A Child of Two Worlds, Part 2
I do not own Harry Potter. Or J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World for that matter.
Chapter 4: New Paths
Sōngshān Academy, Henan, China, 1998
What must it be like, to be a real witch? A true witch? Every day, Chú Měihuì asked herself that. Ever since she had begun to attend Sōngshān Academy. Watching her fellow students like Bǔ Lánfēn, a girl from Hongkong who always said z instead of zh. Or Xí Niànzǔ from Chengdu in Sechuan. They came from all-magical families, old families. Měihuì was a nobody compared to them. How could she compete with them when they were practicing Martial Magic with Professor Péng or Potions with Professor Cáo? So when she saw Headmistress Yáng Chúnlín enter the courtyard, she froze. Was she coming here to tell her that she didn't belong?
"Chú Měihuì, can I speak to you for a moment?"
"O… of course, Headmistress Yáng," Měihuì straightening her orange robes that were her school uniform.
The headmistress sat down on the bench beside her and looked at her. To Měihuì's surprise, she smiled.
"You seem a little preoccupied ever since you arrived here. Is there something that bothers you?"
"I – I…" Měihuì stammered, "I just wondered whether I am good enough."
"Why shouldn't you be? According to your teachers, you've been a great student from your first day here. Your marks are excellent in fact."
"I just thought…because I am from a non-magical family…"
Headmistress Yáng nodded.
"…you thought whether you could be a good witch at all? I asked myself the same question when I got here, you know?"
The young girl looked up to the older woman in surprise.
"Yes, I come from a Muggle family too. It doesn't matter where you come from or who your parents or ancestors were. What matters is what you do with you talent, Chú Měihuì. You are a great witch. And you will accomplish great things."
Beijing, China, 2016
She had apparated onto the top-most roof of the Zhengyangmen Gate situated to the south of Tian'anmen Square. If she didn't lean forwards, no one could spot her. Here you had the most stunning view of the Square. To the left, Chú Měihuì could spot the Great Hall of the People, to the right the National Museum of China. Right in front of her was the Mao Zedong Mausoleum and on the other end of the square the Tian'anmen Gate where Mao had made the proclamation of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. The setting sun sent its last rays from the west dripping everything in an orange glow.
"Never gets old, does it?" a voice came from behind her.
She turned around. She was on time as always, Měihuì thought. Carefully taking a few steps, she approached Wū Chìhuáng, the daughter of the Minister for Magic. She was wearing Muggle clothing like Měihuì did.
"Shall we?" Chìhuáng asked.
Měihuì nodded and Chìhuáng stretched out her hand and pointed towards the sky.
"Zhàozhào Wù!"
Slowly, but nonetheless in a matter of seconds, a thick smog filled the capital glowing in orange due to the still setting sun. Chìhuáng took Měihuì by the hand and they disapparated reappearing on the square next to the mausoleum. Taking a curious glance at Mao's final resting place, Chìhuáng casually strode over the square as if the two of them were on a date together.
"You know, I've got to see more of Beijing. Even though I grew up here, I never really spent time discovering the non-magical side of the capital."
"Well, I'm still fairly new to this city," Měihuì commented. "Spend most of the time helping out my parents after I graduated. A bit of subtle magic here and there to make their place a bit better. What's the point of having magical powers if you're not allowed to use them?"
Chìhuáng nodded understandingly. "Well, we've managed to get around that little problem. Your parents live in Henan, don't they?"
"Yes, in Qizhou, a remote village in the middle of nowhere," Měihuì replied. "They are peasants. The main work they were doing when I was young was farming rice, grow vegetables and feed a pig and a bunch of chickens. My father was also a bamboo craftsman so he could earn a little cash by bamboo weaving. My mother mostly washed our clothes after she got water from a nearby well, cooked and bought stuff from the daily fair. My older brother mostly helped out my dad when he wasn't at school and I ended up cleaning the house every day…well, until I got to Sōngshān Academy."
"And you thought you could help the local Muggles by magic?" Chìhuáng inquired.
