Arthur Weasley recovered slowly, but by Christmas he was in a reasonable state, so the Weasleys and Harry went to visit him, leaving Draco back in headquarters with no-one else except Hermione.

'Draco, I've been thinking.'

'No change there, then.'

'Well, you know there was all that unpleasantness last year with Rita Skeeter.'

'Unpleasantness, now that's a euphemism if ever I heard one.'

'Well, you remember I told you about how we found her out, don't you?'

'Not really, was I there?'

'Possibly not, anyway, she's an unregistered animagus- she can turn into some bug or other. Now, I could persuade her to write a story about how you-know-who's back and how the ministry is hushing it up. What do you think about that?'

'Why though?'

'Well, it might force the ministry to admit that it's got the whole he's-not-back thing wrong. That'd be good, and if it doesn't, then what's the worst that could happen?'

Draco shrugged his shoulders.

'You know what, Hermione, you can be really evil when you want to, can't you?'

'Evil. Me?' Hermione said, feigning surprise with a malevolent glint in her eyes.

'Just remind me never to get into your bad books. Or give you anything on me that you might be able to use when I get there.'

'Why would I do that?' Hermione jested, 'that's not very evil, is it?'

Draco couldn't help but laugh, Hermione joined in and they didn't stop for another ten minutes, when each was about to stop, the laughing of the other set the other off, over and over again.

'Right that's enough laughing, my ribs hurt.' Draco said, in a businesslike manner.

'Yeah like you can just stop laughing.' Hermione giggled. Draco tried hard to stop himself and almost succeeded, when a loud guffaw snuck out of his mouth.

'Told you so.' Hermione said.

'Well, other than plotting world domination, have you got any plans for the day?'

'No.'

'Fancy a game of something then? I think there's some board games round here somewhere.'

'Where did they come from, they weren't here over the summer?'

'Oh, Uncle Noctifer brought them round, when I realised I'd be spending Christmas here, he brought them round.'

'What is there?'

'Scrabble, Monopoly and Risk.'

'Anything else?'

'That's it. What do you fancy?'

'Well, we've got hours, so a game of Monopoly, I suppose. Here's hoping I get Mayfair.'

'Mayfair? What's that, the name of the dog or something?'

'No, it's the most expensive property, you know, the one just before Go.'

'Oh. Right I'm with you. I don't think you will though, this is the Wizard version. It hasn't got Mayfair on it. I think that one's Hogwarts Castle.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, really.'

'What's Park Lane? You know, the less expensive purple one?'

'I can't remember.' Draco swiftly lied. Maybe Monopoly hadn't been such a great idea after all. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say.

They opened up the board. Hermione poured over it, noticing every detail

'Go directly to Azkaban, do not pass go, do not collect 200 galleons, I like that one.'

'What's so good about it?'

'Well, we've only got go to jail in the muggle version.'

'It doesn't have the same ring, does it?'

'Not really.'

'Right then let's have another look, see what other changes there are. Well, community chest and chance are the same, Go and Just Visiting, they're the same too. Free Parking's changed though- it's Common Ground on this.'

'What's Free Parking?'

'Well, it's the same as Common Ground.'

'No, not in the game, in real life.'

'Oh! It's a place where you can leave your car for free.'

'Oh. Useful to know, that.'

'If you can find it.'

'True.'

'What else, Park Lane's Malfoy Manor? How posh are you?'

'Less than I used to be.'

'Oh. Of course. Sorry.' Hermione blushed.

The game continued until late and had not ended even by the time that the Weasleys and Harry returned to the headquarters. Draco won, and Hermione demanded rematch, which , with the return of Arthur Weasley and the increasing busyness of the headquarters of the Order, began to take longer and longer. They had only just finished the game, this time won by Hermione, when it was time for them to return to school. Their presence on the school train surprised no-one, for no-one that they cared about had not known them to have left Hogwarts.

When back at the school, they found that nothing had changed. The suits of armour still lined the corridors, the teaching was much the same, regrettably so in the cases of Snape and Umbridge, and quidditch still dominated the conversations in the boys' dormitory.

Early in this term did Harry begin occlumency lessons with Snape and Hermione accomplish her plan. It was not long until the Daily Prophet printed the year's most sensationalist article, written by Skeeter telling of Voldemort's return. An exclusive interview with Harry had ensured she wrote the piece without even on iota's worth of encouragement and Hermione's secret knowledge regarding the beetle animagus ensured that it went against the official Ministry position. Little did Hermione know when she arranged it, that the article would have the power to topple governments and change the course of official policy.

