And guess who's got another chapter posted (even if it's a bit of a shorter one)! And within a reasonable time too haha. Again, we have a return to politics and before you question me on this decision I do think (as Hermione says) they come from a good place however I feel that every extreme group (e.g. death eaters) would cause extreme opposition (hence this storyline).

Tinkerbell – I laughed while reading that so thank you, and thank you for your support and for reading my little story!

starlite22 – I addressed the passport issue in an earlier comment which essentially amounted to that wasn't actually something I considered haha, like I never even thought of that so well done for your spotting skills! Going from the books Hedwig stays with the Weasleys in the summers as the Dursley's dislike her, and I assume his school trunk was included when he packed to go (since he wasn't going back). And yes, she would've seen his scars but she loves him and doesn't care. Hermione often goes to stay with her friends at the end of the summer holidays so her parents knew and Ron scarpered from his parents lol. I've also always seen Arthur as more of a backseat, easy going parent and Molly is very domineering hence why she takes control of the kids more so than he does. He will step up though! While I agree with you about why Ron was given the prefect badge and not Harry, I couldn't come up with a valid reason for McGonagall taking away his badge (he'd need to do something bad for that to happen). Oh he definitely will divorce her don't worry about that! And lastly about the juvy comment haha I am from the UK so whoops, after some googling I see it's called His Majesties Young Offenders Institution so apologies, but I think juvy got the message across anyway (especially since most of my readers are American).

happylady – and this is the chapter of big reveals! Duh duh duhhhhh

decandenceofmysoul – I'm so happy you think so! I know it was a bit of a shorter chapter but still, it means a lot to me people enjoy it and I hope you like this new update as much!

Chapter 27

Humming to herself, Hermione grinned as she rounded the corridor. Aced another Ancient Runes test, she thought to herself, pride welling up in her. Harry would be thrilled as well, he'd been so helpful in keeping her calm and level headed and not letting her anxieties make her more of a mess than she needed to be around tests and exams. Not that she'd ever fail one, but, now was not the time to start.

"Hermione! Oh, Hermione!"

She halted, frowning as she heard her name called. That certainly wasn't Harry or Ron. Unable to place the voice she turned around, irritated when she saw an unknown student hurry up to her. Giving what she hoped was a friendly smile, she asked "Is everything alright?"

"Actually, I was hoping to talk to you," the student stumbled out, his hands twisting the sleeves of his robes.

Acquiescing to his question Hermione tried to cover up her annoyance. He just wanted to talk, that couldn't take too long, right?

"It's about muggleborn rights," He explained as they grabbed a seat in a nearby empty classroom. Immediately Hermione brightened somewhat. Okay, this was better, something she knew and was passionate about.

"You mean how rubbish the wizarding world is with that?" she asked with a laugh.

"Yes, exactly!" the student agreed excitedly, looking relieved. "While the Wizengamot and Ministry aren't technically corrupt anymore there are still major issues with them. We were wondering if you would be able to help us."

"Of course!" Hermione swiftly agreed, before suddenly hesitating. "Whose us?"

The student shrugged, "Just a group of muggleborns and a few half-bloods, most out of school, trying to think of ways to change the system. But the ministry has been ignoring our petitions and so we had to take action, you know, scaring a few of the Wizengamot."

Hermione's heart fell as she thought of the attacks. No, it couldn't be. Was it really done by a group of muggleborns? When voicing this distressing thought her heart sunk further when he nodded, seemingly proud of what they had done.

"Why? Why would you attack innocents?" Hermione asked, horrified. They thought she would agree with them, possibly join them?

The student laughed, rolling his eyes. "Well, they aren't innocents for a start. They're purebloods in the Wizengamot, that's the least innocent thing ever. It's their fault Voldemort rose to power, their fault the death eaters weren't put away, their fault that these ideologies were born since even the so-called light side ones must support it or they would've pushed through bills to help us but they didn't and haven't."

"They need support to do so, they've tried –"

"They should've tried harder! Not let Voldemort's ideas reflect the majority, not let this superiority viewpoint be tolerated in the first place."

Hermione breathed deeply, trying to calm herself. He wasn't completely wrong after all. "That was a mistake, yes, but can you really say the muggle world was any better 100 years ago? They did the same thing and sure, they rectified it more quickly but what right do we have to harm them for beliefs that some may not even hold just because of their birth? Are we not then becoming the same thing we swore we'd fight against?"

He laughed. It was a cold one, lacking any ounce of amusement or humour. "We're not killing them or torturing them, not like they did to us. Just getting their attention, showing the government is no more competent than it was and that it won't improve with purebloods at the helm just because they have history. We need a complete revamp of the system and if they don't they will pay for it."

