OK, probably should have covered this before but I guess I thought that the same people are reading my stories and therefore would understand my worlds. In this Magical Britain, existing titles can be allocated to another or taken away and houses can be made Noble or lose their status according to this. While women are generally held subservient to men in this world, when the wife is granted a title (eg Andi), the status is applied to the house (Ted would be Lord Tonks but not Baron Tonks). For the most part, these titles are Baron/Baroness or Earl/Countess, as these were what existed when most of the titles were granted.
The structure of the Wizengamot and the Aristocracy that rules Magical Britain goes from Noble and Most Ancient (the seven houses which have held their titles since before the Normal Conquest) down. Next is Noble and Ancient, the houses which gained their titles after the Norman Conquest but before Magical Britain was created around 1500, then Noble, houses that gained titles after 1500, Minor, the lesser gentry (baronets and the like), families with no titles or status and foreign houses, which also have no status in the structure of Magical Britain.
There are fifty seats in the Wizengamot because that was how many Noble Houses existed in Magical Britain when it was created, but there are around two hundred titles and another three hundred Baronets, Lairds and the like. In voting, an Earl's title has four votes, a Baron two, and a Baronet, Laird etc one. House seniority also applies, so the votes of a Noble and Most Ancient House are multiplied by two, and one and a half for a Noble and Ancient House. This is all managed by the magic of the Wizengamot voting system.
NB: If anyone's wondering why my stories seem to change over the first hour or so after they go up, it's because I generally spend that hour proof reading and trying to fix the errors I find.
Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.
The Ministry Betrothal Scandal marked the beginning of open hostilities between the Potter Alliance and Minister Fudge's faction. It also marked the beginning of Fudge's decline, because it triggered a shift in both the Wizengamot and popular opinion. A number of old Pureblood houses defected from the traditionalist camp to join the neutral factions after the Wizengamot session where the Chief Witch forced them to open their eyes and accept the fact that being Purebloods would not be enough to protect them if Minister Fudge decided that they were in the way of what he wanted.
Xeno took what was a new approach in Magical Britain to sway popular opinion on the matter, he just laid out the facts and offered people the chance to check them, and then decide for themselves what they wanted to believe. The way the usage of the Heritage Protection Act was shown to be in conflict with the actual wording of the Act, the blatant targeting of Fudge's opponents and the obvious intent for those closest to Fudge to take the power and wealth of those being targeted, and the fact that a notable number of traditionalist houses changed sides and voted with the Potter Alliance's camp to abolish the Act when the blatant misuse of the Act was exposed were telling arguments.
The fact that the Wizengamot's demand for the documentation showing why the Heritage Protection Act was activated outside of a time of war and how the houses had been selected to be part of the Ministry betrothal orders was met by nothing more than Minister Fudge's Assistant turning up and trying to order the Wizengamot to support the Minister's actions without question did not show the Minister in a good light either. Xeno had diverged a little at this point to explain that the Ministry was in fact an offshoot of the governing body of Magical Britain, the Wizengamot. He further explained that the Wizengamot had grown out of the Wizards' Council, which in turn was a development of the Druids' Council that had directed and protected the magical people of Britain since before Merlin's time.
Reading a factual account that explained how the Ministry was merely an administrative body that had been formed by the Wizengamot around seventeen hundred to carry out the directions of the Wizengamot, and that the Minister For Magic was in fact selected by the Wizengamot was an eye opener for many people. When they asked their children who were now learning the real History of Magic about this, they were directed to the old and established history books that they in turn had been directed to by their teacher to see the facts themselves. Flourish and Blotts and Tomes and Scrolls did quite a good trade in history books in the weeks that followed the Ministry Betrothal Scandal.
While the majority of people were still blindly following the Ministry, because that was how they had been raised, many were starting to question the motives and actions of the Ministry, now that they were being presented with the facts and told. 'See for yourself.' The question of how the Ministry could believe that it had any right to order the governing body of the wizarding world to shut up and do as it was told was on an increasing number of lips as the people of Magical Britain began to open their eyes.
Just as this was happening, Xeno threw his second kneazle into the chicken coop. The law that Fudge and Dumbledore had pushed through the year before to allow the Ministry to usurp any wills that may exist and seize the assets of a house that lost its last member before they reached their majority had been a well kept secret outside of the Wizengamot and the Ministry, and even there few who hadn't been involved in its creation and being passed into law knew about it.
This meant that when Xeno published the particulars of the second law that the Wizengamot had abolished that day, there was an uproar. Many were quite rightly seeing this as a secret plan to take everything that families that had been laid low by the war had left. Xeno made a point of contrasting this law with the Heritage Protection Act, as they both focussed on houses that only had one living member left. The obvious difference was that the intent of the Heritage Protection Act had been to forcibly save houses that were at risk of dying out, whereas the apparent intent of this law was to finish them off and take whatever they had.
Xeno finished these articles with two open questions for Minister Fudge, given that Albus Dumbledore, the other principal in bringing this law in, was currently unreachable in Azkaban. The first question related to what the purpose and intent of bringing this law in last year had been, given that there were no documents on record which explained this. The second related to the timing of getting this law passed. Why was this law brought in nine years after the war had finished? And was it connected in any way to the fact that the last member of the fabulously wealthy Potter family had been about to come out of hiding for the first time since he'd been spirited away after his parents were murdered?
The Ministry's response to these final articles was swift and direct, in fact it was the most assertive anyone had ever seen Minister Fudge be. Within an hour of the morning paper going out, a group of Aurors burst into the Daily Prophet's offices and tried to drag Xeno off to some other undisclosed location.
