Ministry Declares State of War

By Vanessa Hitchcock

The ministry has finally decided to declare a state of war. Since the wizard known as Lord Voldemort has started to work against the country, it is our duty to stand with our ministry and protect our country from this rogue element. As such, the ministry shall be working toward victory against this menace. Their victory relies upon the cooperation and support of the magical community.

Though times ahead are dark, it is with the light of justice that we shall prevail against this threat. It is through hard work that we shall stop this tyrant of terror. As such, it is asked of the magical community to keep an eye upon everything around you. If you see something suspicious, fire call the Aurors and alert them to the problem. Do not attempt to deal with it on your own. The wizards sided with Lord Voldemort are powerful and have been proven to have no care for mercy.

With this state of war, the ministry has decided to allow some war-time laws to take place. These laws are in place for your protection and to bring this war to an end as soon as possible.

-The ministry is able to bring anyone accused of suspicious behavior in for questioning at any time.

-Anyone found with a dark object on their person or property shall be brought in for questioning immediately.

-If a person has ten claims of suspicious behavior placed against them from ten reputable sources, they shall be brought to the ministry for a hearing as to the reason of said behavior.

I fold the paper and sigh, tapping my finger on the article. This could mean problems later on. It's good that they have begun to take action against Voldemort, about damn time too, considering all the warning signs that have been taking place for years now. However, if the ministry continues like this, they will spread panic, which will bring about chaos, and that is exactly what Voldemort wants.

"Ann! Come on, we're going to Diagon Alley!" Rowan says.

I nod, "I'm coming. Merlin, you're impatient aren't you?"

Rowan laughs, "I just want to get out of this house!"

Smiling, I lead him into the drawing room, bowing as I enter, "Mother, father, if it pleases you, Rowan and I shall be going to Diagon Alley to gather our supplies."

Father glances up from his paper. He's reading the same article I had been, and I can see the thoughts swirling around his mind. Since that day in the training room, father has been hesitant. It's as though he saw something that day, and in the days following, that changed his perspective of me.

"Very well," father says, "Be cautious of how you act within the public eye though. We do not have the time to have the ministry dogs sniffing at our feet."

"Yes father." I bow and exit. Grabbing my cloak, I wait for Rowan to finish fiddling with his before grabbing his arm and apperating away to the Alley. Upon landing though, it takes me a moment to be sure that we've gone to the correct place.

The Alley is practically empty. The few people who are out are moving quickly, darting amongst the stores. Though none of the shops have closed, it is entirely too soon for that to have happened, it is apparent for anyone observant enough that the owners are not pleased. Ministry pamphlets are posted everywhere. They include tips on defending one's home and listings of the laws. The peddlers have already begun to bring out useless trinkets. Amulets and other assorted goods that should protect you from the hardships and troubles of war.

"What happened?" Rowan asks, his eyes wide and mouth a gape.

I frown and glance around, "I guess people are taking the declaration of a state of war seriously. This is going to effect the economy horribly."

"Is that all you can think of at this moment?"

"What else is there to comment on? Everything else is known."

The trip to Gringotts and the other stores is quick. We're about to leave when I hear someone call my name. Glancing over my shoulder, I see Lily running toward us and place a hand on Rowan's shoulder.

"Lily, how are you?" I ask when she's within speaking distance.

"Good! It's wonderful to see you!" she says, hugging me tightly. She's one of the few people who I allow to hug me.

"Good to see you too," I say, "Have you done your shopping?"

"Yes, it's sad to see everything so…empty."

I nod, "True, though we shouldn't stay here. If we gather in one place someone might think it suspicious and report us. And that would just cause a whole bunch of headaches that I don't wish to deal with at the present time."

Lily nods and follows Rowan and me into the Leaky Cauldron. I order butterbeer for everyone and return to the corner table we're at. Rowan and Lily are discussing OWLs, which Rowan has to take this year, and I scan the room.

"So what do you think is going to happen now that the ministry has declared a state of war?" Lily asks.

I lean back in my seat, "Hard to say."

"One thing is known for sure though," Rowan says, "Voldemort will be striking more often. He'll be far bolder with his moves as well. With the ministry making moves against him, Voldemort will have little to no choice other than to attack. We all know he isn't going away any time soon. This isn't going to be a quick fight. This is going to take a while."

I nod in agreement and continue scanning the area.

"But," Lily says, "Why would they keep fighting?"

