A week into summer break, the Minister of Magic walked up the drive to Number Four Privet Drive, Little Whinging.

He was of course just concerned about Harry Potter's well-being and the fact that certain wards (if any existed in this particular case) could break when a wizard came of age — which Potter was soon to do — he was most certainly not there to have the conversation with the Boy-Who-Lived that Dumbledore had denied him for the past year about turning Potter into the Ministry's mascot for the war against He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Nope — definitely not trying to do anything sneaky like that.

But, you know, if it happened to come up in conversation, and Potter was most agreeable to it, who was he not to take the gift handed to him? He would be a terrible Minister if he didn't.

Dressed in his typically magical not-quite-right suit (though better than many if not even most attempts by the wizarding community), Scrimgeour knocked on the front door of the cookie-cutter house, which was opened fifteen seconds later by Mr Vernon Dursley.

"Who are you?" the walrus grunted irritably, staring at this man whom there was just something wrong about, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it at the moment.

"My name is Rufus Scrimgeour," Scrimgeour answered. "I am the Minister of Magic, and I need to speak to your nephew, Harry Potter, about most urgent matters of his continued safety."

For reasons that Scrimgeour couldn't fathom, as soon as he said the word 'magic' the fat man bristled angrily, and as soon as Scrimgeour had finished what he was saying, shouted furiously at the Minister, "Get off my porch! We don't want your kind here!"

Staring at Mr Dursley in shock, Scrimgeour said, "But good Sir, I really must insist that I speak with Harry Potter. The fate of the wizarding world may depend on your nephew!"

"Then good riddance," Mr Dursley growled back with a vicious sneer. "Because he isn't here, and hasn't been since before he went to that blasted school of yours."

"Not here?" Scrimgeour echoed in confusion. "What do you mean, not here? And he hasn't been here since before his first year at Hogwarts?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?" Mr Dursley growled in reply. "Didn't come back on the train like your school said he would, and then some woman at the platform said that someone else would bring him to us, but they never did. And we haven't seen him since, thank god."

Scrimgeour continued to stare at Mr Dursley for several more seconds until Mr Dursley finally just slammed the door in his face, having had enough of wizards for the rest of his life. At which point Scrimgeour spun and disapparated straight off of the Dursleys' front porch, wondering what to do now.

Back in his office a few seconds later, Scrimgeour began wondering how Dumbledore could have never told him that the Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived, savior of the wizarding world, defeater of You-Know-Who, wasn't where Dumbledore had said that the boy must stay, before then wondering how he could justify to the headmaster his visit to Potter's non-school residence when Dumbledore had repeatedly refused to let him meet with Potter all of the previous year. But finally he came to the conclusion that he could just say that he had gone there to make sure that the wards were still holding up and that Potter would be safe when he came of age later that summer, and Flooed to Dumbledore's office to confront the headmaster.

"Minister! This is a surprise," Dumbledore greeted him when he had walked through the fireplace.

"Likewise, Albus," Scrimgeour replied. "But something urgent has come to my attention. This morning I was making sure that the protections surrounding the wizarding world's once-already savior were still good now that he is to come of age later this summer, and as part of that I went by his residence in Little Whinging to check for any wards in person, just to find out from his uncle that he hasn't been there in six years. How could you have withheld that from the Ministry for all these years?!"

It was very clear from Dumbledore's cold look at the Minister that he didn't believe a word of the Minister's excuse for visiting Harry Potter, but all he actually said to Scrimgeour was, "Harry and his female friend have spent the summer on their own every year since the summer after their first year at Hogwarts. I put all my extensive resources into finding them that first summer and then again the second summer when Sirius Black escaped and everyone believed him to be hunting down Harry to kill the boy, and also tried preventing them from escaping at the start of summer in the following years, but they have always returned to the school safely in the fall, they have clearly known what they have been doing even at their young ages and even more so now that Hermione is of age and Harry almost is, and the charms at his relatives' home that protected him from Voldemort were broken at the end of that first summer when he never returned. So I have no reason to believe that they are anything but safe, and I have absolutely no clue where they are. Search for them if you like, if it will make you feel better, but I sincerely do not believe that you will find them."

"You were trusted to—!" Scrimgeour began angrily, before Dumbledore cut him off coldly.

"If we are going to start throwing accusations around, how about I ask why you were really trying to corner Harry at his relatives' house? We both know perfectly well it was because you were trying to have that conversation with him that you so desperately want to have, behind my back because I refused to let you meet with him all of last year. Your attempt to make him into your puppet and mascot. Well, you know what — I will let Harry and Hermione decide for themselves when they get back in the fall whether they want to meet with you or not. They will both be of age by that point, and it will be the first opportunity from this moment forward that they will be able to meet with you, so we'll let them decide for themselves whether they want to speak with you or not. And if they say no, then you have to leave them alone. Deal?"

Scrimgeour looked at Dumbledore in surprise for a second, before finally answering, "Okay. You have a deal. But if they decide to show their support for their Ministry, you can't try to stop them or dissuade them in any way. And I get to meet with them alone, you're not allowed in the room to try to dissuade them by your presence and coldness towards me."

"Of course," Dumbledore replied. "And if they slap you in the face or minorly curse you for trying to use them, you can't arrest them or charge them for anything. Now was there anything else you wished to speak to me about, or are we done here?"

A few weeks later Snape was chillin' with Riddle in Malfoy's Manor when the Dark Lord looked over at his spy.

"Severus, I believe it is time for you to confirm your loyalty to me by resigning from your post at Hogwarts as my spy there, and leading a team of some of my best Death Eaters out there in the real world as we begin stepping out of the shadows and showing our true power that we have been building up in secret for the past two years."

"Sir — I have done great work for you being able to feed you information about Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix from my position inside the school," Snape answered carefully, desperately not wanting to have to quit his cushy job of abusing children inside the very safe castle, but obviously not daring to say any such thing to the Dark Lord.

