Food delivery was not something James thought he would be doing with his life. Oh, the tips were nice and being able to ride on a broom all day was awesome in his humble opinion, but there was always the nagging feeling that he could be doing something more. Even lacking the fancy education that Hogwarts offered, being taught at a smaller magic school in Ireland, he'd thought he'd be able to…well, get somewhere in life.
Used to be a man could simply set up a few wards and be able to live his life in comfort away from the muggles, own a small farm and live well off the land. Least, that was what the portrait of his great-great grandfather William Stone had told him. Now, with how many muggles there were, land was at a premium, and it made housing pricey as hell.
"I'll be able to own a house in…twenty years." He muttered to himself as he placed the pizza box in his backpack, runes stitched into the fabric to keep it nice and warm. He lived with his parents right now. They were good folk, and he loved them, but he wanted a wife and kids someday, and no one worth a ring would want to marry someone who lived in their parent's home.
Unless they were some wealthy pureblood who owned a whole damn manse, rich enough to afford the fancy wards to cover the place.
James himself was a pureblood, going back many generations, but his family had never been all that wealthy. Middle class at best, but mostly on the poor end. Lot of the new muggleborns that came in liked to lump them all together, seeing all purebloods as snooty dickheads with more money than sense, but most purebloods were just like everyone else, just trying to make ends meet.
"And speaking of ends." His broom lifted off the ground as he soared through the air, careful to travel in the "lanes" that were warded so no muggles would see him. "Muggle this, muggle that. Why do we have to scurry around them like rats?"
Frowning, he shook his head. Wouldn't do him no good to think like that, all it would do was make him mad about something he couldn't do nothing about. Within a few minutes, he found the house in the countryside, a small one story house hidden within some woods. Pretty good spot he'd imagine, and with how out of the way it was, the wards must have been cheap.
Gently descending, he managed to stop in front of their door. His knuckles rapped against the wood. "Stone Pizzeria! Got a double cheese with mooncalf sausage!" The door opened, revealing an older man with withered grey hair and wearing bright blue robes.
"Thanks." The man muttered as he handed James a few sickles, with a twenty knut tip, before he handed the man his pizza. Bit gruff that one was, but James was used to it. Hopping back atop his broom, he sped back to the family store for his next order, and within a few minutes, he was back.
But something seemed…off.
His mother wasn't smiling. Neither was his old man. And they were both staring down at the Daily Prophet in their hands looking more pissed off than an Ashwinder in a bucket of bees. Taking a gander himself, he grabbed a paper off the table and looked the headline.
"The Future of Our World." He muttered. Nice little title, but it didn't seem to be something to get made over. So he kept reading. And reading. And reading. And as he kept at it, the angrier he got, until he felt just as mad as his parents did.
xXx
"Kicking the hornet's nest wasn't enough, was it? You had to punt it down the street?" Neville sighed, sagging into his chair. "What a right mess we have on our hands."
"You wanted greater public approval for the Separation Act." Harry stood in the Minister's office, leaning over his desk. Neville had grown from the timid schoolboy he'd been into the hard man he was today, his dark brown hair slicked back against a face that was scarred from the Battle of Hogwarts, a large red mark running down his right cheek. "Now you have it."
"I'd have wanted it without the public blowing up!" Neville growled out. "Do you know how many letters I've received, demanding I do something about these "awful muggles"? More than I can count!" He rubbed his eyes. "And the calls for violence are a clusterfuck of their own! We've still barely recovered from the war, and now people are practically begging for one we can't even win!"
"And that's why the Separation Act is so important." Harry said. "Complete disconnection from muggle society. No food from them, no contact with them, no transactions with them, and more warding to help separate ourselves from them. The public could hardly swallow it before, or did your forget about those little protests?" Neville frowned but stayed silent. "Now, the public support us more than ever! Although…"
Neville slumped in his seat. "I know that tone Harry. Just lay the bullshit on me and get it over with."
