Sitting in an oversized conference room were thirteen of the more affluent people in the magical world, or so they thought. There were past managers, current owners, members of the different wizarding conferences, and 'most importantly' past superstar players.
What in the world could bring such a pompous group together one may ask? Realigning the qualifiers for the Quidditch World cup.
There are those from the furthest outreaches, where quidditch is not such an enamored sport that want to see the possible advantages of having a world level match held – specifically the Minister of Magic from India and Southeast Asia.
There are those who believe that it should remain in the hands of 'civilized witches and wizards', namely those of the European and American continents.
So what is one mousy haired, witch that loathes flying doing at this table? Well other than getting a momentous headache, Hermione Granger is doing her best at 'districting' the Quidditch World Cup qualifiers.
The Minister Magic for Great Britain, Kingsley Shacklebolt, thought an idea that was brought up in the Muggle world when it came to – of all stupid things – American baseball, would be able to be carried over to the wizarding game of Quidditch.
And Hermione is tasked with making it work much to her dismay.
"Gentlemen, please," she interrupts before a wand or fist fight breaks out. "A little decorum would be appreciated." Mentally she adds, 'before my head spontaneously combusts'.
"Miss Granger," a slight built wizard from Japan starts in perfectly executed Queen's English, "with all due respect, and believe me we all greatly respect the work you have accomplished, but I do not feel that you are best for this task. Do you even like the sport?"
She sighs, 'how many times will I have to go over this?' "Master Tanaka, I respect the work you have done to bring this sport to your country and encourage participation. I do enjoy the sport as a spectator. My fear of flying is well documented. Yet, many of my closest friends played for our house team while I was at school and I still attend Hollyhead Harpies games when I have the availability in support of their chaser Ginny Potter. Now I am not such an advocate to know individual players stats and such but I enjoy a good match. That being said, it was not my idea to break down the World Cup into divisions and regions. That was Minister Shacklebolt. He attended the World Series of Baseball with the Muggle President Donald Trump and asked a series of questions as to the inner workings of the leagues. He then sat with the Commissioner of Baseball as to the further intricacies and has only tasked me with presenting the idea to you to see if we can utilize a well working model to expand and enhance our own national pastime so to say." Fine that was a long-winded bunch of hippogriff dung, but it is the truth in its details. Now it is time to sell them. "The Americans have used baseball to infiltrate other cultures, including your own Master Tanaka. It has become a pastime in other countries where simple joys are few and far between. It is also a means of escape for those Muggles under tyrannical rule. Minister Shacklebolt only wants that same opportunity in the Magical world as in the Muggle."
Harry Potter sat across the table from her watching her pontificate. He was only there as a form of moral-support for the witch, though she never needed it. He also was asked to be the Harpies representative due to his wife's position on the team and his own notoriety. As he watched his best friend, doing his personal best not to yell out 'I call bull' to her, he has to remove his glasses and close his deep green eyes so as to not give away any secrets. Namely that he internally is laughing so hard he has a stitch the size of Big Ben. "Miss Granger, Hermione, you know my passion for the sport. I have played. I watch Ginny play. We all play at the Weasley home. You do just watch, yes, but you are also our biggest cheerleader. Why are you so interested? I have heard Kingsley's idea and I agree that it would be a good way to integrate quidditch into new areas and see what talent can be trained and recruited. But why use the Quidditch Cup as a carrot so to say?"
'Dear Merlin, Harry is playing Devil's Advocate. That is the last thing he is here to do,' she thinks. "Because without an appropriate reward, how are we to find the best talent as you say. I have a proposition for you all:" she takes a shaky, trying to calm breath, "we have 3 years until the next cup match. Why don't we use the next two years to try out the Hemi-Finals idea. See if it works. See what works better. From there we will still have time to evaluate, accept or reject the idea, and move on. How say you?"
A mumbling of agreement and nods of heads from around the table.
"Good," she concurs, "since we seem to agree, let's reconvene in 2 years from tomorrow to evaluate."
Two years later
"I call this meeting to order to evaluate the trial run of the Quidditch Cup Hemi-Final proposal. All present as accounted. No roll called," Hermione Granger-Weasley called the meeting of the same faces that were before her the two years prior. "I would like the scribe to take a pros and cons listing of the use of Hemi-Finals instead of the prior Ranking System. Scribe," she nodded to her now brother-in-law Percy Weasley.
The meeting lasted a grueling 4 hours. Lunch was served. Heck, people were starting to make working dinner plans if this kept up. The debate was heated and tense. The ideas were batted around over and over.
Hermione, seated next to Harry Potter, gave him a look of 'you had better have Firewhiskey close at hand after this'.
In the end a decision was made. For some reason, stoic pureblood snotty wizards seemed to agree with the young Muggle born witch in front of them. The Muggles seem to have a good idea.
The next year, the new and improved Hemi-Final design was adopted.
Author's Notes:
House: Slytherin
Year: 5
Category: Additional
Prompt: Must be related to Quidditch in some way
Word Count:1062