Notes: I thought about not bringing the forthcoming subject up in these notes, and I kind of hate doing it, but I think I would be remiss if I didn't.
In light of recent political developments, I really need to say a few things about this story and this AU. I never meant anything in this fic to be an allegory for anything happening in the real world. I certainly was not drawing an analogy between my Minister Tom's "wizarding nationalism" and the toxic bigotry that sometimes assumes a form of nationalism. If there were real wizards, they actually would be different from other people in an important innate way. The existence of magic would have profound implications, which I am exploring in this story arc. They would have rational reasons to want a government of, by, and for themselves. This is obviously not the case for racism in the real world… and it's not the case in the canon Potterverse for blood purity. (My Tom does personally hold Muggles in contempt, but it's Tom. His policies have been pretty benign toward them.) Please, please remember that when reading this fic: The story is not an allegory for anything in the real world. In fact, I hope more than ever that you can enjoy it as escapist fantasy.
I understand that despite that big disclaimer, some of you may not want to read even a fantasy story that touches on the kinds of issues that this one does. I am not offended and it'll be here when and if you are ready to read it again.
Regarding the chapter itself: There are probably more OCs in this chapter than in any other. I hope they work.
Chapter Nineteen: Subversion, Part III: The Missing Children
"I want the files," Hermione said determinedly, staring down Connor Lynch.
Lynch glanced at his boss, hoping for a negative. Tom stared back hard, raising a single eyebrow pointedly at Lynch. He gave up.
"I'll have the names for you promptly," the director mumbled. He shuffled out of Tom's office.
At the meeting at the Gaunt house, Hermione had become determined to develop a unified theory of the situation in the East. It seemed increasingly likely that they would need to organize a coalition and send a team of Aurors to help the locals, and Tom was determined not to endanger his Aurors any more than he had to. The sole piece of good news they had learned was that, according to Grindelwald, Dolohov had not necessarily breached Wizarding Secrecy to the KGB. Every other bit of news was terrible, and the facts they didn't know had the potential to be bad too. Karkaroff's loyalty was in question, and whatever was happening in Ukraine seemed ominous to Hermione on reflection. She could not explain why so many people would disappear without a trace there but nowhere else, and Grindelwald's statements about Volodymira Koroleva's internal investigation did not hint at anything good either. She needed the list of Ukrainians who were unaccounted for.
Shortly, Lynch returned to the Ministerial office with duplicates of the files in question. He handed the folder to Hermione silently, gave Tom a nod, and left the office again.
"What was that about?" she asked him.
"I think some of my people don't want to cede any 'territory' to anyone else," he replied, frowning slightly.
"I'm on the security team."
"I think they believe it's only for the sake of marital peace. They know you're forthright and strong. I think they've expected that you would be satisfied with being 'included,' and they're a bit taken aback that you actually want to do things."
Hermione sniffed. "That's too bad for them. They empowered you to make a lot of executive decisions yourself. They shouldn't complain if you make them."
Tom smirked. "I'd love to openly appoint you to something—"
She managed a slight smile, but shook her head at the same time. "It's much better being your partner. I don't want to be your subordinate, and any Ministry title would mean that I was."
"You have a point." Tom glanced at the folder. "What do you expect to find?"
"I don't have enough information to form a theory," she admitted. "I just want to look at these people's background and see if there is a pattern to it. I hope I can develop a theory out of whatever is in this, since Koroleva isn't sharing information."
The library in Tom and Hermione's town house occupied two levels, with a cutout in the floor on the upper level and a spiral staircase in the middle. It was a grand room, if slightly sinister—like several other rooms in the house. Tom kept copies of magical history and genealogy books, the latter of which Hermione had not particularly loved having around—but now she was glad he had them.
Hermione had to admire his fortitude in tracing his own wizarding family history. This was a tedious process, poring through the lists of names in the Ukrainian missing-persons records and matching them to names in the genealogies. Determining who was pureblood, half-blood, or a descendant of Squibs was even harder. She quickly found herself using a shortcut: If a family name did not appear at all in the genealogy, she assumed that the father, at least, was likely Muggle-born. It was a fudge, she admitted to herself, but it was the best she could do.
And, as she neared the end of the list, she realized it was more than sufficient. The pattern was unmistakable: Every family that had vanished from Ukraine was half-blood. The children who had disappeared were, horrifyingly, often Muggle-born, though not exclusively. The children who had vanished from homes where the parents were found dead were all Muggle-born. Not a single missing child was from a known long-established wizarding family.
Hermione shelved the books and sat down in a crimson chair. She closed her eyes and tried to put everything together.
