Hermione sluggishly trudged along the long road towards the familiar Weasley home. The golden sunburnt mown field on her left which hid the occasional swirling of a dragonfly, an earthly smell coming from the dry ground of the meadow, which was low on water, the occasional bees flittering in between the long brownish grass. Her stomach growled slightly. Had she lost time again or had she been lost in her mind again. It seemed that she had re-apparated a bit further from Ottery St Catchpole than she had planned. She cursed. It was time to get her mind back under control. Hermione passed Mr. Weasley's garage and entered the busy buzzing kitchen which already housed the entire Weasley family and Harry.
"Hermione, darling." Molly greeted her with a firm hug, which she happily returned. "We were wondering where you had disappeared to. Ah, a little sweaty."
"Yes, I'm going to take a shower first." Hermione nodded.
"Oh no, you don't. Otherwise there won't be any food left. You know them." Molly winked ushering her towards the table.
"Ron said he didn't hear you come home, but you must have been here because your clothes you went to work with were in the room and your running shoes were gone." Ginny told her snatching a slice of paprika from the large salad bowl.
"Really?" Hermione smirked. "I remember him sitting up, staring at me when I changed." She paused to savour the moment. "Then he said. 'Please don't eat me.'" (Ginny snickered,) "When I told him. 'Of course, not Ron, Why would I eat you?' He nodded and fell back into his pillows continuing to mow down the trees outside."
"What?!" Mr. Weasley uttered bewildered mimicking the other confused faces in the room, while Harry coughed and held back his laughter.
"She means that he snored." Harry burst out and the rest of the Weasleys fell in.
After a moment he elaborated. "It's an inside joke of ours. When we were on the run and we were near any forests, we used to tease Ron about mowing down trees in his sleep because his snoring was so loud and resembled the sound of a muggle power-saw."
"Yeah, have you checked if any trees are felled outside?" Hermione rose her right eyebrow challengingly smiling at her embarrassed but grinning ginger friend. When he caught her gaze and beamed at her, Hermione's heart warmed.
"So, you come back in the middle of the night and decide to go on a nightly run?" George enquired shaking his head.
"I couldn't sleep. Probably too energized from work." Hermione shrugged pouring herself a glass of fresh water.
"But it's noon." Ginny interjected. "You're telling us that you've been running all this time? That's excessive."
"Actually, I lost track of time and then I realized that I was close to my grandparents' graves and decided to pay them a visit." Hermione told them. "You know, since I can't say good-bye to my parents… I" she trailed off trying to keep her emotions in check.
Molly patted her on her back in understanding.
Harry frowned. "But, aren't your grandparents buried in Wales?" he asked.
"Yes. They are. Half an hour from Cardiff in fact." She nodded taking a sip from her glass.
"So, you ran up all the way up to the Cardiff area in just a few hours and back?" he shook his head.
"Don't be silly, Harry." Hermione shook her head. "I must have apparated. There is absolutely no way that I ran along the coast up to Wales in just a few hours. My head was all over the place. I probably apparated. Then after my visit I apparated again just outside this village."
"Well, Ms. Granger. You should know better than to apparate like that." Came a familiar stern voice from the entrance of the kitchen door. "But I'm glad that you here in one piece. Sorry, for disturbing your family bliss like that, Molly." Professor McGonagall "But I wanted to bring the new Hogwarts letters for those two who will come back personally."
"That's very considerate of you, Minerva." She smiled. "You do stay for dinner, won't you?"
Hermione eagerly nodded in her favourite professor's direction who gladly accepted the invitation.
A few moments later everyone around the large wooden table tucked in and chattered away.
"A must say that I was very glad to hear that at least one person of the so-called golden trio managed to return to Hogwarts to finish." McGonagall stated sitting next to Hermione.
"And I had hoped that Mr. Potter and Mr. Ronald Weasley would reconsider and finish their schooling as well." Her voice dropped a few degrees.
"Professor McGonagall." Harry said apologetically. "I'm not sure if I were able to return without dreading seeing all those people who've lost their lives in the final battle. So, when we were offered a place in the Auror's training program, we just couldn't say no."
"Not to mention that the new fee for Hogwarts, practically is extorsion." Hermione growled sourly. "How many families, wizarding and muggle alike will be able to actually pay 80 000 Galleons per year in advance. That's around £241,075.78."
"Well, technically, they can split it into twice a year." Minerva grit her teeth knowing how much she had protested at hearing that the Ministry would introduce this unjust fee. It was one of the reasons why most decided to not come back to Hogwarts this year.
"Still, not alright." Hermione murmured angrily dreading what she had to do in order to get what she wanted. Two more days and she would be fed to the wolves. Well, in two days they would present her and the night after that the auction would take place. "And there are no scholarships in place for people who actually can't afford this. Or the possibility to be home-schooled under the new law and write the exams with the regular students."
"I agree with you wholeheartedly, Ms. Granger." McGonagall said bitterly. "But the Ministry made it clear that the fee would come whether I wanted or not. They even told me that I could go into 'early' retirement if I disagreed with this. But I can't leave the pupils in the school unprotected. Merlin knows who the ministry would put into the headmaster's seat."
"Understood." Hermione inclined her head. "Still, the Ministry obviously hasn't properly thought this through. They will actually lose control over quite a large portion of the Wizarding population."
Arthur frowned at her. "Well, what will those families do that can't afford the fees?"
"They go to other Wizarding schools?" Ginny suggested hesitantly.
