Sirius was waiting for Harry at the gates. "Dumbledore was furious when finding out that you stayed with me the whole summer. He wanted me to send you to spend a few weeks at Privet Drive. I told him that your relatives moved and didn't leave a forwarding address. That practically forced me to shoulder your guardianship." He chuckled, thinking of the earlier confrontation.
"I'm sure he's not pleased at all," Harry said, barely holding back a smile.
"He isn't. He wants to see you as soon as you finish dinner. Both of us, really," Sirius confirmed.
"I hope you strengthened your Occlumency shields during the summer," Harry said.
Sirius had a predatory smile. "I've gone a step farther. The Black grimoire has a few variations on Occlumency, some quite nasty. I expect that we shall soon see what they can do."
\/\/\/
There were no surprises during the sorting. Luna went to Ravenclaw, as she expected, and Ginny was sorted into Gryffindor, like the rest of her siblings. Harry was somewhat disappointed to learn that Ron managed to somehow pass and stay with his year-mates. Well, it would have been quite humiliating for him to be in the same year as his little sister. Harry suspected that in such a case, she would have turned into a better student. Well, she couldn't be much worse.
Ron, unsurprisingly, chose to sit at Harry's side. "How were your grades?" Harry asked him.
"Mostly A's. I failed at Potions, but Mum talked to Professor McGonagall and she said she would give me another chance. I really don't understand all the fuss about grades. It's all just so boring!" There was no surprise in Ron's words either.
"How were yours?" Ron asked in an afterthought.
"I did quite well. Sirius said I was doing as well as my mother did at that age." Harry was glad not to give any concrete grades. This didn't seem to matter to Ron.
"Oh… I wonder if we'll have another DADA teacher this year." Ron didn't elaborate. Food appeared on the table, and that was certainly more interesting than grades or any other school-related matter, at least for Ron.
\/\/\/
Sirius came to his side as soon as Dinner was over. He greeted Neville and Ron politely and winked at Hermione as he led Harry out. It only took them a short while to reach the headmaster's office. Dumbledore was already waiting there, with the door left open.
As soon as they sat down, the headmaster turned to Harry. "I expected you to stay with your relatives for the summer. How come you didn't go there?"
Harry had his story ready. "Well, they didn't come to get me and I couldn't go there by myself. Hermione's parents were kind enough to invite me to come with them. I then tried to call my aunt, but there was no answer. Eventually, Sirius came and took me to his home, since he found out that the Dursleys had moved."
Dumbledore sighed. "I don't know what got into them. It was explained to them that they needed to stay there until you reached seventeen. Why would they do otherwise?"
Harry replied, although this was more of a rhetoric question. "They're Muggles. Whatever you tell them is just the words of an old 'freak', as they call magical people. Why should they listen to somebody they don't know and don't care about?"
Dumbledore seemed to give it some thought and then sighed again. "That may be the right explanation, especially since the neighbours started gossiping, thinking they illegally got rid of you. It's a pity, though. That place had the best wards for your protection. With your aunt gone and you not spending time there, they're bound to collapse, or may have already collapsed."
Dumbledore sighed again. "May I understand that you now live at Sirius's home?"
"Yes. Since my aunt no longer wanted me, he took my guardianship and I'm very happy with that." Harry didn't need to fake happiness.
"That's good to hear. You should also know that I am your magical guardian. That means..."
Sirius interrupted. "Correction. You were his magical guardian. Once I was officially assigned muggle guardianship of Harry, I applied for the magical one as well. It was granted to me with no problems. I'm now Harry's guardian in both muggle and magical worlds."
Dumbledore lost his grandfatherly mask for a moment, showing his surprise. He regained control immediately. "Well, that was… unexpected, my boy. I assume you're happy with this too."
Harry nodded vigorously.
Dumbledore still didn't seem happy with the situation, especially since he didn't have any alternative plan for such a situation. He just dismissed them both.
\/\/\/
"How did it go?" Hermione asked him as soon as she had a chance.