Hermione smiled awkwardly at him when he looked at her for conformation. There was no way she could condone this. "I'm sorry, I can't. It doesn't matter how justifiable the cause may be but violence isn't the answer. They didn't ask to born into those families either and it's unfair to punish them because of that. There are so many other ways to do this than hurting people and manipulating the Wizarding World against the government when actually, they haven't failed to get rid of the death eaters. It was a different group standing for different ideals under the same symbol!"

"Yes, we have reclaimed the symbol that hurt us –"

"And that's fine, as long as they know it's you and not the death eaters! Right now you haven't reclaimed anything and are undoing everything we have been trying to put in place since Voldemort's death to prevent this happening again! You are creating uncertainty and fear to make people turn on the government and each other, just like Voldemort did! You are no better than him and the death eaters. The end doesn't justify the means."

Taking a shaky breath she got up, finished with the conversation. The student stood up as well, an ugly look now on his face.

"I thought you'd be better than this. You were Hermione Granger, you fought for muggleborn rights and were a role model to others because if you did it so could they. And then as soon as you get the title Lady Ravenclaw and are Lord Potter's girlfriend you swan around the ministry meeting other Lord's and Lady's and senior officials and are now too big for your boots. You've abandoned us because now you also think you're better now that you've got money."

"I – what?" Hermione gaped at him. What was he going on about? "I haven't –"

"You've betrayed us." The student became strangely calm. He nodded, pressing his lips together and sighing. "I'm sorry it came to this, that money and power and prestige is worth more to you than muggleborns lives."

He then strode out, leaving Hermione alone in a shocked silence. She didn't know what to do. Checking the time she gave a horrified gasp, realising the conversation had left her with only a few minutes before her next lesson starts. Grabbing her things she took off at a run, skidding into Transfiguration just seconds before Professor McGonagall started the lesson. Ignoring the looks from both Harry, Ron and Neville, and instead she focused in on the lesson and tried to take her mind off the concerning conversation and rather ominous ending. She'd discuss it with them later.

"Come on then, spit it out," Ron said impatiently as they arrived at the Gryffindor common room. "I've been waiting the whole of Transfiguration for this."

Hermione worried at her lip for a second, unsure how to begin. Eventually she just blurted out "Do you think I'm a bad person?"

There was a horrible silence as her sentence sunk into everyone before Harry stumbled out a very unsure "What?"

"Am I a bad person? For not helping muggleborns more?"

"What – where did this come from?" Harry asked, ignoring her question and instead moving to sit beside her, a frown painting his face.

"A student talked to me earlier, a muggleborn I assume," Hermione began, knotting her fingers together to try and distract herself while she spoke. "The group we've been trying to work out whose behind it, it's a group of muggleborn and half bloods who feel understandably hard done by the purebloods. They've been attacking them to get attention to try to discredit the ministry and they want a full revamp of the ministry and how it works. He – he said," Hermione's voice broke as she gave a small hiccup, trying to hold back tears, "that I had abandoned them because I'm not doing anything in the Wizengamot to help them and – and –"

"Right, let me stop you right there," Harry interrupted, face serious. "Aside from the fact that what the group is doing is very disturbing, what he told you is nonsense. I haven't been doing much in the Wizengamot either, letting Sirius take the reigns for us as while of age we lack any experience with him having to make up for that through our weekend lessons. And Sirius and the Wizengamot themselves haven't been doing any of that because they're still cleaning up the ministry and passing bills that prevent this from happening again. Once all that's done though which I believe will be soon, then new bills for muggleborns can be pushed through and I'm sure Sirius would let you use your seat yourself, without him as proxy if you feel confident enough."

"You think so?" Hermione looked up, a spark of hope igniting itself in her again and her mind already beginning the churn around ideas she could implement.

"Of course he is," Ron butted in, rolling his eyes. "The dude sounds nuts, like he literally supports a terrorist group."

"To be fair they have the right ideas," Hermione added weakly but fell silent at the unimpressed look she received from the boys.

"And attacking people and causing them to doubt the government is a terrible way to go around it," Neville spoke up softly. "Many didn't agree with death eaters because of that, even if they agreed with end goal. They didn't want violence. Just like now we can see that muggleborns do deserve more rights, as do women in general in the wizarding world, but attacking people will only ostracise people and create harsher opposition. There were so many better ways of going about this. I mean they could have contacted any of us and we can use our seats to try push bills through and with the amount of votes Sirius has in combination with us we could easily get them pushed through with our ally's help."

They fell into silence for a few minutes, each contemplating what had just happened and the solutions that should be put into place. Eventually Harry spoke up. "We – at least Hermione and I – should go see Sirius and talk to him about this. He'll then be able to help us from there."

At the nodded agreement the four of them stood up, heading to McGonagall's office. An in-person meeting would be far easier. However as they drew closer Harry's chest began to tighten as his mind began to throw around possible reactions to the news Sirius might have. Swallowing, he squeezed Hermione's hand. They would be okay; he would make sure of it.