Why would the children disappear? she thought. Dolohov has no problem directing—or Imperiusing, who knows?—the Muggles to slaughter entire families in Russia. Why spare "dirty-blooded" children in Ukraine?
She considered the list again. These people did not live in east Ukraine, she thought. They were mostly in Kyiv or close to it. Could Koroleva's theory be correct? She thinks that other wizards and witches are kidnapping magical children and fleeing the country. I wish this list told how the non-magical parents were killed. That's important information. If they died by magic, it would point to her theory, but if Muggle weapons killed them, it indicates a separate Soviet agent based out of Kyiv who does want to spare the children—and that is even more ominous than Dolohov's vile plot.
The families who are missing have probably left freely. They are included on a list of witches and wizards, after all, so they might be able to Apparate to the boundary of the magical Iron Curtain and then cross normally—or even go to another country behind the curtain.
Hermione opened her eyes. There was not enough information in this list for her to decide which theory about the children was correct. If witches and wizards were kidnapping children—killing their non-magical parents if the parents resisted, presumably—and fleeing the country, that was quite bad enough. It was criminal activity and it had to be stopped. Hermione certainly would not envy Volodymira Koroleva her task in sorting out custody of the children in that scenario, assuming the children could even be found, which was unlikely. But if Muggles were killing the non-magical parents and then spiriting the magical children away, that pointed unambiguously to another wizard—or, at a bare minimum, a Squib—working with the Soviet state for some nefarious purpose, as if Dolohov—and possibly Karkaroff—weren't enough.
What was happening in St. Petersburg was horrible, but it didn't appear that it had breached Wizarding Secrecy. What was happening in Kyiv had the potential to have done that. Tom had to know about this, she decided. She needed to tell him her findings—and her theories.
For now, though, it had to wait. They had resolved not to upset their children by talking too much about the situation in front of them, so the discussion they would have with each other would need to wait until after Madeline and Virgil were in bed.
Tom sat on the bed next to her, his chin resting on top of his clapsed hands as he thought. His features were set in a frown.
"That's not good," he said. "I had already concluded that the Aurors would have to be deployed—and I hate it, because I wanted to transfer the Greyback case to them—but this is why I brought them into my office, this very type of problem." He paused for a moment. "I don't know if there are enough Aurors to divide them between Russia and Ukraine."
"Are we not going to have any help?"
"I will give this much to the Americans," he said grudgingly. "They did offer a small reinforcement squad of Aurors, and they would be ready on a moment's notice."
"There will have to be local volunteers too, especially in Russia."
"Oh, absolutely," he agreed. "I will not leave my Aurors there indefinitely to keep order. That's the responsibility of the resistance governments themselves." He raised an eyebrow at her. "There's one other source of help we'll have, of course."
Grindelwald, she thought. "Just him? Or is he bringing people?"
"He can offer his wand and his personal security force—three people, he tells me."
"It's good that, after what he did, he's now trying so hard to protect Seclusion."
"He saw the error of his ways. It is possible, dear," Tom drawled.
She understood him. "I'm still not going to trust Karkaroff unless he is exonerated completely in this."
"Nor am I. At this point I think it's safe to assume that he does know about it. I still haven't heard from him. I think you're right and he's hiding, either because he has lost control of his own government or because he was part of Dolohov's conspiracy all along." He sneered at nothing in particular. "I'm still so disgusted about that. He is the biggest blood-traitor I've ever heard of."
"Tom, I really wish you wouldn't use that term."
"Why not?" he challenged. "I've said why it fits. We're under no obligation to speak of these people politely."
"It began as a pureblood supremacist term, and they use it to refer to other purebloods or half-bloods who don't agree with all their political views."
"I know exactly who invented it and why," he replied. "My intention is to… reassign it. Change its meaning. It's a powerful term and they shouldn't get to own it. Everyone with magic has magical ancestors. It's asinine to divide amongst ourselves when there are Muggles who would see us all enslaved or dead if they knew of our powers, so the real blood-traitors are those who hurt wizards. Wizarding nation, darling." He gave her a pointed wink.
She looked down. Tom made her uneasy sometimes. The Soviet agent situation was bringing out his anti-Muggle side more than usual, but this was the first time she had heard him use the words "wizarding nation" together in such a deliberate way. It was no longer strictly a descriptive phrase referring to the British wizarding community. A couple of months ago, a small cohort of scholars had written a theoretical treatise about the idea of a global wizarding nation. Their contention was that dividing wizarding governments based on Muggle political boundaries was harmful to wizarding cohesion, wealth, and security. The magical world would do better as a global nation with a sustainable population than as scores of nations each with the population of a small Muggle town, the scholars contended. They were not part of Tom's personal coterie, and in fact, he had never heard of them before, but he had been enchanted with their utopian idea.
