we are trained to fight and chase down the bad guys." Cindal supplied.

"Lot o' good that'll do us, Emma dresses up the job, we came into this thing thinking we'd be part of an elite fighting force, but look at us, we're bloody security guards. 'Top agents' my foot, face it we've got the boring jobs. We had something to do at first but ever since Sirius kicked up the Auror department a notch we've had nothing to do except file papers." Fred said regaining control of the ball and initiating a game of pass.

"I'm seriously considering switching jobs. Thinking of becoming an Auror." Hermione said as she caught the ball and tossed it to Cindal.

"Really? Why? Won't you have to start all over in training and stuff?" Cindal asked tossing the ball to Andrew.

"No, actually. Sirius talked to me a few weeks ago, I told him how unhappy I was as an Enforcer and he said that if I wanted he would take me on as an Auror. I'd only have to go through at least three weeks of training cuz most of it I know already from Enforcer training."

"Ah, yes. The training we never got to use." mused Fred catching the ball from Andrew and passing it to Hermione.

"Yeah, but I guess that this job just doesn't fill the need for adventure in my life that I somehow developed while in school." throwing the ball once again to Cindal.

"I know what you mean, hey if you switch I'll gladly go with you." commented Fred.

"Me too."

"Same here." remarked Cindal finally throwing the ball again after holding it for a while.

Unfortunately Fred chose the exact moment to have a little fun with the game and as soon as the ball left her hand he charmed it to zoom out of control around the room.

"Hi, I was bored so I thought I'd come a bit early…Whoa! Unidentified flying object!" Victoria screamed from the door as she entered releasing the ball from the confines of the room in the process. "Oooh!" she drew back as the still zooming ball had just knocked over a large display in the hall.

"Close the door quick!" Fred screamed.

Victoria quickly slammed the door shut in an obvious cross between shock and amusement. Outside the loud exclamations of shock and anger could be heard as the ball continued to zoom in between the cubicles and cause damage.

"FRED!!!" the occupants of the room shouted.

"Oops!" he winced sheepishly as the shattering of glass could he heard in the background.

Elsewhere… (I use that too much)

"Hey Potter!" Nived called. "Just got news from your girlfriend, the Ministry is going to protect Southampton tomorrow."

"So we attack tonight." Potter smiled evilly.

"She seemed a bit angry. Seems she had another encounter with that Granger woman."

"Yeah well Hermione always was a pain in the arse."

Back at the Ministry…

After two hours yelling and a mad grab for the now identified flying object things had calmed down and were getting back to normal. Needless to say, if anyone one the fifth floor of the Ministry building did not know who Fred Weasley was they know now. Jezebel had joined the five as the designated time, interrupting their friendly conversation with her "bad vibes".

"Okay, well now that we are all assembled I guess we can go over what's happening tomorrow." Hermione started. 'Why is Jezebel looking at me like that? She knows something I don't know.' she thought. "Er…anyway we're going to come in to the houses as door to door sales people. Upon entering we immediately shrink their furniture and possession. Anything left behind might leave some kind of trace. Then we leave and go to the next house while they go to there cars and drive away. By the time anyone notices they'll be at a safer location."

"That's your brilliant plan? How long did it take you to come up with? Ten minutes? Five?" retorted Jezebel, dubiously.

"You know what Jezebel, we don't have time to come up with some whole secret agent spy plan to get these people out of there. Now I'm sorry if this isn't what you had in mind but right now we are left with no choice!" Hermione retorted back irritably. "I'm running this mission right now, Ms. Lane trusts me to know what's right so if you have a problem with my way of doing things go to her. Otherwise I suggest you keep quiet. Understood?"

"Understood." Jezebel muttered, between clenched teeth, looking daggers at Hermione.

"Ooooh. Cat fight." Andrew whispered to Fred who snickered and nodded.

"I heard that." Cindal whispered smacking Andrew's arm.

"Fine listen it's seven now so let's all go home and get ready for tomorrow. Remember we need to wear muggle clothing, no robes." Hermione finished.