Harry shrugged. "Well, I think. Dumbledore wasn't happy about Sirius becoming my guardian but thought that he still had magical guardianship. When told this was also Sirius's, he was too surprised to do anything. I suspect it will take him a few weeks of planning before he tries anything."
"Well, that will give you some more time to perfect your Occlumency shields."
\/\/\/
Since Sirius's trial, Harry wanted to also deal with Umbridge. The way he saw it, from memories of his other self, she was almost worse than Voldemort. While he wanted to dominate the world by any possible means, she enjoyed torturing the Hogwarts students, and later all Muggle-born. He'd been too busy with other matters since, but the start of term seemed a good time to tackle this problem. He thought that if she dragged Fudge with her, it wouldn't be a loss either. The corrupt minister, according to those same memories, had been an obstacle in fighting the dark lord, being easily bought by Malfoy and his likes and unwilling to do anything that might stir the public or slow the money flowing into his pockets.
"I think it's not too early to deal with the pink toad," he told Hermione.
"What do you have in mind?" she asked.
"I thought that the way we handled Crouch could be useful for this too," he suggested.
Hermione gave the idea a long thought. "We must be cautious about this. She's very close to the minister, you know, and he might like to protect her."
"Not if that implicates him too. I don't think he'll be able to come out clean, but as far as I know, he'll let her drown as long as he believes that would keep him afloat."
"That's quite a cynical way of looking at it," Hermione commented.
Harry shrugged. "That's politics for you. We shall have to phrase our letter very carefully so that it will only imply that such a corrupt aide would paint the minister in a wrong light and that the public shouldn't get the wrong impression of our illustrious minister."
"That's quite Slytherin of you," she chuckled.
"Well, you already know that I was almost sorted there."
\/\/\/
It took them two more weeks before they finished phrasing the letter to Madam Bones to their satisfaction. Just to be on the safe side, they also prepared letters for the Prophet and the Quibbler, in case the Minister would hush it up. Hermione didn't believe he would dare, but Harry wanted to make sure.
Once again, Madam Bones proved to be very efficient. It was only two weeks later when the Prophet was decorated with the image of the pink toad in handcuffs and the headline read, "Senior Undersecretary Umbridge arrested for bribe and blackmail." A secondary headline, in smaller font, stated that "Minister Fudge took a leave of absence for the duration of the investigation." Although none of them had been convicted yet, Harry considered it a significant step to victory.
\/\/\/
Down in the DOM, Voldemort was unsure what to do. The body he'd been residing in for more than a year was dying. The healers that checked it that morning weren't sure if it would even survive to the end of the day. He wasn't sure what would happen to him if that body died. Whatever bound him to that body didn't seem to weaken and he couldn't even instruct somebody to undo it, not knowing what it was. On the other hand, his weakness seemed to indicate that at least some of his Horcruxes had been compromised. What if they'd been destroyed? Could he survive without them if this body died?
He then thought of the Dark Mark. He wasn't sure he could access it from afar in his current condition, but he didn't see any other alternative. Well, there was one unspeakable who'd been in his inner circle. He was close enough to be summoned through that mark.
It took Voldemort most of his remaining strength to summon Yaxley, whom he knew to work at the Ministry, to Quirrell's bed. "Show me your mark," he hissed in a barely heard hush.
Yaxley wasn't too surprised by the summons. Like other "imperiused" Death-Eaters, he knew that the Dark Lord hadn't completely died previously and suspected that the Dark Lord was almost powerless, but still didn't dare disobey. The penalty for disobedience could be extremely painful. He did as requested. He lifted his left sleeve and showed the mark.
"Move it closer to my hand," he heard the hiss.
He moved it as close to the hand near him as he could. A single finger moved slowly forward and pressed on the mark. It was still very painful, but very brief too. Unknown to Yaxley, Voldemort was trying to suck as much power as he could from his followers, yet he didn't plan it right, in his panic. He took the most from the one closest to him, although each and every marked Death Eater suffered too.
