A.N. It has come to my attention that this fic is almost as long as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. So let us move the plot along.
Some commenters are confused about Hermione's relationship status with Anthony. Yeah, the characters are confused too.
On a side note, I usually write chapter updates and life updates on my profile, so you know when I am working on it, and when I am too busy/lazy to write.
Also, a side note, I'm going to England over the summer to study abroad, in fact, I've been here for 2 weeks already and already had a day trip to Paris. Hence, I have been busy and would continue to be active. I originally wanted to write a chapter every week, but clearly, that is not happening.
Special Thanks to Elased, Flower123, Kitty, meldz, Cat130, catsgotmytounge, Guest, Neleam, Blue Luver5000, Guest, dutch potterfan, ReadAloudToMe, kyutiepie, niknik0201, Charisma91, ksouza3, andherestograce, Guest, lexicon63738, , charmyxrose, SereneBlue, zombiekins5948, unamedhpauthor, Carinalove67, IhrinDnD, Arickakent21, Aquary, SharonHm, sofisamu, azertykeynes, , puasluoma
Ch. 13
March 5, 2004
Hermione thought that her presentation was a disaster. She only had a month to practice her speech, and the visual aids were computer-maid instead of handmaid ones the wizarding world was used to. She only practiced with Harry once, and she was unable to make a second revision.
Throughout her presentation to the Minister and his secretaries, Hermione bumbled a couple of times, looked at the wrong undersecretary's eyes and she accidentally blocked her visual aids half the time.
Throughout her presentation, Hermione spotted Minister Shacklebolt's, and his secretaries' eyes gloss over at times. She knew that she lost their interest, despite their polite smiles and head nodding. The blank stares remained even when she mentioned all the positive impacts her research might bring to the Wizarding World.
At the end of her presentation, Minister Kingsley clapped and congratulated her for her informative information. However, Hermione knew that he was saying that to make her feel better.
As Hermione shrunk her materials so that they could fit into her small handbag, she wondered if she should have worked harder.
Maybe she should have practiced her speech more. Maybe if she added all the diseases, muggles were able to predict a child would have even before the child was born. Still, the wizarding world did not care about genetic diseases that they could cure with magic. Maybe if she spent less time lying on the bed thinking about it…
No, he does not love you. Hermione told herself, stopping herself from thinking about silvery hair and soft lips that teasingly hovered over hers. He does not love you, she repeated to herself. It had become her mantra in the past couple of months since she last saw Malfoy. That phrase was the one thing that could recalibrate her focus to what really matters, her work.
If only she was a little farther along with her research. Maybe if she discovered a link between genes and wizard diseases, she studied during her time at St. Mungo's Hospital, the Minister and his secretaries would be more interested in her work.
She knew she should have done all-nighters at the lab. She would have lost some sleep, but she could use the extra lab time to work on her personal research. Maybe then, she would have discovered something. Hermione yawned; life would be so much easier if she could use a time turner in the muggle world.
One thing Hermione knew, she needed to talk to her best friend. Hermione headed straight toward the Auror's office and bypassed through the security with ease.
Hermione knocked on her best friend's office door, and she entered when she heard her friend answered.
"The meeting was a total and absolute failure," Hermione said as soon as she entered the room.
"Hello Hermione," Harry said, looking up from his desk. "It's nice to see you too."
"Of course, it's lovely to see you, Harry," Hermione said after realizing her faux pas. "I haven't seen you in a long time. How are the wedding plans going?"
Harry dropped his quill and invited Hermione to have a seat.
"The wedding plans are going along well," Harry said. "Everything is almost set up. We just need to figure out how many people are going."
"I thought this is going to be a simple ceremony?" Hermione asked.
"Well, we were initially planning it to be a simple ceremony," Harry said. "But then I realized exactly how many people I want to invite."
"How many people were you inviting?" Hermione asked.
"Well, …there's Dumbledore's Army, everybody in the Order of the Phoenix. Ginny thought it would be a good idea to invite everybody in the Holyhead Harpies. She also wants me to invite some of my friends in the Auror Department, so it will not be awkward that she brought her entire team while I did not bring any work-friends…"
"And you have to invite the entire Weasley clan, including Great Aunt Muriel," Hermione said.
Harry groaned in frustration, which made Hermione smile wryly.
It was almost surreal to talk with Harry about his wedding plans when just an hour ago she was worried about her schoolwork. If she chose to go straight to practicing magical medicine, would she have a boyfriend at this time? If things have gone differently, would she be planning a wedding alongside Harry, instead of worrying over presentations and exams?
Harry wiped his face and glanced up at Hermione.
"How about you, Hermione," Harry said. "What brings you here in the middle of the day?"
"You mean other than for our usual afternoon tea?" Hermione said jokingly, the last time they had tea together was months ago. Again, she mused at how different their lives now compared to a short time before.
Her muggle science classes were taking more time and energy than she would like. It would not make any sense if she traveled in between the wizarding world and the muggle world every day for afternoon tea.
