Blaise pours the blood into the bath and Hermione looks at him, her face scrunched in distaste.
"Are you really sure this is a good idea," she mutters, for the fifth time that hour. "It seems so disgusting."
Blaise and Draco look at the red bath water and both paste cheerful smiles on. "It doesn't seem that bad to me," Draco says.
"Liar." Her sour voice makes him laugh.
"Just get in, soak, be sure to totally immerse yourself, and then rinse off. By the time you're done the stew should be ready." Draco puts a coaxing note into his voice, "Luna brought good bread."
"Oh, goody." Because she has such an appetite right now. Nothing like contemplating soaking in blood to really make a girl hungry.
"And Blaise brought wine..."
"What's the appropriate vintage to serve with sacrificial rabbit, anyway?"
Blaise puts his hand over his heart and signed dramatically. "I'm wounded - utterly wounded - that you think I, blood purist and elitist snob, might bring the wrong wine to a blood magic ritual. It's as if you don't even know me."
"Whatever. It's not like I can have any of it anyway." Hermione stares at the red water. "I assume I don't have to do this in front of an audience, right? That you plan to leave?"
Both men start edging towards the door; she adds, right as Blaise is almost out of the room, "This won't hurt the baby, right?"
"No!" he blurts out. "Trust me, I double and triple checked that once you were..."
"Good. Because if it did -"
"You'd kill me?" He smiles at her.
"Oh no." She smiles back. "If I killed you it would be a mistake."
He blows her a kiss. "My dear, bloodthirsty, terrifying Lady, trust me, your little princling is safe. We all - all - want your dynasty firmly established."
She turns to look back at the bloody water and sighs. "Might as well get this over with," and both men slip away.
. . . . . . . . . .
~ Dishes and Treats ~
The wizarding world is happy to welcome its newest princess; Theodore Nott, last scion of the venerable House of Nott, has adopted young miss Æthel Doe, now Nott, from the rightly maligned Phoenix Orphanage. The crème-de-la-crème of society came to Narcissa Malfoy's town house on Saturday to toast the young Lady Nott. This columnist hopes that Lord Nott won't stop his charitable work at the orphanage now that he's brought his own little girl home; those children need someone to watch out for them and it's clear it's not going to be the Order of the Phoenix, after whom the institution was named and whose members sit prominently on the board.
"Lady Nott?" Harry raises his brows and looks at Ginny for confirmation.
"It's technically her title," the woman responds, drinking her coffee. Drinking what Harry hopes is just coffee. "Nott's mother's dead and she's the only female member of the House. Never seen anyone pretentious enough to dredge up that old custom, though, especially not for a little kid."
"Lord Nott?" Ron asks, in disgust. "Could that rotter be any more vile?"
"Head of a pureblood House," Ginny shrugs and swirls the creamy liquid in her cup. "Again, never seen anyone be enough of a pompous prat to actually use the old title system, not even Malfoy which is saying something, but it isn't inaccurate."
"Does that mean," Harry leans back and looks at Ginny, "I'm Lord Potter?"
Percy shakes his head. "No, sorry; your mother was muggle-born, so, formally, the House of Potter is no more."
"Ah well," Harry reaches awkwardly out to Ginny, who endures his touch but hardly welcomes it. "I guess you don't get to be Lady Potter."
"I'll live," she snorts with obvious disdain. "The whole idea of medieval pureblood titles makes my skin crawl. Who wants to go back to that kind of world?"
"I think," Percy says, "you're all missing the main problem here, which isn't that the gossip columnist is using absurd titles but the nasty little dig at the Order of the Phoenix. We've become the easy target and that's not good."
"Has part two in the series come out yet?" Ron's shoving a piece of toast into his mouth and Percy looks away in disgust.
"Not yet, and I'm going into the office to try to get some damage control done ahead of time."
"How bad is it going to be?" Harry asks.
"That depends on Russia," Percy mutters. At their confused looks he adds, "I'll explain later."
. . . . . . . . . .