"You will still be attending the Order meetings, and you will tell Dumbledore that I insisted you make this change, but I want you out there leading a team of Death Eaters as we begin ramping up our attacks and public front. I have no doubt that Dumbledore, believing in you as he does, will still have full trust in you that you are his loyal spy even with this change, and will still allow you in his precious Order — he can't help but trust people, no matter how costly it is to him, which is to our advantage. And you will now be able to feed him minor, unimportant attacks of ours that he can stop, while leading real attacks of your own that he will know nothing of and be too busy with the small attacks to do anything about. And as for information you could provide me from inside the school itself, there seems to be little of use for you to tell me about a bunch of students who are of no threat to me. Harry Potter will always be a concern, but as long as he is inside the school he is not any immediate threat, nor is there any ideal way to kill him. Besides, he will be leaving the school at the end of this upcoming year, and then he will no longer be protected and we can make our move against him then. But more importantly, this wasn't a request or me asking for your opinion, Severus."

"Yes, my Lord."

~FS~

The following day Snape met with Dumbledore in the headmaster's office to tell him of Riddle's new orders.

"Well, it looks like the curse has in fact struck again like every year," Dumbledore sighed once he had heard everything. "Very well, then — you must keep your cover intact, Severus. And perhaps it is for the best, as your life may have been in more danger here from Harry and Hermione if I moved you back to Potions and fired Horace, than it's ever been in with Voldemort — they seemed very serious about waging an all-out war against you until you fled from them, and we both know how powerful they have become over the years, something that certainly won't lessen with Harry coming of age in a week."

"I still can't believe you let them get by with everything that you always have," Snape growled back sulkily. "If it were up to me —"

"You would have killed Harry's father yourself if it meant keeping Lily alive for yourself," Dumbledore cut him off. "What you would do to Harry and anyone who dares to be friends with him is irrelevant, and doubtlessly a violation of numerous laws and general human decency, despite the fact that he is the son and only living connection to the woman whom you claim to love. And knowing the two of them as I do, having watched them carefully over the past six years, you would fail anyway in your attempts to torture Harry, and Hermione because she is friends with Harry. As for why I have allowed him and them to get by with far more than I would any other student, it is because the only other option is letting him leave this school permanently to go wherever they do each summer, which my suspicion is overseas, and into the muggle world on top of that. And if that were to ever happen for real, and not just the summer, I fear he would never return to defeat Voldemort as prophesied, as they have repeatedly expressed their opinion on not believing in prophecies, even ones like this that have already started coming true and therefore must be true. And for something extreme like arresting him and throwing him in Azkaban until there is an opportune time to throw him into a fight with Voldemort, it would not prepare him for that fight he must win for us as stated by the prophecy, and I fear that they would fight back if anyone attempted to arrest them, which could lead to Harry's death, which of course cannot be allowed until Voldemort kills the boy himself. Besides — throwing the Boy-Who-Lived in jail? Even I couldn't survive the backlash if anyone found out about that, which it would be very hard if not impossible to prevent.

"But it matters not, as you will no longer be here, Horace will continue teaching Potions for at least one more year so that he can continue to be around Harry and have his little parties of comfort and ease, and I already have a potential candidate for the DADA position, whom I expect to accept for interestingly enough the same reason as Horace, if only in their own personal way — that is, wanting to be around Harry and Hermione."

~FS~

Later that afternoon Nymphadora Tonks was surprised to receive an urgent request to meet from the headmaster of Hogwarts.

But she was thankful for it, as it was an excuse to postpone for a while longer her paperwork that she had already been postponing for the last several hours, and so she quickly hopped up from her desk to Floo to the headmaster's office.

"Thank you for coming," Dumbledore said once she was seated and pleasantries had been exchanged. "I have an odd request of you, but two particular people suggested to me that I make it, so here we are. Once again, this school is in need of a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, and it was strongly recommended to me that I offer the position to you."

"Me?!" Tonks exclaimed in shock. "Who would suggest me? I'm not even suggested for halfway important auror missions. And aren't I little young compared to your normal hires?"

"You are younger than any hire that I have ever made before or suggested to the previous headmaster whom I taught under, but you are a fully qualified auror, you have been out of Hogwarts for six years now with real world experience, and it is only a one year position as I'm sure you have doubtlessly noticed, which is enough for me to make an exception to my normal rules during these trying times," Dumbledore answered. "Additionally, I am sure that your boyfriend would be happy to help you with classes, though whether I can permit him to come inside the school to actually help you teach I am not sure yet, as many parents would probably still be distrustful to have a werewolf in the castle with their children. As for who suggested you, it was your two student friends — I imagine you can guess which ones."

"Harry and Hermione want me here?!" Tonks exclaimed excitedly. "Then absolutely! I'll totally take the job! I don't know anything about teaching, and I'm sure my old Head of House will be just thrilled to have me as an equal now after thinking that I lacked certain necessary qualities to be even a perfect, but I can figure it out. I did take DADA for seven years, and like you said, Remus will be happy to help."

"Then welcome to your new job, Professor Tonks," Dumbledore said, holding out his hand which she quickly shook. "I will meet with Kingsley tomorrow to tell him that I am hiring away one of his aurors for a year, and then I am sure he will want to meet with you himself after that to discuss all this. But as for now, go back to work, and I would expect to continue working in the aurors at least through the end of the month, though if you want to work half of August I'm sure he would be happy to have you stay, and two weeks should be enough time to prepare for teaching. But that will be up to you two when you meet."

In the middle of July, FitzSimmons received their first ever letter directly from Ronald Weasley's mother.

It was a wedding invitation to the wedding between her oldest son and Fleur Delacour in two weeks that Ron had told them about before leaving Hogwarts several weeks before, that they had told him that there was no way in hell they were coming to and to tell his mother that there was no way in hell they were coming to. As for the letter itself, it was written in an overly friendly tone like she had been their best friend their entire lives and they hadn't cursed her the only time that they had ever met her, as if either Ron hadn't told her what they had told him to tell her or she was completely ignoring it instead, both equally likely options in their opinion.

"Of course we still get an invite," Fitz said with a roll of his eyes as they finished reading the short letter. "She just can't leave us alone, can she?"

"No, she won't, but we just ignore it like always and this is the last year we ever have to deal with this, and her, since even if we don't go back to our real home at the end of the year like we hopefully will, we will still be out of school and away from any possible excuse she could have to try to talk to us," Simmons answered, rubbing her husband lightly on the back where they sat at the kitchen table eating the breakfast that they had cooked together like every morning of every summer.

"Doesn't mean she'll actually leave us alone," Fitz grumbled. "We've literally told her and her family multiple times over to leave us alone already."

