A/N: zurkie—the woman's name was italicized because her name was written in gold like Hermione's, and previously I typed Hermione's name in italics on her door too, lol. It's not a hint or anything!

MusicaLee—Nope I live in the Twin Cities, not St. Peter, or Clearlake or St. Cloud or nonsense like that! (no offense to those who do live there, I have friends in Clearlake too). Nice to know a fellow Minnesooooootan is reading this!

Another side-note: Eminem was at the Pistons game Thursday night and he was beautiful! Unfortunately I didn't personally see him, unlike SOMEONE I know! You know who you are! Lol!

I guess you guys didn't have to wait THAT long for this chapter, I thought you'd have to wait longer, never mind! Review! Please and Thanks!

ON WITH THE STORY!

Chap. 24 The Group

The next morning was a bit nicer for Draco. He felt Hermione wake up, so he too sat up in bed.

Hermione looked over, feeling the movement from Draco.

'Oh, I'm sorry, I tried not to wake you.' She apologized softly.

'No, I'm glad I woke up, I didn't like it yesterday morning when you left without saying goodbye.'

'Oh, I thought you'd want to sleep.'

'No, I rather be able to say goodbye, can you wake me up every morning before you go?'

'Sure, Draco.' She said leaning over to kiss him.

He put an arm around her waist, but they kept it an innocent kiss with no tongue, seeing how they both had morning breath. After their kiss, he leaned up a bit to kiss her forehead.

'Goodbye, love, have a good work day.' He told her.

'Thank you, have fun at practice.' She replied as she moved off the bed. 'Goodbye.'

She then went into the bathroom to get ready as he rolled back onto his stomach and fell back asleep.

After she put on light blue knee-length robes with small white heels, she went off to the Ministry, book bag in hand.

Hermione's Office—

Before going to talk to Nikolaus about the folder on Draco, Hermione decided to go to her office and finish reading his whole file in its entirety.

She read everything from his first day of a tutor to his last day at Hogwarts. When she got to December she cringed. They talked about his dark mark.

How did they know he received his dark mark? Did they have someone spying as a Death Eater? She wondered.

She had no idea. She was finally toward the end of his file, at his Quidditch game yesterday. It explained in detail what he did, which wasn't much, actually. Then she read something quite shocking:

I was reporting from the stands, as a fan, while Draco played his position as Seeker for the Puddlemere United team. He seemed to be doing nothing but sitting there on his room, staring out into the crowds, but suddenly, using my omniculars, I saw the Snitch go to Draco. He flew no where, it miraculously came to him. There has been no written time in history of something like this happening and I could barely believe it, the announcer didn't even notice until the scoreboard changed itself.

I can't help but wonder if perhaps, Draco Malfoy, is using his dark arts knowledge to enhance his game. Could he have summoned the Snitch? Spells are placed on the Snitch, to disable players from summing it, but who knows the realms of dark arts that could over-power those spells. I'm sure his deceased father, Lucius Malfoy, taught him much dark magic. Maybe the young Malfoy isn't using his knowledge to kill innocent people, but perhaps he is still using it.

Hermione's eyes widened and her nostrils flared. She was definitely not a happy Unspeakable.

She left her office, file in hand, and marched straight to Nikolaus Neitzel's office. She knocked on the door, using all restraint not to pound on it. He allowed her to enter.

'Oh, good morning, Mrs. Malfoy, how's work going?' He asked calmly.

'Well, I've been doing lots of research and studying on this so-called "Watched Persons" list.'

'Ahh, I see.' Nikolaus replied, knowing what she was about to talk to him about.

'I would like to know, how is it possible and legal, for that matter, for ministry agents to go around spying on people, and writing notes down about every single thing happening in their lives? Isn't it an invasion of privacy?' She cried.

'Mrs. Malfoy, the Ministry is here to protect wizards and witches, the Department of Mysteries is here to uncover unknown things about everything and everyone. We are protecting the wizardry community from any possible dark art threats and/or invasions.' He paused to make sure she took everything in, she nodded and he continued, 'Now, since Voldemort is dead, the Ministry is taking more steps to prevent any part of the dark side from rising up again.'

