Warning: This chapter contains non-graphical references to miscarriage and domestic violence. They do not involve Tom or Hermione, but I'm warning anyway because these topics can be upsetting to people.
Chapter Twenty-Three: The Fourth Estate, Part II: The Minister's Speech
"Very well, then." Tom rose from his chair along with Orion Black, who was wearing a very satisfied smile on his face.
Black had just received a written, magically binding promise from the Minister to support his renewed bid for reinstatement to the Wizengamot—but Riddle being Riddle, the Minister had been very exacting in what he asked for in return.
"You're an Isolationist. I know you don't support everything I have done, and I'm not fool enough to expect it from you in future. And while I will appreciate your support, certainly, the mere verbal support of one wizard is not enough for me to put someone on the Wizengamot who will sometimes be an adversary."
Orion had expected nothing less, but he had come to this meeting prepared. His sister Lucretia was also there, as was her best friend, Priscilla Malfoy. There was something that Mrs. Malfoy wanted to do, but she had been unwilling to do it for fear that it would result in her being socially ostracized and punished by the legal system. With the support of the head of the Black family, the very wealthy Ignatius Prewett, and the Minister for Magic himself—to say nothing of the Minister's entire political faction—she had mustered the nerve to do it.
Mrs. Malfoy had also given Tom what he wanted to know about the Daily Prophet editorial board.
Hermione shook Professor Slughorn's hand with a smile on her face.
"I really do apologize for things being so bad," Slughorn exclaimed. "If I'd had any idea it was that desperate…."
"It's hardly your fault… Horace," Hermione said. It still felt awkward to call the man by his given name.
Slughorn sipped his ever-present drink. "Well, I was friends with Abraxas. I had no idea that he was behind this Prophet smear campaign. Politics is a loathsome line of work."
Hermione gave him a tight smile. That it is, she thought, but she did not want to tell him something that might be used against her later. Slughorn himself wouldn't deliberately hurt them, but the man could not be trusted with confidences if he had too much to drink.
"Cuffe will be given top priority at the next press conference, and will cover it fairly," Hermione confirmed. "And in exchange—"
"I'll get him a job at The New York Ghost if Malfoy's people retaliate," Slughorn repeated.
Hermione nodded. "I hope it won't be necessary, of course. Tom is hopeful that the support of Orion Black will lessen Malfoy's influence somewhat… but in case it isn't enough…."
"I understand perfectly, Hermione. These are mad times we live in."
You have no idea, Hermione thought. She had not told Slughorn about the near-disaster in Russia and Eastern Europe. Tom would have to reveal the truth of what they had done, and she was sure that it would disturb and upset the Deputy Headmaster much more than the realization—and honestly, how could he not have known already? How oblivious is the man? she wondered—that his "friend" Abraxas Malfoy was behind the newspaper attack on his two favorite former students.
Tom did not usually avail himself of the green marble tub in the master bathroom, preferring instead the efficiency of their shower. Although he certainly had a taste for grandeur and luxury, he did not have the inclination to be idle. The shower got him clean, and he did not need to loaf in a fancy tub with perfumed water and bubbles. However, tonight he wanted to use the bathtub. It's almost as if I want to soak away the dirt of what I did—and heard—today, he thought.
Hermione was seated at her desk. When she heard him start to run water in the fancy bath, she was surprised. He must have had a long day, to want to do this, she mused… poor thing, to have to make deals with people he disliked…. The slight tinge of sarcasm in her thoughts fled. They really were having a rough time of it, and in this case it was largely undeserved. But at least they had made plans to begin to turn things around.
Tom emerged shortly from the bathroom, his hair dry but disheveled. He was garbed in a robe—a wizarding robe, but one cut for sleepwear.
"I didn't want to mention this in front of the children," he remarked, turning around to face her. "But… there will be a big news story about Malfoy that will break tomorrow—whether his toadies on the Prophet like it or not—and there are some very ugly things in it. I wanted to warn you."
She marked her place on the papers at the desk, got up, and went over to the bedside where he stood. She touched his chest, stroking lightly. "I assumed you got something big when you mentioned that Lucretia Prewett and Mrs. Malfoy were also there, and that Mrs. Malfoy gave you documentation of Abraxas's bribes to the newspaper editors."
