Once again, I own nothing, and I am making no money off of this. It is all in good fun.

Tanndwr – Thanks for the review.

Inken – Thanks for the review. In regards to Prof. Smith, I am afraid that I have to give you the same response that I give my family and friends who ask about him. All will be revealed in time. If I gave any more information, I would be exposing too much about later in the story. Sorry. I will however say that there is more to my mysterious professor than meets the eye.

Chapter 10 – Times of Change

There in the middle of Diagon Alley, surrounded by several Aurors, stood the object of Harry Potter's present rage, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic. The minister stared in awe at the amount of damage done to the alley. Many of the walls had holes blown in them of various sizes from the spells that had not managed to hit people. There was a lot of rubble on the ground from the various things that had been destroyed. The most heartbreaking had been the number of bodies that lay on the ground, lifeless. The battle may not have lasted very long, but the Death-Eaters had accomplished their goal. They had disrupted the everyday life of the wizarding world and struck fear in the hearts of many. They had made it very clear that Voldemort's second war had begun.

Before any of the others knew what was happening, Harry began to storm over to the minister, grabbing his letter from the headmaster as he passed. "YOU! YOU JUST HAD TO BE RIGHT! DIDN'T YOU? DIDN'T YOU!"

Fudge looked taken aback, "What are you talking about?"

"YOU SPENT AN ENTIRE YEAR TELLING THE ENTIRE WIZARDING WORLD THAT PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE AND I WERE DELUSIONAL AND MAKING UP STORIES! YOU DIDN'T ONCE DO ANYTHING THAT COULD HAVE PREVENTED VOLDEMORT FROM REGAINING HIS ARMY AND HIS POWER! YOU IGNORED HIM AND ALLOWED HIM TO GET HIMSELF TOGETHER! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? LOOK WHAT YOUR POMPOUS STUPIDITY HAS LED TO!"

Harry was seething with anger, his fists balled up so tight that his knuckles were bright white. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and continued in a quiet but stern voice, "Look around you, Minister. These people were not as prepared as they could have been. If they had known over a year ago, when we told you Voldemort was back, they would have been prepared. If you had just believed in us, he may never have been able to get organized this quickly." Harry paused to look mournfully around him, and then turned back to the minister. "This…all this…could have been prevented."

Harry was staring coldly at the minister now, only separated by two of the minister's guards. He then remembered the letter in his hand, "Oh, and if you think that I won't fight this latest letter from YOUR ministry, then you're very mistaken. My friends and I used magic, here, to protect ourselves and anyone else that was in harms way. Since YOUR Aurors could not manage to stay here and do their job, WE did it for them."

Fudge was dumbstruck, trying to understand why this anger was directed at him while his guards just seemed to fidget in place. None of them liked being on the receiving end of this anger. Once Harry had stopped yelling, the anger he had could be felt by every one of them. They may be fully trained, experienced, adult wizards, but this kid made them feel downright intimidated. In fact, when you combined the anger they could feel with the calmness of his voice and the coldness of his gaze, they found they were actually a little scared of this young man.

"What exactly happened here?" Fudge was sputtering, "Dumbledore, what do you know about any of this?"

"Well, it would seem that the attack on the ministry was a diversion to draw the Aurors that you placed in the alley away so that they could attack the unsuspecting public. I was not here when it started, but I did come as soon as I had been made aware that there was an attack." The headmaster was trying to keep a calm manner to settle the tension in the air, but anyone who knew him could tell that he was just as angry as Harry.

"You see Minister, just after the Aurors left; the alley was attacked by dementors and Death-Eaters. Not everyone was fortunate enough to come out of this attack unscathed. Many of these people were kissed by dementors before the many patroni that were conjured could force them to leave. Once the dementors were gone there were still a large number of Death-Eaters here, fighting ruthlessly and with only one goal in mind, death and destruction. Everyone in this alley was fighting for their lives from this threat. I expect the charges against my students to be dropped, since they really broke no laws."

