Sirius thought back in the consequences of his actions in 1981, he had failed himself, his godson, his one true friend and his promises to his blood-brother. Both he, Remus and Harry had suffered horrifically from the fall out from James' death. Harry should have been kept safe and protected by Lily. He still could not comprehend why she had handed James' son, his godson, over to her bitch of a sister to raise. After the attack, when he spoke to her at the cottage in Godric's Hollow, she had been sat beside James body, she still had Wormtail's message in her hand. His pleading for her to come over to his flat. He had been absent despite his urgent message, she had arrived home to find complete devestation. Pettigrew had betrayed the secret, the fidelis had broken. Sirius had picked up Harry to nurse him and Lily had immediately snatched the child, she had up to that point been ignoring and told Sirius to do his duty as an Auror. He had tracked the rat, who had blown up the gas main in the process framing Sirius for murder. Crouch had sent him to Azkaban without a trial or even an interrogation or statement. He had escaped to track Wormtail in 1993 thinking Harry was happy with his mother.
He, however, did not know Lily Evans at all. She had given up her son, James' heir and forgiven Snape. More than that she had married that Deatheater scum. Harry had grown thinking both his parent's dead to find at eleven his mother was a liar and a whore. The woman had then neglected and abused her son, maybe not directly but her inaction was unforgivable.
In 1981, Lily had taken up with Snape and cruelly snubbed Remus, her one good friend left from Gryffindor. Mary MacDonald had died, Alice Longbottom was as good as dead. She and Remus had been close, she had figuring out his curse before even James and himself. She had said being a werewolf was not his fault but she would not even answer his letters after James' death. She had even ordered that he had no contact with Harry, cutting him off fully from all he considered family, his pack. Remus had suffered alone until 1993. Remus was still not fully recovered from his years alone, fighting himself, hating the wolf and cursing his lonely existance.
Sirius had been in counselling for two years but he still could not consider that woman just fallible not criminal. 'To err is human, to forgive divine', there was no forgiveness for James' wife, not from Sirius, not from Remus, and most telling not from Harry.
Hermione watched Harry study. He was even worse than her and she pushed herself to be top student. Harry had the added incentive of always being one step ahead of his bastard stepfather. The simple fact that that man had been allowed to teach was beyond her or her parent's comprehension. Snape was an abusive controlling bully. She was so glad they had decided to leave Britain. The improvements to her friend were wonderful to see. mind you the island was paradise. Even she had let her hair down, so to speak. By Christmas they would be finished their finals and would transfer to New York to become Agents for the International Confederation of Wizards. Investigators, the equivilant of Hitwiards and Aurors, or the muggle spies in reality, but they would be part of the taskforce to bring Great Britain back into line with International Law. Harry was looking forward to training. They had been working out and dueling every day to get in practice.
She should have known better than to daydream, in her distraction Harry had disillusioned himself and had just vanished her chair making her fall flat on her back onto the floor. She had to be game for anything living with a Marauder and his chosen heir. She shielded while still winded automatically, as the next barrage of spells came her way. She was then up and on the attack. She would loose, Harry was just to quick, too sneaky, too powerful, but she would never back down.
The assassination of Minister Rufus Scrimogeour had passed with barely a couple of paragraphs in the Prophet. The Muggle born Registration Committee had only taken a few dozen into custody. It was as if most had been forewarned and fled. Inflation rose as border controls were placed by Britain's European neighbours. Sanctions were placed by the ICW, but the Prophet gave no reason for these controls. In reality, for most purebloods nothing really changed.
In mid August, Hogwarts had a new Headmaster, a new curriculum and several new teachers. The result of which was that any pureblood worth his or her salt was homeschooled. Neville was one who was not going to be put under restrictions in his chosen Newts because of the failure to get decent teachers. He would pass his exams in Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, DADA and Herbology by self study. Well he had covered most he needed to know by sixth year so it was really just revision and he could concentrate on Estate Management and his Wizengamot duties.
A darkly dressed and sour Severus Snape presided over his first Staff Meeting. Muggle Studies and Divination had been dropped from the a school. Quidditch and Flying was for only those who sould afford an extra 250 galleons a year in fees. The two Carrows, dyed in the wool supporters of Voldemort were teaching Charms and Transfiguration. Alecto was the lucky Deputy Headmistress. Elvira Rockwood Flint, a bitter widow twice over, was teaching Dark Arts. She favoured the copying from a book, learning by rote, children to be seen but not heard approach to education. Snape guessed he would have three maybe four resignations by the end of the year as Sprout, Sinistra, Babbage and even Slughorn would clamber to leave the sinking ship. The hole in the school finances had seen half the elves sold, the proposed catering reduced to gulag like rations and most of the portraits and heirlooms had been seized by the Goblin's as collateral for the arrears already accrued. Hogwarts was a shadow of her former self.
On September the First, the returning pupils noted that roll call was taken by prefects at start of each meal. There was no opening feast only communal dishes of grey soup followed by grey stew. Dessert was a thing of the past. Many wrote home that night begging for a transfer abroad or to be homeschooled. With the death of Dumbledore, Hogwarts had become a thing to be endured. For any that read muggle fiction, the school was a reflection of all the poor educational establishments written avout in the early nineteenth century.
Done was a genial, crazy if a bit distant headmaster. Snape's humour, little that he had, had disappeared with his wayward wife. He was harsh, unjustly cruel to all, even to his former charges in Slytherin House and seemed to revel in the fact that House Points were all in the negative. Draco was most vocal in his horror at what his school had become. He was still protesting even after he had been assigned four weeks of detention by Snape and only shut up when his prefect's badge was handed to Theodore Nott. Snape had no favourites, no preferences. All failed to live up to his standards.
Lucius was half tempted to remove Draco, but Voldemort wanted Hogwarts to stand on its own two feet, as a leaner and darker institution to reflect the future of his new society, producing obedient servants. The Children of Death Eater's had no choice not only to endure Hogwarts but they were expected to excel and to be examples to all to follow the new order. Strangely there were two shining examples of the kind of students now expected. Rising to the challenge of being nasty, sneaky, backstabbing and only out for themeselevs wer Ron Weasley and his Sister Ginerva. Both were Gryffindor Prefects who seemed to thrive under the new regime. They strove to make sure all in there house were perfectly drilled, handing out vicious punishments to transgressors. Both were lucky to get hampers of food from home to supplement the vile school provisions. Ron even liked Dark Arts. He was actually passing all his classes, always giving the correct answer when called on. Excellence was no longer called for, students were required to have off pat Ministry approved answers, to appear on time and never to cause a fuss or to be noticed in general and never to ask questions.