"Then we find the magical police and demand a restraining order, though we'll probably have to teach them what that even is since I have my doubts that they understand such a concept," Simmons answered. "And if they refuse, we just find out where she lives and go to her house and make sure ourselves that she can never harass us again. Either way, we'll be good."

So they burnt the letter outside later that morning leaving the ashes to blow away in the wind just like Mrs Weasley's hopes of them coming to the wedding, and went on with their plans for the day like it hadn't been so rudely interrupted by her latest harassment of them.

~FS~

A week later Mrs Weasley was bossing everyone around the Burrow when she made a fatal mistake.

She had guilted Tonks and Lupin — or really Lupin, the spineless one of the two, who had then proceeded to guilt his girlfriend into coming with him — as well as guilting numerous other Order members into helping with the excessive wedding preparations that she wanted, what with her husband Arthur Weasley being dead and all and not having Harry Potter and the muggleborn witch there either to be part of her slave labor force to do it all for her like she had hoped and planned on.

And she and Ginevra happened to be walked past where Tonks was hanging up streamers when she muttered to her daughter in a harried voice, "I know Harry's still with that muggleborn, you mentioned it every single letter last year, and that he's not here for you to take now like I had hoped, but I promise you we'll eventually get rid of that muggleborn and you'll have your husband like you deserve."

Well, Tonks wasn't standing for that.

Turning furiously on Mrs Weasley, she said angrily, "Harry Potter is with the smartest, most amazing, second-most beautiful woman in the world behind the actual frickin' Veela over there about to get married in a few days, a woman who did more to help me get Remus to start dating me than anyone else! I don't know what your bloody obsession is, but if you care about Harry at all, if you know anything about Harry at all, you would be happy that he is with Hermione Granger, not bitching like a bitter old spinster because the 'Boy-Hero-Who-Lived' isn't dating your daughter, who's dated half the school from the rumors I heard last year while protecting the school!"

"How— How dare you!?" Mrs Weasley sputtered back in a shout, drawing attention from all of the nearby people. "You don't know what's best for poor Harry, and you certainly don't know what's best for my perfect angel of a daughter!"

"I know Harry and Hermione, which is bloody well more than you can say!" Tonks shouted right back, not about to back down from a fight against the Matriarch, especially not when it was her good friends Harry and Hermione's reputations on the line. "I spent half a dozen afternoons with them in Hogsmeade throughout the year last year, and nearly every entire day for two weeks over Christmas! How much have you talked with them? — Oh, right, none isn't it, because they cursed you within a minute of you trying to barge your fat arse into their lives at the end of the TriWizard Tournament! Yeah, I heard all about that, because they talk to me! You don't know a bloody thing about either of them, whereas I have spent literally weeks talking with them about every subject from school to relationships to auror-ing to their best friend who had a blue streak in her hair for a year or so!"

As she said this her hair turned into a good likeness of Daisy's blue-streak hair style that the metamorph had mimicked numerous times with FitzSimmons the previous Christmas for fun based off of FitzSimmons' description of Daisy's hair until the science duo told her that she had it down perfect, but Tonks was too worked up to consciously notice this change of her hair style and Mrs Weasley was too shocked at being disagreed with and yelled at to pay any attention to it, though a few of the on-lookers did connect the sudden hair change to what Tonks had said. Tonks meanwhile was still going on, not yet done teaching Mrs Weasley her lesson — or trying to, anyway.

"So don't you dare tell me that I don't know what's best for Harry! I'm not the one claiming that I do know what's best for him, I'm the one claiming that he's smart enough to make his own decisions about whom he should be with, and that the woman he's chosen is quite possibly the single most amazing woman on this bloody planet! You're the one over there bitching about the fact that he's not with who you want him to be with, without knowing a bloody thing about who he is with, and has been with ever since they first came to Hogwarts together, or even anything about Harry himself!"

As Mrs Weasley just gawked in silent shock at Tonks, Tonks turned and strode away from the overbearing busybody, having said her piece, defended her friends, and dropped her mic, there being nothing left to say to someone as stubborn and hard-headed as the Matriarch.

~FS~

After that Mrs Weasley refused to talk to Tonks.

Not that Tonks cared in the least, and not that it made any difference to the wedding preparations, as Mrs Weasley already hadn't been giving Tonks any important assignments, considering her too clumsy to be trusted with anything. And in a few days the wedding would finally arrive and it would be the last time that Tonks should ever have to be around the hag again.

But before that glorious day could come, Tonks's standing up for FitzSimmons would score one more victory at the Burrow on the day before the wedding. As soon as Charlie arrived from Romania (sadly not flying in on one of his dragons in glorious fashion), Mrs Weasley raised her wand threateningly at him in order to try to force him into a chair as she pronounced that she was about to give him a 'proper' haircut. But having heard from his older brother Bill all about Tonks standing up to their mum for Harry and Hermione a few days before, Charlie took a page out of the metamorphmagus's book and put his foot down.

"No. This is my hair, my life, not yours," he said coolly. "I like it the way it is, or I wouldn't have it like this, so it stays exactly like it is."

Not that Mrs Weasley was about to just accept one of her children making a decision about their own life, and so after a shocked look at his gall, she waved her wand at him angrily and demanded, "You get in that chair right this instant, young man! You are getting a haircut and looking respectable for your brother's wedding!"

"You wouldn't dare curse your own son in front of this many witnesses," Charlie answered coldly, seeing out of the corner of his eye Tonks practically jumping up and down in glee at someone else standing up to the Matriarch's authoritarianism and overbearingness.

Then he turned his back on his mother and walked away, putting an end to the discussion.

Or not, as Mrs Weasley just had to shout at his back, "Get back here right this instant, young man! Don't you dare walk away from your mother! You are going to get this haircut and finally look presentable for once in your life!"

But Charlie remained resolute and kept walking away from her, making his way towards what had been his father's shed to get away from her and give her enough time to be distracted by her wedding preparations before he returned to the house.

~FS~

The wedding guests began arriving the following afternoon at 1500, with the wedding ceremony beginning an hour later.

Fleur Delacour, one of the three legitimate TriWizard Champions three years prior, looked absolutely stunning in her pure white wedding dress, the picture of sophistication and beauty as she walked up the aisle to meet her husband-to-be. Her natural veela glow seemed to be emanating from her dress as well as herself in a strong silvery glow, her radiance dimming everyone else by comparison even more than normal. Bill himself looked quite dashing as well standing at the front waiting on her with his long hair that he had refused to let his mother chop off and his dragon-fang earrings that she vehemently disapproved of as well.

