The group of Gryffindors and Slytherins stared at each other, thinking who would tattle first.
Ronald Weasley spoke up.
"I caught Potter and Granger breaking curfew. When I asked what they were doing out of bed, she was very rude. Then she attacked me physically. When Mclaggen got here with the others, she attacked him and me with an evil curse. The bloody witch has gone completely barking mad, Headmistress! She showed no respect to us. You have to do something." He said, looking outraged and a little smug.
Hermione noted that Ron from her normal time had not been as good at answering questions from their professors as this one apparently was. More proof this wasn't her world.
"Attacked you with an evil curse, you say?" The toad woman asked in a ridiculously childish voice. "But my dear, are you quite alright?"
"Birds came out of her wand Headmistress. Evil little demon birds! They came straight at Weasley and I, biting scratching little buggers." Cormac complained.
"Merlin!" the woman, this Headmistress positively beamed, "And what do my esteemed prefects have to say about the incident? I haven't heard anything from you yet. Why is it that you weren't the ones to summon me to the scene of this grievous crime, hmm?"
Pansy Parkinson looked at Draco Malfoy. So did Anthony Goldstein. Malfoy squared his shoulders, taking the lead.
"Headmistress" Draco answered in an excessively polite voice Hermione had never heard from him, "Potter found Granger unconscious. I was patrolling this floor, so he found me, reported the incident and asked for help. I docked points for both of them being out of bed and was escorting the two to their dormitories when Weasley jumped in front of us and started threatening consequences to staying out past curfew even after I told him that I had the situation well in control. He made a racket and attacked Granger. Granger defended herself."
"That's bollocks!" Ron burst out and was promptly shut up by a swish from Draco's wand, while the blond continued his account.
"The rest of the prefects and Inquisitors showed up with Mr. Filch. It was going to be a duel in the corridors which as I understand was my responsibility to stop from happening. Perhaps Granger did summon some birds that attacked Weasley and McLaggen. It might have been spontaneous magic in the face of a threat. We can't be sure where the birds came from. While I took note of the situation to make my report to you, Weasley took the initiative to summon you first and disturb your night without having all the facts to report."
Hermione stared at Malfoy. Given an hour and some parchment to come up with a likely story, she still couldn't have recounted the events as he did on the spot, devoid of judgment, painting all parties equally responsible, and yet somehow, absolving Harry from most of the trouble, smarming up to the Headmistress and painting Ron in a bad light. He might have absolved her of setting birds to peck Ron and Cormac bloody as well, but she wasn't sure if the other prefects would back him up. After all, everyone but Ron and Cormac saw her reversing the spell. She glanced at the other prefects. They were not her friends. Even her friends were no longer her friends in this mad world. Why would Pansy keep mum rather than running her mouth for the headmistress and take pleasure in bringing the muggleborn down?
The headmistress eyed Pansy and Anthony anticipating their testimonial. However, seconds ticked by and not one prefect spoke up.
Finally Umbridge sighed and twisted her lips.
"What was Mr. Potter doing out of bed? Who's to say that he didn't hex the stupid girl?"
"I was coming back from detention with Professor Snape." Harry pitched in. "Hermione is my friend. I didn't hex her. I fetched prefect Draco Malfoy as soon as I saw her unconscious on the floor. She doesn't remember what happened. This could be a serious curse and she can't defend herself against those. She needs to see Madame Pomfrey."
"Hm hm. I will decide what the girl needs, wouldn't I, Mr. Potter? Well then." Tittered Headmistress Umbridge, and looked at the children around her, "Let's take this to my office. Mr. Malfoy, you will escort Potter to the dorms. Prefects, you will go back to your rounds. Mr. Filch and Mr. Weasley will come with me. Mr. Mclaggen, be a dear and fetch the mediwitch to my office as well."
She might've been out of it but even Hermione saw how the headmistress had conveniently divided the group.
"Headmistress if I may?" Malfoy interjected, offhandedly polite, "I wish to accompany you too. I found Miss Granger and Mr. Potter. I feel responsible for what happened."
Headmistress Umbridge cocked her head and gave Malfoy a full-fledged grin. Malfoy audibly gulped at the look.
"I appreciate your concern Mr. Malfoy." The headmistress told him, "Rest assured. The girl is in my hands now. You don't need to worry about her anymore. Go on then. Off with you." She made shoo-ing motions with her hands.
Mclaggen was the first to leave, followed by Goldstein. Pansy gave Draco and Harry another long look and turned to continue her rounds. Filch stepped towards Hermione, took hold of her arm and started directing her towards the stairs, led by Umbridge who pirouetted on her heel and started towards her office. They were followed by Ronald Weasley. Hermione looked behind her and caught sight of Malfoy grabbing a struggling Harry's shoulder to whisper something in his ear. Then her group took the turn towards the stairs and she lost sight of Harry.
