Hermione had sworn, from the moment that Ron and Harry decided they were going to be Aurors, that she was never going to be a part of the DMLE. Yet here she was, on her fifth day of work as Assistant to the Head of the Wizengamot Administration Services. And she hated it.

Hermione disliked clerical-style work in general; she found it tedious and boring. But this was something else- this was tedious, boring, and infuriating.

One of the things Hermione had hated most at school was the Muggleborn prejudice from nearly everyone, even teachers and fellow Gryffindors. It was as though they expected her to be somehow inferior, and were shocked and delighted when she turned out to be good at something. The attitude had carried through the end of the war- even when the "Golden Trio" as people still called them, were described, somehow the words "Muggleborn witch" ended up in there somewhere. It was truly meant as a compliment, but Hermione found the distinction insulting and frustrating.

The courtroom records of the Wizengamot brought the prejudice to a whole new level. Hermione was deeply shocked to find that four years after a war that had been based on blood purity supremacy, the records had "Blood Status" on the forms directly after "Name".

She all but stormed into the head's office. "Mr. Filbert!"

He peered at her over his spectacles. "Miss Granger?"

She put the form for a Floo violation down on his desk, with more than the necessary force. "This is crazy!"

He looked at the form seriously. "No, unregistered Floos aren't that uncommon, unfortunately, Miss Granger. Our Floo Network has become far too easy to hack into."

She shook the form impatiently. "No, not that." She pointed to the offending line.

He looked at it again. "Blood status, pureblood. I don't understand, Miss Granger. Is there a problem? Are you challenging his blood status?"

"I didn't even look who it is," she said. "It's irrelevant. The problem is that blood status is still put on forms. Isn't that what we fought a whole war about? Blood status equality?"

"Actually," Mr. Filbert said coolly, "We fought a war against a madman who was terrorizing the wizarding world. The fact that he was obsessed with blood purity was his problem; it had little or nothing to do with why so many took up arms against him." He paused, and then handed the form back to her. "In any event, the blood status on the form is merely a means of identification- it's not placing one blood status above another."

"But why should it matter what his blood status is if his crime had nothing to do with it? Racism leads to prejudice, and this is making it so much more likely that the judge will rule either more harshly or more leniently, depending on his blood status views."

"Careful there, Miss Granger." For the first time, he sounded a bit annoyed. "I don't think you want to be accusing the judges of the Wizengamot of corruption or prejudice."

Hermione flushed. "Of course not. I apologize." She left the office with her head down, which turned out to be a mistake, as she bumped directly into someone coming around the corner.

"Hermione!"

She looked up to see a familiar red-head looking down at her from his 20cm height advantage.

"Hi Percy."

"What's wrong?" He asked in his typical, straightforward fashion. "You sounded a bit upset in there."

She turned even pinker. "Did everyone hear me?"

"I don't think anyone else is really around," he reassured her. "Your department seems quiet at the moment, and I'm the only one in the corridor. Want to tell me what's upset you?"

"It's just the stupid blood prejudice thing," she muttered. "Whatever, it's not a big deal- I'm the only one who seems to bother about it anyways."

"Blood prejudice?" Percy looked worried. "Did someone say something to you, Hermione?"

She shook her head and handed him the form. "It's not the prejudice, per se, I guess it's more just the fact that it's even considered something that needs to be put down on a form. Why distinguish between Muggleborn and pureblood, between half bloods and quarter bloods and part- creatures? Why do we do this to ourselves?"

"Blood status is a means of identification," Percy said. "I understand they use race similarly in the Muggle world."

"Differentiation based on race is known as racism in the Muggle world," Hermione returned primly. "Racism leads to discrimination and is illegal."

Percy sighed. "You're right the Wizarding World has its issues," he said slowly. "And I don't even think that this is the worst of them. But every system has its flaws. Utopia is noplace, remember?"

"Yes but every other system in the world undergoes reforms and is constantly trying to fix its flaws," Hermione said, her voice rising again. "We still have laws from the Middle Ages and nobody seems to be making any effort to change things. I would've thought after the war-" She stopped, making an effort to calm herself.