Fudge was sputtering worse than before, "There was an attack on the ministry, and we had to protect the government. I'm sorry about what happened here but we had to set priorities."

"You mean they had to protect YOU!" Harry couldn't control his anger, "All you have cared about for the last year is yourself, and how you could stay in office! You don't really care about what happens to anyone else as long as you can continue playing minister! You tried to make Professor Dumbledore look like an old fool and me look like an attention-seeking prat all last year! You leaned on the Daily Prophet to print any story you could to discredit us just so you could keep your job! You are the one who is the pathetic fool! I see you couldn't even bother to show up here without having an armed escort of six Aurors! Why don't you just go back to that cozy little office of yours and enjoy your position while you can, and leave the defending of the wizarding world to us? We seem to be the only ones who can actually protect it!"

"Now see here," Fudge was beginning to get angry himself. "You have no right to speak to me that way. I am the Minister of Magic, and you will show me the respect my title deserves."

"I will show respect to people who have earned it. Just because you have an important title, doesn't mean you have earned anyone's respect. I respect people who can fight for what's right and look out for each other. You can only look out for yourself, and as far as I'm concerned, YOUR Aurors are the ones who do all the fighting for you. In fact, I'd be surprised if you could even protect yourself in an attack. I mean if one man could get away from you, AND two of your officials, AND two of your Aurors, without suffering so much as a scratch, why should I think you could protect yourself."

Fudge was really mad now. He was being openly disrespected by a mere child in the middle of the street. "I'll have you know that I am quite capable of protecting myself…"

"Prove it!" Harry shouted, "Prove it right here, right now! I challenge you, Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, to a duel! Right here in the middle of this street, right now!" Shocked looks were on everyone's faces. "Not to the death, but to disarm and incapacitate. First one to disarm and stun the other wins!"

The Minister was beside himself with anger now, "You can not challenge me to a duel, boy. You are under age and besides, you wouldn't stand a chance against me."

"Actually, Minister," Professor Smith was now speaking up, "According to your laws, he can. You have been accused of attacking his honor. It is completely within his rights to challenge you if he wishes."

The Minister was looking at this new person, "Who are you? And what do you mean by saying he has the right to challenge me?"

"My name is Professor Smith. I am the new Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor at Hogwarts. The wizarding laws of the United Kingdom clearly state that any witch or wizard in this country, who has been subject to an attack of their honor, may challenge their attacker to a duel. The challenger may also set the rules for the duel and the stakes. It is a very old and obscure law, but one that is still on the books nonetheless."

Harry was now very curious, "What do you mean by set the stakes?"

"I mean, you get to decide what the loser has to do."

Harry was smiling now, "So what you're saying is that I could say that if I win, the Minister has to resign? Immediately?"

"That is exactly what I'm saying. You get to set all of the conditions, so long as they are fair."

Fudge was getting extremely red in the face now, "This is preposterous! I do not have to stand here and be insulted like this." He then tried to apparate away, but found he couldn't.

"I'm sorry Minister, but unfortunately this is a binding magical law. Once the challenge has been issued, if it is a valid challenge, it has to be acted upon. You have to either accept the challenge or reject it. However, if you reject it, it will count as a loss of the duel and you will have to carry out the consequences anyway. So you see, the only way that you can keep your office is to accept the challenge and win the duel."

"What? This cannot be true!" The minister was looking around wildly, "Someone summon Madam Bones. Since she is the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, she should be able to tell us if this is true."

Professor Dumbledore, who had been observing quietly, agreed and conjured a quill and some parchment. After quickly writing a note to Madam Bones, he called for Fawkes and sent the letter with his phoenix to fetch the department head. A few minutes passed and Madam Bones apparated to the alley carrying a very dusty old looking book.

"Professor Dumbledore, I have brought the book with the law in question, if I read your note correctly. Would you like to explain exactly what is going on, please?"

Dumbledore explained the situation to her as she began to flip through the book. After several minutes, she stopped on a page and began to read very carefully. "Well, it seems that this is in fact a valid law. I'm afraid, Minister, that you will have to either accept or reject the challenge and accept the consequences of that action."