Harry let out a chuckle. At least Neville could take the cold hard truth, rather than try and shove it under the rug like Fudge did. "There are plenty of people who are saying we aren't going far enough. Sure, using enchantments on the parents of muggleborns to ensure that their silence on our world has proved effective, but that has only proven beneficial for our secrecy. What of the children themselves? Are they not at a higher risk of abuse from their parents, as proven by the statistics? Would they not fit in better with their peers, to be with those who are not persecuted for their gifts?"
"Kidnapping." Neville sighed. "That's what the public wants. Legalized kidnapping. I…I do not like the precedent this sets, Harry. After all we did to put Voldemort's regime in the grave, especially that vile Muggleborn Registration Commission, now we've people who want us to take muggleborns "for their own good"."
"According to statistics, muggleborns are at a serious disadvantage when compared to their halfblood and pureblood counterparts, both economically and socially, which would tempt them to return back to the muggle world. We've made great strides in fixing the economic situation, but the social issues are caused mostly by differences in culture…as you well know from my ol' pal Hermione. They view us as backwards, as less enlightened than their muggle counterparts, and thus, inevitably, they end up running back to the muggle world."
Snorting, Neville shook his head. "Right back into different prejudices and problems. The magical world isn't perfect, but neither is theirs."
"But the muggles paint theirs with pretty colors, with fancy new tech. When looked at with ignorance, our wands, despite doing much the same thing, look primitive in comparison." Harry shook his head. "But we cannot keep this up. Bad enough that we'd have to obliviate all those children that had been taken by the Muggleborn Registration Committee, but that they had to deal with abuse here and abuse back at home, at the hands of their own family…"
"I'm sorry you had to go through that." Neville dipped his head. "And I'm sorry these children go through the same, but…kidnapping? I don't think a muggle should be raising a magical child, but taking their children from them is-"
"Too extreme?" Harry asked. "Child Protective Services take children from unfit parents all the time. What we are doing is much the same. After all, by leaving these children with their muggle parents, there is a sixty percent chance that they may be abused by them, so why leave it to chance? We can easily erase the government records, obliviate the parents and relatives, and secret the child away to an orphanage."
"We'd need a lot of orphanages for that." Neville said. "Not to mention, it would take near a whole department just to do it."
"How wonderful then, that the Lestranges have several manses that remain empty, and plenty of house elves to work them." Harry grinned. Having won them through the ancient Rite of Conquest, dubiously legal at best but his reputation had won out, he'd gotten his hands on plenty of properties that could be put to better use. And if he got to piss on the graves of those Death Eater cunts, all the better. "And with many of the restrictions on blood adoption having been done away with after the war, we would have plenty willing to add a son or daughter to their lineage."
Especially the decimated Pureblood lines. Sure, they would be infusing their blood with mudbloods, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Adding a few children of each sex would guarantee the survival of their families, and Harry knew that while they would be secretive about it, he would see plenty of old families making a sudden resurgence.
"As for the department…plenty of the purebloods would love to be "saviors" to their muggleborn brethren. If the magical societies in India, the Middle East, and Africa can manage it, then so can we." Harry said. "We'll can make the Child Protective Services department a cell of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and put some of our more like-minded colleagues in it."
"…It's a fine plan." Neville didn't meet Harry's eyes, content with staring down at the table, hands clasped in front of him as he fiddled with his thumbs.
"It's for the greater good, Neville." Harry said. "Wizarding Britain will be that much safer, our people that much happier, and the future of our children, muggleborn and pureblood, will be that much brighter. All you need to do is act."
Neville was silent for a few moments, his gaze firmly on his desk. But when he spoke, his voice was firm and strong, the voice of the man who slew Bellatrix Lestrange and avenged his parents.
"And I will. By advocating for the protection of magical children, no matter their blood status."
AN: AN: I'm quite pleased with this one! Showcased a bit of the "closed in" mindset a lot of wizards had, compounded by the lack of land and the expense of the wards to manage it. An average man's view, it could be said. And the Neville part was fun, with Harry as the devil on his shoulder, whispering about how it could work. All in all, I quite liked this one. Next one after the Hermione one should have a small Mars interlude to show how life is shaping up and why people would leave the wizarding communities back on Earth, so stay tuned.
As always, you can read a chapter ahead on my p-a-t-r-e-o-n (Halo3vsloz)!