Disclaimee: I own nothing.

Chapter 2: We Are The Sheep, They Are The Shepard

Hermione just stared at Ron, the lopsided grin, the ever shifting eyes. His hair was ruffled and his clothes looked untidy. He looked unhinged. It pained her to see him like this, and while she did not know what had happened to him yet, she knew suddenly why he had not written her. Though the pain of rejection went away, she was filled with another type of distress. The Ministry had done this to him. They had done something to him, to everyone. She remembered the woman waiting for her at the Ministry. Something had not been there.

"What happened?" she asked Harry quietly.

He sighed, and shook his head. "It was really bad, Hermione. At first, everything was fine, you know? There was no reason to be suspicious or anything. The wizarding world was rebuilding. New laws were put in place for equality. Muggleborns were treated so much better. It seemed like everything was really getting better."

"So how did it become this?" She looked pointedly at Ron.

"They said it was to make sure another Voldemort never arose. They created this potion. Nobody was really sure what it did, but the Ministry assured everything it would solve the blood status problem and all the other problems. Most people didn't mind taking it, but some refused. That's when they made it mandatory," George explained.

"So this potion, it made everyone mental?" she asked, looking at Ron. She didn't understand. Wouldn't unhinged people be harder to control?

"No," Harry said. "That only happened to a few people, the ones who put up the most resistance. The Ministry ordered an issue for these people to be turned in for care. But once they were turned in, no one ever saw them again. I couldn't do that to Ron. I didn't know what was going on."

"But didn't you resist?" She found it hard to believe that Harry would willingly and blindly follow anything the Ministry said after everything. "You don't seem like that witch I say at the Ministry. You still have your mind. If they wanted absolute control, you should have been the first they needed to acquire so you couldn't rally people again."

"I didn't take it," he admitted. "I was the only one who refused and got away with it."

"And what does this potion do exactly?"

He looked sadly at Ron for a long moment before turning to her. "It erases your personality. Or so we think. We're not completely positive, but from what we've been able to find out and from what an inside source has told us, it makes the drinker be whatever the Ministry tells them to be. They literally control everything, down to who you are as a person."

She gasped. "What? And people condoned this?"

"They didn't know it was happening," he said. "No one did until it was too late."

"Wait, but wasn't Kingsley made Minister after the war? I hardly believe that he would condone this."

Harry and George exchanged a look. "Kingsley was killed a week into his term."

She rose a hand to cover her mouth in horror. "How?"

"That bloke Pius Thicknesse," George growled. "You know how he was pardoned because he was supposedly under the Imperius Curse? Turns out they lifted the curse after a while and he joined right up. Not because he believed in any of the Pureblood shit, but because he wanted power. Well, he became Minister and they say he didn't do it, but we know it had to have been him. We don't know if he's working alone, but he is definitely at the head of this."

"Poor Kingsley," she felt tears coming down her face.

"Poor everyone," George said. "Their fucking personality is gone, completely gone, Hermione. They become putty in the fucking Ministry's hands. They're given a whole new life, a whole new fucking life. They have no say in it. They become whatever the fuck the Ministry wants them to be."

"That's horrible," Hermione said, looking again at Ron. "But once people realized what was happening, didn't they fight back? I mean, didn't more people resist?"

"And those people were taken care of, Hermione," Harry sighed. "No one could do anything!"

"You were the leader of a bloody revolution," she shook her head. "You should have rallied them, Harry. They would have followed you."

"I wasn't here at first," he explained. "They silenced me. They had me hunting the rest of the Death Eaters, the ones that got away. Ron didn't come because he thought he should be home with the family - after Fred. I had no idea what was going on. My owls were being screened. By the time I returned everyone had already been administered the potion. There was no one to rally."

"Okay, so what do we do now? I mean obviously we have to fix this, but how?" she got up and started pacing, her mind whirling.

"We don't know what to do, Hermione," Harry admitted. "George was staying with Charlie in Romania when the potion was first administered so he didn't take it, and I wasn't forced to. But everyone else has, Hermione. Even Mr. and Mrs. Weasley."

"What about the antidote?" she asked. "There has to be one."

"You know how Fred and I weren't the best at potions?" George smirked. "Turns out Harry is even worse, and it's not exactly a skill that comes with old age. We've been trying our best, but so far we've come up empty handed. Not that it matters anyway. We've yet to even be able to get enough of the bloody potion to figure it out."

"So we need to get the potion," she nodded, still pacing.

Before she could think of any way to actually do this though, there was a knock on the door. Harry and George stiffened. She wasn't sure how she should be feeling, but if their reactions were so panicked, she knew she should probably be worried as well. George took Ron out of the room, and Harry got up slowly to answer it. Before he did, he turned to look at her. "Remember that witch you talked to?" Hermione nodded. "Well, act like her, okay?" He opened the door.

"Well hello there, Harry," someone said. Harry was blocking him from her view. But it didn't matter. She didn't have to see the face to know who it was. She had heard that voice for years at Hogwarts, the snide voice that threw insults at her at every turn. She stiffened now as well. He sounded – chipper. It surely couldn't be the same person she remembered. It wasn't possible to hear that voice without the sneering and condescending tone that went along with it. But sure enough, Harry moved then to reveal who she already knew was there.

"Draco," Harry said as he stepped in. He looked around outside. "What can I do for you?"

