Chapter 5: Population
Pureblood first thinking only drives the population down. As families produce squibs, frailer children, and become more and more interrelated the more these issues exacerbate themselves. Only with fresh infusions of different blood can the population stabilise, grow, and remain healthy. Much like the owls we breed to carry our mail we may be able to drive off the problems for a while by seeking partners abroad, but it's just as likely that wizard's from Britain will be forced to leave as they look for partners and settle down.
The benefit of a muggleborn partner is clear here, as they already have roots in Britain they provide new blood in the community and help keep our numbers up. But deep seated prejudice makes accepting the new blood harder, and in term hurts those professing that their way is the safer way. But their safety will lead us to destruction.
According to ministry census documents the number of wizarding children who would fall into the pureblood category of having all wizarding grandparents has fallen by thirty percent. In the meantime there was a mass exodus of muggleborns leaving our country because of the war caused by Tom Riddle. Looking at the numbers our adult population is at least thirty percent lower than it should be, even accounting for normal immigration. Death and limits of pureblood birth rate have negatively impacted our numbers.
And this trend isn't a recent occurrence. Since Grindelwald Europe's magical community has been struggling as a whole. The magical community did not benefit from the end of the war in the same way muggles benefitted. While we did see a higher number of magical children attending Hogwarts, the increases were in half-blood and muggleborn children. The following war with Tom Riddle decimated that part of our population and pushed muggleborn wizards to look abroad for magical connections.
This, on top of reluctance of most pureblood wizards to move outside of their home country leads to the bottleneck that slowly limits the number of magical children born as we lose magical genes. As we lose more and double up on a few genes we lose unique talents (such as natural legamancy, parseltongue, and other 'bloodline dependent' traits). Traits that in other parts of the world are seen as uncommon or a marker for more magical power are instead believed to exist only in certain lineages here.
The population of wizards in Britain suffers in more ways than numbers. Certain magical traits are not seen here that are uncommon but not unheard of in other magical communities. Schools in America teach occumalcy as an elective due to a portion of the population being natural legamins, something practically unheard of here. The magical governments in India have extra training programs available for parseltongue, who are experts at dealing with magical snake species.
Our obsession with blood purity over magical power and health is leading to Britain's magical decline on an international scale. We are producing fewer wizard's per capita, losing more to immigration than we are gaining, and are unwelcoming to new families who do not have pre-existing connections within the community.
The one school that refuses to accept muggle borns in Europe is only able to maintain its student body by being able to take students from multiple countries, and opening their enrollment to students who meet their pureblood standards outside of their International Confederation of Wizards determined borders. When you compare the lengths Durmstrang has to go through to keep numbers at a competitive level with Hogwarts it should be obvious that pureblood only thinking is an overall dentrament without a high self-sustaining population already in place, something we don't have in Britain.
Comparing Hogwart's to other schools that have similar acceptance rates (namely Beauxbatons, and Ilvermorny) their populations flourish with a wide variety of students. Unlike Hogwarts, schools in areas where muggleborns and magical hybrid children are embraced have seen a boost in magical children. Considering the high transfer rate of our own muggleborns into these schools means we have to look at the differences. Hogwarts was not safe for muggleborns during Thicknese's tenure, due to Riddle's agenda. Yes, some students were kept on, supposedly springing from a squib line, but the majority were rounded up and kept in the ministry or even Azkaban. This has led to a major population decline.
Most major population declines tend to be followed by a boom. A sudden drop in mortality rates and a safer environment leads to a sudden rise in birth rates in most areas. However, there is a significant drop off in the seventeen year old age group. The biggest reason this happens is due to immigration by muggleborns outside of the country. With more muggleborns transferring to more accepting schools and networking outside of Britain they do not feel the need to stay. While we are seeing a rise in children being accepted to Hogwarts we are not seeing those same numbers with graduation rates in the last two years. Looking in the ministry's department of education we can see several students have OWLs and NEWTs done by ministry proctoring or just plain substitution done with international school exams. The students have the ability to return to Britain after graduating from the other schools and are choosing not to.
This puts our young adult population in decline, limiting the number of wizarding births to parents who have long standing connections in the community. While this may seem good in the long run to people who push for a pure blood based society who may welcome less muggle genes, we currently do not have the population to self-sustain ourselves. Especially when birth rates or pureblood matches have a lower rate of producing children than matches with half-blood parents, or the rates muggleborns show up in muggle born parents. Without muggleborn adults in the populations to produce half-bloods those numbers will start to go down as well.
If we are to survive we have to find a way to entice all our young wizards into staying and become more inviting to young wizard's abroad.