They both sat down on the mattress. "It's definitely big, and it's very unpleasant," he confirmed.
"Are you going to give me any hints?"
He glowered, though not at her. "I hate even mentioning the subject matter, to be honest."
She quirked a brow at him. "Well, then, why did you? You have to tell me now."
He nodded grimly. "Malfoy has abused her. I don't know all the details—they will be in the news, I assume—but he has, and she's going to make him pay for it. She just needed support."
Hermione scowled deeply at that idea. "Good. If that's what has happened—and if she herself is innocent—then I hope she does make him pay. I told you that you shouldn't make an issue of her drinking, and I'm glad you didn't. What is she going to do?"
"Legal separation at a minimum, and if Black and the Prewetts can talk her into more, then possibly more."
Hermione's eyes were wide. "Among that set? That's…." She trailed off.
"Quite. I hope it will finish Malfoy as a public presence, but even if it doesn't, it'll be a negative story about someone other than us."
"But once that story is no longer in the news, you'll need to clarify what happened in the East, because they will return to that eventually otherwise."
The grimace on his face transformed into an overt frown. "I'm just afraid of the cost of exposing it—especially the business in Ukraine. A Muggle-born betraying Secrecy because of Muggle political values? Malfoy's people would pounce on that."
"Then let the Reformists attempt to defend it," she said hotly. "Do you know what she said to me? She said that this faction, yours, ours, was the most adamant of all about defending the Statute of Secrecy—and it's true! The Isolationists would leave anyone who isn't a pureblood to the Muggles, with all the risks that entails. The Reformists would tell the Prime Minister about us, leave children in hostile Muggle homes, and keep Muggle-born families—Squibs—in the Muggle world, constantly exposed to those Muggle values." She took a deep breath as something else occurred to her, a memory from her visit to Merlin and Arthur's during the Crouch campaign. "I've also heard more than one Reformist object to the resistance governments severing contact with the Muggles, because they don't see the threat that Muggle Communism poses to our people."
Tom was listening intently, and at the same time, he was staring at Hermione, clothed as she was in a loose nightgown that looked like it should be pulled right off her. It was very convenient, he reflected, to pay attention to someone when he had every motive to do so in the first place….
"So what happened there is not ours to explain. Your policies didn't cause it. Even a foreign version of your policies didn't cause it. And let the Isolationists grapple with Karkaroff and Dolohov. They definitely own them—either by actually colluding with them in secret, or supporting the same blood-purist views. The only reason she did what she did was because of their actions. We are not the ones culpable. We solved the problem." She was fired up.
"You're quite right, and I do like it when you get exercised about our issues."
Ours, she thought. Our issues. Yes, he really does like having me as a partner. I'm sure that, after learning whatever he learned today about the Malfoys, the contrast is especially stark.
"I'm exercised about it because it is our issue." She wrapped her arms around him, meeting his lips in a heated kiss as they tumbled into bed.
The news story about Malfoy was worse than Hermione had expected. She actually wondered for a moment about the Daily Prophet's ethics in printing all of these details—before recalling that this was, in fact, the Daily Prophet.
.
Priscilla Malfoy To Divorce Husband Abraxas, Alleges Shocking Abuse!
Priscilla Malfoy, wife of leading Isolationist Abraxas Malfoy, has taken the almost unprecedented step of filing for divorce and full custody of their son Lucius. In addition to citing her husband's widely known infidelity with a Muggle woman, for which Malfoy was fined for violation of the Statute of Secrecy, Mrs. Malfoy alleges in her lawsuit that her husband engaged in forms of abuse that are quite shocking against a magical person.
According to the lawsuit, filed with the Family Law Committee of the Wizengamot, Abraxas Malfoy routinely deprived her of her wand in their home. He also locked her in her apartments at Malfoy Manor, refusing to allow her to see her son or leave the manor—or even to visit other parts of the house to which she had a legal right, according to the terms of the marriage contract. The lawsuit also states that Malfoy hexed and cursed her when he was displeased with her, inflicting serious injury at times, even though he had taken her own wand away so that she could not defend herself in a domestic fracas.
