Disclaimer: Oh, sod it all, you know the bloody drill.

Meanwhile, at the Ministry of Magic, Amelia was preparing for a very difficult meeting with the Minister of Magic, one Cornelius Fudge. Fudge was a politician, and while she had always had her suspicions she was never able to prove, a very corrupt one at that. He and Lucius Malfoy were in closed-door meetings much of the time, and Fudge was able to afford things that he should not have been able to afford on his salary, as high as it was. He was very proud of his collection of Maserati, Lotus, and Corvette brooms, showing them off to anyone who was willing.

Grasping copies of the arrest and interrogation records of both Rita Skeeter and Barty Crouch Jr., she squared her shoulders and stepped into the anteroom.

Percy Weasley was sitting at the desk, busily rubber stamping papers. He looked up. "Oh, yes, Director Bones. The minister is expecting you." He went back to stamping.

Amelia walked in to the office.

"Ah, Director Bones, please have a seat."

Amelia sat, on her guard. Something didn't seem right.

"Director Bones, why did you arrest Rita Skeeter?"

"She is an unregistered animagus. You'd know this if you'd read the reports. Here, I brought another copy". She placed it on his desk.

"Yes, yes, that won't be necessary. I want you to release her."

Amelia was shocked. "Release her? Whatever for? She has done more to sow discord in magical Britain than anyone else I can think of, and she used her abilities to gain access to places she should never have been able to enter."

"Be that as it may, she has also done a great service to the ministry. Director, you know as well as I do that the people are sheep and will go wherever the media leads, and Skeeter is, what do they call it, a 'useful idiot'. If you do not release her, I will grant her a full pardon, and I will have your job. Remember, Amelia, you work for me."

"With all respect, Minister, I do not work for you, I work for the people. The wizengamot appointed me, and only they can fire me. I will not be releasing her."

"I will either have her release or your resignation. You have one day."

Amelia's lips tightened. This was going about as well as she thought it would.

"Or what, Minister?"

Fudge did not respond to that question. Instead, he said, "Now on to the topic of Barty Crouch Jr."

"Yes, Minister, about that. Why is it that we have several Death Eaters rotting away in Azkaban, but this is the only time I can find on record that we actually interrogated one?"

"Well, yes, those were tough times -"

"So tough that we were sending people to prison without an interrogation, Minister? You know, I discovered some very interesting things upon interrogating Crouch. Did you know that it is impossible to take the dark mark while under the imperius? It must be of your own free will. I discovered that with only a few drops of veritaserum."

Fudge paled. Why, or why, did he have to be stuck with someone who would actually do her job?

"Director, that is a state secret."

Amelia surrepetitiously readied her wand.

"Oh, is it, Minister? Why is it a state secret? Are you protecting someone?"

He was faster than he looked. He whipped out his wand and shouted "Obliviate". He missed, because he also was about as accurate as he looked. Amelia shot him back with a stunner, and called for backup. It was time to clean house in the ministry.

A few minutes later, Amelia had Fudge in another holding cell. She began her interrogation. After placing three drops of veritaserum on his tongue, she began the questioning.

"Please state your name."

"Cornelius Fudge."

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"No."

"Are you a supporter of Voldemort?"

"No."

"Who are you protecting?"

"Lucius Malfoy."

"Why?"

"He transfers one thousand galleons a month into my personal Gringotts account. In return, I make sure that his interested are protected.."

"Is that why there are no records of interrogations for any of the Death Eaters imprisoned in Azkaban?"

"Yes."

"What are his interests?"

"I don't know for sure."

"What do you think his interests are?"

"Staying out of Azkaban, making money, and advancing the cause of the purebloods."

"Do you know that Lucius is a Death Eater?"

"No."

"Do you suspect that Lucius is a Death Eater?"

"Yes."

"Do you believe his claim of being under the imperius?"

"No, but I want to."

"Do you know that Lucius has a Dark Mark?"

"Yes."

"Who is complicit with you in taking bribes?"

Fudge then rattled off a list of names, including Dolores Umbridge. Amelia Bones gave that list to her aurors (except for Dawlish, who was to be one of the arrestees), and told them to go out and fill up her holding cells. There were going to be a lot of interrogations very shortly.

Amelia made copies of this interrogation as well (along with the conversation that led to his arrest) and sent them along to Dumbledore.

She also sent word to have the sentences of everyone currently serving a sentence in Azkaban reviewed.

Scene Change

That morning, the Gryffindors had transfiguration. Hermione had thought carefully about what McGonagall – Minerva – had told her, and thought it was already reaping rewards with Luna. She had dismissed Luna as "looney", but she had come to realize from chatting with Luna that there was something more there – as Harry said, a sweet, pure soul who had abilities she did not understand and was very wounded by the loss of her mother. So it was a thoughtful Hermione that walked into the transfiguration classroom and sat down.

