A Knut to Start the Revolution
Chapter 5

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

Hermione Granger counted her lucky stars that she had parents who supported her talent and skills in magic, even if they were without the ability to use it themselves, as she was about to ask for a ride to Harry's house to visit with him to discuss his plans – his crazy, half-baked, yet oddly compelling plans. Minister for Magic, of all things! By contrast, reactivating the DA and creating some kind of elite squad within the illicit club was almost prosaic by comparison.

Her mother readily agreed and drove her over into Little Whinging. The drive only took about half an hour in the off-peak suburban London traffic.

They parked some ways down the road, then walked up to the house which Hermione deduced had to be Number Four Privet Drive. She critically regarded the house that sat before her. It was exactly like every other in the area, as though it had been produced from some kind of standardised mould, like ball bearings or car crankshafts from a steel works. The street, like every single other, was utterly, completely, absolutely dreadfully pedestrian and boring. It was perfect, though, for people with all the imagination of concrete pavement.

Like the Dursleys.

For the first time, Hermione viscerally appreciated just how much her friend's relatives disliked anything that departed from their round-peg-in-a-round-hole world, and she pitied Harry all the more for it. Not that she would ever tell him, as she knew how sensitive the young wizard was about his home life.

Without further ado, she and her mother walked up to the front door and rang the bell.

/\/\/\

Harry Potter was reviewing his Defence books that Hermione had gotten him when he heard the doorbell ring. As he had no idea about who it could be, he cautiously went down the stairs, and peeked through the security eyepiece in the door. To his surprise, it was Hermione herself, along with a woman that must be her mother. Still slightly stunned, he yanked the door open and said, "What incident made us friends?"

The bushy-haired girl seemed taken aback somewhat, before she replied, "It was when a rather ugly troll tried to attack me, and you and Ron came and saved me."

Her mother turned a rather astonished glance to Hermione, who blushed and said, "Mum, I explained this to you before, remember?"

Harry, realising that Hermione's parents probably still were unused to the notion of such beings and beasts as existed in the magical world, tried to smooth things over by saying, "Yeah, it was all over really quickly, honestly, Mrs Granger."

"I must say there are times when I still have trouble grasping the world that my daughter inhabits, but you seem like a nice enough young man. But are you one of those kind that thinks we're inferior, or something like that? Hermione wrote home once about how a horrid boy named Dragon something or other used a foul word to describe her."

Hermione looked scandalised, and Harry firmly replied, "Absolutely not, Mrs Granger. I have lived in this world, the Muggle world, just as much as Hermione did for the first eleven years of her life, and my parents, in fact, were murdered because they were targets of the man who held those kinds of beliefs. You won't find me casting aspersions on anyone Muggle except my relatives, but that's purely personal."

Hermione's Mum said, "Well, I had to make sure. John and I know so little about this world, so I had to make sure. I'm sorry if I upset you. My name's Elizabeth, by the way."

Harry smiled and shook hands. "It's good to meet you, um, Elizabeth?"

"It's okay to call me that. In any case, shall I assume Hermione is safe here?"

Harry replied, "Absolutely. I don't fully understand it myself, but there are protections of a magical type here that will prevent me from being harmed by those like that bloke Draco Malfoy Hermione probably wrote to you about."

Elizabeth nodded and said, "I'll have to take your word for it. Hermione, shall I come back for you or would you prefer to take a taxi?"

Hermione thought for a moment and said, "I'll take a taxi. I could be here for quite a while."

Elizabeth reached into her purse, handed Hermione some money and said, "That's fine, honey. Take care, both of you."

Harry and Hermione both waved as Mrs Granger drove off down the road.

Harry ushered Hermione inside the house and shut the door. He grinned broadly, saying, "Come on upstairs; I've got some news for you!"

Hermione was never one to be able to refrain from indulging her curiosity as she asked, "What happened?"

He smirked as he led her upstairs. "I'll show you my room."

Hermione seemed puzzled, until Harry threw open the door and showed his magically-expanded bedroom. For some moments, she looked gobsmacked, before saying a little shrilly, "Oh my God! Harry! You did magic! I can tell; the room looks out of proportion to the rest of the house, and your bed is a near replica of the bunks in Gryffindor Tower. How come you haven't been served notice of a trial yet?"

