CHAPTER 10

THE MODERNIST MEETING

At 8:00 p.m. Tuesday night, Rose and Al walked down to the Entrance Hall and met Scorpius before leaving the castle, headed for Hagrid's hut. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Al asked somewhat nervously. "I don't know if we should. I mean, Selwyn might find out."

"Al, if you don't want to go, you don't have to," Rose said. She had been thinking about the idea behind the group in the last few days, and she really started to think it was a good idea, despite the risk Al was obsessing over. She wasn't very worried about that, though—they didn't even officially exist, who would find out?

"I think it'll be fine, Al," Scorpius said as they neared the small hut. They could see smoke rising from the chimney as they got closer; the October air had started to get very cold in the later part of the month. Rose could hardly stand to be outside in just her Quidditch robes during practice, no matter how glad she was to be on the team.

"There's Hagrid," Rose said, seeing the large gamekeeper standing in the doorway. They hurried the rest of the way and all three were enveloped in a hug.

"Does it take a secret meeting to get you to visit me?" he complained, holding open the door from them.

"Sorry, Hagrid," Rose said, shivering as Al and Scorpius came inside after her.

He smiled at her. "It's all right, Weasley, I'm a bit out of the way. I hope I'll be seeing more of you next year," he added. She smiled politely and remembered the horror stories her parents had told her as a warning against the Care of Magical Creatures class.

"Guys, come sit down!" Lucy called from across the room. Rose went over to the large round table in the corner and found there were only two remaining seats. Hagrid had managed to find eleven in all, and the other seats were filled by Lucy, Ava, James, Harry, Fred, Roxanne, and three Ravenclaws she didn't know. Soon, however, she recognized one of them—Zoe Chang-Li, the girl James fancied.

"It's all right, I'll just stand," Lucy offered, and gave up her seat before any of them could object. Al and Scorpius took the two seats that had been empty, leaving Rose Lucy's seat between Ava and James. "Is anyone else coming?" she asked, and they shook their heads. "All right, then, let's get started. Er, does everyone know each other?"

There was an awkward pause as Rose and the other younger years looked around at the older students before Scorpius finally said, "No."

"Okay, uh, well I know you know all the Gryffindors here, and this is Zoe Chang-Li," The fifth-year Ravenclaw smiled at all of them but mostly James, "Aidan Tanner, the treasurer," a tall boy who looked about Rose's age with fluffy-looking ash blond hair and glasses waved at the group, "my friend Ava Matthews," Rose looked over at Ava and saw her looking down, frowning slightly. She seemed to notice Rose looking at her and glanced in her direction as Lucy said, "and Stephanie MacMillan, vice president." Rose smiled at her and Ava smiled back, looking a little confused. "Guys, this is Al, Rose and Scorpius."

"Rose Weasley?" Aidan asked. Rose looked over at the boy and nodded. He held out his hand and she shook it. "Aidan Tanner. I've heard amazing things from the professors about you. How on Earth are you not in Ravenclaw?"

Rose laughed a little uncomfortably. She didn't know her professors talked about her—though she did like being known for something other than her parents. "Er, I almost was. The Hat considered it. I guess the Weasley thing won out."

Aidan looked puzzled. "I find it fascinating that some families are so different as individuals but almost always are in the same house. I mean, Lucy didn't of course, and Charlotte as well, but it's very interesting. Do you think it has something to do with who marries into families?"

Rose blinked. "I don't know, I thought it had more to do with personality. Scorpius was sorted into Gryffindor, despite generations of Malfoys and Blacks in Slytherin except for one or two here and there."

"That's true, he's another exception," Aidan said, seeming very invested for such a random conversation. Rose looked over at Scorpius, who looked a little uncomfortable, most likely because Aidan was speaking as if he wasn't even there.

"Aidan—time and a place," Lucy interrupted, and the boy coughed uncomfortably and retreated back into his chair. "Aidan's the Ravenclaw of Ravenclaws—sorry about that, Rose."

"It's fine—" Rose started to say, but Lucy had already begun.

"So, I was thinking that we could get a sort of—manifesto or pamphlet or something written out today, that we could give new members, or just to state our goals… er, we don't have a secretary—would anyone like to…?"

There were a few moments of silence before Al said, "Rose, why don't you do it? You're a good writer."