The minister was at a loss. "So what will happen when I win? Since there is no possibility that a mere boy will possibly beat me, the Minister of Magic."

Harry thought for a moment, "IF you win, I will give you a written public apology, AND show my full support for your continued holding of the office of Minister of Magic. I will even be willing to take whatever punishment you see fit to give me for my disrespect."

"Even if I choose to send you to Azkaban for threatening the Minister?"

"Yes."

"Deal!" Exclaimed the Minister as he quickly shook Harry's hand to seal the magical contract. "So, when would you like to do this? I am sure that I can make room on my calendar sometime later this week."

"Right here, right now," replied Harry. "After all, that was the original challenge." Harry began to motion people back to make room for the duel.

Professor Dumbledore and the other adults who hadn't seen Harry duel, were looking very worried. They weren't sure if Harry had done the right thing. The people who had seen Harry in action were all smiling, but none more than Ginny and Remus. They knew that this would be no contest.

The rubble was moved out of the street and the people were all moved back to a safe distance. Harry called out, "Professor Dumbledore, could you conjure some protective shields to stop any stray spells from hitting the spectators, please?" He paused, "And I think we should have a referee as well to make sure no one breaks the rules and this is an honest duel. Auror Moody, would you be so kind?"

"Wait a minute, Mr. Potter. Mr. Moody is no longer an Auror, he has retired. I think that someone else should be the referee." The Minister looked around for a moment before his eyes settled on Madam Bones. "Who would you recommend for this task, Madam Bones? I believe that you, as the head of the department would know of someone appropriate for this task."

She immediately started to scan the crowd and saw someone she felt would be okay, "Auror Shacklebolt, you will be an impartial referee to this duel."

Kingsley simply nodded and took his place inside the ring of spectators. Once everyone involved was in place, Professor Dumbledore began to conjure invisible walls around the three men to keep wayward spells from doing any damage. When everything was in place, Kingsley reminded the combatants about the rules.

"This is a duel to disarm and stun only. No illegal spells are allowed and nothing intended to be lethal. This duel will not be considered over until one of you is stunned and disarmed."

Both combatants nodded their agreement and took their stances. The minister was smiling widely; he felt that he would win this duel easily. After all, how could a mere boy defeat a trained adult in a duel?

Harry was now trying to think quickly, 'What was I thinking? I'm sure I can beat him easily, but I don't want the whole wizarding world to know how good I've gotten. I need to keep my abilities hidden from Voldemort. I'll just have to contain my knowledge to fifth year spells and below and slow down a little.' Harry steeled himself for the battle that was about to begin. The cold detached look was back in his eyes, and his resolve was as solid as ever. Then Kingsley spoke, "Begin!"

Harry immediately went on the defensive, casting shield charms and dodging. He wanted to observe Fudge for a few moments to observe what he was up against. Fudge, in the mean time, had begun an all out offensive. He was sending every offensive spell he could think of at Harry. At first, Harry was surprised at how well Fudge could fight, but soon Harry completely understood Fudge's patterns. It had only taken Harry five minutes to fully assess his opponent, and form a plan to defeat him.

A smile began to creep across Harry's face. He knew that he could end this quickly, but he didn't want to just beat this man. No, he wanted to completely embarrass him. After all that Harry had been through over the last year, he wanted the minister to know what it felt like to be completely ridiculed.

Harry began to move from a defensive posture to a more offensive one. He began to send many minor jinxes, like the jelly legs, furnunculus, petrificus totalus, and impedimenta. He wasn't really expecting to beat him with these, just trying to lull him into a false sense of security. He sent the spells quickly and with varying degrees of accuracy. Once he thought the minister was getting confident, he picked up the tempo.

As the speed increased, Fudge's smile began to disappear. He began to realize that he might have underestimated his opponent. Harry continued to push the issue, causing Fudge to become desperate. Fudge could feel this duel slipping away from him, so he did what any desperate fool would do.

