A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, really. I was being really pissy and overly critical and you guys were so nice it really helped. This one was a lot more fun to write this time! Although… I did have little spaz attack on how I should end it. I thought my ending would be kind of talked through and no action. But you know what? I tried to do action last time with AM so I think I've paid my action-dues. I'm going to go with the one I already had in mind. I guess the most climatic parts will be this chapter and probably the next, the conclusion will just have to be wrap up with only a little plot left. Hope that's alright because I've fried my brain.

I seriously can't wait until book 6 is out! Then I'll just get to READ and think about what she has done. Don't worry though, after I've read it about 10 times I'll go crazy thinking about what book 7 will be and start making up my own endings to hold me over.

Also, I've already mentioned so in my profile bio, but I've been thinking about reposting AM, does anyone know what will happen if it gets banned again? Please email me, I would really appreciate it.

Last but not least, I won't have the audacity to request you read my ENTIRE story over again, but I did add a tad bit of new content in chapter 24: "You've had your, now get back to work", more specifically the dream sequence. I should've told you BEFORE I posted this chapter but I forgot, sorry. Even worse… I posted this(chapter25) originally on 6/14 but forgot something else, so it is a tiny tad different as of 6/15. Nothing is changed, only something is added. Nothing major just another magical world feature I made up like the Flow of Fate.

… … …

Six rode together in the wizard's carriage. The whole time Hermione could not stop studying Landon Malfoy. He did not seem pleased with where they were going at all. He looked irritated and uncomfortable. Sarah, however, seemed oblivious to all of this and just held his hand or rested her head on his shoulder the whole time. Lucius spent the brief ride filling out letters which he handed to Augustus to be fastened to owls and sent off. Draco merely gazed out the window. They pulled up to a restaurant in the middle of downtown wizarding London.

"I'm supposed to meet someone here," Lucius said to the hostess most curtly.

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy," she answered back, "She's here already, right this way."

"They need a separate table," Lucius half demanded, referring to Hermione, Sarah and Draco.

"Of course sir…" she said.

"Be quick about it," he barked towards the kids, "This is just a quick brunch. Come now Landon…"

But Lucius trailed off. He spotted someone at another table, and it did not surprise Hermione. It was an expensive restaurant and right by the Ministry of Magic headquarters. Surely many workers came here for meals on their breaks or perhaps for lunch meetings.

She watched as the elder man he approached did not seem to smile very warmly at him. He appeared to be quite well-off and prestigious, having a quick lunch before hurrying off to a full day of important tasks no doubt. Lucius seemed to be quite friendly despite the man's unimpressed attitude. They swapped cordial hellos as Lucius offered compliments the man did not return. Lucius then turned to come back to Landon.

"Smelly old git," said Lucius with a two-faced sneer, "Hurry, she's waiting."

And with that Lucius, Augustus and Landon went off in another direction to meet with who Hermione could only assume was Rita Skeeter. The hostess sat Draco, Sarah and her at a separate table nearer to the man Lucius greeted.

Hermione was scooting in her chair when she looked across the restaurant to the view they had of the Ministry of Magic headquarters just kitty-corner across the street. It was an old granite building, which took up a whole city block in it's rectangular layout, with stair ways leading up to it and entrances set back with pillars in an almost Greek way. Tourists were having their picture taken in front of a famous Stoner Waller statue, one of the many that surrounded the entire building.

Hermione always thought though they were strangely grotesque and intimidating that they were slightly beautiful. They reminded her of the ancient statues left on Easter Island, with the thick hedge-like brow and long triangular nose, only the Stone Wallers continued down in their concrete bodies to have ape like limbs; short stubby legs with long muscular arms. Half of the Stone Wallers carried century old and extravagantly crafted battle axes, the rest, beautiful broad shields, adorned in a royal fashion.

But it was no wonder that they should look intimidating, that was their original purpose after all. Had there ever be any kind of wizard-wide emergency or security issue, the massive statues were intended to come to life, take robotic, synchronized steps forward and form an impassable seal around the building's perimeter. Hermione couldn't recall of every hearing about an event that actually caused for the need of the Stone Wallers, and she imagined if they ever had been used it must have been hundreds of years ago, because now they were only apart of wizarding-lore, a monument of sorts…a tourist attraction.

