Author's Note: Oh my goodness, I am so sorry for the ridiculously long wait! I am not even going to lie right now it completely slipped my mind that I had already started posting this story. I thought I had only edited the first chapter but when I realized I posted it as well I felt terrible. So here is the next part!

THANK YOU: A big thank you to juls and frasiersmom for their reviews of the last chapter and I'm sorry to have kept you waiting!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or it's characters. I only own my ideas and plot lines. I am making no money off of this story so please don't sue me I honestly have nothing to give you except the dinner I am currently eating.

June 13th, 1998

"The day of individual happiness has passed." Adolf Hitler

It had taken Hermione's body over a month to be strong enough to move on her own. Harry and Ron had taken care of her, though Ron seemed reluctant to do anything. The red head had spent the majority of the month leaving the woods in search of magical towns where he could acquire a paper. Harry and Hermione had begged him not to go, but once a week he would disappear for three days and show back up with the Daily Prophet.

For a month Hermione spent her time doing nothing but reading the monstrosity that the Prophet had become. She had always hated the paper because of their lies but it seemed that under Voldemort's control the paper was much more factual. And those facts scared her more than anything.

On this particular day Hermione and Harry were huddled close together using a tree as support. She had long ago gotten used to being in close proximity to Harry. He was her best friend, when Ron had left them in the woods Harry had been her only source of comfort. She had never been so grateful for having such a good friend as the moments when she felt alone.

Hermione kept looking through the trees waiting to see a flash of Ron's red hair. He had been gone longer than normal and she was beginning to worry. Harry could only do so much to reassure her that everything was fine. Even as he rested his dirty head on her shoulder she couldn't keep still. Fear was making her antsy and her body was finally healed enough to respond.

Not only was Ron taking longer than normal but they had stayed in the same place the whole month she had been healing. It would soon officially be a month and two weeks since the Battle of Hogwarts and Hermione felt unsafe remaining in the same place for long. When they had been on the run they were constantly changing location, but Harry had refused to move again until Hermione could walk on her own for a length of time.

Hermione didn't think she would ever be able to express the relief she felt when she saw red hair bobbing through the trees. Ron was walking slowly towards them and Hermione couldn't help but jump to her feet. Harry jerked as she pulled her shoulder out from under his head. Hermione winced as she jumped up as her ankle was just barely healed and not feeling one hundred percent better.

In Ron's hand was the paper, the bloody paper he risked his life for every week. But Hermione's eyes weren't on the paper. Instead she was looking at his left arm, just under the crook of his elbow. Hermione could see a small cut. It had obviously bled but even from a distance Hermione could tell the bleeding had stopped. What worried her was how clean the cut appeared to be, she couldn't think of any way such an injury would have occurred while he was walking through the woods.

"Ron!" she called out, waving him over as he walked closer towards her.

"Hermione, be quiet." Harry reminded her.

Hermione looked back at Harry flashing him a small smile of apology. She herself didn't feel comfortable in the small woods and couldn't believe she had spoken so loudly. They were completely defenseless in a world with Voldemort in control. Hermione was sure that none of them would survive being captured.

Ron didn't say anything as he approached them, he didn't even utter a word as he passed Hermione and sat down by Harry. But she wouldn't take his cold shoulder as any type of sign. Hermione rushed to his side, ignoring the small pains from her bad ankle. She sat down beside him and grabbed his left arm with a force that he couldn't fight.

Hermione worked, scrubbing her thumb at the excess blood that had dried on Ron's skin. He didn't even flinch as she pushed near his wound. She looked up at him with worried eyes but he did his best to avoid her glance.

"Ronald, what happened?"

"I fell." He said snatching his arm away from her when he sensed the opportunity.

"Come on mate, that's not even fooling me. What happened?" Harry asked.

Ron still didn't speak. Harry nearly jumped when the red head pushed the paper into his lap. Harry grabbed it and slowly read the first page. Hermione watched as he flipped through the pages taking in everything the paper was saying. She had never seen him read anything with such intensity.

"Ron, this isn't true is it?" he uttered in a horrified tone.

"As far as I can tell it is, but it's not like we get much news out here." Ron snapped.

"Ron, tell me what happened!" Hermione demanded her voice raising just loud enough to not attract any attention.

"I was caught in town." He said simply.

"Oh my god, by the Death Eaters?" she couldn't believe it.

"Think Hermione, would I be alive if I was caught by Death Eaters? No the damn P.S. stopped me as I was trying to leave town."

Hermione gave a confused look to her two friends. Harry seemed to understand what Ron was saying but Hermione was in the dark. She didn't know what the P.S. was, and she was hardly grateful for Ron's useless explanation. She could only huff as Harry passed her the paper.

June 15th 1998

Another large bound has been made in the effort of preserving our magical lines. The 'New Towns' were set up to look like a promising part of the future and you've heard it here first that they are up and running. The Purebloods here at the Daily Prophet couldn't be happier. After taking a trip to visit what was looking to be like a great solution to the overpopulation of unpure witches and wizards the reporters here were pleased by the accommodations. Not only are these towns going to be kept under surveillance to give us protection from the unpure who cannot control themselves but they also have multiple divisions. As reported by Pureblood Press there will be multiple towns set up across England and each town eventually will hold a specific group of the unpure. There is no longer any reason to fear!

Under the leadership of the new Ministry officials we are pleased that Magical London is finally taking matters into their own hands. Many changes have been made to help with the transition into this new world we are all so excited to be a part of. To help with the organization of the towns and to prevent any pure person from being relocated by mistake there are a few new guidelines set up by the Minister himself.

1.All persons (mudblood, halfblood, and pureblood) will have a branding identification.

2.All persons not supporting the Pure Regime have been asked to turn themselves in or face a harsher punishment when found.

