Chapter 25 – Forward to the Future
It had been thirty days of celebrations and victory parties for the British magical community. Harry and his wives had worked diligently to secure alliances with the key houses. When many of the Wizengmont members held parties, they would invite Harry and his wives.
Harry would send a reply that he would also be bringing the Goblin King and Ragnok with him. It was on the second invitation that a return reply from the host noted that the Goblins were not welcome. Harry never replied nor attended the host's celebration. In point of fact Harry refused to acknowledge or talk to the host.
It was during the next celebration that Harry attended, the host in frustration got up in front of everyone to face Harry.
"Lord Potter I do not understand why you have refused to talk or acknowledge me. I am greatly affronted and insulted by your attitude towards me. What have I done to you?"
Harry turned to the crowd of guests and watched their reaction to him as they separated so that the affronted man and Harry could face each other. Harry looked at the man before he quietly spoke.
"Lord Thorpe may I introduce you to my adoptive Father, King Thalcone and my brother Director Ragnok of the Goblin nation." Lord Thorpe's face fell. Harry walked up to him with Iralon on his arm. "You replied back to my response to your invitation by saying that my Father and Brother were not welcome in your home. I was greatly insulted by your careless disregard for my family. If you cannot accept them, then you cannot accept me."
Lord Thorpe looked very forlorn and thought before he answered "You don't do anything by halves do you Lord Potter?" Harry gave him a neutral look "You are married to the Queen of the high Elves and your adopted Family is the Goblins, no less than the King of the Goblins is your father."
Iralan looked to Lord Thorpe "If you are to truly accept the changes and accept Harry then perhaps it is wise to accept that magical beings are sentient and intelligent. My husband is very adamant about changing the attitudes of the wizarding world and will not tolerate bias of them, especially those he claims as family. If you slight or hurt his family, it is to slight and hurt him… I don't recommend doing that."
Lord Thorpe bowed to Harry "Lord Potter I sincerely apologize for my thoughtless response to you and the slight I gave to your family and I will try to do better in the future."
Harry gave a slight bow to Lord Thorpe "I accept your apology Lord Thorpe. I am holding a Party celebration at my estate in two weeks. You and your family are formally invited and I will warn you now that I have invited many magical beings to this party. I warn you there will be no third chances with me."
Lord Thorpe smiled "Thank you Lord Potter and I accept your generous invitation."
It was right after the Party that the first full Wizegmont session was held. Amelia, Ragnok, Iralan, and Harry worked the day before to complete the legislative agenda for this session. Harry was on pins and needles as the first bill was to remove Britain from the International confederation of Wizards until such time as they acknowledged the rights of non-magicals and all magical beings.
The Wizengmont was shocked and fearful by this bill. The most voiced objection was to how the rest of the wizarding world would view this and if there would be consequences for Britain's actions. Harry stood and walked down to the Wizengmont floor. Every member had their eyes on him.
"I understand the objection that was voiced and I believe that the concern is what will happen to us should we accept this bill? Change is both exciting and frightening and I ask you what do you believe in? Is your belief such that any change is unacceptable? For the last one hundred and fifty years the wizarding world has been stuck…"
The Wizengmont doors suddenly opened and Augustan Rockwood walked in with about thirteen more people, who were censored almost sixty days ago. Lord Rockwood was not in wizarding robes and in fact looked very much like a non-magical businessman. Harry gave a small smile.
"Lord Emrys I believe that you were going to say that we wizards have become a bunch of backwater hicks who have no sense of the true world around us." Lord Rockwood stated with a smile.
Harry chuckled "I would not have stated it just like that but you are close."
Lord Rockwood snorted "Damn politicians can't just come out and say anything the way it is." The wizengmont had not said anything to their appearance.
Another member said sarcastically "Well that is the Pot calling the kettle black."
Rockwood turned to the member "Well it would be true if this was six months ago. It is an amazing thing to find yourself a wizard hiding in the non-magical world. It is an eye-opening experience."
Harry cut off further comments "Lord Rockwood what is it that you want?"