Her bespectacled friend picked up his waiver, and showed it to the girl, who gasped and reached out to hug him.

"This is fantastic!" she told him, "I always thought it was so unfair that Muggleborns couldn't do magic at home while purebloods and even half-bloods in wizard houses can get away with just about any magic performed as long as there's an adult nearby."

Harry nodded in agreement, adding, "It's great. I wrote to Madam Bones and she had that sent back, no questions asked. Dumbledore even told her I should have gotten a waiver like this after fourth year. How about that, eh? Of course, that idiot Fudge never would have allowed it, especially after he decided I was a crackpot raving lunatic for saying Voldemort came back.

"Anyway, Hermione, what brings you here? Not that I'm upset, mind."

The girl sat primly on his bed as he sprawled comfortably in his transfigured chair.

"As you asked," she informed him, "I have done research on exactly how wizarding elections work.

"First of all, the Minister for Magic is chosen by the Wizengamot under normal circumstances. Minister Fudge, for example, stood for election after Minister Bagnold retired about six years ago. Multiple candidates can stand for election, and in such a case the candidate with the highest number of votes is chosen. If only one candidate stands, that person must be voted on with a 'yes' or 'no'. In that case, fifty percent plus one of the Wizengamot must approve. If that fails, an interim Minister for Magic must serve. Traditionally Ministers for Magic, whether fully elected or interim, have tended to come from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Minister Fudge was an exception, as he was in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes.

"Impeaching an existing Minister for Magic requires a petition before the Wizengamot. To be successful, the petitioner must state his or her case before the entire Wizengamot, and the current Minister for Magic is allowed to rebut any allegations brought up in the course of proceedings. Impeachment and subsequent removal must be approved by sixty-six percent of the Wizengamot.

"Since the full Wizengamot has fifty people, then thirty-three members of the Wizengamot must vote in favour of your petition. Incidentally, an impeached Minister for Magic can run for the position in a subsequent election. So even if you have Fudge removed, he could run against you and regain his office.

"The Wizengamot may also choose to convene and remove a Minister for Magic even without a petitioner, in which case there is no hearing; a vote is taken and, in that case, the situation is likely so severe that only a fifty percent plus one majority is needed."

"My suggestion to you is that you avoid the perception of attempting to 'take over', by working behind the scenes to remove Fudge. Since you appear to be on good terms with Madam Bones, and additionally, Headmaster Dumbledore has been reinstated to Chief Warlock, you should write to them both suggesting they convene and remove Fudge. Your only problem is that they may wonder why you are taking such a keen interest in removing the man."

It took Harry some minutes to fully digest and arrange all of her information, but when he felt reliably unconfused again, he said, "I like your ideas, Hermione. I'll write to Madam Bones, but not Dumbledore. She can suggest to Dumbledore that he convene the Wizengamot, and rush through a motion for dismissal of the Minister for Magic. Once the elections are scheduled, I'll put my name in at that point.

"Now, considering that elections are decided by the Wizengamot, it almost seems a waste to try campaigning in front of the general public – not that I'm complaining that much as it means I don't need to make speeches or shake hands with thousands of people."

Hermione smiled slightly and said, "Sorry, Harry, but I still think it would be a good idea to campaign publicly."

Over his groan, she continued briskly.

"Look. If the Wizengamot members think you have a fairly solid backing from the population as a whole, it seems reasonable that they might not want to vote against you, on the grounds that it would be easiest to take the path of least resistance."

Harry mulled that over for a few moments, before grudgingly admitting the soundness of her idea. He still hated the notion of standing in front of people, speaking about… what? He had no idea what kind of 'political platform' he should have. Quite frankly it seemed like such common sense – Remus Lupin was a werewolf, and surely there had to be other werewolves like him, and it was hardly fair to subject them to all sorts of arbitrary laws. Then there was Hermione's situation – why should Muggleborns be handicapped by purebloods intent on entrenching their privilege?

