Chapter 25 Revelations at the ICW

Surprisingly there was very little reaction from the wizarding public to the change of status of werewolves and/or lycanthropes as the new legislation stated was the proper designation from a person afflicted with this condition. The major surprise came in an owl from the ICW, requesting both the presence of Kingsley and myself to attend the next session in March. The influence of Britain in the ICW had changed quite a bit in the last few years since the death of Dumbledore. Although Kingsley had not been involved with them at that point he was given to understand that Dumbledore had almost run the ICW using his reputation as defeater of Grindelwald and Order of Merlin winner to get himself made supreme Mugwump and not allowing anything to be decided without his 'stamp' on the final decision.

It was therefore with a slight amount of trepidation that I waited in the foyer of the ministry for Kingsley, I stood in front of a locked floo station that required special permission to use from the Minister and the ICW, a strange set of circumstances to my way of thinking. Kingsley eventually arrived after a long wait that was probably less than a minute and pressed an amulet to the grille covering the grate which simply faded from sight and he motioned me in. He reached to his right and grabbed a handful of what I assumed was floo powder and called out "ICW Headquarters, Paris." instead of the usual green flash of flames and spinning sensation there was a bright blue flash and we were in another grate that I assumed was in Paris, a city I'd heard about, I knew it was the capital of France and that was it really, I'd heard of some of its famous buildings, the Louvre, Eiffel tower and quite a few others but where in Paris was the ICW?

As we stepped out of the grate I could see the same grand style of architecture similar to the Ministry but, where the Ministry had seen better days, showing the ravages of having been lit by torchlight for a long while, this building had lights that appeared to be globular in shape giving off a blue light reminding me of daylight. The whole three storey atrium was extremely well lit with various flags adorning the walls, some of which I recognised.

I followed Kingsley to the large doors at one end of the impressive atrium that we had appeared in and waited as he knocked twice with his wand. The doors opened inwards to reveal a large chamber with seats all around. The seats were grouped together in threes or fours with the flag of a country attached to front of each grouping. Kingsley stopped for a moment to get his bearings and then motioned me to follow him to the seating area for the British contingent. I took a seat in the position he indicated and he took his seat, leaving a vacant seat between us and another to his left, we having one of the four seat positions.

I looked askance at him about to make an enquiry as to why our exact seating positions when he motioned me to stand. "Gentlemen, my Lords and ladies please be upstanding for your Supreme Mugwump, Kasumi Kinoshita." at his announcement an attractive middle aged woman made her way into the room and regally made her way to the seat that was obviously hers, it reminded me somewhat of the golden throne that had been the seat the headmistress had sat on at Hogwarts, more a throne than everyone else's.

With a bow to everyone in the room, "please everyone be seated," there was the sound of chairs being adjusted whilst everyone took their seats again. "There are a couple of things that should be addressed before we begin this Spring Equinox meeting to full session, "Please make welcome Dudley Dursley, Lord of the Wizarding Court of Charlemagne, ambassador at large to her majesty Queen Elizabeth of the Kingdom of Great Britain, it is to be hoped that with his appointment to the office by the crown and his position on the Wizengamot we will see an end to the injustices done to certain magical races in the country will also cease. We have seen so far that the Goblins are well on their way to full magical citizenship, although they have not at this time taken up a seat in their Wizengamot, it is to be hoped that this will soon be rectified."

"The seat for the Clan of Gringotts UK goblins is ready in the Wizengamot is ready for them when they ask to take it, as of this time they have not asked to partake in the government of Magical Great Britain. We are hopeful that they will take up their seat soon, but as many of the honourable delegates know it is unwise to point out to the goblins that they have failed in their obligations in some way, their way of correcting their mistakes can be lethal." There was a slight laugh from the other delegates at this.

"It is so noted and agreed upon, the onus is indeed upon the goblins to take their seat and not for your Wizengamot to insist that they do. I believe that was the cause of one of the rebellions in the Magical Kingdom of Prussia." it was at this point that I noticed that the words being spoken did not match the lip movements of the Supreme Mugwump, there was obviously some type of translation charm in place. "Lord Dursley we would like to speak to you of the centaurs, it has been noticed that your centaur group has had visits from centaurs from the United States; a country which is not part of the ICW, can you enlighten us as to the reasons behind this?"