"REDUCTO," he shouted, causing Harry to dodge quickly to the side. Then to everybody's dismay he shouted, "CORPUS CONTRICIO!" It was a body crushing curse which was barely legal and borderline lethal. Both spells missed Harry by mere inches. He knew that play time was over. The smile that had been on Harry's face was now replaced by a look of intense coldness that made everyone who saw it shudder in fear.

Harry began sending a string of spells so rapidly that all Fudge could do was try to shield himself. Harry was sending stunners with enough force to push Fudge backward and eventually down to his knees. Fudge was at a loss for what to do. He was getting very tired and his shield was weakening. After ten straight minutes of constant attack, Fudge's shield finally gave out.

"EXPELLIARMUS, ACCIO WAND, STUPEFY!"

The gathered crowd was absolutely silent. They all stood staring at the scene before them. Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, was standing with his wand pointed at the unconscious form of Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, while holding the minister's wand in his other hand. The look of cold fury on Harry's face was enough to scare the fiercest warrior. Fudge had intentionally broken the rules and attempted a potentially lethal curse.

Whispers began coming from the crowd as they realized what had just occurred. The whispers were beginning to become shouts and cheers as Professor Dumbledore quickly dropped his protective shielding allowing Harry's friends to rush to his side. Harry was hugged fiercely by several people at the same time, the most noticeable of whom was Mrs. Weasley who had been shaking with fear throughout the duel. Harry's gaze never changed though, he was still furious with Mr. Fudge for breaking the rules.

Kingsley made his way over to Fudge to revive him. Once revived Kingsley began to admonish the man, "Mr. Fudge, explain yourself. The rules specifically stated nothing potentially fatal. What were you thinking when you used a body crushing curse?"

Harry answered for him, "He was thinking that he was about to lose to a mere boy. He would rather have gotten in trouble for breaking the rules than to be embarrassed by losing to a child." Harry paused before continuing, "Mr. Fudge, I expect to see a nice front page story in the Prophet tomorrow morning announcing your resignation. I should press charges against you for breaking the rules of the duel, but I think this humiliation should be enough to teach you a lesson."

Fudge couldn't bring himself to look anywhere except at the ground. He had been beaten by a child; not just beaten, but also embarrassed. He had more experience and training but he realized that he also never had a chance. He knew that Harry had been toying with him and could have beaten him much earlier in the duel. Once he realized that, he got desperate and tried to inflict a dire injury. He had shamed himself and his position. The Minister of Magic was supposed to be above such petty things, but he wasn't able to live up to that.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter." Fudge spoke quite softly, "I'm sorry for not believing you and Dumbledore last summer. I'm sorry for all of the trouble I've caused to you for the last year. You're right. I was trying to deny everything out of fear of losing everything. The way I acted was irresponsible, and unforgivable. You were right, and I should have been more open to listening to you. I'm sorry." And with that, Fudge turned to leave.

Harry had finally began to soften his glare. He hadn't expected an apology, let alone a very public one. He watched the former minister walk slowly away dejected. "Mr. Fudge." He shouted, "I accept your apology. I just wish things had not had to be this way. There may be hope for you yet. Good luck in your future, sir."

Fudge had stopped as Harry had started to address him. Once Harry had finished, Fudge merely turned and gave a slight nod, then turned to leave. It was then that a new arrival stirred the emotions of the crowd.

"Minister Fudge," Dolores Umbridge said, "Good, you're already here." Then she noticed Harry, "Why have you Aurors not seized that young man? He broke the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery."

The assembled crowd was stunned to silence again before Harry retorted, "If there is anyone here who should be getting arrested, it's you." He then turned to Madam Bones, "Madam Bones, Dolores Umbridge is the person who sent the dementors after me last summer."

Umbridge had a look of outrage on her face, while Madam Bones looked at Harry questioningly. "Are you sure about this? This is a serious charge. Do you have any proof?"

