Disclaimer: See Prologue

Thank you all for your reviews! You guys are so awesome, despite the laziness of me- I'm afraid I don't want to take the time at this point to list you all. I love you all, though!

Okay...I have a few things that need to be said in the continuation of this story and the story Coyote Ugly. Neither of my current stories will be altered to fit HBP...I'm simply too far into their plot-lines for that to work. This is, unfortunately, a slightly shorter-than-normal chapter...but I hope it at least partially satisfies those of you who wanted Raven to have a bigger, better part!

Kisses!

Allison

Chapter 7

Raven was sitting silently in her desk writing a missive to her daughter back at the Castle of the Blood, when the flames in her fireplace turned green and the Boy-Who-Lived stumbled out, followed by the rest of Severus Snape's seventh year Potions class. "Professor Stryke!" Harry Potter said, and Raven felt a twinge of alarm when the Head Boy emerged from the fireplace followed by the Head Girl's book bag...but no Head Girl. "Minister Fudge was just here! He took Professor Snape into custody! He had Tonks snap his wand for not petitioning for a muggleborn's hand!"

"He did, did he?" Raven's eyes flashed.

"Hermione! HERMIONE!" This came from Pansy Parkinson, who was searching for her new friend. "Professor...Hermione was going to come last! She's not here!"

"Fudge must have gotten through the locking spells..." Harry said, suddenly even more worried.

"I'll be back." Raven stood, her robes beginning to whip around her as if a wind was moving through the classroom. A pinch of floo powder went into the fire. "Potions Classroom 7A!" She disappeared. Emerging from the other side, she was met with the sight of a bound, unconscious Hermione Granger lying motionless at the feet of a merciless Minister Fudge, who was covered in boils from the potion that was still dripping around the classroom.

"What is the meaning of this?" Her voice was icy beyond belief.

"This girl has interfered with justice. I am taking her into custody."

"I do not think so, Fudge." Raven snarled.

"Minister Fudge!"

"FUDGE!" The man shut up, wisely. "I have tolerated your closed-minded foolishness until now. You have walked over my students, my colleagues, and you have tried to walk over me. And when you come to arrest the Potions Professor, in the middle of a Potions class, you cross a line that cannot be tolerated! Now I'm asking you once, civilly, to take your leave."

"Why you...it's a consipiracy against me! I will not!" He roared, trying to seem tough.

"TAKE. YOUR. LEAVE." She held up one hand and reached around her for the strength of the castle itself, letting it flow into her. She felt the ageless magic seep into her bones, and she knew that she had the permission of Hogwarts and its founders to banish the intruder. Her eyes had closed as she'd reached for that line of magic, and now they flew open and stared at Fudge, glowing black. Her knee-length black hair whipped around her like a black mist whipped by the wind, and she held up one hand...so very pale against the sheer, light-swallowing blackness of her aura...and unleashed the rage of Hogwarts. There was a sound much like an implosion or a jet plane's engine...and the world shifted.

Fudge wasn't sure what to make of it...one second he was standing on his own two feet facing down the Mother of the Blood...the scariest mage he had ever met...and the next he was flat on his back on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, trying desperately to fill uncooperative lungs. There was a short scream and all of the agents that he'd taken with him that he knew for a fact were loyal to him were dumped unceremoniously nearby. Tonks and Kingsley Shackbolt were standing nearby with Severus Snape between them watching in amazement.

"What do you want!" Fudge spat. "Let's go." He stood up and grabbed his bowler's cap, storming into Hogsmeade.

Back in the Potion's Classroom, Raven let Hogwarts take its strength back slowly, careful not to overbalance her own energy, and leaned down to untie her student. Hermione's eyes fluttered open and she looked quietly up into the cold face of her Defense Professor. "Let us go." Raven said, moving to the fireplace and disappearing through without waiting. Hermione double-checked the wand in her sleeve and followed, rubbing the bump on her head. When she stepped through the fireplace, the first face she saw was Draco's, and she moved to him silently. His strength was comforting, for once, and she let him grab her, pulling her against him.

"Thank you, God..." Hermione thought she heard her fiance mutter, and then Harry's voice, at normal pitch, drowned the whisper out.

"Professor...is Fudge...?"

"Fudge is gone." Raven said. "He will not be back anytime soon." She watched most of the class relax minutely and she turned to the Head Girl and Boy. "Despite the rather traumatic events of this last class, the Headmaster will wish the two of you to reassure the Student Body. You are their Heads. They will look to you. Also, there will be a panic among the upper classes. Anyone over the age of sixteen will be scared."

"We have already taken steps, Professor." Draco assured, and Hermione gathered the last of her strength and stood up straight.

"We will address the Student Body at Dinner." She said, glancing to Draco to catch his affirming nod. "There is other business that we must take care of, now." She reached for the necklace that would make the Prefect Necklaces burn, signalling a meeting. She, Draco, and the other Prefects in the class then headed off to the Meeting Room.