Worst of all, Mrs. Malfoy's suit alleges that Mr. Malfoy caused two miscarriages in the past year by means of the Bruising Curse. Although Mrs. Malfoy would not speak personally to the Prophet, her lawsuit and legal representative state that Mr. Malfoy was determined to have only one child without regard for her own wishes—or the new law of the British Wizarding World. Although the Wizarding Renaissance Law only controls access to the potions ingredient used to safely terminate pregnancies, and does not prohibit induced miscarriage by means of curses, such a procedure is extremely dangerous and painful. As a result, existing laws already made it illegal to force termination of a pregnancy upon an unwilling witch.
Mr. Malfoy himself denied all allegations of abuse. However, Mrs. Malfoy's attorney, Ceridwyn Fawley, states that her client has provided evidence in the form of bottled memories that she intends to show to the Family Law Committee when the divorce case is heard.
"Malfoy followed a long pattern of misogyny that is unfortunately common in his family history," Fawley stated to the Prophet. "He himself has admitted that the family prefers sons, refusing to allow elder daughters to inherit, which I would like to point out is an obsolete Muggle custom. Although there is no reason to think that the family itself promotes abuse of women, this history of disregarding witches undoubtedly led him to believe that he could abuse my client and even deprive her of her wand."
Although divorce has been permitted by Wizarding law for years, it is very uncommon for members of old families such as the Malfoy family to divorce. It is even more unusual for a parent to request full custody of a child. Nonetheless, Mrs. Malfoy's case has already acquired support from certain influential quarters. Mr. Orion Black, head of the Black family, has stated his confidence in Mrs. Malfoy's claims and his support for her cause. The family of Ignatius Prewett, Director of the Curse-Breaking Division of Gringotts Bank and brother-in-law to Black, has also declared support.
"I've seen the memories myself," Black said in a statement to the Prophet. "It's shocking and terrible to have to believe this of a longtime friend of the family, but Priscilla is a friend of the family too. This is an absolutely unacceptable way to treat a pureblood witch and we are fully behind her legal case."
Hearings on the Malfoy divorce case will begin in January.
.
Hermione folded the newspaper. As excited as she was that Abraxas Malfoy was the one embroiled in a scandal—and that this one appeared likely to actually hurt him, unlike the Muggle mistress scandal—she felt guilty about finding anything to be happy about when another witch had been treated in such an abominable way.
There was something else, too. Hermione had been aware that Tom's awful law did not prohibit witches from self-terminating with Dark Arts curses, but she had assumed that no one would actually try to do such a thing and would instead seek to get the silphium plant on the black market or sneak it into Britain from abroad. Mrs. Malfoy had not done it, either; apparently she had wanted two more children—and it was deeply unsettling, in a certain way, to realize that Lucius Malfoy should have had at least two siblings—but was it really any worse to force an unwanted miscarriage than to force an unwanted pregnancy? Hermione supposed that it might be a bit worse; the victim of a forced miscarriage would have lost a wanted child, but they both were rather bad to Hermione's thinking. Since Tom had no real problem with one of the two things, and in fact had done it to her (even though she did want Cynthia once she knew she was pregnant), it irked her a bit that he was going to benefit from this news.
Well, Tom was a hypocrite. That was hardly news to Hermione. He had been a hypocrite every time he sent someone to Azkaban for murder as Law Enforcement Head. He did have a problem with forcing unwanted termination on a witch, though. His thoughts were probably rather like Orion Black's, in fact, but applied to any witch instead of just pureblood ones. And she noticed that he had, very wisely, kept his support for Mrs. Malfoy out of the article. The last thing the poor woman needed was for her personal trauma and laudable act of courage to be openly politicized.
Of course, it probably would be anyway, but they should not attempt to openly capitalize. Malfoy had—not exactly been given the proverbial rope with which to hang himself, but he had certainly acted in such a way for which he would now pay the price. That would happen irrespective of anything the Riddles or the Wizarding Nationalists might do, and in fact, it would probably only hurt them—to say nothing of Mrs. Malfoy—if they did attempt to capitalize publicly.
