Dear Conny,
I hope you are well. Unfortunately, I'm not able to answer your past letter were you wrote about the young girl that is staying with you. I don't know how to ease you into this news, so I will just give it to you straight: He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back. He killed one of our students. Harry Potter saw him gain his body and his power back. I don't have time to write the details to you; some of them I haven't figured out for myself yet. I'm writing you because I think you need to know as soon as possible so that you can start and protect yourself. Albus also wanted me to write to you as soon as possible. He thinks the ministry will not accept that You-Know-Who is back and will not take action until it's too late. He wants you to protect the squibs because the ministry no longer can. We would both like to apparate next tuesday morning at 10 o'clock in your living room. Please write me back as soon as possible if that's convenient for you. It's best if your new friend will not be present for this conversation.
Your friend,
Minerva
Conny met Minerva because she was friends with her older sister. They were in the same year at Hogwarts together. Minerva one time spent Easter holiday at Conny's childhood home. Conny was home from boarding school as well and she really liked spending time with Minerva, discussing the language of spells; Conny followed Latin in school and noticed that all spells were derived from or in Latin. Minerva and Conny even tried to come up with some new spells, but Minerva was cautious enough not to try and use them without consulting a teacher first. After that, they stayed in touch. When she visited her relatives in Hogsmeade, she always drank some tea with Minerva as well. When Minerva lived in Hogsmeade with her husband, she sometimes came over to their house and ate dinner there. They both were very pleasant company. After Elphinstone's death, Minerva became more closed off, but they still corresponded with each other and in the last few years Minerva started visiting Conny and her family again.
Right now, Conny's mind wasn't pondering over her friendship with Minerva. She was in shock. Fear took over her body and her hands started to tremble. She didn't want to do this again. Hide. Barely see her family. Always live in fear that something will happen to her loved ones. She turned down the stove, which had Anna's and her breakfast cooking. She went to her bathroom to cry. Whilst wiping away her tears, she needed to come up with a story to tell Anna. Conny still didn't like lying after all those years. Surprisingly, she didn't have to lie much at all in her life. In boarding school, she would tell her classmates that her parents lived in a community in Scotland that was so rural that they didn't have electricity. That wasn't really a lie and it prevented some teenage girls asking her to take them to her parents'. A few years ago she could stop lying to her best friend because her daughter married a wizard; Conny even introduced the two. However, right now, she needed to tell Anna something to get her out of the apartment next Tuesday. Conny wiped away her tears and finished making breakfast. As Anna sat down for her breakfast, Conny told her; 'I just got a message from a friend of mine about something urgent from my work. I need to have a meeting with her and with her boss. I can't tell you much, it's a bit classified. It can't be at my office because my friends boss thinks it's not safe to do so, so it will be in our house.' Anna looked puzzled. 'I thought you didn't have a super secretive job, but this sounds very strange and dangerous to me.' 'Well, I don't have a very secretive job and it's certainly not dangerous,' responded Conny. 'Only I know a few people that monitor people or groups of people that might be a danger to society and I just heard that a highly dangerous individual has re-entered the country. But unfortunately, the people who's department it is to take action, won't take action, so now we're trying to get a few people together to at least make the people who are the most vulnerable to him safe.' 'I think I understand,' said Anna. 'Should I feel scared?' 'No, not as long you are with me. You can do all the normal things you did before. Right now there doesn't seem to be an immediate risk to the general public.' Conny hoped that that wasn't a lie. She would soon hear what Dumbledore had to say about all of this.