Hermione could not see how it would possibly work. Witches and wizards had their magical identity, but they also had cultural identities that were influenced by the Muggles on the other side of the Seclusion wall. It was obvious at any Quidditch World Cup. Tom himself saw it every time he dealt with foreign Ministers and Presidents. Hermione regarded herself as British; it was important to her, and she knew that this was important to Tom too. The main reason that the idea of "Wizarding Nation" appealed to him was the thought of himself as the leader.
Hermione did not want him to obsess over something that could not happen and would only gain him even more political trouble if he expressed admiration for the idea, but she did not want to fight with him about it. She knew why he was suddenly interested in utopian fantasies: They were a form of escapism from reality. Tom was frustrated with the Daily Prophet and other media, and he was caught in a bind regarding the employment of Caspar Crouch. Crouch's refusal to resign after the collapse of his bid—and his insistence that he had never actually challenged Tom in the first place—was being billed as a message of contempt, a warning of a future challenge, and an assertion of territory ownership inside the Ministry. Rather than hurting Crouch, however, the Prophet asserted that this breach of protocol was politically harmful to Tom, who, after all, needed cause to fire a Department Head. Evidently the Crouch bid was real to the Prophet when it wanted to argue that his employment hurt Tom, but not real enough for Tom himself to dismiss Crouch for his disrespect. Hermione agreed that this was profoundly unfair. Tom was convinced that Abraxas Malfoy had someone on the editorial board, but whatever the case might be, the situation deeply upset and offended him. She did not want to make it worse by attacking him for seeking escape.
Tom was surprised the next day when his Floo flashed the message that Igor Karkaroff wished to communicate with him.
"Put him through," he told the device, eyes wide. What would the man have to say? It had been several days since Tom had last heard anything from him. He had a lot to explain.
The goateed face of the Russian leader appeared in the green flames. Tom scanned Karkaroff for signs of nervousness and did not find anything obvious; if anything, Karkaroff looked overconfident.
"It's been a while since you last communicated with us," Tom said without prelude. "We've been quite concerned about the situation in your city."
Karkaroff stared back emotionlessly. "The 'situation' has been handled and those responsible for Tamirov's murder have been brought to justice. I have chosen a new deputy as well."
"Yes, well, I have heard about your new deputy from my other sources in the East," Tom said cuttingly. He noted with smug satisfaction that Karkaroff's eyebrows drew together in a crease of worry. "What was the matter, Igor? Why weren't you able to communicate with me? My people were wondering if a coup was in progress."
Karkaroff paused. His silence lasted a moment longer than he needed to, Tom observed.
"I am quite well," the man said tautly. "I have been busy hunting down the killers—and, of course, I am always trying to find the Harrower. He is remarkably clever for a Squib."
Tom smiled. It was insincere, but he knew how to fake it. "Yes—about that. I have been in talks with the Polish, and with the Americans, and they have agreed to send some Aurors to your people's aid." Not yours, but your people's. "I too am willing to release some of my Aurors to assist your people in the hunt."
Karkaroff beamed. "That would be most appreciated, Minister! We need all the help we can get. Koroleva won't do anything. It's disgusting, if you ask me—our nearest neighbor, with such long-standing ties to Russia—she really ought to join her government with ours, but instead she has taken to keeping all her information to herself."
"She has the right to conduct her government as she sees fit, as do you," Tom said smoothly. "I understand that she is intensely investigating the disappearances in her country. Since you were unable to communicate with me in the midst of your investigations"—Tom paused pointedly—"surely you can understand her situation."
Karkaroff gazed back wordlessly.
"We need to plan the incursion," Tom said. "Will you be able to offer help from your ranks?"
Karkaroff nodded. "I can volunteer about a dozen of my own Aurors…."
They began to discuss strategy, tactics, and timing. Tom made a mental note to tell Grindelwald of the plan—and to possibly expect a trap. Karkaroff seemed entirely too eager, in his opinion, for the help of the foreign Aurors. Probably his team would be hand-picked loyalists at best… and if Karkaroff had lost control of his own organization to Dolohov and was only a figurehead, the Aurors might even be Dolohov's people. Either way, they were not to be trusted if Dolohov himself was indeed the Harrower. Besides, the mere fact that Karkaroff was sticking with his Squib story was suspicious to Tom. If it came to a choice between believing Hermione or believing Igor Karkaroff, Karkaroff didn't stand a chance.
