Chapter 22
Draco inhaled the aroma from his cup of earl grey as he let the steam relax his entire body. It was early still, and half the household was still asleep, meaning he got some time to himself.
Growing up in a smaller family, it was strange at times for him to get used to the fact he was living with several other people due to the circumstances that had lead him here. And while he enjoyed being able to spend time with his son and the others, he missed the solitude of living alone. When his mother had gone abroad to get away from everything after the war, he found that while he missed her, he never felt all that alone in her absence. He was used to spending days entertaining himself before he attended Hogwarts and in the following summers, as his father often had important business matters to attend to and his mother was too busy with her social committees and galas.
And in doing so, he had taken to playing with his family's house elves, who were often more than happy to provide him with company and entertain him, especially his father's house elf, Dobby, who would often bring him sweets.
However, when his father found out that he had been spending time with the elves, he hadn't been pleased, and had punished all of them in retaliation, as a boy should not keep company with such vermin. And so, he had pushed away the elves he had become friends with in an attempt not to be punished anymore, and found himself once again in the company of only himself.
He didn't hate having all the noise and company at Grimmauld place. It took some time to get used to, yes, but it was enjoyable as well as nice to see how other families functioned when he went over to the Burrow. As he saw the Weasleys interact, he saw the family his father had hated so much, filled with so much love and happiness, and he couldn't help but feel jealous at the warm environment they were raised in.
As he picked up the paper, he felt a sense of worry tinge through him before he read the headline. He could feel the recent tensions rising up in England, what with everything happening, and most of the articles seemed to be criticizing the Aurors and Ministry in one way or the other.
Letter to the Editor
To The General Masses,
I am not writing this letter to you to inform you of every reason why we should be wary of the world we are living in. We already know what is happening all around us, despite the way the Ministry is attempting to cover everything up. We all felt the earthquake that shook up our nation, to some extent or the other, and all obtained some sort of damage in its wake; be it structural, physical, emotional, or mental. And to our sister country, Italy, where a tornado struck, with the potential for obliteration of everything in its path.
We did not choose this. We did not want this. And if it were completely natural, we could say that it was the fault of nature, and that none of us could have done anything to prevent it or the pain that came with it.
But this is not natural. And we have the power to change it. But we as a nation must first come together and stand tall as we fight for our country once more. We cannot stand back and let the Ministry continuously destroy what we have worked so hard to build up with centuries of history behind us.
And it is in this time I point out that in the past, we were much safer. Before the desire for power corrupted minds such as Gellert Grindelwald or He Who Must Not Be Named. There were simpler times where instead of a single person in charge, we ruled together as a nation. We made our choices together and in doing so, we thrived. Our nation flourished together as we kept our power in the hands of many than in a few elite.
Secrets and lies nearly destroyed our community twice in less than three decades. Two wars were fought; the second which easily could have been prepared for if the Ministry chose to try not to dust everything under the proverbial rug, so to speak. And instead of trying to use this as a lesson to change what is outdated, we remain in the same worn out path which lead us to this state to begin with.
How can a society continue to function as such when responsibility is not taken for what is tearing us apart?
Together we must stand and demand a change. No more secrets. No more lies. No more cover ups in an attempt to keep us all safe. Because how safe can the general public be when we don't even know what we are fighting against? How can we stand up tall as we are attacked with sources we aren't even aware of?
And so I leave you with this plea to join us. Stand up together, and we can make a change.
~ Anonymous
Draco groaned as he read the latest entry, as his earlier worry was confirmed.
"That bad?" a soft voice called out. He looked up to see Hermione standing there, in her night dress, across from him as sleep was still apparent in her face. She had dark circles from the lack of sleep, and her hair was tied up to tame it.
"Worse," he said grimly as he gestured at her to take the paper and read it for herself. As his eyes skimmed through it, darting back and forth to read each line, he could see her brow cross with worry as she scowled ever so slightly.
"You know who wrote this right?" she said, throwing the paper down onto the table as she sunk into a chair across from him. When a blank expression remained on his face, she responded with, "Whoever is responsible for everything is behind this! I don't believe it! They're the ones who caused the tornado to begin with, and now they're trying to get the world to stand with them! That's absolutely despicable!"
He didn't say anything, as he took the article and re-read it, as he took everything she said into account, and frowned in response.
"What?" she demanded, "Do you not see it?"
"We don't know that it is for a fact," Draco said slowly, "You're right in that it could be the person or people responsible for all of this; I'm not denying that. But at the same time, it seems a lot of people are against all of this at the moment, so it could be any one of them as well."
