"Hide from the muggles? Is that even possible?"
"Possible or not, it is becoming necessary. Did you hear of the drastic increase in burnings?"
"Yes, they're all over now. Do they really think we can't escape that? Foolish muggles."
"You have to admit, it is becoming bothersome ensuring that we do not alert them to our magic."
He sighed as he heard the accented mutterings of his fellow confederation members. The idea was, admittedly, one of the more radical ideas but there truly was nothing left to be done.
The muggles had gone too far with their fear of magic.
At first it had been only a few people who had occasionally attempted to physically attack anyone that showed even the slightest possibility of being a magic user. That was easily avoidable by stunning the person or people and changing their memories slightly to make them believe that the person they were attacking had run away. It had become more and more tricky as more people caught the fear that spread like a disease within their minds. The idea had travelled through the world in a matter of weeks, and had become an emergency situation in a matter of days.
They forgot the good that the magic users had done all too easily as fear clouded their minds. They forgot about their friendships with the witches and wizards as they all too eagerly handed them and their families over to the churches and the people that only wished harm on them.
He didn't know what started it, but he knew how it had to end. Killing them was not the solution. There were simply too many of them. They had been too integrated into their society, and despite many of the muggles' hostility their witch and wizard friends were still unwilling to give up on them. They believed that they would still change back and hold their past friendships above their fear.
Then the fires had begun. The muggles believed fire to be effective in killing them, forgetting that anyone can be killed by fire and that the magic users were just as human as they were. The muggles had managed to forget their humanity, and that both saddened and horrified him.
He remembered his neighbour, little Brian, who had always watched him perform magic with absolute enchantment in his eyes. He knew that Brian had probably either been indoctrinated into believing that everything that had enchanted him so had only done so to make him more susceptible to the curse, or whatever they were calling it, that we had. Either that, or he would have been killed for supporting the magic users. He wasn't quite sure which was worse anymore.
What was the choice between facing death yourself, or sending other people to their deaths? Was that even a choice?
He shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts. It wasn't the time to think of death, or any of the muggle friends he had made through childhood and into his teenage years. That would do him no good now. His world needed to be protected and separated from those people now. He could hold on to the memories but nothing else. There wasn't a point. It was all over.
"Anyone have anything else they think should be added?"
Murmurs filled the room, but none were objecting or offering any additional ideas or views on the matter. All representatives in the council were in agreement on the matter. Each country had felt the fear slightly differently, but their worries were all the same.
It had taken nearly six months to get to this point. It was generally accepted by the majority of the population that it was beginning to become too dangerous to associate with the muggles. They were too suspicious, too unpredictable. They didn't care about the families and innocents they were killing in an effort to rid themselves of something that was never harmful to them.
"The nearly developed adaptation of the Fidelius Charm will be placed on every public magical area as soon as the charm is ready and useable. Each family will have to decide themselves on whether or not to place their homes under the charm as well. Any objections?"
"Why not simply place every home under this Fidelius Charm? Surely that would be safer."
"We cannot take the decision away from the public. They had to decide for themselves when they are ready to distance themselves, and begin forgetting, about their friends, neighbours, and possibly even family members for those few mixed families."
He sighed. That had been one of the most common questions. Why risk the safety of everyone for the small group of people who did not wish to leave the muggle world? His answer had always been the same, and it always would be.
He still could not bring himself to judge every single muggle on the actions of the majority. His memories and friendships prevented that, and he wondered how so many people on the council were able to forget that so easily.
They had almost thoughtlessly cast aside everything they had previously known in the fear of the muggles' actions. They were doing almost exactly the same thing the muggles had done in fear: cast blame, and retreat into their only safety. For the muggles that safety had been the power in numbers, for the witches and wizards it had been their now available ability to hide. They were all the same. They were too blind to realize it. So many countries were simply giving up instead of finding another way.
"Very well. This is the Council's decision. Additional wards on homes will be done under the discretion of the goblins for a price."
The council meeting was called to a close, the topic finalized at long last.
Knowing that his days to freely wander through the muggle world had numbered left a heavy feeling in his chest. The Fidelius Charm would be ready in a matter of days if the Experimental Unit were correct, and they usually were. The wizarding and muggles worlds would be separated for the first time in a matter of days.
He wondered if developing separately from the muggle world would ever feel normal. He didn't like to think of the fact that the generations born after the split would be raised ignorant of the genius of the muggle world. They would never be able to watch the muggle world develop at an amazingly rapid pace and drag the slow magical world along with it.
There was just one fear that came along with the separation. The magical world had always been fairly lazy, only being forced to change and develop in order to keep up to the muggle world. The muggle world would be gone soon, and he truly detested the knowledge that the magical world would remain stagnant in the time they were while the muggles continues to move forward.
Magic made witches and wizards lazy. The lack of magic made the muggles intelligent, curious and ever changing. Sometimes he really believed the latter was better than the former.
Caerphilly Catapults: Round 10: Seeker [International Magic Coorperation]