"Yes. She admitted it to me in front of eleven other witnesses, although half of them will probably deny it since they were members of her Inquisitorial Squad and children of Death-Eaters." Harry was now glaring at his former defense professor, "In fact, she also tried to use the Veritaserum Potion on me and considered using the Cruciatus Curse on me."

Madam Bones's eyes widened at this information. She turned quickly back to Umbridge only to see her trying to slip away, "Aurors detain her!"

Harry continued, "I have one other question, Madam. Are there any laws pertaining to acceptable punishments of students while at school?"

Madam Bones had returned her gaze to Harry as soon as the Aurors had captured Umbridge, "Yes there are, Mr. Potter. Why do you ask?"

"Is physical torture considered an acceptable punishment for speaking your mind?"

Madam Bones looked quite taken aback, "No, Mr. Potter. No form of torture is considered an acceptable punishment for a student at school. Torture has been outlawed for many years. Why?"

Harry held out the back of his hand for Madam Bones to see, there resided the faint scars of the words, I will not tell lies. "Her detentions consisted of writing lines with a quill that wrote in the users own blood while cutting the words into the back of his or her hand."

There was a gasp from all present. Moody spoke up, "She used a blood quill on the students?"

Madam Bones was now gaping in shock, "What were you given detention for?"

Harry, who had continued looking at Umbridge through the entire conversation, turned his gaze back to Madam Bones, "I merely tried to tell people that Voldemort was back." The entire crowd shuddered at his use of the Dark Lord's name. "She claimed that it was a lie and gave me detention for it. As you can see by the scars on my hand, I got detention a lot. I was not the only student that she did this to. I simply got it the most."

The look on Madam Bones' face was now one of outrage, "Madam Umbridge, you are under arrest for the crimes of abusing your position within the ministry. You are accused of torturing students, unlawfully administering a ministry-controlled potion, and unauthorized ordering of an attack by dementors. You will be held in a holding cell until a trial can determine your guilt. Take her away Aurors." She then turned back to Harry, "Mr. Potter, on behalf of the Ministry of Magic I would like to offer my apologies for the way you have been treated by some of our representatives."

"I accept your apology, Madam. I know that not everyone at the Ministry thinks that way. I only hope that the next Minister is a much more open and understanding individual. We need a leader who is not afraid to ruffle some feathers and push for a change for more equality in the wizarding world. We are at war with Voldemort. We need someone who will work to unite the beings of the wizarding world to win. Not just the wizards and witches, but all magical creatures need to be treated as equals. Voldemort rallies beings to his cause by offering them freedoms that the present laws don't allow. It is time to change that if we are to win this war, let alone survive."

By the end of Harry's speech, the crowd was starting to murmur again. People were nodding in agreement and some even began to clap. Soon there was an outbreak of applause for Harry. Most of the people still gathered in the alley were agreeing with what he said. It made sense. They needed to stand united if they had any chance of survival. As the crowd began to get rowdy, Professor Dumbledore began to lead the Order in getting the students out of there as quickly as possible.

Once they were all back at headquarters, Harry had a realization. He slumped down at the kitchen table with his head in his hands. Ginny was the first to notice, "Harry, what's wrong?"

Harry just sat there shaking his head for a moment before looking up, "I just forced the Minister of Magic to quit." The look on Harry's face was one of astonishment, "And, I got that toad arrested. MERLIN, THAT FELT GOOD!" The entire room broke out in gales of laughter. Harry simply continued to laugh until he saw the somber expression on the Headmaster's face. "What's wrong Professor?"

The twinkle was nowhere to be seen in the Headmaster's eyes, "Harry, I owe you an apology. I had no idea what she was doing for her detentions. Why didn't you come to me or at least Professor McGonagall about this?"

Harry considered the Headmaster for a moment, "If I would have gone to one of the other members of the staff and you would have tried to intervene, she would have just come up with some other new educational decree and sacked anybody who tried to stop her. I felt that this was a battle between me and her. If I tried to go over her head, she would have won. I wasn't about to give her that satisfaction."