Xeno mirror called Amelia the moment they burst into the offices and she ran to the Auror's office, to find the Head Auror gone. She grabbed Kingsley and a group of trusted Aurors and tried to floo to the Prophet's offices, only to find the floo access blocked. At that they apparated to the front door of the Daily prophet building (as they had implemented permanent anti-apparation wards over the building), just in time to meet Rufus Scrimgeour and a group of Aurors dragging Xeno Lovegood out.
Amelia ordered Scrimgeour and the other Aurors arrested, and to the credit of the Aurors who had come with her, they hardly hesitated before they complied. Xeno happily agreed to be taken into protective custody so they all went back to the Ministry. Scrimgeour and the Aurors were immediately questioned under Veritaserum while Amelia organised an emergency Wizengamot session. So was the witch in the Floo Network Authority office who had locked down the floo connections for the Daily Prophet offices, and her supervisor.
It took Fudge and his cronies a bit to connect the emergency Wizengamot session with Scrimgeour's failure to return with Xeno Lovegood, so the trial was well under way by the time that Fudge burst into the courtroom with Umbridge. Fudge was too shocked and confused to say anything when Madam Marchbanks smiled at him and said. "Oh Minister Fudge! This is fortuitous, we were just going to send someone to ask you and Miss Umbritch to come and answer a few questions."
Fudge couldn't do more than stare at her like the simpleton he was much of the time.
Umbridge was a little quicker on the uptake and she shrieked. "What is the meaning of this? Why are these Ministry officials being questioned while that criminal is free?"
Griselda made a point of looking around the chamber. "What criminal is that Miss Umbritch? The only ones facing criminal charges here are the ones who forcibly kidnapped a law abiding citizen, and their accomplices who illegally locked down the floo connections for that citizen's place of business. Oh yes, there may also be criminal charges against those who gave the orders for these actions, but we haven't gotten that far yet."
With that she directed Amelia to resume the questioning under Veritaserum. When Umbridge ordered them to stop, Griselda signalled the chamber guards, who bound and silenced her again, just as they had during the betrothal hearing.
Fudge tried to tell them that they couldn't do that and demand that she and the others be released, but he shrivelled up when Griselda fixed him with a piercing stare. "Minister Fudge, I strongly recommend that you stop trying to interfere with the proceedings of this trial and take a seat. As I said when you entered, without showing any respect to the governing body of Magical Britain I must add, we were about to call you to answer to your part in these people's actions. If the rest of those being questioned corroborate the first testimonies, you and Miss Umbritch may be facing charges as well, for ordering the illegal kidnapping of a citizen of Magical Britain who has done nothing wrong, let alone illegal. There is also the separate matter of ordering the illegal restriction of the floo connections to the Daily Prophet offices. So once again, I suggest that you sit down and shut up before I legally order you bound and silenced to prevent you interrupting these proceedings any further."
Fudge shut up and meekly followed the directions of the chamber guards after that.
As the Aurors and Floo office witches were questioned, it came out that the person who was the most culpable was Umbridge, because she was the one who had actually told Dawlish, Scrimgeour and the Supervisor of the Floo Network Authority office to lock down the floos for the Daily Prophet and grab Xeno. Because none of the witnesses had actually heard Fudge say any of this, they had nothing that they could actually charge him with. Umbridge, however, was in the hot seat for ordering these crimes.
She testified under Veritaserum that Fudge had wanted the Daily Prophet shut up about this business of the laws that had been abolished and the betrothal issue. While they managed to force Fudge to submit to questioning under Veritaserum and he admitted to saying that however, they were hampered by the fact that they had to play by the rules, so their questions had to be restricted to the matter at hand and they couldn't question him about the background issues, so once he testified under Veritaserum that he hadn't said anything more than that he wanted that damned man shut up, they had to release him from the Veritaserum.
While they couldn't pin anything on Fudge though, they had Umbridge's testimony that she'd orchestrated and given the orders for the crimes, so there was nothing that Fudge could do to protect her. As they knew of many actions that she'd gotten away with in the past by being under Fudge's protection, Harry pushed through Andi for the Wizengamot to give her the most severe sentence they could for her actions here, five years in Azkaban. She was of course terminated from the Ministry and given a lifetime ban from ever holding any position with the Ministry or doing any business with the Ministry. Fudge tried to argue against this until Griselda suggested that they put her under Veritaserum again and ask her everything she'd done for him, he quickly shut up at that.
Scrimgeour, Dawlish, the Supervisor of the Floo Network Authority office and the three Aurors who Dawlish had brought with him were also terminated from the Ministry and given a lifetime ban from ever holding any position with the Ministry or doing any business with the Ministry. This was because they had acted on illegal orders from people who had no authority to give them without first checking with the proper authorities. They had each been put back under Veritaserum and questioned about other times that they had accepted illegal orders this way and there were enough instances to support the lifetime bans for all of them.
Griselda called Amelia forward and quietly told her what Harry had said about wanting to get Scrimgeour out of that office and the Ministry, and his recommendation of Kingsley as the best man for a trusted position of that nature. Amelia looked thoughtful as she quietly thanked Griselda and went to have a word with Kingsley, after which she went back to the prosecutor's table and addressed the bench. "Madam Chief Witch, may I raise a matter which needs to be addressed in a timely manner?"
"Of course Madam Bones, please proceed."
"Thank you Ma'am. The dismissal of Rufus Scrimgeour as the Head Auror has left a critical hole in my Department. The Head Auror plays a critical role in the most important activities of my department and leaving this office vacant would therefore negatively impact our operations. I therefore request permission to promote Senior Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt to the position of Head Auror, effective immediately, so that he can take over the role and manage our Aurors."
Griselda nodded. "This appears a prudent action. Minister Fudge, do you have any comment on this proposal?"
"What? No, I mean that Mister Shacklebolt is a fine Auror and I am sure he will be a credit to the position and the Department."
