Chapter 36 – The Way Forward

We had slept a little and then met with Viktor, Padma Parvati, Cho and the Delacours. I was running on adrenaline. I worry about making errors, which I normally would avoid, when I'm in this condition. I had just a few hours' sleep in the past two days. Padma was very curious and more than a little concerned to be asked to this meeting. Viktor had told Chol what to expect.

I told them, "I have a strange question, which The Bad Dude requested I ask Cho and Padma. I know that your parents weren't born in Britain, that at one time they lived in very small magical communities in Asia. But, here's the biggest question: why did they decide to move to Britain? I don't know if I should be talking to your parents, but I have you and don't know where to find them. My second question is this: did your parents find that their magical abilities were stronger, when they arrived in Britain."

"They've talked to me about that," Padma admitted. "I think I understand. I think they feared for my and Parvati's lives. You must realise that India is a huge country and it has fewer than a thousand Witches and Wizards. You also must understand that almost all of them live among the untouchables, that's the lowest possible caste. They have almost no rights and are persecuted, but it is also the easiest group to hide within. You could be totally anonymous, with no documentation at all. My family didn't really fit in, because my mother was from a higher caste, but her parents had to hide her quickly, when she showed obvious wild magic. I guess the tendency to dramatic wild magic runs in the family. Parvati produced especially frightening magic, a sort of infant-grade Fiendfyre, which destroyed five dwellings, belonging to both magical and nonmagical families. My sister was only five years old. There were suspicions, but no real evidence that Parvati caused the damage. The ten-year old living next door was eventually blamed. The mother of the third magical family, in our little collection of huts decided that if wild magic caused a fire, it certainly would consume the home of the person who created the magic. By chance, a strong wind was blowing from our hut toward the hut of the ten-year-old boy and fortunately our hut didn't burn. Both in fear of more wild magic from my sister, or perhaps me, and to divert unfounded suspicions and actions against the boy, my parents decided that our family must flee. My mother's parents gave them money and provided fake passports and they booked passage on a freighter headed to Britain. The answer to your second question is yes. My mother told me that before we left home, her magic was nothing more than a guttering candle flame. Here it was a blazing torch. When she got a British wand, they're a lot better than the ones we had back home, ours aren't adjusted for the individual, her magical strength increased again. As you know, I never had any problems learning or practicing magic. I was among the top students in my class."

"I was even younger, just two years old, when I came to Britain," Cho explained. "My mother was just twenty and my father was forty. The story my mother told me was that a neighbor's daughter performed wild magic in my mother's presence. We lived in Shanghai. The next day, nonmagical neighbors complained and the police arrested the girl. The girl's parents blamed my mother for turning their daughter in to the police, but she swears she kept quiet. Why would she contact the police? She knew what wild magic is, she is magical herself. The neighbor was stirring up so much excitement among the other half dozen magical families in the area and demanding 'Wizard justice'. My parents snuck away in the night with me. They made it to Hong Kong and then to Britain. I'm more magical than either of my parents. My mother always said that she was a little more magical in Britain. That's all I can tell you. Obviously, I'm quite good at magic, but I had seven years of training and have learned more from Viktor and from you. My mother told me that she had no idea how many magical peoples lived in China. She met only Witches and Wizards and those only from Shanghai. She wasn't aware of any larger organisation of the Wizarding population. She doubts there could have been anything resembling our Ministry, because she knew nobody who could Apparate and the nonmagical government severely restricted travel. My father had an important job in the nonmagical world - he ran a large factory, so he could travel. He did encounter a Witch and two Wizards in Beijing and a pair of Wizards in Hong Kong. One of those Hong Kong Wizards helped our family to leave China."

I invited Cho and Padma to join us at the ICW. I doubted this move would be appreciated by many at the ICW, but it was Mr. Tsieh and the Dude, who made their presence pertinent. The ICW was to reconvene at 11:00 A.M. Jerusalem time. Our group Apparated into the chamber at 10:30. Apparently, we were very late.

