Christmas break was soon over, and Harry was back at Hogwarts.
"I don't wanna go back," he groaned, as he complained to Sirius and Remus at the platform.
But here he was: getting detention with Umbridge, ignored by Dumbledore, and his private thoughts violated by Snape on a regular basis.
"You gotta clear your mind." Snape told him, right after witnessing a memory of Harry and Draco making out in the brooms closet after one of Draco's quidditch practices.
How is he supposed to "clear his mind" when there is so much shit going on!
Voldemort is out there getting up to who knows what, haunting Harry's mind, and breaking his minions out of Azkaban.
"There was a massive breakout from Azkaban," Hermione read the Daily Prophet to them.
"Let me see!" Draco snatched it out of her hand, he read through the article. His eyes widened.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked, jumping out of his chair and standing next to him to read.
"My aunt." Draco simply said, "she's one of the escaped Death Eater."
Nobody said anything.
"She's very dangerous." Draco added, throwing the Daily Prophet at the coffee table in the Ravenclaw common room.
Harry picked the Daily Prophet and continued reading, before he said furiously: "WHAT?!"
"What? Draco rushed to his side to read as well.
"They summoned Sirius for investigation."
"They did what?" Hermione asked surprised, and joined them on the couch.
"… the Department of Law Enforcement, suspecting that Black had a hand in breaking his former cellmates out, summoned him for further investigation." Draco read out loud.
"That's such bullshit." Harry said angrily, stood up, walked to his bag, and pulled out the mirror.
"Hey buddy!" Sirius's voice came out of the mirror.
"You were summoned for investigation by the Ministry?"
A minute of silence, before Sirius answered, no longer joyful: "I was."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it's nothing."
"They're trying to frame you for-"
"They can't." Sirius cut him off, "they don't have a case."
Sirius assured Harry.
Harry was not assured.
Meanwhile, the ministry continued to ignore the imminent threat of Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and instead targeted Harry and Dumbledore through Umbridge and her increasingly tyrannical rule over Hogwarts.
As High Inquisitor, Umbridge was auditing most classes and by March she fired Trelawney. To her dismay, however, Dumbledore hired a centaur instead. While the High Inquisitor could fire teachers, she could not hire them.
That wasn't an issue for long, though. Lucius Malfoy, as member of the Board of Hogwarts, weaponized the Ministry's hostility towards Dumbledore and managed to get the board to vote on his removal from office.
Hogwarts had a new headmistress: Dolores Umbridge.