As soon as Hermione sent word that her punishment was lifted, she received a summons from Tracey to an Official Campaign Strategy Meeting, to be held at Millie's home Monday afternoon. It was with great amusement that Hermione showed up, curious what all it would entail.

Millie's house was large and stark, with not much decorating it. The furniture looked largely for show, and Millie rolled her eyes at it as she guided Hermione from the fireplace out into the yard.

"These big estate manors are all largely the same," she said. "There's a set of rooms for show, and then ones you actually use. My family never entertains, not really, so our 'show rooms' kind of go by the wayside."

"Does everyone have a big manor like this?" Hermione said, looking around as they walked quickly through dank hallways.

"Most of the Sacred 28, I think," Millie said. "Not all of them, though."

Outside, it was much brighter, and Hermione was delighted to see that there was a glade with some shade where a table and chairs had been set up. Tracey was already there, setting up an easel of some sort, as were Blaise and Daphne.

"Everyone's coming," Tracey told Hermione excitedly. "Our whole class!"

"Everyone?" Hermione was startled. "Really?"

"Well, everyone in our class in Slytherin," Tracey corrected. "Even Theo and Pansy are going to come."

Hermione chatted with Daphne as the others gradually arrived, making polite conversation and inquiring after her parents.

"They're still trying for an heir," Daphne said, with a sad smile. "My father's stuck with two daughters. And he loves us both, don't get me wrong, but it's obvious he really wants a son."

"Your parents aren't too old to have more children?" Hermione asked, astonished.

Daphne laughed. "Not at all. Witches can have children well into their seventies."

Pansy and Theo came soon after, and when Draco finally showed up, it was with Crabbe and Goyle in tow. When everyone had arrived, Tracey cleared her throat importantly. She twirled a long wooden pointer in her fingers, looking authoritative.

"Alright," she said. "This meeting is to strategize how to get Hermione elected to the Wizengamot as Youth Representative. Everyone here is united on this point, right?"

"I have a question." Goyle raised a meaty hand.

Tracey gave him a look. "Yes?"

"I thought it was only grown-ups on the Wizengamot," he said. "And elections aren't for another two years, I thought."

Tracey gave him annoyed look.

"So to start," she said loudly, "I will give everyone the basics of the Wizengamot, as I have discovered." She shot Goyle a sharp look. "Then we can begin strategizing, once everyone understands everything."

"Fair enough." Blaise leaned back in his chair, grinning. "Have to admit, I'm not positive I know all the details of this, either."

Draco rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't. You don't have a family seat on it."

Blaise stuck out his tongue, and Hermione stifled a giggle.

"The Wizengamot consists of fifty seats," Tracey announced, thwacking her pointer on the easel. "Twenty-eight of those seats are hereditary, taken by the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Another eight of those are taken by the Ministry's Department Heads – each head of a department holds a seat for as long as they hold their position."

"Does the Minister of Magic count as a Department head?" Blaise asked.

"Yes, of course," Tracey said. She paused. "…though, I'm not really sure what Department he's the head of."

"I think it's just the Office of the Minister of Magic," Draco said. "Not really a proper department, but it still is."

"Another thirteen seats are elected representatives, with elections occurring in each region of the land every five years," Tracey announced. She thwacked a different area of her chart with her pointer. "The regions are: South East, London, North West, East of England, West Midlands, South West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands, North East, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland." She looked at them all importantly. "And, if you are counting, we are only up to forty-nine. There is one remaining – the British Youth Representative."

"Wait a second," Pansy interjected. "I thought there were only forty-nine members. All the votes always total forty-nine."

"That's because one seat is vacant, Pansy," Tracey said, shooting her a dark look for getting her off track. "There are fifty seats, but only forty-nine are filled right now."

"The Gaunt family seat is still empty," Theo told her. "It's still standing, so there's a member of the family out there somewhere, but no one's claimed it in ages."

Pansy sniffed. "If you say so."