She was shocked. Did Harry just sound – friendly towards his archenemy? Did he just use Malfoy's first name? She didn't get to ponder on it for long for Harry moved and Draco smiled at her. It wasn't a sneer or a smirk, but a genuine smile. What the hell was going on? "Ah Granger, good to see you have returned. It has been quite boring without you."

"Um thanks?" she said. Harry threw her a pointed look. She coughed and smiled at Malfoy. "I mean, hello Draco. It's good to be back." This threw her off so much. Was this was what they were talking about? She was positive that there was no way even Draco Malfoy would be able to act like this if his personality hadn't been completely changed.

"She didn't take it," Harry said, closing the door.

Immediately, Draco's expression changed. There was a cold glare in his eyes as he regarded her. "What are you doing back here, Granger? You should have stayed the fuck away."

"I didn't know what was happening," she said defensively, though she was thoroughly confused. Was she wrong then? That Draco Malfoy had been able to pick up a few pointers on how to act over the five years she was gone? Merlin, how much had she missed.

"I'm sorry about that, Hermione," Harry sighed. "That's partly my fault. I tried to hint that you should stay away, but all letters in and out of England are being screened. That's also why I couldn't tell you this before."

"Yes, yes, now she's been filled in I'm assuming," Draco rolled his eyes. "And now they know you know something since you didn't go to the front desk as you were asked to."

"Harry told me to come straight here," she said in her defense. "And while we're talking about not taking the potion, why aren't you all doped up with it? Shouldn't ex-Death Eaters be on the top of the list?"

He glared at her. "Not all of us had the liberty of being Boy Wonder here or running away to another country. We had to think of something else once we realized what was going on."

"You're sure they know something is up?" Harry asked, bringing the conversation back at hand.

"Yes," Malfoy said. "Maybe if you had told me she was coming today, then we could have worked around it. She would have come straight to me. Now as it is, they've sent me to administer it to her."

"Wait, if you didn't take it, why are they sending you on these kind of missions?" Hermione asked. She could tell that Harry and Malfoy were kind of allies now, and that unnerved her. She didn't trust him. She knew he had been let off at the end of the war because Harry had vouched for him and Narcissa because of Draco's situation and Narcissa's lie that had saved him.

"It's called acting, Granger," Malfoy sneered at her.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Harry asked.

"Are you that daft, Potter?" he rolled his eyes. "Maybe since the brains of your little Wonder Trio is back, we'll finally be able to get somewhere." He threw a look at her. "Though, I'm not betting all odds on it."

"Just tell us what you have in mind," Hermione rolled her eyes, putting her hand on Harry's arm to calm him down. They had more troublesome things to worry about rather than the two of them getting into another row. Clearly, that much hadn't changed.

"You store this potion in another vial. I go back now with an empty potion bottle and claim that she took it, and she acts like every other brain dead crony out there. She goes and gets her assignment and pretends she's one of them. Meanwhile, Granger figures out the antidote. We give it to people, and we beat the fucking brains out of the Ministry," he said.

"Where is this potion?" she asked.

He took a vial out of his pocket and handed it to her. Harry grabbed her another one from one of Mrs. Weasley's cupboards and she poured the liquid in before handing the empty one back to Draco. She looked at it and shuddered. While she had seen and dealt with more lethal potions in her life, there was something about the fact that it erased one's whole personality that really affected her. It couldn't just be death; no it was a lifeless life that this potion was condemning people to. To think that the Ministry had stooped to such levels surprised even her. She hoped she could find the antidote to this, and quickly.

"Well then, Granger, I hope you can work quickly," he mirrored her thought. "Potter, keep me informed of any progress."

Harry nodded and Draco Disapparated. Hermione just looked at him. "Draco Malfoy?"

Harry sighed and fell back into the chair. "The Ministry tested the potion on the prisoners first, in Azkaban. That's how he found out about it. He and his mother went to see Lucius, and were surprised to see the sudden change in him. It made them wary. Draco didn't tell me much about it, he's very closed off, but he did say that something his father said to him made him realize something wasn't right. The repentant Death Eaters were next. It was mandatory for them, voluntary for everyone else. Draco and his mother didn't take it, but they pretended they did. I'm not sure how. His mother was found out eventually and taken away. We haven't seen her since then."

"Okay so he is himself in a sea of mindless witches and wizards," Hermione said. "How did you team up with him?"

"Well," Harry smiled slightly. "He saved me."

"Pardon?"

"See, I wasn't forced to take the potion, but they asked if I would. They said everyone had taken it and the wizarding world was better for it. I didn't know then what it did, I hadn't seen the effects. They sent Draco to give me the potion, and I, well I was going to take it. But he wouldn't let me. He poured it down the sink."

She gaped at him. Draco Malfoy had saved Harry? Now she had seen everything. "And you trust him? I mean really, Harry. You're sure it wasn't some trick?"

"I trust him, Hermione," he said firmly. "We're not friends by any means, but I trust him."

She just nodded, sighing. She wasn't sure if she trusted him herself, but Harry did, and that was as always, good enough for her. "Let's get to work then. We have a wizarding world to save - again."

"Just when we thought our work was over, huh?"

thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you thought? ;) new chapter up soon hopefully. Trying to fix any inconsistencies I found in these few chapters I already had up, and with med school it's taking a little longer than I would have thought. But I will definitely try to get the next chapter up soon. In the mean time thoughts? :)