Yaxley died of magical exhaustion less than a minute after that finger pressed on his Dark Mark. Other Death Eaters who were at or near the Ministry suffered a similar fate. Others, in greater London, also lost most of their magic. Only a few survived to see the next day. Those who were farther away were not affected as much. Most would be ill for a few days, up to a week, but would eventually recuperate, although their left arm would give them pains till the end of their lives.
Malfoy and Snape had the misfortune of meeting in London that day; Nott was visiting Macnair at the Ministry; Avery needed some supplies from Diagon Alley. Only Crabbe Sr. and Goyle Sr. stayed at home, far away from London.
Voldemort took all that he could, but that wasn't enough, and the quick death of Yaxley surprised him. With that servant dead, he had no way to suck more power, and what he had was dwindling almost as fast as it had come in.
Quirrell finally died about an hour later, but two souls left his body and were banished to another plane of existence. One, Quirrell's, accepted this as a release from the torturous existence it had since taking in Voldemort's soul. The other screamed in protest and rage, unwilling to admit defeat, unwilling to accept the inevitable – to no avail.
\/\/\/
The next day's headline claimed, "Mysterious malady claimed the lives of several upstanding citizens and put to bed many more." Harry looked with interest at the list of deceased and ill. He knew them all. Each and every one of them was a Death Eater. He didn't feel sorry for any of them. He only felt sorry for their children, well… most of them. It was difficult to feel sorry for Malfoy, although he couldn't say that he knew much about young Nott. Both were missing at breakfast, as were quite a few from the Slytherin house, although he later learned that some students from other houses were also affected.
"What is that mysterious malady, do you have any idea?" he asked Hermione quietly.
She smiled. "With nothing to hold Voldemort's soul to this plane, once Quirrell died, he had to die too. He probably tried to suck powers from his followers in order to defeat Death. It looks like he failed."
She pointed at a small item on one of the inner pages of the paper. "Former Professor Quirrel died yesterday of his unexplained illness while at the DOM. His body was released to his relatives for burial." Neither the main article nor the announcement mentioned the Dark Mark that was seen on all the victims.
\/\/\/
These unfortunate events didn't affect the Umbridge investigation, which turned out to expose more and more corruption at the ministry. Unfortunately, that mysterious malady also took many of the suspects, but not before the DMLE found all the relevant documents and other incriminating evidence. Madam Bones was surprised that three of the Aurors were also among the victims of that malady, but felt quite relieved to get rid of three Death Eaters hiding in her service. Of course, this was never mentioned officially.
Although the investigation was still going in full force, there already was more than enough information gathered to convict Umbridge and send her to Azkaban for the rest of her life. The trial was set quickly. At the trial, Umbridge refused Veritaserum and claimed, "All I did was within my authority and with the minister's full knowledge and approval."
Unfortunately for her, Minister Fudge had disappeared two days after her arrest and nobody knew where he'd gone. She was sentenced to ten years in prison for each case of bribery and twelve for each case of blackmail She got a total of over seven hundred years in prison. Nobody expected her to ever come out of it.
Harry had not been glad to hear about most of the other people imprisoned or executed as a result of his previous initiatives. In this case, he was actually gloating.
"The toad got what she deserved!" he said with satisfaction. Hermione only nodded hesitantly, despite agreeing with him.
\/\/\/
Dumbledore was wise enough to see the connection between some events. He grieved the loss of Severus, but that was clearly the result of bearing the Dark Mark. His sources told him that each of the victims had that mark and it seemed to burn their flesh before causing their death. Those who only got ill, also had their mark burn deep gashes in their arms along with causing various levels of magical exhaustion. He dared not believe that this was really the end of Voldemort, since he could not see Harry's hand in it, but all the signs seemed to indicate that it was. Well, he'd need to think this over when he had some free time. Unless he found some, it would only happen during the summer vacation. Well, this didn't seem to be urgent.