3.All pure persons are being asked to turn in any who are unfit to be in our new world.

4.All persons are being asked to read and research our new government levels (which can be found summarized below.)

5.Only the pure can survive in order for the pure to remain, help your government help you.

We at the Prophet hope all are aware of our new government officials. For any who have yet to subscribe to Pureblood Press we insist you research in further detail the following: Death Eaters, those who work behind the scenes within New Towns to keep us all protected. Snatchers, those who are searching England for runaways who pose any threat to our new world. Pureblood Searchers, stationed in every town to check the blood of anyone a town member claims is suspicious. Also additional knowledge of the Gatherers, Hunters, and Guardsmen would be useful for any pureblood. Don't fall into the patterns of the past, support the cause. Here at the Prophet we are Brothers of Blood.

Hermione stared at the paper, she couldn't even bring herself to drop it. The words kept hitting around the insides of her skull as if something would become clearer if she thought about it again. She understood, finally, who must have stopped Ron. The Pureblood Searchers seemed the most likely fit if he truly believed she would find the answer from the paper.

It seemed insane that the Prophet was supporting such a horrendous cause, that anyone was. It was as if the war had never happened, that evil had always been in control. She wanted to cry as she thought about all the people they had lost for nothing. She had seen far too many of her friends fall to their deaths during the Battle of Hogwarts. It wasn't fair that good wasn't able to stop evil that was how the world was supposed to work.

"Why didn't they just kill you?" she couldn't help but question.

"I reckon the Death Eaters are the only ones who care about killing. The P.S. just want to keep their towns filled with purebloods. I bet they would have roughed me up pretty bad if I hadn't been."

Hermione felt the need to cry overtake her again. She didn't know how to process all of the news that Ron had thrown at her. The Prophet had never mentioned branding or New Towns before. The most information she had been given was just about a new world order coming about, that the purebloods didn't need to worry because their government had everything under control.

Suddenly everything seemed much graver. Hermione couldn't help but feel a sense of responsibility for being the reason Harry ran away from battle. Whether or not they were going to lose anyway it couldn't have been good for anyone's morale to see their savior running from the battlefield.

As if he could read her mind Harry closed in on her and wrapped his arms around her body in a comforting hug. Hermione couldn't do anything but sink further into the ground and his hug. The world had turned topsy-turvy and she didn't know how to go on.

"So we need to go." Ron said breaking Hermione's moment with Harry.

"Where?" Harry asked, assuming Ron had thought of a safer place for their camp.

"Didn't you read the paper? We have to turn ourselves in." Harry and Hermione only managed to look at Ron as if he had something growing out of his head, "They aren't killing anyone they're just rounding everyone up. We can go find my family."

"They're rounding everyone up for the slaughter, Ron!" Hermione yelled not caring about keeping quiet.

"I need to see my family! You're the one who dragged me away and left them to die. They are my family!"

"You don't think they're like my family too? I love your family Ron, but we have to be smart here! We can't go. Tell him, Harry, tell him we can't walk into the slaughter house like that! It's like they're fattening pigs before killing them. We can't walk into such a blatant trap! Besides Ron, who said that your family would even surrender like that!"

Ron advanced on Hermione quickly. She didn't feel threatened but Ron was significantly bigger than her and his fury was enough to startle her. He had her back up to a tree as Harry was pulling at his arms to try and push him back.

"Hermione, they are my family."

His voice was low as if the statement was somehow a threat. Hermione didn't want to argue with him, she didn't want to be the bad guy. But she refused to give herself up just to be stabbed in the back. She knew Ron was just trying to see his family again and she couldn't blame him for that but it was preventing him from thinking rationally about the situation.

If Ron had been thinking she knew he would realize that giving themselves up for these towns would mean the three of them separating. It would mean that whenever the Death Eaters were ready to kill them they would be right there. Surely the moment Voldemort heard Harry had been captured he would kill him on sight. Hermione knew her own life wouldn't be spared and Ron would be lucky to be spared on the technicality of being a pureblood.

"Ron, we just can't. Think it through." Hermione begged hoping he would step away and allow her a moment to breathe.

It was Harry who finally made Ron step back and think. Harry dragged Ron away from Hermione by his arm, pulling him out of earshot. She wished she was better at reading lips or that her hearing had adjusted but she couldn't tell what Harry was saying. Whatever it was seemed to put Ron at ease. The two boys walked calmly back to Hermione and just stood before her as if nothing had ever happened.

"Do you think you're good enough to travel, Hermione?" Harry asked.

"As good as I'm going to get without a proper Healer. We should head out that way," Hermione said pointing in the opposite direction Ron had come from, "so we know we're safe from one village."

Harry nodded in agreement taking Hermione's hand as he walked off. Ron dropped the Prophet in the pile with all the others. He knew the likelihood of them stumbling upon another paper was unlikely. They would be traveling blind from the moment they left their campsite. There was an eerie sense of doom hanging over their heads as they walked away from what had been a safe home for the last month.

It seemed clear to all of them that if the Prophet was any indication the world had certainly turned itself over to Voldemort. With the Order gone and most of the next generation dead on the floors of Hogwarts no one was left to fight but those too weak to attempt so in the first place. The world was finally one, but it was hardly the world of peace that they had been hoping for. Hermione didn't want to think negatively, she wished that she could find some silver lining within everything that happened but she couldn't. The only thought that soothed her mind was the saying her mother had taught her growing up. Everyone has a happy ending, if it's not happy then it's not the end. Hermione could only pray that saying was true.

A.N.: So there is chapter two, and again sorry for the stupidly long wait. I can't believe myself! Let me know what you think, or just yell at me for taking so long to update! Any reviews are welcomed reviews