Author's Note: Wow... I can not believe how much time has passed since updating this story! I apologise to anyone who is still patiently waiting for this story to update! This story has caused me a bit of a mental block, which has kept it from being finished, hopefully this mental block is now gone, but I can not blame the mental block for it all. This story's ending has changed so many times since I began writing it that I was nearly at war with myself on how it should actually end. But as you can see, I finally sorted it all out and hopefully there will be no more delays. Now without further ado... the chapter!

Hermione sighs as she feels herself melt into the cool black leather upholstery of the sofa by the fire in the study. The meeting had droned on longer than expected and surprisingly, it was not the brainy brunette who had caused it to be so. All three of the Aurors had interrogated her mercilessly after hearing her talk about Dumbledore and his treachery against a girl so young. They had all been privy to the basics of her escape from St. Mungo's and were impressed by her account of the actions she had taken.

"But why would Minerva allow the doctor to obliviate her most prized pupil?" Dawlish had asked after Hermione had recounted her daring escape.

The younger witch knew this question would be voiced even though she had already said that it was because she had asked about the outside world. She knew that this answer would not be accepted too readily after telling them the whole story of her escape and had ran through all the ways she could answer it beforehand.

As she opened her mouth to reply, Bellatrix interrupted. "Because she is scared. They all have this preconceived notion that Dumbledore was a saint. The epitome of kindness, understanding, and compassion. But Hermione knew the truth about their beloved leader and that's why the old bat wanted her memory modified. If word got out that their precious Dumbledore threatened his students to do his dirty work..." The raven-haired witch let her sentence trail off, allowing the wizards to let the information sink in.

"The Order would be powerless and their hold on the Wizarding World would diminish," Savage says, finishing what Bellatrix was expressing to them.

"Exactly," Hermione says as she moves away from the edge of the desk she was leaning against, "They know I hold the key to their demise, so why not try and get rid of the only thing that would bring them down? It would have been perfect- my mind obliviated, but I would be still around. The only surviving member of the 'Golden Trio'. I would have been their prized possession, their banner of how they won, even though, they lost so many people, but they would still have me. Their plan backfired. So why not allow their worse dreams to become their reality?!"

Bellatrix smiles as she hears the words fall from the brunette's lips. She had been waiting for the exact moment to tell everyone her plan, but Hermione seems to have had similar ideas hidden within her mind. "She's right, we can make them crumble at their very foundations. Once the wizarding world knows of the devious plots that their precious Dumbledore had been a part of, they will want to rip asunder this new regime, that he was so fond of. They will scramble over themselves to appoint a new leader. And we will make sure that there will be no form of rebellion from the remaining Order members, what little is left of them, and we can place someone else in power... someone with enough pull to make things right, as well as keep our arses out of the fire. It would have to be..."

Hermione is pulled out of her thoughts as she feels a sudden dip in the sofa. Opening her eyes, she smiles softly as she gazes into the face of the person who pulled her away from reliving the meeting that was barely an hour old. "A galleon for your thoughts?" Bellatrix asks as she pushes back a few stray strands of hair from her face.

The brunette laughs, "With all the thoughts that have been going through my head lately, you would be a very rich woman, Bella."

Bellatrix laughed lightly along with the younger witch, "You do realise that I am already a rich woman, right?!" The older witch laughs again as Hermione rolls her eyes slightly. "But honestly, what's wrong? We have Dawlish, Proudfoot, and Savage on our side, and they are now on their way to recruit more followers. All we have to do now is sit back until they return."

The younger witch leans forward on the sofa and places her elbows on her knees as she stares at an invisible spot on the floor. "Are you sure this will work? I mean are we really going to overthrow the Ministry? And will we be able to defeat them when we attempt to overthrow them?" The bravado of the day had finally worn off and left Hermione tired and filled with doubt over their plans.

Sensing the doubt that started creeping into the younger witch's mind, Bellatrix places a hand on the younger witch's back, "Everything will go according to plan, I assure you. The foundations of this tower of righteousness that the Ministry clings to has crumbled. It crumbled with the deaths of Dumbledore and that dim-witted Potter boy, but for the rest of the edifice to fall completely, it support beams need to be taken out as well. Minerva and the others will fall, and that is when we will be able to take over. We just have to wait for our forces to be set up in the wings, then we will move forward, but until then we wait. That is all we can do."