"I had hoped that you would have breakfast with a group of us," the Dude admonished us. "At least you took my advice to meet with members of your community, whose parents grew up in Asia. Have you at least learned something about the special dangers faced by members of those communities."?

"We've certainly gained an understanding of the hazards they face, the small size of their communities, and their lack of a strong Wizarding government," Harry admitted. "On the whole, I'm not convinced that their situation is any more perilous than what we've faced for my entire lifetime. I know your community faced Grindelwald for a time. The Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang communities faced all the Voldemort threat and most of the Grindelwald threat on our own. I don't concede that the Asian Wizarding communities have had it worse than we did."

Hermione added: "The hazards are different in kind. Ours are greater, but we also have more, and more organised, resources to cope with them. We also face different threats from the various nonmagical governments. I recognise the problems in China and India, but ours have not been trivial. This whole series of ICW meetings was called, because our problems with the nonmagical governments may be approaching the existential threat stage."

"That is a fair assessment," Cho told him.

"It's not that we are unwilling to help the smaller Wizarding communities. We don't know how. We don't know if it's even possible." I was being totally honest in saying this, although I was perhaps stretching beyond my authority in offering Quest help.

"That's a good start," the Dude assured me. Perhaps we should delay the start of this session by an hour, so that you can meet with Mr. Tsieh and Mr. Subramanian. We can go to my office."

I guess he could delay the meeting. Mr. Tsieh, Mr. Subramanian, Secretary Afshar, and Mr. Ein Gadi were already seated in the office when we arrived. Mr. Tsieh started with an apology which was obviously both coerced and heavily rehearsed.

"I want to start this meeting by apologising for my comment yesterday. I was overly excited. Of course, it was unfair to request that you or Hermione walk to your deaths in order to cause the fortress to kill Vili. I will supply a volunteer from our community. You only need to transport her to the spot. Don't worry about her. She is a convicted criminal who will be saved from a worse death and her family will be rewarded for her service."

"That sounds almost as bad as us walking to our deaths to kill Vili. I don't understand why you are so obsessed about Vili. You know nothing about him, beyond what we told you. He isn't a threat to you. He's a threat to us and especially to our former Quester Adrienne and her son. All of that is beside the point. We need Odin as a friend. It makes no sense to antagonise him, by murdering his only remaining brother."

"I have met both Vili and Frijjo. They established a small base in China over a year ago. They killed a half dozen members of our community. Vili tricked several young girls into bearing his children. He and Frijjo left with those babies. They left the mothers behind. The mothers want the return of their children."

"Oh! I was unaware of that. He apparently knows his way around non-European magical communities better than we do. That is scary and I'm sorry your community suffered so greatly from Vili's actions. How will killing Vili get the babies back? I'm sure that Odin doesn't even know that his brother kidnapped your community's babies. If Vili dies, we will never find them. I will ask that Odin question Vili about this. Vili seems stronger on Vanaheimer than on Asgard. I think that must be where he took them. I promise that we will do what we can to recover them."

"You shouldn't be surprised as you half killed him when he tried to grab your Adrienne and her child. You have aurors and Questers and a Black Stone and well-developed fighting strategies with which to defend yourselves. We don't have that. We are easy prey for one such as Vili. You think that because Odin and Vili are Gods of northern Europe that they are bound to those places. They aren't. Of course, he didn't call himself Vili during his latest visits to our land. He claimed to be Lu Xing. He looked like some icons of Lu Xing. Perhaps he visited us in the ancient past. My people are still superstitious. They know magic is real; they can barely practice it; they turn to others to help them access the magic, which legend says was readily available to their ancestors. As the God of Prosperity, Lu Xing would have a great appeal. Many in our community are far from prosperous, and these were very poor girls."

"Ginny told me that she was willing to help your community through the Quest but doesn't know how. As you can tell, she knows nothing about your community or its relationship to the nonmagical government or whether or not you ever had a magical circle."