Lord Rockwood stood to his full height "We have come to turn ourselves in. We are all criminals under the law." Harry's eyebrows arched upon hearing this.
Lord Rockwood continued "We have made many mistakes and it is time to settle up our accounts. We have a proposal for this body, the Ministry, and you Lord Emry's."
Harry looked at him "You definitely have my attention, if no one objects we will listen."
Lord Rockwood pulled out a stack of files "These are our full confessions for all crimes we have committed. There are admissions to murder, rape, bribery, and conspiracy. It is our complicity in the death eater organization that caused the admissions to murder and rape. None of the people here, including myself, actual committed those two crimes but under conspiracy law we are guilty of it."
"We only allowed those of us that did not commit the most heinous crimes to be here today. We would like to offer a deal with this body and I believe it will help the ministry as well."
Hearing no objection Lord Rockwood continued "All of us deserve life in Azkabahn but we suggest an alternative. We offer to make our sentence for no less than 15 years in Azkabahn and in return we will administer the prison for no pay."
Harry looked at the members for their reaction before he asked "Why would we do this or even think about it?"
Lord Rockwood smiled "The biggest reason is that we can get rid of the dementors and then work to make Azkabahn a rehabilitation center that punishes and then helps those to change their attitudes so that when they come back to society they are ready to participate."
Hermione stood up "If I may be so bold… where did you hide… what countries?"
Rockwood turned to her "Some were in America and some were in Canada."
Hermione smiled "I don't know all the details of what you propose but you have my attention and I believe I would be willing to support this if what I am thinking is correct."
Lord Rockwood grinned "I thought a witch from a non-magical family might understand. We intend to indoctrinate all prisoners into non-magical culture and then establish a work program at the prison for most of the basic needs. Non-magicals have a lot to teach us about modern society. We believe the fourteen of us can manage the prison and a rehabilitation program to make a difference, after all we are good administrators."
Amelia smiled "How many Aurors would you need?"
"A minimum of two but that would depend upon how comfortable this body feels with criminals running the prison. We are in more need of Non-magical psychologist and Magical mind healers to set up and work the rehabilitation program. We can get into more details if we can get this accepted by the members."
Rockwood turned to Harry "We do have one request. It seems so-called pure bloods have many squibs in our families. We would like to have them vote proxy for us in the Wizegnmont during our stay in Azkabahn. All of them have lived their lives in the non-magical culture and we believe their point of view would be a good thing for this body." Rockwood laughed when Harry's mouth flopped open in disbelief.
Within 30 minutes there was a tentative acceptance based on a heavily monitoring of the Prison. The Squibs were accepted into the Wizengmont and their first vote was wide acceptance of the bill to remove the British Magicals from the ICW.
In the coming years it was noted that history found these two votes the key to the turn-around in British magical society. Non-magicals had implied rights and the Prison began to have prisoners who came back to society much better ready to deal with it. The Azkabahn 14, as they became known, led a program that was deemed highly successful. They were all pardoned within five years but remained as the prison administrators until their deaths.
Within a month the first non-magical protection act was voted into law along with magical beings rights being established. The Goblins were seen outside of Gringott's at a slowly increasing pace. Many magicals began to converse with them on a daily basis. It was noted that at Hogwarts that the centaurs presence was becoming more widespread. Seventh years began to wonder into the forbidden forest with centaur escorts to keep them out of trouble.
The non-magical protection act and the break from the ICW had a dubious effect on the rest of the ICW. The Americans quickly followed suit as they had never like the fact that non-magicals, whose rights were violated by the ICW charter, were treated with disregard to the US Constitution. They cited similar reasons for their break with the ICW.
Needless to say, that within six months another fourteen countries had broken from the ICW. This was a rift that the ICW could never recover from. It would take another ten years and many conflicts before the ICW was abolished.
It was soon after the American broke from the ICW that Harry or King Iranoth instituted his second plan to bring the non-magical and magical worlds together. In his belief the Statute of Secrecy was the bane of existence he started a slow process of bringing the magical world to the attention of the non-magical world.