In her world, Harry wouldn't have stopped. One could always count on Harry to be reckless for his friends.
Hermione kept walking with the now silent group. Their echoing footsteps sounded ominous but she concentrated on the sound to distance herself from her mounting anxiety. This was getting from bad to worse. Hermione couldn't have imagined how wrong things would go from that point onwards.
They reached the Headmistress's office. Hermione gaped at the hundreds of cat portraits on multihued china plates wedged between portraits of venerable witches and wizards. There were cats between bookshelves, cats on the various tables and finally there was a snoring picture of a big tomcat on the Headmistress's desk. A lot of the cats looked asleep, but an unholy number of them were very much awake and mewing or purring. Together they were making a right racket in the huge space. The poor portrait witches and wizards looked crazed enough to cry at the constant noise, to the extent that a lot of them had vacated their paintings, or they kept blinking in and out of their artistic homes. The headmistress however looked supremely happy to be in the middle of her chaos.
Dumbledore would have wept at the state of his office.
Before she was asked any more questions, Poppy Pomphrey bustled in the room, followed by Cormac McLaggen.
"Mr. McLaggen has filled me in on the situation." Madame Pomphrey briskly nodded at the Headmistress.
Without any preamble whatsoever, Poppy cast an invisible body bind on Hermione, rendering the young witch completely immobile. Hermione felt the spell wrapping around her. There were no echoing footsteps to distract now. Everyone was behaving wrong. Everything was wrong. In this out of whack world, Madame Pomfrey bound students to check them up, Malfoy spoke for Harry and her, and Ron teamed up with McLaggen to get her punished.
The mediwitch started flicking her wand in a complex pattern of diagnostic spells. A rotating red mist surrounded the muggleborn. Madame Pomphrey poked the mist in a number of places. Hermione felt each jab as if the wand was touching her skin rather than at the surface of the mist. The mist resisted the other woman's wand, shying and shifting and even pushing back at a few places. The more the mist resisted and pushed back Pomphrey's wand, the darker a color it took and grimmer became the older witch's face.
After a few more minutes of incessant prodding, Poppy vanished the mist with a swish of her wand and faced the Headmistress.
"It's worse than I expected. We can't deal with this here. Too many eyes and mouths I'm afraid."
The smile vanished from Umbridge's face for the first time that evening. A shiver ran down Hermione's back. The girl wanted to rub her arms to get rid of the chill, but she was still bound. Her mind was filling up with cotton wool again. Questions tumbled around in her confused head. What were these people on about? What was wrong with her? What did they want to do that couldn't be exposed to the too many eyes and mouths of the school?
"Aah. It is one of those then. Very well Poppy. I will send a message to the Ministry. We will send Miss Granger over for rehabilitation at once."
"Rehabilitation?" Hermione interjected.
"Silencio." Cast Umbridge and ushered McLaggen and Weasley towards the exit of her office.
Poppy Pomphrey kept her place in front of Hermione, wand out, as if she expected to be attacked by the tied and silenced child of a witch. Hermione Granger watched everything with growing horror. Once the others were gone, The headmistress walked towards the fireplace. Poppy levitated Granger and got to the fireplace as well, where the other witch threw floo powder into the flames and shouted, "The Ministry of Magic."
Five years ago, under the watchful eyes of Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, a new department was established at the Ministry of Magic, the Department of Muggleborn Support and Integration. It was supposed to help muggle born children and their families as they navigated the wizarding world and went to Hogwarts, most of them getting separated from their families for the first time without any modern muggle means of communication.
Dumbledore formed a team of witches and wizards uniquely sympathetic to the newcomers of the wizarding society. Together they planned on ways to bring the two sects of their society closer than they'd ever been. The department started with holding symposiums for the muggle families that included short discussions on the history of the Magic, the schools of Magic all over the world, the important Wizards and Witches of their world, Wizarding currency and banking systems, culminating in a tour to Diagon Alley. Muggle parents were guided how to send and receive letters to and from their children, how to set up expense accounts at the wizarding stores, how to get in touch with Hogwarts in case of emergencies and how to talk to the heads of houses for any concerns regarding their children.
The department was a huge hit with the muggle borns and the half bloods. There were some initial struggles as the wizarding kind had as much to learn about the muggle world as the muggle borns did about the wizarding world. Nevertheless, the witches and wizards of the Department of Muggleborn Support and Integration soldiered on, smoothing problems as they went. Dumbledore had envisioned the department to grow with the muggle born children. It was supposed to evolve into a place where career counseling, internships and letters of recommendation could be had for muggle born students graduating Hogwarts and who were just venturing as adults into the Wizarding World.