"What?" Rose was taken aback. "Wouldn't you want someone a bit older?"

"No, it'd be great if you'd do it," Lucy said, with a pleading expression. Rose sighed.

"All right."

"Brilliant! So we'll all contribute, but you'll do the writing, okay?" Rose nodded and was given a roll of parchment by Aidan. Suddenly, she thought of a problem.

"How are we going to get more than one copy of this?"

Lucy hesitated, then seemed to think of something. "We could send it to Teddy, he works in a Muggle shop, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, he has to, Ministry internships don't pay," James said. "I can send it to him tomorrow. I'm sure they have a copier."

"Okay, then. Hagrid, have you got any ink?" Lucy called out. Hagrid got some and Lucy handed it over to Rose. She dipped her quill in and looked around.

"How should I start?" Rose asked.

"Hmmm. Probably just a title, like 'Modernist Party Manifesto' or something," Aidan suggested, and Rose felt a little embarrassed to not have thought of something so obvious. She supposed she was just nervous. Rose quickly wrote the title at the top of the roll of parchment in her best script.

"Oh, I've had the mission statement figured out for weeks," Lucy said, and cleared her throat. " 'We are a student group that seeks to stop the discrimination based on familial heritage and to bring the wizarding community into the 21st century.' "

Rose dutifully wrote the statement down as James argued, "Bit vague, Lucy."

"That's what a mission statement is," she said. "You elaborate in the rest of the manifesto. Let's do goals next, Rose," she added, and Rose wrote out Goals in script once again. "So, er, any ideas?"

"Protect Muggleborns," Harry said, "though that's pretty obvious…"

"We need to say it anyway," Lucy said, shrugging, "but let's not use that word, it sounds too—casual? I don't know, say, 'students of Muggle or part Muggle parentage'."

"Oh! Improve the Muggle Studies curriculum," Ava said, wrinkling her nose. "It doesn't make much sense at the moment, it can't be helping public opinion."

"Great, Ava," Lucy said. "Rose, just word things however you see fit, you're clever enough to handle it, let's not bicker about that." Rose felt a little overwhelmed, but nodded.

"Er, how about a schoolbook fund for Muggleborns?" Zoe suggested. "I mean, Muggles don't have Galleons. And some might not want to pay for a school they don't understand."

"There is a fund," Aidan said, and got a bit red around his ears as he added, "I, ah, got my books through that. But the real problem is that Muggle parents don't understand. We could start an outreach program like that, maybe—one of us could go meet with the parents? My parents thought it was a scam when they couldn't find the school's website, I almost didn't get to come here."

"That's a great idea," Stephanie said. "Education of parents should be a priority—my mum's a Muggle and my dad didn't tell her until I was around 9, they had so many arguments over it."

"That's another problem," Scorpius said. Lucy looked a bit startled—he had been completely silent until now. "People don't acknowledge their—what'd you call it? Heritage? There's a Muggleborn girl in Slytherin but we didn't even know until she got an envelope."

"There's a Muggleborn in Slytherin? What's her name?" Aidan asked, bursting with excitement, but Lucy gave him a warning look and he settled down.

"That's a good point, Scorpius. Maybe we could have some kind of pride day or something."

"Can I add something?" James asked.

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" Stephanie said.

"Is this just about Muggleborns?"

"Well, it doesn't have to be," Lucy said, frowning, "what do you mean, James?"

"Half-breeds," he said. "Or any minority, really. Teddy's part werewolf and he went through here without telling anyone—his dad was a full one, only his friends knew. Hagrid was half-giant, he went here. Parseltongues never admit to it, they think they'll be branded as the next Voldemort." Most of the room flinched at the name, and Al looked down at the floor uncomfortably at the word Parseltongue. "Victoire went here, Lucas, Charlotte, and Min are here, and Louis will be here, all as part Veela. We should help people like that, too."

"Totally right. Rose, if you could just put that in with the Muggleborn pride thing—" Lucy told her.

"Also, there should be education for anti-Muggle students," Scorpius added. "There are people who come to Hogwarts and have literally never heard another point of view."

"That's true, Alex has been telling me," Zoe said.

"Any more goals?" There was silence. "All right, then, how about we state our beliefs?"

There was more arguing about the beliefs of the group and exactly how they should be stated, until eventually, Hagrid popped in from the other room and said, "It's nearly 9:30, you lot. If you aren't up at the castle by 10, you'll get me in trouble."