Tom considered the Chief Auror, Anne-Claire Abbott. She was not one of Tom's personal cronies, but a career civil servant who was basically sympathetic to Tom's political faction. When Tom had moved the Aurors to the Office of the Minister, she had been pleased to report directly to the Minister for Magic, viewing it as a promotion. She was not part of his security team, but she would need to be brought into the loop now. The Aurors would need to know about Karkaroff's possible trap.
Hermione was not ecstatic to learn of the planned magical combat operation in Russia that evening.
"I hope you know what you're doing," she said. "If any Muggles learn about this, you're not only looking at the exposure of magic—you're possibly talking about nuclear war."
"Hermione—"
"And even if that didn't happen, the Muggles would target us. Us. Britain and America are close allies, and the Soviets would take it as an attack. American Muggles don't even know about the magical government in that country, and now the British Prime Minister doesn't either anymore. Magical people could be exterminated if the Muggles think our battles might cause a nuclear war. If the Soviets find out about this operation—"
"They won't," Tom said curtly. "I know what's at stake. But if we don't act, eventually Muggles will figure it out anyway. They may already know in Ukraine, you tell me."
She winced.
"There you have it, then. As soon as they learned about us, the Soviets would search for other wizards in their own territory, and it would get out. Muggle espionage would discover it, and we'd be hunted all over the world anyway. These lunatics are playing with fire. We have to end this now." He embraced her tightly. "We are magical. We can do this. The traitors will be killed, and any Muggles who knew about it will forget."
Hermione hesitated as they broke apart. She really felt that a separate investigation should take place in Kyiv, and perhaps—
"I think that maybe I should lead a separate group of Aurors in Ukraine," she said. Tom's eyebrows shot up, but she continued. "It sounds as if Koroleva needs all the help she can get, and there is something going on. If Muggles are behind the child abductions and murders of their non-magical family members, then there probably actually is someone like Karkaroff's 'Squib Harrower' operating in Kyiv." She paused. "It did not take me that long to determine the pattern in the ancestry of the children. Does Koroleva not have access to genealogies?"
"I couldn't say," he replied. "Her country was part of Russia for a long time in the Muggle world, and it's possible that the Russian wizards acted just like Russian Muggles toward them."
"Yes," she mused, "I could see that books with information about Ukrainian wizarding families might be just a little too nationalistic for their 'overlords.'" She straightened. "In that case, I definitely think that a few of our Aurors should go, and I should go along with them to assist Koroleva."
Tom looked away, clearly not wanting to meet her eyes. She noticed.
"What's the problem?"
He glanced sheepishly at her. "First of all, I'm not going to tell you what you may or may not do."
Her eyebrows narrowed. "That's an inauspicious beginning—"
"I will be honest with you, Hermione. I wish you wouldn't go into that mess. It sounds dangerous, and you don't know what the danger actually is."
"It would be a fact-finding mission to consult with Volodymira Koroleva and offer her the assistance of some of our Aurors. I myself shouldn't be in any danger."
"I thought you would say that," he said with a grimace, "and as I said at the first, I know better than to try to tell you what to do."
"Learned from the 'Wizarding Renaissance' at last, did you?" she said tartly.
He stared back levelly, not conceding the point, but not disputing it either. She met his stare with her own, refusing to break her gaze.
He looked away first. "It's probably best if we do this at the same time. Obviously the children cannot come. I'll ask the Rosiers to take care of them," he mused.
Hermione stifled a scowl at that. Rosier was firmly under Tom's control and had been for years. He was on Tom's side in politics and shared most of Tom's views, but he had just enough residual blood-purity elitism that she didn't want her children exposed to it in close quarters at such young ages. What other options were there, though? They did not have close friends, either of them—just casual friends from work. Hermione knew that Tom would not want their children in the care of Catriona Dagworth and her werewolf girlfriend, even though the woman was faithfully taking Wolfsbane Potion. Idly her thoughts followed that trail—and the alternate timeline. Fenrir Greyback was still at large. Remus Lupin had not yet been born, but he would be in about a year. Hermione really did not want him to be bitten this time.
"After we get back, you should direct the Aurors to find Greyback," she remarked. "It should be their first priority after this."
"It will be." He paused. "Hermione, I wish you would reconsider going to Kyiv."
"I'm going, Tom. I need to do this. These are children. Children like… us." Her voice broke.
He sighed. "Then if you really insist upon going, I'll send some Aurors with you. But I wish you would stay behind with the children."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "I hope it's not because I'm female."