'I understand the watching of previous trainees and whatnot, but you cannot go around writing assumptions about people!'

'What do you mean, Mrs. Malfoy?'

'I was reading the file on Draco, my husband, and your "reporter" went to his latest game and he wrote in here that he thinks he might be using dark magic to summon the Snitch to him! You can't write that, there's no proof of that anywhere! This isn't the Daily Prophet where we can listen to gossip and twist it's words, we are the Ministry of Magic and when others read that they are going to automatically assume my husband is practicing the dark arts!'

'Mrs. Malfoy, our reporter just writes things that will draw attention to the fact that he, like the others in that list, must be observed continuously for any hint of betrayal to the "good' side, if you will.' He stared at her red face and continued, 'I was worried a bit when Fudge showed me your name. I wondered if you would be able to handle your job, considering we are watching your husband.'

'I'm sorry, I can handle it, I just wanted to share my concerns with you. Draco is not a death eater, and I don't want the Ministry to believe such, just on the basis of an innocent game.'

'Mrs. Malfoy, you do know that your husband has the dark mark, correct?'

Hermione felt embarrassed and annoyed at the same time.

'Well, yes, of course I know. He is my husband. But, Draco never acted the part of a death eater. His father made him go through with the ceremony and the initiation.'

'We are the Department of Mysteries, Mrs. Malfoy, we cannot take any chances. We will continue watching Draco. Now I would like to know if you are able to continue handling your job. You cannot keep coming to me, informing me that the information on your husband is "unfair" and whatnot. Everything that is placed in those files is true, and if they are just assumptions, then they are stated as assumptions, not facts. Can you continue in your position? Or should I inform Fudge you need to be placed in a different Department?' He asked firmly.

'No.' She replied, 'I can handle it fine.'

'Good. Also remember, Mrs. Malfoy, you were instructed not to inform anyone of your business here and what we do. You took oaths upon it.'

'Yes, I know. I will not tell Draco about anything.' She replied smartly.

'All right, thank you for stating your concerns, now please continue with your work.'

She left his office with a quick nod.

Quidditch Practice—

The team was flying down to the center of the pitch, instructed by their Captain, after a two hours of practice.

'Why are we down here?' Harry asked Skye.

'I decided that two hours will suffice for today, no need for the extra third hour, what do you guys say?' Skye asked them.

They cheered loudly.

'I guess we agree,' Skye said with a smile, 'Now go change and get the bloody hell out of my sight.'

The players ran to the locker rooms.

Harry quickly changed, telling Draco he was going to go visit Ginny at Hogwarts today.

'You want to come?' Harry asked.

'Fuck no, but thanks anyway. I don't think anything could get me to go back to school again.'

'You do know that if you went back you'd have every student there throwing themselves at you because you play professional Quidditch, right?'

Draco smirked.

'Really?' Draco asked.

'Yeah, I was there about a month ago with Gin and every one was running up to me asking me for my autograph, like Krum when he was there.'

Draco rolled his eyes.

'That's because you're Saint Potter.'

Harry shook his head.

'No, finally, they all were asking me to sign their Quidditch robes, and their brooms and such. Asking me how the rest of my "team" was doing. I don't think they'd be asking me about that if they were praising me because of Voldemort.'

'Mmm…sounds interesting.'

'Yeah, the Creevy brothers even asked if you were going to visit sometime so they could get a picture of us, the two, now professional, former Hogwarts players.'

'HA! Stupid twins.'

'Twins?'

'Yeah, the Creevy brothers.'

'They weren't twins,' Harry laughed.

'Oh, really? I always thought they were.'

'Weren't you curious to never see the younger one your second or third year at school?'

'I never really noticed actually, but fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh year they were together attached at the hip, so I assumed.'

Harry laughed again at Draco.

'Well, you sure you don't want to come?' Harry asked.

