Sorry for the delay. I was busy.

Chapter Eighteen: A Speech

I don't know what possessed Florean Fortescue to nominate me. I don't know what possessed Madam Flourish to second it. I don't know what in the seven hells Fred and George spiked everyone's refreshments with to make them vote like that.

I do know why I accepted the nomination, though. That much is clear in my head, though I must confess to some serious self-doubt at the time and just afterward.

Firstly, I didn't think I had a hope in hell of winning. Let's get that squared away. In all seriousness, what rational person would put a twenty-year-old –well, twenty as of midnight that evening, in charge of the self-governing body of the economic center of one of the leading cities of the world? It's preposterous. They'll be making Ginny Queen of England next.

Actually, she'd be kind of good at that. Luna'd be funnier to watch, though.

However, as I thought at the time, there would be some interesting results if I were elected. As a highly controversial Chairperson, I would be prevented from doing too much damage –the head of any body can only cause as much trouble as there are voters dumb enough to agree with him blindly; but I would be able to make a few changes.

Best of all, I could use my youth as leverage. Allying the Alleys? She's young, let's humor the kid, it'll blow up in her face and we can get someone better. Removing the moral restrictions on businesses' qualifications to join the Chamber? Well, she's young, maybe more young people will shop here if we give them this little boon. The old blue-laws don't protect too much anymore anyway. Starting an advertising/PR blitz that openly counters the Dark paranoia and markets Diagon as the shining light of haven in the midst of the worst war since Grindelwald? I wonder where the little bint got THAT.

My first act as Chairperson, after making a speech that left my stomach feeling like I'd swallowed a flobberworm, of course, was sending Min out with notes to the people who would eventually be formally recognized as my Cabinet. I needed help to do this job, so I asked for it; can't expect a gear to turn the world alone. I still have the list:

Sam Redfern – economic insight

Hermione Granger – ideas, governance, speechwriting

Mel Redfern – market research

Luna Lovegood – keeping me cheered up, conspiracy detection

N. Tonks – security, Ministry watch

Padma Patil – appearances, graphic design

Ken Redfern – intelligence

Ginny Weasley – style

With the exception of Tonks and the Redferns, these women had been partly responsible for getting me elected. Ginny Transfigured my coat to still look appropriately Old Diagon, yet somewhat more feminine, and she did something to the size. When I needed to be self-effacing, it would grow slightly and look a bit too big, making me look smaller. When I needed to command respect it would fit perfectly and have a nice flow in all the right places. Apparently she uses the same charm on her Quidditch things for the purpose of sandbagging the other team. My shirt, trousers and vest…well, she is an artist as much as a witch; my clothes did look fabulous.

Padma did some astonishing things with makeup and charms to stop my bruises fading (as they had been, St. Mungo's likes patients to look as healthy as possible as soon as possible,) and even highlight the effect a little bit. She also trimmed my hair a little differently and Did Something to make it stay nice. The goal was to have a visible reminder of the Dark threat –it's very hard for people to say something doesn't exist when there's a person with owwy-looking injuries from said thing. Did we exaggerate the aftermath? Maybe. The bruises could certainly have been closer to gone by the meeting and most people would have covered them up, but Hermione and I decided it was bolder to show the marks.

Hermione's the one who helped me compose the first speech I gave, incidentally. The strategy of drawing people in, reminding them that I represent something they're attached to, pointing out the very real threat, and then almost seeming to give up when offering the 'things as usual or better' toast the status-quo crowd expects…I think there are several famous Muggles she helped me rip off with that. She went over my phrases and added some better rhetoric, as well as toning down my tendency to make glaring digressions. Yes, it is possible to make me stop. Hermione Granger has done it.

She even helped me with gestures and speaking style. I was made to watch a couple Muggle speakers she'd taken wizarding pictures of, including some that I swear were of actors on the televising box. (I like T.B. Almost wish we had it here.) I also adapted a bit from how certain professors speak and move, especially McGonagall and Snape, and in rehearsal we got it to the point where I seemed pretty credible. We also had a long discussion of statecraft, which weirdly led us into a discussion of Muggle theatre, which I became quite interested in, which led us finally back to statecraft, once I'd gotten an amazingly good idea. The notion of the advertising/PR campaign I mentioned earlier? Muggles invented that. And it works pretty well, if I do say so myself.

Luna cheered me up after all of that preparation with an astonishingly detailed account of the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and their habits. I'm fairly sure those creatures aren't precisely real, but I do sometimes want to believe in them. Luna is happier than most everyone I know and she believes in preposterous things. Maybe that keeps one sane.

That, or simply being so perfectly splendid that a girl can't stop snogging you…like Charlie. Oh, my…what I couldn't have stood without him there…

Establishing the Knockturn Alley Chamber was actually a lot easier than I'd feared. I had, of course, never dreamed of having Fred and George on my side with the Treasury, and that was a tremendous help. The other thing was that I had gotten a nice bit of advice from Hermione:

"If a Prefect acts like they don't want to dock points and that they really want to be liked, they'll be seen as too weak and fail. If they act like a complete dictator, they'll have rebellion inside of two minutes. The key is to walk in with the full knowledge of what you can do, the assurance that you don't need to be liked by these people, and your goal in mind above all concerns. You have authority –use it confidently for what you need, and that's all you have to do."

"Really?"

"Well, sort of. Sometimes you still get a few blighters who have to challenge you, and then you have to let them humiliate themselves. The secret there is never to lose calm."

