Lord Lucius Malfoy breathed in deeply as arrived at the grounds of Malfoy Manor. The fresh Wiltshire air filled his lungs as he flexed his pent-up magic by shooting off a few easy spells. He had forgotten what it was like to feel magic coursing through his veins as he cast a spell and he knew he would never again take it for granted. He savoured the feel of the crisp winter air for a moment before he slowly breathed out and headed into the house. Waiting inside was Narcissa, and their two children. His wife let out a sob as she saw him enter, rushing into his arms. As they held each other, their children awkwardly wrapped their arms around their legs. No, he thought again, I definitely won't take this for granted ever again.


Twenty-Four Unlawfully Arrested Wizards and Witches Finally Freed! Back Home With Their Families!

By Richard Flummoxed, Senior Reporter

Last night (February 1st) at 8pm, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement released a statement announcing that the 24 unlawfully arrested citizens, who were forcibly removed from the Wizengamot Chamber over a month ago, were finally released from Ministry custody.

During their time in the Ministry's holding cells, those arrested were refused basic rights, such as the right to see their lawyer or visitors, until a court ruled that their rights must be maintained, the Ministry apologised for this breach of law.

What the Ministry has yet to apologise for, however, is the arresting of these people in the first place. The Minister for Magic still maintains that the law passed by the Wizengamot (despite his veto) is an attempt to protect Death Eaters, even though Representative Albus Dumbledore, who personally fought against Lord Voldemort and his most ardent supporters on several occasions, lent his support to the bill.

It will be interesting to see what the repercussions of this fight are for the Minister, whose popularity was relatively high before the events of last month or so. Whether the public still view him favourably remains to be seen.

Lord Malfoy, whose wife led the legal campaign to win the freedom of him and the other arrested told the Prophet, "Right now, I'm simply looking forward to spending time with my family for a few days before getting right back to work serving the people of this country. I would like to publicly thank my colleagues in the Wizengamot for defending the rule of law against the overreach of Minister Crouch."

A member of the Wizarding Traditionalist Party, speaking on the condition of anonymity said that some members are sending out feelers on the willingness of other members on impeaching the Minister. An incredibly rare occurrence, impeachment requires a supermajority of votes in the Wizengamot, as well as a third of the department heads to sign a letter declaring they lack confidence in the Minister's ability to carry out their duty. The last time a Minister was impeached was in 1925, when Minister McLaird, who 'spoke' exclusively in smoke signals was removed from office just two years into his term. Ministry, PWP, and WTP spokespeople all refused to comment on any potential impeachment hearings.

The Prophet will keep you up to date.


The conference room at Gangrew's Magical Resort, a luxury hotel located in an unplottable location on the Shetland Islands, was packed with each and every Lord, Lady, and Representative who was a member of the Wizarding Traditionalist Party. A meeting had been called by the leader of the party, who was currently standing before them, looking very tired indeed.

"Firstly, I would like to welcome back those of us who found themselves imprisoned thanks to our bloodthirsty Minister." He began, raising his glass -two fingers of Ogden's finest- prompting everyone else to do the same, before he continued. "In order to free our brethren, I had to make a rather unsatisfactory deal, which the Daily Prophet somehow caught wind of. I struck a deal with Dumbledore." He snarled, as if simply saying the name caused him great offense.

"What kind of deal?" Lord Nott enquired, looking worried.

"Dumbledore is going to introduce some sort of anti-discrimination law protecting mudbloods. We will abstain."

"You must be yanking our wands!" A junior Representative, Edward-something-or-another yelled out.

"This is unacceptable!" Shouted another, Quentin Jigglewick, a senior member of the party.

"You will find I had no choice in the matter. I either made this deal with Dumbledore or I let our brethren rot in the Ministry cells, and maybe even Azkaban eventually. I know which settles easier on my conscience." Arcturus snarled.

"It goes against everything we stand for!" Jigglewick retorted, standing from his seat.

"Oh, go ahead, tell me what we stand for. It's not as if I've led this party for nearly thirty years!"

"Well maybe you're going senile in your old age. You're starting to sound like a blood traitor!"

Arcturus couldn't help himself, he started laughing.

"Ah Quentin, thank you, I needed a good joke after the stresses of the last few weeks. The Head of the House of Black, a blood traitor!" He started laughing again, and so too did many of those assembled.

Quentin flushed red in anger and sat back down. Arcturus made a note to keep an eye on him, he was getting ideas above his station.

"It is important we present a united front. The Ministry is gunning for us, and the Progressives are not our friends either, it's an election year, not that I have to remind you of that; any hint of disunity will be leapt on by the opposition. Abstaining on this bill will also let us win over some of the conservatives who aren't quite as enlightened on blood purity." He faced the Sacred members as he said his last point.

"And what about those who do care about blood purity?" Some upstart twerp asked.

"Well, they'll hardly vote for the PWP, and any independent elected with blood purist ideals will work with us anyway. I believe, gentlemen and ladies, that Dumbledore has inadvertently granted us a boon. If you can palate throwing the mudbloods a bone."