With that the six occupants of the room walked out of the building to the Apparation checkpoint and disappeared going their separate ways.

"I don't like Jezebel." said Cindal as soon as the four had Apparated to the Hogsmeade checkpoint.

"Neither do I. I mean I know we've covered this already, about were being totally 'sinful' and what not but the way she acting makes me suspect, she's up to no good." Fred agreed as they began the walk to their apartment.

"She sounded like she knew the plan wasn't going to work." Hermione whispered.

"Well, of course she sounded like it wasn't going to work. She was against it." Andrew said in a tone that screamed "Duh!"

"No, I mean it sounded as if she knew something that we didn't."

"Listen it doesn't matter, okay let's just go inside and rest. We have a big day tomorrow." Fred interjected as he opened the door to their apartment and let everyone in.

"Alright, so what does everyone want for dinner?" Cindal said as they set their stuff down.

"I'm not hungry I think I'm just going to go to bed." Hermione said quietly, walking to her bedroom not even stopping for a reply.

Elsewhere…

"Hey, Potter the girlfriend's here!" Nived shouted.

"Yeah, whatever." he called back not even listening.

"That mudblood Granger is giving me a hard time. She thinks she's so smart." a woman complained as she stepped into the room.

"Don't worry, Bella. After tonight she'll be out of our way."

*****************

Dumbledore walked over to the window after hastily tying the scroll onto Fawkes' leg. Whispering he let the bird go into the night. Hermione looked back, she wanted to follow the bird for some reason, but she had to stay and fight Harry. She had to protect Dumbledore.

"Go! Follow Fawkes Hermione!" Harry shouted.

"Harry you're okay!" she cried running towards him.

"No, I'm not! Go!"

Not knowing what she was doing she jumped out the window to follow Fawkes. Just when she thought she was going to fall she looked down to see she had landed on a broom that seemed to follow the bird on its own. The music of the phoenix filled her ears as the got closer to the bird.

"I've got something you want Hermione."

"Who said that?" she asked breaking out of the trance she had been in from listening to the music. She stopped in the air and hovered.

"I did." Suddenly Fawkes came into view in front of her, just a little out of arms reach.

"You can talk?"

"Do you want me to answer that or would you rather get this?" Fawkes replied flying upward just enough for her to see the ancient looking scroll tied to his leg.

"What is it?"

"It's the way back." he replied calmly.

"What do you mean the way back? Back from where?"

"You must go a long distance to find the one you love, that's the first part of your journey. This will help you with the second."

"What? I'm not on a journey?"

"Yes, you are. It's only just beginning. You have the key to the first part, now you need this." he said once again showing her the scroll.

"I don't know about this key you're talking about!"

"Yes, you do know."

"Well if I need that scroll then why don't you give it to me?" she said stretching out her arm to reach for the scroll.

"You have to find me first."

With that Fawkes took off and her broom followed closely. Suddenly she was back at Hogwarts and Fawkes zoomed out of the window to Dumbledore's office towards Hogsmeade, the scroll still attached to his leg. Her broom followed as she flew through the city, the Death Eaters all around destroying the city, she saw her apartment up on a small hill just on the edge of town. They were getting closer and closer to the apartment and it became clear to Hermione that Fawkes was trying to go there.

'They never went down this far, Hogwarts was destroyed before they got to this part of the city so they left. That's why it's quieter down here.' she thought silently.

He had cleared the main street and was about to turn onto her street when it was suddenly hit by a spell.

"Pretty bird." An old man with rotting teeth had said. "Maybe if a Death Eater comes I could bargain for my life with you. What's that you got there." he said picking up Fawkes who tried desperately to get away but was too weak. "A scroll with some odd looking writing. Hmmm…I doubt it will get me much. It looks so old, who would want it. Come on now birdie let's head for my cave before those Death Eaters get here, I think I'll keep you for a while."

The old man headed for the caves, Hermione only got a small glance at the cave he entered as she was being pulled away form the scene.

"The scroll is waiting for you."