"I can't believe you!" Hermione said suddenly, "Draco, it's obviously them!" she pushed, and suddenly he felt a slight constraint in his throat.
"That's your opinion," he said in a slightly calm tone.
"And it's the right one, Malfoy," she snapped.
"Look, Granger," he said, tiredly, and frankly a little annoyed, "You might be the smartest witch of our year, but I was a close second. And maybe you're right, maybe you're not. But just because Potter and Weasley always believe you, doesn't mean you're always right."
She crossed her arms, causing her night dress to fall down ever so slightly, as she wordlessly stood up from the table, and walked away.
He shook his head, but didn't feel any remorse in response to his actions. Why should he? He had simply pointed out that just because she was smart didn't mean she was always right.
Besides, maybe now she would go get dressed in some clothes that were actually appropriate for the day, instead of staying in her state of practically being undressed. It wasn't decent!
And he refused to admit it had anything to do with the way she seemed to affect him, or their argument.
Hermione threw on a sweater as the day refused to seem to warm up. It had been a few hours since her disagreement with Malfoy, and with all her stubbornness, she had refused to as much as look at him till he accepted that he had been an ass.
Harry had simply given her a look when she had re-emerged for lunch, and she could tell that he thought the pair of them were being ridiculous. And maybe they were; but it didn't change the fact that he refused to see what was right in front of him, and it was driving her insane.
She supposed it came with being cramped in the same house as so many others day after day. It had happened when she, Harry, and Ron were on the run and camping day after day in forests, with terrible food and not enough sleep, as they struggled to find the next Horcrux.
She couldn't help but have a fleeting thought that maybe it was time to end the entire sort of sleepover/camping thing they were trying to pull off by having all of them in the same house. It was never meant to be permanent; a way to provide stability while the children adapted to the situation and allowed for them to remain together.
But it had been a few weeks since then, and the children seemed to have accepted to a degree everything that had happened. There really was no use in all of them staying in the same house anymore. And yes, she still visited her flat every now and then to pick up things she needed, but she hadn't stayed there a full night since the earthquake.
She closed her eyes as she sat back down on the bed. It wasn't because of Draco or anything of the sort, but she felt so trapped in this house; unable to breathe. She needed her alone time, and she needed some space.
She had more than enough room in her house for Scorpius to stay with her, and he would always be able to stay with his father other days. Besides, it was probably how it would all end up after this was over anyways; so what's the point in prolonging the inevitable?
Hermione took a deep breath and exited the room, to make her way down the stairs. She heard two voices talking in slightly hushed tones from the kitchen, an older woman and Malfoy.
When she got down to the bottom, she saw his mother was there with him.
"I'm not saying you should stick your nose into it, Draco," Narcissa said in a slightly agitated voice. "But Pansy was your friend growing up, and she's so shaken up by everything that's happened to her. She needs you, Draco."
"It's not like I don't talk to her every now and then, Mother," Draco said softly, "I know she's having a rough time. She's still recovering from the loss of her mother and with her father being locked up, she doesn't know how to cope with everything. You and I both know it's not me she needs."
Hermione stood by the frame of the door, knowing it was wrong to listen in, but she couldn't help but listen curiously. She wondered to herself if Narcissa had an ulterior motive in trying to convince her son to reach out to his former classmate. Despite her annoyance at the blond man, she couldn't help but feel a pang of irritation at his mother for attempting to push her son towards Pansy.
Deciding to make her presence known so she didn't have to listen to it anymore, she stepped into the room.
"Good morning, Miss Granger," Narcissa said in an elegant tone, as she remained in her upright posture.
"Hello," Hermione said, slightly awkwardly, unsure of what to do now, having not thought that far ahead.
"Would you care to take a seat?" she asked cordially, while Draco avoided eye contact with her, "I came to see the both of you."
"You did?" she asked, surprised, sitting down across from Draco, so she wouldn't have to be near him.
"I did. I wanted to see if I could help the two of you, along with the other occupants of this house with anything. The longer all of this goes on, the longer all of you are in danger," Narcissa said carefully.
Hermione thought for a moment, before summoning her notes, "There are a few things I haven't had time to research yet, so maybe you might know something on the matter?"
Narcissa nodded, "I'll do my best to help."
She went through the list, "Do you know anything about a magical object that has the power to control the weather, or even enhance one's powers to make them stronger?"