"Thank you Minister Fudge. I hereby call for a vote on whether to approve Senior Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt to the position of Head Auror."
The vote was almost unanimous, as there was no-one else in position to challenge Shacklebolt and his reputation was well known. Not to mention that going against it would raise questions about the agendas of anyone who did. Griselda congratulated Kingsley on his new role and gave him a vote of confidence that he would uphold the requirements of the role capably, and with honour. The look that Scrimgeour gave Kingsley as he was escorted from the room promised that they would be having words at some later date, but Kingsley just smiled at him, he'd been friendly to the man, but they were hardly friends as he wasn't part of Scrimgeour's inner circle so he didn't really care what the man thought.
Dawlish and two of the other Aurors were taken away and it was flagged that Umbridge would most probably be brought back for further questioning as a result of what had come up in their responses to their questioning. What had come out appeared to indicate involvement in far more serious crimes than the morning's kidnapping attempt.
The other Aurors and the witch who actually locked down the Daily Prophet's floos were allowed to return to work after they testified under Veritaserum that they had received their orders from their direct superiors and that they had never accepted any orders of this nature from anyone outside their line of command. They were sanctioned for failing to question the dubious nature of their orders, but that didn't go further than a notation on their records.
Fudge proved yet again that he wasn't the sharpest, because he tried to tell Griselda that they had no right to mandate Ministry processes when the Wizengamot officially ordered that from now on, orders to Department of Magical Law Enforcement personnel could only come from the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Any orders received for DMLE operations from any other parties, up to and including the Minister for Magic and the Chief Witch or Wizard of the Wizengamot, were forbidden to be actioned and must be reported to the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement immediately.
They also mandated that, due to the demonstrated criminal nature of the activities that could be carried out via the Floo Network Authority, this office was hereby to be transferred into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and moved to the Level Two with the rest of the DMLE. The personnel in the office would thereafter be bound by the same controls as applied to the rest of the department.
When Fudge spoke up, he was forcibly reminded that the Ministry of Magic was an administrative body of the Wizengamot, and therefore it was under their authority. He was further reminded that the illegal orders of that morning had came out of his office, and therefore he would do well to avoid doing anything which may prompt a full investigation into all orders that had come out of his office. He started sweating as he remembered that as the Wizengamot had put him into this position, they could just as easily remove him from it. At that he agreed that they were quite right, and apologised for momentarily forgetting that the Wizengamot's duties included oversight of the Ministry of Magic.
It was a cowed Cornelius Fudge who shuffled back to his office once the Wizengamot session finished. Things had been bad enough when those damned articles had come out this morning, but it was so much worse now! He'd lost Delores, Madam Smith in the Floo office, Scrimgeour, Dawlish, and the rest of the people who he'd relied on to do what had to be done. If they got much out of Delores, Dawlish and the others he'd be finished, but thanks to that order that had automatically gone out to everyone in the DMLE as soon as it was passed, none of the people he had left in there would do anything to shut them up. He just knew from the look Lovegood gave him before he left that there would be another front page article in the Daily Prophet about this morning's activities too.
Kingsley waited for Harry to come down from his box and put his hand on his shoulder, quietly saying. "I hear that I have you to thank for my promotion Harry."
Harry shook his head as he answered. "No Kingsley, everyone knows that you're the right man for the job."
Kingsley laughed quietly. "That's debatable, but what I know is that Madam Marchbanks told the boss that you told her two nights ago that you wanted Scrimgeour out and that you would be trying to convince her to put me in the job when he was gone because we needed someone who could be trusted in that role. I think you might have to stop arguing against being a seer Harry, because once again, exactly what you said has come to pass."
Harry grinned at him. "Maybe that's because I just said what everybody knows?"
Kingsley laughed again. "I don't think so Harry, but thanks."
The family all departed separately, but they met up at Black House for a celebration of the fact that they had managed to do something about Umbridge, Scrimgeour, the Floo office and Dawlish and his bent Auror mates so quickly.
When they got there, Amelia pulled Harry aside and quietly asked. "So, how many of those problems you told us about in my Department still exist Harry?"
Harry looked at her and quietly said. "In your department? I can only think of the way the Improper Use of magic office targets Muggleborn students Ma'am, but there are plenty of other problems in the Ministry yet."
She smiled sadly at him. "We can't fix everything at once Harry. Thanks to your and Hermione's help though, I think we've done more in four months than was done in the last few decades. We're making a difference, and that because of you to a large degree."
Amelia stopped and cast a privacy spell over them. "Griselda also mentioned that you also had another very good suggestion for a major position down the track, but she said that I'd have to ask you about that one. Would you care to share that with me?"
Harry looked at Madam Marchbanks, but she was looking totally unrepentant as she returned his gaze. He turned back to Amelia. "Arthur, for Minister."
That made Amelia gasp, but after her initial shock she looked thoughtful. "Yes, I can see why Griselda was so excited about that one. I think I understand, but could you explain the 'down the track' comment please?"
"From this time and the last, I know that Arthur has the intelligence, integrity and conviction to lead Magical Britain in the direction it needs to go better than anyone else in the Ministry, except you perhaps but I think I agree with you that you're better where you are. The problem is that while most people's impressions of Arthur are changing, they haven't forgotten the ineffectual joke they all saw him as while he was under Molly's potions and Dumbledore's compulsions yet. That's why the more they see of the real Arthur, the man who sired the men that Bill and Charlie grew into and the twins are growing into, the better chance he will have of being accepted as the leader he can be. The other side of this was that we needed to get the people of Magical Britain to see Fudge for what he really is and accept the need to get rid of him, but that part's going rather well because of Xeno's articles. That's pretty much what I was thinking."