"All right, Hagrid, we're just finishing up," Lucy said. "I think we have time for one more."

"I mean, even the wizards who are nice to Muggles sort of think they're a bit stupid," Ava pointed out. "That's an outdated view, they're going off of interactions they had with magic in the 1600s."

"You're so right! It's infuriating how they all think that Muggles can't handle knowing anything about the wizarding world!" Aidan exclaimed. "I believe it's because of the Statute—we've been so far removed from that world for so long that we've forgotten that most Muggles lived perfectly peacefully with wizards before. And society has evolved so much since then."

"What are you saying?" Fred asked slowly.

Lucy took a deep breath and said, "The Statute of Secrecy is completely outdated and needs to be repealed." A hush fell over the room. Rose looked over at Scorpius, initially shocked, but as she thought about it, it made sense—Muggleborn's parents seemed to usually handle it pretty well.

"Are you mad?" Fred asked, standing up. "This is ridiculous."

"Why?" Lucy asked, clearly offended. "It would solve almost all of the problems we were talking about before—and who knows, maybe more interaction would do the old pureblood families some good—sorry, Malfoy."

"No, you're right—" he began, but Lucy wasn't listening.

"There are probably kids out there who could come to Hogwarts if their parents had accepted it! We could even get a Muggle teaching Muggle Studies—"

"Lucy, this is too radical, you're never going to get supporters and your dad will be a laughingstock. I'm not supporting this nonsense."

"What, so you don't want to help? Have you heard what they're saying? They think the Chamber might open again. Do you realize that we have a chance to stop it?"

"If the Statute gets repealed, there'll be chaos, Lucy. That's if you succeed—and you won't. I can't believe you would support something like that. I'm leaving. Come on, Roxanne." Roxanne didn't move. He looked at her, shocked. "Are you serious?" Roxanne didn't look at him. Fred sighed. "Fine." He stormed out of the door and was gone.

Lucy's voice shook as she asked, "Does anyone else have any ideas?" Everyone was silent. "Okay, then. Rose, write that down." Rose's hand shook slightly and she fought to steady it as she wrote down the last belief. "Okay. Everyone sign." They all signed the paper. Lucy, Stephanie, Aidan, and Rose had their positions in front of their names. That made Rose a little nervous—if they got in trouble for this, she would be one of the first—and also one of the first targets if Selwyn found out. Lucy took the parchment and rolled it up, handing it to James. "Try to get more people from each of your houses to join," Lucy said as they all got ready to leave. "Especially you, Scorpius. Thanks, Hagrid!" she called as they stepped through the door. "We'll meet here again two weeks from today. Same time."

"I'd love to continue our discussion sometime," Aidan told Rose when they reached the entrance hall. "I'm at study hall nearly every night, feel free to come talk to me any time."

"Oh, of course," Rose said, smiling. "That'd be great."

"It was great to meet you, Rose," he said, smiling back and held out his hand again. She shook it, and he turned to follow Lucy, Ava, Zoe, and Stephanie back to their tower. Rose suddenly wondered how on Earth she was top of her class when he was in it.

"Aidan?" she called after him. He turned around. "What year are you in?"

"I'm a third year," he said. "Why?"

"Er, no reason," Rose said. "Bye!"

"Good night!" The Ravenclaws had gone, and Scorpius frowned.

"I don't really like him," Scorpius said. Rose was surprised.

"Why not?"

"…I don't know. He seems awfully keen to talk to you."

Rose raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, about genetics," she said, snorting. "Calm down. It's hardly your business, anyway."

"Yeah," Scorpius said quietly. "I should go."

"Okay," Rose said as he turned to leave, and said, "Good night."

It took a few seconds, and until Scorpius was already halfway across the hall, for the sentiment to be returned.

"What's his problem?" Rose muttered as they all went back to the common room. As Rose tried to sleep that night, she couldn't help but be afraid of—well, of what she didn't know. Being attacked? She was pureblood—or half-blood, at least, depending on who you asked-she felt incredibly selfish being scared when the girl in the bed next to hers had burns down her arm. She tried to tell herself she was scared for Emma and Ava, but she knew that wasn't true. No matter how supportive she was of the cause…

She was afraid of her name on that manifesto.