October 2001

Percy opted to floo to the Three Broomsticks and walk up to the gates. He'd been given the option of floo-ing into Severus' office directly but, it had felt presumptuous. As if he would be trading on the relationship that they had. Which technically, he was, since it seemed unlikely anyone else from the Ministry would be given leave to speak to the Headmaster of Hogwarts so easily.

Percy reached the gates and waited patiently. His mind wandered back to the Christmas he had brought Audrey here and how distressed she'd been about the magic that kept the muggles away. He felt a shiver run down his spine. A finger of unease prickling at him, reminding him that just because he couldn't feel it, didn't mean it wasn't there.

The gate swung open in front of him. Percy stepped through, pushing the unease from the forefront of his thoughts, heading up the path to the castle at a brisk walk. Severus was stood in front of the castle door waiting still as a statue, a patient predator. Percy shook his head bemused as to the slant his thoughts had taken.

Greetings exchanged with polite thanks on Percy's part they made their way up to the headmaster's office.

At the suggestion of retreating to the headmaster's private study, Percy shook his head. "I think for this meeting, your office should suffice."

Percy waited as Severus paused, his assessing look passing over him before he stepped smoothly around the large ornate desk and settled in the chair behind it. Percy waited until he was seated before taking one of the chairs in front of the desk. Percy smoothed his robes so they wouldn't crease while they talked and accepted the offer of refreshments.

Tea was delivered and poured. Percy waited the requisite number of heartbeats before catching Severus' gaze. "In the interest of full disclosure, as the muggles say, I believe I am about to overstep my bounds. It always was the previous Headmaster's position that the Ministry of Magic shall not, in so much as possible, interfere with the education offered at Hogwarts. This position was not started by, and nor has it ended with him. I am an agent of the Ministry for Magic, and I am asking you to allow me to broach the topic of the current curriculum offered by Hogwarts."

A dark eyebrow rose.

Percy took a breath and continued. "I have recently come into possession of some information that concerns me. I wish to act upon this information, but I have limited time in which to do so. Kingsley wants to keep to his plan, and should that come to fruition, I shall have less ability to do what I wish, to undertake this project. I have four years, Headmaster. I believe I shall need all of them, and that is if I have your agreement and help."

"I shall hear you out. But that is as far as I am prepared to go until I have heard everything."

"That is very generous of you," Percy replied relieved. He sipped his tea, whetting his suddenly dry mouth. "Suzanna Hearth, she's a second year. Up until her letter arrived, she was unaware she was a witch. She'd never had any displays of accidental magic, she's a half-blood, one parent is magical, and one is not. Suzanna was not dismayed not to be a witch despite her siblings displaying feats of overt magic. Her parents have the unique ability to offer her a world that did not treat her differently because of it. She did well at school and decided she would like to become a veterinarian. Then on her eleventh birthday, her life was changed. Her plans that she had been nurturing for some years have suddenly become something that she cannot achieve. She cannot go to school and get her GCSE's then on to college to get her A-Levels and join Veterinarian school. She is here learning magic; her life's path has been changed. But she's not giving up on her plans. Suzanna is ambitious. She's decided that she will become a vet despite being a witch. Suzanna is hard working. She's studying her muggle lessons in and around her magical ones. I am given to understand that she will take her GSCE's the summer she completes her OWL's. If her grades are good enough, she will not return to Hogwarts to take her NEWT's, she will apply to a muggle college and continue her goal.

I did some research. You are no doubt aware that the dropout rate after OWL's has remained constant for the last fifty years. I looked at the data, the muggle-borns that drop out spend anywhere between one to three years away from the magical world before returning. When they return without their NEWT's, they are unable to advance except those fortunate enough to find a position that allows them to gain on the job advancement or begin some sort of apprenticeships. Those half-bloods and purebloods that drop out spend no more than two years away before finding some level of employment. They are trying to go back," Percy said quietly. "They do what they must then they try to return to those they had to leave behind. Only, they can't survive in the muggle world after five years of absence without the qualifications and understanding that they would have had they never left. The children like Suzanna who have a family to support them do better. They work twice as hard and achieve what they aim for but not every child is Suzanna Hearth."

"What is it you intend to do?"

