This chapter has taken a lot of time, because I'm on a hectic schedule and I had a small writer's block. Now though Easter Holidays have begun, so I'll up my game for two weeks. No daily updates though. I have a lot of books, anime and manga waiting for me.
This chapter has only change of povs, but no changes of settings.
Please let me now if you find any mistakes, I have proofread this, but I'm kinda tired so...
Hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 14: New players
Dumbledore opened the sitting of the Wizengamot on the first of December, feeling more weary than usual. While he didn't like the position of Chief Warlock, which had been forced on him after his defeat of Grindelwald, at least it gave him some measure of control over the Wizarding World.
The Wizengamot consisted of all the Head of Houses and every Head of a ministry Department was given a place as well. The Chief Warlock, appointed by the minister, opened the meeting, led the debates and called for a final vote. In the past the Light side had had a slight majority over the Dark Side, especially if they got the Neutrals on their side.
The war had depleted the ranks of both and many seats had stayed empty in the past fifteen years. This had changed when Severus Snape took up the mantle of Lord Prince. This meeting two more newcomers would swear into the Wizengamot: Lord Black and Lord Slytherin.
Dumbledore both feared and looked forward to seeing Tom again. That he was willing to go the political way was a good sign, they would not survive another war. At the same time it was also a concern. Tom had been a very charismatic speaker back in the day and had had a knack for swaying everyone to his way of thinking. Dumbledore had yet to see which way Tom would take and this time he wouldn't hesitate to intervene should Tom's course not be to his liking.
Slowly the ornate room started to fill. It was oval, though slightly flatted on one side, were the Chief Warlock sat. The chairs were placed in rows; the lowest rows for the Department Heads and then rising in status. Few chairs were placed on the highest row of the most Ancient and most Noble Families; only Peverell, the founders of Hogwarts, Emrys and le Fay remained, and they had been empty for centuries.
The chairs were decorated to the preferences of the Lord or Lady present when the Wizengamot had been established. Many were made of precious material like marble, gold, or gemstone. The Black chair for example was made of a large piece of onyx and the Longbottom chair resembled a garden made of peridot, while the Slytherin throne had emerald snakes curled all around.
The Heads of the ministry Departments were always the first to enter for they valued punctuality very much, and had more to prove. They sat on the lowest rows in undecorated chairs, unless they held a Lord- or Ladyship of course. In that case they were seated in the Family chair. Afterwards the Lords and ladies trickled in at their own pace. Some used this semi-monthly (every two weeks) session to catch up and others were already discussing some of the points on the agenda.
Lord Black and Lord Slytherin came in last, preceded by the Master of Ceremony. Lord Slytherin went first and Dumbledore's eyes nearly fell out of their sockets at the sight of Tom's youthful appearance. He shot a reproachful look towards Severus; Tom had called his Death Eaters just before Sirius' trial, but Severus had yet to tell him anything about it.
"I, Marvolo Slytherin Lord of the most Noble and most Ancient House of Slytherin hereby claim my rightful seat on the Wizengamot. I swear to do my best for the good of the British Wizarding World to the best of my ability."
Applause all around as the newest member was sworn in. Dumbledore scowled slightly at the standard oath. It wasn't binding in anything except honour and contained more loopholes than the Law on Underage Magic. The person in question only had to do their best to what they viewed as their abilities. Not to mention that doing good for their community could be interpreted in any number of ways.
As Sirius stepped forward Dumbledore magicked his normal, congenial smile back on his face. No need to make it seem like he was partial, which could cost him the position of Chief Warlock.
When the formalities were finally over, new ideas for laws were presented. First up, as usual, was Madame Umbridge, the Senior Undersecretary for the Minister, with another of her ridiculous Being proposals. By now she had proposed so many, and a good half of those had actually been executed, that most were listening with only half an ear.
This time Madame Umbridge was advocating retracting the right of Vampires and Werewolves to have a wand. Dumbledore feared it might be passed in the end, for Fudge had a soft spot for her and was known to line the pockets of many. (And had his own pockets lined by many, but that was a whole other matter entirely.) Not to mention Madame Umbridge's habit of speaking so patronizingly to any opposition that Dementors might get a cavity from it.