Amelia shook her head as she looked at him. "No matter how many times we're told otherwise, we keep thinking of you and Hermione as children Harry, but then you come out with something like this and remind us of how wrong we are to do that. Did I actually tell you that I didn't want the Minister's job?"
"No, but you turned it down when they wanted you to run for it and Sirius and Remus had told me before that that you weren't the type for that job."
She picked up on his upset as he said that. "What do you mean before Harry? Weren't they there when Fudge was kicked out?"
He glanced over at where Sirius was talking and said quietly, with his voice catching. "Remus was around at that time, but not talking to anyone, and Sirius was gone. He hadn't been taking Bellatrix Lestrange seriously enough when he was fighting her in the Department of Mysteries and he was thrown through the Veil of Death by a curse that she got past his defences in ninety six, just before Fudge was kicked out."
Amelia instinctively stepped forward to embrace him, wondering how many other despairs these two were hiding from the rest of them. She asked quietly. "How many of us died last time Harry?"
His voice was muffled by her robes but she could still hear him. "Most, Cedric was killed in ninety five by Wormtail because Voldemort told him to 'get rid of the spare' when he came with me to the graveyard where they did that ritual to give Voldemort another body. Then Sirius in ninety six, and you and Emmeline were killed not long after him. In ninety seven it was Alastor and Hedwig. In ninety eight it was Ted and Dobby, then Fred, and Remus and Dora. They had a little boy, Teddy, I was his godfather. You and Alastor were apparently killed by Voldemort, but the rest were killed by his Death Eaters. Hermione lost her parents too because she erased their memories of her and sent them to Australia to keep them safe from the Death Eaters. And in the end we lost everything because we were used up and killed for Dumbledore and Molly Weasley's plans."
She pushed him back to make him look at her, and they both had tears streaming down their faces as she said. "You two can't carry this yourselves! You have to let us share the load! But you know that you've prevented those deaths, you've stopped Voldemort and his Death Eaters and you've stopped Dumbledore and Molly Bloody Weasley as well. You! The two of you have come back and changed the world!"
The others could see them crying and came over to see what was wrong.
Amelia cancelled the privacy charms and shook her head at the questions. "Harry was telling me some of the things that happened to him, they were pretty awful."
She looked at Hermione and said quietly. "Look after him, but let us help you."
Hermione nodded, as she had a good idea of what they had been talking about from the way the two of them were reacting.
A few of them others asked Harry and Amelia what was going on, but they changed the subject whenever someone asked. When Harry and Hermione disappeared, leaving a note to say that they had gone back to Hogwarts, Amelia stopped the others going after them, instead telling them what Harry had told her.
She only left out the part about Remus and Dora having a child, partly because Narcissa was with Remus this time around and they were a good match, and partly because she was sure that Remus as he was now would be horrified at the idea having that type of relationship with a young girl who was little more than half his age and the daughter of his friends.
Amelia asked Harry and Hermione about Remus and Dora at a later date, and they explained how they had believed that Tonks had probably been a much harder character than Dora because she'd been used by men after she joined the Aurors. If that was the case, the idea of having sex with older wizards was probably something that she had had to get used to by the time she met Remus again nearly five years later in the last cycle and he was most likely a more attractive option than most wizards she'd been with. Amelia thought that that was as heartbreaking as hearing about the deaths that had been weighing on Harry and Hermione's consciences.
She also made a note to have Kingsley look into what was going on at the Auror Academy and on the job to make sure that young witches weren't being pressured into having sex with older wizards, or ones their own age for that matter. Hopefully they'd got rid of the worst of those types with the Death Eater and Voldemort supporter purge…. Then she thought about Dawlish and the other Aurors she'd gotten rid of with him and realised that they were probably the type to push young witches to have sex with them as well.
When Harry and Hermione got back to Hogwarts, they just crawled into bed and held each other. Alastor came back soon after them and told the others the gist of what had happened, making sure that Luna knew her father was fine, and told them to leave Harry and Hermione alone, saying that they'd come out when they were ready.
That night, in an attempt to get what Harry had told her about who had died off her mind, Amelia discussed what she'd gotten out of him before that with Arthur. At first Arthur argued against the idea, but she wore him down, using Harry's arguments and raising other points as well to show that it wasn't a silly idea at all, in fact it was a damned good one! When he had finally come around to accept that there may be some merit to the idea, they discussed some things that he could so to build up his image as Harry had suggested. By the time they finished, Arthur was starting to warm up to the idea.
At Amelia's suggestion, Arthur talked to Bill and Charlie about it and they were quite enthusiastic as well. One thing that Bill mentioned though that they agreed with was a valid point was that with this plan, it would be a good idea to keep their betrothal a secret for now. Neither of them wanted to cancel the betrothal, because they were enjoying exploring the idea of a life together, but knowledge of his betrothal to the Director of the DMLE would give the opposition ammunition to use against him if he campaigned for the Minister's position.
For that matter, the idea of having the Chief Witch, Minister for Magic, Director of the DMLE and Head Auror all in one camp would probably cause many in the Wizengamot to oppose him. So long as Arthur's link to Amelia wasn't known by them though, his connections to Griselda and Kingsley wouldn't be either, because she was the one who was known to have connections to the Chief Witch and the Head Auror, not him.
The students were still forging through their classes, but Harry and Hermione tended to study separately and generally only attended the tutoring sessions to keep up enough practical work to stay ahead of the rest of them. Most of their time was taken up with training with the Goblins, Alastor, or Tommy and Missy, and taking care of the business of their houses, because even with Andi and Cissi handling the Wizengamot and other external issues for them, managing seven houses between them took up a fair bit of time. Luckily the rest of them, including Dora, looked on the edge that they had over them as a challenge, and they therefore stretched themselves to try and catch up. This helped the other students keep up the pace of their learning.