"Marcus," Hermione's lounging in her chair, wand at the ready. Theo's brought the man up and he's looking around the bare room with a mixture of disdain and confusion. "I've been told you're asking questions about me."
Marcus Flint seems to be slowly realizing that, despite the lack of overt pomp, he'd best haul out his most formal manners; he lowers himself to his knees, albeit less gracefully than Theo's ever managed, and lays his wand in front of him. Hermione's cold smile warms just a tad as she runs her fingers along her own wand, caressing it. Marcus watches her hand as if mesmerized. "I have heard rumors that a new dark power is rising," he finally murmurs when Theo clears his throat from where he's leaning against the far wall. "I've heard rumors that it's you."
"Fascinating," Hermione looks up at Theo. "Is this your doing?"
"We are," the man replies, "trying to get the masses ready for you, yes. Given that the election is not really in jeopardy I'm moving on a bit."
"Don't worry my pretty little head about it?" she asks and Marcus looks nervous. A spat between his contact and the rising power was probably not something he had expected.
"Lady," Theo rolls his eyes. "You have enough to do being a candidate, plus that thing where you spend most of every morning being miserable. I thought we'd agreed I would work on the longer term project of doing away with the pesky democracy problem."
"True enough. I'm sorry, Theo. I've been irritable lately." she turns her attention back to Marcus. "What do the rumors tell you?"
"That," he stumbles, clearly having a hard time reconciling the scrubby school girl he remembered and had probably still unconsciously expected with the woman in front of him. "That Nimue is back, another lady out of the mists, that she plans to restore pureblood privileges, derail the Order."
"And you believed this?"
"I… I thought it was probably more poetic than actually truthful," he confesses. "But that you might be a…"
"Excellent." Her craving for caramels is overcoming her interest in this conversation. She supposes she'll have to bloody well comb through this man's brain and all but where is Draco with her food? She refocuses. "How good, Mr. Flint, are you at violence?"
He looks up, confused. Gods. The way these people seem to think she'll just wave her wand and go from Minister to Queen with no objections is kind of ridiculous. Even a shiny, new tyranny, coming in to replace the broken democracy that exploited orphans and starved the poor, is going to have some detractors.
She plans to have those detractors killed, of course, or at least enough of them to send a message, but she's under no illusion that they won't exist.
"You see, I suspect we will need a bit of an army to enforce the transition from Minister to Queen, well, Regent if we want to be technical about where we're going. Theo will ensure that most people actually want to get rid of all those pesky, corruptible elected offices but there are always people who need more - vigorous, shall we say? - convincing. Or people against whose attacks I'll need defending. I foresee anyone who needs vigorous convincing will be moved to attack and we'll have to defend ourselves. It will, of course, be terribly sad. I'm sure I'll sniffle a bit at public events while promising to keep everyone safe from the wretched remnants of the Order, driven to violence at the end."
Theo is trying not to laugh while respect slowly blossoms in Marcus Flint's eyes. Flint had, despite his hints, not been fully convinced Hermione was anything other than some figurehead Draco and Theo were manipulating. Of course, that misconception suits Theo; he wants to keep anyone against them confused and focusing attention on the inner circle rather than the queen. He, Draco – even Blaise – can take anyone. Hermione's a tad distracted by the near constant nausea and her inexplicable recent obsession with caramels. And, of course, she's the only one of them truly crucial to the final plans.
"You want me," Flint breathes, "to put together an army for you?"
"Knights of the Lady, maybe?" Theo asks, eyebrows raised. "Perhaps they could start as a service organization?"
"Oh, I like that, Theo," she smiles across the room at him. "Your ideas are always good."
"I live to serve," he murmurs.
"He does, too," she looks back at Marcus, suddenly serious. "I expect loyalty to be absolute, upon quite literal pain of death. A slow death."
"I would expect nothing less."
"Before we begin…" she starts the tedious explanation of the legilimancy and the man in front of her nods, eyes shining. She looks up at Theo who mouths 'well done' at her. Another convert, another soul committed to putting a woman he'd despised as filthy and beneath him on a throne of absolute power.
