Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine, sadly (otherwise I would be a billionaire by now, sigh). J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and parts of the plot.

Chapter 1 – The Daily Prophet

- Crack! -

Footsteps were running up the stairs, a moment later, the door burst open.

"What!? – Oh Dean, how many times have I told you not to-"

"I know, I know," replied Dean, putting up a hand to stop his mother, "not while they're sleeping."

"You best get some sleep too, it's getting late," said his mother, walking towards the door and closing it behind her. Dean could hear her sigh and hurry to the room next door, to check whether his sisters were still asleep.

The bed creaked and sank as Dean sat down, running his hand through his hair, he turned his head towards his desk where lay a dozen or so newspapers and a few magazines. A waving Scrimgeour greeted him again and again from the glossy cover of the August edition of The Quibbler, underneath the photo were the words, "SCRIMGEOUR DEAD, MINISTRY HAS FALLEN".

He remembered feeling a sudden surge of dread when he first read those lines, he suspected who was behind it, but he had read the article anyway, and now, the feeling of dread would rise from the pit of his stomach almost constantly. Dumbledore was dead, and so was the Minister of Magic, The Quibbler had pointed straight out that this was the work of Death Eaters, and Dean knew it was true. After all, this was what Harry had been preparing them for, this was why he had joined Dumbledore's Army. Yet everything now felt infuriatingly surreal, no matter how long Dean thought about it, he could not get his head around it, could not accept it knowing that it was real. If so, then everyone was probably in more danger than they dared to believe. With the ministry down and taken over by death eaters, it wouldn't be long until they started hunting down muggle-borns, as The Quibbler was quick to point out, in order to "purify the population".

Since then he had been practising apparating around the house, in case he needed to make a quick getaway soon, but Dean couldn't help feeling slightly foolish at his over-cautiousness, yet he sometimes questioned whether he was being cautious enough at all. His mother was becoming quite disillusioned by the sudden cracks, and had told him to stop when his siblings were sleeping, not to mention his stepfather would twitch every time he did it, but he was kind to Dean and did nothing to discourage it.

Initially he had thought Hogwarts would still be safe, Professor McGonagall was deputy headmistress before, so she would probably become headmistress, now that Dumbledore was gone. However, after the collapse of the Ministry, Dean wasn't so sure anymore.

As if confirming Dean's doubts by way of tantalisation, The Daily Prophet for the past few days had been running articles outlining changes to Hogwarts as of the coming school year.

Rolling over onto his bed, Dean fished out today's Prophet that he hadn't read yet from underneath his bed. After being somewhat disgusted by the frontpage coverage of Rita Skeeter and the release of her new book, The Life and Lies of Dumbledore, Dean had angrily threw it somewhere in the general direction of his bed that morning, before heading down to breakfast.

'But of course,' thought Dean sarcastically, 'Who cares about death eaters taking over the wizarding world? Surely Rita Skeeter could save us all with a few scratches from her quick-quotes quill?'

Ignoring the frontpage, which showed a picture of Rita Skeeter hugging her book and giving a sly smile, looking nauseatingly flirtatious, Dean flicked through the pages of the newspaper until he found the news on Hogwarts.

He skim read the passages and felt his stomach twist. Hogwarts attendance was now mandatory for all witches and wizards, and each student would be given blood status. Dean felt his heart beat faster as he digested what this meant, they were obviously going to use this as a method of picking out muggle-borns and then…

'Kill them? Send them to Azkaban? Or merely just send them away?' mused Dean, his heart beating faster and faster.

All of the sudden he could hear footsteps running up the stairs again, it was probably his mum checking to see if his light was still on. Dean quickly switched off his lamp and pulled the covers over his body, pretending to be asleep while his hand still clutched the Prophet.

In the dark, he could hear his mum open the door to check on him then slowly backing out and closing the door behind her. Dean hadn't been sleeping well for the past few weeks and his mum, much to his annoyance, had noticed and made him drink warm milk every night, which did not help and was rather disgusting.

As his bedside clock ticked the minutes away, Dean lay in the darkness and couldn't stop thinking. Surely, Professor McGonagall wouldn't let this happen? But deep down Dean knew the answer, she wouldn't let this happen, the answer was she had to. The drastic change in Hogwarts policy probably meant that it had been taken over by Death Eaters.

A/N: Sorry, this was more of a necessary opening chapter to set the story going, but things will get more interesting soon, I promise!