Mrs. Weasley questioned, "Did all of you children know about this?" There was a nod in agreement. "Why didn't one of you speak up to stop this?"

Ron was now standing beside Harry, "We tried to convince him to talk to someone about it, but like he said, this was between him and the toad. It wasn't our place to interfere for him. We did what we could to help him, but in the end it was his fight."

The adults' reactions were mixed; some were upset about the refusal to get help from the staff, while others were admiration for Harry's determination to fight on his own. Professor Dumbledore just continued to shake his head and mutter a last apology before heading back to the school.

A short time later, everything settled down enough to be considered back to normal, and the students began to go over all their different purchases. As it turned out, Ginny did in fact end up getting a snowy owl of her own, which she named Eros after the Greek god of love.

By the time lunch was over, everyone had decided it was best to return to his or her respective routines. The four students had been talking about various charms they had come across during their studying, when Harry remembered about the charms book Remus had given him from his mum. He ran up to his room to dig through his trunk. He found it quickly and was about to close his trunk again, when another book caught his eye. Once he realized what book he was looking at, his mouth formed a huge smile. How could he have forgotten about this book? He picked it up and nodded to himself. Yes, it was time to learn something from his father.

He ran back downstairs to his friends and they immediately portkeyed to the castle. Once in the library, he gathered them all around one desk. "Guys, I think it's time to have some fun." The other three were looking at him wondering what was going through his mind. "When I was looking for the book of charms from my mum, I came across this book as well." He set the book on the table. The others' eyes widened as they read the title, Secrets of the Marauders.

Hermione just pointed at the book, "Is that what I think it is?"

Harry smiled, "That is a book about all of the pranks that my dad and his friends played while at school."

"Wicked," exclaimed Ron.

"You know, with the twins gone, I think it might just get a little boring around the school. I think it's time the next generation of marauders made an appearance."

Ginny had a very devious smile, "The twins looked up to those four, even though they didn't know who they were."

Harry's smile was growing wider, "Although I don't think it would be appropriate for us to start calling ourselves the new marauders just yet." There were curious looks from his friends. "I don't think it would be appropriate for us to just take the title…without earning it."

"Harry, what do you mean when you say earn it?" Responded a somewhat confused Hermione.

"Well, the marauders all had nicknames that they earned." The other three were now looking at Harry wide-eyed.

Hermione spoke again, "Are you saying that you want us to become Animagi?"

Harry smiled one of the biggest and most mischievous smiles anyone had ever seen as he pulled out the second book, Finding the Animal Within. "My dad and his friends wrote this one too. It explains in detail what they all had to do to become an animagus. I'm game, what about the rest of you?"

Ginny was first to answer, "Do you really need to ask? Of course I'm in."

Ron was even more enthusiastic, "You think I'm nutters enough to even think about passing this up?"

Hermione was somewhat hesitant, "I don't know. This is supposed to be really dangerous, and it's illegal. We could get into a lot of trouble."

"Hermione, we'll only get in trouble if we get caught." Harry was trying to convince the last holdout, "Besides, now is the best time to get started on this. We need to brew a potion to find out what we have the ability to turn into. If we do that here, we are a lot less likely to be caught than if we try it at school. Once we know what we can become, it's all a matter of human transfiguration, which we will start learning about this year anyway."

"Ginny doesn't start learning that until next year."

"So she'll just be ahead of the rest of her year. Come on Hermione. Look, if all of my dad's friends could do it, I'm sure that we can."

Hermione's look became very hopeful, "Do you really think we can do this?"

Harry was smiling again, "Absolutely. I have no doubts. Do we have a deal?"

"Deal," they muttered simultaneously.

Hermione took the book and began to read exactly what needed to be done to achieve this. Once she read all about the potion, they set off to a room set up as a potions lab and began the process of making the potion. It would take a couple of days to brew since there were plenty of spots where the potion had to simply simmer for several hours before doing anything more to it. As they returned to headquarters for dinner, Harry couldn't help but smile. The rest of this summer was definitely going to be interesting.