CHAPTER 8
Jaime de Treize was all poised to change the Wizarding community in England as soon as he made his presence felt. The changes he wrought out were revolutionary by their standards. He moved the entire English magical community residing within the Isles into Hogsmeade in five short years no coercions but incredibly irresistible temptations; and for the others, it was a matter of common sense to stay closer to the rest of the community for self protection... Strength in numbers and how it was handy having magical neighbours and all that.
Jaime completely ignored the furious protests of Dumbledore and other portraits over silly issues like history and traditions and changed many things about Hogwarts itself, as well. He firstly opened a new section in Hogwarts for children as young as 5 as dayscholars who were to travel back and forth by Floo, and gradually extended it to the entire student boarding program up to the age of 17, to help them go home for the weekends. And he insisted on children learning mundane subjects as well, side by side for which he hired either parents of new-blood students or new-blood alumni. Not that there were more than a handful of new-blood left, thanks to Umbridge.
Reminded of the crimes of that vile witch, he publicly accused her of being an anti-national who conspired to reduce the population of magicals by preying on and harming the more vulnerable and weaker members of their community; he suspected that she was secretly a spy working for the muggles of the Verrat or the Vatican who had once conducted witch hunts that still showed the scars in their memories. He reminded them of the witchhunts and dangers of muggles discovering their world, and the importance of the statute of secrecy and how magicals like Umbridge had subverted and abused the authority given to her by the Ministry and the 'Mot to turn against them and create or revive old enemies and point them towards the English magicals.
Had the muggles picked up the gauntlet, then it would have been these muggle-born new bloods who would have been their only source of true information, rescue and negotiations with an enraged mob of muggles. Jaime pulled out a projection Pensieve and showed the true scope and range of the latest advancements in muggle Weaponry and how flimsy wards and even Fidelus charms were against muggle weapons.
Having whipped up a mad, frenzied rage and fear against Umbridge and other bigoted and blind Wizarding folk who shared her ideals, he then pointed out to the dangers of targeting new-blood magicals; they were the only trust worthy ones in their society who could teach the rest to blend in and remain incognito in the muggle world. So deliberate malice, will to harm or completely eliminate their community's only safe bridge to the muggle world had been really been a cleverly masked strike against their community itself.
Even Voldemort had done his best to break the statute of secrecy and provoke the muggles into coming after them all by repeatedly targeting the muggles, harassing, murdering, torturing them beyond tolerance, and destroying their property, and even setting a board of Dementors upon them, enmass. Had mundanes or another magical country done that to them, they would have retaliated to the best of their abilities with the worst of their weapons, he pointed out.
The result was spectacular and near overnight abandonment of any and all talks of pureblood superiority and bigotry. If they believed in it, they practiced it in the privacy of their homes, but still welcomed mundanes with considerably more visible warmth and then taught the mundane born new bloods the ways of the Wizarding kind, their most revered culture and traditions and finally embraced formal, mandatory class on the subject at Hogwarts all through the seven years.
Gradually the animosity that had always lurked within their society and had created factions and discord began to recede. It began with friendlier interactions interhouse within Hogwarts itself. And Jaime made sure that the newly hired staff and the published and strictly followed student charter of rules encouraged camaraderie and severely punished incitement of bigotry at the grass-root level. These children would grow up less burdened by bigotry and prejudice and would raise the next generation to be even more progressive.
Jaime also persuaded Goblins to announce blood inheritance tests for those who sought to discover their roots, especially muggle-born new bloods. It was a move that revived a lot of lines previously thought extinct and a few cadet branches for the other clans. Hermione Granger proved to be the last of Dagworth-Granger clan and claimed the line, even if she was unable to persuade her husband to take on her name. Her son Hugo was instead declared Lord Dagworth-Granger and Hermione Weasley took on the role of Regent Dagworth-Granger, over the protests of Weasley matriarch and her husband. Eventually, she even took out a magical restraining order against him and moved back into her parents' home in Crawley with her two children Hugo and Rose.
Jaime always kept a close eye on the ondits of the Weasley clan and Ron's activities did not please him, but neither did it really surprise him. The lazy, bigoted and belligerent bully of a boy grew up to be the same, enabled by his overbearing mother's mollycoddling. As soon as Hermione became Regent Dagworth-Granger and outside of the control of the Weasleys, he pulled strings from behind the scenes to push her to take up a healers mastery and find her own two feet again. He knew that she was resourceful and smart enough to take the offered hand, especially if it was done by Harry Potter and he was right. She did attempt to seek her old friend out but was gently dissuaded from pursuing it beyond frequent letters.
A/N: Eh? oh... yeah.. right. Reviews, please?