Tom held a faction meeting in the Serpents' Chalice that afternoon, before work hours were officially ended, to discuss Malfoy and the steps forward.
"Of course, we are not going to gloat about this news," he remarked to his cronies across their usual table. "If we're questioned, we'll condemn the behavior and support Mrs. Malfoy. I committed us to that. But we will not bring it up first. Understood?"
Heads nodded in unison.
"I hate that we had to offer anything to Black," sniped Fox.
"Black is not going to support everything I do," Tom conceded, "but he is too frightened of me to make a nuisance of himself publicly opposing me. We all read his editorial. His opposition will be silence. He just won't talk about policies he doesn't like. I can live with that if he supports me otherwise, in his votes and in his editorials about what he does like." Tom paused. "On that subject. The Prophet editorial board is actually being paid by Malfoy. You'd think his cronies would have more innate loyalty to him, but I guess not." Disdain dripped from his words. "Now… in light of what has just come out, I think we should be careful about releasing this. The one thing we don't want is for Mrs. Malfoy to be accused of conspiring with us."
"Even though she sort of was," Patrick Greengrass snarked.
"She agreed to go public and go forward with a divorce suit because she was promised my support—our support," he amended. "She was under the impression that she would have virtually no support or sympathy from anyone—that most of her own sort would shun her for getting a divorce, and that her family's political opponents would shrug. Her accusations are true and she just needed the courage to act, but we don't need the bad press that we'd accrue if this took on the appearance of being a political bargain." He considered. "The problem with releasing the Prophet payoffs is how we would account for having the data. Obviously, if we said we got it from her, that does look like a conspiracy."
"But what if the Prophet board starts to attack Mrs. Malfoy?" asked Geoffrey Fox.
"Then she can release the information, and we will stand by the idea of free press instead of political pressure," he said, smirking asymmetrically and slightly emphasizing the word "idea." "I just don't think we should be the ones to release it, unfortunately, since we would have to explain where we got the evidence."
"But the press is against you too. Having that list of payments won't change that."
"I have another plan in mind." He nodded at Hermione, who smiled and began to speak.
"I've spoken with Slughorn, who has agreed to offer 'amnesty' of a sort to Barnabas Cuffe—"
Snarls of disgust sounded across the table, but Tom glared at the ones who had dared interrupt her, silencing further eruptions.
"—if he covers Tom's next speech and press conference fairly and Malfoy's people punish him for it." She shared a significant look with Tom. "And on that subject. I do not know how much any of you except Vincent Rosier and the rest of the security team know about what was going on in Eastern Europe and Russia, but it was a great deal more serious than a kidnapper and a pair of isolated murderers." She stared out at the witches and wizards, meeting their eyes with a very serious gaze. "You need to know this before Tom gives his speech, and we are counting on you to keep this to yourselves until that time."
There were murmurs around the table. Tom spoke up sharply. "Is that clear?" he snapped. "I will not have my own people spreading rumors before my speech."
"Yes, Minister," someone said, a bit surprised.
"Good," Hermione continued. "Here are the facts, then. It all started in Russia…."
The people at the table listened, horrified and enraged, as Hermione explained what had happened in the East, though conveniently omitting the original name of the Polish leader "Geryk Baginski"—and the fact that she and Tom had both used Unforgivable Curses on the combatants—and Tom's resurrection following the Killing Curse. She was aware that most of Tom's faction actually thought that two of the Unforgivables—the Killing Curse and the Imperius Curse—should be allowed in certain circumstances, but she did not want to reveal anything that might be compromising. Everyone, even the hostile Daily Prophet, had accepted the explanation that two of the criminals had been killed in duels after attempting to assassinate the Minister and his wife, but apparently there were still many wizards who were squeamish about the one fatal curse that caused instant, painless death.
After she had finished, one of Tom's cronies fired the hard question at him: "Minister, pardon me for asking, but why didn't you just say it was this bad?"
Tom glowered at the wizard. "I thought it would frighten everyone if they knew. And I was concerned about the political consequences of talking about the Ukrainian situation in particular. Of course, the political consequences of saying almost nothing turned out quite bad enough."