"Because," I say, lowering my voice, "Voldemort is messed up. You've never met him, and I hope to god that you never do. However, that being said, I have. Wait until I'm done, then I'll explain. I can tell you right now, any amount of Dark Magic that could be detected on me is at least ten times worse on him."

"How can anyone live like that?" Lily asks, her voice low.

"They can't," Rowan whispers.

We're quiet for a while until the sound of an explosion rips through the area. Grabbing Lily and Rowan, I start to push them toward the muggle exit of the Leaky Cauldron.

"What's going on?" Lily asks, her eyes wide and worried.

"I don't know!" I snap, "Just get the fuck out of here and into London!"

I glance over my shoulder for a moment, long enough to see people running toward us, people in black robes and white masks following them. I want to go back and fight. I want to attack them. But Rowan and Lily are more important right now. Gritting my teeth, I take the lead, running and calling for them to follow. I don't know if they'll follow us, but knowing how much Voldemort and his followers care about muggle safety, I can guess that they'll follow anyone without question.

A few blocks away, I duck into an alley and place Lily and Rowan behind me, keeping an eye on the street. They duck behind a dumpster and I take a few breaths to slow my heart rate. Straining my ears, I cannot hear anyone following, but know better than to just believe that we're safe without proof.

"Lily, can you apparate?" I ask.

Lily nods, "Yes."

"Excellent, apparate to Platform Nine and Three Quarters, I'll meet you there with Rowan."

"What if they're there?"

I shake my head, "They won't be. Come on."

Grabbing Rowan, I turn and apparate away. Upon arrival, I check the area anyway. Satisfied, I turn to the sound of Lily's entrance, "Can you get home from here?"

Lily nods.

"Ok. Get home safe, we'll see you on the first, alright?"

"Alright. See you on the first." She disapparates.

"Why did you have us apparate here if you were just going to send her home?" Rowan asks.

I frown, "Instinct. Come on, let's get back to the house."

~+~ Sirius POV~+~

I hear the whistle of the train and give a smile. Last year. It's a bitter sweet feeling. By the end of the school year, we all are going to be thrown into the real world. That thought causes me to scowl. Like the real world is anything anyone should be forced into right now. They found the body of a couple of muggle borns hanging between the Gringotts' pillars today. Goblins and wizards alike were furious.

"Sirius, mate, you've got to stop thinking about the war," James says, "You'll end up going crazy. Er…crazier."

Rolling my eyes, I give James a light punch on the shoulder, "Like you're not as crazy as I am."

"No hitting the Head Boy," James says with a smirk.

"I still have no bloody clue how you got that badge," I say, "Thought that Remus was a shoe in for it."

"With all the shenanigans I let you two get into? Nope. Plus, I don't think Professor McGonagall forgot about my parting gift so quickly," Remus says with a grin as he walks up to the other two Marauders.

"Were you the one who had charmed a cat bell around her neck?" James asks. When Remus nods, I smile.

"Our little marauder, all grown up!" I pretend to wipe a tear from my eye. Remus gives me a shove for my efforts, but is laughing.

"One of us had to, you sure as hell won't."

"'Course not. Why would I?"

"I always thought you'd be a Nerverland resident." Lily walks up to the group, giving Remus and me enthusiastic greetings and nodding to James. Remus and I place our hands over our hearts and stare at her in mock horror. She scowls at us, "What?"

"You were civil to James!"

"And? There are more important things these days. I have to find the Head Boy so we can discuss a few things before the meeting on the train," Lily says, glancing at Remus, "Did you get the badge?"

He shakes his head.

"Oh, sorry Remus."

"No worries. I would have been entirely too swamped this year if I was Head Boy."

"Well then who is it?" Lily asks, looking around the platform.

James clears his throat and pulls the badge from his pocket. When Lily sees, her eyes grow wide and her jaw slack. She stares at it until James holds out his hand to her.

"James Potter, seventh year Gryffindor and Head Boy."

Lily laughs, "Lily Evans, seventh year Gryffindor and Head Girl. You all love your formal introductions don't you?"

James shrugs, "It's polite. And we were taught that formal introductions are important Miss Evans."

Lily blinks, nodding, "Shall we discuss the points I have?"

"After you my Lady," James says, motioning for her to take lead. Lily nods and walks toward the prefect's carriage.

"Well Remmy, it's you and me until you have to run off to your meeting. What are we going to do?" I ask.

"Find Ann so that she can babysit you when I'm gone."