'Nah, that's fine. You go off with mini-Weasley, I'll come some other time.'

'All right, see you later.'

Draco waved Harry off and finished dressing.

Draco said goodbye to his Captain and the rest of his teammates and then walked out the doors. He was walking past the stands where he saw someone tall and stocky leaning against one of the beams. He looked at him curiously, the large man was eating a chocolate fron, as if waiting for someone. Suddenly the man looked over towards Draco and waved his chocolate covered hand in the air, signaling someone to come to him. Draco looked around him and noticed no one else behind him. Draco began to walk towards the man and realized it was Gregory Goyle.

'Goyle? What are you doing here? Surely you aren't going to try out…'

'No!' He said with a booming voice, 'I came to talk to you.'

'What about?' Draco asked, leaning against a beam, and dropping his Quidditch stuff to his side.

'Good practice, by the way.'

'Oh. Thanks. Been here long, have you?'

'For the last half-hour or so.'

'Oh, good thing we got done an hour early, usually we go until noon.'

'Oh yeah,' Goyle muttered. He continued in a much softer voice than before, 'Well, I came to talk to you about some meetings some have been putting together.'

'What are you talking about? Like Slytherin alumni?' Draco asked, thoroughly confused.

'Umm…some, sorta.'

'You'll have to expand because I haven't a clue to what you're saying, Goyle.'

'Well, a bunch of us, umm…like sons and daughters of the death eaters that were thrown into Azkaban or killed, have been meeting and we've been talking.'

Draco raised an eyebrow at Goyle.

'Goyle, you can't raise Voldemort from the dead, and if you bastards have found out a way to do so, don't count me in it!'

'No! No! We don't want to do anything like that! But we don't want all of our parents' hard work to go in vain. Everything our parents, and us, have sacrificed goes unknowledged.'

'Unacknowledged.' Draco corrected.

'Huh?'

'You used the wrong word, never mind, go on.' Draco said giving up, knowing it was hopeless.

'Well, as I was saying, the sacrifices were for nothing.'

'So, you want to go around doing more work of Voldemort's because you feel our parents' "hard work" was all for naught?'

'Huh? Not what?'

'No, naught…like for nothing…never mind.' Draco sighed.

'No, we want to change the dark side, we don't want to kill anything and everything, like the Dark Lord did. We just want to destroy those who vow to get in the way of the new and improved dark side. We've heard rumors that the Ministry has been spying on the families of former death eaters and interrogating them. The Ministry believes the families of the death eaters are planning to avenge their captured death eater loved one. We want to find out what theories the Ministry has concocted and the steps they are going to take to "prove" these theories about us.'

'Mmmhm…' Draco drawled, uninterested.

'Just come with me, Draco, to my house for a meeting, you'll see.'

'If I come, will you never come to one of my games or practices again?'

'Umm, yeah.' Goyle replied, unsure of why Draco wouldn't want him there.

'Okay, I'll come.' Draco replied. It's not like Hermione will miss me, she doesn't get off until three…or five.

Goyle walked a few feet away from the stands to Coca-Cola paper cup on the ground and stood over it.

'Portkey.' He told Draco.

'Yeah, thanks, I got that.' Draco spat.

Goyle reached for Draco's hand.

'I'll just grab your coat, thanks.'

Goyle shrugged and grabbed the paper cup. Draco felt a hard tug at his navel and began to feel as if he was spinning. A few moments later he arrives in a large home. Draco knew Goyle lived alone, his father was imprisoned and his mother died from grief. Draco followed Goyle down a long hall and into a large room filled with chairs.

Draco looked around at the eyes peering at him. He recognized many former Slytherin students. Vincent Crabbe walked up to him.

'Hey, Draco, excellent job at making the Seeker position for the United team. Good to see you here.'

'Yeah, thanks Crabbe.' Draco replied, almost pleasantly. Draco then saw someone he didn't think he would see. 'Zabini?'

'Hey fucker! I'm glad you came, I didn't think you would, but of course, you wouldn't let down your old house now would ya?'

