The Challenge
After almost twenty minutes McGonagall stood up, motioned the crowd with placating hand movements to quiet, and magnified her voice:
"Thank you, Minister, this was a very ... illuminating speech, one that will no doubt be talked about for a long time to come." Cheers were heard again but McGonagall again called for silence. "You thankfully announced that you will have a discussion with the students and I am sure that there is" – she looked at Roy, who grinned – "high need for discussion. Minister, dear students, the debate is open."
Hermione thanked her with a friendly nod and gave the floor to the first student. It was Patricia. Roy leaned back in satisfaction. From class, he knew Patricia's habit of puffing herself up by being overzealous, and he had no doubt that she would take the opportunity to shine extensively in the face of the Minister and her own grandfather. The longer the conversation the Minister engaged in with her, the better, because the harder it would be for the latter to stall the debate with himself, even if it turned in a direction that was unpleasant to her.
Patricia exceeded his wildest expectations. She sucked up to such an extent that even the Gryffindors felt embarrassed for her, and indeed she managed to keep the conversation with the Minister going for almost ten minutes. As unrest was gradually arising, Roy read in Hermione's face that she was now annoyed enough to give the floor to the first person who rose, and that's what he did.
Hermione nodded at him, finished her last reply to Patricia and then gave him the floor with a gesture.
All of a sudden, there was attention and silence in the hall.
"Minister," Roy commenced, "In your highly interesting speech, you didn't mention the term 'Muggles', but consistently kept speaking of 'non-magically skilled people'. Why did you do so?"
"Well, I don't think it's still appropriate to dub non-magically skilled persons with a word that ridicules, belittles and discriminates against them."
"So do we have to assume that the word 'Muggle' will soon be on the list of banned expressions?"
"Indeed, this is what you should take for granted, and I'd like to appeal to everyone present in this hall to eliminate that word from their vocabulary right now."
Astonished murmurs among the audience. This was probably not how most of them had imagined the promised raise of the moral level.
"And the subject 'Muggle Studies' is then called 'Non-magically-skilled-people Studies'?"
Some laughter was heard. Even the minister smiled. "I am confident that we will find a shorter name."
"I wonder, Minister," Roy continued, "how the Muggles are supposed to feel discriminated against or belittled, since they have no access to our world and are not even aware of its existence, and you yourself have repeatedly emphasised that this state of affairs is not to be changed."
"I also said," the Minister replicated coolly, "that a few of them should well get that access."
"Yes, you spoke of small elites, who in turn should only get in touch with small elites of the Ministry of Magic. But what you are suggesting is to impose your rules of speech on the entire wizarding world, and not just on small elites. You are promising to basically maintain the boundaries between the wizarding and Muggle worlds, while, on the other hand, making decisions that don't make sense if this is actually done."
"Well, it's not just a matter of not hurting the feelings of non-magically skilled persons, but of bringing about a fundamental moral change in the wizarding world itself: away from traditional arrogance, towards openness, appreciation and tolerance. It is a moral imperative, not simply a practical issue."
"I see: On the one hand, we are to keep on having nothing to do with the Muggles. On the other, and in spite of that, we are expected to appreciate them because, although of no practical use, it is a moral imperative, and if we don't have that morality on our own, the Ministry is helping along with penalties."
Again there was a murmur in the hall. Some of the older dignitaries in the front row turned quite favourably towards the lippy young man. Maybe a little overcritical, well, but we too were once young, weren't we ...
Hermione would have liked to drop out of the discussion now, but felt that this would have made a bad impression on the audience. Roy continued:
"However, Minister, you emphasised above all the practical benefits of such cooperation and mentioned in this context the possibility of replacing the current Hogwarts Express by a modern high-speed train. May I ask you, Minister, how you intend to manage the electrification and straightening of the track and to master the complex electronic systems of such a modern train without resorting to the help of a few thousand highly skilled Muggle engineers who would then, of course, have to know about our world?"
With that surprising question, Roy had caught her, but Hermione Granger-Weasley was not the person to be unsettled so easily. She used the time until the rising murmur had faded away to work out her answer:
"We needn't run the train ourselves. We will wait until the nonwizards have modernised their railway network, then we can charter a train for our students, just like any nonwizard organisation can do, without letting anyone in on our world. From the next major station, the last part of the journey can be made by magical means of transportation."
This point went to Hermione's score. Roy followed up:
"You have announced a technical Imperius detector soon to be completed. May I ask you whether this detector is also able to detect the effect of the Imperius Curse retrospectively?"
The Minister frowned. "No, of course it isn't!"