"After the war…?" Percy prompted.

"I don't know," she said. "It just seemed to me that the war was an indication that changes have to be made and reforms passed, but everyone else seems to think that Dark Wizards are just a reality and went back to living life exactly as they did before the war. It's frustrating that they can't see how the system contributed to the issue. I mean, if you want to really go back that far, a big part of Riddle's issue was that he was raised in that horrid orphanage, which should never have happened. The magical community should have been taking care of him!"

"You're talking two different things here," Percy said. "On the one hand, you have the government, and on the other hand, you have wizarding society. Which is the issue?"

"Can't it be both?"

"It probably is both."

Hermione was silent for a moment. "It's a big task," she said finally. "Re-vamping all of wizard society?"

"Well, British Wizarding society, anyways," Percy corrected. "But yes, it is."

"Can it be done?"

"Can't anything, if you have enough determination?"

"Now you're sounding like a Hufflepuff," she teased.

"On the contrary." Percy gave a rare smile. "This may be the most Gryffindor thing I've ever done- charging headfirst into a battle against all of society and the government, with no idea of how to proceed."

"When you put it that way…" she deflated a bit. "We really don't have any idea of what we're doing, do we?"

"We don't," he agreed. "But we have what we need to get there. We have knowledge of the system, reasonable degree of social and political influence, determination, and plenty of brainpower. I say it's possible."

"Just possible?"

"Likely, even, if we really work together."

"I say we give it a go, then," Hermione said, taking to Floo-violation form back from him. "Merlin knows Britain needs it."

They met for the first time nearly a week later, in Percy's office at the Wizengamot. From his early days as Wizengamot scribe and assistant to the Minister of Magic, he had continued working for the Ministry until he had become Senior Undersecretary of the DMLE.

They had both spent the week putting together lists of the most relevant and urgent issues, brainstorming, and looking through lawbooks to find the laws that needed the most reform.

"To start with the blood prejudice issue," Hermione began. "I think we have to go back to the beginning of when the issue first comes up."

"Hogwarts?"

She shook her head. "Before Hogwarts. You see, the only reason why there's a difference between Muggleborn and magic-raised children at Hogwarts has to do with how they're raised."

"Well, obviously."

"No. What I'm trying to say is that there is no discernable difference in intelligence or magical ability, but the Muggleborns come in at a distinct disadvantage just because they haven't been educated. They receive a letter a month prior to coming to Hogwarts and then suddenly are thrown into a strange culture and expected to just learn on the go. It's rather unreasonable I think."

"I hear you."

"The other issue, though," Hermione said. "Is that there is a shocking number of Muggleborn deaths in early childhood, mostly between the ages of 4 and 7. Kids who are written in the Book of Admittance, but never receive letters because they die before age 11."

"Even with modern Muggle medicine?" Percy asked.

Hermione nodded. "My guess is that they started manifesting accidental magic, and scared their parents who thought their children were possessed by the Devil or some such nonsense. We also see a disproportionately high level of magical kids in the adoptive and foster system."

"Hardly an advantageous beginning," Percy grimaced. "I hear the problem."

"I think children should be closely monitored from the time they're written in the Book of Admittance until the time of their Hogwarts letter, both for safety and so that they can get a more regular primary magical education."

"Primary schools are hardly a thing in the magical world," Percy said. "Most kids are taught either by private tutors or their parents until age 11."

"That's also a disadvantage," Hermione pointed out. "Kids can be neglected in the wizarding world as well, and if the parents don't have the time or intelligence to properly educate them, and don't have the money to hire tutors, how in Merlin's name do they learn anything? Do you mean to say that there are kids who come to Hogwarts not knowing how to spell or do basic arithmetic?"

"Many halfbloods go to public schools," Percy said. "And there aren't too many working pureblooded women. And most purebloods have money, Weasleys being the notable exception." His ears pinked slightly.

"So a magical primary school would be a good thing," Hermione said, adding it to the list on the notepad in front of her.

"Maybe and maybe not," Percy said warningly. "Firstly, I'm not sure how receptive people would be to it. Secondly, there's a definite advantage to children going to regular primary schools and getting somewhat exposed to the Muggle world."