"Support them," Percy replied. "I want to rewrite the muggle studies curriculum. I want to set fire to the current text used to teach. It does not prepare witches and wizards to live amongst muggles. It is hilariously out of date and touch with muggle society. I took the subject, I transitioned from living in the magical world into the muggle world, and that module helped me not at all. It's useless. I want to change that. I want to give the students the chance to learn what their muggle counterparts learn. To turn an OWL in muggle studies into a set of GCSEs. If they continue with the program, turn a NEWT into an A-Level. It's going to be limited, the number of subjects could be offered at A-Level, I understand that. It might be that a provision for allowing the students to attend a muggle college to attend subjects that can't be taught here is necessary. If that becomes the case, then I want the Ministry to step in and make sure that those who need to operate in the muggle world can do so. To stop asking for them to choose and start offering help and understanding. How many witches and wizards who have never stepped foot in the muggle world would at least think twice about deriding it if they were exposed to their classmate's studies? How many of those witches and wizards would then leave Hogwarts better informed if only by secondary information? How much would that do to remove the stigma of blood purity in the future?"

"You will build a reputation for being partial."

"I am partial," Percy replied. "There are no two ways about it."

"If you succeed in this change to the curriculum, what do you plan to do with it?"

"Push it further," Percy replied. "I want the British Magical society to lead for once. To hold our heads up and say we understand the dichotomy that we live in. That we will support all our citizens in achieving their goals no matter what they are. And I'll do it with the apprenticeship program that was pushed through. Its uptake is low, I can use that."

"You made your brothers aware of its contractual shortcomings. They told Minerva and me, was that not your aim?"

"Yes," Percy replied. "Of course it was, but it's in. It had a high approval rating, it won't be removed. I am going to use it, re-write it. A succession of small changes can be managed without difficulty. I can certainly have the standard contract rewritten, make it less onerous. The major changes are going to need Wizengamot approval. Present them with a complete picture, a Hogwarts education coupled with a supportive apprenticeship program."

"Say that you achieve your aims with my curriculum, and you begin whatever changes it is you desire to policy. How are you going to get it through a Wizengamot review when the Wizengamot is still mired in traditionalist views? You run the risk of never being elected."

"Election isn't a problem," Percy waved him off. "As for the Wizengamot, that is, well not necessarily simple, but certainly not insurmountable. Public opinion is currently riding high in favour of policy decisions that benefit the wider society. What I am suggesting is the widening of the employment market. By allowing those students who wish to the opportunity to join the muggle world and find employment there, I am, in fact, reducing the number of people who need to find work within the magical world. Less competition may, some will argue, reduce the standard of the applicant, but it will push the onus onto the employers to be more attractive to the right candidate. Which, in turn, means that the candidates will value themselves more highly. I am not looking to exclude anyone from taking the elective or applying for support after Hogwarts. This isn't going to be about blood it's going to be about opportunity."

"Yet I presume that you will be operating much in the same way you have done recently?"

"Yes," Percy nodded. "In some ways, the success of the marriage law repeal makes this plan possible or at least increases the feasibility of it being a success. The people who worked on the repeal are receiving the praise and thanks they deserve for their work. There is no one to take it from them, no superior who can claim their hard work as their own because I cannot. In turn, it makes them willing to work with me again and increases the pool of people who want to work with me. If I am not able to accept the accolades, then they are better positioned to receive them," Percy said drily.

"It is widely known that the repeal is down to you. You have been publicly thanked in front of the Minister for Magic no less."

A lifted shoulder was the reply. "But I am not claiming credit for it."

"The changes you are suggesting in regards to the curriculum, they are no small thing."

"I am aware that of yourself and of Hogwarts I am asking the most. To support this scheme, I am possibly trading on more than our entire acquaintance can encompass and then some."

"I have no wish to trade favours. I shall consider the merits of this plan and will make a decision based on what is best for this school and its students," Severus responded. "I am unsure if this idea of yours is even workable."

"I understand that," Percy replied. He pulled a file from his pocket and enlarged it. "I thought it prudent to do some preliminary background research. You can purchase teaching materials from the local bookshop that lays out the curriculum and necessary standard a student must achieve to take a muggle educational exam." Percy waved his hand at the ridiculously thick file.

Severus rolled his eyes. "You are expecting me to read all that."