"Yeah, something like that."
"Your knowledge of the countryside may be quite helpful to our cause, Chú Měihuì."
Měihuì laughed: "Well, it's not as simple as that. Chinese villages are not interchangeable. However, I do appreciate your complement."
Once again taking her hand, Chìhuáng took them to another famous place in Beijing.
"The thing is, Master Yè has manages to "persuade" President Chéng Bàofù. And as it happens, the president's plans of the Chinese Dream could come in handy with what we've been planning. Sometimes, the methods of people like him are very effective even if his aims are much more sinister than ours. But they work. Luckily, witches and wizards are not part of the Social Credit System and therefore not in the Database."
Chìhuáng subtly nodded to several cameras positioned around the entrance to the Forbidden City. Installed all over Beijing, they were the great eyes of the Party. Nobody could escape them. Except those who had been hiding for the last 300 years.
Looking ahead, they could make out the figure of a policeman guarding the entrance. Quickly taking Měihuì's arm, the other witch apparated them out of there. As they walked on the Great Wall, Chìhuáng turned to Měihuì with a serious expression.
"Big things are planned, Chú Měihuì. Thanks to Master Yè guiding the president and the Party, the people of Tibet will soon be able to live free of their oppressors. Taiwan will reunite with the motherland in a peaceful manner and the vast arms of the Communist Party will be cut off. My master has seen history unfold since the Warring States' Period. In the 2320 years of his life, he has come to know China like no one else ever could. It is up to us now to aid him in his vision and to fulfil our goal. And you, Chú Měihuì, will be a vital part of that…"
Kankō (Hamheung), Japanese-occupied Korea, 1910
Yun Bo-yeong took a deep breath. This was it. Her moment. Their moment. The courtyard of the great Mu family had been magically enlarged to accommodate a dozen people. Korean witches and wizards from all over the country and even a few visitors from China had come. Muggle-borns and pure-bloods had come. Next to her stood her most important ally, the very powerful witch and seer Mu Sin-gwang. Bo-yeong looked around, into the faces of her audience. With her 23 years she was still fairly young but not much younger than another great wizard she had only heard of. A European who had, like her, recognised that the old ways served them no longer. It was time.
"My friends from near and far," she began, "the last five years saw the loss of sovereignty of our home. Ruthless foreign Muggles have slowly invaded our land like a disease. They have poisoned the minds of His majesty's high officials and forced an unequal treaty on us. The world is changing. We have forgotten our place, my friends. For the last 218 years, we've become accustomed to the thought of living separate, of letting the Muggles do their business. And look what they have done: without us to intervene, they have become arrogant, barbaric. That is what we should have fought when we had the chance. But instead we crawled away like cowards ignorant of our true strength. No more! On the other side of this world, witches and wizards are rising up to the injustice that is bestowed upon them! And we should do the same. If we don't stop, the Muggles will become more aggressive and powerful than we could ever imagine. Even now they are preparing for war developing weapons of greater power than all that we have ever known. It is time that I share with you this horrifying truth."
Mu Sin-gwang stepped forward and held up an orb with swirling fog inside. With a throwing gesture, she let it fly into the air and she globe shattered in the air and the fog stretched out over the courtyard. Images formed: soldiers hiding in trenches, horses and humans with gas masks, tanks, fleets of ships.
The crowd gasped in awe and horror.
"The Ministry will not be on our side," Bo-yeong continued, "I tried to reason with them but they are stubborn. We have to take matters into our own hands. Free our country, spare the suffering! We are working for a Greater Good, my friends. Think what a world we could make for all of humanity!"
Keijō (Gyeongseong, today: Seoul), Japanese-occupied Korea, 1910
"Thank you for coming," the Korean Minister for Magic, Bong Beom-suk, said. The Japanese delegates had just arrived. Minister Bong felt that it was necessary to discuss the situation since it concerned both their countries.
"When we swore secrecy 200 years ago, the world was a different one. Since 1692, the Muggles have changed their territory immensely. And now, Muggles from your country are coming here. How does your government stand on that?"