In Malfoy Manor the Daily Prophet was picked up by Lucius Malfoy as he did every morning. Freshly delivered by the house-elf Dobby and freshly ironed, none of the ink came off on his clean fingers. A quick perusal showed that Skeeter had started to write again, and this time, not the gossip column. This was far more damaging to the Minister. Today's would be a busy one at work. Dressed smartly as ever, in a fine suit beneath his long elegant robes, Lucius Malfoy finished the paper, stood up and with a crack stepped forward into his office. The bell rang energetically and LUcius stepped through into the office of the Minister of Magic.

'Good morning Minister.'

'Have you read the papers?'

'I have, Minister.'

'It's terrible isn't it?'

'What, the mass breakout from Azkaban or the Skeeter article.'

'The Skeeter one of course. The only people to report the breakout were the people on the Quibbler, and no-one believes anything they read in that out piece of trash. It's only fit for wrapping fish and chips in.'

'Quite so, Minister, do you intend to take any action on it?'

'Action? Well, there's only one thing that we can do really, and that's to make sure that the prophet doesn't report the Azkaban breakout.'

'Well, Minister, you know that I cannot perform any political act in my role as permanent secretary to the minister. It would be a total misuse of government funds.'

'Well, it won't take you long, besides who is going to know?'

'I regret to say minister, that insofar as it is within the capability of any civil servant to say no to the Minister himself, that on this occasion, given the prefatory arguments that have been previously given there can be no doubt of the impossibility of the very nature of your request; government money represented y the employed time of the many civil servants cannot and must not be used for the advancement of any political scheme by anyone, even so exalted an individual as the Minister of Magic of Great Britain et cetera.'

'You mean no?'

'I regret to confirm that I am unable to reply in the affirmative, Minister.'

'You mean no. Very well. I can rely on your discretion?'

'Of course Minister, it would not be appropriate to disclose information of privates conversations, nor could it prove possible to do so unless said conversations had been minuted, because unless something has been recorded in the official minutes by one of the officials officiating at an official meeting, then a conversation has never actually officially happened.' Lucius Malfoy concluded, apparently without drawing breath.

'Well, I trust that I can rely on your help to organise the capture of the escapees?'

'Is that not a matter for the Auror office Minister? And at any rate, I feel that is a very brave decision, Minister.'

'It is?' Fudge said, fearfully.

'It is, Minister. Many of those who have escaped are the relatives of your strongest supporters, I very much doubt that any of them will appreciate you using your power to restore their loved ones to their previous incarcerated state.'

'You're saying it might not be popular.'

'Minister, popularity is not mine to dole out, I merely say, as a humble functionary, that many of these individuals are not proven to be guilty, given the nature of Sirius Black's imprisonment, and that it may be wiser to let them show themselves, rather than wasting government money on a wild goose chase.'

'I see. Well, perhaps we don't really need to see that they are all arrested. wE'll leave t to the auror's to decide what to do. There's no point putting pressure on them, they have a hard enough job anyway, just working out who's gone and repairing the damage. We don't need to do anything.'

'Yes, Minister.'

Several other routine matters transpired, and an emergency meeting of the senior Wizengamot officials of the government party to discuss the Azkaban breakout. Only Death Eaters had escaped, just as Lord Voldemort confirmed in Lucius' other meeting of the day, the only difference being that in the meeting with the Dark Lord, he was participating, not officiating. By the end of the week, the situation for Fudge had worsened. Some indiscrete soul had let slip to the Prophet that the Azkaban breakout had occurred and that Lord Voldemort was behind. Fudge had carried on in his vehement denials of the Dark Lord's return and had found himself on the wrong side of public opinion to such a great extent that he was in a minority of one. He had resigned that afternoon, to be replaced by none other than Bartemius Crouch. That was terrible, for Barty may be an old man, but he still possessed all of his wits and his razor sharp mind could probably penetrate the webs that he, Lucius, had been used to weaving about the previous ministers. Crouch was a man to be reckoned with, and would severely reduce his utility to the Dark Lord. This was not a good thing for Lucius, for the Dark Lord was not a man to disappoint, or to deliver bad news to, unless one relished the prospect of the cruciatus curse. In the end Lucius decided to remain silent on the matter unless asked, after all, discretion is the better part of valour, thought Lucius.