'What are you doing at this absurd meeting?' Draco asked.

'This is like the fifth meeting I've been to, Drake. It's not as fucked as Goyle may have made it sound. The Ministry is real' fucked up, Drake.' Blaise said in a serious tone, a tone Draco had heard rarely from Blaise. 'It's not right of them to accuse, or assume shit about us, and it's time to put an end to the dictatorship that has formed within the Ministry at our expense.'

'What? "Dictatorship"? Have you gone mad?' Draco asked Blaise incredulously.

'No, you've got to be open minded about this, Drake. The Ministry is getting too powerful.'

'What?' Draco asked again. 'I don't know what you're talking about. Hermione works for the Ministry now and—'

Many gasped and began to talk among themselves, causing Draco to stop talking.

Another familiar voice rose.

'This is the perfect opportunity then, Draco.'

Draco turned to see Millicent Bulstrode staring at him.

'Perfect opportunity for what?' Draco asked.

'Haven't you been listening?' Blaise asked. 'We want to figure out a way to stop the Ministry from forming their assumptions about us, and stop interrogating us.'

'What have they interrogated you about?' Draco asked Blaise.

'Well, not me, but they have interrogated Millicent. They asked her why she was in certain shops a certain day, they knew the exact shops and the exact day. They've been spying on us all. Keeping track of our every movement! Hoping we'll fuck up and go jinx some muggle or something. We need you Draco.'

'For what?'

'A leader.'

'What?' He exclaimed.

'It's perfect now. Granger…err Hermione works for the Ministry!'

'I don't think any of you are being rational.' Draco sneered, 'Besides, I'm not spying on Hermione. I can't just waltz into the Ministry.'

'Ask her questions about the Ministry then.' Millicent suggested.

'She's taken oaths not disclose any information to anyone.'

'Isn't that a little suspicious?' Millicent asked.

Draco shrugged, but internally wondered what Hermione actually was working on. He had never really thought about it before, but now he was curious.

'I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be a leader of this anti-government group and condone it.' Draco said sternly.

'Drake, just come to a meeting or two and listen. Keep an open mind, please.' Blaise pleaded.

Draco thinks about it for a second.

'Zabini, I'm only going to come to a few meetings for you. Hopefully to try to talk you out of these bazaar ideals. I'm not coming for the rest of these "members".'

'That's fine. What ever gets you here.' Blaise replied thankfully.

The next day Draco's first day off. Hermione woke him at eight, to kiss him goodbye, but he immediately went to sleep afterwards.

Draco woke up about eleven and dragged himself to the bathroom to clean up. He decided to go out back for a bit and play around with his new ball set, since he didn't have practice.

After about an hour, Draco came back inside and took a shower. He ate some lunch and then became bored. He began to walk into the entertainment room to watch a movie, but then tripped over something hard.

'Oh! Fuck! Fuck!' He cried grabbing his foot.

He looked down and saw a HUGE hardcover book. He picked it up and read the title. The Ministry of Magic, A History. He rolled his eyes and placed the book on a hallway table.

Hermione just leaves all her work books lying around, waiting to be tripped over. He then thought of the Ministry, which directed his thinking to that strange meeting Blaise was at the previous day. He sighed in frustration, remembering that he promised Blaise he would go to another idiotic meeting. He decided to go, since Hermione was at work and he was alone at home doing nothing important anyway.

The Ministry—

Hermione had now finished the entire file on the "Watched Persons" and replaced it back into Room 3. As she was leaving Room 3, Nikolaus stopped her.

'You've gone through the whole list?' He asked.

'Yes.' She replied.

'In three work days?'

'Umm…yes.'

'Wow, that's impressive. It took Fudge about three weeks to go through all that… feel free to take the rest of the day off.'

'Really?' She asked.

'Yea, go on home.' He said reassuringly.

'All right, I think I will.'

Hermione went to her office, grabbed her coat and left.

She walked into the house, and searched excitedly around to surprise Draco. Hilde came and told her he had left about an hour ago. Hermione sighs and asks her where he went.