"Are we starting afternoon teas again?" Harry asked.
"That would be absolutely lovely," Hermione said. "I wouldn't mind it if you start visiting me in between classes."
Harry smiled, knowing perfectly well that it would be impossible for him to sneak out the wizarding world in one lunch period without a time-turner.
"Well… since we're both here, might as well have a little tea break," Harry said.
Harry summoned his tea tray from the cupboard, filled the teapot with water, and heat up the teapot with one flick of the wand.
"So, how was your day so far?" Harry asked as he offered Hermione her cup of tea.
Hermione told Harry about the hard day she was having. The blank looks the minister and his secretaries gave her, her belief that Kingsley would not endorse her work. She worried that it would derail her plans. What if Hermione could not find enough sponsors to back her work? That would definitely hinder her research, and she might not finish everything in her 5-year plan.
"Don't beat yourself about it, Hermione," Harry said reassuringly. "It's just one meeting. You would have a lot of other opportunities to show the wizarding world the power of genetics."
"But you don't understand Harry," Hermione cried. "If I can't even make Kingsley, who actually likes muggleborns, to get excited over my work, how could I expect anybody else to support me? How could I convince other purebloods to donate to me?"
It was no secret that the purebloods hold most of the wizarding world's wealth. A quick ride to Gringotts vaults reveals that. The oldest pureblood families always had the biggest trunk. They had the most security, while the newer ones had the least protection.
Even though she hated to admit it, Hermione could not realistically begin a large research project in the wizarding world without any financial support from purebloods. Moreover, as England's most famous muggle-born, she's not precisely pureblood society's favorite person.
Thinking about it makes Hermione want to give up her giant dream. What was she thinking, starting a gigantic research project all on her own? Even muggle researchers had an entire team of behind their backs while working. All the while, it is just her…and Anthony, who knew only what she could teach him during her spare time. They could not possibly tackle a project as big as mapping out the entire magical world's sequence in such a small amount of time.
Hermione shook her head. Her research project has the potential to save many wizards and witches' lives as they have done in the muggle world. Who knew what genetic anomalies out there in the magical world, waiting for someone like her to discover?
Moreover, Hermione could finally find some answers. Her chart of veela traits she inherited was giving her more questions than answers. It seemed that the "veela gene" was not one specific genetic marker. Still, Hermione would not be surprised to learn that the genetic markers were closely located to each other. This only brought on more questions than answers for Hermione. What happened during her family's genetic history that resulted in her unique phenotype? Is one French Veela trait simply more dominant than the Greek Veela trait? Alternatively, did she have a mosaic genetic makeup?
Hermione became increasingly restless as she let the questions swirled in her mind. She knew that she could not give up her goals right yet. Not when she sacrificed so much time and energy going through university the second time around to find answers.
"You know that my vault is open to you if you ever need it," Harry said.
"No, Harry," Hermione said. "I can't just rely on your coppers alone for a project this big. I would end up using your entire vault and then some. Also, it would be unethical if one family supplies my entire budget. People could accuse me of bias and discredit my work. It would be much better if I could get an organization, a group of families, or even a department to fund me instead. "
Besides, Harry was marrying Ginny soon. As much as Hermione appreciates her friend's support, she could not, in good conscience, take money from the Potter family vault when Harry was about to start a family.
"If I could interrupt right here," A deep voice originating from the door said.
Harry and Hermione turned their attention to a handsome dark-skinned man at the door Hermione recognized as Blaise Zabini. She remembered Blaise Zabini from her Hogwarts years, as the quiet statuesque Slytherin on their year. He was gorgeous, undoubtedly, but his association with blood supremacists and his statement that he "doesn't date blood traitors" made Hermione warry of associating with him.
Thankfully, Hermione never had a chance to bump into the beautiful former Slytherin. He was not active during the war, not like her. They did not correctly run around in the same circles, despite Professor Slughorn's plans to create a network of high achieving and well-connected students. Nor were they involved in the same field.
Hermione could not think of any reason why Zabini would have any business with her. Therefore, he must be here on official business with Harry. After all, they were in Harry's office.
"I'm sorry for disturbing your little tea time," Zabini said with a bored drawl. "But, I'm told to deliver this folder to Potter."
He handed Harry with a folder overfilled with papers. It might be a crucial case.
"Well, hello there, Miss Granger, I haven't seen you in a while," Zabini said.
Hermione found it odd that Zabini was directly talking to her.
"I do believe that it has been a while, Mr. Zabini," Hermione said. "How have you been?"
"I've been well," Zabini said. "I would ask how have you been in turn, but I couldn't help but overhear that you are having trouble financing a project."
Hermione was surprised and suspicious of where their conversation was heading. Finances were not precisely the first thing you talk to someone you barely knew.
"Oh, it's nothing to worry about," Hermione said. "I'm just a bit behind on my timeline for this research project, and I'm just overreacting."
