As Hermione reviewed what the Prime Minister provided, she rubbed her head in anger. Not only was the book a best seller in the UK, it was starting to gain momentum around the world. The international articles discussed how the fans were eagerly waiting for the release of the second book the coming summer. Most of the countries listed were in the commonwealth and therefore had easy access to books published in the UK. Non-commonwealth countries were working to get publishing rights themselves or work with the British publisher and order books directly from them.

Children around the world planned to dress as Harry Potter for the upcoming Halloween festivities and many girls were finding comfort in the awkwardness that was Hermione Granger. Draco, to his credit, didn't smile, smirk or snicker when he read those articles. He knew how difficult Hermione's transition had been and these stories were tearing open those old wounds.

Draco and Harry sat around the witch each reading documents and taking notes on the important points. Harry let out a sigh. "So we can't stop the second book, there would be too many questions raised. This stack of notes are some questions and comments from the editors on plot points. Apparently there are a number of plot holes between the two books."

Harry cleared his throat with an uncomfortable cough catching the attention of his friends. "From what I can tell, the main plot about the chamber is as accurate as the description about Kings Cross and Diagon Alley was in the fist. This note is stating Ginny can't die." Harry's voice dropped as Hermione gasped.

"She is staying true to the story Harry. I was reading their notes from the first book. They talk about things with your mother's family. Things you've never told me outright, but I've suspected. The worst aspects of your life are documented in perfect honesty." Hermione closed her eyes and looked to the ceiling in worry. Draco growled before harshly standing and leaving the room. Hermione picked up his chair and read the notes he had thrown before leaving.

"Oh my. Harry keep reading, I have to find Draco." Hermione sprinted from the room and listened for the telltale sounds of her husband. She found him standing in the room where Caeli and the twins were sleeping, silently crying. Wrapping her arms around her husband, she led him from their children's room and into their own.

"I want to get her alone and do things before I allow her to be sent to Azkaban, Draco. The choices you made saved me, the real me. Skeeter hates us totally and completely. She is going to cause as much harm to the Malfoy name as she can. She is going to try and kill me. I know it. I doubt she will, the first book has me being the only reason Harry survived. I don't think that will change. But she won't have us together in the end."

Draco growled once more and held Hermione tighter. "It's like my nightmares. I'm afraid they are going to be real and you will leave me. That my family, my children, aren't real. That all we've done is just going to be a figment of my imagination. That I really am in Azkaban because no one believed I had no choice in my life." As Hermione held her husband, her anger grew hotter.

"Our life is solid, is real, in dreams you don't feel touches. Can you feel me?" Draco nodded into his wife's shoulder. "I have a plan, after reading those notes, there is no question it will work. I'm going to need you. I need you to help plot, to find the gaps, to identify the ways we could be caught, in other words I need every bit of cunning you possess Draco Malfoy. I said it before, with you by my side nothing will stop us."

Draco sighed. "Too bad you really didn't want to rule the world. We totally could have done it without all the murder or horcruxes." Hermione laughed and wiped both of their tears away.
"Come on, let's make a story line for how these books are going to go."

/*\\*/ /*\\*/ /*\\*/

Rita giggled as she read the contract, it was filled with little sections giving the movie studio complete artistic license. It really was better than she expected and she wanted to sign right then. The studio believed she had a lawyer and told her they expected an answer by the end of the next week. Their comments made Rita hold back on signing. What she wanted to do was sign it in front of the studio representative. So the contract would remain unsigned for another week and a half. Rita placed the contract on the shelf with the illegally obtained memories and pulled out the notes the editors had sent about the second book.

She read over the notes again and grudgingly began to make the changes they suggested. For some parts she'd need to review the memories knowing they probably wouldn't help. Most of the plot holes were because the memories were mere fantasies heavy on the importance of Ron Weasley and light on the actual details.

While Rita was reworking major parts of the story line, the auror department opted to use the stakeout as a way to test a batch of new spells and charms. The one they were finding the most useful showed them what the witch was doing and provided the corresponding audio. The Minister called it a video when the Department of Mysteries showed her the results of their recorded test.