Sometimes she likes the irony of that even more than the power she can already almost taste.
It tastes a bit like caramel. Salted caramel.
Where the fuck is Draco with her food?
. . . . . . . . . .
Percy Weasley looks up at his boss, at a man he's respected for years. "They seized all of it?" he mumbles, horrified. "It's all gone?"
Shacklebolt nods, grimly.
"What do we do?" Percy asks, hopelessly?
. . . . . . . . . .
Hermione frowns at Theo and Æthel when they come in. "I love your daughter, but I'm not sure a strategy meeting is the best place for a child." Much of the inner circle sprawls about the main room of Hermione's old flat and she has an actual chalkboard propped against the wall where she's sketched out the assorted money issues they plan to exploit. A large bowl of candy sits in the middle of the floor and Æthel spots it at once.
"I know," Theo rakes his hand through his hair, "but Pansy was supposed to watch her and now she can't. You either get both of us or neither."
"You need a nanny," Hermione snorts, "Not Pansy."
"I'll be quiet," Ethel promises.
"It's not that, love," Hermione smiles at the child. "It's that..."
"And I won't repeat ANYTHING." The girl looks up at her, her blue eyes pleading to be allowed to stay.
"Oh, let her listen," Draco sighs. "She might as well grow up learning this stuff; she's going to live her whole life in a political snake-pit."
"It's true," Luna's got knitting out and is staring with a frown at her pattern. "She's the heir to one of the last noble houses and the niece of the future queen. She's valuable. Oh, perl four."
"How's Harry?" Blaise drawls, running his fingers through her hair.
Luna shrugs. "Worried. I don't know why, though."
"Umm, because he doesn't want Hermione to take over the world." Theo raises his brows.
"It's a waste of energy to worry about things you cannot change." She starts ripping out stitches and leans closer to her pattern. "Did you know the Prophet has started a series on great women in our history? Last week it was Boudicca."
"Random," mutters Draco.
"If I've learned one thing, mate, it's that she's never random." Blaise pulls the paper off the floor and flips through it. "Let me guess, this week it's Nimue?"
"Next week," Luna hands her ball of yarn to Æthel. "This week it's her."
"Æthel?" Theo stares at the woman. He's still not wholly sold on the idea of Luna.
"Æthelflæd."
"Hey," the girl squeals, "she has my name." Blaise hands over the paper to the little girl who admires a drawing of a fierce looking woman holding a scepter and sitting on a throne. "Lady of the Mercians," she reads.
"Tell me about her," Hermione smiles; Daphne's plan to dominate every media she can with Nimue stories appears to be working.
The girl skims the article and then says, "She ruled for 8 years, from 911, and not just as a figurehead either. She led the soldiers and built thirteen fortresses."
"Not a bad namesake," Theo ruffles the girl's hair. "Now hush and let us strategize, princess. We need to make sure your aunt gets elected."
"I hate to suggest using the girl," Blaise interjects, "but I suspect if she 'carelessly revealed' something to Potter on an ice cream date with Luna he'd take it as absolute gospel."
"Because children never lie?" Hermione looks doubtful. "He knows perfectly well we lied all the time at that age."
"It's worth trying," Blaise shrugs. "And can I say how much I love the endless revelations about how you were not the goody-two-shoes in school that we all thought you were."
Ethel squirms with eagerness, looking from face to face.
"Do you think she could handle it?" Hermione is still frowning at the idea, and she tosses a dirty look in Blaise's direction, but Theo laughs.
"Any child who can do a meet and greet without a single mishap at Narcissa Malfoy's party can manage to skillfully drop misinformation over ice cream. The blush when she 'realized' she was Lady Nott was especially brilliant."
"You're so invested in how sneaky she is. What will you do," Hermione laughs back at him, "if she gets sorted into Hufflepuff after all?"
"Laugh my arse off and wait for her to take over the whole lot of them."
