Chapter 12: The Past

"As you've probably realized, your son is asking to marry into the single most influential family in wizarding Britain, potentially in the wizarding world. You aren't the first set of muggleborn parents to hear this story, and you probably won't be the last. I like Stephen and I think that he and Rylie make a wonderful couple, but the fact remains that most people who aren't of the wizarding world think that Harry's lifestyle is disgusting and barbaric, regardless of his lack of say in the matter.

"We want you to understand from our perspective why and how things happened as they did. We want you to understand the role that our family plays in the wizarding world, at every level. Doors will be opened to Stephen that would have never been there otherwise because of his father-in-law, but he knows that we absolutely won't stand for him abusing that privilege.

"Harry was an orphan raised in an abusive home. There is nothing in the world that means more to him than his family. Don't think for a second that the Parkinson and Goyle families are the only ones that he went to war with for hurting his family. And he doesn't just destroy you head on, he gets your to destroy yourself.

"I remember several years ago, Columbus and Humboldt Gibbon were holding regent positions for Lord Nicholas Selwyn, their brother-in-law. Columbus finally one day decided that he wanted to stick it to Harry and proposed a law that would make it illegal to marry what he called part creatures and would annul any existing marriages to part creatures. Obviously Lavender and Gabrielle were considered part creature according to Gibbon. Now everybody in the world knew this law wasn't going to pass, but Harry's response was legendary. He asked to speak in support of the bill and offered an amendment. He said, 'It's clear to me that Mr. Gibbon, the Babcock Regent, is trying to make me divorce two of my wives, so I propose that we add cows to the list of creatures that one cannot marry, so that Mr. Gibbon and his wife will be divorced as well.'

"Now nobody really cared about the Gibbon family, they were just lucky that all of Selwyn's family were dead or in prison and he didn't have anybody else to appoint as regent, but his wife was a Beamish, another family with a Wizengamot seat. So Gibbon declared line war and called in his allies. Lord Selwyn laughed him off, but Wiley Beamish and his family took offense. And they proceded to make an attempt to attack several of our family's businesses. And then Harry wiped the Beamish and Gibbon families off this earth.

"Harry will go to war for Stephen. There is no doubt in my mind. But Stephen has to be mentally prepared to be the son-in-law of Harry Potter. Harry's famous, and not just for the defeat of Voldemort. He was the driving force behind the successful privatization of quidditch, the focus on culture and education in the ministry, the re-structuring of the Hogwarts Board of Governors, the passing of legislation that made it illegal to discriminate based on blood status, the fostering of closer relationships with the muggle governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland and magical governments throughout the world, the likely end of werewolves in Britain in a humane manner by providing them free wolfsbane so they retain their mind and don't attack people during full moons, the creation of a Department of Muggle Affairs, fully funding the Auror force, the passage of libel and slander laws, the list goes on and on.

"He delivered an unforgettable speech on the floor of the Wizengamot in favor of the law that ended discrimination against muggleborns and I think you should be aware of at least part of it.

'Muggleborn witches and wizards provide a much needed economic boost to our world. Muggleborns with no other siblings inherit their parents' wealth and would add it to the combined wealth of the wizarding world if we would stop running them out of it. More importantly, we need their untainted magical blood. It hasn't been cursed by foul rituals or dark magic and it hasn't been choked by incest. It's fresh and powerful and can unlock magical abilities thought to be lost for good.

'Take a pureblood son of the Potter family and mix in a muggleborn witch and you get the first parselmouth in that family in twenty generations. Take a pureblood daughter of the Black family and mix in a muggleborn wizard and you get the first metamorp that family had seen in fourteen generations. Take the pureblood daughter of the Prince family, an offshoot of the Yaxleys, add in a muggle father and you get the first recorded natural occlumens born in Britain in one hundred and fifty years, in any family. Why is it that being a parselmouth, a metamorph, a natural occlumens, a natural legilimens, an aura reader, a diviner, an assessor, a sensor, an illusionist, or an empath is so rare? It's because it takes raw magic that we, as a world, do not possess anymore because we try to protect bloodlines and in that process we have corrupted our own magic.

'There were four wizards who played the primary roles in the Second Blood War. There was Albus Dumbledore, the leader of the light, son of a muggleborn witch, grandson of muggles. There was me, Harry Potter, the one prophesized to face the Dark Lord. I'm also the son of a muggleborn witch and the grandson of muggles. There was Severus Snape, allegedly Voldemort's most loyal and second in command and Headmaster at Hogwarts. In actuality a spy for the light. He was the son of a muggle father, grandson of muggles. And finally there was the Dark Lord Voldemort, born Tom Marvolo Riddle, son of a pureblood, inbred witch with little more power than a squib. Son of a muggle father under the influence of love potions. The Dark Lord was a half-blood, he was the grandson of muggles. In the most devastating civil war the British and Irish magical world has ever seen, all four principals were half-bloods. Why were the four of us so much more powerful, so much more influential, so much more gifted by magic, than all the rest of you?

'Hire the most competent person you can, regardless of blood status, and let magic do the rest. Invest in the most creative, innovate person you can find, regardless of blood status, and let magic do the rest. Marry the one you love, regardless of blood status, and let magic do the rest.'

"And those are the words we live by."