Harry finally spoke up again. "Hermione, I'm wondering – what's the name for the political ideas you and I have about the wizarding world, anyway? I mean, it seems straightforward, doesn't it? We want equality for Muggleborns and we don't like pureblood arrogance, and we don't like laws that keep people like Professor Lupin from getting good jobs. But I have no idea what that's called."

Hermione grinned; it seemed like she had hit the mother lode as she said, "Harry, you have just described what the Americans in particular call a populist. You, Harry Potter, are the wizarding world's populist."

The word seemed to strike a chord within Harry as he mused, "What about a slogan? How would we say whose side we're on?"

"It should be really simple. Everything you say or discuss should be gotten across in as simple a manner as possible. People will remember what you say more, if they don't have to remember much of it. I would just bet that Fudge will have grand speeches about bettering the wizarding world, et cetera, ad nauseam. You can respond with a simple broadside: 'Since when is it bettering the wizarding world to deny the return of You-Know-Who?'"

Harry grinned; he was really starting to like where things were going.

"And for your campaign slogan," Hermione added, "I've got the perfect idea! Because almost anyone who knows you knows what you generally think about the way the wizarding world works, all you have to do is have on all your campaign material, 'On Your Side'. And you just keep hammering away with that message to all the werewolves, vampires, house-elves, centaurs, Muggleborns and half-bloods. Here's another one: 'Fudge wants to keep letting purebloods help themselves to more privilege at your expense. Harry Potter thinks they can take care of themselves. He's on your side.'"

Harry savoured that, saying, "I like it. I definitely like it."

The two went on for some time, batting around some campaign ideas. The only minor issue that Harry had yet to tackle was how to get legal emancipation, if such a concept existed.

/\/\/\

Meanwhile, Remus Lupin was sitting in the spare room at Grimmauld Place, re-reading Harry's letter. Unfortunately, the full moon had fallen on the same day as the day Harry's letter arrived, so he had been in no shape to go visit the boy. The transformation had been worse than usual, and he knew it had to do with losing Sirius Black. Again. Permanently, this time.

Now that he was recovered, he decided to write back. Sirius had been a friend, brother and father rolled into one for the boy; while Remus knew he could never be quite like Sirius, he could at least try for a sort of 'uncle' role. He'd always been the most mature of the Marauders, anyway.

Dear Harry, he wrote,

I have recovered from the full moon transformation, and can respond to your letter now. I'd be glad to visit you and talk if you need to. I miss Sirius as well, and it would be good to remember some of the good times we had. I may be visiting in any case, but I haven't been informed of that. If I have not been sent over for other reasons, I will visit on my own. Let me know if you have any particular time or date preferences.

Remus Lupin.

Remus didn't want to make it too widely-known that the Order had people patrolling the Privet Drive area, especially when owl correspondence was not secure. He wondered if Harry had been given the mate to the two-way mirror Sirius had, which had been left on the desk in his bedroom when Sirius had been taking care of Buckbeak.

Remus had wondered why Sirius had never mentioned using that mirror, and thought that perhaps Harry didn't know the significance of a small hand mirror. He made a mental note to check into that when he visited Harry.

He wished he'd kept in better touch with the boy, but travelling around Britain and Europe, trying to negotiate with werewolf clans was an exhausting, thankless task, especially when one day out of the month he transformed, followed by at least a day's worth of recovery time. If it hadn't been for the stipend Dumbledore had wangled out of Order funds, he'd be dead-flat broke. Sirius had never pushed his wealth in Remus' face, and had confined himself to subtly trying to get the werewolf better clothes, and insisting that he stay at Grimmauld Place for as long as necessary, for which Remus had been thankful; he just never liked knowing a lot of what he had in life came from some form of charity, rather than any work he did on his own.

He just hoped the universe was nice enough to grant second chances. He would need them with Harry.

Author Notes:

Thanks go to Maddevillechilde for the beta work on the original version of this. :) I added a segment because I thought it rather unlikely that a girl's mother would drop her off to see a friend, sight unseen, when she had never met that person before.

As always, I welcome concrit. Please let me know how you think I'm doing. :)