For this stake out, there wasn't a lot of sound since she lived alone, but sometimes she'd start babbling about her future plans. All this was documented and just further proved the witch was a dangerous risk to the entire magical world.

After a week of constant surveillance, the order the aurors had been waiting to receive arrived. With renewed focus, the current team split their duties. One auror kept watch on the target, while the others observed the building's other inhabitants. Most left in the morning while those remaining were gone after lunch. On a typical day, the only person in the building after lunch and until dinnertime was Rita Skeeter.

Hermione sat next to Harry as the auror in-charge, Louis Von Camp, began to the meeting to discuss the plan to arrest the wanted felon. Draco, who was granted permission to attend the meeting, stood behind Hermione and silently listened. While Draco wouldn't be allowed to participate in the raid, Hermione and Harry would be there. Hermione promised Draco would be able to view her memories so he could experience the entire thing. There were a few points the aurors hadn't thought were important but could allow the witch to escape. Those were quickly mitigated and the timing of the raid was set for the next afternoon.

/*\\*/ /*\\*/ /*\\*/

The individuals participating in the raid quietly popped into an empty apartment across the hall from the targeted one. Louis established the anti-apparition and anti-port key wards over the Skeeter's apartment and the hall just outside the door immediately upon arrival. The windows, while open at the moment, would close and magically seal as soon as the raid started. The only door to the apartment would be where the Minister of Magic and Head of the DMLE stood. An undetectable and incredibly strong silencing spell was placed over individual rooms per the Minister's request.

The aurors had been told their only role was to ensure the suspect didn't get out of the apartment using magic or other means. All understood this raid was truly under the watch of the two most famous and powerful individuals since Merlin himself.

At the determined time, Hermione and Harry stepped from under Harry's cloak and silently opened the door. Their entry kicked off the entire raid. Hermione felt the wards settle over the apartment and watched as the windows slid silently shut and locked with a quiet click. The slight glimmer along the edges told her they had sealed as well. A moment later she heard the distinctive pop of the aurors arriving and a scream from the lone woman.

Harry erected a number of new shields Hermione taught him and prepared to face someone he'd hated since he was thirteen. The sneer on his face should stop her dead in her tracks, but if not, she would be faced with a pair of wands that knew war.

Hermione heard the rushing steps of the witch and summoned the wand from the counter just as Rita went to grab it. Hermione slipped it into her pocket with a sticking charm just in case Rita knew wandless magic.

Rita was shocked when her wand shot away from her, but was gobsmacked when she saw who had summoned it. She knew she was caught and only had way to escape. Since the wand was gone her only hope was the port key she had made for just such an emergency. Shooting the pair in the doorway a malicious smile, the witch screamed 'Portus' and gripping her necklace tightly. Instead of spinning away she heard laughs she'd hoped to never encounter again.

"Really Rita, you thought we'd allow apparition or port keys. You really have such little faith in us. You know what really happened in the war. And you give us so little credit. Did you think we'd become soft since we won? Hm, was that it? That was quite naive on your part. Or was it more that you just didn't think ahead? I would wager on that one. The world, our world, may not be in the same danger it was during the war, but the risk of the greater muggle world knowing, that will never abate. So we are trained to make it never happens."

Hermione glared at the witch who was frozen for more than one reason in the dirty apartment she'd called home for years. "Louis, what did you find in the other room?" A voice Rita assumed was this Louis bloke floated back towards them.

"Pretty much everything we expected ma'am. There are tons of memories, a pensive I'm pretty sure was stolen from the Ministry just after it fell all those years ago, the second book, what we already had from the publishing house, what appears to be completed books for years three through six, and an almost complete draft of year seven. We aren't totally finished in here just yet, it will probably take us another hour if not two before we are done." Hermione's smirk turned deadly as she removed and spun the wand formerly used by Rita Skeeter between her fingers.

