October 21st
Hermione and Percy arrived together at Hogsmeade and joined a small group of other adults to walk the path to Hogwarts. Professor McGonagall had sent out a call for an open forum to discuss the future of Hogwarts curricula.
Unsurprisingly, Hermione had been enthusiastic about the idea of influencing future students and had insisted on attending. Percy fondly remembered Hermione's voracious appetite for knowledge. It had, in fact, been one of the reasons that they'd gotten along so well together when they both attended Hogwarts. Tonks had requested that Percy attend the meeting as well, in the interests of the DMLE, and so both of them had eaten an early dinner and bundled up against the brisk October chill.
"Hello, Anthony," Hermione greeted Anthony Goldstein, who had fallen in step with them.
"Hello, Hermione, you're looking well. How's it going, Percy?" Percy hadn't seen much of Anthony around the ministry since he'd been hired. The establishment of a ministry department specifically meant to allocate, manage, and audit government spending had been one of the smartest (and most controversial) decisions made in the last several months.
"I'm doing well, Anthony, thank you for asking. I didn't expect to be seeing you tonight,"
"I didn't know about this forum until a few nights ago. Professor Flitwick sent me an owl about it. He's been wanting to suggest a "Personal Finance" course to the core requirements, and wanted me to advocate on behalf of the idea,"
"Personal finance?" Each of the words individually made sense to Percy, but he couldn't resolutely define to himself what would be taught in such a class.
"Your confusion is one of the reasons I'm advocating for this," Anthony said, "No offense, of course,"
"None taken,"
"It seems to be pervasive in the Wizarding UK that no one has any idea what things are actually worth, or how they should be saving or spending their money. Gringotts reports to me that most people's savings accounts are barely a month or two of basic expenses. There are the wealthy, of course, but that seems to come from old money rather than current investments,"
Percy thought of his own bank account, which had about 4 months of expenses saved. He'd had quite a bit of money, previously. The apartment on Acacia Avenue had been relatively inexpensive to rent, his old job in the minister's office as well as his new job with the DMLE paid well, and Percy and Hermione lived frugally most of the time.
Recently, however, they'd made several large purchases: furniture for 800 Weatherby Way, new casual robes and muggle clothing for each of them, dress robes for Penny and Alicia's wedding, plus a wedding gift for the brides, and housewarming gifts for both Hermione's parents and Draco.
"There's also the fact that it's very difficult for Wizards to navigate around the muggle world when they don't know what muggle money looks like, or how to spend it naturally without drawing attention to themselves, or what the value of muggle commodities should be. Muggle groceries are much, much cheaper than the exact same products sold in wizarding grocery stores,"
"Really?" Paddington's, the wizarding storefront below Percy's first flat, hadn't sold much more than chocolate frogs in the way of food. Percy's only experiences with grocery shopping as an adult had been to the muggle grocer up the road, and to the local shops near 800 Weatherby Way.
"That's such a good point, Anthony," Hermione chipped in, "Though that sort of curriculum could maybe fit into a muggle studies class, rather than being its own content,"
The three of them continued to chat as they got closer to the school. They were meeting in the dining hall, and it surprised Percy that before they were allowed into the building, they were required to check their wands and receive visitors' badges, just like visitors to the Ministry.
McGonagall was flourishing as Headmistress. She was getting older, yes, but she commanded the attention of the group with ease and began speaking with practiced confidence.
Different stakeholders were present, including a group of current students and recent alumni, parents (though Percy noted there were no muggle parents present), current and former Hogwarts professors, and a small group of professors and educators from other Wizarding Schools in Europe and North America.
The need for updating the Hogwarts curriculum was evidenced by McGonagall's statement that students were graduating unprepared to enter the workforce. Less than 10 students in the last five years had been qualified to enter the Auror training program, and less than 20 students had met the qualifications to enter St. Mungo's training program. Penny had not been one of those students, which was why she'd elected to attend school in Canada.
"It is clear that it is not the students' fault they are unqualified, but rather Hogwarts as an institution that has failed," McGonagall said.
Percy, with his knowledge of the Auror training requirements, chipped in that perhaps, 7th year Hogwarts students with an interest in joining the Auror academy after graduation might be allowed to take a few of the Ministry's auror training classes: Disguise and Mimicry, Warding 101, and the like, as electives for credit that could transfer into their Auror training requirements. This would allow them to complete the program faster, thus sending more Aurors into the workforce more quickly.