"Oi! I take offense to that, you couldn't pay me enough to babysit that mutt." Ann walks up with a smirk.

I raise an eyebrow, "Afraid you can't handle me?"

"No, more like I don't want to deal with hearing you complain about being placed in a dog crate the entire way to Hogwarts."

I roll my eyes, "Can we get a compartment now, or do I have to suffer through more insults?"

~+~SB~+~

I'm working on a sketch of Rowan and Regulus when the train comes to a sudden stop. Ann, who had been walking back in, is thrown into my lap. I chuckle and glance down at her.

"I know you want me, but there are children present."

She rolls her eyes, "Sorry, but I couldn't contain myself any longer. Any ideas on why we stopped?"

I shake my head. Ann climbs past me and sticks half her body out of the window. When she shimmies out more I grab onto her calves.

"Sirius? What are you doing?" she asks, still looking along the track.

"Keeping myself from panicking, now what do you see?"

"The track ahead has disappeared, but it doesn't look like it was blown up or anything. It's just gone," she says, "Step back, I'm coming back in."

Moving away from the window I watch her climb back in and let out a slight sigh of relief once she's safe.

"I'm going to talk with the conductor about what's happening, then see if I can find Lily or James and-" she's cut off by an explosion and the train rocking back and forth on the track, "Bloody hell!"

I growl, "I think we're about to find out why the track is missing."

Ann nods, her wand already in her hand. She's watching the window. A flash of black shows outside of the train and she runs out the into the hall and follows it toward the back of the train.

"Stay in your compartment and get below the windows!" Ann shouts to a couple of third years looking around.

I look at Regulus and Rowan, "Either stay in here below the windows or find some younger students and keep them down. One way or the other, stay down!"

After being sure both of them nod, I take off after Ann. I can hear Lily and James giving orders to the front of the train and can hear Remus giving instructions as well. Once I arrive at the end of the train, I notice that the door at the back of the car is open. Stepping out onto the railed platform, I look for a ladder before climbing it, knowing that this is where Ann is. When I get to the roof, I have to duck a spell and take only a moment to assess the situation. Ann is at the front of the car that we're standing on, fighting the five or so Death Eaters.

Springing up, I run up behind her, assisting her shield charm and adding quite a few curses of my own.

"Are you psychotic?" I shout above the sounds of spells and the Death Eaters.

She laughs, "Most likely!"

I can't help but laugh at her response and work with her. We manage to keep a good majority of the, now, eight Death Eaters occupied enough that they leave the train alone. I can't help but think that it's a good thing both of us have had some sort of combat training, otherwise we would both be dead right now.

"We need to get the kids away from here," Ann says, keeping her voice loud enough for me to hear, but soft enough the Death Eaters don't.

"Could we apparate them?"

"Possible."

"Then we need to be able to get back down and tell the others. Why did you come up here anyway?" I ask.

"So that they didn't start attacking the train and the students," Ann says, "I've got a plan, run when I tell you to."

"Right." I don't ask what her plan is. Ann has been trained more for this sort of thing, so I bet she has a couple of ideas that I wouldn't.

"Umbra proeliator! Suscitatio umbra!" Ann waits a moment for the shadows to animate and the warriors to take shape before giving one command, "Attack!"

As her spells attack, she turns around, "Go!"

Turning, I take off at a run, getting to the back of the car and sliding down the ladder and into the platform below, Ann close behind. We manage to find James in the fourth carriage we enter and explain our idea to him. He agrees and says to get started, that he'll explain to the others and takes off at a run. I glance at Ann before running back to the end carriage. I open the first door and nod when I see that it's a bunch of really young looking kids. Probably first years.

"Listen up, I'm only explaining this once, we're going to apparate you out of here," I say, motioning to me and Ann, who had gathered the other kids in the carriage and was cramming them into the compartment on the floor. There are only two other seventh years, and those two stand up by us.

"Don't take more students than your comfortable with, no need to splinch," Ann says, grabbing two of the girls, "Hold onto me tightly, and do not let go!"

She turns and disappears. I nod and turn to the seventh years, "Don't leave them alone, always let there be one person in here."

They nod and one guy offers to stay behind the entire time, apparently he's not good at apparition and would not feel comfortable with side along.

I grab a kid and disapparate with him. Unlike Ann, I'm not used to side along apperating with someone, so I figure one for now is safer. Once we arrive in Hogsmead, I let the kid go and push him to the other two before going back to the train. After the compartment is empty, Ann takes the older kid who isn't good with apparition, giving him instructions to alert the teachers about what happened.