There was another concern that was weighing on Hermione, her parents. She'd given them a viable excuse for why she couldn't come home for Christmas, saying that magic was harder than she'd expected so she had to put extra time in if she wanted to challenge the ones who'd been learning magic since they were little kids, but she couldn't see any way to make that work for the summer break. She was also worried about what their reaction was going to be when they saw her, so worried that she was considering staying under a glamour for the entire break. That wasn't her biggest problem though, that was the fact that the thought of being separated from Harry for two months or more was making her physically ill.
At first she had thought that she and Harry were communicating with each other like they did with their familiars by using their links through the familiars, but she realised pretty quickly that that wasn't it. No, they were directly connected. In fact, all the signs were pointing at something that she'd discounted as nothing more than a silly girls' fairy tale up until now, a soul bond. If she put aside her disbelief in fairy tales it made sense, neither she or Harry could get a good night's sleep unless they were sleeping together, only they could comfort each other when they were upset, being apart for more than a few three hours made both of them uncomfortable, and when they were together they boosted each other.
Harry had always been powerful, even before his family magics had removed the bindings that had been placed on his magic as an infant on the way to Hogwarts, he had been as powerful as most adults because his magic had been working almost non-stop for most of the ten years before he came to Hogwarts to heal the damage that was being done to him day in, day out by his 'loving family' while they were supposedly raising him. Because Dumbledore had placed bindings on his magic to reduce him to pretty much a squib, his magic had been constantly straining to heal him.
As they were taught though, the more magic is used, the more the user's capacity for magic grows, so what his 'loving family' had actually been doing by constantly abusing him had in fact been making him ever more powerful. When he accepted his titles as Head of House and his family magics were activated, those bindings had been stripped from him, so his capacity for magic increased many-fold and he was filled with magic. Ever since them, Harry had been pushing himself and continuing to grow his magic, and building his physical strength as well.
Hermione hadn't suffered the same abuse as Harry, but the constant bullying she had received from other children and being kept at a distance by her busy parents (even more so after she was proclaimed a witch because they couldn't understand that or work out how to relate to her) meant that her magic had stayed active as it kept trying to create a world where she could be safe and happy, so it had been building steadily for most of her life as well. When she accepted her family magics on the train, her capacity for magic was expanded, and like Harry, she had been pushing herself ever since, so it just kept growing.
But that was what they could do individually, one day they happened to cast a spell together and the results were astounding, because it was as if their magic had been multiplied by each other's instead of being added to each other's. They'd tested this numerous times since then and it had always had the same effect. They weren't sure what they could do with this phenomenon but there was no question that it was something of great power.
Hermione's fears about what would happen at the end of the school year were always on her mind, because she couldn't be separated from Harry, that was sure to have disastrous effects on both of them, but there was no way for them to be together if she went home to her parents. Even if she managed to get them to agree for Harry to stay with them though, there was no way that they'd ever let their twelve year old daughter have a boy sleeping in her bed, as that would offend their sense of propriety.
Her parents were very attached to their image of being successful, respectable, professional people, so they would never allow anything which might threaten that image, not even in the privacy of their own home! This had been best shown by the fact that out of the spiel that Professor McGonagall had given them when she came to their house, the part that they latched onto with relief was the bit about the fact that Hermione would not be allowed to practice any magic at home, because that meant that Hermione would not be able to do anything to let anyone that she was a witch and tarnish their image. No, she loved her parents, but she couldn't see any way that going home to her parents for the summer break could work for her, for them.
They also had Millie to worry about, because when she moved into the tower after the rape that they rescued her from, she was having nightmares nearly every night. The only thing that had stopped them was when Hermione and Harry let her share their bed. They were only expecting the nightmares to last a while and then she'd be OK, but it turned out that the nightmares weren't so much about the rape as what her father had been tormenting her with ever since she had been old enough to understand what he was talking about.
Her father had taken great delight in telling her what the men he was going to marry her off to would do to her in great detail, and that was what she saw whenever she tried to get to sleep, which invariably resulted in nightmares. This was why she had done whatever she could to make herself fat and unappealing, in hope that no-one would want her so that they wouldn't do those things to her. The sad thing was that the actual rape hadn't been as bad as the images that her father had put in her mind.
What they'd found though was that when she shared the bed with Hermione and Harry, she didn't have nightmares, because she felt safe and comfortable. That was why they'd come to a mutual agreement for the three of them to keep sleeping together. They didn't know whether Millie would be comfortable sleeping with Harry without Hermione, and none of them were really comfortable with the idea anyway, so that was another reason for Hermione not to spend the summer at her parents.
They could just tell her parents that she wasn't coming home, but that would almost certainly ruin her relationship with them, and she didn't want that. Minerva suggested that she could just tell Hermione's parents that she'd misled them, because once she joined the world of magic she wasn't coming back, not until she finished school anyway, but Hermione didn't want to upset them that way.
The solution that Hermione ended up agreeing to was a variation of the story she gave them at Christmas, mixed with what they were actually doing. Hermione was going to use the argument that she couldn't stop practising magic if she wanted to progress her studies, and as she couldn't do magic at home, that meant that coming home would stop her from progressing.
The variation on the theme that she was using was that she was going to share with them that Professor McGonagall, who was the Headmistress now, had agreed for her to join a fast track plan to allow her to compress her studies into fewer years so that she could finish her magical education earlier and wouldn't have to go back to the school. If she was to achieve this though, she couldn't take any breaks, she had to keep studying and practising her magic, and that was why she was going to Harry's Manor with a group of other students who were on the same fast track program for the summer. The witches and wizards running the program had said that they could bring her to see her parents on day visits, but she couldn't take breaks any longer than that without sabotaging her progression. She was fairly sure that she could sell them on that without too much trouble, especially with 'Auntie Minnie's assistance.