"Mh. Really? Will they?" Hermione shook her head stabbing her potatoes with vigour. "The Muggle families don't know anything about the Wizarding world. They won't have any possibility of contacting or scouring other Wizarding schools. So, they will force their child to go to normal Muggle education, knowing full well that these children are gifted. They will never learn to actually control their magic and the Ministry will get very busy obliviating Muggles who have witnessed their slips of magic. Those children will know that they could have gone to a wizarding school with people like them, who don't see them as freaks. But that possibility was denied to them due to monetary issues. So, they will grow resentful. Very resentful and in the worst cases they might start to experiment and stumble upon magical things, books and items, that the Ministry has forgotten or doesn't know about. If one looks close enough magical books are quite easy to attain, even in the Muggle World. Then there is the high possibility of these people finding each other. The Muggle World is growing more connected as we speak. They don't need owls to communicate. There are much faster ways. They can coordinate, they can plan and teach each other. If they manage to do that and combine that with Muggle technology which is evolving with lightning speed at the moment, then the Ministry might be responsible for the next Witch hunt of their own making."
"That's a very grim outlook." Molly stared blankly at Hermine.
"No, it's just logic." She shot back. "Then there is the possibility that one of these lost children manages to get into contact with a squib living in the Muggle world, who might actually tell them quite a bit about how the Magical World works. This squib might function as a go between the two worlds and could also share their resentments. And what if there are pupils who never were able to get into any Wizarding school, they have access to quite a bit of the Magical World. Combine these three groups and the Wizarding World has a real problem."
"Hold, on, but why wouldn't wizarding people be able to get into other Wizarding schools around the world?" Ron enquired.
"Well, think about it. The closest Wizarding schools to Hogwarts are in Europe. Unfortunately, due all the extensive witch trials there are only four left: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons Academy in France and Durmstrang Institute and Koldovstoretz. How do you think will they react to the influx of students that weren't able to get into Hogwarts?" Blank and questioning faces were staring back at her. Only McGonagall had a knowing smile on her otherwise tight lips and nodded.
"They will raise fees themselves and probably require entry tests in order to avoid the language barriers."
"Ok, then. They might go to Ilvermorny or other Wizarding schools on other continents." Ginny suggested.
Hermione shook her head. "It's a good idea, Ginny, but again. Think about the language barriers. And in order to get there they would need to get the Magical Visas in order to stay in these countries and continents and the Ministry registration office also introduced high fees there. So, it is made very hard for less well-off people to get a magical education or to work themselves up."
Hermione took another small bite and continued. "The only way I could think of to prevent this is either dropping the school fees or founding our own Wizarding school. But I think we know perfectly well that our dear Ministry will prevent that from happening."
"You are absolutely right, Ms. Granger. McGonagall conceded. "This sounds as if you've already given it quite some thought. Did you try to get into one of these schools for your final year?"
Hermione sighed. "I did. That's what I needed your recommendation are for. But unfortunately, I didn't get anywhere. Beauxbatons Academy was accepting my enquiry, but for some reason a week later they changed their mind and sent a rejection letter. Even Fleur's recommendation didn't help."
"Probably the language barrier." Ron shrugged his shoulders.
"The language isn't an issue, mon cher Ronald. Je peux parler français parce que j'appris la langue pour quelques années."
She grit her teeth as all the Weasley's gaped at her. Apparently, they had never heard her speak French with Fleur before.
"Seriously, Hermione when did you learn that?" Harry shook his head in wonder.
"For my A-Levels." She shrugged her shoulders. "It was a compromise between my parents and me. I could go to Hogwarts, but I had to fulfil the curriculum requirements of each year and write my 'home-schooling' exams after my Hogwarts exams. My father wanted me to have a choice in live. Unfortunately, for me I blew that chance when I forgot my documents at home before they moved."
"And Durmstrang would have been a bit too dangerous for you as a Muggle-born." George mused.
"Not dangerous, but they do not accept Muggle-borns. At all. Viktor did recommend and vouch for me, but they won't break with their centuries-old tradition and rejected me as well. And before you ask Koldovstoretz is a Wizarding school that has its own very unique curriculum, that is not valid anywhere else then in their very own country, tough large it may be, but I do not want to be stuck there forever. And their curriculum follows the highly problematic Anastasianism, which is practically a cult."
"Ilvermorny?..." McGonagall begun, looking at Hermione with thin lips.
"Illvermorny, requires Muggle and Magical visa in order to even consider letting you anywhere near their school and they also have school fees for non-American students." Hermione interrupted her. "Believe me, I tried everything to avoid the high fees at Hogwarts."
She put her fork away. Her appetite gone. Two more days.
"But you managed to pay the fees anyway. Just like Ms. Weasley." McGonagall smiled at her but Hermione's stomach dropped.
"Harry was generous enough to pay mine." Ginny patted him lovingly on his upper leg.
"My fees are already paid?" Hermione asked with slight tremor in her voice. If that was correct, then that meant that Madame Adler had already advanced it and she now was severely indebted to her. That meant that she couldn't get out of this or everyone would know. She had to make sure somehow that she got the price on her auction high enough, that she wouldn't stay indebted to that fishy women. After all she still had not signed any contract.
"Yes, they are paid in full, but came from an anonymous account, I was told." McGonagall confirmed.
Hermione cursed and drew her hand through her hair messing it up slightly. "Guess my employer forwarded my salary already. That means a couple of slaving days for me. I'm never going to hear the end of this."