Slightly nervous at addressing this I stood up, "honoured delegates, when I visited the United States on my honeymoon, I was made aware of a prophecy by the passport inspector that met us, the borders between the US, the centaur nation or the state of New Sparta were sealed when the Statute of Secrecy was passed; the prophecy stated that they would remain sealed until a former bewigged pig came to speak of peace. Due to my size when I was younger, it was stated that I looked like a pig in a wig. The centaurs allowed me access to New Sparta and I was able to speak to them to try and re-establish contact with our British centaurs. The proposal came in the form of a written document. Our centaurs had become a group with a mainly oral tradition, so a centaur from the states came over to teach them to read, and hopefully in time we will see them partake fully as a member race of Magical Britain, but obviously this is going to take time; I've heard it said that only the heavens can out-stubborn a centaur."

"It is to be hoped that this comes about, in time maybe the centaurs in France and the Principality of Wallachia will consent to join their respective magical communities, whilst they have not regressed to hunter-gatherer existence they refuse to acknowledge the sovereignty of their respective countries of residence."

"Have you tried speaking to the centaurs and asking them what they want, they may not recognise the borders and kingdoms that are trying to get them to acknowledge the sovereignty of. I understand that the Principality of Wallachia is not now a recognised state or country by the Muggle United Nations, their version of the ICW, but it is still a recognised country by the ICW; depending on how long the centaurs have resided in the area they may feel they do not owe sovereignty to some human country which has come into being after they settled there."

"An excellent point, the ICW does recognise some older countries which in muggle terms have changed since its inception, indeed I understand that Great Britain in the muggle world has ceded part of Eire to the Irish, but the British Ministry of Magic still retains control of the whole of the Island, we will try speaking to the centaurs and try to find an equitable solution as you say." She nodded to myself and Kingsley. "Are there any other matters pertaining to this part of the discussion before we head on to the next item on the agenda?"

A short gentleman from the Swiss delegation rose from his seat. "Supreme Mugwump, now that Magical Britain has changed the prejudicial view to other races and has begun to integrate these other races into their community it is asked that the enchantments on the British seating area and its delegates be removed so they can deal with all parties in the ICW on face to face terms!"

This comment seemed to cause quite a bit of debate amongst the members in their seats, amongst the delegates of each country and between countries. After a few minutes it seemed that the general consensus was in favour of this proposal whatever it meant. I looked at Kingsley to see him looking equally mystified as to what the meaning of this was all about.

"Very well, Kingsley Shacklebolt as the senior member of your magical government are you ready and willing to see the ICW as it truly is?"

"I thought I already was? But I have no objections to whatever you are proposing!"

"Very well, "示すことが隠されているものをしてみましょう！見ることが目に見えない何です。これは、すべての混乱を追放します。" Whatever had been spoken was not translated by the spell, I assumed the incantation/spell was spoken in Japanese.

Both Kingsley and I gasped as the whole of the chamber shimmered. Looking around me I saw that the delegates had changed, the 'short' gentleman from the Swiss delegation was an individual with greyish skin, about 2' 6" in height (76cm), with an elaborately styled beard and hair of a silvery hue. There were several goblins amongst the delegates of other countries; some persons I assumed were Veela, by their beauty and the fact that they seemed to exude 'sex appeal'; I avoided staring too long at these particular individuals and kept Gabrielle firmly in the front of my mind, it seemed to help. One of the delegates from the Principality of Wallachia was a tall male about 6' 6" who seemed to be in the shadows whilst standing in plain sight. I have no idea why but it seemed as if I could tell he wanted to speak with Kingsley and myself. I glanced aside and could see some slight trepidation in his face. "What's the matter, what's got you all flustered?"

"It's the delegate from Wallachia, he seems to want to meet us, I don't know why; but considering he's a vampire, I have some reservations!"

"Is that what he is? What about the Swiss delegate, the short fellow with grey skin and elaborate hairstyle?"

"He's a gnome, they run one of the major wizarding banks in Europe, I had no idea they were delegates to the ICW, but given what we've just witnessed and had happen to us, I'm not surprised!"

