A/N - Hello once again everyone. I just want to confirm that after this chapter it will be THREE WEEKS before I post the next one. As I said last week I'm going on a trip and may not be able to work on this story as much as I'd like (although depending on my schedule while I'm away this might not be the case. It certainly wasn't the last time this sort of thing happened. We'll just have to see how it goes). Better safe than sorry. On the other hand this will give me a little extra time to try to get further out in front of the story next three chapters after this one are ready so once I return on June 23rd you'll still get regular updates for a little while at least.
Now let's see how the British Magical World deals with the previous chapter's reveal.
Disclaimer: The X-Men were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and belong to Marvel Comics. Harry Potter was created by and belongs to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this and the only thing that's mine are the original parts of the story.
13) BRITISH REACTION
In Britain the magical world was not immediately aware of the exposure. The Daily Prophet said nothing about it and most of the purebloods had very little to do with the muggle world anyway. Only the parents of muggle-borns and half-bloods who lived in the muggle world saw the papers that day and not many of them were in a position to contact their children or the ministry. As a result none of the students at Hogwarts that Halloween morning knew anything about it. That would change before the day was out.
The first person at Hogwarts to know anything was Dumbledore. He found out through the muggle newspapers that he subscribed to. They were delivered to a mailbox that he rented in Edinburgh which was enchanted to send them to his office after breakfast so he didn't see them until then. However once he did he had to fight down a strong urge to vomit. After he regained control of himself he closely read all of the articles that talked about mutants and magic. Once he was done he touched a rune sequence on his desk which activated the Hogwarts Public Address System through which he could speak to the entire school.
"Attention all Hogwarts faculty and students" Dumbledore's voice blared in every room in the castle, "this is Headmaster Dumbledore speaking. All classes for the day are canceled. All faculty members are to report to the staff room immediately. This is not a joke."
As soon as he deactivated the P.A. system he gathered up all of the newspapers and left his office to go to the staff room himself. He was the first to arrive but only by a moment or two as the rest of the faculty began pouring into the room. They all knew from the look on his face that something serious had happened. His face was set in a stern expression and there was no twinkle in his eyes.
"Albus" said Professor McGonagall, "what has happened?"
"Sit down everyone" said Dumbledore ignoring the question. He waited until everyone had taken seats before looking around at all of his colleagues.
"I'm sorry to pull you all away from your classes so suddenly" he said, "but this cannot wait. We're at the beginning of a major crisis, not just for Hogwarts but the entire magical world."
"What do you mean?" asked Professor Flitwick. In answer Dumbledore held up the muggle newspapers that he had brought with him.
"We've been exposed" was all he said as he began to pass the newspapers around the room. It didn't take long before the whole faculty of Hogwarts was reading the news in shocked silence. Dumbledore let them read the papers without saying anything to distract his colleagues.
"I can't believe it" said Professor McGonagall, "how could this happen?"
"However it happened" said Professor Flitwick, "there'll be no stopping it now. Too many people will see these papers. And I'll bet these aren't all of them by a long shot."
"What are we going to do?" asked Professor Sprout, "this is a catastrophe!"
"Not necessarily" said Flitwick, "it's not 1692 anymore."
"Very true" said Dumbledore, "the muggles of today aren't the ones from 300 years ago. In some countries there have been very active movements against bigotry and prejudice. It might not be as bad as we have long feared."
"These articles talk about mutants as well as magicals" said Professor Tonks, "mutants are very well known in the world and have been for years. Some of them are accepted as heroes, like the X-Men for instance. Many of their powers aren't very different from some of the things magicals can do and people seem used to them. Could that make it easier for people to accept magicals too?"
"In an ideal world yes" said Dumbledore, "but we all know that this world is a long way from ideal."
"Then what do we do?" asked Sprout again, "and what do we tell the students? We can't keep this from them."