"You see Rita, as the Minister I have the ability to snap wands." With a subtle flick of her wrist the wand was in two pieces and the magic seeped from it. "I also have at least an hour before anyone comes in here. You can scream all you want Rita, the silencing spell is an auror special, in fact as Minister I promise you will scream. No one outside of this room will hear you, even the aurors in the next room. You see, you've been silenced and soon, oh so soon, you'll be silenced for good."

Harry's dark laugh made Rita turn her focus back to him. She was afraid of Hermione, the girl trapped Rita in a glass jar for over a year, but Harry Potter was a different level of fear. "You see Rita, when I was thirteen you lied about me. Your lies made my life difficult, but a few years later you were discovered to be an absolute hoax. A fraud. A fantasy writer whose work inspired others to think they knew the truth. The Prophet recanted after your disappearance. Not sure if you knew that. But the editors admitted EVERY SINGLE THING that was ever printed with your byline was fraudulent. The stories were removed from the archive. It's as if you never existed." The pair looked to each other and nodded before slowly stepping into the room and shutting the door.

"Your information gatherers turned on you. I know you knew that, but quite a few of them were able to prove your use of spells that are highly illegal. To bad you weren't smart enough to modify the spells to make them legal. If you had, you'd not have been convicted." Hermione continued on Harry's thought.

Both knew Rita had never considered modifying spells. Never once did she think she could tweak spells to skirt the laws. If only she had, her thoughts were again interrupted. "That isn't a problem for me you see. I had years to practice this while at school. Again, I bet you didn't think of that. Your books are what is going to get you the equivalent sentence as the kiss. You've decided to go after the wrong people. Your grudge will be your ultimate downfall."

Harry stalked toward the woman with his wand pointed toward her. "I read the notes on your submitted book, what you wrote of my childhood. You wanted to capitalize on my pain. Since you were so interested in it, I think it's important for you to experience it." A flick of his wrist send a warning. As the witch hit the ground the pair standing laughed. "That was just the beginning."

/*\\*/ /*\\*/ /*\\*/

An hour and half later, two of the aurors bound the suspect with bindings created to ensure an animagus could not transform and took her away, while the rest of the team took the evidence and returned to the Ministry. Hermione and Harry walked through the apartment once more to make sure nothing was left to evidence the existence a witch lived there. Hermione's final act was to set a note and keys on the counter. The landlord would find them eventually.

Draco impatiently waited for his wife in her office. At her appearance, the wizard sighed in relief and stepped toward her. Shaking her head, Hermione sent a vial on her desk filled with blonde hairs. "In a moment Draco, the place was filthy, I need to change. Harry's doing the same and should be here in 10 minutes or so." Draco, finally able to sit after seeing his wife safe, whole and uninjured, waited for the pair to fill him in before he watched the memories himself.

A freshly showered and dressed Hermione curled on her husband's lap and told him the story and giggled the entire way through it. After watching both sets of memories, Draco looked to his wife with awe. They'd all seen death, destruction and pain during the war. Sometimes it was inflicted on them, sometimes they inflicted it on others and what he'd witnessed rivaled anything they had done during those dark days.

"Damn baby, that was incredibly hot. I mean seriously, you told her it was for the greater good? I don't know how either of didn't laugh." Hermione's giggle was light and happy, it was what she sounded like before everything she'd been forced to see and do.

"Draco, we aren't taking over the world. I have enough responsibility with you and the kids. Add Harry, Phil and Wills when Claudia isn't around and I'm stretched to my limit. The world can just think magic is a fantasy. We have five books to make it right and not to mention the movies. Harry's story will be told without giving away our secret."

And all was right in the world.

/*\\*/ /*\\*/ /*\\*/

A/N: So this started as a Scorpius centric story and morphed into this. Thanks to everyone whose followed, favorited and reviewed. Stay safe. For those of you critical to ensuring the rest of our safety, thank you. For the rest of us, stay home, there's nothing more important than protecting those you love. It's hard to stay away from friends and family but it's better than dying. Sorry, off my soap box.

See you all next time.