One of the delegates, Tateshita Fuyuki, shifted his position slightly. "The Japanese Ministry of Magic has no part in following our non-magical brethren in their cause. However the question remains what to do should they be successful? How will this impact our two administrations?"
"The situation got a little more complicated than that," the Korean Minister replied. "Many Muggle-borns are directly affected by what is happening here. They want to interfere. They are following a woman from one of the oldest Korean pure-blood families and they are not cooperative."
Bo-yeong moved swiftly. Dressed in a long black coat, a hat and a mask, she leapt from roof to roof, closer to her objective. Her followers had moved out and spread the word. They were only a few, maybe a bit more than a hundred, and they only had so much time but it was worth it. She could have apparated easily, but surveillance on her had most likely been doubled for some time. She and Mu Sin-gwang had risked everything in forming this movement. Now they only had each other. Sin-gwang's inner eye and Bo-yeong's skill.
"The Japanese Ministry will not send any Aurors or any kind of support or resources," the other delegate, Miyagi Ayaka, informed him.
Minister Bong nodded.
"Well, in that case, I'll have to rely on my own people. Perhaps China will be more forthcoming."
Bo-yeong crouched down. She could see the Japanese soldiers drinking, laughing and boasting about how they killed Koreans who stood up against them. Then she noticed something. A few roofs ahead, a figure had just appeared out of thin air. Aurors were searching the city for her. Bo-yeong stood up and pointed her wand at the hotel where the soldiers were staying.
"Pokbalhae!"
The pressure of the explosion threw her backwards and she disapparated just in time. The Aurors appeared too late at the scene.
Pyongyang, North Korea, 2016
"Can you believe it?"
Ri Eun-gyeong stood on a grand balcony which allowed a stunning view of the Kim Il-sung Square. The people had gathered around and although most if not all were probably instructed to cheer and roar, the image was still overwhelming. Because soon, they would actually cheer from the bottom of their hearts. As long as everything went according to plan…
Eun-gyeong looked to the right at the elderly woman standing beside her and waited for her answer. Yong Bo-yeong merely nodded. She was now 128 years old! Old enough to actually remember a unified Korea, even before it became a Japanese colony! Eun-gyeong had often imagined what that must have been like. As for herself, she was born in the middle of the North Korean famine from 1994 to 1998 or the "Arduous March" as the propaganda called it. Born into a Muggle family in Hyesan, a town at the North Korean – Chinese border, her parents slowly ran out of food. When Eun-gyeong found out that she had unusual powers, she had at first attempted to use it to get more food for her family, but she couldn't control it and instead reduced everything in their kitchen to dust. Knowing no other way to redeem herself, she chose to run. South Korean wizards eventually found her and took her and her family to Seoul where she was trained in the arts of magic. What wouldn't she have given to free her country from the dynasty that ruled it! But as she soon learned, they were not to interfere in non-magical affairs and events – except when it was related to magic such as freeing young witches and wizards in the north. But then came a rumour: several wizarding governments had proposed to finally end the Statute of Secrecy after 323 years. At last, there was hope. Eun-gyeong had rescued many young magically gifted children and visited her hometown a couple of times. She probably knew her country better than any North Korean Muggle ever could.
And now it had happened. The wizarding world had revealed itself and change was coming all around the world. The magical community had risen up to take charge and their movement would inspire others to either join them or be forced to either obey them, be dethroned or to resign. Fortunately for himself, Kim Jong-un had decided to work with them. That still hadn't stopped the Korean Minister for Magic, Bak Seong-jae, to use the Imperious Curse on the Supreme Leader when it became apparent that the two had – to put it mildly – strong differences concerning their methods of reunite Korea. And so a deal had been made with the south.