They had just put in their drink orders when Sarah pointed out to Draco that the man was trying to get his attention.

Draco, looking somewhat confused, got up and went to the man. Hermione watched them speak briefly, with a few looks over in her direction. Suddenly Draco chuckled with delight. He beckoned Hermione over.

"This is Breckon Mite, a Senior Advisor at the Ministry."

"Worked there for far too many years," said the man, smiling at Hermione. "And too many of those damn years with Lucius around."

Hermione grinned. This is what Draco must have chuckled about. This man held nothing back.

"Mr. Mite's department works a lot with my dad's," explained Draco.

"Like Lucius is hardly in his department these days," scolded Breckon, "Too busy meddling in affairs that got nothing to do with him! Not that I miss him around! I must say however…" he went on, "If Lucius Malfoy can come up with such a strapping young lad as a son, who marries such a lovely young lady…" The two smiled to this politely, "Then I suppose I could over look some of his less admirable qualities."

Draco and Hermione expressed their enjoyment of meeting him as he paid his bill and got up to leave.

"The pleasure is mine, by all means." He heaved a big sigh. "Now back to the rat race. I'm so glad this is the last Political Convention I'll have to sit in on before I retire."

The three then enjoyed a pleasant meal as Draco felt no need to be foul, having his ego sufficiently inflated for the day.

… … …

"Telepathic," said Draco.

"How come?" asked Sarah with a curious tone.

"Because you could make a person slam themselves into a wall if you were telekinetic, but it would be cooler to get in their head and make them do it themselves."

"You're so morbid!" squealed Sarah.

Hermione just laughed.

"I can't think of good ones like you can Hermione…" said Sarah.

"Trust me; I've played this a lot. Many occasions of waiting around in a hotel room, that's for sure… How about this one, would you rather die in a desert or in a freezer?" Hermione asked.

"Geez, I don't know…" said Sarah.

"Desert," responded Draco.

"What! Why!" said Hermione.

"I don't know," he said defensively, "I just hate being cold."

"Would you pick freezer Hermione?" asked Sarah.

"Yeah!" she answered, "It takes days to die in a desert, it's slow and painful and you suffer through it till the end. At least you go numb and fall asleep in a freezer after awhile."

Sarah laughed, "This game is messed up. I'm going to go see if my dad is in his room."

"Don't forget a key," said Draco, pointing to the hotel room's table.

"Well that successfully killed two hours," said Draco, looking around the room, bored once again.

The three of them were not invited to the political convention, not that any of them minded. Surely it would be boring as all hell. Lucius had gotten some hotel room for the weekend while the convention was going on, and at least they'd be allowed to talk and get up to go to the bathroom there.

They had been whittling away the time eating up the contents of the mini bar and playing "would you rather".

Now that Sarah had decided to step out Draco was hungrily eyeing Hermione who was sitting on the bed. He approached her and laid her down, immediately crawling on top of her and kissing her neck. Hermione giggled and moaned as she ran her fingers through his hair and caressed his shoulders.

They were lip to lip, deep in a kiss when Hermione murmured. The heat on her leg had startled her.

"Draco," she muttered against his mouth, "Your pal-parchment is going off," she said when he pulled away to see what was the matter.

"Oh bugger," he snorted, digging in his pocket for the folded up rectangle of thick parchment paper.

Hermione began to wonder if she could enchant his pal-parchment to vibrate for him instead of glow and grow warm when somebody sent him a message, much like the cell phone she had used during summer holidays did when she got text messages. She thought that would be much more pleasant.

Draco had finally found it and unfolded it. The words "Can you get your Dad to lower the drinking age once he's official!" appeared across it, and just underneath, the mark of the sender; "Crabbe".

Draco went over to the table and picked up a quill. "What the hell are you talking about?" scratched Draco quickly underneath it. Then both messages seemed to sink into the paper and disappear, the destination of Draco's message was magically known and was being automatically sent to Crabbe.

Just then the pal-parchment lit up again and grew even warmer. An entirely new message was coming. "This is terrific! I've always wanted to shag in the Minister's mansion" read the new words. Just under the message the word "Pansy" developed.