The union itself was conducted by a tufty-haired wizard, a touching ceremony of life-long commitment and love til death did them part (or didn't do them part if they were as lucky as FitzSimmons), and when they had both said 'I do' and Bill leaned in to kiss his bride, the wizard waved his hand over their heads causing a shower of silver stars to fall upon them and spiral around their entwined figure. At the same time the golden balloons high above their heads burst open and birds of paradise and tiny golden bells flew and floated out of them respectively, adding their songs and chimes to the applause and sounds of celebration that had erupted from the audience upon Bill and Fleur being pronounced husband and wife.

After that the dancing and the rest of the reception started, everyone celebrating the start to the newest chapter of Bill and Fleur's life together. Bill and Fleur did their opening dance, before drifting off to the side to allow everyone to come up and congratulate them on their nuptials. Fleur still had most of her French accent even after two consecutive years of living in Britain, especially when she started talking passionately about her husband, her work at Gringotts coordinating with all of the French banks and the banks of every other French-speaking country in the world, or her interest of exploring the limits of veela magic — inspired by her discussions with FitzSimmons during the Yule Ball year to do what no normal wizards had any interest in doing and see just what veela were capable of that normal wizards weren't (same as they never cared to investigate house elf magic or centaur magic or any other kind of non-wizard magic, only regulate it) — but as she was completely fluent in English it caused no difficulty in understanding her for any of the guests.

But after several hours the reception finally had to end, and everyone had to return to their homes or crash somewhere inside or around the Burrow if they were staying there or too drunk on firewhisky to apparate home that night, as Bill and Fleur slipped away and apparated to their honeymoon destination for two weeks away from everyone.

It was late summer and Professor McGonagall was in Dumbledore's office making sure that everything was ready for the booklists to go out the following morning.

"Do you know who you're going to make Head Boy and Girl this year?" she asked.

"I am not sure," Dumbledore answered gravely. "The most obvious choice is also the most obvious choice not to pick — I am of course referring to Harry and Hermione. They have broken just about every school rule that exists, threatened a former professor's life, and have zero respect for authority, yet they undoubtedly have every characteristic that would normally guarantee their selection as Head students — they're unquestionably the smartest two students in this castle by a large margin, they've shown clear leadership skills numerous times throughout the years, and they are well recognized by all of the castle."

"You didn't pick either of them as prefects," Professor McGonagall commented, neither for nor against FitzSimmons receiving the head positions, just pointing out the fact.

"Because while clearly smart, they had been very unruly and disobedient their first four years, so despite Harry's fame and both of their intellects, they weren't logical picks for the positions, nor did I believe that they would actually necessarily carry out their responsibilities," Dumbledore answered. "But it is a little different now, as they have displayed numerous more leadership actions since then, and the head positions are technically independent from the prefectships and only for the one year, and I just don't know how not to make those two head boy and girl — they would be absolute locks for the positions if it weren't for their confrontations with all the professors over the years."

"You know, now that you mention the independence of this selection, perhaps it would actually be a good thing to have them in the private head dorm so that they can't be as much of a negative influence on the rest of the mostly obedient students," Professor McGonagall said. "Head students are supposed to be looked up to, but as much as we like to pretend that is the case, how many students actually have a clue who the head students are each year? We will have to designate one of the seventh year prefect pairs to lead the meeting on the train since Potter and Granger won't be there, and perhaps to lead the rest of the year as well as I wouldn't expect much out of those two except using the ability to be in the hallways for an hour after curfew and the prefects bathroom to their advantage, but beyond the prefects, unless the head students tell everyone themselves, there's no actual announcement of who they are each year. And speaking of prefects, have you named a replacement for Malfoy for Slytherin?"

"Blaise Zabini, one of the Slytherin chasers," Dumbledore answered. "And I believe you are right — it would be best to separate Harry and Hermione from the rest of the students as much as possible, though I am pretty sure they have managed to do that themselves ever since they got here. But yes, I will name them the head boy and girl, it will be best for all."

~FS~

A week later FitzSimmons were eating breakfast in their safehouse when they heard the familiar knock of owls' beaks against their window.

Once they had relieved the birds of the familiar Hogwarts letters, they returned to the table to open them up. And upon doing so two small badges tumbled out onto the table with a clatter.

"What are these?" Fitz asked picking one up, before adding a second later, "They have 'HG' engraved on them."

"Pretty sure it's a 'B' on the other one," Simmons commented as she shuffled through her sheets of paper in her booklist until she found a new one. "I've been named 'head girl', which I assume is what 'HG' stands for, and unless they're complete morons, that means you're head boy and an 'HB' badge."

Fitz picked up the other badge and looked at it carefully as well, and after a second said, "Yep — so we're apparently head boy and girl this year. Is that smart of them? I'm sure we aren't going to do whatever they expect of us, same as we weren't given prefects."

"If they expect anything out of us after six years, then that's their own fault," Simmons answered. "It says here that there's a prefects bathroom that we have access to now, along with getting our own dorm, the head students' dorm. I'd imagine it has separate bedrooms since most head students probably aren't married, but looks like we'll get to entirely avoid Gryffindor Tower this year, which is nice. Fewer chances for Ronald to bother us."

"We had a pretty good thing going with our private flat with dorms below to train in for less furniture-friendly spells, especially DADA, but this doesn't sound too bad either," Fitz replied before asking, "So what else is new? We get our booklists?"

"I was just getting to the booklist," Simmons answered as she looked over it, before saying, "Our new DADA book is the Aurors' Training Manual."

"Aurors? I wonder if Dumbledore actually took our suggestion and hired Tonks — certainly sounds like the book she'd pick for NEWTs," Fitz said.

"If not, it at least looks like we've got some other auror or retired auror, or someone who wanted to be an auror but didn't quite make it in or through the training," Simmons answered. "Regardless, looks like we should have a good professor this year."

"Any idea how many classmates we'll have for DADA this year?" Fitz asked. "Snape said we'd have none, but it seemed like everyone was doing decent by the end."