'Hilde doesn't know, ma'am. Sorry.' She then ran off.

I wonder where he is? Probably off with Blaise somewhere causing trouble. Hermione didn't think to much on it and decided to go back to work. There were many things she could be doing there. She left instantly.

Goyle's House—

Draco sat through a meeting about the injustice of Cornelius Fudge, and a girl Draco didn't recognize stood up an told her story about being interrogated by a worker of the Department of Mysteries. Draco hadn't been paying much attention, he nearly dozed off before Blaise elbowed him.

'Eh, sorry, Blaise, what I miss?' Draco asked.

'Everything.' Blaise replied.

'Sorry, because I dozed off, I'll come back again tomorrow.' Draco told him.

'Okay. Remember, keep an open mind.'

Draco waved his hand, acknowledging that he would, and left Goyle's house at five o'clock.

The Ministry—

Hermione put away a book she was reading to prepare for her next file, but then decided to go home. She grabbed the file that she hadn't looked through yet, and decided to go home. It was five o'clock.

Malfoy Manor—

Draco walked into the house and nearly ran into Hermione.

'Oh, hey, baby.' He said with a smirk. He walked over to her and kissed her softly.

'Hey, where were you?' She asked.

'With Blaise.' He said, not entirely lying really.

'Oh, I came home early at about two, but you weren't home.'

Draco immediately felt guilty.

'Oh, sorry, love.'

'It's not that big of a deal,' She replied, 'I went back to work and thought for more work to do.'

Draco then noticed the large file she held in her arms.

'You've always got so much to do, I wonder about all the work they're giving you.' Draco stated.

'Well, I want to keep my position, it's very important to me.'

'I'm sure it is, what exactly is keeping you so interested?' He asked nonchalantly.

'You know I can't talk about it, Draco. Did you have fun today?'

'What?' He asked, staring at the large file with her.

'Did you have fun today…with Blaise?'

'Oh, yeah, loads.' He replied.

'Well, good. I'm going to take a bath.' She told him.

She then set her file aside on a nearby table as she removed her shoes and coat. She held both things in her hands to bring upstairs, forgetting her file.

'I'll be back down soon.' She added.

'Okay,' He replied monotonely.

He watched her go upstairs and disappear down the hall. His eyes then averted back to the forgotten file.

You cannot read that. His conscience (a.k.a. the angel on the shoulder imagery) told him. Hermione would kill you. You know you're not supposed to read what's in there.

Draco was about to walk away when another voice spoke, it was the devil on his shoulder now.

You're Hermione's husband, it's okay for you to read it, you two are supposed to be able to tell each other everything. Husbands and wives don't keep secrets.

'That's true.' Draco said aloud. He decided to look in the file, which Hermions hadn't even looked through yet.

He opened the file and saw a title marked: Questioning Watched Persons.

Questioning? Draco thought, As in "interrogating"? "Watched Persons"? Were Goyle and Blaise right?

Draco skimmed the first paragraph. It was talking about questioning the families of former death eaters, just like Goyle had told him. The watched persons must be the families of the former death eaters… Draco concluded.

The next page was a long list of questions the Ministry asked people. One question Draco saw was "What are your plans with your assumed knowledge of the dark arts?" Draco then remembered Blaise had said the Ministry "assumed" too much. Draco shook his head in disbelief.

Draco moved on to the next pages. His eyes became wide. It was a list of names of people the Ministry had interrogated, and the dates. The most recent one was a woman named Lucille Fender, date marked for May 31st, today.

The woman who spoke at the meeting!

The next page was a list of many other names, with dates marked in the future. Draco was confused and then realized this was a list of named the Ministry was waiting to interrogate. He looked down the list and then paused at a name.

'Shit…that's me!' Draco looked at the date and saw it was for two weeks later. Draco correctly assumes that was when the Ministry planned on interrogating him. How were they going to get him? Do they capture people? Or do they simply request their attendance?

Draco felt himself become very angry.