When I get in the next car, I feel the train shake again and curse. I guess Ann's spells either aren't working anymore or the Death Eaters are done with them already. Grabbing the first little kid I see, I tell them not to let go and disapparate. I can only hope that we get them all out in time, because as the train blinks away, I hear a Death Eater shouting that back up is on the way.

-^- McGonagall's POV-^-

As I'm walking along the grounds, I hear someone shouting. Turning to the noise, I see Edgar Bones running toward me. He looks slightly disheveled, but I'm more concerned about what he's doing here before the train.

"Professor! Problem-train-Death Eaters-attack-track-gone!" he gasps.

My eyes widen, "Where were they at?"

"By the red barn and the river!" Bones says.

"Alert Professor Dumbledore at once. You know where the office is, the password is 'Bubble pop'," I say. A moment later I'm running to the gate and disapparate once past the wards. No one messes with my students!

I arrive on the top of the front carriage and snarl at the sight of the Death Eaters. The few closest to me notice my arrival and start to attack, which is fine with me. My wand flashes in front of me as I cast shield charms and other spells to counter attack. I hear a small pop next to me and can hear Filius's voice as he starts to battle alongside me.

"I take it you found young Mister Bones before he got to the Headmaster's office?" I ask.

"Yes. It took me probably a few moments longer than you to run for the wards."

"I am a Gryffindor."

Filius chuckles, "Always running along head first."

I can hear an almost crack of apparition below us, and I want to investigate, but there are more important matters at hand. The Death Eaters, who had numbered somewhere at ten when I arrived, were slowly multiplying. I hear someone yell in the train, but cannot identify the voice. That yell is followed by another after a moment, and another after that. When a blast of green light flies over my shoulder, I shake my head and focus on the problem in front of me.

A few moments later, I hear an unmistakable voice yell, "Hello Death Munchies! Miss me?"

"You mean miss us, right?" another unmistakable voice yells, "After all, how could the Munchers forget a face like this?"

I can hear a few of the Death Eaters yell in fury, but soon half of the group is focused on Filius and me, and the other half on Mister Black and Miss Grimwood. I'm focusing on keeping the group in front of me distracted when they hear yells of agony coming from their comrades behind them, they turn, trying to see the source of the noise, and I stun them. Binding them, I help Filius in getting the five attacking him back. A crack of apparition breaks the sound of battle, and there's a flash of violet robes.

Smiling, because I know of only one person who wears robes that violently violet, I manage to stun and bind a couple more Death Eaters. The others who notice Albus's arrival promptly disappear, only managing to grab a couple of their fallen fellows.

I immediately run to my students, looking them over for any injuries. Other than a couple of nasty looking cuts, they both look all right.

"Hello McGonagall," Grimwood says, "Come to have some fun?"

"I assure you Miss Grimwood, fun was the last thing on my mind. Are the both of you ok?" I ask. I'm pretty sure that I already know the answer, but better to ask than to assume.

Mister Black nods, "I think we're both just really tired."

"I expect that will be the situation of most of the seventh years," Albus says, "Do you think you can manage to get to Hogsmead at the least?"

Both seventh years nod.

"Very well. Minerva, Filius, please escort Mister Black and Miss Grimwood up to the school. I will see if I can correct the problem with our tracks," Albus says.

I nod and turn to the two teens, "Would you prefer to side along?"

Both shake their head and turn, disappearing with soft cracks. I follow them, arriving a second after them. Miss Grimwood gives a stumble and Mister Black manages to catch her. She nods at him and manages to keep her feet afterward.

"Sirius! Ann!"

I watch as Misters Lupin and Potter and Miss Evans run to the two teens and seem to check over them before giving each of them a hug.

"Let's get up to the castle, eh?" Grimwood mutters. The others nod and they start to slowly walk up to the castle in what seems like a comfortable silence.

I smile at the scene and follow my lions up to the castle, keeping a light conversation with Filius. Once at the castle, the five try to go into the Great Hall, but I shake my head and point up the stairs. Mister Potter understands and directs the others to go ahead while calling over one of the sixth year prefects, giving him instructions to pass along to the others. After telling the sixth year what to do he catches up with his friends, all of whom had waited at the top of the stairs.

After they are in the hospital wing, I keep a watch over them from a corner. As much as I deny it, as much as I yell at them, they really are my favorites. I sigh, hoping that they'll be able to make it through this upcoming war.