"But can we really pull this off, Bella? I know it sounds like a perfect plan..." Hermione sighs as all of the thoughts of everything that had happened to her in the past merge and rise up to crash against her resolve like waves against a cliff made of paper, "I just want all of it to go away. All of the people who sat back and did nothing while I became canon fodder, I just want them to go away as well."

"And they will all go away, my dear. Every last one of them, starting with Minerva," the older woman states, "Then once they are gone, it will clear the way for a different regime to take over. Our regime. It will be wonderful, Hermione," Bellatrix smiles at the other witch and stands up, holding her hand out to help Hermione up from the comfortable grasp of the sofa. "Come on... we have had a long day today and will have an even longer day tomorrow, I suggest we both get some sleep."

As Hermione grasps Bellatrix's hand, she feels the electricity that she had felt earlier pass between them and was no longer as tired as she once thought she was. A smile crosses her face as she realises that all her thoughts and fantasies with the woman standing beside her will finally become reality tonight.

Sighing to herself as she looks over the parchments in front of her for the hundredth time today, Minerva finally looks up at stares at the man on the other side of her desk, "I honestly do not know, Kingsley."

"But Minerva..."

"It's wrong, Kingsley. Simple as that. How could the Ministry even think to do such a thing?"

Clearing his throat, the wizard stares at the newly appointed Headmistress of Hogwarts, "We felt that it would be the wisest decision. It was even voted on by the Wizengamot..."

Standing from her chair the older witch locks eyes with the Minister of Magic. Shacklebolt shudders involuntarily as childhood memories of detention with the witch in front of him bubble to the front of his mind. "You had the Wizengamot vote on this? Have you gone mad, Kingsley? Of course they would believe that this is the best course of action! Anything to keep all of this from becoming known world-wide, yes? We have defeated the darkness that was the reign of Voldemort, isn't that enough? Haven't we all did our fair share of it all? Now you and your lot want to add this to it all as well! I do not like it Minister, I do not like it at all!" Minerva sits back down in her chair, her legs no longer having the strength to hold her up. The anger she felt at the beginning of her tirade ebbing away just as quickly as it had rushed upon her.

"I know how you feel, Minerva. I feel the same way, but it is the right thing to do," Kingsley takes a deep breath before continuing. "You have went there, have you not?"

"Yes..." the older witch sighs and feels the sting of tears prick at her eyes, "I have went there for a visit, but I still do not see why you want to do this."

"You know the reason why, Minerva. You just do not want to acknowledge it is all." Moving around to the other side of the desk, Shacklebolt kneels down in front of the Headmistress and lightly places his hand on her knee, "Minerva, you were my favourite professor here at Hogwarts when I was but a lad in these halls and as I grew older and left to begin my life as an official for the Ministry, you became my best friend. I told you everything that I saw within the Ministry, even the things I thought would not be beneficial for the Order. Now I come to you with this, something I know that you need to know, something that is going to happen whether we like it or not. I hate it as much as you do, but it needs to happen."

"I just... I just wish..." the older witch trails off as the tears that had threatened to fall finally crash down over the dam she had mentally made.

Rising from his position, Kingsley wraps his arms around the frail witch, "It's okay Minerva. If there was any other way to keep this from happening, I would have used it before even suggesting this."

Sniffling and pulling away from him, Professor McGonagall wipes her eyes, "I know you would have, Kingsley. I understand, I do not like it, but I understand. When is it to happen?"

"Tomorrow afternoon."

"I want to be there then."

Opening his mouth in protest, Kingsley closes it again when he sees the look in Minerva's eyes, "Okay, I will arrange it so that you can be there before it happens."

"Thank you," the older witch replies before standing up from her chair and walking towards the fireplace at the far wall of her office. Staring at the flames before her, she forgets that she is not alone and allows her thoughts to think back on happier times when, even though there was a war raging on, the lives of innocents were not being hastily tossed to the side because they inconvenienced the Ministry.

Sensing that he was no longer needed or wanted, the Minister slowly backs out of Minerva's office and gently closes the door behind him.