As always with any step forward, there was opposition and naysayers. Some people in power thought it was a waste of resources. The purebloods were the most vocal in their criticism. They said Dumbledore was giving excessive exposure to the muggles, dangerously playing with the statute of secrecy and that it would just end up in muggles interfering in their centuries old traditions. But Dumbledore had the reluctant support of his partner Gellert Grindelwald, the Minister of Magic, behind him. He pushed through all the reforms he wanted. He didn't care what a lot of witches and wizards, most in important places, were thinking.
In school, as the teachers tried to abide by Dumbledore's directives and started favoring the muggleborns to assist them in bridging any gaps, seeds of resentment were sown in the minds of children. Where before, a number of pure bloods would have had no issues with muggleborns getting attention or points when they did well, would be friends with a few, the dedicated campaign of their headmaster and the constant reminders of making way for the muggleborns or half bloods, to constantly put their needs first, started to grate. It grated when yule was renamed christmas. It grated when samhain was renamed halloween and the traditional samhain prayers and rituals were replaced by silly ghost decorations and a pumpkin themed feast. It grated when a new directive came through that spots should be reserved in quidditch teams for muggleborns, for them to feel more included in the school's rich sporting history. Whatever good the measures were doing the muggleborns, they also fomented resentment and anger among the purebloods.
Muggleborn integration was a worthy idea. Muggleborns needed help in transitioning to the Wizarding World. However, it was up to debate how much Dumbledore's aggressive approach was working.
Politically, the Integration Department was finally bearing fruit. Muggleborn and Half blood Support poured in for the Minister of Magic and Albus Dumbledore. The Minister enjoyed high approval ratings. The headmaster of Hogwarts gained a reputation as a crusader who fought for the rights of the underdog. All the while, political opponents of the minister got more desperate to undercut Grindelwald and Dumbledore and the prejudiced purebloods raged at the sudden rise in the status of the muggleborns and half bloods.
A new election was coming up in six months when the latest batch of Hogwarts students graduated. Grindlewalk amped up on the things contributing to his election numbers.
Two top Ministry undersecretariat jobs went to a muggleborn and a half-blood, leaving behind two other students, purebloods, who were supposed to have been shoo-ins for the jobs. The Crabbes were already seeing tough times owing to bad investments, the patriarch's gambling habit and the extensive bribes they'd paid for the job their son didn't get. When a guaranteed job of Assistant to the Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic went to muggleborn Martha McCaid, one of the top NEWT scorers of the year instead of the eldest Crabbe son, their betrothal contract with the Bulstrodes fell apart. The Crabbes were socially humiliated as reasons for the canceled betrothal did the gossip rounds among their peers.
The other job, Undersecretary to the Supreme Mugwump Sidley Smirk Platter, had been reserved for Amanda Selwyn. Amanda had good marks in school. She'd been a prefect. She was part of a sacred twenty-eight family. She didn't get it because the job went to Constance Pickering, a half blood, with similar NEWT scores as Amanda. Slytherin Amanda and Ravenclaw Constance had been rivals at school. Constance getting the job Amanda wanted was a huge blow for Selwyn.
Selwyn had had no issues with muggleborns, her competition with Constance purely academic. But losing a high status job to a muggleborn, because she was a pureblood, the humiliation of watching Pickering strut about at the Ministry on the coattails of Mugwump Platter with that superior air, twisted Amanda's perspective. The nuisance muggleborns transformed into enemies, actively seeking to take what was hers. She was vocal about the injustice done to her. Her family was too. The Crabbes sympathized and stood by the Selwyns.
High teas, dinner parties, soirees, charity balls…the chosen battlements of high society, became echo chambers to exchange vitriol, spread rumors and hate and to make plans.
The Minister couldn't be defeated in the elections. So, the purebloods went the Slytherin way. Grindelwald and Dumbledore were too strong a team to defeat. One or the other needed to go, to weaken the alliance, to put a stop to the muggle inclusion policies of the current administration.
Long debates were held. Past behavior was studied. They might be working in secret, but they were no mere troublemakers. The purebloods of the wizarding world were old hands at politicking, plotting downfalls and insidiously maintaining supremacy.
Grindelwald wasn't the crusader his partner Dumbledore was. A cunning Minister of Magic, Grindelwald knew how to work with the moral public and the corrupt sides of his position. He could be argued with, reasoned with, and could be influenced in small ways. Albus Dumbledore was the one who appeared incorruptible, his belief in the equality of muggleborns, half-bloods and the purebloods rooted deep in his psyche. If Grindelwald fell, Dumbledore would find ways to go on and keep fighting for equal rights of all magicals. Dumbledore had to be dealt with.
And so, Albus Dumbledore became the undesirable number one for pureblood supremacists.