Ten minutes into the session and Voldemort (Marvolo he reminded himself) was very tempted to start Crucioing the pink toad before him. There stood the whole reason why he was against inbreeding. The woman was ugly, had worse taste in clothing than Dumbledore (whom he suspected was colour blind) and had no sense whatsoever.
Werewolves were still Wizards and Witches, only they turned at the moon and if a Vampire had enough wieldable magic to be accepted by a wand, it was of the utmost importance they learned how to harness that power. An untrained magic wielder without schooling was an explosion waiting to happen.
When the blasted woman started to speak of the dangers Beings presented to Magic Folk, he couldn't keep silent anymore. This woman had to be stopped verbally or who would be sent to Azkaban for murder and that just couldn't happen.
"If I may interrupt Madame Umbridge? Chief Warlock, I have certain facts, which I feel need to be presented so to give an accurate picture of the situation Madame Umbridge is trying to present."
Dumbledore looked at him with obvious surprise written all over his face, really the man was such a gryffindor. Did he expect the Dark Side to abandon Dark Creatures and Beings to their fate at the hands of such a woman?
"Naturally Lord Slytherin, you have the floor."
Marvolo inclined his head towards Dumbledore and face the rest of the room, all the while ignoring Madame Umbridge's spluttering at being interrupted.
"Fellow members of the Wizengamot, today Madame Umbridge has been trying to convince us to deny Beings the right to wield a wand, because they already pose a danger to us. Indeed Werewolves and Vampires cause about a dozen or two deaths each year. But Lords and Ladies shouldn't we be asking ourselves why they attack us Magic Folk?"
"Why?! Because they are dangerous beasts that have no sense, morals or even humanity. They do not deserve to be a part of our community."
The whole room reared back from these venomous words and many looked at the pink woman in disgust. Marvolo turned to her, and with a silky voice started to eviscerate her. (He had to admit he had learned this from Eileen Prince, who started at Hogwarts at the same time and had been the only person to beat him in a subject, Potions.)
"With that one sentence you have demonstrated your own inanity, Madame Umbridge. The reason why Beings attack Wizards and Witches is because they have no other choice. Already you have made schooling and therefore employing impossible. They have no income and no one will sell a house to a Being thanks to the raised taxes on this by your legislation. They have no access to the potions, which help their affliction and consequently lose control sooner or later. As for the deaths, every year a triple amount of people dies from quidditch accidents, will you ban our national sport as well?"
The room was so silent one would be able to hear a pin drop. Madame Umbridge had turned an ugly shade of spotted red and was speechless. Just when the silence began to become unbearable, Lord Black stood, regal in his black and purple robes with a silver trim.
"I wholeheartedly agree with Lord Slytherin and propose that the anti-Being legislation drafted by Madame Umbridge is rescinded immediately. Furthermore she has proven herself incapable of making decisions for the good of our world as she has been discriminating against over half of it since the beginning of her career. I for one do not want her in this room again."
Lord Malfoy stood. "I second the proposal from Lord Black." Lord Prince and Lord Nott also gave their support resulting in a direct vote. The result was … conclusive to say the least. No one had voted against and thus Madame Umbridge was banned from the Wizengamot and her laws were annulled.
Yet Lord Slytherin wasn't finished with speaking, for he had a proposal of his own. As the murmurs died out once again he started his speech and this time he used all of his charisma to keep his audience captivated.
"We have resolved a great injustice at last, but there is one more I would like to bring to your attention, Lords and Ladies. This matter concerns muggleborns and more precisely their education. We bring these children into our world at the age of eleven. They have at best two months to immerse themselves into this new situation before they are sent to Hogwarts.
I find that too late. At that point their believes are already formed and often in contradiction to what we try to teach them. They have no notion of our culture, our ways, our history or even our holidays. They look at our world and only see how backwards it is in their eyes. And because they don't understand and feel comfortable they try to change it to what they do know. We have gone along with this, but it needs to stop. Muggleborns need to accept that we have our own way and reasons for doing things the way we do.
