POWERS OF CHANGE

A/N: Hey! Look at this! I magically pulled another chapter out of my magic hat! ::Hold out Sorting Hat:: What else is in here? Hmm... ::reaches in, and something bites her:: Ouch!! Well, who would have thought the Sorting Hat keeps rabbit in there? I thought you said you weren't a top hat! ::Sees everyone starting to get bored:: Alright - enough with my magic show, and on to the real one!

Disclaimer: Don't own it - never will. Although, I think I get some claim on Asha Delancey's character...

Chapter Two : Flashback

In her office, Hermione Granger-Weasley sat patiently, waiting for some notice from McGonagall about who actually walked into the Great Hall that evening. Part of Hermione wished that it was him, but then the other part of her wanted it not to be. She remembered the last time he had shown up, when they had been searching through the remains of Hogwarts.

~Flashback~

"Hermione!" called Ron. "Come look at this!"

Stepping carefully, the newly graduated Hermione Granger walked over towards her ginger haired boyfriend. "What is it Ron? Did you find someone?"

"No," he called over. They had found so many bodies in the past two weeks, dead friends, and dead enemies. Hermione was actually beginning to regret volunteering to look through the rubble of Hogwarts, and help rebuild it. It had been Ron who had convinced her, telling her that it would be a way of helping rebuild the future. Later, she realized that not only had they been rebuilding Hogwarts for the future, they had been rebuilding their own lives.

Hogwarts had not been totally destroyed; there were still parts of the building that remained intact, like the kitchens and (unfortunately) the dungeons. Much of the first few floors though, had collapsed. Magically, the towers and upper floors remained fairly untouched, but heaps of fallen stone and ceiling from the Great Hall, and Entrance hall had to be cleaned up.

As Hermione stepped around what remained of the rubble, she recalled how awful the first week had been. Death Eater bodies had seemed to be everywhere - you'd have thought Death Eaters were as common as mice, the way they were found in every nook and cranny. After the total count was taken, there turned out to be only about forty enemy casualties - and not all were Death Eaters. At the time though, Hermione had never felt so much Death in one place.

She reached where Ron was squatting, peering down into a small chasm that had a moment before been covered in rock and dirt. Hermione had expected to find him looking grim, having found someone's hand, or worse, blown off into a pile. As it turned out, for the first time in over two weeks, she found him with a slight grin on his face. It was a good grin, a true Weasley one, instead of an I'm-glad-to-see-that-you're-alive-and-in- one-piece grin.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"Take a look," said Ron, moving aside for her to peer in. Down below, buried a little, was Fawkes the Phoenix, in newly reborn state. Apparently he had been completely helpless for two weeks, buried deep after being reborn.

Fawkes squawked a little, peering up at the two humans, as if asking for some assistance. Hermione reached down, and pulled the immortal phoenix out from his hole. "I wonder who he saved," she remarked. For, Fawkes must have put himself in front of someone that was being shot at with the Killing Curse, to have ended up down there.

At that moment, Hermione and Ron heard someone yelling, down towards the Great Hall. "What's all the fuss?" asked Ron, as the two of them stood, and began sprinting towards the shouting. "I mean, it couldn't be -"

Ron never finished the sentence though, for as the rounded the corner, they saw up ahead of them, stepping away from a black portal, Harry Potter.

Hermione shrieked, running up towards him, and throwing her arms around him. "You're alive!" Ron stood silent, shocked that his friend returned. But he too, bounded up to greet him, as others started gathering around too, gasps and shrieks of amazement resounding throughout the partially ruined castle.

"You - you did it!" cried Ron.

Harry nodded, grinning from ear to ear. "I defeated him, Ron. And I made it. It's me."

~End Flashback~

Looking back on it, Hermione thought, they should have realized something wasn't right. That Harry hadn't known where he had gone, or said anything about how the change of dimensions had affected his magic, as it should have. That was why we had planned to force them through the Rift we created. And the imposter Harry had called it a portal.

A tear trickled down her cheek as she remembered when the discovered that it was Lucius Malfoy. She remembered how sick, and betrayed everyone had been. They had welcomed the enemy back into their arms, and he had been plotting to kill them all, as he had grinned cheerfully about the fall of Lord Voldemort. And he had killed some people, in Harry's form, trying to get away.

At least, she thought, we caught him before. And now, he's sitting on the cold floors of Azkaban. Azkaban was now much like a Muggle Prison, with guards that did have a conscience, and weren't sucking souls. The goblins were now in charge of Azkaban, and a vast number of containment spells were cast on the prison. No one had escaped yet, so it seemed to be working.