They chose the day of the muggles' trip to Diagon Alley. Dumbledore usually met the parents and children on the steps of Gringotts. While the parents were being led around, shopping for the school year, in small groups by the witches and wizards of the Department of Muggleborn Support and Integration, muggle bombs were magically fit to Grigotts' steps. If muggles were to be made targets of wizard hate, muggle methods had to be used. After all, who would accuse a group of Sacred twenty eight witches and wizards to attack a prominent landmark of the British Wizarding world with muggle bombs? Dumbledore's presence and subsequent death would just be coincidental. The attack would be used to raise an uproar, to reinforce the belief that inviting muggles into their world would end in nothing but destruction of their world. Parents of muggle borns would be questioned and banned from entering Diagon or any other magical establishment. Muggleborns would be persecuted, hated and deemed unworthy of the magical world's trust.
The attack was executed. Right in front of the muggle and muggle-born group. Dumbledore died on the spot, blown to smithereens in the powerful chemical blast that shook Diagon Alley. Gringtotts' front facade was destroyed, although the main building was saved because of the Goblins' very powerful wards. A mother and son, a pureblood and a halfblood, tragically lost their lives to the explosion as well. No muggleborn and no muggle was seriously wounded.
The shockwaves of the blast were heard all over Britain and then Europe, reverberating into a gathering storm which touched everyone.
Along with remembrance articles for Albus Dumbledore, a careful, insidious information campaign was started. A personal account story of Amanda Selwyn was published, including her and her family's many positive contributions to the Wizarding World, postulating how she had a deeper understanding of the Wizengamot and how she was more than qualified for a job she did not get. Social interest stories started appearing, containing accounts of purebloods with distinguished ancestors, who were now living in poverty owing to their children losing out on connections, positions on the Wizengamot, jobs and opportunities. The Weasleys were mentioned. No one could argue the Weasleys weren't illustrious or that their children weren't the best of the best.
Curtis Fletcher, muggleborn, head of Records keeping at the Ministry of Magic, was caught accepting bribes, illegally selling confidential information to unauthorized individuals. The people who bought the information weren't caught. Fletcher was sentenced to fifteen years in Azkaban.
The treasurer for the Department of Muggleborn Support and Integration, Jennifer Walker, another muggle born witch, was accused and proven guilty of misappropriation of funds set aside for her department. Two expensive estates in Belise, registered to her name, and far beyond her means, were presented as vehemently contested the allegations but couldn't prove anything. She was sentenced to ten years in Azkaban.
Some high Ministry official, name redacted, was heard saying that judging by the recent cases of corruption coming to light, all the muggleborn Ministry employees should be scrutinized. There was some discomfort over this statement, morality and fairness dictating that the status of birth didn't make a person inherently corrupt. Reeta Skeeter ran a series of stories on political and business corruption cases, huge scandals and inhuman crimes from the Muggle world. The muggleborns couldn't dispute the stories because those were facts from their world. They also couldn't fight the way such propaganda was hurting their image and status in the Wizarding World. They couldn't give up magic to go back. They couldn't give up the truth of their heritage to live with dignity. All they could do was witness the horror a smart propaganda campaign could bring.
The public opinion or muggles and muggleborns took a sharp turn to mistrust and eventual hate. Gellert Grindelwald, devastated by the death of his beloved partner, and driven by public opinion, dissolved the Department of Muggleborn Support and Integration, citing pending investigations on most of its members. This ruling paved the way for a series of bills concerning muggleborns.
Contact with muggle families was banned during the school year. All school going muggleborns were supposed to regularly see Ministry appointed evaluators to check the stability of their magic and record the spells their wands had performed. This bill was amended when presented to the Wizengamot, with the addendum and muggleborn evaluations would start the moment they entered the Wizarding world, before they even got to Hogwarts. That way, the Ministry would control the initial sessions, not the sympathetic Hogwarts professors. There was some chatter about the type of spells the Ministry was using for the evaluations of the children. The chatter was suppressed.
Eventually, evaluations became mandatory for all muggle born witches and wizards. Protests were severely discouraged and punished with dismissals from jobs and affect on school scores for students. The more courageous protestors, Gryffindors most of them, were taken in for further evaluations. No one questioned that the spells of the evaluation did something to the children's or adult's previously strong and stable magic. The witches and wizards making up the team of evaluators, staunch believers in the superiority of Purebloods, were eventually teamed up and a Department of Muggle Born Rehabilitation was formed.
No one dared question the government. No one dared protest the anti muggleborn bills that kept coming. For fear of losing their magic, muggleborns stopped protesting. A few left the Wizarding world all together. It was considered a win for the Wizarding society, Grindelwald won another election. He never looked back at the principles and human rights his partner Dumbledore had fought so fiercely for. The fundamental ideas of equality were put to sleep in the world headed by blood supremacists, immoral opportunists and unscrupulous politicians.