He looked hurt at that. "Of course it's not. It really is just because you don't know what is out there. I at least have an idea of what I'm Apparating into, and I know to regard Karkaroff and his team with distrust. You don't actually know what's happening there. It may look like a missing persons mystery, but you don't know what the hidden dangers are. You could be killed. I can't—the thought of that—" He broke off. "I'll send some Aurors, and they will be instructed to take that curse for you if it should become necessary… but it's not absolute protection against it. Not like I have. I wish you'd…." He trailed off, looking very upset.
That allusion no longer offended Hermione. She knew why he said it, and she felt bad for him. She drew close and hugged him. "I'll be careful," she promised.
Crossing the magical Iron Curtain was not so difficult at all. All that was necessary was to Apparate—or otherwise travel magically—to a site close to the boundary, cross by normal means, and then travel magically within the cordoned region. Tom had coordinated Portkeys to St. Petersburg and Kyiv through Gellert Grindelwald, who was waiting for them as they and their troops of Aurors crossed over. Tom had put Chief Auror Abbott in Hermione's team, after a bit of thought.
"When you are with her, you will follow her instructions as if they were mine," he had ordered the Aurors who would go with Hermione. He had paused. "That said, don't let her be alone. Your first task is to protect her."
Abbott did not want to point out to the Minister that if Hermione demanded to be alone, the orders would be in conflict, and Hermione might defy the Aurors anyway. She hoped it wouldn't come up.
After they crossed the Curtain, Tom Portkeyed away from the border with the Polish leader, his segment of the British Aurors, and the few Americans who had come. Hermione strode forward in his place, assuming the head position of the group. She turned and handed the Portkey to Kyiv to her Aurors. They took hold at once, and Hermione activated it.
Once the whirling, nauseating sensation had ended, she pocketed the Portkey and gazed around.
This place is grim. It was the first thought to cross her mind. This must be a Sovietized part of the city; grey brutalist buildings filled the landscape, interspersed occasionally with unused Muggle children's play equipment that had a decidedly creepy affect.
Hermione knew, nonetheless, where to go. She led the Aurors to the door of a particular building, which appeared to bystanders to be a state warehouse. It bore a bright blue magical mark on one corner that would be invisible to Muggles. The air around them almost crackled with magic.
"She shouldn't make us wait long," Hermione assured the Aurors—a second before the door opened before them. They walked inside.
Inside, the building was far less miserable than its exterior or neighborhood. Magic, at least, had made it habitable. Instead of being a large, cluttered space, it had dividing walls to demarcate rooms inside. Hermione and the Aurors found themselves in a foyer with several doors visible. Moving paintings lined the walls, all painted a bit differently from the Western styles that were so familiar in wizarding art to Hermione—a bit more Slavic, perhaps. The floor was bare wood, and the furniture in the foyer was of a very old style, but it indicated that this was not another cold Soviet installation. This was a place where people lived.
A witch swept into the foyer. "Mrs. Minister," she said courteously to Hermione. "I am Volodymira Koroleva. It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person."
Hermione blushed faintly. "The pleasure is mine. Please call me Hermione."
Koroleva nodded. "And these are the Aurors. It is a good thing that you have come," she said to Abbott and the other Aurors. "Your timing is very fortuitous, and I fear that you will be needed. With the aid that you graciously provided… Hermione"—it was clearly awkward for her to speak to Hermione on a first-name basis—"and you were correct that I do not have access to books of family names—I have finally concluded my investigations." She gazed at the group, counting heads for a moment. "Let us all come to my council room. I can explain there what we face."
The council room was a medium-sized room off the hallway. It appeared that it might sometimes be used as a dining room. Koroleva sat down, Hermione sat next to her, and the Aurors clustered around the two leaders.
Koroleva began without preamble. "I will not lie to you," she said seriously. "My findings are grave. My investigation point began with the disappearance of one of the officials of my Resistance government, a witch named Verochka Andropova. She is not of magical ancestry—and I say this, this is relevant, only because of the information that you provided to me about the family background of the missing children," she said to Hermione.
Hermione began to develop a bad feeling in her stomach. "You say 'she is not of magical ancestry.' She is alive, then? Definitely?"
"Oh, yes," Koroleva said grimly. "She is alive, and now I know where she is. You see, I have concluded that my first guess was mistaken. The magical families who all vanished did not leave the country to seek safety. Instead, the parents have joined with her."
Hermione stared at the woman. "Joined with her? What is she doing, forming an alternate resistance government?"
"If only it were that benign," Koroleva lamented.
"Then what—"
"I suppose I should be blunt. Andropova and her allies have betrayed Wizarding Seclusion to the Soviet government."
Oh, God, not another one, Hermione thought, closing her eyes for a moment. "Are you sure?" she asked desperately. "The Russian agent who is responsible for all this fear, all the killings of your people in the east of your country, apparently has not actually breached Secrecy to the Muggles. The Polish are quite sure that he has told them that the wizards he names are actually just Muggle traitors and foreign spies."