"Everyone but us was definitely way behind entering last year after being brainwashed with pure cowardice by the Ministry fifth year, but it did look like most of them were nearly caught up to the sixth year material that Snape was teaching us by the end of the year," Simmons answered. "And DADA is always the most important subject taught at Hogwarts despite being the most scattered due to the curse, and even more important now with the looming war against Riddle hanging over everyone, so in this one case it would be smartest to pass everyone regardless of their actual pass or fail grade, just to make them all spend another learning self-defense, and at least pick up something more even if they're nowhere near actually passing their NEWTs. I doubt the adults of the castle think like that, they let Umbridge set foot in the castle with her propaganda, but we know from Neville in Potions that Snape doesn't have final say over his students' grades or Neville would have been gone after first year if not earlier, so I would guess that most people will have been given the okay to continue on to seventh year, regardless of actual grade. Now, how many of those will take it if not simply told that they have this class, I don't know, especially since Snape did teach it last year and despite six years' history a lot of people may still be ignorant to the fact that it's always a new DADA professor every year. But I would guess most will be allowed to continue if they so choose. Or maybe unless you completely bombed one, all sixth year classes immediately become seventh year classes, as there is no form in here about reapplying for classes, so whatever NEWTs you decided to go for last year you continue the full two year course for, unless like I said you completely bombed it sixth year. But however it is, I would expect to see almost if not everyone back. Who I am interested to see if is back, though, is Malfoy. Did he leave for a family emergency, or was he expelled for double murder, or manslaughter, attempted murder, and murder if Katie Bell wasn't his target on the first killing? If he'd been arrested I'm sure everyone in the school would have heard about it, but it will be interesting to see if he's back this year."

"It'll be better for the school if he's not back, for whatever reason that might be," Fitz replied. "One less bully to abuse the other students as the teachers sit back and don't do a bloody thing about it so long as it only occurs in the hallways and common rooms, and not in their classrooms where they don't have plausible deniability for what's going on."

On the first day of September FitzSimmons Knight Bussed to Hogsmeade Station to meet the rest of the students traveling there by train from London.

Arriving five minutes early as usual, they climbed into the first thestral carriage as they heard the Hogwarts Express screeching to a halt at the train platform. Five minutes later enough students had piled off of the train and climbed into the carriages behind them for their thestral to start trundling them up the road towards the castle, arriving soon enough at the courtyard in front of the great oak doors. Walking inside the Great Hall a minute later, as they headed towards their normal seats at the back of the Gryffindor table, FitzSimmons quickly scanned the staff table up front to see who was sitting there for both Potions and DADA, as well as any other changes that they could see from the previous year.

And to their great pleasure and excitement they saw three notable things. One, Professor Slughorn still sitting up in his same seat as last year as they had demanded in no uncertain terms (his sitting there, not which particular seat, that they didn't care about), still desperately needing to lose a lot of fat before he had a heart attack and the school lost the only Potions professor it had had over the last sixty-five years, but otherwise looking as fine and jovial as ever, excited for a new year of making connections. Two, Snape wasn't anywhere to be seen, and while not a guarantee of his permanent banning from the premises, it was certainly promising. And three, Miss Professor Nymphadora Tonks was sitting up there with bright pink hair, sticking out like the happiest sore thumb that FitzSimmons thought they had ever seen — if it weren't separate universes, they should really introduce her to blue-streak haired Daisy, the two of them would probably get along fabulously and be able to give each other the most flamboyant fashion advice possible.

However, FitzSimmons knew that it would be inconsiderate of them to go up to the staff table and say hi to Tonks now as everyone was piling into the hall behind them wanting to eat sooner rather than later, so they satisfied themselves with a cheerful wave and a bright smile at her as they sat down in their normal spot, waiting to go actually say hi to her once the feast was over and everyone else was pushing and shoving in the opposite direction to head to their common rooms.

As they ate a short while later FitzSimmons crowd watched, noticeably not seeing Malfoy at the Slytherin table at any point during dinner. And while still not absolute proof that he would not be returning at some point during the year, and certainly not proof that he'd had anything to do with Katie Bell or the first year girl who had been killed the previous spring right at the same time as he disappeared, it was certainly quite suspicious timing. But as he wasn't there to torture and abuse anyone, for whatever reason that might be, FitzSimmons weren't concerned with it — if they found out why he wasn't there then they would find out, but if they didn't, they didn't, there was no need to shield the school from someone who wasn't there.

But eventually the feast was over and Dumbledore stood up to make his start-of-term announcements, including the annual change(s) of staff. Which was in fact to announce that Auror Tonks would be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for the year. In his introduction of her FitzSimmons noticed that he deliberately did not mention her given name of Nymphadora, since she hated it so much because it sounded so close to nymphomaniac, for whatever inexplicable reason her mum had thought it was an acceptable idea to give her that name.

Once Dumbledore had finished his announcements and dismissed everyone, Simmons let out her shrill whistle as normal, surprised but not that he hadn't looked to her and Fitz to see if they were going to give out maps again before he dismissed everyone. This being their fifth year in the last six that they had given the school maps out at the end of the Starting Feast (the first year it had been at a breakfast a month or so into the school year, and they had skipped the year with the Ministry spy, knowing better than to butt heads with her that early on), they were quite efficient experts at it by now, and quickly had maps passed out to all of the new first years and a handful of other students who wanted one. At which point as everyone else headed away from the staff table and out of the Great Hall, FitzSimmons headed straight for the staff table in order to speak to their best friend while they were stuck in a different universe from Daisy.

"Congrats, Tonks," Fitz said as they made it up to where she had walked around to the front of the staff table to meet them and was casually leaning back against the table.

"All thanks to you two, I heard," Tonks replied as she pushed off from the table and gave them each a big hug. "Dumbledore told me it was you guys who suggested me."

"Yes, well, right before we left last year we made a couple of suggestions about how to improve the quality of the school for this year," Simmons said. "For starters, since we knew that Snape was going to be out of DADA since it's a one year position, we promised Dumbledore that we would bury the child abuser alive if Professor Slughorn was fired and the Snake was put back in control of the Potions classroom. But even if Dumbledore did ignore us on that because he protects Snape second only to Harry, regardless of what happened with the child abuser and Potions class he would still need yet another new DADA teacher, and you're absolutely perfect. Now, I am rather surprised that he didn't keep Snape in the castle somehow — like with Hagrid as gamekeeper and how he just kept Professor Trelawney here for spring of our fifth year despite having no job at all — but we are certainly thankful for it, and we know that the rest of the school is as well except for a select handful of Slytherins. Speaking of whom, Malfoy still seems to be gone — we might have mentioned this on some Hogsmeade day last spring, I can't remember, but he left without explanation right after that poor girl was found dead. Or murdered, to be more specific, unless our finely tuned instincts are wrong."