"So, what is the practical advantage of such a device compared to the Imperius tracking spells that have been used by our Aurors for centuries with great success?"
"Such detection spells are complicated, raise problems, are dangerous and can therefore only be used by Aurors who have received special training. The detector allows detection on a much broader front."
"With respect, Minister, we do not have a broad front, but we do have enough Aurors for our small wizarding world. If anyone had a need for such a device, it would be the Muggle justice system, but only on condition that Muggles were informed of the existence of the wizarding world and its options, including the Imperius Curse. A condition that you have explicitly excluded."
Even greater unrest spread through the Great Hall. The journalists' self-writing pens were dashing across their parchments. Hermione felt the pressure getting stronger, but she was determined not to let anyone – and certainly not a sixteen-year-old – force her into revealing plans that the time was not yet ripe to reveal.
"Young man," she replied condescendingly, "you are dramatically overestimating yourself if you believe that you are able to assess the equipment needs of the Magical Law Enforcement. You simply don't have the overview." Not a very strong answer, but certainly sufficient to save face.
"OK," Roy seemed to relent, only to immediately launch the next attack from a different direction: "I would like to ask more fundamentally: You have highlighted the potential benefits and the conceivable mutual complementarity of the abilities of Wizards and nonwizards. What actually makes you so optimistic, given the historical evidence – only to mention the medieval persecutions of witches and wizards – that wizards and muggles tend to get into conflict with each other when living together in the same society, and with a balance of power of 2000 to 1 against us, the result would possibly be even more disastrous than in the Middle Ages, wouldn't it?"
"First of all: the Middle Ages are long gone," Hermione said, keeping her cool attitude, "and secondly, the persecutions of the time had something to do with the fact that a great many witches and wizards abused their abilities to cast damaging spells against non-magically skilled people. Today, by contrast, the Ministry of Magic has the means to stop damaging spells, Dark Magic and similar practices, and to do so on a nationwide scale."
"Do you intend to use these means?" Roy asked, trying to sound as harmless as possible. If she is saying "yes" now, it crossed his mind and his heart was beating fast, she can no longer deny anything, then the cat is out of the bag.
The Minister started to nod, opened her mouth – then something strange happened. Suddenly, her eyes seemed to change their colour and her expression changed to one that made Roy shiver and involuntarily take a step back. This was more than anger, it was cold hatred seeming to emanate from her in pulsing waves, which Roy believed to feel physically. In Roy, however, the rage he had so struggled to suppress was bubbling again. Control yourself! Fight her, but control yourself!
The phenomenon disappeared as quickly as it had come. Hermione regained control of her expression and made it haughty again, but not without retaining that peculiar feature of hatred.
"We won't need to use those means!" she replied, sounding waspish.
She quickly let her gaze wander over the Gryffindors. Didn't anyone stand up and give her the opportunity to give him the floor to elegantly silence that guy? The Gryffindors, however, were watching the duel with bated breath, as did everyone else. They also adored Hermione too much to consider that their star might need support.
Again, Roy started an attack, and again from another direction:
"You have declared the Second of May a holiday and required all Hogwarts students to honour the dead of the Defenders." The Slytherins pricked up their ears. "You are no doubt aware that a lot of students have relatives who fought on the opposing side, many of whom were killed, either?"
"So they now have the opportunity to distance themselves wholeheartedly and solemnly from the ideas of their Death Eater families."
"With this statement, Minister, you have expressed with thankworthy frankness that you are considering absence as a statement in favour of the aims of the Death Eaters."
"So what?" asked Hermione snappishly, shrugging her shoulders. "They have a choice, haven't they?"
"They have a choice," Roy agreed, speaking louder now: "But only the choice between two statements, neither of which they are willing to make. If they don't want to be suspected of being enemies of the state, they have to spit on their grandparents' graves! You have no right to impose such a choice on them!"
The Slytherins leapt to their feet. Their bottled-up anger exploded into frenetic cheering. At last there was someone who said it!
Hermione waited impassively until they had calmed down and were seated again, then she answered:
"Again, you are overestimating yourself, young man. I think I know better than you do what the rights of the Ministry are."
"Do you?" asked Roy, pausing for effect, then continuing in a seemingly friendly manner: "Minister, is it possible that you are confusing might with right?"
Some members of the Wizengamot and senior Ministry officials visibly had to struggle not to smirk. Roy again received resounding applause from the Slytherins. He continued:
"You said Wizards and Muggles have a lot to learn from each other. Where do you draw the confidence from that they will learn the good from each other and not the bad?"