There was a flutter of wings against Hermione's office window, and she turned to see McGonagall's owl, waiting there, a note tied to its leg. Letting it in, the owl stuck out its leg for Hermione, the small note clearly being hastily written. Pulling it off, Hermione unraveled the crunched old piece of Parchment that McGonagall had scribbled on. It read,

Hermione -

There's no doubt - it's him. Alert your husband to come immediately, send a note to Remus to notify the others. Wait for Ron outside my office.

-Minerva McGonagall

Hermione crumpled the already worn out piece of paper, and tossed it into the fire. It's him, she thought. It's really Harry. Why? Why has he come back? We all moved on - all of us. I don't want to go through this again.

On another scrap of paper, Hermione wrote a quick note to Remus Lupin, explaining what had happened, and to inform the others. She sent it off with her owl, Mercury.

Tossing some Floo into the fire, Hermione stepped in, and called, "Department of Magical Law Enforcement!" She instantly flew through the chimney, with a speeding rush, the same rush that traveling with Floo Powder always created.

When she stopped moving, and stumbled out of the fireplace into part of Level Two of the Ministry of Magic. It actually hadn't changed quite a lot since Harry had been here in his fifth year; only a few things were different - besides the fact that the people there were very different. The cubicles were now neat, and orderly (no one was quite sure what made it like that - rumor has it that someone cast a spell that made everything stay neat and tidy, whether you liked it or not). The wall that had been covered with pictures of Sirius Black had been taken down, and the year after Voldemort's downfall, it was proven that Sirius Black had been innocent. He was given a proper memorial, and his name awarded the Order of Merlin for all he did for the Order of the Phoenix (not to mention the fact the he had been placed in Azkaban as an innocent man).

Hermione walked out of the fireplace, and towards an office in the back. It was fairly empty by then, it being nearly completely dark. There were some people here still though, the ones who always worked later than the others.

Inside the Auror cubicles, a distinct voice called out, "Hey Hermione! How are you doing?" Hermione looked over the Auror cubicles, to see a man about her age, with short cut brown hair, and a round face. It was none other than Neville Longbottom.

"Hullo, Neville! I'm in a bit of a hurry, talk to you later!"

Neville had spent 5 years after Hogwarts training to be an Auror, and amazingly, he had succeeded. He had been slowly proving that he too could have fit the Prophecy. "What's the rush, Hermione? Something wrong with the kids?"

Hermione shook her head. "As far as I know - they're fine. I can't tell you what's up right now, but you'll hear soon enough. It's a big issue." With that, she hurried off towards the back offices.

One of the ones on the far left read 'Ronald Weasley, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement'. Ron had joined the Ministry a year after school ended, and had quickly risen to the rank of department head, since no one wanted the job, and he was terribly good at it. It had been an unlikely position for him to take, but he enjoyed it. Often times, he got to play detective to catch the criminal breaking the magical law, and he always said it was like playing a game of chess. Right now though, he was sitting at his desk, feet up, reading an inter-departmental notice that had flown in a few minutes before Hermione rushed in.

"Ron!" she said, exhaustedly. Floo travel always robbed her of her breath for a few minutes, and then speed talking with Neville had helped much either.

Ron didn't look up for a second, saying almost absent mindedly - "Did you hear this news about the lead on those orphaned kids, Hermione? Living in the sewers, my god -"

"RON!" said Hermione. Ron looked up, a little taken a back.

"What's the matter, 'Mione? Are one of the kids hurt?"

She shook her head again. "No. But you have to come to Hogwarts now. He showed up."

"Who?" asked Ron, confused.

"Ron, it's Harry. We were having a late meeting in the Great Hall, over some tea, and he walked in."

At this, Ron sat up very abruptly. "Are you sure? Did McGonagall have Asha run the tests? It's really him?"

She nodded. "Asha did the tests. It's most definitely him. McGonagall wants you to come."

Ron sighed, and set his papers down. Picking up an airplane, he wrote that he was leaving early, and sent it off to his secretary. "Let's go then," he said to Hermione.

"Wait -" she began, grabbing his arm as he rushed out. But it was too late. He was already ten steps ahead of her, almost at the fireplace. Hermione rushed after him.

*******

A/N: Okay, it may have been a little short, but that seemed like too good of a stopping point to let it go to waste! Ahem, now, on to a few thankses..

Thank you to... crystaldolphin88 (thanks for telling me about the format prob!), stargazer, potterlover2004 (We'll see what Harry does.. He's got a lot to discover yet!), Lilly Black (You'll kinda see what's up with Hermione - it's been a rough twelve years for everyone), Danielle (A lot happened - explanations on that subject aren't far off!)

Alrighty - now, let's run through this little trick again. I write it, you read it, you click the button down there that says Review, your reviews inspire me to write more, and viola! The cycle starts all over again!!!!