"Can't say anything about Malfoy, I only know the family name, but I'll give you the low-down on Snape later in private," Tonks answered in a slightly hushed tone, even though no one was left around by that point to be eavesdropping on their conversation. "I do have an answer for that."

"We'd love to hear it," Simmons replied. "Come on up with us to our new head dorm right now, if you like. We need to catch up about Lupin, as well."

"Gladly," Tonks answered, and so they headed out of the Great Hall together, towards the head students dorm.

On their way out Professor McGonagall seemed to give FitzSimmons a piercing look when they walked by her in the entrance hall without their head badges pinned to their shirts, but she didn't say anything to them about it or call them to her office to yell at them, letting them walk on past with the new professor. When they had first received the badges during the summer FitzSimmons had quickly decided against ever wearing them in the castle, even Fitz wearing the'HG' and Simmons wearing the'HB', not wanting anyone to come to them with problems because they were head boy and girl. Coming to them because they looked like responsible seventh years who could help was fine, but they didn't want it to be because they had been designated as the year's head students, and they honestly didn't want to encourage younger students coming to them at all when they knew that they would probably give advice that the staff would strongly disagree with.

Professor McGonagall, meanwhile, hadn't stopped them because she had expected no different after six years, and similarly, didn't actually want anyone knowing that they were head boy and girl either, because then people might look up to the pair, and the last thing she wanted was anyone replicating the couple's behavior and lack of submissiveness towards the professors. Tonks, meanwhile, noticed none of this as she animatedly expounded upon one of her hijinks back when she had been a student in the castle, barely even noticing that they were walking past Professor McGonagall as the older woman was completely irrelevant to their walk up to FitzSimmons' private flat.

Arriving at the head dorm a few minutes later just as Tonks finished up her story, Simmons gave the password and pushed the door open. The three of them walked into a common area room, which had a fireplace against the far wall with two large windows on each side of it overlooking the grounds, a couch and several comfy-looking armchairs in front of the fireplace and windows, a table with four chairs set in the center of the room, and bookcases lining the two side walls except for where a door in each wall led into the two bedrooms. The bedrooms were identical, each with a slightly-larger-than-the-rest-of-the-castle four-poster bed and a work desk for doing homework on if one wasn't so inclined to do their homework on the main table out in the common area. There was also an attached bathroom in each bedroom, the room designers clearly expecting the head students to be getting ready at the same time each morning before school started, and not expecting them to be doing so together — a very reasonable assumption considering the fact that head students didn't even have to be from the same House or know each other very well, let alone be married.

"Any idea what you're going to do with the spare bedroom?" Tonks asked as they walked back into the living room and sat down on the couch together, Fitz in the middle.

"Probably a spell training room like we did with the dorm rooms beneath us in Gryffindor Tower," Simmons answered. "I assume the house elves will come fix this room as well every night from whatever damage we do. Now you said you had all the latest gossip on Snape?"

"Indeed," Tonks said, nodding her head. "As we talked about extensively last year, I'm part of Dumbledore's militia, the Order of the Phoenix. And so is Snape, to no one's joy. But early in the summer Dumbledore announced to everyone, with Snape present, that Snape had been ordered by Voldemort to quit his teaching post and start working full-time with Voldy. However, as part of that, Snape would continue attending Order meetings in order to spy on us and report back to Voldy what we were doing, as well as giving us low importance Death Eater raids to distract us from the big attacks that Voldy was going to be having Snape actually lead. And honestly, I'm not sure who's fooling who anymore, Dumbledore and Voldy are both trying to play mind games with the other and I'm not entirely convinced that Snape is actually working for either of them at the end of the day and not just himself, and if he is actually working for one of them, then which one it is. But Dumbledore still trusts Snape, and it means that I'm here teaching, so I don't really care for the year. That being said, do expect to hear about a lot more attacks this year than the previous two, as Voldy has decided that it's time to come out of the shadows and start showing his full strength, which I'm sure is very strong after playing ball in his court for two years."

"Ooh, yeah — things are probably going to get bad," Simmons said. "Despite every single one of them, male and female, taking five to seven years of self-defense classes, wizards don't seem to ever actually try to defend themselves or their families against Death Eaters and Riddle, at least from what we've managed to find to read about the first Riddleian War. Which is not much, of course, no one will actually write anything about the first war against Riddle that ended fifteen years ago already, and we still haven't covered Riddle a single time in History of Magic class, which means that it certainly isn't taught during the five required years of classes, we'll have to see if it's even taught seventh year NEWTs. But from what little we do know it seems like everyone just cowers and does whatever the Death Eaters say if they come knocking on your door, instead of at least trying to kill the bloody terrorists like they deserve. And we understand sneak attacks and all that better than most, but set up wards and shoot first, ask the corpses questions never — especially when you know they're coming around because you constantly read about it in the newspaper every day and hear about it from friends and family, and everyone has their weapon on them at all times. It just makes no sense to us, especially after all our years in the States where self-defense is an acknowledged and well-exercised human right."

"Fighting is something to be left to the aurors, DMLE, or groups like the Order," Tonks replied. "At least, that's what everyone is subliminally taught their entire lives. Why consider needing to protect yourself when the Ministry will do everything for you? Despite how little the Ministry has actually ever protected anyone from anything, and it took a baby to stop Voldemort last time."

"It's also probably psychologically hard to fight against something that you're taught your entire life to be too scared of to even say's name," Fitz added. " 'You-Know-Who' or 'He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named', or even one of his enforcers, is a mythological being of infinite supernatural power that can't be stopped by any normal person. Tom Riddle Jr, or even Voldemort, Voldy, or Voldepants, and all of his terrorist followers, on the other hand, are just normal human beings like you and I who can be killed with Avada Kedavra and other similarly lethal spells. Then again, I may have just further answered the issue — the most effective spell to protect oneself against the threat is banned by the government. And it's probably more pleasant to be tortured and killed by Death Eaters after watching them torture and kill your family than face the wrath of the Ministry for using Avada to save your life or the life of your family. Even if used in self-defense against the publicly stated enemy number one of the Ministry, I would guess you'll still spend the rest of your life in Azkaban with no chance of parole if you use Avada and get caught because the enemy's dead body is unblemished, which only that one spell does. You're better off using a spell that mangles their flesh and bones as they die a slow painful death, than use the quick, effective, and quite frankly humane Killing Curse, when it comes to the Ministry investigating afterwards."