"Unfortunately, I am certain that Secrecy has been breached. Andropova herself has confirmed it—boasted of it, you might say, in her message to me after I solved the puzzle and accused her. She is proud of what she is doing." Koroleva reached into her robes and withdrew a note, written in Ukrainian. "This says that the Russian Harrower, this vile person that your husband and his allies are confronting, has directed attacks only at those of non-magical birth, whether one parent or both."
"That's correct," Hermione said, the sinking feeling in her stomach intensifying.
"Yes, so it seems, and Andropova determined it independently. I do not know how she learned this information, but my guess is that the first wizarding family to disappear must have had access to such records and shared them with her when they joined. She has since made it her mission to save Muggle-born and half-blood children from the Harrower… albeit by giving them over to Muggles to be 're-educated' and trained as 'extra-human' Soviet agents."
Hermione closed her eyes briefly. "Then all of our fears are correct, and the Muggles do find our abilities highly interesting and highly useful for their own purposes."
Koroleva nodded. "She has told a few about magic, and she and her allies are helping them to steal away magical children. When the parents resist, they are killed."
Hermione rubbed her forehead and sneaked a peek at Auror Abbott. The Auror's face was white with horror.
"You said she sent you a message after you accused her. Was this in person?" Hermione asked.
"No. I have been unable to confront her, because, in frankness, my government exists in name only now. There is no trust among my people now, due to the Russian and now to this. She has a team of magical allies, which means I would have to have a team of my own to confront her equally."
"Well—now you do," Hermione said briskly. She gazed at Abbott, sharing an understanding with the Auror at once. "I think that if you know where she is, then we should go to her immediately. How many adults do you estimate she has with her?"
"She may have as many as eight."
"As you see, I have more people than that, and they are trained Aurors. I think we should detain her and the others as soon as possible, and then deal with the Muggles who were told." Hermione spoke in authoritative tones, horrified by the situation but actually rather excited by the opportunity to be a hero. In fact, she might be more of a hero than Tom would, since Wizarding Secrecy was actually breached here.
"You are quite eager," Koroleva observed with an amused but kindly smile.
"It's why we came here," Hermione said. "We want to do whatever we can to take care of the problem, and then leave quickly—no offense—so that you can restore order and authority. I think we would only be in the way of that… and I have three children at home myself," she added at the last.
"Ah. This distresses you."
"It would distress anyone. This is terrible. I understand, I suppose, why they think they must do this—they're trying to protect these children from the blood-purity Harrower—but they have no right to do it the way they are, murdering, kidnapping, and breaching Wizarding Secrecy. They should have reinforced your government instead of betraying and undermining confidence in it." She hesitated. "I understand that some of the children, especially those with Muggle parents, are now orphans."
"Yes. I would prefer that they remain in this country if possible, but if no one trustworthy in the wizarding community can adopt them, then we will do as we must."
Hermione and Koroleva stood up. The group of Aurors followed, and the entire group filed out of the room.
"This is the place," Koroleva said to Hermione. They were standing outside a building that was more ornate and stylized than the converted warehouse, either an older structure repurposed by the Muggle government or a state building designed to exude authority.
"Is it official?" Hermione asked. "To the Muggles," she clarified.
"I think it must be, but you see that it is unmarked." Koroleva gestured at the façade. "There is no sign. This is another indication that it houses secret activities. I think all of the children must live inside it now, but, of course, I do not know what else Andropova has—" Koroleva broke off as a guard approached the door.
"What is your business?" snapped the man.
Koroleva's eyes narrowed. "Rudnyk," she sneered. "I might have known."
The man—apparently a wizard—moved to confront Koroleva, and then he noticed the team of fierce, deadly serious Aurors standing nearby. He hesitated.
Feeling heady with the thrill of the situation, Hermione stepped forward. Auror Abbott protested vocally, but Hermione did not heed it. Much to their dismay, she broke out of the group of Aurors, who had been clustering around her in a protective circle.
She stared the man down. "I am here on behalf of the Eastern Magical Resistance and its Western allies to negotiate with your leader, Verochka Andropova, concerning the release of the children that she has unlawfully kidnapped. As you can see, we are prepared to storm your facility if necessary. If all of you surrender and cooperate with us, we won't have to."
Rudnyk glanced at the Aurors once again. "I… right." He vanished back into the building.
The Aurors tensed around Hermione, forming a cluster once more. Abbott whispered to her, "You should be more careful, Madam Riddle. It would be quite a coup if these rogues succeeded in harming you."