Quickly after that another message appeared as well. "I can't believe it! Why didn't you tell me?" Then the name Flint.

Draco furrowed his brow. Things were getting pretty strange. Draco had put his quill to the parchment but paused, too confused to know who to address first and what to say…

"Draco," said Hermione suddenly, breaking his thoughts, "do you hear that?"

For the first time Draco noticed a clamor of noise outside their room's window. Like the sound of a crowd of people developing. It must be quite the crowd, since their room was on one of the top floors and to be able to hear it from there…

"Perhaps there was a car accident out front," said Draco, the two of them going over to the window.

Hermione opened the drapes as Draco opened the window and peered down. Just across the street, where the convention was being held, a mass group of people was forming. And not just pedestrians and people from near by establishments either, but reporters as well. It was like the media circus Draco had grown to know all too well ever since he had been followed around due to his engagement to Hermione. Only this one was a bit more hysteric, and rapidly growing bigger than any circle of paparazzi Draco ever had to encounter. Journalist and camera crews were flooding the doors and it appeared more were arriving by the carriage full. Something which seemed to only attract more bystanders.

"What's going on?" asked Hermione, trying to stick her head out the window as well.

"WATCH OUT!" yelled Draco, hastily pulling Hermione back in as a large grey owl came hurling in through the window, narrowly missing hitting Hermione right in the face.

"It's a damn Prophet owl," scowled Draco, "They think they're so important, no bloody manners at all!" He ripped the paper from the owl's talons and quickly deposited a coin in his satchel. As fast as he arrived he flew away.

"Prophets only come in the morning…" said Hermione… only to see this particular Prophet had "SPECIAL REPORT" scrolled across the top front page.

She squinted at the front photo, not trusting her eyes to what she saw at first. It was a large, extravagant fountain adorned with uncountable ancient markings. The Flow of Fate.

Hermione had seen it before in text books. But the water was never running in any of the photos, the spouts and basin were as dry as a desert. It only ran once a year, and when it did it trickled green water. Hermione could only imagine what green might have looked liked when she studied it briefly years ago. But she would not need to leave it up to her creativity to know what red looked like, for the picture unmistakably showed red water gushing from its pumps.

Hermione watched as confused shock spread across Draco's face. His eyes went left to right across the page, widened, and appeared to go left to right again, as if he couldn't believe what he read the first time.

"Fudge has been impeached!" he finally uttered aloud.

"What!" gasped Hermione, rushing over to see.

"The Goblins stormed the convention," said Draco, "Apparently they were quite pissed off. They've found the money in Fudge's campaign vault to be counterfeit! As soon as the ministry heard they immediately ordered they vote on the Flow of Fate. They voted the water red…"

"My god," said Hermione, not believing Fudge, who was a lot of things, to actually be a fraud too. "So he's out of office? We have no Minister?"

"No," said Draco, "Red water doesn't mean he's officially out of office yet, but emergency powers have been turned over to the ministry."

"Well what happens now!"
Draco lowered the paper and looked extremely forlorn. "They've nominated candidates for an emergency election… They'll vote tomorrow… the winner becomes Minister."

"Draco what's wrong?" Hermione asked as Draco's already porcelain complexion turned gray.

"They've nominated my dad."

If possible, Hermione turned grayer than Draco. She was at a loss for words.

"I've got to go talk to him," Draco said quickly, "see what the hell is going on, if it's true…"

Hermione made no objection, but just watched him leave. Her eyes focused on the newspaper he threw on the bed on the way out. She couldn't pick it up; she couldn't read the article herself. She just stood there, taunted by her view of the thick capital letters "SPECIAL REPORT: Fudge impeached for faulty campaign money."

Answers, finally answers… all clicking and connecting in her mind as her mouth dropped down into an almost horrified "O" as she realized that the fake money in the vault must have been planted by…

A hand laid itself on her shoulder.

"Hermione," said Harry, standing behind her.

Hermione nearly jumped out of her skin from the startle. Harry had just apparated into the room. The shock of whipping around only to be met by his intense green eyes was too much.

"Harry!" she spat.

"Gather what you have, now is our chance to leave!" he said.