Hagrid surprised most who knew that he'd been cleared of the false charges and reinstated to take up his education again, because even with the bindings that Dumbledore had placed on him, it appeared that he'd managed to learn quite a lot over the years, and by the end of February, he'd caught up to Penny so he was looking set to do his OWLs at the end of the school year, which would have him working on his NEWTs for the next year, and maybe start working on his mastery in Care of Magical Creatures as well.
Having a proper, compatible wand made for him right after they got him cleared had shown even bigger results than Neville's new wand had, because the makeshift wand that he'd created out of the core from his own snapped wand and an umbrella had never really worked. It had been more of a placebo than a real wand, just something to try and force his magic through because he believed that he needed a wand to do magic.
While they were working on their education, most of the rest of the family in Britain were working in the political arena. Andi and Cissi played the Wizengamot like puppets, with the masterfully understated assistance of Augusta and Max, and support from the others. Harry and Hermione also attended sessions where they could so that they could fill the others in when they caught something that they'd seen in the last cycle. They were using Arthur to present their points where possible in an attempt to make the other Wizengamot members listen to him and start taking him seriously.
The traditionalist camp had become more desperate when a notable number of them defected after the revelations of the Wizengamot session for the Ministry Betrothal Scandal, but their efforts were often more amusing than worrying, at least they were when they were taking their lead from Fudge anyway because he actually believed that he held influence over the Wizengamot, all evidence to the contrary. While there weren't many major issues handled in this period, they did manage to stop some big ones.
What was probably their biggest triumph was when they got Umbridge, Dawlish and the other two ex-Aurors sent to Azkaban for life for the assassinations of Fudge's opponents that Umbridge had ordered, and Dawlish and the others had carried out. While they couldn't pin anything on Fudge for assassinations, the fact that they were done by those in his inner circle to get rid of his opposition ensured that he was tarred with the same brush in the eyes of many in the Wizengamot. It wasn't the fact that it was done, as this was part and parcel of their politics, it was the fact that he was stupid enough to trust people who were so incompetent that they got themselves caught that he was derided for. What made it so good though was that there was a positive reaction when Arthur called for a review of any laws that Umbridge had supported in the Wizengamot.
Harry and Hermione had a good idea of what Umbridge had been supporting, and sure enough what was dug up was a slew of questionable and rather vicious anti-muggle, half-breed and 'creature' laws that only the most fanatical Purebloods would have supported, though when Arthur was presenting these to the Wizengamot he made a point of commenting (as directed) that Umbridge was in fact a rather magically weak Half-blood, the daughter of a near squib and a muggle. This was enough to have the traditional Purebloods who had supported the amendments to these laws scrabble to distance themselves from them. They may have agreed with the sentiment at the time but there was no way that they would allow themselves to be associated with anything that was supported by something like that!
As a result of this, they managed to get nearly every law that Delores Umbridge had sponsored or supported abolished. The only one who argued against this was Amos Diggory, but this was more of a personal fight for him because he was determined that they had confounded his son to take him away from his family. Griselda was so amused by the altercation that broke out between Diggory and Kumar Patil after Diggory shouted that his son had been trapped into a betrothal with lewd witches of dubious blood and morals that she waved the chamber guards back and let them go.
The official Ministry representatives who were summoned to acknowledge on behalf of the Ministry that these laws had been abolished and that the instructions and practices of the Ministry in regard to any of these laws were to be immediately altered in accordance with this did not appreciate being required to make a formal oath that they would ensure that the Wizengamot's instructions were carried out. They were also dreading having to tell the Minister that the Wizengamot had instructed this.
As people who were doing Fudge's bidding, they probably weren't bright enough to understand that giving them direct instructions like this was specifically intended to make Fudge fly off in a rage and do something stupid. The Potter Alliance would have liked nothing better than to have Fudge come storming into the chamber and tell the Wizengamot that they couldn't tell the Ministry that they had to change all of their processes just because some inconsequential laws had been changed, let alone that they had to do it immediately, because this would have been a rather large nail in the coffin of Fudge's hopes of hanging onto his position as the Minister for Magic.
Unfortunately, whoever was controlling Fudge had apparently managed to hold him until he'd calmed down, because he didn't turn up to protest the instructions, and when they checked the next day, the rules and instructions had indeed been amended to comply with the new rules. Of course, having those rules in place wasn't enough to make the personnel in the relevant departments act on them, so the Wizengamot started making 'spot checks' of those departments at least two or three times a week.
There was no system in the Ministry of Magic to enforce the behaviour of its personnel, so they implemented one via the Wizengamot. They passed the laws to authorise 'Wizengamot Inspectors' to review Ministry operations and ensure that they were complying with all the necessary rules. When the Ministry personnel refused to do as instructed, the Wizengamot Inspectors were authorised to dismiss them, after two warnings had been given.
Using this, they started removing the hard liners before the first week was out, and when Fudge and his department heads started complaining that they had to get them back because they didn't have the personnel to cover the workload, Arthur had his opportunity to make a proposal. This proposal couldn't have worked without the Ministry whining that they did not have enough qualified Pureblood people to do the job, so the set up was perfect. As soon as they said that, Arthur had his opening to produce piles of applications from better qualified Half-blood and Muggleborn witches and wizards who had been rejected purely because they weren't Purebloods.
Griselda pretended that this was the first time she'd seen this and asked the Ministry representatives why these better qualified people hadn't been given the jobs that the old or ineffectual Purebloods had been holding down. When they tried to say that those other applicants hadn't been qualified for the positions they applied for, Griselda demanded that all of the applications be brought in for comparison.
