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CHAPTER 30
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Charlie and I carefully planned the first day of my vacation. I was going to go to the Ministry with him. I'd tour the ministry while he working in the morning, then we'd have lunch with Harry, Ron and Hermione in the Ministry commissary, later in the afternoon, I'd sit in the visitors gallery during the house elf citizenship debate. I knew that Charlie was extremely nervous about speaking in front of the Wizengamot, and the passage of the act wasn't guaranteed. He'd taken his current position as a favor to Kingsley Shacklebolt, he never expected to be giving speeches and helping write new laws. I was very interested in hopefully watching history be made. I'd been too young to remember when American house elves were given citizenship in 1970, I was excited about witnessing the British debates.
After we finished our breakfast, Charlie and I took the muggle Underground to the ministry building where he led me to the visitors' entrance: a phone booth next to the abandoned building that I knew was the facade that hid the ministry building from muggle eyes. We crammed ourselves into the box, and Charlie fed coins into the phone, and dialed a number. Fifteen seconds later, we felt the floor
drop, as the elevator brought us to the Visitor Check-in Desk. Seated behind the desk was a pretty young blond witch, there was a clipboard on the desk, and a pile of badges. "Good morning, Charlie," she greeted him cheerfully. "This must be Professor Goode." She continued. "It's a pleasure to meet you, madame. My name is Veronica, I am the visitor receptionist," she handed me a badge on a chain, "Please, wear this. Charlie, she was given level five clearance as you and Harry requested. Minister Shacklebolt would like to see both of you in his office at 11:30. He's very interested in speaking to the professor." I'd been introduced briefly to the minister at the Halloween ball. He seemed a likable enough fellow. He didn't take himself too seriously, a trait I found refreshing in a politician. I also knew that he supported the House Elf bill.
"All right," Charlie said, "Thank you Veronica, you've been very helpful. I'm going to take the Professor to level four now."
"Excellent sir, I mean Charlie, enjoy your visit Professor Goode."
Charlie took me by the arm and led me to an elevator. "So that was the infamous Veronica," I commented. "She didn't seem nearly as bad as you described her."
"Well, she has gotten a lot less barmy. She only graduated Hogwarts last year. She started at the V-desk about the same time I took the magical creatures position. It took me more than a month to get her to stop calling me Mr. Weasley, or sir." He shuddered at the word. "I know I am almost old enough to be her father, but. Ah, we're here." The lift dropped us off at Level 4, the home of the Department for the Regulation and Control of magical creatures. "There's actually three divisions of the department. There's the beasts division, the beings division, and the spirit division. Right now, I'm overseeing all of them, I was only supposed to be heading the Dragon Research and Restraint office, but Andrew Switch, he's the bloke who was supposed to take over for Newt Scamander after he retired, well, he got invited to go on some big international magical creatures conference. It's a six month appointment, so Kingsley asked me to handle his duties until Drew gets back. He's due back in two weeks, then I get to go to my regular office, where I belong. I'm going to miss Petula, though. I just wish they'd scheduled all this speech rubbish after Drew gets back. House Elves are his pet project."
"Andrew is Olivia's uncle, isn't he?" I asked. "She mentioned his being away for the conference."
Charlie nodded and said, "we suspect that the opposition forced Kingsley into pushing up the vote because they wanted Drew gone."
"That's a rather dirty trick."
"It is a bit dodgy, but there's not a bloody thing we can do about it."
"Morning Charlie," Petula greeted us at the door to Charlie's office. "Hey, Glinda, decided to come visit us?"
"Yeah, I'm here for moral support this afternoon."
"That's good, we can use all the support we can get." She dropped an agenda book in front of Charlie as he sat at his desk.
"What's this rubbish?" Charlie asked.
"You have an appointment with the spirit division in twenty-five minutes. Apparently, there's a new haunting. A gaggle of ghosts from the tower have decided to torment the muggles in the royal suite of the Fenchurch Hotel. The PM and his lot asked for our help. Minister Shacklebolt wants the both of you at 11:30. Your lunch with Harry and Ron is at noon. At 1:00 the house elf debates begin, , you're 'scheduled' for 2:00, provided they're running on schedule." She gave a rather unladylike snort, "you know the changes of that happening right?"