Percy's smile was small but genuine. "You did say you would consider my proposal. If it helps, I have a list of names of witches and wizards currently studying to teach muggle education to GCSE standard who have either graduated or will graduate in the next twelve months."

Severus' eyebrows rose in tandem.

Percy shifted in his chair. "It was not illegally obtained. There are several ways in which information about citizens is recorded, and the Ministry records are updated by magic so at least are accurate, extrapolation is a matter of knowing the right spells," Percy petered off.

"Dare I ask how long this particular crusade has been brewing?"

Percy shrugged his shoulders, letting out a laugh that was part relief that he'd finished saying his bit. "Not as long as you might imagine, the last six months only. My last eighteen months have been quite busy. But Phil Mills is Suzanna's uncle, and he and I go back some years. He was trying to distract me from the wedding preparations in a pub, and we got chatting about Suzanna."

Severus pulled the file over to him, his hands wrapping around the sides to keep all the papers and booklets together. A command had an elf reappear and whiskey brought in short order. Percy accepted his glass with thanks.

"You have been in communication with Mr Malfoy," Severus said, leaning back in his chair.

"Ahh, I was not sure if you were aware of that scenario."

"I would not have been, but he wrote to me on an unrelated matter and mentioned in passing an investment opportunity he had been presented and his surprise that it was you who had sent it. He queried if you had given up your position in the Ministry."

Percy nodded. "Again, I am unable to move in the manner that I wish due to the plans that Kingsley has. There are many advantages to approaching Mr Malfoy, he has a promising career ahead of him, but it is outside of these shores. By investing in something like this project at the early stages and remaining a silent partner, he can use its success to relaunch the Malfoy family. The project is not obviously political. A hotel is hardly a statement of alignment. If the project does not reach all its goals, it is still a financially sound investment and should have no difficulty in repaying in monetary terms."

"How does it tie back to your scheme for educational reform?"

Percy gave Severus a rueful glance. "I should not like to think I am so obvious. A small amount of cunning is involved, after all." He sipped his whiskey and explained. "There is a dearth of magical hostelry. There is an utter lack of hotels where muggles and magical can mix. I do not wish to ignore the Statute of Secrecy, but a meeting with the muggle Prime Minister that he can be invited to, rather than popping out of his fireplace might do wonders for the interactions between us. By having something as large as a hotel, it gives the opportunity to launch more apprenticeships. Hostelry is a valuable market. Management roles, chefs, event planning, accounting, front of house staff, marketing. All these things we could offer through one place. If it succeeds not only will it enable graduates to launch their careers it will enable the expansion of the idea. I'd like to see the first skyscraper designed by a Hogwarts graduate be built. I want to read the latest research of a marine biologist who attended school here."

"You wield power very casually. For a man earmarked to be the next Minister of Magic, are you not as you say, overstepping your bounds?"

"My share in the hotel is barely over one per cent, while I don't doubt that unless things go very awry, I shall get my original stake back, I don't stand to make a fortune from it. Nothing that would lead me to be investigated certainly. As for any future role I may hold, you are probably as aware as I, that should I become the Minister of Magic while I shall be in a position of power, my ability to use it shall be severely hampered.

"Yet as the Under Secretary to the Minister, and for a brief period of acting as Minister, you have enacted changes that are both wide-reaching and of great consequence."

"I cannot say, I am too close to the situation I believe. My goals are set on the betterment of our society. That those plans have a greater impact on some sections of our society than others, I believe, is because for too long, we have not progressed as a society. It is not as deliberate as it might seem, yet it is not without purpose. This is my opportunity; this plan has a chance of working. The educational reforms will take some years to get in place and for the students to work through them. Setting up a business now, at this stage, means there is a tangible target that they can aim for. We can have a few years making sure that the business is ready to take them on. We can look around for other similar businesses that might offer the same schemes in the muggle world."

Severus proffered the decanter of whiskey; Percy accepted a refill. "It is possibly past time that Hogwarts curriculum has been scrutinised. I will take your proposal seriously. I will bring Minerva in, and we will seriously consider what we can offer. I do not doubt your sincerity, but Hogwarts will always stand removed from the Ministry of Magic. I have no interest in changing that status quo."

"Neither have I," Percy assured the man.