An: all I can say is there's a lot of drama this chapter. The world of wizarding politics is cutthroat –literally, and Fudge's government had a lot of enemies and opponents. Also I changed and added some stuff in the last chapter, so you might want to give that a look before continuing.
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Sitting in a chair at Grimmauld place Harry reflected on the events of the past weeks, the Department of Mysteries, the sacking of everyone who had ever so much as been known to have associated with Fudge, the riots, the deaths, and the current preferred cutthroat tendencies of those who played the game of politics –literally.
Things had gone from bad to worse with Dumbledore's flight from the school in the face of the Ministry's attempt to capture him, culminating with an attempt to use the Cruciatus on him by Umbridge.
After that they'd fled, staying at Hogwarts was no longer tenable and they could do more good from outside it.
In the end Umbridge went completely mad and had to be dragged kicking and screaming from the castle when at last she was removed in the days following Fudge's downfall. The truth at last about what had been happening within the castle had finally come out into the open along with every other dark secret and dirty bit of laundry to Fudge's name.
They'd been at Grimmauld when the message had come in that Voldermort's Death Eaters had made an attempt on the Department of Mysteries where the prophecy was kept.
They had with the exception of a few all been apprehended. Voldermort himself had shown up at the last minute and managed to whisk away several, but not before being identified by a half dozen witnesses and even one lucky reporter with a camera who had been visiting one of the department heads to ask questions about a rumoured vote of no confidence against Fudge.
Dumbledore hypothesized that the creation of so many horcruxes had been damaging to Voldermort's sanity. Certainly his actions had been markedly less sane than they had been during his first rise to power and he now seemed almost maniacal.
In any case his face had been plastered across newspapers hours later with headlines screaming of his return and botched attempt to access one of the most heavily fortified places in the country.
The days following made the French Revolution look civilized by comparison. There had been rioting in the streets of Diagon alley and Hogsmeade, and a man with previously suspected death eater ties had been publically lynched by an angry mob.
The inevitable coup against Fudge's establishment which had been brewing for several years had been immediate and bloody. Several of his supporters had been found dead several days later and several more vanished seemingly overnight, either having fled the country or having been 'disappeared', by opposing political factions.
Fudge himself had been found in his office a day latter laying face down having been poisoned and it was not sure whether it was an assassination or if he'd committed suicide.
Amelia Bones had been the one to at last emerge victorious from the political scramble for Fudge's now vacant position.
Meanwhile the hunt for the Horcruxes had come to temporary standstill while Dumbledore was forced to deal with the current political situation in Britain at the moment, though he had recently begun investigating the old Gaunt home and was set to continue looking once the situation had calmed down.
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Lately Laura had been coming down later, she rarely missed breakfast but she was often noticeably sleepier and Carmilla frequently made everyone present blush furiously whenever she made suggestive comments about 'rubbing off' on her.
It wasn't until they noticed her slightly too sharp looking canines when she yawned that they thought anything off it. She seemed the same as ever, maybe a little paler, her skin a little clearer, her hair a little thicker and healthier looking. The changes were so tiny that they didn't know if they were seeing things that weren't there or if what they privately suspected might be happening, if it hadn't already.
"You don't think that she's, you know... do you?" Ron seemed somewhat uncomfortable about the prospect. Hermione though seemed to accept it without much discomfort.
"Well I suppose it was only a matter of time, I don't see Carmilla as someone who'd let herself be alone for the rest of her life if she had the chance for Laura to be as long lived as her."
Harry hadn't really ever thought about it but he supposed Hermione was right, it seemed like it would have been the natural progression of things. Short of the unexpected early death of one of them their relationship seemed like it could only inevitably conclude in what they suspected to be happening now.
"Do you reckon she'll go around bitting everyone for awhile or do you suppose someone will only have to rein her in when she gets hungry?"
Hermione gave a roll of her eyes, idly turning a page of her book. "Carmilla doesn't seem very bite happy Harry."
"Yeah well I don't know how much of that's because she's been like that for so long." "If you suddenly got the urge to bite things you might not even notice it half the time, I mean you used to bite pencils sometimes without noticing it when you were working really hard on something."
"Yes, well," she flushed, "I'm sure Laura will be able to stop herself if she gets the urge to drain us all of our blood."
Hitting him with her book at the look he was giving her she gave him a reprimanding scowl for good measure. "Oh stop grinning at me, you know I haven't done that in years, the only one doing any bitting these days is Carmilla."
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An: I always thought that they should never have been able to get into the Department of Mysteries since it was basically the equivalent of a magical black site and under the bowls of the Ministry itself no less, if Voldermort was able to get Death Eaters in full regalia in there so easily then no way would he have had any problem taking down the ministry or getting into Hogwarts.