Percy's Past
Percy stared at the obelisk used to commemorate the Battle of Hogwarts, his mind still trying to piece together how everything had gone so wrong so quickly. Well he reflected, maybe not as quickly as he had imagined. He had been far too focused on gaining clout to see the forest for the trees.
His eyes came to rest on a name, Remus Lupin. Unbiddingly a rush of memories came rushing to the forefront. Remus Lupin, going over NEWT level spells and the breakdown of why they worked. Another rush of Lupin adjusting the criteria of their unit on werewolves after Snape had set changed the entire curriculum. Another, where he offered a perplexed percy a well worn copy of Hairy Snout, Human Heart. "Understand Percy, that the rules and regulations the ministry puts forth impact real people. I think this book will help broaden your horizons."
The flashbacks continued, new werewolf regulations were passed shortly after Percy's graduation. Dolores Umbridge, the main drafter of the legislation, was high up in the ministry. Brief moments of Percy's accolades before him working for the minister and Dolores himself. He bit his lip as the letter he had sent to Ron flitted across his consciousness. 'A delightful woman' how confounded must he have been when he wrote that!
Not at all, Percy felt the memories fade away again as he normalised his breathing. While he wasn't a master of occlumency by any means his long term relationship with Penny and the days they spent studying allowed him to pull information deep hidden within himself almost always on que, or lock it away when it suited him. At least, if his emotions didn't get away from him. He felt hot prin pricks in his eyes from shame as he let his eyes continue to burn Lupin's name deep into his mind.
That may have been the start. Remus Lupin being found out, Black on the run, and Percy, newly graduated with several NEWTs to his name attracting attention as a pure blood aide who worked hard and didn't question authority. The perfect peon to be elevated to spy on certain individuals when the Minster decided to ignore the facts.
Percy's eyes continued to scan over the other names, noting names such as Nymphadora (nee Tonks) Lupin (their son Teddy would be a pureblood, Percy's brain noted dully). Colin Creevy, who Percy realised with a wince wouldn't have been of age, being a second year when Percy had graduated. Another line of new magic snuffed out he thought to himself, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
His eyes finally drifted to the name he'd been avoiding. Fred Weasley. His nose ached as George's words rang in his ears. Perhaps it would have been more fitting if it had been his name instead of Fred's on this memorial. Perhaps, his blood being spilt would have undone all his sins leading up to that battle.
But life wasn't fair. Instead of taking the person who was trying to write their wrongs and letting them pay for their sins fate had decided to snuff out a bright life who was finally living their dream and who did more than most people in combating the dark times that came at them.
Precy let the tears fall as he remembered being given a shield cloak and hat, the tags proclaiming them to be products of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Even though Percy could perform a shield charm he was considered too important to leave un guarded but not important enough to have an Auror escort.
He remembered how he had stormed past the shop multiple times before Voldemort and his followers were revealed thinking how unnecessary, loud and humiliating it was to his image that his brothers were running a joke shop of all things. All this despite the fact that they were doing it successfully, and with new innovative magic.
The tears were a running stream now as he remembered how the shop became dark after Bill and Fleur's wedding, he hadn't attended of course, he wasn't on the best foot with Bill at the time but he got the invitation and saw the announcement. He remembered how no one seemed to know where they had gone, or why before they briefly disappeared George had started sporting a one ear look.
"I'm sorry," he whispered to the rock, reaching forward and placing his hand on Fred's name. "I'm so sorry, you were right. I should have taken the bloody stick out of my ass and looked at the whole situation. If I could do it over I w-w-wouldn'," he stopped there sobs interrupting his apology. The sun shining off the obelisk and the tears running out of his eyes blinded him, the bright light causing his vision behind his eyes to redden.
Percy's Present
Alice Bakerson entered his office with a look of dread and perplexion. Percy knew that on paper this didn't seem like a promotion, even if an aid position in the Minister's office technically paid a slightly higher salary. His plan would involve her getting an actual named position once all the moving pieces were in place, he simply had to get those pieces in place.
"Miss Bakerson, have a seat," he said in a welcoming of a tone he could imagine, only slightly frustrated when it came out more awkward and neutral. Originally she'd been the one ahead of him in all their interactions. It was weird suddenly being her boss.
She sat opposite him, her hands clasped in front of her. Percy paused figuring where to go from here. Typically aids who were assigned to people under the minister were for temporary projects, and since Kinglsey hadn't made the project he was working on yet public she would have no idea why she was pulled away from her work to wait for her promotion.
"I'm going to be honest Alice," he said, deciding to leave off with formalities at the moment. Normally they brought comfort and structure, but right now they just felt awkward and rigid. "I had you transferred on a bit of a whim. If you decide what I have planned isn't for you I ask that you at least work with me until we can get you back in a position you had before. Or one that better fits your talents."
