One Day They'll Know Your Name

Unknown names

He sighed, putting down the Daily Prophet. Once again, Sirius was on the front page with Fudge and his Undersecretary, Madam Umbridge proclaiming that they had nearly caught the "dangerous fugitive." He shook his head and snorted. If he knew Sirius, he had disappeared somewhere where only Harry and authorized owls could find him and stayed there. Either that or he had just done something stupid and simple like put on a hat and gone out every day despite the Ministry having every eye looking for him. He decided to call Kreacher and find out how his old friend was doing from the elf's perspective. He doubted Sirius would answer his question in a letter, if at all.

"Kreacher!" he said conversationally.

"Master R-"

"How is Sirius doing, Kreacher?" he asked, cutting the elf off. He hated doing it, but he knew he didn't have much time before Kreacher needed to start dinner. He shook his head at his friend's uselessness in the kitchen. His own years alone had taught him how to cook at least. Sirius had just been stuck in Azkaban, so he figured he should cut the man some slack.

"Master Sirius is doing well," Kreacher started. "But he is being very sad that Young Master Harry is not being able to be coming home for Yule."

"And how is he doing with the whole fugitive status thing?"

"Master Sirius is being not stupid for once. When he goes out he is wearing a different glamour each time. He is going out many times and complaining of being stuck in the great house of the Blacks."

He laughed. "Yes, Sirius always did hate being cooped up. Don't take it personally, Kreacher. Can you tell me anything about how Harry's handling it? He seems to be doing fine, but he's always surrounded by his friends."

"Kreacher is not knowing how Young Master Harry is doing. Young Master Harry is not calling for Kreacher while at Hoggywarts."

"Alright, thank you Kreacher. You should probably get back before Sirius finds you missing."

With a near silent pop, the house elf was gone, and he sighed again, opening the Daily Prophet to look for news that wasn't about Sirius.

************

Derek hummed to himself as he walked towards the grounds. Even though the grass was covered in snow, it was still a nice day, so he wanted to spend his Saturday afternoon walking around the lake.

About halfway around the lake, he saw a group of kids petting a large dog in the distance. Derek grinned and started walking faster. He loved dogs. As he got closer, the large dog kept getting bigger, until it was twice as big as Fang. Derek was getting a little nervous now, but he kept walking. The kids seemed to be having fun, so it was probably fine.

He was finally close enough to see clearly and stopped dead. That was not a dog. It wasn't even a wolf. Ok it was a wolf but it was huge! He remembered reading through Scamander's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and gulped as he realized exactly what this was. Four students were petting and playing with a mostly grown dire wolf. Looking closer, he found out it was Harry Carian's friend group, but without mini-Malfoy. The kid probably didn't want to come outside for some reason. Either that or Derek just couldn't see him because he was on the other side of the dire wolf that these third years had apparently tamed during Yule break. Derek began walking away slowly. Only this group would be able to tame such a creature and live.

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Jormungandr slithered through the halls of the manyhatchlinghome that Harry Hatchling brought him to for the coldlongsleep time of the year. He had caught a scenttaste of smallfurredprey and was hunting for it. He had almost caught it when the scenttaste changed. The smallfurredprey suddenly smelltasted like the bigfurrednotpreyman Harry Hatchling lived with during the hotlongday time. Jormungandr quickly slithered behind a door before smallfurredpreyman could see him. He had to tell Harry Hatchling about this.

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Amelia Bones groaned. It had already been a long day, and she had a few more hours yet to go. She was getting close to figuring out who exactly had had the brilliant idea of telling the Daily Prophet that Sirius Black was still a fugitive even though the man had been cleared in 1991. She had ruled out the lower positions in the Aurors and was working her way through the higher positions. She didn't think it was one of the Aurors, however. Even if, as she strongly suspected, some of her people were taking bribes or had been Death Eaters when Voldemort was still alive, most of them still respected Sirius Black, even if they didn't exactly like him. Respect among the Aurors was rare, and it went a long way in making sure that they didn't betray their own. Naturally the Aurors had had their respect in Black shaken during his stint in Azkaban, but when he was tried and proven innocent, their respect had increased, knowing that he had done his best with what he had.

None the less, Amelia knew she had to check everyone. After she finished with the Aurors she was going to work her way through every person in the Ministry, all the way up to Fudge if she had to. She had known there was corruption in their government almost since the day she became an Auror so many years ago. The knowledge had just increased as she rose through the ranks, and now that she was Head of the Department she was more certain than ever. She just hadn't had an excuse to go through everyone to find that corruption until now.

She suspected it was in multiple departments, and that her own was not spared. She couldn't afford to fire any of her Aurors though, even if they were taking bribes or worse. Until she found out why her department wasn't hiring as much anymore, she needed to keep as many of her people as possible. Tonks, the newest recruit, had barely passed through on the word of Mad-Eye and the fact that she was a Metamorphmagus. Tonks was naturally told that it was entirely because she was a Metamorphmagus. No need to get into the nepotism discussion.

Many prospective Aurors were being turned away, and for no discernable reason that she could tell. Most of the ones she had approved of had been denied, and only one or two were taken on each year, even when losses were high. Being an Auror was a difficult and dangerous job, and she had lost far too many people to bad situations.

Now that she had an excuse though, she was going to comb through every person in every department and do her best to get them away from the Ministry. Corruption in the government led to an unhappy people, which Amelia had seen hints of ever since Voldemort was defeated. She suspected that Lucius Malfoy was behind a large amount of that corruption, but with no proof and Susan's letters saying that young Draco Malfoy was a polite young man with friends in every house and of every blood type, she was willing to tolerate the man as long as he broke no laws. Young Malfoy had learned from his father and mother, and if he was willing to be friends with Granger and Weasley, then his parents had taught him well, no matter what she thought Lucius Malfoy was or was not up to.