"I am a foreign ambassador," Hermione declared, "and Koroleva herself has authorized me to handle this."
Rudnyk appeared again, his face more smug than before. "Andropova will not meet with anyone when she is threatened."
"Very well," Hermione said at once, not hesitating for a second. "I will meet with her privately as long as she understands that any harm to my person will be met with retaliation upon all who work for her."
Rudnyk disappeared to take the message. When he was gone, Koroleva turned to Hermione with a raised eyebrow.
"Madam Riddle," Auror Abbott protested, "you are being reckless—"
"I want to do this," Hermione cut her off. "There are children here, mostly children with non-magical parents—like I was—who have been victimized and exploited. I need to do this for them." The conviction that had filled her spirit ever since she made the discovery in her home library was now stronger than ever.
The pathetic Rudnyk appeared a final time, this time with a harsh, sneering witch in Soviet-issue uniform and severely cropped hair standing beside him.
"Verochka," Koroleva sneered, "the look of a 'comrade' does not suit you."
"I was told," Andropova said loftily, "that an ambassador from a foreign wizarding government was here to speak to me. All I see are a failed leader of a ragged rebel band"—she smirked at Koroleva—"and a team of what I presume are foreign soldiers. How low you have sunk, Koroleva."
"I am the ambassador," Hermione said, stepping forward. "They are here to protect me."
"There will be no need for you to be protected," Andropova replied. "I will speak to you, but your soldiers—"
"Aurors," Hermione corrected.
The other witch rolled her eyes. "An invented term which serves to highlight the artificial separation from the rest of humanity imposed upon our people. Whatever you choose to call them, they may not be present at the diplomatic table."
"They will stand outside the door, and there will be wards around the room preventing anyone from leaving magically."
"Then the room will be silenced on the inside. They are not diplomats, so they are not entitled to hear private negotiations."
"As you wish. If you walk out and I do not, however, they know what to do." To reinforce Hermione's threat, Auror Abbott stared at the witch with a menacing look.
Andropova scowled but did not dispute the threat—or make additional demands. "Very well. This room"—she gestured at the room next to the foyer—"is a council room."
Hermione peeked through the slightly opened door. Another table did occupy the room, though it was smaller and did not fill much space. It appeared that Andropova was not lying about the room's purpose, however. She took a deep breath, gave Abbott and Koroleva encouraging looks, and entered the room with the Soviet defector. Andropova closed the door behind them. The charm was perfectly cast; Hermione could not hear a sound from outside now, and she knew that the people in the hall could not hear through the door either.
"Do sit down," Andropova said, gesturing at the table.
Hermione shot her a level gaze, suspicious of her sudden politeness, but took a seat warily. She kept her wand at the ready. Promises or not, she did not trust this woman—but she was going to try to resolve this situation peacefully if she could.
If I can talk down Tom Riddle, Dark wizard, Minister for Magic, and the would-have-been most notorious wizarding outlaw of all time, then I can talk down a well-meaning—if arrogant and wrongheaded—Soviet toady, she thought.
"I do not believe I was properly introduced," the Ukrainian said.
Suddenly Hermione did not really want to give her name, but perhaps knowing the stakes—knowing the consequences if she did harm such an important guest—would be an additional impetus for the defector to control herself. Hermione hoped so. "I am Hermione Riddle, of Britain," she said.
The other witch raised her eyebrows in evident surprise. "I see. This is an honor, then. I did not realize that your Minister deployed his own wife to foreign states."
"I am not 'deployed' anywhere by his will," she replied smoothly. "We are a team—comrades, you might say. He is currently in Russia, in fact, with his allies, to handle the 'Harrower.'"
Andropova's eyes narrowed at the mention of that person. "So you and he are trying to conquer the East at once?"
Hermione ignored that. "I am here for the reasons I gave. The children in this facility are kidnap victims. They are being held unlawfully, and your actions have violated the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. However, if you and your allies agree to cease operations, cooperate with us, tell us which Muggles you're working with, and release the children to the custody of Volodymira Koroleva… then we will be willing to reduce your sentences."
Andropova snorted. "Reduce our sentences! The Statute of Secrecy! When you told me who you were, I knew that we could not talk fruitfully. I have heard of your husband's political movement. It is astonishing that a party which so many consider to be the ideological successor to Grindelwald's wizarding supremacism is more adamant than any other about preserving that obsolete law. Gather everyone with magical ancestry under your laws! Even your blood-purity advocates would not do that."
Hermione began to have misgivings about this idea. "I don't know who your 'so many' are, or why they concern themselves with British politics," she said coolly, "but it sounds as if you yourself might be a wizarding supremacist. Is that why you've been abducting these children and forming this Soviet program to train them as magical operatives? You want to create a force of Soviet wizards who will someday take over the USSR? Do what Grindelwald could not?"