"This should silence that foolish talk about Ministry inquiries, though."
"It should," he agreed. "The mission was obviously justified—there is ample precedent for heads of government to personally intervene when it is a matter of the Statute of Secrecy—and that'll be apparent from my speech."
"How much did Malfoy know?" Geoffrey Fox asked, his eyebrows narrowed suspiciously.
"Probably everything about the Russian scheme," Tom said sourly, "but we can't prove it." He glanced at Vincent Rosier, who nodded in support.
"And if we can't prove it," Rosier finished, "we'll just look mad for saying it."
"So yes," Tom said, shaking his head slightly as if in disbelief. "Abraxas Malfoy was almost certainly aware of an international murder conspiracy, and he bribed the free press to support him, but his abuse of his wife is what will probably discredit him."
The news about the Malfoys produced just as much of a shock wave in pureblood Isolationist circles as Tom and Hermione's network had hoped. It knocked the controversy about Tom to page A3 of the newspaper, as many people in the wizarding community decided to weigh in and the press dissected the story in every conceivable way.
For all their archaic views about the role of witches, many members of the old families drew a line at physically abusing a witch—or at least, a pureblood witch. Orion and Walburga Black jointly penned an editorial stating that any wizard who would treat his (pureblood) wife as Priscilla Malfoy alleged that Abraxas had treated her was a shame and a disgrace upon his heritage. The subtext, the unspoken term, was of course "blood-traitor," but Hermione and Tom supposed that the pureblood Isolationists knew as well as anyone else that they did not have a monopoly on the meaning of that term anymore. Lucretia Black Prewett, who—with her husband—had not been involved in politics, wrote an editorial for the newspaper condemning Malfoy in harsh terms.
The following day, Florian Rosier, who for some reason was already being considered a member of the British wizarding community even though he had lived most of his life in France, penned a piece in the Prophet that attacked Mrs. Malfoy as a habitual drinker who "probably" brought about her own miscarriages by alcohol consumption. Hermione wordlessly placed that article in front of Tom, her point perfectly clear to him. He was indeed glad that he had not launched that attack himself, after all.
That same day, Vasile Yaxley—a member of the editorial board who was in the pay of Malfoy—issued an "official statement on behalf of the Prophet" that Orion and Lucretia were Priscilla Malfoy's close friends, insinuating that they were unreliable sources as a result. That was the fatal mistake that Tom and his coterie had been hoping for.
Although the Lovegoods were by no means inclined to drop their suspicion that Tom might be a vampire or Dark wizard, or that he had masterminded a coup in Russia, they were pleased to have the exclusive scoop on just about any conspiracy implicating anyone. They were also manifestly delighted to have such compromising information about the editorial board of the rival newspaper.
Until the Quibbler broke the story about Malfoy's purchasing of the Daily Prophet board, Tom, Hermione, and the Malfoys' political opponents had been pleased to observe the storm from a distance. Finally, though, the legitimate reporters decided to ask the Minister for a statement, cornering him in the atrium of the Ministry.
He suppressed the smirk that wanted to form on his face as he adjusted his coat-style robe that covered his suit. "It is certainly very disturbing that anyone, let alone a wealthy and powerful wizard, bribed members of what should be the free press," he said as the reporters' quills took this down. "It's even more disturbing that these people would then attempt to use their stature as journalists to undermine a witch who appears to have been victimized by truly vicious conduct."
"You are expressing support for Mrs. Malfoy's claims, then?" one reporter asked. "You have been silent until now."
"Because this is not a political matter and we do not have a private relationship with the Malfoys," Tom replied smoothly. "But since you have asked me, yes, Hermione and I personally support Mrs. Malfoy. What, exactly, would she have had to gain by lying? We can see for ourselves that she is being attacked and doubted by people who have even been friends of their family, and she must have known or suspected that the Prophet board was in Abraxas's pocket. She came forward anyway." Tom turned his back, intending to walk to a Disapparition point, but a reporter called out to him again.
"Minister, are we going to find out more about the problems in the East?"