On Tuesday morning Anna took herself out for some shopping for some essentials she needed when the baby was born. She would take herself out for some lunch as well so Conny could have a few hours to hear what Dumbledore's plan was. At precisely 10 o'clock Minerva and Dumbledore apparated in her living room. 'Good morning Conny', said Dumbledore as he walked up to shake her hand. 'I'm sorry we had to apparate in your living room, but this was the safest option. 'I understand.' Said Conny. 'Would you like a cup of tea?' 'Allow me.' Said Dumbledore. He waved his wand in the air and a teapot appeared, filled itself with water and tealeaves and landed gently on the table. 'I'm in a bit of a hurry,' he explained himself. 'The return of Voldemort has packed my schedule.' Conny nodded and quickly grabbed the fruitcake she had made. Minerva had stayed silent and was now pouring tea in the three mugs that had appeared after the teapot. Her lips were very thin and she had a serious look on her face. Dumbledore started to talk while he sipped from his tea. He told about the Triwizard tournament, that Harry Potter suddenly came out of the goblet of fire, the tests the students had to endure and what happened to Harry and Cedric after they touched the cup in the maze. When Dumbledore was done, Conny dabbed her eyes with a tissue and the heard Minerva blow her nose in her handkerchief. After the women gathered themselves, Dumbledore told Conny about the falling out he had with Fudge. 'So now Voldemort has all the time in the world to gain his followers and his allies back without the ministry doing anything to stop him,' Dumbledore concluded. 'And I'm afraid that Voldemort eventually will try to infiltrate in the ministry. That will leave a lot of unfortunate souls exposed. Including all the squibs you keep contact with.' Conny nodded. It had crossed her mind too these past days. Only then, she was able to brush it off as an absolute worst case scenario that would almost certainly never happen. But now she heard Dumbledore almost confirm her thoughts; if You-Know-Who wasn't stopped, the ministry would be at risk. 'What can I do?' Asked Conny with a soft voice. 'First, we would need to destroy any record you keep of squibs at the ministry', said Dumbledore. 'I think you should keep these records well protected in your home and quit your job at the ministry. You can protect everyone better if you don't work there anymore.' Conny held back her tears while she nodded again, as Dumbledore laid out his plan.
--
That Friday, Conny held a basket with inside a cat hidden away. She tried to be her normal cheerful self when she entered the ministry. Some of her colleagues asked what was in the basket. 'A cat,' she responded. 'One of my friends needed me to watch her cat, but this creature ruined my couch while I was out yesterday to do some grocery shopping. So she'll come with me today so I can keep an eye on her.'
When she finally reached her office, she gave out a sigh of relief. 'I locked my office Minerva,' she said as she let out the cat. 'Alright, let's start then,' Minerva said back in her human form. She opened a small box and put her arm inside and started bringing out files filled with paper. Meanwhile, Conny started to empty the file drawers in her desk. They didn't have much room to work, as Conny's office was only slightly bigger then a broomcloset; a small desk that stood against the wall and a lot of shelves with books, files and some knickknacks. It looked a bit messy because of the small space, but Conny had a neat filing system in place; everything was labelled and organised. She emptied out all her files and boxes where she kept the correspondence and all the information about the squibs. She neatly put it in the new folders while Minerva filled the now empty ones with papers full of gibberish. It took them nearly the entire day, because Conny wanted to handle the transfer of files by herself. Fortunately, no one noticed that they were replacing all of Conny's files; Conny had no colleagues that she worked with, only a meeting every few months with Fudge about how things were going. She only had two colleagues that she frequently had lunch with from the department of mysteries. On Fridays however, they both had other obligations. At half past five, Conny left her office, leaving everything seemingly as it was. Only when she got back home, is when she let Minerva out of the basket.
--
One month later, during her meeting with Fudge, Conny handed in her notice. Without Fudge's knowing, she had an incredible busy month. She visited all the squibs in the UK, some of them several times, to let them know about You-Know-Who's return. She taught the ones who still lived in the wizarding world how to post a letter and gave them the adress of a postbox a few miles from her house. They all practised and where able to send her a letter. Now, she could stay in contact with them without her or their information to be revealed, would an owl get lost or intercepted. All the squibs knew that they should be careful with talking to people from the ministry about themselves or Conny.
Fudge didn't seem to care about Conny quitting; he never cared much about squibs and their family's. Conny noticed Fudge seemed absent. He obviously had a lot on his mind; there was a lost of unrest since the news about You-Know-Who's return. The smear campaign from the Daily Prophet calling Dumbledore a liar and getting senile seemed to work, but now people were talking about Dumbledore's state of mind and the quality of education at Hogwarts. Fudge agreed with the two week notice Conny proposed. He said that she should leave the files in her office and hand him the keys; he could give them to her successor. They both new there would never be one.