"Certainly not. I do not think wizards should rule Muggles unless a wizard happens to be the most effective leader. Muggles have many great ideas, however, and we should be integrated fully into their world. Your party is moving in the opposite direction."
"I agree that we should not slam the door on Muggle ideas and culture," Hermione said carefully. "That isn't what we do! You can't integrate Squibs with distant wizarding ancestors without bringing in ideas from the Muggle world. We welcome them if they're good ideas. But Wizarding Secrecy is necessary because this world is dangerous. Muggles may not be as prone to religious fear now, but they have nuclear weapons, and if the wrong Muggles learned precisely what our abilities are, they might want us all dead."
"Yes, yes, the scary story," Andropova sneered. "Muggles would fear unregulated rogue wizards. If we were fully integrated into their society, and they knew who we were and we worked with them, there would be no such fear. Hiding does not exactly give them a reason to trust us. If we showed that we had nothing to hide and worked with them, it would be different."
"Work with them…" Hermione trailed off. "You mean you would make us servants. We serve their purposes, fight their battles for them, or else. Is that it?"
"We are not separate. Our society is riven by the same conflicts that have defined history, the same tyranny of the aristocrats and of capital. The same type of hierarchy. We pretend to be separate because we are afraid of being made to 'fight their battles for them,' as you put it, but in reality we are refusing to do our part for society. It is not their battle, after all."
"If we're not participating in their elections, their commerce," Hermione said through clenched teeth, "if we're not inventing nuclear weapons, then yes, it is their battle. We had no part in it. The conflicts are the same because human nature is the same. Of course we developed a hierarchy in our own societies. In Europe and Britain, it's based altogether too much on 'purity of blood,' but we're trying to put a stop to that at home by emphasizing talent and intelligence… and by reminding people that everyone under our laws has magical heritage. So if you want to break down that structure, you should work with me and give up this project peacefully."
"I see that you believe what you say," Andropova said thoughtfully, "and perhaps you are right that your husband's party has made some small progress toward that goal. But I can make much greater progress by removing these children from a stunted society and placing them into a free and orderly one where there is no such aristocratic structure."
Hermione shook her head sadly. "I don't agree. You're not freeing these children. You're just putting them into a different hierarchy. You're taking away their rights to self-determination."
Verochka Andropova scowled at Hermione wordlessly. Although this was not exactly encouraging, it was at least an invitation to continue.
"I understand why you want to protect these children from this threat," she said. "I really do! The Harrower is a monster. He definitely serves that blood-purity hierarchy. But you're letting Muggles exploit you for their own political purposes. You don't have to choose between being slaughtered by the Harrower or becoming servants of the Muggle state."
"I am convinced that the so-called Harrower has been lying to the state about the people he directs the KGB to execute," Andropova said tightly. "The state would not knowingly kill magical people unless individual ones presented threats. It values us highly when we work with them, as I have learned. Once they understand that our powers are real, not religious superstition, but an inborn trait, their opposition disappears. They wish to give us opportunity."
"You're correct about the Harrower, but these Muggles don't wish to 'give' you anything," Hermione said patiently. "You have no choice. Or those children don't, at least."
"The kind of choice you speak of begets waste. It is a tragedy when potential is wasted."
"Maybe so, but you are taking away people's right to determine the course of their own lives."
Verochka sneered. "And you are not, by abducting our children and taking them to your countries? I know you have done it. Koroleva has allowed it, weak leader that she is."
"We have never 'abducted' any children who have family to care for them. We also have never forced any adults to leave their homeland; we assisted those who wanted to. We did bring two orphans to Britain, and our allies have done the same. In free nations they'll at least have the chance, when they are old enough, to decide for themselves what they want to do in life."
"Ah, the Western myth that you have self-determination," Verochka regarded Hermione with contempt. "Again, what you have is wasted ability, whether because of your class system or because of individual laziness. But this was not to be the purpose of the meeting, to fight about politics."
"Wasn't it?" Hermione said quietly. "My husband can deal with the Harrower, though we would have welcomed your help—but not as a Soviet agent. Our allies are in the Magical Resistance."
Verochka's eyes narrowed. She inhaled sharply.
Hermione continued. "The Harrower is going to be brought down. I had hoped to persuade you to give up what you are doing, to stop living in fear of his threat, and to join us."
Verochka turned to Hermione grim-faced. "Well," she said, "we have a problem, then."
End Notes: We'll find out what happened with Tom and his team in the next chapter.