"We won't" said Dumbledore, "we'll tell them the truth today. We'll have a mandatory school assembly this afternoon right after lunch and we'll try and break it to them as gently as we can although I fear there's no gentle way to do that. Before then, however, I need to go to the ministry and speak to Minister Fudge about this. Hopefully he already knows about it but there's a good chance he doesn't nor will most people at the ministry since they don't usually get the muggle news there and the Prophet hasn't covered this yet."
"There'll be panic when it does" said McGonagall.
"Hopefully not" said Dumbledore, "but you're probably right. We'll probably have to work with the muggle government to at least some degree. I'll be very surprised if the prime minister and Fudge don't meet before the day is out."
The meeting ended a short time later and the Hogwarts faculty all went their separate ways to prepare for the coming assembly. Dumbledore went back to his office and threw some floo powder into the fire in his office fireplace.
"Ministry of Magic, Minister Fudge's office" he called into the fire, "Cornelius, are you there? I must speak with you at once. The matter is very urgent."
"I'm here Albus" was the reply, "do you want to come here? Or should I come to you?"
"I'll come to you" said Dumbledore.
"All right. Please come through."
Dumbledore gathered up his newspapers, stepped into the fire and flooed himself to Minister Fudge's office where the two men greeted each other.
"What's going on Albus?" asked Fudge, "you almost never contact me with such urgency unless something is very wrong."
"Something is very wrong Cornelius" said Dumbledore who looked grim.
"Has Lord Thingy escaped?" asked Fudge, "are his remaining followers getting ready to attack again?"
"No and no" said Dumbledore, "this has nothing to do with Voldemort. Things would be easier if it did."
"Now I'm really afraid" said Fudge, "what's happened?" Dumbledore took a deep breath and laid it all out for the minister in one sentence.
"Our world has been irrevocably exposed to the muggles" he said.
"WHAT?!" exclaimed a shocked Fudge. Whatever he'd been expecting Dumbledore to say it certainly wasn't that.
"You'd better see for yourself" said Dumbledore as he held out the newspapers for the minister to look at. Fudge grabbed them and began spreading them out on his desk.
"Oh Merlin" he swore as he read through the various articles, "what are we going to do? There'll be no stopping this."
"I'm glad you realize that" said Dumbledore, "too many people will have seen either these papers or others like them. It will almost certainly be on the muggle TV news before evening. Whether we like it or not we've finally been discovered and there's no going back."
"That such a thing should happen in our lives" muttered Fudge.
"It was inevitable sooner or later" said Dumbledore, "when you consider how fast muggle technology has been developing it was only a matter of time."
"I just wish it hadn't been in my time" said Fudge.
"As do I."
"So what's our next move?" Fudge asked Dumbledore.
"Have you been in touch with the Prime Minister today?" asked Dumbledore.
"No" said Fudge, "but it's early yet. I'll contact him as soon as we're done talking. In the meantime, as Chief Warlock will you please summon an emergency session of the Wizengamot? Preferably for late this afternoon or early evening? The sooner we break this to everyone the better, although I dread how the meeting will go."
"I'll do that" said Dumbledore, "and you should notify the press too. The Prophet, at least, should be at that meeting."
Before Fudge could reply they both heard the clearing of a throat from one of the portraits on the wall of the minister's office.
"Minister Fudge" said the portrait, "I have a message from Prime Minister Major. We must meet at once. Please come to my office as soon as possible."
"All right" said Fudge to the portrait which then walked out of its frame, presumably back to its other frame in the Prime Minister's office at 10 Downing Street. Fudge looked at Dumbledore.
"If I ever needed more proof at how serious this is" he said, "this would be it. The Prime Minister never contacts me. It's always the other way around if I need to talk to him."
"You'd better go" said Dumbledore, "I'll make arrangements for the Wizengamot session and then I need to return to Hogwarts. I'll see you later Cornelius."
"Thank you Albus" said Fudge who grabbed some floo powder and threw it into his fireplace. The flames in the fire turned green and Fudge stepped into the fire.
"10 Downing Street, Prime Minister's Office" he said and he disappeared with a whoosh.
