The first word out of anyone's mouth was "Fuck."
Theo, was the one to utter it, but they were all thinking it. It was written all over their faces. Eight identical expressions all mirroring each other's sense of overwhelm. Theo shook his head, "what the fuck do we do?" he asked dryly.
"What about, wandless magic? Drake you can do that right? Greg asked hopefully.
"Yeah, I can, but, that's not going to help us Greg." Draco replied,
"Why not?"
"We've got the trace back on us" Daphne explained kindly.
Greg snorted "never stopped us before."
"Yeah well, before we had our parents to protect us, to say it was them, or blame an elf, we don't have that now." Draco replied, massaging his eyes to fend off the building headache.
A girl gasped. "Elves!" Pansy squealed excitedly. When she didn't continue, seven faces turned to look at her, "What, don't look at me like i'm Loony," she spat "the house elves, we've all got personal elves, they can do everything."
Draco could feel the headache gaining in intensity. He sighed, and looked up, sharing a long-suffering look with Theo as he dragged one hand down the side of his face and turned to Pansy. "No, Pansy, that won't work either. The trace is on the building too. Plus there's probably some other measures to stop us from using them. They will have thought of that."
"And by the time we get back, that Mudblood Granger will probably have freed them all or something." Mille added with a roll of her eyes.
A collective gasp caught her attention. "What? You know she will."
"No-no-no not that" Pansy sounded distressed, "That!" she said emphatically pointing her finger in the direction of Millie's face.
"Is there something on my face?" Millie sighed resignedly.
Seven heads nodded in mute unison.
With a huff Millie left in search of a mirror.
"Do you reckon she's seen it yet?" Blaise said with a snigger
"Oh, we'll know." Tracey, Pansy and Daphne replied. Sure enough a few seconds later a scream rang out through the house, just as an Owl swooped in through the open window dropping an envelope with a ministry seal from its beak and flying off.
Tracey picked it up gingerly. "Should we open it?"
"Oh just give it here" Pansy huffed grabbing it out of Tracy's hand.
"Dear rehabilitation group one," she read aloud, having slit the envelope open with a long nail. "Blah, blah blah, official warning, blah blah blah, next time will be more permanent, blah blah, fade in a few hours." Pansy dropped her hand and looked at the group, angry, the letter was being scrunched into a tight ball by the hand at her side wich kept curling and uncurling into a fist. "I'll give you three guesses who signed this" she sneered with a disdainful nod toward the envelope, "just know that it's the same person responsible for Millie's face"
"Uhhh. Shacklebolt?" Greg suggested.
"No you idiot" Pansy howled contemptuously, "Granger" she said, her voice full of malice and her face dark.
"Of course, that Ravenclaw girl in fifth year." Daphne sighed.
"Marietta" Tracey supplied.
"It's supposed to be motivation to help ensure we drop the "habit" of using the M-word" Pansy elaborated her voice dripping with scorn.
"What's the M-word?" Greg asked looking at around for clarification.
"This is the M-word" Millie's voice called out the answer from the edge of the living room. There written in large pimples across her forehead was the word Mudblood.
"Ohhhh. Right" Greg replied nodding. "I get it now."
"I'm so going to get her for this" Pansy seethed hugging Millie.
"Don't worry about it Pans" Mille replied, "this will wear off, but Granger will always be one" she said, "and besides Draco's aunt gave her a nice little reminder of that for life, didn't she?" Millie added with a smug smirk and a nod in Draco's direction.
Draco returned the look of smug satisfaction, though honestly watching a classmate be carved up by his aunt on his drawing room floor had been more than a little discomforting, even if it was Granger. But nobody else needed to know that. Pansy closed her eyes and took a controlled breath. "Ok, so we are stuck here for a whole year, no wands, no magic allowed, no elves, and we can't even say Mud….. you-know-what." she huffed, "what are we going to do?" she whispered collapsing onto the couch in despair.