With the evidence to prove that Ministry hires were purely made on the basis of blood status, the Ministry's arguments were quickly shot down, and Arthur proposed a new law that applicants to enter the Ministry and for promotions must be judged on qualifications alone, and blood status must be ignored in any applications. Between the Potter Alliance's influence and Arthur's rising status, that law was passed by quite a majority. As soon as it was passed, Fudge was summoned to the chamber to be informed that this would take effect immediately, and that the Wizengamot Inspectors would be monitoring all hiring and promotions proceedings until such a time as they were satisfied that the new rules were being complied with. It was obvious that Fudge wanted to rail against this, but someone obviously had him on a short leash because he held his tongue.
Within a month, the Ministry numbers were up, and most of the new hires were Half-Bloods or Muggleborns. It took Fudge and his cronies a while to discover that Amelia had authorised Kingsley to accept Auror applicants without a NEWT in Potions and add NEWT level Potions classes to the Auror Academy syllabus to allow them to meet the Auror entry requirements and rectify the Severus Snape's sabotage while he was Hogwart's Potions Master. When Fudge tried to take Amelia to task for this, she went toe to toe with him, saying that the reason that they had had so few Auror applicants was that a marked Death Eater had been allowed to deliberately sabotage the training and scores for students other than those in Slytherin, and then made the minimum score to be accepted for the NEWT level potions classes 'Outstanding'. Therefore, all they were doing, now that they had the funding to do so, was offering applicants a chance to gain their NEWT in potions while at the Auror Academy. Fudge backed down at that because his handlers signalled him to.
Questions that the new Ministry hires had been primed to ask of the Wizengamot Inspectors also led to the Wizengamot reviewing the structure of the Ministry of Magic. The traditionalists found that they couldn't come up with any plausible responses as to why the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes was a separate department, rather than part of the DMLE, when the incidents that they dealt with all came out of activities of the DMLE...
A more volatile question was why the liaison offices for magical beings such as Goblins and Centaurs and the Office of Misinformation, which dealt with liaising with the Muggle world on incidents that were too big to cover up, were all part of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures? Surely these, along with the Beings Division, anything to do with Centaurs, Merpeople or werewolves, and the Muggle Liaison Office as well for that matter, should be in their own department that was dedicated to the important matter of liaisons with other beings?
They also asked what in Merlin's name the Foreign Affairs and Sports Department was for, seeing as there were already departments for International Magical Co-operation and Magical Sports and Games.
When the Ministry was called to answer these questions, they couldn't. They tried to wave off the issues to do with the impact that bad relations with the Goblins or the Muggles could have on Magical Britain, until Wizengamot members started pointing out a few facts, like what would happen to Magical Britain if they suddenly had no money, which the Goblins controlled, or what did they think would happen if the Muggles got pissed off with the wizarding world and decided to do something about it with their three hundred thousand equivalents of Aurors or Hit Wizards?
Many denied that such a figure could be possible, so Alastor signalled the wizard who'd been keyed up to show pictures of the Soviet military might displays that they had liked to put on at the height of their power. Some of the Muggleborn and half-Blood witches and wizards recognised when and where the pictures were actually from, but they just smiled to themselves, because the images of Muggle soldiers as far as the eye could see, and rank upon rank of tanks and planes were certainly intimidating, and the Purebloods were staring at those images in shock and horror.
Of course, some still muttered that it was just Muggles, they could be handled easily enough, and Alastor smiled grimly as he stood and started heading down to the floor of the chamber, shooting a look over his shoulder to confirm that Sirius was coming too. Most of those in the chamber were looking in confusion at the strange walking stick Alastor was using, but those who knew anything about the Muggle military started grinning, because it was the British Army's L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle, the SLR. These were currently being phased out in favour of the shorter and lighter SA80, but parts of the Army were still using them, and many of the serious soldiers preferred the SLR as a more accurate and hard hitting weapon.
Once they got down to the floor of the chamber, Alastor had Sirius conjure dozen stone plinths and erect wards around them, then turned to call out. "Who can cast the strongest blasting hexes here?"
When there was no response, he prodded at their pride. "Come on laddies, this is your chance to impress the ladies with your prowess. Are none of you sure enough of your ability to come down here and help us with a demonstration?"
As expected, that got half a dozen wizards who fancied themselves as powerful to come down.
When Sirius had erected wards to protect the spectators and cast a protego shield in front of the plinths, Alastor told the wizards to do their best to destroy the plinths. After fifteen to twenty minutes, the exhausted wizards gave up, and none of the plinths had more than a few chunks knocked off of them.
Alastor sent them back to their seats and while he had Sirius renewing the protego charm he held up the rifle he'd been been using as a walking stick. "This is an older version of what all those Muggles were carrying. Some of the Muggle Army are still using these but they're all being replaced by something newer and better."
With that, he put the rifle to his shoulder and emptied the magazine into the plinths in less than a minute. When he was done, there was no more than a stump left of any of the plinths and he turned to face the assembled witches and wizards. "That is just what one man can do, their military machinery can do this!"
He nodded to the wizard again and he displayed images of towns and cities being obliterated by bombs, artillery barrages and missile attacks. When it was done, he looked around and went on.
"If we try to take on the Muggles, we will be wiped out! If we push the Goblins too far, we will have to go back to growing our own food and hope that the things we have will last until someone comes along to fix the situation for us. It's safe to say that if someone does have to come in and fix our mess for us, we'll lose just about everything. We can't afford to piss off the Muggles or the Goblins, and anyone who thinks we can is a fool. The Ministry needs to get its head out of its arse and accept what those young witches and wizards are saying as the plain, simple truth and act on it now, because if they bring our world down because they're too stubborn to accept the truth, well they better hope that the Goblins or the Muggles find them before I do!"