As soon as Fudge was gone Dumbledore left the minister's office and went to the Chief Warlock's office in the ministry where he sent out notices to all Wizengamot members to come to the ministry late that afternoon for an emergency session. After that he flooed back to Hogwarts to prepare for the assembly.
At Hogwarts rumors were flying around the school with a speed that a top Quidditch player on a Firebolt broom would have envied. None of the students knew why classes had been canceled and many guesses were being traded among the students although, as they would all soon learn, no one guessed anything that was close to the truth. All anyone knew for sure was that after classes had been canceled an important staff meeting had taken place. Also a mandatory full school assembly would be taking place after lunch in the Great Hall for which attendance would be taken.
Lunch was tense because everyone was wondering what the assembly would be about and for many of the students it couldn't end soon enough. Finally, finally, Professor McGonagall tapped her glass with a fork sending a ringing tone through the Great Hall which got the attention of everyone. Dumbledore stood up to speak.
"Is everyone here?" he asked McGonagall.
"Yes" was the reply, "attendance was taken during lunch. Nobody's missing." That caused more than a few eyebrows among the students to go up in surprise as no one remembered seeing anyone take attendance. McGonagall sounded quite sure of herself, however, so presumably some unknown magical method had been used to tell her that everyone was here.
"Thank you" Dumbledore said to her before turning to look at the student body with a serious expression on his face.
"Students of Hogwarts" he began, "I have grave news to share with you all today. I had hoped to find some gentle or easy way to say this but such a way would do more harm than good if it existed. Therefore I'm going to come straight to the point. The magical world has been exposed to the muggle world."
There was a moment of shocked silence at what Dumbledore said. It was immediately followed by pandemonium in the Great Hall as many of the students began shouting out questions or denials. The shouting was full of disbelief and fear but no one could tell what anyone was saying with everyone shouting at once. Finally Dumbledore raised his wand and cast a spell that caused a loud boom throughout the room. The students all fell silent.
"Thank you" he said once everyone settled down, "I know this is a big shock for all of us and I understand why many of you are afraid but the last thing we should do is panic. We're facing unknown territory. We don't know what will happen with us being revealed to the muggles but I do know this: the muggles of today aren't the same as the muggles of 300 years ago. They're not even the same as the muggles of 100 years ago. Unlike many witches and wizards in Britain I have followed the muggle news all throughout the many years of my life and seen the many ways in which they have developed and the things they have done without magic. Although fear, superstition, and bigotry still exist among them it's not nearly as widespread as it once was. This is cause for hope.
"Another thing we should remember, and which is also cause for hope, is that magicals are no longer the only people in the world with unusual powers. You all know about mutants. You've all seen and met the X-Men and their friends the Avengers. There are other people out there who also have such unusual powers and they aren't hidden from the muggles in the way that we have been. The muggles have known about them for years. They're used to them. They might not like all of them, and we know that some of these super powered beings are bad people, but that's nothing new. The point is if the greater world can live with these other super powered people perhaps they can live with us too. We won't seem quite so different to the muggles even if we don't have the same powers as some of the mutants or heroes do.
"I know that many in our society have taken to calling mutants 'New Magicals.' Hopefully they can help us make bridges with the rest of the world. I ask you all to keep calm and let us see how this new world that we've been thrust into develops. We won't be complacent or naive. If things turn bad I and the rest of the staff here at Hogwarts stand ready to protect everyone here. All of you should also be ready to defend yourselves as best you an if it becomes necessary although I sincerely hope it won't.
"Classes will be canceled for the rest of the day. Anyone who wants to contact their families may do so. All professors will be available to any students who may feel the need to talk to someone about this. That's all I have to say for now. As more information becomes available I or one of the other professors will pass it on to you. Thank you."
Classes may have been cancelled but for once that didn't bring cheers from the students like it usually would. Most of them spent the afternoon talking with each other about what this exposure would mean for them all. The muggle-born students and the half-bloods who had grown up in the muggle world were asked a lot of questions by their magically raised classmates. In particular Hermione was sought out by a lot of her fellow Gryffindors, especially the purebloods.