"The British Youth Representative is what we're going to be targeting," Tracey told them. "It is the only seat that can be held by someone underage, and it must be held by someone underage. Gabriel Truman currently holds it, but his birthday is this summer, and he will turn seventeen. There will be an election soon, and it is this seat we want Hermione to win."

"I have a question," Crabbe said.

Tracey groaned. "What, Vince?"

"Why?" he asked.

Tracey looked puzzled. "Why what?"

"Why do we want Granger to be in the Wizengamot?" he asked. "It sounds boring."

Tracey pulled at her hair.

"The goal is to get Hermione into a place where she can influence the government from as early as possible," she told him. "Obviously."

"Why?" Crabbe asked.

"Why what?" Tracey snapped. "Why do we want her to influence the government?"

"Yeah," Crabbe said. "That."

Tracey paused.

"…because we can?" she said finally. "I mean, Hermione's destined to change the world, you realize? If we can get her into the government from a young age, that seems like a good way to set her up to do that, really."

"Wait, we're doing this because of the prophecy?" Hermione sat up straighter. "I thought we were doing this because it's ambitious and to see if we could."

"It's both," Tracey said impatiently, waving a hand irritably. "The important part is that this spot in the Wizengamot is open, so—"

"I think our motives for doing this are rather important," Hermione said, rather indignantly. "If you all are doing this because of some silly prophecy about me changing the world—"

"Don't," Theo groaned, rubbing his temples. "Hermione, don't. Can we just get on with the plan?"

"I want to know," Hermione snapped. "It's important. If we all have different goals going into this—"

Tracey gave the table a lost look, and Theo groaned.

"I'll do it," he said, standing. "Hermione, come with me for a minute, okay?"

"Well, fine," Hermione said, huffy as she rose from her chair. "I don't see why we need to discuss this privately…"

Tracey went on, her tone one of relief, as she began outlining the necessary timeline the Youth Representative election would have. Her voice faded as Hermione followed Theo deeper into the glade, until they came upon a couple large rocks by a pond. Theo sat down on one and rubbed his temples, looking aggrieved. Hermione sat down primly, expectantly, watching as Theo groaned.

"This is one of those things that is just understood in Slytherin, you realize," he said finally. "It's almost taboo to spell it out aloud."

"Vince wasn't understanding either," Hermione pointed out.

"Crabbe is a moron, and you know it," Theo said, rolling his eyes. "He'll get it, though. Listen, Hermione. It's…"

He broke off, looking frustrated.

"Slytherin is the house of the ambitious," he said finally. "A lot of the people who make big names for themselves in history, they started out in Slytherin."

"That makes sense," Hermione said, wondering where this was going. "Ambitious people are the ones that go far."

"Yes, but…" Theo broke off, searching for words, before making a face. "Let me start over. Let me tell you a story, and we'll see if you get it that way."

"Fine," Hermione said, skeptical. "Go ahead."

Theo took a deep breath.

"Once upon a time, there was an ambitious boy," he said. "He was very skilled with magic from a young age, and very powerful. He wanted to become the most powerful wizard ever and help write the course of history."

"Okay…" Hermione said. "I'm following so far."

"Now," Theo said, "where this boy might have once intended to go into the Ministry and make great changes for society, something happened. Someone high up made mention of him to someone in the Ministry, a whisper about something being wrong with him, and suddenly the boy found his way was blocked. Unable to go into government to work for change, the boy was stuck on the outside, working scut jobs for scant galleons instead of achieving his true potential."

"That's awful!" Hermione exclaimed. She found herself surprisingly upset at the thought. "Who blocked him?"

"The boy was determined, ambitious, and cunning," Theo went on, ignoring her. "Feeling he was destined to change the world, he decided he would do it however necessary, and he vanished from society from many years, abandoning the Ministry and the society that had cut him out. It was nearly two decades later that he came back, having learned more about ancient, dangerous magics than anyone else had seen in centuries." Theo's eyes held hers. "And he did come back, wanting revenge."

Hermione held very still.