"Almost none," Charlie commented dryly.
"Con goes first this time, they've got three speakers."
"Who'd they get?"
"Eliheu Filtch is first, Dexter Corner is second, those two work in fizarding finance. Rumor has it that they're going to bore everybody with how much of a negative financial impact free house elves will have on our economy. Lucius Malfoy is scheduled to go last. Who knows what the bloody hell his angle is going to be."
"I thought that Malfoy was banned from the Wizengamot after he got out of Azkaban."
"He can't vote, but he's still allowed to speak."
"Who are the three speaking for us?"
"You and Hermione, and believe it or not, Draco Malfoy."
"You're kidding," Charlie looked floored. "He's actually going against 'Daddy'?"
"Amazing huh? Now, go the spirit guys are waiting for you."
"Dammit Petula, I'm a dragon wrangler, not a ghost catcher." Charlie griped. "See you later, love," he kissed me, making Petula retch. "Take care of Glin for me, Petula," he ordered as Petula shoved him out the door. She then pulled out a chilled can of coke and handed it to me.
"You're a goddess," I said.
"You're welcome," she smirked.
"So how's married life treating you?" I asked as we sat down to share some girl talk. "Come on, lady...dish." We shared some girl talk over cans of coke and some chocolates.
After our snack, Petula showed me around Charlie's department, then I was "handed over" to one of the Auror trainees, when Charlie had mentioned to Harry and Ron that I was going to be visiting the ministry, he was told that nearly every active auror, and auror trainee wanted to meet the famous Dragonwitch, and it would be very selfish of him to keep me all to himself. I felt a little bit like a "show an tell" object, until I realized that most of the questions I was being asked at the impromptu talk Harry and Ron set up were about my career in BIMS and Special Ops. They wanted to know how I'd tracked down predator wizards, and how I'd helped their victims. There were even some questions about martial arts (I guess Alex Harkness was telling stories about our experiences at Hogwarts). A few even asked me about my life in America. I had a blast with these bright young minds, it was a disappointment to have to leave them when Charlie came to fetch me for our 11:30 appointment with Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"Actually, Glinda," Kingsley said as we sat down in his office, him at his desk and Charlie and I on a couch in the corner. "The reason I wanted to see you today is two fold, one is to say thank you for your help in rescuing those two young people from Umbridge and Nott, who, by the way are both resting quietly in Azkaban, awaiting their trial. The second is to ask for a bit of a history lesson."
"You're in luck, Kingsley," I said "history was one of my better academic subjects in school."
"Excellent then. Tell me about American house elves."
I had to think for a minute. "They're a lot more independent than the European variety. The first of them came over with the original settlers in the 1600's. They were considered slaves until the American Muggle Civil War. When the Muggle slaves gained their freedom, so did the house elves. I guess it was hard for them, to get used to it at first. They still weren't considered full citizens or allowed to vote, but they were no longer tied to just one family our household, if they felt they were being abused, they had recourse. It wasn't until 1970 that our Wizard Senate gave them the rights of full citizens, and the right to vote in elections. A lot of them still live with the same families they've had all along. I guess their lives haven't changed that much, I think the main difference is that there are standards as to their treatment, I know that abuse and forced breeding were banned, and a family couldn't just kill their house elves, or turn them out. They had to provide for them. If a house elf wanted to leave they could."
"Sounds like a pretty good system, how much changed in 1970?"
"Mainly just the fact that they could now vote, they formed unions and we've even had a few house elves in our Wizard Senate."
"Really? That's fascinating. How has that worked out?"
"Quite well, I think. Some of my friends from school had family house elves and everyone involved seemed quite happy with the whole arrangement. I'm sure there's still some mistreatment, but
the house elves have the right to protection, and they can complain to the authorities. I'm sure the system isn't perfect, but it works."
Kingsley just sat back in his chair, and said, "thank you, Glinda. You've given me quite a bit to think about." Then he said, "well it's about time you two went to your lunch." We all stood up and shook hands. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Glinda."
"And you as well, sir," I replied. Charlie led me out the door and we headed to meet Harry and crew for lunch.