FitzSimmons and Tonks spent another hour talking together and railing on the British Ministry for not providing a country in which the citizens were capable of and felt comfortable exercising their God-given right of self-defense, before Tonks finally bid them goodnight and left for her own room in the castle.

FitzSimmons then got ready for bed themselves, ready to start a new year of learning in the morning.

~FS~

At breakfast on said following morning, Professor McGonagall and the other Heads of House walked around the hall giving out everyone in the school their class schedules for the new year, along with, once that was done for first through fifth and seventh years, individually looking over the requested schedules of the sixth years to see whether they could continue on to their requested NEWTs.

And for all of the other seventh years whom they saw and when Professor McGonagall got to them, she simply handed them a schedule, asking no questions about what classes they wanted to continue taking. And when they looked down at their schedule they found that it contained all ten classes that they had applied to take the NEWTs for the previous year, strengthening their suspicion that unless you completely bombed a class you were automatically given the same seventh year classes as you had taken sixth year — and maybe were given even if you did completely bomb a class, as no one was ever failed for bad grades, at that school or any other pre-college school. Which meant that presumably everyone would return for DADA despite Snape's insistence otherwise at the start of the previous year, to the betterment of the wizarding world at large by giving everyone another year of studying self-defense. But as they didn't have DADA until Wednesdays and Fridays, they wouldn't be able to find out for sure until later in the week, nor would they get to see Tonks in action until then, either.

But the classes that they did have that day all went smoothly and had all of the same people in them as the year before, and soon their last first day of magic school was over and they were eating supper in the Great Hall with everyone else. And as they ate, a random third year Gryffindor delivered them a note from Dumbledore requesting their presence in his office that evening. So at the appropriate time they left their head dorm and trekked the familiar path to the headmaster's office, wondering what he could want with them.

Once they were all settled in his office Dumbledore said to FitzSimmons, "The Minister of Magic has desired to meet with Harry Potter ever since he came into office. I always told him 'no', that you were students and should be left as such, but now that you are of age, it is time that it becomes your own decision. And the Minister knows, or at least should know if he was actually listening to me, that it will be both of you if you do agree. And also, he can't arrest you if you say something that he doesn't like, or you slap him."

FitzSimmons glanced at each other in a quick psychic conversation, before Simmons answered, "We've got wands to keep that from happening, but yes, we will meet with him. We can handle a politician, even if we normally try to avoid them like every sane person does. I'm sure he won't like what we have to say to him, though, regardless of what he wants to talk about."

"Then I will set up a meeting and let you know the time," Dumbledore replied.

And so the following evening FitzSimmons met with Minister Scimgeour in Dumbledore's office, Dumbledore making himself scarce as promised to the Minister to give them their privacy.

Once greetings were exchanged, Scrimgeour said to Fitz, "I've wanted to meet you for a very long time, Harry. Did you know that?"

"Dumbledore said yesterday that he had been protecting our studentness for the past year, ever since you replaced Fudge," Fitz answered.

"Yes, well, Dumbledore has been very protective of you. Natural, of course, natural, after what you've been through. And it is true, I have been hoping for an occasion to talk to you ever since I gained office. But like we've said, Dumbledore has — most understandably — prevented this until now that you are of age."

The Minister paused for several seconds as if he expected FitzSimmons to make some comment about this trivial repetition of what had already been said and was of no importance anyway, until finally realizing that they were going to just keep sitting there looking at him until he actually said something (possibly until they had classes to attend the following morning), and continued on.

"The rumors that have spread after a prophecy was stolen from the Ministry a little over a year ago! Well, of course, we all know how these stories get distorted...whispers of a prophecy of you being 'the Chosen One', Harry. I assume that Dumbledore has discussed these matters with you?"

"Rumors? No — we've discussed no rumors," Fitz answered truthfully, shaking his head.

They had discussed facts about the prophecy, but no rumors. Or geese. Their discussions had zero rumors or geese. They were goose and rumor free.

"Oh!" Scimgeour replied in clear shock.

He had obviously been expecting Harry to say 'yes', which was quite reasonable really considering that Dumbledore had discussed with them prophecy that Scrimgeour was actually asking about. But he had left open the ability to answer a different though similar question, and FitzSimmons wanted him off his guard as much as possible — made him accidentally slipping up and saying what he really meant, instead of what he wanted them to think he meant, all the more likely.

After a few seconds of mentally scrambling for how to continue his conversation now with this unexpected turn of events, he finally said rhetorically, "Well, does it really matter whether you are 'the Chosen One' or not that the stolen prophecy is rumored to have been about?"

"Seems like it might matter just a teensy bit to us," Simmons answered dryly.

"Well, of course, to you it will matter enormously!" Scrimgeour said with a laugh that didn't seem all that appropriate to the situation, considering the fact that 'Chosen Ones' usually died or came very near, even if most of them got better later. "But to the Wizarding community at large...it's all perception, isn't it? It's what people believe that's important. Most of them already think you quite the hero — which, of course, you are, Harry, chosen or not! You're the only person to have ever faced He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and survived, defeating him the first time sixteen years ago. But my point is, you can be a symbol of hope for many, Harry. The idea that there is somebody out there who might be able, who might even be destined, to destroy He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named — well, naturally, it would give people a lift. And I can't help but feel that, once you realize this, you might consider it, well, almost a duty to stand alongside the Ministry and give everyone a boost."

"Funny — when I think of duty in relation to a government, it's a little different," Fitz answered dryly, but not elaborating any further on his own.

So after a second, and very predictably, Scrimgeour asked, "And what do you think of when you think of your duties to your Ministry?"