Hermione just stood there looking lost. Slowly she shook her head, "Leave to where?"

"What?" said Harry, "Are you kidding? Leave away from here. Haven't you heard? Lucius got himself nominated."

Very steadily it grew on Hermione, after all the many sudden surprises were beginning to dull just a little, that she was furious with Harry. Hell, she was beyond forgiveness with Harry. She never wanted to see Harry again. His presence there in front of her infuriated her.

"No," she said most unexpectedly.

"Excuse me?" said Harry, sure he misheard her and was looking like he was growing more anxious by the second.

"Why leave now?" she demanded.

"Because it's dangerous!" cried Harry in a surprised and nearly angry manner, "And it's a great chance to bail."

"It's been dangerous this whole time!" snarled Hermione, "and you could've come to get me at any moment of it! No, I'm not leaving now, not when I'm actually close to finding out what's going on. Not when I need to be here if we're ever going to think of a way to stop this scheme! There's no way I'm going ANYWHERE with you."

"Hermione!" gasped Harry, sounding surprised and hurt.

"Quit pretending to suddenly care about my safety!" Hermione was almost yelling now, "Merlin knows you were probably sent here by someone else. You think you can just show up now and expect me to just GO? With YOU? After all I've done? After all I've put into this?"

"Mione, don't be stupid! Now's not the time to go into-" said Harry

"No!" she screamed, "Piss off! I'm going to stay here and wait for Draco."

"Draco!" barked Harry.

"Yes," said Hermione, trying to regain composure, "He went to go find out what's going on."

"HERMIONE!" said Harry, very anxious they hadn't left yet, his surprise of her not coming wearing off and now turning into full anger, "You can find out what's going on from the Order, not Draco," he said, drawling out Draco's name in an unflattering fashion.

"And what could the Order find out before he does? I'm staying at my post Harry, I'll report back later."

"Damn it, Hermione," said Harry, "I've come here for you and I'm not leaving unless you're with me." Harry aggressively grabbed her by the wrist and yanked very firmly on her arm, trying to draw her near to him so they could apparate together.

Hermione struggled and fought to get his grip off of her, if she refused to hold still then he couldn't take her with him when he went. "That wasn't your attitude the last time you saw me!" She yelled, beating on him with balled up fists, "Go away! Apparate! I don't need you! Go away!"

"Stop it! Mione! Now's not the time!"
"Oh okay," she yelled, "I'll just wait another nine months! No big deal! So go away, Draco will be back soon!"

"Why are you calling him Draco?" demanded Harry, her formality towards him was beginning to get annoying.

But Hermione wouldn't stop trying to push him and hit him into leaving. He felt he had no choice; he drew his wand out of his pocket.

Hermione saw this and screamed. She whacked his hand out of her face just as he set off the jinx.

"DON'T YOU EVER TRY TO CURSE ME AGAIN!" she screamed as she pushed him, this time to the ground. Only he took her with him.

Again she continued to beat on his chest and shoulders, all of her aggression towards him being let loose. Her emotions were running ramped. She started to cry. Harry tried to talk to her, to soothe her, to get one bloody word in between her wails and hits and demands of "LEAVE, LEAVE!"

"Go away, you'll blow my cover for when Draco comes back," she finally managed to choke out.

Hermione had called Malfoy "Draco" for the last time in Harry's opinion. And if he couldn't get himself to be heard over her screams… well he'd just have to go to where she had no choice but to listen to him.

The added pressure in Hermione's cranium was instantly noticed, the murky presence of a foreign invader was undeniable. Hermione jumped up and off of him, her hands coming down into a smacking clutch on her forehead. "HARRY," she cried desperately, "GET OUT!"

But it was too late, just as quickly as he slipped into the depths of her mind, giving her no time to hide anything, he slipped back out.

He propped himself up onto his elbows, still on the floor. "My God…" he muttered, "Draco…."

"Don't you even fucking start," growled Hermione through gritted teeth, shaking her head.

"You… you… you love him," Harry said with disgusted shock.

Hermione's face turned to shock as well. She did?

The door knob turned. The door creaked open. Draco saw Hermione standing over Harry. In a blink, Harry was gone.