We suggest we create schools for muggleborns and magical raised children alike from the age of six to eleven so they may immerse themselves in our world from an early age. We have the means for this; every magical child that is born is immediately archived in the Department of Magical Child Protection.
The parents should be bound to an oath so they cannot reveal any knowledge of magic to non-magicals, but should be given the opportunity to be able to talk with magical parents. This will help them to aide their child into our world.
I have asked Lord Prince's help to create a guideline for the curriculum and it hasn't been finished yet, but I will give you a short summary. Basic skill like reading, writing and elementary mathematics will be taught as well as history, traditions and customs of our world. The basic idea behind magic will be explained with some exercises to get accidental magic under control."
Madame Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and Lady of the House of Bones, addressed Marvolo as soon as he had finished speaking. She belonged to the Neutral faction; always get to the bottom of things before making a fair decision.
"I noticed you avoided the word muggle as much as possible, Lord Slytherin. I would also like to inquire what you would suggest for children, whose parents absolutely detest the idea of magic."
"You ask reasonable questions, Lady Bones. I do indeed wish to ban the word muggle from our vocabulary, as muggleborns have nothing to do with muggles. I have decisive prove that muggleborns are actually descended from squib lines. A true muggle will rarely have children with a magical person and if they do the children will have no magic whatsoever. I prefer newbloods instead.
I would prefer not to take children from their parents, but in cases of abuse or orphanage magical families with a wish for children should adopt them. There are quite a few couples, who wish for children, but cannot have them even with the help of magic."
Amelia Bones nodded; her curiosity was satisfied, she knew what she needed to now. Elphias Dodge, Lord of the House of Dodge, frowned as he addressed Marvolo.
"What do you mean by replacing our traditions and customs by muggle ones?"
"I mean, Lord Dodge, replacing Yule by Christmas, Samhain by Halloween, and so on. Our holidays are meant to honour Magic, not a Christian God, who has been our enemy for ages. By customs I mean the very room you are standing in. Our Houses and standings. For example muggleborns see house elves as slavery, while they are actually thriving on the connection they have with the families they serve.
Muggleborns are very much like tourists when they first arrive in our world, except most tourists don't try to change the very foundations of the country they are visiting."
"I see what you mean Lord Slytherin. Forgive me my impertinence earlier."
While more questions were asked, and every member made their opinion known, no true objections were made. The idea was very sensible and some wondered why it had taken so long for it to happen. It certainly was a huge improvement and most realised that Hogwarts' education standard would raised because of it. When put to a vote a majority was for the proposal and thus it was put into legislation.
Another suggestion had also been made to create a temporary solution for the muggleborns already at Hogwarts. They would get extra lessons and a magical raised buddy to really integrate themselves into world they were living in.
The implementation would be left to Lord Slytherin and whomever he asked to take part. If all went according to plan, the first schools would open in September. The ministry would fund, but many Lords and Ladies had already assured they would make their own contributions.
Dumbledore had been pleasantly surprised throughout the whole session and was glad with how things had turned out. It really looked like Tom had regained is original potential. Dumbledore would keep an eye on things, but already a last had fallen of his shoulders.
It was with pain that he had to acknowledge that he might have been partly responsible for Tom's fall. He had been to hasty when he had first met the boy, a decision he regretted to this day, and things hadn't gotten better from then on. It seemed though like Tom had regained all that had been lost through the years.
Perhaps Harry wouldn't have to take up a role he did not suit after all. The boy was very much the nurturing type, not hero or fighter material in the least. Well a hero in some ways. The boy kept picking up strays and making their live take a turn for the better. First Severus, then little Luna, probably Tom as well in some way. Who knew what the future held now. It would be interesting to watch the events unfold.
The Law on Underage Magic means (in this fic) that use of magic is registered. However in magical households and places, identifying the caster is impossible. The ministry simply trusts magical parents to look out for their kids. I know it's not canon, but to me this sounds way likelier.
The Umbitch is down! But for how long?
Please review!