It was also a thoughtful Ron. While Ron was still generally clueless, McGonagall's extremely harsh lecture did put the fear of God into him, and he realized that he'd better shape up or he was very shortly going to find himself stuck at home with his (shudder) mother. So, while he did load up on food during breakfast, he resolved to himself that he was at least going to make an effort to pay attention in class today. Hermione wasn't always going to be there to help him with his homework.

So Hermione waited until the end of class, and stayed after. After everyone left, McGonagall looked up, and there was Hermione, standing there, books pulled against her chest, with a pensive look on her face.

"Professor, I have a question."

"Yes, Miss Granger?"

"What about conservation of matter? How do you transfigure something large into something small, and vice versa?"

"The what?"

"Well, the Muggles discovered conservation of matter. It states that matter can neither be created or destroyed. So when you make something bigger, isn't matter created? And when you make it smaller, isn't it destroyed?"

McGonagall thought. "Honestly, Miss Granger, I don't know. Magic is a strange and fickle thing, and for some reason we have spent very little time actually researching what makes it work, we just research what can be done with it. If you want to research this for extra credit, I will grade your work at the end of the year."

Hermione smiled. That sounded like a fun project.

McGonagall also smiled – on the inside, anyway. Perhaps with a little nudging this young woman could change the world. If the world didn't destroy her first.

"Just to warn you, Miss Granger. Magic is almost sentient. It tends to do as it chooses, and your results may not make as much sense as you hope. There is a reason that we have spent very little time researching the mechanics of magic. At the end of the day, it just does what it wants. We suspect it may serve us only out of choice."

Hermione nodded and left for lunch.

Later, after lunch, was double Defense against the Dark Arts. The students were chatting amongst themselves as they walked in, and suddenly a red light came from nowhere and Ron was dropped. Hermione and Harry jumped out of the way, but were also hit.

After Tonks had moved all of the bodies to their desks, she ennervated them. Everyone looked around, wondering what had happened.

Tonks smiled, and her face morphed briefly into Moody's.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!", she yelled, and then morphed her face back to its original shape.

"I can see we have a lot of work to do. I got the drop on every single one of you and I didn't even have to try. I just pointed my wand and you all dropped – even after you saw your classmates go down. Put your books away, today we are going to duel."

Harry smiled. This was going to be fun.

Hermione actually won, after having faced off against Harry in the finals. Ron was disqualified very early, and Neville seemed to have difficulty controlling his wand (as is a problem many teenage boys have). Tonks walked over to Neville and asked to see his wand.

Neville whipped his wand out. Tonks grabbed his wand gently and inspected it thoroughly, paying careful attention to it. She rubbed it a little bit, sniffed it, and made sure it was in perfect working order. Neville obviously appreciated the attention she was paying to his wand, it was nice to have an experienced witch examine it for a change. It just wasn't the same when he let a girl his age examine his wand – they weren't experienced and didn't know how to handle it, or even what to look for. Finally, she handed it back. She asked him to try to do something with it, and as much as he tried, he could only make it spurt a few sparks.

"Mr. Longbottom, I know why you have been having trouble with your wand. This wand isn't matched to you. I recommend you buy a new one as soon as possible, one that's more of a match for you. You are always going to have trouble with wanded magic for as long as you are using a wand that doesn't match you."

"B-but this was my father's wand! My gran will go spare if I buy a new wand!"

Tonks smiled. "I know Dowager Longbottom. I'll have a talk with her. Meanwhile, I know a spell that will temporarily make your wand work a little better for you by opening the focus channels, but you'll have to get it fixed. Pumping too much energy through an incompatible wand could cause it to stop working, or worse."

She pointed her wand at Neville's, and said "Sildenafilus". He felt it immediately – his wand just felt that little bit more attuned to him – like it was standing at attention, even throbbing a bit, waiting for him to put it to use. He trued a lumos spell, and sure enough, the light was a bit brighter.

Neville stammered, "Thank you, Professor Tonks." Secretly, though, he was pleased. His gran was far too interested in his wand for comfort, and buying a new one would let him put the museum piece he was currently holding. It's not as if he didn't appreciate that it was his father's, but if it didn't work, it didn't work.

Neville walked out with Harry and Hermione, Ron trailing behind. "I can't believe it might have been this wand holding me back all this time!"

Harry nodded. Hermione blushed – she had started thinking about Neville's wand.

Scene change.

That evening, Harry found himself at the Gargoyle, which stood aside without a word. He cheekily saulted the gargoyle, and it... turned around and mooned him? Oh, ew. Really?