"Minister Shackelbolt has come to me with a request to find a way to help rebuild trust in the ministry, and safeguarding against anything like what Tom Riddle, er, You-Know-Who," He clarified at her further perplexed look, "tried to do."
"I have to admit though I am at a loss. I'm a pureblood, worse I'm a pureblood who followed the ministry's rhetoric until the last possible moment. I don't have a clue where to start at rebuilding trust or where bridges between people can even be built," This Percy knew was not entirely true. He knew there were things wizards had to realise and goals that had to be met, he wrote the book after all. But he didn't have a road map from where the ministry was to how to get the whole culture there.
"Right now you're on the books as an aid, but that's a temporary position. I'm waiting on the final paperwork to be finished to have your new position on the books. Officially you'd be The Ministry's Liason with the Muggleborn Reparation Counsel. I right now would head the counsel, but you would handle day to day work, coordination, and writing drafts. If we can get the ball rolling eventually you wouldn't be answering to an undersecretary but to the Minister himself," Percy finally paused panting. Alice was looking rather bewildered, and he wondered if he had lost her.
After what seemed like an eternity Alice asked, "This isn't just some fancy talk position is it? Wheel me and you out, let you take more accolades and then when it's not important have an office that merely looks like they are doing something?"
Percy let out a long breath. He deserved that, the Ministry, deserved that. He pondered her question for a moment before finally starting to answer, "That you felt you needed to ask that question shows what kind of deep problems we are in with the ministry. But not unfounded." He glanced at the rhythmic rain charmed onto the window before continuing, "I've never been one to do something half-way even for looks. I needed tutoring in Potions, by you, so I could get OWLs in all my subjects. I fully swallowed the rhetoric the ministry wanted me too in order to do my job better. If this turns out to be window dressing it's only going to make the Ministry look worse in the long run. I intend to make something that lasts. The thing is I just don't know what helps and what is window dressing. But you would."
"And why me?" Alice asked, "Surely such a prestigious position could already go to a muggleborn or half-blood who already has some public backing. Granger for instance, or maybe pull in someone who has a muggle mother and a name from an old family?"
"A couple of reasons. One, I didn't want to just reach out to famous muggle borns and make them feel more put upon. We just finished a war where a big contention was their freedom and abilities. Most of them got famous fighting for those, they deserve a break. Two, I know I could probably do research and pick a half-blood and meet other purebloods in the middle but that won't solve all the issues. Half-bloods don't face as much prejudice as muggleborns. And Third, I knew at one point I could work with you and you could work with me. You tutored me successfully. I can feel comfortable asking you about things I don't know and I'm going to make blunders leading to this.
"And it really, really isn't fair that you haven't been able to have a job worth your talents because of people like me," he finished.
Alice tilted her head to the side, frowning as she thought over her points. "Alright Mr. Weasley, I'll accept the position, but let it be known if I feel like this isn't doing what you profess it will do and I find this is just empty words and platitudes I'll walk. I won't be a part of an attempt to make it look like everything is fine."
Percy allowed himself to smile. This was why he figured she'd excel here. Percy didn't want a yes witch like Fudge had in Umbridge, but instead someone who would hold their position in esteem and call out blunders before they became worse.
"Great for your first assignment I want you to find candidates for the other seats. Other than your seat these are Volunteer positions, though if you have trouble finding a candidate let me know and I'll see if we can add an incentive." he handed her a scroll that he'd worked on before she came in "I'd like to avoid any incentive for the pureblood wizarding culture consultant if we can. I don't want someone joining just for the money or the prestige. They have to be willing to help us see what the old families are afraid of and help us bridge the gap."
"And how do we know this won't just end up with calls for us to assimilate and reject our muggle heritage?" Alice asked holding the scroll closed.
"Dippet removed the wizarding introduction classes under the thought that it created a gulf between the children who already knew and the muggleborn. Considering that Ilvermorny doesn't have them and Beubaxtons doesn't have a specific curricula, but rather educates on in through some of their courses he probably thought it would allow for more time for students to focus on actual course work.
"I'd rather not force anyone to follow traditions just for traditions sake, but being able to encourage the good traditions and boot the bad blood might help remove some animosity. I grew up in a household though that wasn't typical of most older pureblood families. I don't know what all the arguments are. At least by having a cultural advisor we can know what we are fighting against."
Alice opened the scroll and looked thoughtful before closing it, "I have a few ideas. I'll write some letters to Saint Mungos and Gringotts and see who they are able to spare for their seats, and send a letter to Mcgonagall and see which teachers may be interested. Might be best to see if the new Muggle Studies teacher can be a part, that curriculum has needed updating for ages."