Hermione went Palau International Airport to meet the Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul. She had organised several buses to take everyone to the private ferry, which would in turn take them to Melekerai. The island she had selected had a modern dock used by scuba tours but little else in the way of infrastructure. It was north of Peleliu, which had seen significant fighting during World War Two, but had not itself been touched.
Its magical ambience was as pristine as the most sensitive pure-blood could wish, and it was a beautiful limestone outcrop that shared a lagoon with two nearby smaller atolls. Ideal for snorkelling, swimming and fishing. Hermione had bought licenses to run an 'Eco-Friendly Wellness Retreat' along with a bevy of other permissions. The supplies they needed had come by freight the day before.
Magic was fantastic. The witch had rarely been so delighted to simply wave her wand and have something done. Usually she felt vaguely guilty for being lazy and doing things the easy way. Setting up tents for more than a hundred people had taken her only a few hours. Fresh water, food and sanitation were easy for a woman who had spent a year on the run. Hermione rather envied those who would be staying on the island.
The first person off the plane was Justin Finch-Fletchley, who looked very much the part of the tourist in a bright blue shirt and board shorts. Hermione smiled at the words on his t-shirt. The 'Aviophobics Therapy Support Group' was part of the cover to gloss over some of the wizarding folks' unfamiliarity with air travel. Getting the group through Immigration and Customs at Heathrow and Incheon had not been easy.
Justin lead the parade into the terminal. Everyone with a passport had been buddied with several without. Hermione had been unsurprised, though dismayed, to discover how few pure-bloods had the necessary documentation for mundane international travel. The blue shirts had been charmed to repel Muggles and everyone was under strict orders to stay with their buddies.
No one relaxed until they were on Melekerai. After seventeen hours in the air and several more in transit, few of the wizards or witches wanted to do anything but sleep. Hermione had made guide maps to the sanctuary camp so everyone could find their designated tents. Within an hour of the ferry landing, she was alone with Neville, the Strategy Committee, and Justin in the canteen.
"There will be another plane coming next weekend." Theodore Nott helped himself to some guava juice. Cooling charms kept the humid air pleasant and the canvas chairs were surprisingly comfortable. He felt ridiculous with bare legs when it was winter in England but could not deny the serenity of the island. "The nuptial clause has struck many Muggle-borns as sinister."
"The feeling is we're being blamed for social problems again." Justin lounged, fanning himself with a pamphlet from the Palau Tourism Department. "Being made to carry the can, and face the backlash when opinion turns on the law. I've been contacted several times by people who've just moved back to the UK, who are worried they'll have to become ex-pats again. We shouldn't have to keep fleeing our own country."
"Shacklebolt has introduced great deal of legislation on the nod. Perhaps we could bring it to his personal attention." Alun Rosier was audibly diplomatic. His opinion of the former Auror was not high. As the eldest male Rosier not incarcerated, he had to fend off a great deal of interest in his prominent former Death Eater family.
"I sent him three owls." Hermione pulled out her notebook, opening it to the section devoted to logging communications. She had started it to make sure they did not double up on letters. The committee members had been each assigned a list of prominent people to lobby, tailored to their own background. The Order of the Phoenix was Hermione's responsibility. "He replied non-committally. He's dealing with a lot of 'the bastards must pay' demands."
"Do we know who suggested the clause in the first place?" Leota Yaxley did not like the glaring tropical sun and had positioned herself with her back to the tent opening. "I did some digging but all I could learn was it had been discussed at an advocacy hearing."
"Likely on a Friday afternoon over beer." Justin made a face. "It sounds like a conglomeration of ideas hastily jotted down." He met Hermione's gaze, self-censoring as Alun had done. That was the key to their unlikely alliance. Everyone tried to keep every remark professional.
"I don't think we'll get anywhere trying to pin the legislation on any one person. We need to keep to the legal side and put pressure on the Wizengamot to rethink their votes." Hermione heeded the former Hufflepuff's unspoken suggestion to edge the discussion away from blame. "Any thoughts?"
"You could take your husband's seat, Madam Flint." Theodore used his schoolmate's full title to emphasise the point. They had an asset they were not using to the fullest. "Marcus will not sit but as the Lady of the House you can."
"I'd hoped to avoid doing that. It feels wrong to take advantage." She did not want to poach any more of her entitlements. Spending Marcus's money for the good of the cause was one thing. Usurping his birthright was quite another.
"He thinks you're the salvation of his House." Neville had been quiet since they had landed. In truth, he had been thinking more about the Arachnis orchid than the Marriage Law as he was exempted. "He's taking your marriage very seriously." He cautioned. "He'd give you the seat."
"I know." Hermione heard the warning. She and Marcus would have to have another talk about 'Madam Flint'. Unfortunately, until the law was repealed or she divorced him, he was right. "Theodore has a point. Are there any other seats in abeyance we can fill?"
That simple question caused the pure-bloods to go quiet. Hermione and Justin turned to Neville for a cue as the scions of Nott, Rosier and Yaxley looked anywhere but at them.
"There are a lot of empty seats." Neville filled in the conversational gulf unwillingly. "It's hush-hush."
"I know the Wizengamot began as a Wizards' Council, with representatives from the old families and the major wizarding settlements." Hermione's History of Magic NEWT studies came to the fore. "Which led to rotten boroughs and gerrymandering, though that was never explicitly stated. Are you telling me that none of the empty places have been resolved? Since 1544?"
"Bluntly, yes." Leota, as an advocate, stepped into the breech. "To remove a seat is to acknowledge a weakening of magical society, which the old families refuse to do. Those hereditary seats belonging to lineages who have died out have simply been left. The seats still 'sit' as it were. They simply do not vote."
"How can the Wizengamot fill a quorum?" How the hell did anything get done when the government did not even cull its own bureaucracy? Hermione had a vision of four and a half centuries of paperwork rising in a parchment tsunami.
"Periodically since 1707, the Ministry has passed extraordinary measures bills to shrink the numbers required to pass legislation. It's a matter of course now, lumped in with allowances and such. I doubt anyone even reads it." The expressions on the faces of the Muggle-borns made Leota feel defensive. "I imagine it is much the same with Muggles."
"It's not." Justin snapped. "Politicians go through everything with a microscope, particularly the minor parties. Even if something like that was passed, it'd be tattled to the press. The Freedom of Information people would be on their soapbox. We know our governments lie to us and we try to hold them accountable. You are aware there are about one hundred and twenty democratic countries in the Muggle world, yes? You live in one."
"We live in the magical world." Leota's tone was mild; a teacher correcting an errant student but it still rankled. "We wish to remain there, which is why we have made such effort in deporting ourselves to the other side of the Muggle world. I am a witch. If I wished to be a democrat, I would simply surrender my wand to the Ministry as they insist."
"I wish my American friends could hear you." Justin muttered, trying not to laugh. This was why his parents sometimes looked at him as though he were an alien. He stood up. "It has been a long day and as I am thankfully not on the committee, I think I will call it a night."
"I'll discuss the Flint seat with Marcus." Hermione took a deep breath, trying to smooth ruffled feathers. "I think we should investigate how many of those empty seats we can salvage. If there are any lineal descendants, particularly through Squibs, we need to find them." She did not say that she expected no one had previously bothered to look very hard. "We can coordinate names with family tree websites. People often pay for that sort of research."
"Web sights?" Theodore asked, uncertain. Hermione bit back a groan.