The room went silent. "I would like to remind everyone, that even though we are abstaining, this doesn't mean we have to work for the bill to succeed." Lord Greengrass said.

Lady Selwyn nodded. "We can always publicly be on the fence, whilst engineering others to vote against it behind the scenes."

"I will not tell you what to do other than tell you that you will either abstain, or I will remove you from the party." Lord Black declared.

A collective intake of breath was heard around the room. Being a member of the Wizarding Traditionalist Party was a lifeline to many a witch and wizard, members looked after each other, it was like a second Hogwarts house in a way – you always had a friend in another Traditionalist. It was a bond many considered to be above politics. Being thrown out of the party would sever that bond.

Arcturus let the message hang in the air before he continued. "Now, I read in The Daily Prophet today that some of you are considering moving to impeach the Minister. Firstly, come to me before you start talking to the press." He glared around the room. "Secondly, you will never get the votes; not only are the PWP broadly behind the Minister, but the Ministry is behind the Minister, so stop chasing this before the Minister finds out who you are." His eyes scanned the room, looking for any signs of who the damned fools may be. "Now, are there any other points anyone would like to make?"


Severus Snape, Potions Master, arrived at Malfoy Manor with a slight spring in his step. Despite his rather shocking reacquaintance with his supposedly dead master, life seemed to be on the up. At the orders of his Lord, he had gone to a mind healer. Though he was loath to do it at first, even he could not deny the wonders that it had done for his scrambled mind. He had foolishly prided himself on his ability to hide emotions behind his occlumency shields, even from himself. Yet it was only after a few sessions with the finest mind healers money can buy that he began to understand that just because emotions were hidden did not mean that they were non-existent, the damage they caused were very much present. He therefore began to process his emotions. It was hard at first, confronting the loss of Lily, even now he choked up thinking of her, but it was getting better. Confronting the death had brought about a mass of emotions: pain, grief, guilt, but first and foremost anger. He was angry at the world for putting her in that situation, at himself for giving that forsaken prophecy to his Lord, at Dumbledore for failing to protect her, but most of all at the Dark Lord himself. He swore to save her! He had wallowed in his anger and anguish for a few days before it had subsided. He had given her a chance and she refused. He had kept his word and gone even further and saved her son, Harry, or Cepheus as he reminded himself, and the least Severus could do was protect him, and give him a life brighter than his. And now further developments were abound. Dumbledore had come to him with news, and it was for this reason that he had come to Malfoy Manor, he had news to report.

He stepped out of the fireplace into the lavish receiving room at the manor, and a House Elf promptly arrived to escort him to the Dark Lord, soon he was face-to-face with the man who had bound him into servitude. "My Lord", he began, bowing his head briefly. "I have news to report."

The Dark Lord nodded his head and gestured for him to sit. The darkest wizard to ever live had once again seized the office of the Malfoy Lord, and Severus was forced to bite down a smirk at the idea of his proud friend being herded out of his own study.

"Dumbledore has 'offered' me the position of Potions Professor at Hogwarts." He said simply.

"I take it by your tone that there isn't much choice for you in the matter?"

"I suspect not, my Lord." Severus noted that the Dark Lord didn't seem very surprised at this development, he wondered if his master had other spies in Dumbledore's circle.

The Dark Lord hummed, clearly contemplating the situation. "How do you feel about teaching, Severus?" He asked, the first time in a long time that Voldemort had ever considered Severus' feelings.

"I don't particularly care for the idea, but as I said, I fear I do not have much choice."

The Dark Lord nodded before he continued. "It is regrettable, but it is also an opportunity for you. You get to share your passion with the next generation, and it puts you in the near constant presence of Dumbledore. It's a win-win."

"If you consider being swarmed with children a win." He dared to retort. He fully expected to be cursed for it, but the Dark Lord had been acting remarkably different than normal, and he wanted to test if there really had been a change in the man.

To his surprise, Voldemort laughed. He couldn't remember ever hearing the Dark Lord laugh. It was a deep, booming sound, one that even caused his lips to quirk, before he quickly reset his face to its default, neutral expression. He dared not give too much away in the presence of the Dark Lord, even one who had seemingly found the ability to laugh.

"I applied to teach at Hogwarts once." The Dark Lord said casually. Severus nearly choked. "But that is a story for another day. I take it you start in September?"

"Yes, my Lord." He managed to say.

"Brilliant. Keep me updated."

Severus nodded, and seeing the clear dismissal for what it was, he stood and left, pondering what life at Hogwarts would have been like with Voldemort for a teacher.


A/N

An update at last! Sorry for the long wait, life's been hectic the last couple of months! I hope you enjoyed the chapter (as always let me know) and I hope I can update this and AGK a bit more often, AGK especially has been gathering dust so I'll see if I can get to work on that. And Thick and Thin, of course; I haven't forgotten about it! We'll ignore the fact that it's been a year.

I do have a lot of uni stuff coming up though, so don't get too excited.

Thanks for sticking around peeps, I love all of you. Yes, even you!