It was that idea, among others, that created the framework for designing an Auror track, a Healing track, and a Cursebreaking track for upper-level students with an interest in those careers. Hermione murmured to Percy that it reminded her of some programs offered to muggle students who wished to prepare for law school or medical school.
The need for more muggle-based coursework was also stated multiple times during the meeting. The Muggle Studies course curricula, last updated in 1939, was being completely overhauled. But more importantly, muggleborn and half-blood students, and even a few pureblood students had expressed their wishes to be able to earn their A-levels at Hogwarts to be eligible to attend muggle universities.
Which started a whole new discussion on what exactly A-levels were, and why they were needed for muggle university, and why it would benefit the wizarding world to have more of its citizens with professional degrees in muggle fields like finance, business, and law.
Hermione, Percy was pleased to see, was enthusiastically networking with others at the meeting and inserting herself into several projects. Her sway as "second most important teenager in the Wizarding UK" made her one of the belles of this particular ball.
Towards the end of the evening, Professor McGonagall approached Hermione with a job offer: someone needed to oversee all sub-committees and begin to compile a list of textbooks and other resources that these future courses would need in the next year, as well as start looking for qualified professors to hire, research existing courses at other schools, and liaise with the NEWT and OWL officials, figure out what auditing and evaluating new courses would look like, and sort out how to connect Hogwarts with muggle institutions offering A-levels, and more.
Hermione was agreeing to take the position before McGonagall had even finished explaining.
Percy was proud. Hermione had been uncertain of what to do with her time since returning home from Australia, and he hoped that this job, which sounded like a huge undertaking, would somehow pave the way for her to find a career that she enjoyed.
November 12th
Percy and Hermione were invited over to dinner at Draco's. It wasn't exactly a surprise that Dean was there as well. The four of them chatted and enjoyed hors d'ourves and pudding together.
Dean's family was doing well and were happily settled into the apartment on Acacia Avenue. His sisters had begun attending the local public secondary school, and his mother had taken up work as a seamstress at a shop down the way from Paddington's. Dean had a few photos of pieces his mother had been working on, and it was easy to see where Dean's artistic eye came from.
"Is that a wedding dress?" Hermione asked of one picture of a particularly lavish white gown.
"Yeah, it's a vintage winter formal dress, meant for a wedding. The woman who bought it needed it to fit better and wanted to add a fastening at the top for a cape. That wedding's in just a couple weeks, so Mum's been working like crazy to get it done, because of all of the lacework and beading that has to be restitched by hand,"
"It's beautiful,"
"Thinking about weddings, are we, Granger?" Draco asked, smirking. Percy fought hard to keep the blush away from his face, but Hermione's cheeks flushed scarlet.
"Maybe I am, maybe it's just a pretty dress, Malfoy," Hermione quirked an eyebrow, "I'm busy enough these days, working with the Hogwarts curriculum committee,"
"Oh yeah, how is all that going?" Dean asked.
Percy expected Hermione to start gushing about how much she was enjoying the project. Instead, she rolled her eyes.
"I had the most insufferable meeting today with the committee that's going over the History of Magic course content. They don't believe it's necessary to include anything about the last 40 years in any of the classes. Nothing! They kept saying that it's too recent to be history, and that it could make some people 'uncomfortable' if we teach about the Death Eaters and You-Know-Who,"
"Uncomfortable for who, exactly?" Draco asked.
"They wouldn't say. They kept also saying that they don't want to traumatize students with the information. The students in Hogwarts right now were literally tortured in their classrooms, so I get that, of course. I don't want to try teaching them about something that they barely survived. But students 5 or 10 years down the line? They need to know about all of this, and they deserve to learn it. If we don't talk about it, it's not going to be remembered,"
The four of them were quiet for a few moments, contemplating.
"We never learned about Grindelwald in History of Magic, or in DADA either," Dean pointed it, "If we had, I think we would have been able to identify the propaganda that the Ministry was spewing after the Tri-Wizard tournament ended,"
"Exactly," Hermione, "We can't exclude this from the curriculum. It's too important,"
"It is worth mentioning that re-traumatization exists. It could be challenging to find a professor who could handle teaching and talking about that stuff day after day, really diving into it, without experiencing mental harm," Draco added. The three of them stared at him. "What? I've been reading psychology texts in my spare time, Tonks wants me to learn about forensic profiling so we can scout out some muggle professionals in that field."