He walked up the stairs and into Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore was waiting for him. Fawkes was sitting on his perch, back turned, trilling softly. The trills sounded a little like "Oh yeah... right there... who's your phoenix? Yeah, you like that?"

Harry looked at Dumbledore. "Is Fawkes...?"

"That's part of what I wanted to talk to you about, Harry."

Harry sat down.

"Harry, I want to tell you about the Mark of the Dragon."

Harry paid attention.

"The Mark of the Dragon is something of legend. There is only one other wizard who was documented to have been gifted the Mark. That was Mryydin Emrys – Otherwise known as Merlin Pendragon."

Harry's mouth dropped open. "THE Merlin Pendragon?"

Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, Harry, the Merlin Pendragon". He put air quotes around the word "the".

"Legend has it that he was a parseltongue as well, and ran across a dragon with a thorn in its foot. And by thorn, I mean a several foot long tree branch. Merlin removed the thorn and healed the dragon. In return, the dragon offered him the Mark. From then on, whenever he needed assistance, he was able to call on any dragon and they would come if he needed them. This is one reason he had a reputation for being so powerful – what enemy could stand up to five dragons frying them to a crisp at once?"

"You mean I can...?"

"Try it, Harry."

He closed his eyes, and thought in his head, Asperanth?

Yes, young one?, the thought returned.

I can talk to you this way? Are you well?

Yes, young Harry, I am well. I found a cave near the ocean, and my eggs are near to hatching. I am content.

I am glad to hear it. May we talk sometime?

I look forward to it, young Harry.

He opened his eyes and looked in wonder at Dumbledore. "I can talk to her."

Dumbledore smiled. "Harry, you may have inadvertently stumbled on one of the keys to winning this war. Even Voldemort could not stand against multiple dragons. I must warn you, though, to keep this to yourself, as if this leaks out, it could mean losing a valuable advantage – that of surprise."

Harry agreed. "If anyone asks why the dragon touched me, I will just say she was healing my scar."

Dumbledore nodded. "And not too far from the truth, either."

"But before we can use this advantage, we must find his horcruxes."

"Should I bring Hermione into this?"

"If you wish. You are old enough to make your own decisions. But be sure you totally trust anyone you bring into your confidence. Your young friend, Luna Lovegood, may have some unique skills to add to the hunt as well."

"I'll ask her. I don't really know why, but I'd trust her with my life."

"Harry, Luna is a seer. Her abilities are untrained, but they are definitely extant."

Harry nodded. "The nargles."

"Yes, Harry. I suspect that is how she copes with all of the information she gets from her abilities."

"Is there any way that you could arrange some training for her...?"

Dumbledore thought. "Now that you mention it, there may be someone. I will get back to you on that shortly."

Harry nodded. That was all he could ask.

"The Mark of the Dragon is said to apply to all creatures of fire, not just dragons. That's why you could hear Fawkes."

Harry thought, Fawkes?

Fawkes did not move. Go away, mortal. I'm having a great dream. Oh yeah, shake those feathers.

Harry shuddered. "Your phoenix is a pervert."

Dumbledore laughed, harder than Harry had ever seen. "Oh, Harry, you have no idea. There was this time I caught him with a feather duster..."

Harry waved his arms. "I really don't want to know!"

Dumbledore chuckled. "Neither did I, Harry."

Harry thought. A featherduster?

The response came back, Oh, like you haven't...

Harry blushed and mentally dismissed the bird, who went on to chatter about rockin' robins.

"Now on to other business. Harry, I would like for you to go to Diagon Alley and the Ministry with me on Saturday. There is some business that we have long put off that needs to be addressed.

Harry nodded. "That sounds like fun."

Dumbledore looked grave. "It may not be all fun and games.'

"Since when is anything in my life fun and games, professor?"

Dumbledore signed sadly. "Just so, Harry. Just so."

Harry and Dumbledore chatted for a little longer before Harry finally went to bed. Dumbledore looking out his big windows at the night sky, and all the stars, wondering whether he could ever atone for the damage he caused, to Harry, and to the British wizarding world.

A/N: And so the action starts. I've made a few executive decisions. Amelia does not answer to the Minister – his threats are empty and actually even a little sinister in that context. There are checks and balances, but she has the right to arrest anyone in magical Britain, including the minister and members of the wizengamot. Things are about to blow wide open, I should think. What will the fallout be?

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Oh, and speaking of reviews, this story topped 100 reviews. I am very grateful for the overwhelming support. I am also grateful for the constructive criticism. But with regard to that, I do want to say something: I am not a walking encyclopedia of Harry Potter. I will get things wrong. I promise I will get things wrong. There are actually a couple of errors I've made that I decided to keep because they help the story. So if you find what you believe is an error – don't be rude. It very well may be. It also may very well be an intentional decision. And rudeness is never welcome. Thanks.