Narcissa shook her head in response to that, as she responded with, "No, I'm afraid I chose not to pursue magical artefacts in my pre-Hogwarts days."
"Can you tell me about the Sacred 28?" Hermione asked, feeling as if it would be something the regal woman would know. It had been something mentioned in the mere whispers of memories, and she had nearly forgotten about it all together with everything else that had been happening lately.
Narcissa's eyes widened at that, and she nodded, "That I can tell you about. The Sacred 28 is a pureblood directory written by Cantankerus Nott in terms of which families he still considered to be purebloods by the 1930s. Of course the list is exclusive of families like the Potters and others who were still purebloods, but had in some way or the other offended Cantankerus so he left them off the list as a form of retaliation."
"So it's just a list?" Draco said, shoulders sagging in defeat.
"No, it's so much more," Narcissa disagreed. "You see, when the wizarding world first went off into hiding, we need to establish an order to protect us, and so we decided that a member of each family enter the council in which they voted on laws and other details that we needed to keep us safe. And each of these families are now what we consider purebloods, since they were the original families. This is still slightly present with the idea of the Wizengamot."
"So that's what the other side wants to re-establish?" Draco asked in disbelief. "What's so wrong with that? Why do they need to tear apart our entire world just to reinstate a council?"
"Because it was easy to manipulate," Narcissa explained. "You see, even with the equality in the idea of it, certain families still had more power than others. For example, if a family was in debt and another helped them out, to repay it, that family would then vote for whichever side the 'higher up' family wanted them to. So it was more of a power state in which you could swing votes for what you wanted."
"They want to control all of England," Hermione said, understanding dawning upon her face. "By controlling the council. By re-establishing it, they automatically are one of the dominant forces. "
"Wait, in the memories we listed out the people who had died," Draco interrupted her, "Who were they?"
"Pansy, Ernie MacMillian, Daphne Greengrass, Theo Nott, Andromeda, Marcus Flint, and Neville," Hermione listed out as she looked down.
"All original founding families," Narcissa said, caught off guard by the mention of her sister's name. "So they must be trying to get the original members descendants to try and agree to this, and when those seven members declined, they probably killed them."
"But this time he kept Pansy and Ernie alive," Hermione pointed out, "Why would they do that?"
"Whoever it was didn't resort to violence until recently," Draco reminded her. "So maybe they still have hope that the members could be persuaded."
"Which means they're fine for now," Hermione said, slightly relieved, "But we might have to warn all of them about being vigilant now we know there's a pattern in the attacks."
"Or we might just alert the rest," Draco argued. "The world is already in a state of panic, and we know that in the future, they get a lot of followers and re-establish the council to an extent. It's fair to say that some of the people on the list of purebloods are going to accept."
"So we leave all of them at risk?" Hermione fought back, as Draco stood, towering above her. She could see his silver eyes looking straight into hers with a harsh look in them. "We let them die because a few of them are going to join up with the other side? What kind of people does that make us?"
"People who think things through!" Draco said exasperatedly, "Look, we warn the ones who we can trust, but we decided to leave the general public out of this, and so we must keep up with that!"
She felt heat rising to her face out of anger, "You know what, Draco? I don't care what you think. We aren't the kind of people who let others get hurt for the sake of many. This is exactly why the public is so furious with the Ministry to begin with. We're toying with people's lives like we deserve that power, and you know what? Maybe we should change the way we function as a society. Not to the extreme of the other side, but so people like us aren't given the sort of power that we have."
And for the second time that day, she stormed out of the room.
On the other side of England, Marcus Flint stood alongside Morag MacDogal, a Ravenclaw who had been in the same year as him in Hogwarts.
"So you want to bring back this council thing?" Marcus asked, clarifying what the group in dark blue robes and hoods that covered their faces had just explained to him. Well it had been the man in the centre, while the others stood there for support. "Why?"
"Because the Ministry has failed us. It has become corrupt and beneficial for only a few, and the most logical way to solve this is to go back to what has worked for years in the past," the centre man responded.
"I'm in," Morag instantly agreed, crossing his arms.
While he couldn't see the tops of the faces of the members, he could see their mouths, and once Morgag responded, they all smiled in near harmony.
"And you, Marcus?" the person who seemed to be acting as a leader asked.
Marcus shrugged but nodded, "Why not. But first, I must know what we are planning to do in terms of the Ministry and their apparent lack of concern for the public."
"They will come down in time," the leader said, "While our numbers here tonight are few, our masses are growing each day. And soon, we'll have more than enough power to bring the Ministry down to its knees."