"I will not lie to you," Theo said quietly. "Many people followed him. He was a charismatic leader, and he promised his followers power. He taught them new magics the likes of which they had never seen. Dark magic is intoxicating and addictive, and soon he had an army. And it was an army all too happy to use their new powers against those who had locked their leader out in the cold."

"Voldemort," Hermione whispered. "It was Voldemort, wasn't it?"

Theo just looked at her.

"Regardless of what side you took in the war, the war was violent and devastating for everyone," Theo said quietly. "Many, many wizards died. It was a time of terror. And all during it, there was an undercurrent of wonder, of 'what if?'" Theo's voice was bleak. "What if Dumbledore hadn't judged him unfairly as a child? What if he had been able to work for great change from within the system, instead of needing to try to tear it down? How many lives could have been saved?"

Hermione shuddered.

"That is why Tracey wants to get you onto the Wizengamot," Theo told her. "Your friends like you, but they are Slytherin, Hermione, and they are not blind – they see a very powerful, very ambitious girl who is literally destined to change the world." His eyes held hers. "And if she, too, is locked on the outside, unable to make change from within…?"

Hermione swallowed hard. Theo's eyes held hers.

"…then who knows what fire her fury would reign down upon the world."

Hermione bit her lip.

"I'm not, though," she said quietly, insistent. "I'm not a Dark witch. I'm not."

"Do you think the Dark Lord just started out casting Dark magic in his third year?" Theo said. "Or is it more likely he was driven to it when he was forced to and had no other options?"

Hermione scowled.

"I think that's a bit of a misrepresentation," she said, annoyed. "I think it was probably a combination of factors – he was intelligent, and some of his research on immortality went along Darker pathways, so it would have been only natural to be curious—"

"Do you even realize how terrifying it is that you casually drop information about the young Dark Lord like you know him? With utter certainty?" Theo asked. "I don't know how you know these things or think you know them – I don't want to know – but it's terrifying, Hermione."

He looked at her, and Hermione gnawed on her lip and fell silent. She wasn't about to tell him about the diary.

"Your friends see you, Hermione," Theo said. "We all see you, dominating in every class. And we see your ambition. We hear your destiny." Theo's eyes were steady on hers. "And we all were raised in the wake of the devastation left from the wizarding war."

"I wouldn't," Hermione insisted. "I wouldn't become that!"

"Can you say that for certain?" Theo challenged. "If you couldn't change things from within the Ministry, and you were stuck on the outside looking in, and you thought the Ministry was doing something wrong… would you really be able to just be quiet and endure it with the rest of us?"

"I…"

Hermione wanted to protest. She really did – she could be an obedient citizen just like anyone, couldn't she? But even as she had the thought, another part of her mind was laughing at her, knowing she would always rail against mindless obedience to anyone. Her mind went to her secret research project under her bed in a box, the one the Ministry would be in an uproar over if they ever found out. And though Theo was speaking hypothetically about her acting against the Ministry…

Here, in the now, she realized, she already was.

"…no," Hermione admitted quietly. She glanced at Theo. "No. I wouldn't be able too. It's… it's just not who I am, Theo."

"And that," Theo pronounced, "is why Tracey is determined to get you into government as soon as possible. If you can claim the Youth seat, when you reach majority, you can petition for your own seat as a New Blood House – maybe usurp the Gaunt one, or something – and stay in the Wizengamot even longer. The sooner you feel like you're making needed changes in the world from the inside, the safer the rest of the world will be."

Hermione's mouth was dry.

"So you're saying," she said, "that my friends and housemates are afraid I could become the next Dark Lord if I'm not somehow appeased."

Theo considered.

"I wouldn't say that they're afraid," he said carefully. "Some of them are fairly excited about the prospect, I think – Merlin knows Malfoy's already hoping to be your right hand if you do go Dark – but I think everyone's aware of the potential you hold." He looked at her sideways. "Both sides took losses during the war, you realize. Even the Dark Lord's. And I think everyone in Slytherin would rather not have to worry about another war."