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security," Fitz answered. "Remember two years ago when you were not only denying the possibility that Riddle was back, but trying to kick Dumbledore out of Hogwarts and take over the school in order to turn it into a Ministry brainwashing camp? When Umbridge and Fudge kept giving themselves more and more power over the school that they had no right to, and continued on with Fudge through Percy Weasley when Umbridge was executed for treason against the British citizens, human rights violations, and child abuse with her quill that cut the back of the user's hand and used their blood as its ink? Any of that ringing a bell for you?

"Well, it does for us since we had to live through it, and there were definitely abuses and usurpations going on by the Ministry, and they all appeared to be pursuing the same object of overthrowing Hogwarts and turning it into another branch of the Ministry just like the Daily Prophet had already been, instead of being a school like it's supposed to be. And what greater despotism is there than a government that lies to the people it's supposed to be serving about what threats they are facing, and censors and silences anyone who would try to warn their fellow man about the dangers that they are all actually facing, and takes over all of the schools in the country in order to not only brainwash all of the next generation into believing that there is no threat so long as the government says that there is no threat, but also to teach all of those students that self-defense is a morally bad thing, and that they should rely entirely on the government to always protect them from everything. We read Umbridge's propaganda textbook multiple times over — did you ever bother reading once what the Ministry was trying to beat into students' minds?

"My point being, if we're going to talk about our duties in respect to the Ministry of Magic as it currently exists, it seems to us like we're a lot closer to the duties expounded in the Declaration of Independence than the duties that you claim exist about telling everyone that the Ministry is wonderful and doing a great job, and that no one should worry about anything because someone else will save them. Because that's what you're wanting to say, right? That 'Harry Potter' will save them because he's the Chosen One and he's already destined to do it, so they shouldn't even try to kill Riddle and his terrorist followers themselves? Because that's sure what it sounds like to us, more 'trust the government' instead of 'learn how to protect yourself and do it'.

"And I guess this would also be a good time to tell you that we don't believe in prophecies. Not only do they give people who could otherwise do great good an excuse not to even try, not to put themselves in any kind of danger because someone else will, but we also know for an absolute fact that the future can be changed. Therefore, the outcome of any prophecy can be changed from what is currently prophesied if people are just willing to try hard enough and put their own lives and safety on the line for what they believe in. Maybe according to some prophecy that you clearly don't have I am the one who will kill Riddle one day — doesn't mean that's the way Riddle will actually be killed, if the next time he shows up at someone's house to threaten them if they don't do something for him, they just kill him instead and end this war right then and there with me nowhere nearby.

"So, no, we don't consider it our duty to stand alongside the Ministry to give anyone a boost, and especially your polling numbers a boost. If you and the Ministry are at an all-time low in public opinion, you have to earn their trust and belief and respect back — you can't just tell everyone that Harry Potter supports you, and therefore they all should too."

Scrimgeour stared at Fitz in shock for a long time, never having heard anyone, let alone a student, tear down the perfect government that he and most of the nation worshipped like a god — or threaten insurrection/revolution against said holy institution.

But he had regrettably promised Dumbledore not to attempt to arrest them, so when he finally collected his ego from the floor where it had just been stomped into a million tiny pieces, he wheedled, "I'm not asking you for anything at all onerous or immoral, I assure you. If you were simply to be seen popping in and out of the Ministry from time to time, for instance, that would give the right impression to the country. It would give everyone a lift to think you were more involved, Harry. 'The Boy Who Lived,' you know…it's all about giving people hope, the feeling that exciting things are happening, that you, a person they look up to and revere, approve of what the Ministry's up to, perhaps even working for the Ministry yourself. It wouldn't matter that you really weren't, wouldn't matter whether you actually are the Chosen One or not, it would appear that way to the people. All while being no stress on you, and requiring no actual support of the Ministry by you if you really don't approve of what we're doing to try to protect Britain."

"The man said no," Simmons stated coldly. "No means no. We don't support you, and acting like we're working for you or approve of you is supporting you. There is no such thing as disapproving of something while actively showing support for it through actions, unless you're infiltrating it as a spy to gain information about the organization in order to bring it crumbling to the ground later — which I have a feeling you really don't want us doing. So no — we will not be seen anywhere near the Ministry unless we are throwing it off and preparing to provide new guards for our future security, as written by our fellow Brit many score ago."

When Scrimgeour spoke again, it was just as coldly as Simmons had just spoken. "I see. You prefer to disassociate yourself from the Ministry."

"We have a long and generally bad history of governmental interference in our lives, and the lives of everyone whom they're supposed to be serving, so yeah — we kind of generally prefer disassociating with any government whenever possible," Fitz answered in a hard tone. "Now do you have anything to say to us that isn't trying to make 'Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived' your lap dog mascot, or can we go? We have more important things to be doing right now than arguing about this stupidity."

Sensing that he'd lost that fight for good, Scrimgeour abandoned all attempts at subtlety and demanded, "What is Dumbledore up to? Where does he go when he is absent from Hogwarts?"

"Like he'd tell two students," Simmons retorted, not actually answering the question at all.

"And you wouldn't tell me if you did know, would you?" Scrimgeour snarled.

"You're the government — of course we wouldn't tell you anything," Simmons answered. "Haven't you listened to a bloody word we've said to you this entire discussion? It's like you're still under the delusion that we don't think you're all pieces of shite that we'd be better off without."

"Well then, I shall have to see whether I can't find out by other means."

"And waste taxpayers' money doing so — see, it's things like this that are exactly why you're the most hated institutions in all of existence," Fitz replied, rolling his eyes at the Minister's — and most politicians and elites' — obliviousness to reality. "Lots of other reasons as well, of course, led by trampling all over their God-given rights, but wasting people's hard earned money on 'investigations' that they don't give two shits about, don't want, and certainly don't need, is high on that list of reasons why they hate you and want to see you burn to the ground. A dead gorilla from a zoo would probably get more votes if he was seriously ran as a candidate, since he at least couldn't waste any money, and certainly has a higher public approval rating than any politician currently living."

And before Scrimgeour could say anything to that, Simmons said primly, "We voluntarily agreed to this meeting, and we're ending it as well. There is clearly nothing here for us to discuss, and like Harry said a minute ago, we have better things to be doing. So goodbye, and quite frankly, go fuck yourself."

And with that she and Fitz stood up, strode over to the door and threw it open, exiting down the spiral staircase without even bothering to shut Dumbledore's door back behind them, the Minister not even worth slamming the door on.