How can Hermione work under these rules? How can she keep working her position, knowing they are going to interrogate me and accuse me of being a death eater?

Draco, of course, did not know Hermione hadn't looked over this file yet.

Draco closes the file, but not before taking the list of names and dates. He hides it in his robes and places the file back exactly where he found it. He decided to go grab something to eat and inconspicuously watch television.

Hermione returns from her bath about ten minutes after Draco retires to the entertainment room. She walked into the entertainment room, still wearing her white robe and white slippers.

'Draco, I'm going to grab something to eat, you want something?'

'No.' He replied sharply, not glancing at her.

'Are you sure?'

'I just ate.' He snapped.

Hermione did not pick up on his anger.

'Well, I'm just going to grab something and work on some Ministry work.'

'You do that.' He said quite nastily.

Hermione ignored the bite in his tone and went to the kitchens and then to her work.

She brings her file into the family room and begins read the information, while eating an apple.

She reads through the interrogations of people and questions, but obviously does not see the lists, so she doesn't think too much about it. She figures the questioned people got in trouble and were brought to them.

Draco, after watching an hour of comedy central and not laughing once, decides to go bed before Hermione is done with her work.

At about eleven, Hermione puts her file away and goes upstairs. She sees Draco already asleep. She wonders why he didn't say good night to her, but she just shrugs and slips into bed silently.

The next morning Hermione wakes Draco at about eight, as usual. He woke up and kissed her emotionlessly.

'Goodbye, Draco.' She said before going to the bathroom.

Draco moaned groggily and went back to bed.

Hermione stepped out of the elevator and into the Department of Mysteries and bit downcast at Draco's recent attitude towards her. However, before she could dwell on it, Nikolaus Neitzel strolls up to her with a pleasant smile.

'Good morning, Mr. Neitzel.'

'Good morning, good morning, I have a project for you!'

'Oh what is it?' She asked.

'The daughter of an imprisoned death eater is here and you are going to question her.'

'What? What did she do?' Hermione asked.

Nikolaus looked at her, wondering what she meant.

'It's the daughter of the imprisoned Nathaniel Parkinson, he—'

'Did you say Parkinson?' Hermione asked, completely forgetting about wanting to know what Pansy had done to get herself here.

'Yes, I believe her named is Pansy.'

'Take me to her.'

'She's in Room 7.' He told her with a smile.

Hermione excitedly went into Room 7 and found the smug Pansy sitting in a chair with her arms folded.

'Granger? You're going to interrogate me?' Pansy asked snidely.

'That's "Malfoy" now, thank you very much.' Hermione replied with a smirk.

Pansy scowled at Hermione.

'So, what brought you here?' Hermione asked.

'Excuse me?' Pansy asked snidely.

'What did you do?'

'I was born, Mudblood.' Pansy spat.

Hermione didn't understand Pansy, but she thought she was just trying to avoid the question.

'Just to remind you, Parkinson, Voldemort is dead and so is the Dark Side.'

'I know the Dark Lord is dead you dwit, but the Dark Arts, aren't.'

'The Dark Side is, there will always be some idiots trying out the Arts though.' Hermione replied.

'You should watch out for your so-called "husband".' Pansy snapped.

'Don't bring Draco into this, Pansy, we're talking about you here.'

'I didn't bring it up, you're the one talking about Dark Arts, I'm just talking rumors…' Pansy said in a sing-song voice.

'Stop trying to get me riled up. It's not going to work.'

'Whatever, Mudblood.'

Hermione glared at Pansy.

'So, you going to tell me what stupid thing you did to try to "avenge" your death eater father?'

'What? I don't know what you're talking about. One of your co-workers approached me in the street and said it was "my time to be questioned". They said if I resisted they would send the Minister to my house…now who wants that?'

'Obviously someone who is hiding something.' Hermione replied.

'I'm not hiding anything…yet. Maybe I'll join your husband and start hiding stuff.'

'Shut the fuck up, Parkinson. I've heard enough of you.' Hermione snapped.