"It's true then, Gnomes do run the banks in Switzerland, my father would go in a fit of apoplexy about that if he was still alive. Whenever the Swiss banks were mentioned on the telly, he'd cuss up a storm about how decent hard-working honest bankers would want to be associated with some freaky creature."

"Wait a minute, are you saying that Muggles have known about the gnomes of Zurich for a long time?"

"Not known really, its one of those urban myths, a bit like everyone knows Salazar Slytherin built a chamber in Hogwarts with a monster in it to cleanse the school of those unworthy to study magic. A story held to be not quite true, but a good yarn anyway!"

"I've heard that rumour myself, never believed it, I was a student a few years after the last supposed opening of the chamber, a girl died in the school and everyone was saying she'd been killed by Slytherin's monster. Her ghost haunts the girls toilet on the first floor."

"I've heard about her, Moaning Myrtle, her bathroom is above the Entrance to the Chamber of Secrets."

"Who told you that? I must say its probably another of those wild rumours!"

"Harry did, he rescued Ginny from the chamber in his second year after she was possessed by an artefact of Voldemort's."

"Hang on, let me think that was the year that Dumbledore was temporarily removed as headmaster, the 92-93 school year. Are you telling me that all those students were petrified by Slytherin's monster? It's real?"

"Well… It was. Harry killed it, a seventy foot basilisk I think he said, some of the money from the sale was used to repair the damage he caused after the breakout from Bellatrix Lestrange's vault and some was donated to the Hogwarts Scholarship Fund."

"Was this about 2 years after Voldemort's defeat?"

"Probably why?"

"I'd recently been promoted in the Aurors and I remember hearing of an anonymous donation of 400,000 galleons to the Scholarship fund!"

"It could be, he told me how much he'd made from the sale and after the conversion to pounds I congratulated him on being a millionaire and he said he already was one before that fact."

"Hmm! He probably was, the Potter family was old money and after the Black Inheritance your cousin was probably the richest wizard in England. I wonder what he'll do now his godson is the new Lord Black?"

"Probably reinstate the Black vault and give the contents to his godson, from what I know of him he really has no use for all the money he has in his vaults."

"So true, although Harry's family screams 'old money' to a lot of the old guard in the Wizengamot, he has no real interest in flaunting it. Most often when I see him at the ministry he's in muggle clothes with a simple over robe, I've seen others come to work in robes of the finest acromantula silk, just because they can afford it and want everyone to know they can. Probably living on dry bread at home, but have to put on a good showing at work. That has been part of the problems in the past, the old guard showing their superiority and position, lording it over the half-bloods and mudbloods because they were so much better, when in reality a lot of them were no better than squibs; I was ever so glad when her Majesty stated that muggleborns should be seen as first generation purebloods. No such prejudices myself, you understand, if you didn't realise it, my wife is muggleborn, which means if it ever came out my children would have been treated differently as half-bloods at Hogwarts."

"I understand completely, my own children would probably have been treated differently being part veela; I remember reading something about veela being used as sex toys by some parts of the wizarding nobility in the past, and although it doesn't happen anymore, I'm sure somewhere in the dark and murky depths of Wizengamot laws there's some law that's never been repealed and its still legal."

"All too true, I once came across a bill allowing muggle-baiting as a sport. Put a couple of muggles in a ring and pit them against a wizard; the wizard couldn't use unforgivables, which at that time weren't forbidden against muggles, but any other spells were permitted in taking the muggle down. Disgusting what people did in the name of entertainment. It seems we have another project for Percy Weasley, I'm surprised at the progress he's made in his new department, in only the few months he's been there he's managed to get nearly all the records onto computer and reduced the amount of parchment in storage by two rooms the size of the great hall at Hogwarts; I suppose being Arthur Weasley's son gave him some advantage there, I thought it would take him longer than this to even think of putting it onto computer."

"Hmm! Come to think of it, he may have had a little help from Gabrielle, I remember her saying something about creating a database for somebody at the ministry, now if that was Percy, it would make sense!"

"How?"

"A database is brilliant at sorting data, for example if you wanted to find out who in Britain had wands made of yew, you would just need to enter that into the search part of the database and within seconds have a complete record of every owner of such a wand in the whole country. The same goes for say unicorn tail hair or dragon heart string."