Harry stopped going through the file folder to raise his eyebrow at her, but Hermione ignored him. Instead, she observed as Zabini smirked at her.
"I heard that the brightest witch of our time has a new project," Zabini said. "Some of my colleagues just assumed that you were traveling around the world curing diseases when you disappeared right after receiving your healer license."
"Traveling the world does sound exciting," Hermione agreed. "But I've been exploring muggle libraries in London instead."
"Well, no wonder you are not making progress on your project," Zabini said. "I highly doubt that muggle libraries would be more complicated than Lavender Brown's personal library."
Hermione rolled her eyes while Harry shook his head.
"Actually," Hermione said in the haughtiest voice she could muster. "I'm trying to create a research proposal on magical genetics to see if we could apply muggle principles to magical diseases the magical community has yet to answer."
Zabini opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish as Harry smirked at her. Hermione straightened her posture as she continued.
"Muggles have taken strides to cure and figuring out diseases. They also managed to predict the chances of a couple passing along genetic traits like height and eye color as well as finding out the chances of developing diseases in later life just by gathering the parent's cheek swabs. Meanwhile, the magical community is still fixated on…blood."
Harry shot a shit-eating grin at Zabini's flabbergasted face. Meanwhile, Hermione grabbed her teacup and took a sip.
"The magical community is a bit archaic with its thoughts on genetics," Hermione said. "I just thought that it would be beneficial for the magical community to learn a thing or two from muggles."
Harry closed the file folder and handed it back to Zabini.
"Thanks for a visit," Harry said. "But tell the Department of Mysteries that we have already gone through these case files."
"I don't know Potter. I'm just the messenger," Zabini said. He turned towards Hermione, "I hope to see you again soon, Ms. Granger."
Hermione left Harry's office, refreshed. It was nice catching up with Harry, but it was also lovely to give a Slytherin blood supremacist a good talking to, even if it was a just Zabini. Inevitably, she had to finish teatime with Harry when she had to go back to the lab while Harry had to go back to work.
On her way out of the building, she entered the Ministry's elevator, where Zabini shortly joined her along with a short, slim older man with a wiry mustache and wise eyes.
"Ah, there you are," Zabini said upon seeing her again. "Minister Podadera and I were just talking about magical genetics."
Hermione did not know what game Zabini was playing at. Still, she decided to keep her mouth and watch as Zabini and Minister Podadera join her in the elevator.
"Ms. Granger here was explaining to me earlier her plans to create a new field in the healing field," Zabini said. "Ms. Granger had been studying the muggle art of predicting a child's traits."
Minister Podadera listened politely as Hermione glares at him.
"Ms. Granger over here made this point that muggles can predict a child's hair color or even height just by swabbing the parent's cheeks," Zabini explained. "Just imagine, knowing what your baby would look like before it's even born."
"That is very interesting," Minister Podadera said. "But I don't see how the Department of Magical Sports and Games would be interested in Ms. Granger's schooling."
This surprised Hermione. What was Zabini doing?
"Ms. Granger's schooling is interesting and all, but that is not the most exciting part of my conversation with Ms. Granger," Zabini said before giving Hermione a smirk. "Ms. Granger is planning to start a research project to see if the things she learned in the muggle world would apply to this world."
Minister Podadera scoffed.
"That's an amusing idea, Mr. Zabini," Minister Podadera said. "However, I still don't see how muggle methods would have any effects on magical folks like us."
Was he serious? Hermione thought.
"I know for a fact that genetics works in every living thing," Hermione said. "And I know this from experience. With all due respect Minister Podadero, I have been studying magical plants during my spare time. I discovered that magical plants use the same biological material found in muggle plants, animals, and even muggles.
"All living things use the same 'alphabet' to create the millions of living creatures we have in this world," Hermione said. "With that information, muggles were able to prevent and cure disease. They created a medicine that could make a child grow up taller and sharper than any of their parents. Muggles already did most of the hard work. I just want to use the same technology to cure wizarding diseases like lycanthropy.
"There are wizards, good wizards, with lycanthropy like my old professor Lupin who are refusing to have children because they believe that they would pass on the curse. Who knows, we may found a way to suppress lycanthropy in the womb."
The elevator door ringed and opened, welcoming in ministry employees who were unaware of what just happened. Minister Podadera left the lift, and Zabini followed him.
Hermione leaned back against the wall, feeling defeated somehow. That was another government official who would not back up her project. Not that she wanted the Department of Magical Sports and Games to sponsor her research, but it hurt nonetheless.
A few days later, Hermione received an owl from Zabini as she was busy reading her heavy textbooks in the King's College library. She spotted the barn owl sitting on the ledge of the university library with a letter attached to its leg. Hermione abandoned her workstation and ran outside to the darkest corner of the courtyard to avoid prying eyes.
Congratulations, Granger, it said.
Minister Podadera wants to schedule a meeting with you to talk about the possible use of muggle medicine in Magical folks. He is interested in sponsoring a study.
Sincerely,
B. Zabini.