Harsh Realities
When Roy came back into the common room, he was immediately intercepted by Albus and Scorpius, who seemed to have been waiting for him.
"There you are! Would you please give me back the Marauder's Map?" asked Albus.
"Sure, but why?"
"Bernie has disappeared! He got an owl at breakfast, then got up without saying a word, ran away and hasn't been back since. We are worried."
"An owl? Looks like bad news."
"Very bad news," Bernie's grumpy voice came from the door common room.
"Bernie, where have you been?" asked Albus.
"Wherever." With a wave of his hand, Bernie threw himself into the nearest armchair. "Preferably in a mouse hole. I just wanted to be alone."
"Is someone dead?"
Bernie snorted. "My dad is dead for me!"
Albus, Scorpius and Roy looked at each other, puzzled. Bernie had never bragged about his dad being Prime Minister but had always spoken proudly of him as a father. At their questioning glances, he explained:
"I do have to tell you anyway, Al. You remember I wrote a letter to my father, asking him to help yours?" When Albus nodded, Bernie continued:
"This is the answer!" He unfolded the crumpled parchment he had been carrying in his fist. "Listen to this:
Dear Bernard,
I am so sorry for your friend that his father has got himself into this unfortunate situation, and it honours you to stand up for him. I have asked the Minister for Magic about the matter and I think her approach is quite understandable. In any case, it is a domestic matter for the Magical State, and one that is not worth damaging the good understanding between the United Kingdom and the Magical State, or calling into question the ever closer cooperation between the two states.
Ha!" shouted Bernie. "This is said by the same man who reflexively mentions 'human rights' when the same thing happens in Russia or China! Next:
Please bear in mind that this is, after all, an attempted coup d'état. As a son of a politician, you ought to understand that such an act must be punished with the full force of law – in the Magical State as in our own.
Very funny!" Bernie talked himself into a rage. "Stabbers killing innocent people notice very little of this force of law! But the attempted kidnapping of a politician – that requires the full force of law!
The fact that Mrs. Granger-Weasley has retroactively reinstated the death penalty is undoubtedly rather unpleasant.
UNPLEASANT? MURDER, that's what it is!" Bernie yelled, not noticing or caring that the conversations in the common room had fallen silent and everyone was listening to him.
"Nevertheless, I think you are greatly exaggerating: Just because the Nazis also had laws that provided for the death penalty retroactively does not automatically make every such law a Nazi law. After all, the Minister has arranged for Mr Potter to have a trial – and no doubt a fair one."
A fair trial based on unfair laws!", Bernie bellowed at the parchment. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"
He puffed with anger.
"But it gets even better, listen:
This is by no means a matter of course. From what I hear, Mister Potter is not only an opponent of her opening-up policy – a project crucial for the future of both states and their peoples – but unfortunately also quite popular and thus potentially a particularly dangerous opponent who cannot simply be abused as a controlled alibi oppositionist. Nevertheless, she refrained from having her secret service eliminate him and make his demise look like an accident, suicide or the attack of a madman – a course of action that many governments in comparable situations would no doubt have preferred. The Minister is taking a legal route, and you should give her credit for that."
Bernie raged: "HE THINKS IT'S NORMAL FOR A GOVERNMENT TO KILL ITS OPPONENTS IN A CLOAK-AND-DAGGER OPERATION! AND THAT IT'S A MERIT IN ITSELF IF THEY ONCE DON'T!
Your argument that the opening-up policy is being carried out behind the backs of the people and is therefore illegitimate is – excuse me – naive. In important matters in which the future of an entire nation is at stake, it is impossible to ask the people.
WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN? As a politician, you can always say that something is too important because it concerns an entire nation, politics is always about the future of nations, that's just what politics consist of!
The people will always want to keep what they already have and know. They have no understanding of great perspectives and therefore need leadership by elites who recognise and push through what needs to be done. Democracy doesn't mean that the people decide what is right, but only whether the same policy is pursued by a Labour or a Tory prime minister."
Bernie's voice quivered: "Ever since I can remember, the old man has been telling me about democracy! And then when it comes to the point, it's all LIES, LIES, LIES!" He hit the table three times with his fist. Tears of rage were flowing down his cheeks when he read on:
"In the Magical State, this consensus within the elites does not yet exist, as far as I can see, so the position of the Minister for Magic is a lot more precarious than my own. If I get replaced, the same policy will be continued by someone else, and be he from the other party. Yet if the Minister for Magic falls, the progress of the entire Magical State will come to a standstill for an unforeseeable future. Insofar, it goes without saying that she has to deal particularly harshly and ruthlessly with public enemies.
"THAT TAKES THE CAKE!" roared Bernie. "So the fact that she has a huge majority against her is not a reason to resign, but to shut everyone up!" Shaking his head in disgust, he continued to read:
I would have liked to confront you a little more gently with these harsh realities of politics, but at some point you would have had to learn them anyway in order to follow in my footsteps.
YOU CAN WHISTLE FOR ME FOLLOWING IN SUCH FOOTSTEPS! I'M SPITTING ON YOUR FOOTSTEPS! I'M SPITTING ON THE WHOLE MUGGLE WORLD!"
Bernie puffed a moment, before he could continue.
"Just for the sake of completeness, the rest," he finally said more calmly:
"Stand by your friend, but don't expect me to stab the Minister for Magic in the back in her difficult situation. Your loving Dad."
Bernie threw the parchment on the table and stared at it gloomily:
"I don't have anything more to do with that guy!"
Roy interrupted the awkward silence that now followed:
"You shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Be glad you have a father. Not everyone has."
Albus agreed: "For example, I don't know if I'll ever see mine again."
"If mine did any different," Bernie replied grimly, "you would know it. I can't tell you how ashamed I am of him."
"Well, but this implies," Roy pointed out, "that you have something to do with him. You can't break away from him."
"He's been lying to me for years!", Bernie snapped.
"But Bernie," Roy objected, "I'm sure he let you believe in Father Christmas for years too, and you didn't hold it against him."
"That's something completely different!"
Roy tilted his head to the side. "Not really. What politicians proclaim, what is written in the newspapers and what we are all supposed to believe in is something like Father Christmas for adults. Your dad has come clean with you now, and he couldn't have done it much earlier. He has disillusioned you, yes, that is, he has freed you from illusions. At the age of eleven you have lost illusions in which others keep being trapped all their lives. So what are you complaining about?"
Bernie stared at him, stunned:
"You're defending him?"
"I'm not defending what he's doing," Roy clarified, "and yes, I was hoping for a different reaction, but in hindsight I have to admit it was wishful thinking – I should have known better! I just want you to treat him fairly: As a father, he can't be that bad. And since he told you important facts about politics, you now have a few years to think about how you will deal with this knowledge later on: whether you give politics a wide berth or not – and if not, whether you want to do everything differently from your father ..."
"For sure!" shouted Bernie resolutely.
"... risking ending up as one of those public enemies they get rid of in a cloak-and-dagger ... well. Or if you do follow in his footsteps."
"Whatever I do," Bernie replied, "it won't be that!"
Roy grinned.
"I know it won't."