Tom stopped, turned around, and smiled. Sure enough, the press was going to tire of the Malfoy story and return to him. "You are—tomorrow. I will give a full account at ten and a press conference immediately following."
The next day.
The press room of the Ministry was packed. The flags of the Ministry and the Wizarding Nationalists dangled from poles behind the Ministerial podium, and everyone awaited the Minister himself. There were rumors that the Minister's wife was going to be present as well, as she had been for the disastrous press conference a week ago. Reporters clustered in a tight knot, with Barnabas Cuffe at the head of the group. Politicos and other important figures murmured in the audience, but all noise faded away when Tom and Hermione strode out and took their places behind the podium.
Tom began to speak. "About a week and a half ago, my wife and I led a pair of missions in Russia and Ukraine to provide support to the local authorities in their searches for the criminals who had been terrorizing our wizarding friends in the East. We were accompanied by the best of the best—British and American Aurors, as well as the assistance of our allies in Poland. There have been many questions about why Hermione and I were personally part of these missions, and just what, precisely, happened. Today you are going to learn the answers." Tom gazed out at the assembled press. "You will not like these answers, and I had hoped to keep the extent of the danger quiet after our forces had successfully neutralized the threat. However," he continued darkly, "some have attempted to use this for their own political advantage, calling for Ministry inquiries and making baseless speculation, even attacking Hermione in very personal terms. I will not have this.
"The problems began with Igor Karkaroff, who was the leader of the Russian resistance government. He recruited a wizard named Antonin Dolohov, who gained access to the list of witches and wizards in Russia. Karkaroff knew all about this, and there is very strong evidence that he had some names of wizards in other countries. In any case, Dolohov gave certain names on that list to the Muggle KGB, calling them traitors and spies."
Everyone in the room gasped in horror or snarled in anger. "Why would—" a reporter began to say.
"Dolohov was a violent blood-purity supporter. The names he gave to the Muggles were of those who were not pureblood," Tom said icily.
There were several uncomfortable mumbles from those in the crowd who sympathized with that viewpoint. For a brief moment, Tom wondered just how much they knew. He continued.
"It resulted, yes, in many witches and wizards being murdered by Muggles, and it destabilized the magical governments in the Eastern bloc. Others in the magical community got suspicious and distrustful, and some wrongly concluded that they knew who the killers were and took the law into their own hands. That accounts for the wizard-on-wizard killings." He took a deep breath, steeling herself for what had to come next. "In Ukraine, a witch independently deduced what was happening and decided, along with several allies, to throw her lot in with the Soviet Union. She breached Wizarding Secrecy to the Muggle government," he said grimly, watching the press carefully for their response. "Worse, she kidnapped half-blood children who she believed—rightly—were possibly at risk of being killed, and brought them to a Soviet facility to be trained as 'super-soldiers' and magical spies."
Tom gazed out, pausing to catch his breath as the murmurings briefly began anew and then faded away once he continued his speech. "The situation had become bad enough that it warranted direct intervention by a governmental head, and Wizarding Britain was the nation that stepped up. I would point out that there is ample precedent for direct involvement of Ministers and other heads of government in such matters, and I also had the support of the Polish resistance leader. While we were in St. Petersburg, numerous Russian volunteers joined our team and provided support when Karkaroff and Dolohov treacherously brought in a squad of heavily armed Muggle secret police, with the intent of killing everyone who presumed to try to stop them. This is why the Aurors fought Muggles.
"Karkaroff and Dolohov fled like cowards, and the Polish leader and I chased them into a private room and dueled them, two against two. If I had not been there, they both would have escaped. Dolohov was killed fighting. Karkaroff was left alive, and the Russians selected their new leader afterward. The Aurors would not have presumed to appoint a leader in a foreign state, and it is reckless and disrespectful of their hard work for conspiracy-mongers to suggest this.