It had been Hermione's plan of course, but Kingsley had changed some of the details, paring it back until it reached its current state. She'd suggested a boarding house with muggleborns and squibs as intermediaries, like an RA at university residences. Special classes to teach the purebloods about muggle life and even counseling with Squib psychologist. But there was very little money, no staff to spare, and especially no muggleborns or squibs who wanted to live with a bunch of so-called junior Death Eaters, and no time to set up a curriculum. And so the 'participants' of The Pureblood Re-Education Project were simply dumped in a Muggle house with enough money (from their own accounts) to get them through a month and the expectation they would get a job. They would be watched, physically and magically, and someone would go out to check on their progress every so often, but other than that, they were on their own in the Muggle world. The only thing that even remotely resembled Hermione's original plan was the fact that the housing groups had been assigned by Hogwarts cohort. She'd figured that they were all going to have enough to cope with learning to live without magic, and had managed to convince the temporary Wizengamot that keeping people with their old housemates was a logical choice. They had resisted of course, arguing that it would be better to "break up close networks of influence" but Hermione had won out appealing to their desire to have to spend as little time as possible with the participants and suggesting that since they had already lived together for seven years, keeping participants with their housemates would minimise fighting, meaning the Ministry would have fewer problems to deal with. They'd bought it, and so the houses had been assigned, each in a different part of the country, though all in major cities. Residence One was Hermione's cohort, the youngest in the program, as anyone still at Hogwarts would be allowed to finish school first. There were five groups in all, the eldest having been from Percy's year. Those older, many of whom were married now, were to be considered on a case by case basis. Of course, almost all of the "Participants" were former Slytherins. Hermione had fought hard for impartiality on that front too, as many people (Ron among them) had been all for insisting that all ex-slytherin's took part. But she had fought, and won, to ensure it was just those who had supported Voldemort financially or politically, regardless of which house they had belonged to at Hogwarts, and whilst Residence one was all Slytherin's, there were others from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw mixed in amongst the remaining four groups. The Wizengamot were still trying to decide what to do about the wives and younger children of known Death Eaters. All of the Death Eaters who had been captured thus far were in Azkaban, the only exception being Draco Malfoy who having been underage when he took the mark. Harry, Hermione and a reluctant Ron had testified that he had not identified them at Malfoy Mannor, and that he had been lowering his wand on the Astronomy Tower. Thus Draco had been sent with his housemates to Residence One instead. Most likely the wives and children would be placed in a sixth residence but Hermione was particularly determined to make sure that the children were kept with their mothers. As a result she was currently on her way to once again battle thick-headed members of the Wizengamot who saw no issue with ripping apart more families as long as it was for the so-called "greater good". Apparently prejudice in the Wizarding world went both ways. As she gathered her papers to head towards the lift, she heard a ding sound from a parchment on a small table near her desk. With a sigh, she scooted around her desk and checked the log that would keep track of all Taboo infringements. Another thing she'd fought against - too Orwellian she'd argued, but she'd been outvoted, and when someone had recounted the story of how the DA had ensured secrecy to a member of the Wizengamot, well she'd been out voted again. At least it wasn't snatchers, she reasoned to herself, leaning over to read the log. Millicent Bulstrode, Residence One, 3.09pm. Well that was a bit of a surprise
It was getting late, everyone was hungry, and no one knew how to cook the magic way, let alone the muggle way, hell they didn't even know how they were going to see once it got dark. Deciding that someone had to take charge, and Draco certainly wasn't going to do it, Blaise sauntered off to the kitchen. Thankfully it was stocked, though he didn't recognise a lot of the names on various products. After opening every door and drawer he managed to find what looked like cereal as well as spoons, bowls and milk, which had been hiding in a cupboard that seemed to stay cold by itself. And so the eight Slytherin alumni spent their first night as muggles eating cereal for dinner and sitting in the living room in the dark.