"Fascinating, I just use the computer to write memo's and emails etc. Its great for creating memo's and standard letters, but I've never really looked into much else it can do!"

"Come to think of it, Mr Ollivander asked me about the same thing when we were first working on the prototype. Wonder how he got on with that?"

There was a discreet cough from behind us, we turned to see the vampire delegate from Wallachia and the gnomish delegate from the Swiss delegation. "Minister Shacklebolt, Lord Dursley, we were wondering if we could have a word with you about business opportunities for us all?"

Kingsley looked at me and then back at the two delegates, "business opportunities, I have no idea what we can do to help you gentlemen, but please enlighten us as to your proposals!"

"I am here as a representative of my country, but also on behalf of Katabisi, the Global Wizarding Bank and my colleague here on top of being part of the Swiss delegation represents the Gnomish Bank of Zurich, we were wondering if there would be any relaxation to the treaty that gives the goblins sole authority of Britain's wizarding banking requirements. Both our banks are multi-national and deal with Gringotts worldwide, but can make no headway in dealing with Gringotts UK as per the treaty of 1569 they are banned from dealings with other financial institutions outside of wizarding Britain. We both feel that we could offer services to British witches and wizards that Gringotts could not and that if our services were to be made available in your country it would also allow companies that bank through us to offer their services to your citizens, one such example is the computers your Technology department at the ministry has managed to create, I understand they are of limited value when accessing the muggle internet, being considerably slower when interacting through your own whiz-net. One of the companies that my bank represents is S.A.S.A. (see New Resolutions chapter 1), who helped to develop the computers for the moon landings and subsequently has worked in connection with N.A.S.A. and other companies to make the muggle internet what it is today. They would like permission to be able to sell their products in your country."

I looked at Kingsley to see if I could gauge any ideas from him about how he was going to respond to this incident. "As far as I aware, there is no longer any such ban on Gringotts working with such institutions as yourselves, the treaty which gave Gringotts a complete monopoly on all wizarding transactions was one of those that her Majesty repealed in her recent modernisation of all things magical in her kingdom. Whilst I personally have no objection to your institutions doing business in Britain, I believe it must be you yourselves who contact Gringotts UK to work out the details."

"I must say a most equitable solution which gives me some idea how to approach them, I believe myself and my colleagues institutions should approach your goblins through our own local branches of Gringotts, indeed if they also get an idea of how cooperating with our banks can see benefits to all parties it may prove beneficial." Both delegates gave a bow to myself and Kingsley and made their way back to their respective seating areas in conversation with each other which went onto continue with the other delegates in their sections.

I looked over at Kingsley, "well that was unexpected, I had no idea that there were other wizarding banks other than Gringotts out there!"

"I don't suppose you would, although you got your knowledge of history through Hogwarts itself, there is no way it would have knowledge of those two institutions, Katabisi was inaugurated as a bank in about 1500, whilst I believe the gnomes of Zurich have been in business even longer, the only problem I can foresee is with Katabisi, most of their operatives are vampires, although the Wallachian delegate seems to have found a way around the aversion to sunlight that seems to afflict his people, there is still some fear of vampires in magical Britain. The blood drinking thing, you know?"

"Isn't that a necessity, I mean more vampires are created through draining a subject so they rise again as a vampire?"

"Good heavens, No! Wherever did you hear that? Vampires need blood to survive and indeed as far as I know the blood needs to come from a living donor, but they do not drain the blood completely from their victims, eventually that would lead to no donors. And as far as I know vampires are a distinctive race, the same as Veela, Goblins or Gnomes, they perpetuate their species in much the same way as any other?"

"Yet another Hollywood illusion shattered by reality!"

"Oh I see, another one of those fantasies that muggles have made up from true facts since the two worlds broke off contact with each other."

"Partly, a lot is to blame on a Victorian author by the name of Bram Stoker who took a real life historical character and wove a work of fiction around him about vampires."

"I must look into reading that, I find some muggle works of fiction to be fascinating and indeed reading what they have made of our world is sometimes hilarious."

"I suppose it might at that, I must admit after reading some of the tales of Beedle the Bard, I wonder about wizarding fiction; I understand that some of it is a morality tale like, one err… is the warlock's hairy heart or something, its talking in a way about the dangers of making a horcrux… it removes your humanity or something along those lines."