"As for the involvement of my wife, she has assumed a leading role in my government. It's only natural, since she is a witch of unusual intelligence and magical power. Some people have said that this is a bad thing, but what would be bad would be if a witch with superb abilities could not use them fully simply because she was a witch. Hermione deduced some of the key factors of the Eastern situation before I did. She warned me that Karkaroff, to her, did not seem trustworthy, and her instinct was correct. She fought spectacularly in a situation in which she should not have had to fight at all, for her adversary broke the ancient law protecting diplomats. This is not the fault of the Aurors, who, naturally, were not in the negotiation room. The witch who breached Secrecy took advantage of a diplomatic custom.
"As Minister for Magic, I am accustomed to political games and sniping. It's unpleasant, but part of the job. But Hermione is the president and founder of a research institute that has provided great opportunities to magical innovators, as well as producing breakthroughs that have drastically improved our society. Because of her work and her organization, werewolves can live semi-normal lives. Wizards with no recent magical antecedents, and their close relatives, have been shown to have magical blood just as everyone else in our community. Our Floo network is better, our post does not risk breaching Wizarding Secrecy, our homes can detect impostors, and we have a public wizarding park outside Hogsmeade Village—all because of Hermione and her organization."
He was exchanging pointed, affectionate glances with her as he showered praise upon her. Although Hermione was aware that some of this was an act for the cameras, she also understood that he meant what he said. It brought a real smile to her face.
"And most recently, Hermione personally defeated a conspiracy to expose magic and put witches and wizards in servitude to Muggles, which in addition to being manifestly despicable, would have potentially incited Muggle governments around the world to enslave or annihilate us!" He caught his breath again, pausing. "And don't think I don't know who is responsible for this vile smear campaign against her, especially with the new information that has come out about Abraxas Malfoy's attempt to cripple our free and independent press. I will not have Hermione attacked by the flacks of someone who both agrees with the views of the Russian criminals that set everything in the East in motion, and who clearly has no respect for his own wife, let alone any other witch."
The quills of the reporters were taking this down rapidly and furiously. Tom smirked as he finished. "Finally, I have a personal message for Mr. Malfoy. Mr. Malfoy, if you had anything positive to offer the wizarding community, you would have done so. The fact that you instead use lackeys to attack a great witch for her heroism and dedication to bettering the magical community shows that you do not. For my part, I would have looked forward to campaigning against you. I would have relished refuting your attacks on me. But your time is up, and you have no one to blame for that but yourself. This is a lesson that all so inclined should take to heart, in fact, whether they are in Kyiv or St. Petersburg… or Wiltshire," he added with a smirk. "If you try to make victims out of magical people, you will not succeed, because we will not stand for it."
Tom stepped away from the podium and hugged Hermione, who had been standing by proudly. She had been watching the reaction of the assembled press corps, and it was obvious that the response was positive. This was how it should have gone from the start. All he had needed to do was explain what had happened, instead of letting Malfoy's flacks be the only ones talking.
The reporters had surprisingly few questions after that; Tom's explanation of the events in the East was comprehensive. Cuffe did ask him about the duel with Karkaroff and Dolohov.
"Minister, how did you and the Polish bloke defeat the Russians? Dark magic?"
Tom hesitated for a moment before smirking broadly. "Of course," he said. "Wizarding Secrecy was at stake. They couldn't be allowed to escape."
Tom, why? Hermione thought, meeting his eyes with her own wide. Why was he doing this?
The reporter took the bait. "Minister, so you are confirming that you are a Dark wizard—"
"When I have to be," Tom said smoothly. "The Dark Arts are an ancient branch of magic. Any spell can be used to attack, but Dark spells alone can be amplified by powerful intent. What is so wrong about that? I will use all tools at my disposal to protect our people."
To Hermione's relief, the members of the press seemed to accept this explanation, not even appearing scandalized. Perhaps there was much more latent tolerance for the Dark Arts among the wizarding community than Hermione had ever imagined—or perhaps Tom's own people had changed minds on the subject. The admission did not appear to have done any damage.
There were no further questions, so Tom smiled one last time, flashing his signature dazzling smile that was so good at bamboozling people. Then he and Hermione held hands, waved in farewell, and exited the room.
End Notes: I am going to try to do the Tomione Convention Christmas challenge and have a celebratory party as the next piece, since I've already established in preceding chapters that this is December in the story. There just might be smut, too.