AN: QL Round 3 – Some Real World History

Establishment of a Democracy – Women getting the vote

Prompts;

6. (dialogue) "Choose it or lose it"

13. (word) bold

15. (word) decision

Also;

I'm really sorry about how bad this is. I'm no good at history and I've had such bad writer's block for the last 2 weeks that I have written this at 3am and it took me an hour and I just don't have time to check it over. So I'm sorry, feel free to hate it.

There are political views expressed in the beginning of this that may offend some people. These are not all my views (they're mainly my father's) so if they do offend you please don't have a go at me for my political views. If you wish to skip these views please go to the first break. It will still make sense and shouldn't offend anyone from there on.

Hermione may be a little OOC in this, at least in the first section, this was just so that my ideas could work. I couldn't fit anything around Hermione so I fit her around my ideas.

Hermione was worried about the upcoming election. She had voted into the last one – the Europeans – but in the grand scheme of things she knew it didn't matter much. She'd voted Green, it seemed the least offensive, but for the General Elections she just had no idea who to vote for and it was drawing ever nearer. She wasn't just worried about who to vote for; she was also worried about the results. Hopefully more people would vote in the general elections, but even so she was worried it would have a similar result to the Europeans. She really didn't like UKIP, it wasn't that they were racist as such… but they were racist.

She had always been very into including everyone, a trait very adamant at Hogwarts when she was leading SPEW. Now she was an adult she had started applying this to real world problems. She gave money to charities, both muggle and magical – her most recent investment was the British Heart Foundation – and she campaigned for things like equal rights for children in foreign countries. The reason she didn't like UKIP was because they didn't really stand for the same as she did. Of course, they'd never been as bad as the BNP but she still didn't agree with them.

The worst thing for Hermione was that she had no one to ask. Her parents had taken a holiday to New Zealand and she'd married into a pureblood family who knew nothing of muggle politics. It was hardly surprising as the Malfoys had never been very accepting of muggles. It had taken Draco's family almost 5 years to accept their relationship and even longer to agree to meet Hermione's parents. They weren't even sure why Hermione wanted to vote in muggle elections so of course they were going to be no help.

She needed help with this though, so she decided to tell her husband why she still voted. She didn't have to worry about being disturbed by Scorpius either since his grandparents had taken him out for the day.

"Draco?" she called, knocking on the door of his study before walking in.

"Hermione," Draco replied with a smile on his face, "to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"I, erm, I was wondering if you'd be able to help me with the muggle elections?" she asked with a hopeful tone.

"You know I don't know anything about that, I don't even know why you vote, why do you want my help?" Draco was genuinely confused by this; sometimes he didn't understand his wife.

"I know, I know. That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. I know you don't understand me sometimes, but I do want you to. The reason why I vote in muggle elections… well, it's a long story…"

"It's fine, love, take all the time you need. Let's retire to the sitting room and I'll have Minty bring up some tea" he reassured her, before calling to their house elf.

Hermione wasn't sure where to start her story. She wasn't even sure what to tell him, let alone how to word it.

"Well," she started taking a huge breath, "it all started when I was 7. My Grandma was telling me about her childhood…"

"Hermione, dear, come and sit over here. I've put some tea and cakes out on the table for you," her grandma greeted her as her parents dropped her off.

"Thank you, Grandma!" she replied with a huge smile. Her grandma had always made the best cakes.

"So, what have you been up to since the last time I saw you munchkin?" her grandma asked with a warm smile on her face.

"Grandma!" Hermione, laughed, "You only saw me yesterday!"

"So I did, that was a very good Christmas production. You made a great Mary! If you don't want to tell me about yourself, then what should we talk about?" her grandma asked. Hermione loved coming to her grandmas because she treated Hermione like an adult even though she was only 7. Hermione was smart for her age, very smart, yet the teachers and her parents still treated her like the rest of the kids.

"Tell me about your childhood, grandma!"

"Okay, munchkin. But it wasn't a very happy one. There was a lot of trouble back then."

"It's okay, grandma, I want to know!" Hermione smiled up at her grandma who had taken a seat next to her.

"I'll tell you about something slightly happier then…" Hermione's grandma started, before putting on her story telling voice.

"It was the spring of 1918, the war was starting to end – of course, we had no idea then – but there was still so much horror everywhere. But the government had decided to at least try to make the year a little better… you know all about the suffragettes I assume?" her grandma paused while Hermione nodded before carrying on;

"They were trying to get equal rights for women. Of course, we all knew that things were never going to be truly equal, but it was a nice thought. A lot of women died for the cause. Some of them by their own stupid actions, yes, but a lot were true martyrs to the cause. In the Spring of 1918 though, the government made a bold decision. They decided that women over the age of 30 should be allowed to vote. It was a huge achievement. It still wasn't on the same level as men, that wouldn't happen for another 10 years, but it was a step in the right direction. For some reason this didn't go down quite as well as it should though, and the government ended up telling them 'choose it or lose it' to which they obviously chose to keep the vote.

"This was a very memorable day for me because I remember my mother being so happy about it. She even made a nice dinner to celebrate! She told me in secret that she didn't agree with my father's political views so she was glad she was able to finally vote for herself.

"That is why you must always vote, Hermione. You see how much happiness it brought back then, I know it isn't the same now but you have to think about how much we have moved on. It was a fantastic privilege and a step in the right direction back then, so you must uphold that now."

Hermione smiled up at her grandma as she finished; she loved that she had been told this in such a mature way, and she knew that she was always going to vote.

"And you see," Hermione finished, "that is why I always vote in muggle elections. The phrase was 'choose it or lose it' and I certainly don't want to lose it!"

"I see, that makes sense, there was a few parallels in the Wizarding world then as well. So, what do you need help with?" Draco asked her. He'd sat quietly as she was telling the story and only asking a few questions. He'd seemed genuinely interested.

"Well, I just don't know which party to vote for… last time they all just turned out to be a bunch of liars…" Hermione replied, getting upset.

"Okay, so take me through their campaigns then!" Draco responded, happy to do anything to please his wife.

Hermione smiled as she started telling him about their policies. She was really glad that after the war she had broken up with Ron, he just wouldn't have understood what she needed. She was sure her past self would hex her for feeling this way, but being with Draco made her relax. He was safe.

More ANs:

Words; 1,285

Also for;

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Hawthorn:Write about a difficult choice or decision.

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Belle; Write about Hermione Granger.