See? Brilliant. So I did just that, which brings me to that gut-like-a-flobberworm speech I mentioned. That's really what started everything.

Walking in for the first time, I strode very purposefully to the dais, yanking my coat off as I reached the first step and tossing it to George. Up there in my vest and the loose sleeves most Old Diagon shopkeepers wore for formal occasions with my hair coming out of the queue just a bit in front, I must've looked like the pirate queen. That notion made me smile a bit, and I gave the crowd a bright, confident grin. 'Yes. I am the Pirate Queen,' I thought.

What? You try being in a situation that stressful sometime and see what crazy thoughts come to mind. I was the Pirate Queen of Diagon for a second there. It helped.

"Ladies and gentlemen of Diagon, I give you Jamesina Worthing Tickes the Fourth –your Chairperson!" Florean Fortescue announced as I reached the podium. Dreadfully nice of him. What was even nicer was the applause I got from …most of the room.

"Dreadfully bold of the little tart," the former Chairman's wife whispered, a little too loudly.

It is here in the story that I must confess to something. I stole the first part of my performance for the subsequent few minutes from Professor Severus Snape of Hogwarts. The attitude, the look, the sheer snarkiness…yeah. I learned it in Potions class.

"What…was…that?" I inquired, not really a question, raising an eyebrow slowly at the woman. "A little…tart?"

She stood there, staring at me, as the entire room stared at the both of us. I knew it was a matter of who tolerated being stared at best. I spoke slowly and deliberately:

"Funny, I don't seem to recall Diagon Alley electing a tart to lead them through a war. Nor do I recall an upstart, a child, a presumptuous girl or a chit being elevated to the supreme office of this Chamber. As I heard it, I was elected."

She was rather uncomfortable. I was rather winning it.

"Madam, my name is Jamesina Tickes. I'm not the first to carry it, and I think you can recall what previous versions have been like. If you recall correctly, dreadfully bold is perhaps the mildest that can be said of a woman like me. If you actually took the time to know me, I think you'd find that, in fact, I am fiercely, even passionately bold. The word brazen even comes to mind."

Yes, I was going to win, as long as I stayed calm and confident.

"Perhaps you mistook me for a nervous kid. Easy mistake. I am, after all," I checked my watch, "twenty years old tonight. Or perhaps you assumed that, if elected, I would eagerly accept all help, guidance and even decisions from my …elders."

I scanned the room, looking very deliberately over the top of my spectacles, an eyebrow still raised.

"If that is the case, you are tragically mistaken."

My heart was racing so fast it was beating my watches.

"I have been elected by a wide margin, ladies and gentlemen, and I intend to use the full powers of my position from the first instant.. I do, as your leader, encourage you at all times to present your own opinions with respect, for I do value experience and wisdom, however I may appear a –what was it? 'Bold little tart?'"

I remember thinking 'please, just don't let me stutter now…'

"Consider this a first, last and only warning: do not mistake my youth. I will act, according to my own decisions for the welfare of my people, with boldness and singularity of purpose, because the times now require it."

I raised my voice at last.

"Hear me now, Diagon Alley! The age of Fudge is over! The time of hiding our heads in the sand, of denying the brutally obvious, of bowing to party line simply for the sake of our precious status quo is dead and buried as of this instant. We're at war. I'm in charge. We're fighting. It's that simple. If the fight requires we offend a few old biddies, or alienate a few bigots, or defend our shops and our homes with lethal force, then SO BE IT!"

They looked a little gobsmacked there…even the people I thought liked me. But there was no backing down.

"You chose me to lead you. Whatever you are feeling at this moment, I will never betray that trust. As of this moment, I no longer belong to myself. I am the Alley, as surely as it called me to life, raised me to adulthood and taught me my life's career. I shall protect Diagon even as it has sheltered me. Death Eaters, You-Know-Who…let them come! We shall be ready. Let the curses fly, let the steel masks march in! We are strong enough! We shall make them pay more dearly for a broken window than they can afford to conquer all of Britain!

"Why are you frightened? I can see the courage in your hearts! For Merlin's sake, look at our history! Our very blood has written the fate of a nation! Without us, what is Britain? What is the wizarding world entire? Think of trade, of civilization, of magic itself! What would that be, if not for us? Fiction.

"You think you are frightened now. Wait until you're working on account books and you look up to see a polished mask. Wait until the first blow, and the second, and until you can't count them anymore. Wait until your own teeth are loose and bleeding in your mouth. Wait until your hand closes around the bat.

"Follow me, and we will have the bat ready before they arrive. –Now, is that too bold? A little too much for a war leader? Come now. Just because it's easy to assume mediocrity doesn't mean I will. I'm so used to everyone needing perfection from me that nothing less remains possible."

I paused for a moment.

"What time is it?"

They looked down. They looked up.

They got it.

I grinned.

So yeah, after that it was pretty easy to get the first resolutions started.

They didn't even notice that when I went home at the end of the meeting I puked from nerves until Charlie had to carry me to bed. And nobody but the twins noticed that he stayed there with me that night, holding me close until morning. I was glad they knew…but more so that they approved, however grudgingly.

You see, when I look at people over my spectacles, I can't see their faces clearly. It's easy to be brave for a crowd of blurs. The only person I could really see, throughout the fiercest speech I would ever have to make, was Charlie.

I don't think I could have done any of it without him.