He started to stomp back up the stairs to his seat, but stopped and turned back. "By the way, you don't want to piss off the Centaurs either, because Centaur arrows can also get through those shields that most of those wizards couldn't!" With that he continued up to his seat.
The chamber was silent as Sirius cancelled the wards he'd erected and vanished the remains of the plinths before heading back to his box on the top tier.
Griselda managed to keep a straight face as she thanked Alastor for an illuminating display and then addressed Fudge. "Minister Fudge, I do not believe that anyone can question the points that Lord Moody has made here. Do you now accept the need to restructure those parts of the Ministry to properly address the matters that were raised by the people who have recently joined the Ministry and had the benefit of looking at the issues with fresh eyes?"
Fudge was mainly concentrating on how he was going to come out of this without him or his remaining supporters losing too much. "Well yes, of course I must agree that we will need to look into the matter and come up with a viable plan to amend the structure of some or our Departments over time..."
Alastor heaved himself to his feet. "Did you not hear anything Fudge? You need to make these changes and you need to make them now! Any fool can see you have the answers right in front of you….Laddie, put up yon suggestions that were received."
When the pages were displayed, he went on. "There! Move the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes into the DMLE. Pare down the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures to just governing Magical Beasts like it obviously should be by nature of it's damned name and find a suitable home for the Goblin, Centaur and Muggle Liaison offices, the Beings Division, anything to do with Centaurs, Merpeople or werewolves and the Office of Misinformation that will show due respect to all of them that we can't afford to piss off. What is that damned Foreign Affairs and Sports Department anyway?"
Fudge hemmed and hawed for a bit and then admitted. "It was created at Barty Crouch's suggestion as a vehicle to bring international sporting events to Magical Britain…."
"That's obviously a complete damned waste of Ministry time and funds! As the laddies and lassies pointed out, we already have departments for International Magical Co-operation and Magical Sports and Games that are meant to do that! Foreign Affairs Department is a well known title that the Muggles and Goblins will recognise and accept for handling liaisons with their nations though, so cut the name down to Foreign Affairs Department and move all those liaison and other offices in there, then put someone who won't piss off the Muggles, Goblins or Centaurs in charge of it….."
Fudge cut in. "Yes, yes, I have just the wizard for the job, Amos Dig..."
"Lord Arthur Weasley!"
"What?"
"You need to clean your ears out Fudge, I just said someone who won't piss off the Muggles and Goblins. Arthur Weasley is the only department head in the Ministry who can deal with the people who will be liaising with this department without offending them, and his noble rank is high enough to ensure that they won't be insulted. Amos Bloody Diggory cannot even come into a Wizengamot session without insulting the daughters of a superior house and brawling like a street rat. We can show you memories of that incident if you were not aware of it? So in what world would someone like Diggory be in any way suitable to deal with the people who can destroy our world?"
The others in the Noble and Most Ancient boxes were looking at each other, because none of this had been planned. What they had been intending was to discredit Fudge after he shot down the sensible ideas being presented, but Alastor had rammed the whole thing down their throats and named Arthur to head up what would be the second biggest and most important department in the Ministry, one that could be the perfect vehicle to showcase what he could bring to the Minister's position. That display Alastor put on with the rifle was overwhelming as well, seeing it at an outdoor range at Potter Manor hadn't prepared them for what it would be like in a chamber like this.
Griselda cut in before this escalated. "Thank you for that excellent summary Lord Moody. To move things along, I believe that it would be best to just put these points to the vote. We will be voting on whether the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes should be made part of the DMLE. Whether the Goblin and Centaur Liaison offices, the Beings Division, anything to do with Centaurs, Merpeople or werewolves and the Office of Misinformation should be separated from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Whether the Foreign Affairs and Sports Department should be renamed to the Foreign Affairs Department and used to house the Liaison etc Offices, and whether Lord Arthur Weasley should be selected to head up the new Foreign Affairs Department, with a suitable promotion of course. Oh, and on that subject, I'd like another vote for whether the Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures should have a commensurate reduction in grade because his department will now be much smaller and no longer handle the same matters of importance."
She looked around the chamber and saw many nods, so she continued. "So. The vote to move the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes into the DMLE?…. Move the Goblin and Centaur Liaison offices, the Beings Division, anything to do with Centaurs, Merpeople or werewolves and the Office of Misinformation out of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures?…...Rename the Foreign Affairs and Sports Department to the Foreign Affairs Department?…. Move the Liaison and other Offices into the new Foreign Affairs Department?'... Lord Weasley to head up the new Foreign Affairs Department?… Promotion for Lord Weasley to reflect the nature of his new duties as Head of the Foreign Affairs Department?….. Demotion for the Head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures because his department will be smaller and no longer deal with matters of importance?"
Each vote passed with a very strong majority, because most of those voting were still shaken by the display that Alastor had put on. Fudge was fuming, because first and foremost, he wanted to destroy Moody for treating him like that, but quite aside from him being protected by the power of the Bloody Potter Alliance, he didn't have anyone loyal to him who'd stand a chance against the old bastard. On top of that, he was being ignored and forced to make major changes to his Ministry without any input from his own people in the Ministry…..No, that wasn't quite true, because for those changes to be voted in with that much of a majority, most of the people at the Ministry who held Wizengamot seats must have voted for this as well. He just wished he could find out who had voted against him so he could punish the traitors!
There was nothing he could do now but set people to making the damned changes, and find someone to tell Eustace that he had just lost much of his department, including all of the important parts, and he was therefore being demoted and moved with what he had left to another floor, because he certainly wouldn't to be doing that himself.