"The Federal Republic of Korea," Bo-yeong said shaking her head in disbelief. "Never thought I'd see that day…"
A few meters to their right, Kim Jong-un was waving to the crowd. They had decided to let the Propaganda machine rolling still but with some minor changes. Slowly, the north would join the south. And any fears of financial troubles would soon die out as wizards would help out where Muggles couldn't…rebuilding, restructuring. And the Kim dynasty would step aside "voluntarily" to let the south take over so that Seoul would govern the entirety of Korea once again…
Berlin, Germany
The owl had tapped on the window early in the morning bringing several major wizarding newspapers. Alex watched as Aylin paid it for the delivery and took the papers throwing one for Alex. She caught it and flipped it open. It was the Lübecker Magie. As Alex lay on the bed going through some of the articles, Aylin lay next to her with Der Fränkische Hexenmeister, the wizarding newspaper from Frankfurt am Main.
"The ball is really rolling now," she observed. "Now that the administrative questions have been solved, we can finally get to work."
"Some have already started," Alex commented moving her finger over one article. "Even in the capital. Looks like a group of wizards have gathered together to help with the contruction of the new Berlin Airport."
"Oh yeah?" Aylin asked sceptically. "With all those problems they have, I doubt that even magic can help. If we can get it done in a decade, I'm actually gonna be surprised."
Alex chuckled.
"I wonder what's happening in other places."
"Here you'll have some answers," Aylin said passing Der Magische Morgen to her, a nationwide newspaper that also reported on major foreign events.
"Hm…" Alex made as she wandered through the headlines. "Russia, Korea and China are ready… Saudi-Arabian Minister for Magic Huda Al-Amal has failed to convince the House of Saud of a wizard-Muggle cooperation. Apparently, the king was furious that a woman was giving him advice and not properly dressed at that. She hadn't veiled her face. And he wanted to have her executed for being a witch. Well, looks like they'll be using other measures now."
Aylin nodded at that.
"Luckily, we won't have to worry about that."
She looked at her personal assistant.
"What did Degenhard say?"
"He refused to cooperate. And then there was my grandfather… I don't know. He said something about coming home… that I would belong to the Brandt family after all."
Now lying on her back, Alex stared at the ceiling.
"Everyone tells me how bad they are… my father, the Head of Incarceration at Nurmengard… you. But I want to make my own opinion on that. I mean, they can't be all bad just because they belong to an influential Pure-blood line that once held sympathies for Grindelwald's cause."
Aylin stood up and turned towards her.
"Well, I just told you what I know. I'm going to take a bath and then we should get dressed. We have to be there soon."
Alex smiled cheekily.
"You're going to have a bath?"
Getting up from the bed herself, she approached the German Minister for Magic and embraced her.
"Not while I'm still here."
Their lips met and then their tongues. Tightly entangled and moaning with pleasure, they swung into the bathroom…
After a deeply satisfying and very hot bath, they got ready and apparated in the Jüdenstraße next to the Red City Hall where a construction site had been until recently. What Muggles hadn't known until now was that this was just a way to conceal the entrance to the German Ministry of Magic of Berlin and Brandenburg and formally to the Kingdom of Prussia. Now it also served as the Federal Ministry of Magic. The façade of the construction site had been replaced by a more welcoming entrance that now officially declared the entrance to the Ministry on a sign nearby. Two wizarding guards were posted on the entrance. Alex and Aylin merely nodded as they descended down the 39 steps to the foyer of the ministry covered with a red carpet with silver tiles and bronze coloured walls. Columns held a splendid ceiling and enchanted windows displayed the weather outside.
Glancing at the security desk where visitors were checked and issued a visitor ID, she saw a wizard of about 70 years of age. She could just make out the security wizard reading of the wood and core of the man's wand:
"Aspen and Phoenix feather, 25.4 cm long, there you go, Mr. Brandt."
Alex stopped dead in her tracks. The man pocketed his wand which was designed beautifully and turned around. He spotted her. His nose and sharp features which already had lines made him look cold and serious. He wore green robes and a long black coat. Holding a hat in one hand, he approached Alex and the hint of a smile appeared on his face.
"Alexandra Brandt coming home at last. I'm Albert Brandt, one of your uncles."
She looked up at him. He was one head taller than she was. His eyes wandered over her.