"I spoke to Percy about some of these things."

"Sorry, sis, we've both been very busy, and this didn't seem like something which was relevant to you. It didn't even seem like something to bring to Harry - just background information for my assignment as Delegate. This is the first time China seemed relevant to our government."

"That's all right, Percy. We can discuss this later and you can tell me what I need to know."

"That's not a problem," Mr. Tsieh hastened to inform me, "I can bring you up to speed on that. I'm happy to do so. For now, let me say that we did have a magical circle. It's dead, but I know where the body is buried. It is in a secure, underground cavern. Our nonmagical government hasn't found it and neither has Lu Xing. It should be safe for you to repair it. I will help as best I can. Thank you."

Well, that was a big change of attitude. Mr. Subramanian also wanted our help but wasn't sure exactly where his people's circle was hidden. It almost certainly was in the northern mountains. I told him that I would ask the Black Stones but couldn't promise anything. If the circle was still partially functional, we might well be able to locate it ourselves, although it would not be a simple thing. Even if we found it, it might be impossible to enter it. We couldn't Apparate into an unknown chamber inside a mountain. That was suicide. We needed to know the location of the entrance. There must have been a physical entrance which could be walked through. Same situation for China.

"Not a problem for us. I know the entrance; I have been in the cavern."

"How soon can you begin work on these circles?" The Dude asked me.

"I can't say exactly. We need to check seid-space for any dangerous edits or traps which Frijjo may have created. Then we need to build a circle for the Vanir. We already made that commitment. I'll tell Odin that these circles need to be our next tasks after that. I think that can be within a month, but it might take two. That's the best that I can do."

"I'm sure that will be acceptable," the Dude announced, I think more to Mr. Tsieh and Mr. Subramanian than to me. "With those two contentious matters behind us, let's move on to the purpose of this session of the ICW: do your governments have an objection to the British Wizards working with their nonmagical government to prevent discovery of their communities. Do you believe that violates the ISS."?

"I think that British Wizards must do everything they can to prevent discovery. If they are officially discovered, then other governments will search for magical people in their own nations. That is where the harm comes to us. If the help of a few people in the nonmagical British government helps keep the magical communities in Britain hidden, then that helps all of us. I admit that the Voldemort problem raised special issues. I don't accept that the British magical peoples should reveal themselves as Minister Tony suggests. That is a threat to us. He is right that they must fit into British society as individuals. We do that, ourselves. It is necessary to remaining hidden. Look too strange and you will be arrested and questioned. Our people have good behavior, as I'm sure do the British Wizards, but enough arrests and someone will talk. That is the greatest danger. The Harry Potter books are not a threat. We also have magical tales. They might ease the way, if we must stop hiding. We only stop hiding if there is no possible other way."

"That's good. That is also the position of the American Wizards. Do you agree, Mr. Subramanian?"

"I do. The British Wizards will do their best to remain hidden. Tony may continue to help them. We also will remain hidden. We will not vote that the British Wizard government is in violation of the ISS. Intent is what matters. We all must be free to choose the best path to remain hidden. Gamot Parkinson and Mr. Cuffe intended to show the British and American nonmagical people that Wizards exist. That is a violation of the ISS. We cannot approve that."

"Neither can I," the Dude assured him.

The rest was all no drama. The Dude reconvened the meeting. Mr. Tsieh proposed a resolution stating that the Weasley and Potter administrations were in full conformance with the ISS. It passed unanimously. Gamot Parkinson was called to explain his actions, as was Barnabas Cuffe. The Delegates weren't buying what they were selling. Apparently none of the Delegates' communities had families who owned Elves. Trying to re-enslave Elves was not an acceptable reason to trash the ISS. They were unanimously found to have deliberately violated the ISS. They were warned that the ICW could order their assassination if they repeated their actions. They were to advise their "associates" of this action by the ICW. If the Potter administration decided to prosecute and imprison them, it had the full support of the ICW.