"My mother would be able to recommend some texts for you," Hermione chipped in, "She studied psychology before she went to dental school. I'll write her and ask,"
"Thanks, that would be great,"
"I don't want to be rude, but I was sort of wondering…" Hermione met Draco's eyes. Percy wasn't sure what she was going to say, "It seemed like you used to hate muggles and muggleborns. What made you change your mind?"
Draco paused for a moment, and Percy wondered if he would actually give her an answer.
"I've told Potter this story, and Dean knows it too, but the summer after our sixth year, I overdosed on muggle opioids and ended up in hospital,"
"Oh my God," Hermione clearly understood the severity of Draco's statement more than Percy had, at first.
"It was terrifying, there were tubes everywhere, breathing for me, putting medicines and fluids into me. I didn't have my wand, and I couldn't have done magic anyways, I was too sick. But the doctors and nurses were really good to me, when I was there. Talked to me, explained what was happening, made sure I wasn't in pain. They brought someone called a social worker in to talk about my 'options.' I think they thought I was homeless. Their dietician made sure I was getting nutrients when I couldn't eat, someone from psychiatry gave me an evaluation to make sure that I hadn't intentionally tried to off myself…"
"That's pretty normal, in the muggle medical field. There are laws that require all patients to receive those evaluations."
"It's definitely not normal for magical medicine. But they were all really smart, and kind. and if Uncle Severus hadn't tracked me down and gotten me discharged, I wouldn't have minded them taking care of me until I was completely recovered,"
"I've been teaching Draco a lot about all of the different professions there are in the muggle world," Dean chipped in, "The magical world is so limited. It feels like everyone is a 'jack of all trades', which means very few people are actually specialists or true experts, which makes it hard to advance research or technology."
"That's so true. Penny Clearwater is a healer, and she takes care of all kinds of patients, no matter what they come in with. If she and the other healers were to specialize the way that muggle doctors do, I'm sure St. Mungo's would have much better patient outcomes,"
"Contracting out with muggle specialists in the DMLE means that we're catching more criminals faster," Draco added, "And they think of things that we'd never consider. You know that muggles are using something called DNA to prove that a criminal committed a crime? It's fascinating,"
"It is," Hermione mused, "It feels so good to finally have a job and be settled into the wizarding world, but I keep wishing that I could get more in touch with my muggle side. I don't know the last time I watched a movie on TV,"
"Me either," Dean said, "I've been wanting to take driving lessons and get a car so that I can drive around to places instead of using the Floo. In the long run, having a car is cheaper than paying for Floo powder and network fees,"
"Is it really?"
Their conversation continued around various muggle topics. When the evening was over, Draco and Dean bid Percy and Hermione goodnight, and they apparated home.
The walk from the apparition point across their property to the front door of 800 Weatherby Way was one of Percy's favorite times with Hermione. She always had something on her mind at the end of a long day, and walking home in the chilly evening breeze was nearly always her time to get it all out.
"I'm so glad McGonagall hired me. I'm learning a lot about the Wizarding education system in this job," Hermione began, slipping her hand into Percy's, "But I'm starting to realize that I don't think I want to work in education,"
"Why is that?"
"Because…" Hermione looked out over the cliff side, which was illuminated by a half moon, "It just doesn't feel like this is what I'm meant to do. Too much red tape, too many rules, too many people who have their own agendas. And I know I do not have the patience to teach students who don't care about learning,"
"Those are good reasons," Percy said, at a bit of a loss for anything helpful to add.
"I thought maybe I'd like to ask Headmistress McGonagall for a faculty position for the next school year, but now I just can't wait for my work with the curriculum committee to be finished so I can stop feeling so frustrated about everything. It's taken all the joy out of school for me, seeing this other side of it,"
She sighed, and Percy squeezed her hand.
"If I don't like this job because of all the red tape, I probably wouldn't enjoy a job with the ministry, either."
"Maybe not, but you don't need to have that figured out right now,"
Hermione just sighed again.