"I wonder though… whether Friedrich was simply too scared to face us again."
Alex narrowed her eyes.
"I came here entirely on my own accord."
He took a quick glance to the lifts where Aylin was using the time to speak to a group of department heads who had just arrived.
"Well, I can certainly see why they could hire you… so many accomplishments. You've seen much of the world. You travelled with David Reed across the world and saw what was to be done. And now the shackles of the Statute of Secrecy have finally been lifted."
"Is there something I could help you with, Albert?" Alex said. "Because, you see, unlike you, I actually have a job to do."
Albert put his hands in his pockets.
"I wanted to extend an invitation. From the family; you don't know us and we don't know you. Our beloved young niece… this is your true home, Alexandra. The home of your forebears. And you're here to make a difference. We all need a difference… well, good luck."
She made a nod, slowly as if to say: "Okay…"
He put his hat on and touched it to her. Alex watched him strolling to the fireplaces between the columns. Her father had 13 siblings. And they had wives or husbands and almost all of them had children of their own. The only family member of the House of Brandt that she had met was her Aunt Ingrid. And was Albert truly interesting in getting to know her? Or had he an ulterior motive?
Names and their spelling:
Chú Měihuì (廚美慧) – Chinese Muggle-born witch
Yáng Chúnlín (楊純麟) – Headmistress of Sōngshān Academy
Péng Wěishēng (鵬偉生) – Professor of Martial Magic
Bǔ Lánfēn (卜蘭芬) – female student from a Chinese Pure-blood family
Xí Niànzǔ (覡念祖) – male student from a Chinese Pure-blood family
Cáo Shùnyuán (曹順原) – Potions Master & Muggle-born
Wū Chìhuáng (巫赤凰) – daughter of Chinese Minister for Magic Wū Lóngxuè (巫龍血)
Yè Dàlóng (葉大龍) – enigmatic headmaster of Wǔdāng Academy
Chéng Bàofù (程抱負) – President of the People's Republic of China
Yun Bo-yeong (尹寶英, 윤보영) – wizarding freedom fighter during the Japanese occupation
Mu Sin-gwang (巫晨光, 무신광) – right hand of Yun Bo-yeong
Bong Bo-su (棒保守, 봉보수) – Korean Minister for Magic during the 1910s
Tateshita Fuyuki (館下冬樹) – delegate of the Japanese Ministry for Magic
Miyagi Ayaka (宮城彩夏) – delegate of the Japanese Ministry for Magic
Gojong (高宗, 고종) – twenty-sixth king of the Joseon dynasty (1863 – 1897) and first Emperor of the Empire of Korea (1897 – 1907)
Ri Eun-gyeong (李恩慶, 리은경) – Muggle-born from Hyesan (惠山, 혜산). North Korea
Kim Jong-un (金正恩, 김정은) – Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Qízhōu Cūn (岐洲村) – remote Muggle village in Henan, China
Sōngshān Xuégōng (嵩山學宮) – Chinese Wizarding School in Henan, China
Kankō/Hamheung (咸興, 함흥) – Kankyō-nan Prefecture (咸鏡南道, 함경남도; modern Hamgyeongnam Province of North Korea)
Keijō/Gyeongseong (京城, 경성) – capital of Korea as a colony of Japan, modern name is Seoul (서울)
Zhàozhào Wù (召召霧) – Chinese spell that conjured fog or smog
Pokbalhae (폭발해) – Korean spell that lets things explode
Goryeo Yeonbang Gonghwaguk (高麗聯邦共和國, 고려연방공화국) – Korean name for the Federal Republic of Korea; note that today, North and South Korea have different names: North Korea is called Joseon (朝鮮, 조선) – named after an old dynasty on the Korean peninsula (1392 CE – 1897 CE) while South Korea is called Hanguk (韓國, 한국) – named after the Three Kingdoms of Korea (Samguk-sidae: 三國時代, 삼국시대): Baekje (百濟, 백제), Silla (新羅, 신라) and Gogoryeo (高句麗, 고구려).