"How did you learn of horcruxes, Dudley, I don't believe there's any books on the subject at Flourish and Blot's; I wouldn't have thought Hogwarts would keep them in the library and as far as I am aware its not something that is well known in Britain?"

"Ask Harry! The point I'm trying to make though is that most of the wizarding fiction I've seen is not really fiction, or is fiction based on fact. You should join the local library near to where you live and check out the adult fiction section, there's millions of books, and new ones are being added everyday."

"Millions you say, how much does it cost to join this library?"

"It's free, you'll just need some proof of identity an address when you go to join and then you can borrow up to four books for four weeks, you do have to pay a fine if you return them late though, that's typically only a few pence though depending on how late they are."

"What sort of books are in this adult fiction area? I mean if I want to read this Dracula book where would I look?"

"Adult fiction covers all areas, there's other areas within it, like Science fiction that tends to be about aliens, fantasy that tends to deal with magic etc. there's romance, very popular with the ladies that I understand, at least my mother was usually reading the latest bodice ripper or whatever!"

"Bodice ripper, should I be worried about Aleesha reading those?"

"Not really, bodice ripper is a disparaging term used by most men to describe that sort of book, usually just a harmless romance set in an office or the hospital or wherever in much the same way you wife could refer to Potions Monthly as a cookery book!"

"Hmm, I suppose Aleesha will want to join as well then, fascinating the things that come up in conversation. Anyway I think that's all the business done here for today, I suggest we leave and return home."

"Where exactly is here anyway, I mean I know its the ICW but where in Paris is it?"

"Oh, I understand we're under the Palace of Versailles, there was some work being done on it it the seventeenth century around the time the ICW was formed and this extension to it was crafted by the dwarves and gnomes, unknown to the Muggles of course. The French king knew of course, as at that time the French Monarchy was mostly magical and ruled both worlds, a bit like the British Monarchy was mainly muggle but in theory ruled both worlds."

"I suppose that might explain why France is a bit more tolerant to other magical races, Veela for example, Gabrielle says there has never been any real distinction in France between pure-bloods, muggleborns or those with mixed race backgrounds."

"True, the French attitude always has been that if you have magic you must follow both muggle and magical laws, but they never cared about how or where you got the magic from, whether one or both parents, or you stole it from a wizard like Umbridge tried to make out with her muggleborn registration rubbish during the time Voldemort was in control at the ministry. Total rubbish of course."

"We must try to get something like that to be the attitude that prevails eventually in Britain, we're slowly going that way and I hope it stays that way."

"Me too, Dudley," he said as he vanished in the ministry floo to go home.

I though of the things we had learnt at the ICW and what their repercussions would be. Ah! Well I'll find out another day…

A/N

The Principality of Wallachia (1330–1859) was a real 'country' in the periods stated, and is now part of Romania. As such at the time of the Statute of Secrecy was a valid country to become a member of the ICW, since the magical world has largely been cut of from the muggle world they would be unaware of the change in status of this principality. Incidentally the real life inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula was Vlad The Impaler, a real life warlord of Wallachia who was famous for his defence of his country against the attacking Ottoman Empire, and is a hero in that part of the world.

示すことが隠されているものをしてみましょう！見ることが目に見えない何です。これは、すべての混乱を追放します。- Shimesu koto ga kakusa rete iru mono o shite mimashou! Miru koto ga menimienai nanidesu. Kore wa, subete no konran o tsuihō shimasu. - Let what is hidden be shown! What is unseen be seen. Let all confusion be banished. The Japanese script, phonetic translation and English are all courtesy of Google translate.

The concept of Katabisi Global Wizarding Bank, a bank run by vampires is taken from 'Hermione's Brilliant Idea' By: id: 11101063, an organisation which fitted in with my 'expanded' ICW, although mentioned in passing here, it has a full part in the aforementioned story; used with the Author's permission. I recommend this story if you like HP/HG fics.

I wonder if I've rewritten anything in HP canon here with my little piece about vampires, as a race. After all Horace Slughorn did have the vampire, Sanguini, at one of his parties. Surely Hogwarts wouldn't allow a visitor to the school that was a threat to the students, after all they had enough in it anyway; possessed teachers, basilisks, dementors guarding it, dragons.