"Well," the minister replied coolly, "is there anyone forcing us to learn the bad from them?"
"Yes, there is: You!"
Outraged murmurs and shouts from the Gryffindors, cheers from the Slytherins. The dignitaries frowned indignantly: Now he's going too far!
"Oh really?" asked she sarcastically. "What have I learned that is so bad, young man?"
"For example, you have learned from the most evil tyrannies of the Muggle world to establish dates on which every citizen has to make a political profession, for example, by hanging a flag out of the window on such a day – 1st of May, 20th of April and so on, depending on the country and its particular regime. And those who did not were considered enemies of the state. Which is pretty much what you're going to do with the 2nd of May."
Roy was speaking louder now to drown the boos from the Gryffindors.
"And as for the laws against so-called hate speech: The Muggle governments, whose example you are explicitly referring to, did not establish these laws for moral reasons. They did so, because through mass immigration from other Muggle peoples they had artificially created formerly unknown, but now unmanageable conflicts, and now they are offering a silent run into tyranny as their solution. Hence the ever stricter speech laws, that you, nevertheless, expect us to take for a 'moral raise'!"
Roy had been talking faster and louder, his hot temper being hard to control.
Booing, the Gryffindors jumped to their feet. The Minister ignored them, she fixed Roy. With an icy voice she asked:
"What's your house?"
Of course she knew well. Which house a guy talking like that could belong to?
Roy grinned: "Have a guess!"
This was impertinent. "Lout!" muttered some dignitaries.
"I have to state with regret," the Minister said coldly, "that Slytherin has still failed to learn its lesson. You are still trying to preserve your supposed" – she wrinkled her nose as if she were talking about a evil-smelling rubbish heap –, "pure-bloodedness ..."
"I'm a Mudblood!"
Dead silence.
He had said "Mudblood". He had really and truly said "Mudblood", and done so in the presence of the Minister! A Minister who was known to hate the term more than any other and had banned its use.
Even Hermione was speechless. She looked towards the teacher's desk with an expression as if to make sure she hadn't misheard. Her gaze met McGonagall's and became withering: That's what you're bringing up here!
Then she fixed on Roy again: "And you, as a Muggle-born ..." She faltered, quivering with wrath. She even forgot to say "non-magically-skilled-poeple-born". "You, as a Muggle-born, you are stabbing me and all people of your kind in the back? You, you ..."
"Please, Minister," Roy replied, grim-faced but sticky sweet in tone, enjoying her bewilderment. "You're not going to call me a blood traitor, are you?"
That's exactly what she would have liked to call him, anyone could see it in her face. But "blood traitor" was a typical Death Eater expression that was on her blacklist.
Again, an icy wave emanated from her. "I just want to tell you one thing, young man, and this is something you should think about: If the wizarding world were governed by the principles you seem to advocate, someone like you would NOT! BE! HERE!"
The Gryffindors cheered her. This gave Roy a moment to work out his answer. Of course, he could say, and it would be true, that he by no means wanted to exclude all Muggle-born wizards from the wizarding world. But he was disgusted with dignifying the minister's impertinent insinuation with a response.
Take no prisoners!
He couldn't help insulting her!
"That may well be," he growled. "But you wouldn't be here either and certainly not as Minister for Magic, and I think this would be worth it to me!"
The Great Hall erupted, all hell was breaking loose. Ethelbert just managed to prevent one of his Gryffindors to jump on Roy from behind. They bumped heads and Ethelbert fell down.
"Thank you," Roy shouted into the noise.
"It's a point of honour," Ethelbert replied as Roy helped him up.
"Oh my goodness," Roy asked, "are you hurt?" Ethelbert's head was bleeding.
"It's all right, I'm not made of sugar!", Ethelbert shouted back and pressed a handkerchief onto his wound. The other boy, too, had received a bleeding head wound in the collision. The uproar grew louder and louder. Hermione's security Aurors drew their wands and formed a tight protective ring around the Minister. Further back, Gryffindors leapt across the rows of chairs towards the still cheering Slytherins to pounce on them. The first wands were being drawn, then a blinding blue-white flash shot out of McGonagall's wand, followed by a deafening bang. Suddenly there was silence.
"As I said, there is a need for discussion," she stated dryly. "However, there is no need at all for a pub brawl. With all due understanding for the fervours ignited by these important issues: Students who fight with fists instead of arguments have no business at this school!"
She paused while the students were looking quite sheepish.
"To cool down, all students will now for two hours go to their common rooms, separated by house and led by their Prefects: first Slytherin, then Ravenclaw, then Hufflepuff and lastly Gryffindor."