…Lott was the perfect Slytherin mentor; the only tactics he ever condemned were those which were unsuccessful...

Moody's real eye bugged out, but he quickly controlled his response. The dark wizard's gaze swept over the others- the conscious Aurors looked grim, and Fudge whimpered, though his dementors. Malfoy met that gaze, but his skin was porcelain-pale, and his hands were shaking, the faint gleam of triumph in his eyes quickly fading. Arthur Weasley, placing himself between his youngest and the stranger, shivered a bit, hollow inside. They had all thought Dumbledore would live forever, that he had everything under control. Fudge would have never mounted his 'rescue mission' had he known Dumbledore was gone...that Dumbledore had finally left him to fend for himself.  

            Before it had time to sink in, though, an almost familiar voice spoke up sharply from the Gryffindor table. "Mildly inaccurate." It had to be a Gryffindor- Arthur doubted that any other House would have students willing to throw themselves in the middle of such a tense situation. He turned to look.

            Surprisingly, it was not Harry. A boy who could have been mistaken for Arthur's youngest son from a distance stood from the table, carefully extricating himself from the students ducked behind it. He stared at the dark wizard piercingly. Arthur did not see what passed between them. Lucius Malfoy smirked. "One of yours, Arthur?"

             For the third time on their trip, Arthur reined in his temper. The urge to pound the elitist snob's face into the floor was tempered by his good sense, and the presence of the Azkaban guards. He just snarled at the undeservedly exalted man who pushed all of his plugs. At least, he thought that was the correct Muggle analogy… "No."

The boy coughed, baby-blue eyes subtly taking on an amused glint. With a harmonious but attention-grabbing screech, a phoenix unexpectedly popped into existence on his shoulder. The Aurors gaped.

Mad-Eye appeared lost for words for a moment. In a creaky voice he asked, "Albus?"

A solemn nod. "Alastor. I would suggest that you not antagonize Professor Lott further. Rest assured he will not harm the students under his watch….well, not permanently in any case…"

"You're out of line, Dumbledore..." growled the craggy-faced accomplice to the sleek and handsome dark wizard. The dark wizard in question seemed content to let Dumbledore defuse the situation for now. Or perhaps not - he was staring at the doors again, perhaps looking at something that wasn't there.

"I would imagine…" he said softly, "that you are neglecting your responsibilities elsewhere…"

Several things happened at once. Lucius Malfoy tensed, a panicked and scorched owl zoomed into the Hall, and Fudge's bodyguards moved, swiftly gliding up to him. He didn't have time to react before he was pulled into a Kiss. The dementors then scattered, heading for the Aurors. One latched on to Arthur Weasley – the twins screamed and grabbed at it, trying to shake it off. A few Patronii were conjured in haste – and Professor Lott gestured quickly and surely. The dementor embracing Arthur rattled a scream as it was sucked from him and the essence of it tightly confined in a flawlessly-constructed sphere of force. At that point, everything seemed to stop for a moment as the young auburn-haired boy glanced at the cloud-smothered ceiling.

And then, the phoenix sang.

The three free dementors fled, their flesh smoking. The few Patronii pursued before fading.

Professor Lott did not release the abomination he had forced off of Arthur Weasley. Compacted into a small sphere of shadow-essence, it screamed as the song purified it. The darkness leeched out of it, except for where the black bolt of energy connected it to Professor Lott's wand.

A murmured word, and the now cloudy-white orb shivered...black lightning crackled off it as it was released, floating, the dark bolts seeming like pseudopods. It rolled around, still suspended in midair...

The umbra, where Lott had tethered it, was blacker than night, surrounded by a gray penumbra. A cold feeling followed its gaze - for it was undoubtedly an eye distilled from blindness. It hovered, fixing Moody's mad-eye with a glance for a moment, then darting over to Professor Lott, its creator...

The oily magical aftertaste of the Dark Arts permeated the air, and Lott stared challengingly at the assembled Aurors, Moody, and Lucius Malfoy faking surprise at the course of events almost successfully. He was daring them to make a comment, to challenge him for what he had done.

Few in their right minds would challenge a Master of the Dark Arts. Smiling triumphantly with half-lidded eyes, Lott turned back to Moody, watching silently as a scorched owl fluttered over to him. His mad-eye read the message while the owl was still in flight, and he turned his back on Lott, swiftly and unexpectedly disabling Lucius Malfoy with Petrificus Totalis. "The Ministry is under attack."

His gaze flicked back to Lott, and he growled, "I'll deal with you later." The threat in that faded as Lott simply raised an amused eyebrow. "The fifth side door is trapped with Greek Fire, then. I would hate for you to ignominiously perish before I am….dealt with."  The smirk was audible in his tone. Moody growled, and hobbled off to join the other Aurors, who had slipped out of the Great Hall.  The twins helped a shaken Arthur to his feet, and he started after the Aurors grimly. The Weasleys watched, even as Headmistress McGonagall tried to take charge.

A battle was going on for the future of the wizarding world – but except for the first and second-years, classes weren't cancelled. The fifth-year Gryffindors exchanged nervous glances as they headed outside for Herbology. Today was a day that would change things – but they could only wait and see.

Author's Note II: For those interested in the backgrounds of the OCs herein, the first chapter of Minerva McTabby's "Two Worlds and In Between" is now up, with the beginnings of the story of Julius Marvolo, Carus Tamino, Lucretia Valery, the Dumbledores, and Professors Switch and Lott. I highly recommend it to anyone who has been reading thus far.

http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=705541