Raven stood silently as the last of the students left before turning to the two who remained. "Find Tyra and Maia. Meet me in my quarters in ten minutes." She moved away, and Will and Ian exchanged glances before hurrying off after her.

Raven swept into the room in her suite where her familiars, a giant panther named Ebony and the hawk/raven mixed bird named Britz, were kept. "Britz, I need you to go and get Teddy and Titian. Things have heated up here." She said, and the Rawk- as his breed was called- took flight and disappeared in thin air with a slight wavering of reality. Turning silently, the Mother of the Blood rested a hand on Ebony's great head as her four students walked in. "Report." She snapped.

"The Ravenclaws are scared." Tyra said immediately. "Their strength lies in knowledge and most of the contracts require that the Muggle Borns forfeit their rights to an education. Those like Hermione Granger are lucky...their future husbands value their brains."

"The Hufflepuffs are terrified as well." Maia said. "Their worlds have been turned upside down by this new law, and now many of them are having their freedoms ripped away. There are more muggle borns in Hufflepuff than in any other house. The Prefects' Safety Act is helping...but some of the muggleborns are still deathly frightened."

"All of the Muggleborns in Gryffindor have been spoken for." Will said, softly. "Hermione, Harry, and Ron have made sure of that. They're starting on Ravenclaw now...and Hufflepuff will be their next focus. The muggleborns just have to hold off Fudge's anger for a short while longer...and then the troubles will be over."

"The Slytherins are, for the most part, loyal to Voldemort." Ian said, softly. "Even Draco Malfoy..." He sighed and shook his head. "We will find no help from that quarter."

"The school must unite."

"We aren't enough!" Maia said, softly.

"We need Teddy and Titian." Will agreed.

"They're the only ones who have the skills to unite a school at war."

"We will lock down Hogwarts." A feminine voice from the side said. The five figures turned to watch two tall figures slip the hoods of their robes back to reveal two young adults. The female was the one that eyes were drawn to, eyes the color of the summer sky and a golden sheen of hair drifting to her waist in strands of silk. Her face was almost plain-looking, but there was an exotic, cat-like slant to her eyes that belied the plainness. On a glance, she looked benign and unintelligent. Teddy was similar in looks, though his eyes were more of an ice-blue rather than the brighter sky-blue, and his hair was less golden as much as it was sandy blonde. His face was incredibly well-defined and handsome, only the hand resting easily in the smaller hand of the woman belying emotion.

"Teddy! Titian! Welcome." Raven said.

"Headmistress." Teddy bowed at the waist formally. "It is good to see you."

"Teddy, we are not among listening ears. You may drop your formality. How is the School?" Raven asked, calmly.

"It is fine, Raven." Titian said, smiling lightly. "The students miss you."

"And you two? Have you gotten yourselves figured out yet?" Raven asked, amused.

"We have." Teddy said, looking downward slightly into Titian's eyes as they turned to him. The pair shared a secretive smile before returning their gazes to their Headmistress. "We will lock down the school. No one will notice until it is too late for them to break apart the unity that we will create."

"With Hogwarts' eyes and ears stretched outwards and nobody able to penetrate it, we will be able to promote unity without the added disadvantage of parental influences." Titian added, lips twisting upwards in a slightly wicked smile. "Teddy and I will take measures to insure that parents cannot influence their children by post..."

"Quidditch will have to become private..." Will said.

"And what about Hogsmeade? The upper classes won't agree to having that freedom taken away." Tyra added.

"We will work out the details once we've locked Hogwarts down." Raven said, calmly, warming to the plan. "This recent, blatant attack against Dumbledore's authority requires immediate and definite action."

"The Head Girl and Boy can work out a schedule. Every weekend, a few students will be allowed into Hogsmeade with the Prefects and the six of us watching them." Teddy said.

"How are we going to go about locking the school down?" Ian asked. The others fell silent. They hadn't thought of that...as Titian and Teddy felt five pairs of eyes land on them, they looked at each other and smirked, lacing their hands together. There was a surge of magic from the heart of the Castle itself and shortly afterwards something sealed around them...something hot and cold, light and dark. Something ancient and new...the Castle had closed her doors to all who wanted in. Standing in the old phone booth waiting to be carted down into the dungeons of the ministry, Severus Snape looked up in surprise, suddenly. Fudge and the Aurors stared in mixed horror and fascination as he turned translucent, slowly, and then disappeared altogether. Rubeus Hagrid had ventured into the Hog's Head for a drink...and he too turned translucent and disappeared, leaving the rest of the crowd gathered to stare in horror.

Albus Dumbledore looked up sharply inside of his office, feeling the foreign brand of magic branching out around the school, enclosing all within the grounds in her protection. Several owls froze in mid-flight bearing letters from parents. They hovered there for several long moments before they continued flying forward...though somehow they'd gotten turned around and were flying home without delivering their letters. The school governors who were visiting froze, mid step. There were small implosions of air much like the ones that had occured with Fudge's visit, and any and all visitors found themselves standing in Hogsmeade with no recollection of why they were there, exactly.

The Mother of the Blood had chosen a side.

Hogwarts was CLOSED.