Chapter One: In Which Prejudices Are Destroyed

"I've been researching it thoroughly in the library. Elf enslavement goes back centuries. I can't believe no-one's done anything about it before."

"Hermione — open your ears," said Ron loudly. "They. Like. It. They like being enslaved!"

"STOP IT!"

They had never heard Harry raise his voice like that before, so they shut up.

"Hermione, you are wasting your time on convincing people that they are wrong. You should just drop SPEW," said Harry.

"I'm not giving up on house-elves, Harry!" said Hermione hotly.

"I never said that. I'm saying you are going about it the wrong way. I would have thought that you knew creature rights is a rather touchy subject in this world."

Hermione was surprised. "What do you mean, Harry?" she asked curiously.

"People are lazy, and they want someone to do their work for them. Easy answer was to make someone else do it, and force them to obey every order people gave them. So a species of elves were captured and bound to wizarding servitude. They came to be called house-elves, and the ones who captured them gave excuses like —" Harry adopted a whiny voice "— they like the work they have been so generously given by us, and they are supposed to do it. It gives them purpose in their life to cover up their sins. People like Ron here have been taught since childhood that house elves like doing work. Those same people grow up to work in the Ministry, and make laws that declare that they have to like it or they are not proper house elves. They make an entire race of magical creatures into slaves without losing any sleep over it. . . ."

Ron's ears turned red. He tried to protest, but was cut short by Harry.

"You might have noticed everyone says to stay away from the Forbidden Forest because it has werewolves, but they are only dangerous on the full moon, when they transform. On other days, there is no reason to be afraid of werewolves, but wizards and witches created that stigma against them, and now people like Lupin are forced to hide in the shadows. People spread rumors against werewolves, which causes them to be ostracised by society. Werewolves resent wizards because of that, and take revenge and bite their children. This causes them to become even more ostracized. It's a really vicious cycle, one that is causing society to crumble from the inside. Magical creatures have been long feared and persecuted for their extraordinary abilities, and now the belief is so deep ingrained that no amount of rebelling will change it. Wars with goblins are called 'goblin rebellions' by our bigoted History teacher, who has been infecting everyone's minds for over a century! Wizards believe only humans are allowed to carry a wand, and all other creatures are unworthy of them! Goblins disagree with that and fight for their freedom. And some people," Harry said, looking pointedly at Ron, "call them ugly buggers, only because they are different."

Ron looked like he had been punched.

"Most don't even know that all those goblin names like Urg the Ugly were given by people like Binns to tarnish their reputation. Their language is called Gobbledegook by humans as a way to downplay them even more. Gobbledegook means gibberish, nonsensical. That is a very rude way to describe someone's native language, yet Bagman gets away with it because he is a wizard. If a goblin did the same thing —"

"They would be beheaded, at the very least!" said Ron, beginning to understand.

"Exactly! For the crime of being born a goblin . . . remember how we protested against the execution of Buckbeak? Who was supposed to be executed only for being a Hippogriff? It seems we were one of the few on its side, many others believed that the Hippogriff was in the wrong."

"Why would they think that? Don't they know Malfoy taunted Buckbeak to get Hagrid sacked?" asked Hermione.

"Oh they know, but they don't want to think that a wizard of good breeding could ever be wrong and a creature could be right. It has been drilled into their heads since childhood and they aren't about to forget it anytime soon," said Harry, shaking his head.

"The situation is worse than I thought, Harry," said Hermione sadly.

"It's even worse than that. House elves, Goblins, Muggles are practically held at the same level by the wizarding populace. Muggleborns can do magic, so they are treated slightly better. The former are filthy creatures, the latter are third class citizens who stole magic from deserving purebloods."

"My parents are not filthy creatures and I didn't steal my magic from anyone!" exclaimed Hermione.

"Prove it. Prove that you didn't steal it and have had it since you were born."

"Innocent until proven guilty . . ."

"Not in the case of Muggleborns, no. The Ministry threw practically every last one into Azkaban during Voldemort's reign, and they were never freed. Only a few remained. Now, whenever someone takes up the matter of re-trials for them, the Wizengamot shoots it down, along with the one who raised it. The person is discredited, stripped of all positions of authority and declared senile. The only one who really can do something about it is the Minister of Magic, but Fudge is not budging anytime soon."

"Harry, we are going to fight this prejudice!" said Hermione fiercely.

And they did. They brought significant changes in the Ministry and the general populace of the Wizarding World. House-elves were now a free race, goblins were allowed to be in places other than Gringotts and practice their magic freely as long as it didn't violate the Penal Code, (they weren't allowed to use wands, though), and Fudge was still Minister. Re-trials were held for Muggleborns and they were all acquitted. No one really knew how this had all happened in the space of seven years, but they did have theories. . . .

Harry relaxed into his comfy chair. It had been really great that Fudge was so easily bribed, or else they would have had to do lots of work to bring about their changes. Sure, Fudge did take a lot of money, but it didn't matter. He had earned enough from his various secret businesses to keep the next seven generations of his family well-fed. . . . It was really ironic that purebloods were the main customers for his products, because they had no idea they were funding the Society for the Promotion of Everyone's Welfare (SPEW). Life was great.

AN: It irks me how wizards get away with the way they treat house-elves.