'Ooh…not friendly…don't like hearing about Draco's Dark Side, do you?'

'Draco doesn't have a Dark Side, never did. He was a little lost before, but now he's perfect. I know you hate the fact that Draco chose a "mudblood" over you, but it's a fact, so get used to it, Parkinson.'

Hermione then left in a huff.

Neitzel greeted her outside the door.

'What she tell you?' He asked.

'Nothing much at all. She was posing empty threats and not cooperating. She said she was hiding anything yet.'

'Yet?'

'That's what she said.' Hermione shrugged, 'I'm through with her, you go in.'

Nikolaus nodded.

'It's fine, she's not going to talk anymore. Thanks.'

Hermione nodded and went to her office.

Draco went to a meeting that day and again on Friday.

Everyday he found more and more out that he couldn't believe. He agreed with the group on many things, especially the parts about how it wasn't fair that the Ministry could "spy" and "watch" them all constantly.

Blaise stood up next to Draco and spoke, mainly to Draco, 'What happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?' He asked the group, 'The Ministry thinks they're above their own laws apparently, since they feel that they are able to pull us off the streets and put the light on us.'

What exactly is wrong with their ideas? Draco thought to himself.

Then Pansy came into the room with Goyle.

Draco turned his head away from her.

'Today,' Pansy began, 'A worker from the Department of Mysteries came to me on the street and demanded I come with them to the Ministry for questioning, and if I didn't Fudge would come to my house himself. I went with the man and he blindfolded me as he led me into a room. They let the blindfold loose once I was in a seat, and then lo and behold, Hermione Malfoy walks into the room to interrogate me.' She said this eyeing Draco coldly. 'She asked me what I did to get myself there. I told her I was born and she didn't seem to understand. But then she asked me what I have been doing to "avenge" my father…eventually she got so frustrated with my incompetence, she gave up and sent her "boss" or whatever in instead. He then asked me whom I've been working with. Where I've been practicing Dark Arts, and such. I told him to fuck off and then they let me go.'

Everyone began talking among themselves. Draco felt shame. His Hermione was an interrogator. But Pansy had asked her why she was there…maybe Hermione wasn't entirely sure what the Ministry did exactly…his positive thought of Hermione were interrupted by Millicent.

'How are you not irate, Draco?' She exclaimed, 'Your wife is betraying you!'

'She isn't. She probably doesn't understand.'

'Of course she does, Draco.' Pansy spat, 'She works for the Department of Mysteries.'

'You didn't tell us she worked in that Department, Drake.' Blaise commented.

'I didn't think it was important.'

'You didn't want to be shamed.' Pansy hissed.

'It's just Hermione's job to question, it's not like she's spying.' Draco said.

'You've become soft!' A nameless man shouted at Draco. 'If she's interrogating, who's to say she isn't spying! You don't know! She won't tell you anything!'

Draco frowned. He wasn't sure the rest of them weren't right. He was having trouble believing his own words.

'Don't you care that your own wife is stripping away our freedom?' Crabbe asked.

Draco thought about this and began to fumble in around in his robes. He pulled out a few sheets of paper.

'What's that?' Blaise asked.

'This…is a list of all the names of people the Ministry has interrogated, the dates, and the dates and names of those they WILL interrogate…I'm up in two weeks.' Draco explained.

'What?' Blaise exclaimed, 'They have a list! How'd you get it?'

'I took it from Hermione's file.'

Many began shouting, trying to find their names on the list.

Blaise finds Draco's name, and then his own, in three weeks.

He looked up at Draco.

'Drake, we've got to stop this. We need a leader, Drake. We've got to devise ways to put an end to the corruption of the Ministry.'

'Then be leader, Blaise.' Draco replied calmly.

'Drake, you've always been the leader type. You were the leader at Hogwarts, be our leader again.'

Draco stared around him at all the eyes looking to him for guidance. He suddenly felt a sense of power and great respect again, the feeling he hadn't felt since he was "The Slytherin King".

'I can't let my house down.' Draco said looking around. 'I'm in.'