"Well, sweetling," Hermione looks at the girl. "If we can come up with something for you to let slip do you think you can accidentally drop false information to my old friend?"
The girl nods, her eyes wide.
"Theo, is that okay with you? I don't want to..."
"My life is yours, Lady." He's very serious for a moment, then he grins. "And, ice cream with Luna and a little spilled misinformation is a good start down the path of a life of political manipulation. It's not exactly like you're asking her to take the Dark Mark."
"Luna?"
"I like ice cream."
"OK, so now that we've decided to exploit the innocence of children, can we move on to how we plan to explicate the complex economics and, more importantly, how we plan to make the Russia incident highlight the weakness of the entire current political system? Theo," she turns to him, "I want to keep Percy's name out of it for a little while."
"Why?"
She smiles. "What's the penalty for embezzlement?"
"Prison," he shrugs. "And your point?"
"What do you think Percy Weasley would do to keep himself out of prison?"
Blaise grabs a caramel from the candy bowl then, looking at Hermione slowly puts it back and takes a chocolate instead. "Just about anything."
"I think," she looks at Blaise, "I want him to endorse me."
"You want Ron's brother to endorse you?" Draco asks, then, when she nods, he laughs. "You are really evil with the way you like to twist the knife, you know that?"
"I thought that was what you liked about me."
. . . . . . . . . . .
~ Hermione Granger Resigns From Ministry in Protest over Phoenix Orphanage ~
War heroine Hermione Granger-Malfoy resigned from the Ministry of Magic today in protest over conditions at the Order of the Phoenix Memorial Orphanage.
She cited government funding improprieties resulting in sub-standard conditions for the institution's residents as the main reason for her departure.
The resignation is notable not only because Ms. Granger-Malfoy is a former member of the Order that founded the orphanage but because she had a long-standing personal relationship with the family most connected to the management of the facility, the Weasleys.
Arthur Weasley runs the Muggle Artifact Registration Office at the Ministry of Magic and his wife, Molly Weasley, is the head of the board of the orphanage in question. Recent accusations have emerged that the couple embezzled money from the orphanage budget. Their youngest son, well-known playboy Ronald Weasley, has been recently quoted that the conditions at the orphanage are 'character building'.
Political pundits agree that this resignation opens the way for Ms. Granger-Malfoy to declare her own candidacy for Minister of Magic. She is widely considered a shoo-in should she decide to run, especially in the wake of this current scandals that likely remove both Percy Weasley, the current Deputy Minister, and Harry Potter from contention.
. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
A/N - Thank you so much, everyone, for all the support you've sent me for this fic. I admit I can't quite believe this political dystopia is interesting to people, especially when I have to keep a cheat sheet for myself to keep all the threads straight.
As the Order becomes more aware of Hermione's machinations they will spawn more of a full fledged antagonist. Said antagonist needs a tragedy to happen to really motivate him/her to full on conflict and I'm still building to that tragedy, but it is coming. I do encourage guessing as to who that might be…
Much love to everyone who reviewed since I last posted. Thank you all SO much. hosiakari7 (author of a wonderful fic, You Again, herself that I'm really enjoying), Ramyfan (multiple times!), Analena, DCullen07, Pank98, LadiePhoenix007, Honoria Granger, lumoslit, Icelynn, Ace Clover, SusanMarieS, sparklefreeze, GTH, AnnaxVakarian, FaeBreeze, SimiDemon1994, my name is mommy, ladymagma1100, Lolo and the Dragons, Sora Loves Rain (multiple times), Girlinthegreen, pagyn, Guest, Kitty, Lisa, rosierocks30, ryggrad, Nicxy, Chester99, xXMiss Alec VolturiXx, Darc-lover, dracosgirl007, Mady, Dehstehra, Grovek26, DarkFairy8605, LB123, Don't Trust the Silver Eyes, dcyr, and my partner-in-crime, dulce de leche go.
If you're feeling like this just isn't enough dystopia, that you want an even darker world, let me nudge you towards A Bodyguard of Lies which I am writing with said crime partner, dulce de leche go.