"Purebloods don't."

"And being raised a pureblood has its disadvantages," Percy said. "I think it best to leave the school idea alone for now. But the idea of tracking children from a young age definitely has merit…"

"But how in the world would we implement it?"

"Well," Percy said thoughtfully. "I imagine it would be somewhat similar to the Trace. We'd have to talk to Improper Use of Magic about that one because I'm not quite sure how the charm works."

Percy pulled out a violet MoM memo sheet and scribbled a quick note. "Mafalda Hopkirk," he said and the note folded itself up and soared away out his open office door. "These interdepartmental memos are not terribly efficient," he frowned. "They can get distracted."

"Distracted?"

"Yes, if they bump into too many walls, they get very disoriented and start wandering about." He waved a hand. "Whatever, it's not the biggest issue that the Ministry of Magic has."

"Well, what is the biggest issue that the Ministry of Magic has?" Hermione asked. "You know the Ministry better than anyone, and that's really our biggest reform target."

Percy looked down at his list. "I would say the most significant issues are in the justice system. The laws are ancient and complicated, and with a good advocate it's nearly impossible to convict someone, but a judge or prosecutor with an agenda can pull all kinds of laws from thin air and build a rock-solid case on nothing."

"So, it's not only the current laws that need to be worked with," Hermione said. "It's going to require looking into old laws, pulling every law from the book and examining its validity."

"Exactly," Percy said. "Something like a massive research project."

Hermione's eyes glowed. "It sounds amazing! Is there anywhere that all the laws are codified?"

"If only it were that simple," Percy said. "In the Archives of the Wizengamot, you have the original set of statutes passed in 17th century by the International Confederation of Wizards, when the ministry was founded. Beyond that, though, laws can be passed by any Head of Department and are generally found somewhere in the department. It's really quite disorganized."

"I see that." Hermione thought for a moment. "Is there such thing as a wizarding solicitor? Or barrister? Like, who represents the accused in court?"

"Nobody, generally," Percy said grimly. "Which is the next to biggest flaw, I think. The Wizengamot is also quite closed and has almost unlimited power to mete out whatever punishments they choose, from fines to Azkaban, and nobody really questions it."

"So re-vamp all of the laws and rearrange the whole judicial procedure, basically," Hermione said. "Anything else? Global warming, maybe?"

"Global what?"

"Sorry, Muggle reference," Hermione said. "What I'm trying to say is that we seem like we're in over our heads."

Percy shrugged. "Reform is a big job. What we need is a Minister of Magic."

Hermione laughed. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Meaning, we need a Minister who will work with us. Someone young and passionate who is dissatisfied with the system as it is and will push these kinds of reforms." He saw Hermione's skeptical look and pressed on, "Look, I have some clout in my position, but not enough for these radical changes. My best usage would be to make sure that this minister-"

"Theoretical minister."

"Fine, this theoretical minister doesn't get removed when he starts making waves."

"I hear you." Hermione still didn't seem convinced. "But who will this minister be, exactly? And why don't you think Shacklebolt would do it?"

"Shacklebolt is retiring," Percy said. "It's still confidential but he's decided to step down after what he called 'the longest four years of his life' and candidates are already starting to rear their heads."

"Anyone who would work for us?"

"Favored candidates are Hermes Jones, Hestia Jones' younger brother, and Ricardo Lestrange, from a branch of the family that's been in Spain for years. Neither one seems very open to reform, and Ricardo is of course heavily pure-blooded."

"Anyone else running?"

"There is a third candidate," Percy said, a bit reluctantly. "But he's practically a joke candidate. Little journalist, two years out of Hogwarts. He writes well, but his presentation leaves a lot to be desired, and he's too young to have anyone take him seriously."

"He would've been two years below me," Hermione said thoughtfully. "I wonder if I know him. What House was he in?"

"Pretty sure he was a Gryffindor, actually," Percy said. "Dennis something."

"Creevey!" Hermione said instantly. "Percy, call me crazy, but I think this could work."