"No" she said to them, "I don't know what this will mean for us but the headmaster is right. We shouldn't panic just yet. However a lot of you purebloods should rethink your stance on muggles. I know that I and many others who come from the non-magical world have tried to tell many of you that muggles are a lot smarter and more advanced than you think they are but many of you have never taken us seriously. It would be a good idea for you to rethink your positions and the sooner the better. The world is a lot bigger than magical Britain."
"But even if the muggles know about us, so what?" asked Cormac McClaggen with a bit of a sneer "what can they possibly do to us? We have magic. They don't."
"They didn't need magic to walk on the moon mate" said Dean Thomas. McClaggen looked at Dean as if he'd grown a second head.
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard" he said, "no one can go to the moon. Stop trying to scare us by making up stuff."
"He's not making up stuff" said Colin Creevey, "the Americans walked on the moon several times between 1969 and 1972. They've also sent unmanned crafts to Mars and past the outer planets."
"That's not all" said Seamus Finnegan, "muggles have bombs that can destroy whole cities. In 1945 the Americans used two of them to end a war. Hundreds of thousands of people died all at once."
"And that was 50 years ago" said Hermione, " the ones they have now can be fired from a distance. They could send something to destroy this castle and all of us in it from a base many miles away. We'd never even see them. They've learned to do things without magic that we take for granted and they've been doing so for thousands of years. They don't need magic to destroy us now. Think about that before you start crowing about how much better you are than muggles just because you have magic and they don't."
Similar conversations were taking place all over the castle, even among the Slytherins. It was becoming clear to everyone, even those who didn't want to admit it, that, whether they liked it or not, their world was changing irrevocably.
At Number 10 Downing Street in London the Right Honorable John Major, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain sat at his desk in his office with a bunch of newspapers spread out on it when the fire in his fireplace turned green. After a moment a man stepped out of it and stood up facing him.
"Minister Fudge" said the prime minister, "I'm glad you could come so quickly."
"Of course" said Fudge, "it's rare enough for the holders of our respective offices to meet as it is but for that meeting to be initiated by your side rather than mine is almost unprecedented. It could only mean that you have something of the greatest importance to discuss with me."
"You're right" said Major, "do you have any idea why I've called for this meeting?"
"I think I do" said Fudge gesturing at the newspapers on the prime minister's desk which all had headlines about mutants and the magical world. Major's eyebrows went up at this.
"Really?" he said, "I was under the impression that most magical people don't follow what goes on in the outside world."
"You're right" said Fudge, "most of us don't but that's not everyone. I've mentioned Albus Dumbledore to you have I not?"
"Once or twice" said Major.
"He follows the muggle news" said Fudge, "I heard about it from him when he came to see me just a short time ago. It's because of him that I knew about this before you called me."
"I'm glad you know" said Major, "that saves us some time. The big question now is what are we going to do about this?"
"What can we do?" asked Fudge, "I may not be very experienced in the muggle world but I do know that newspapers like the ones you have here are read by many, many people. By now too many people will have seen these papers or ones like them for us to be able to cover the magical world back up again."
"As you say" said Major, "that's not going to happen. However what we do now, how we handle this development, may go a long way towards influencing how this revelation plays out in the country. If nothing else we can't be silent about it."
"I know" said Fudge, "the Wizengamot is going to meet later today specifically to discuss where we go from here."
"That's all well and good for you" said Major, "but I must handle non-magical Britain and that's going to be a lot more work. I imagine it's going to be discussed and debated at length in Parliament. I'm not looking forward to the next Question Time in Commons."
"You have my sympathies" said Fudge, "what about the Queen? Have you heard from her yet?"
"I contacted the palace earlier this morning and asked for a meeting with her to discuss this very issue this afternoon" said Major, "would you like to come with me? It might help if you were there."
"I would be honored to come with you" said Fudge. He'd never met Queen Elizabeth II as she very rarely interacted with the magical world although as the reigning monarch of Britain she knew about it. Fudge had received a congratulatory note from her when he first became minister, something that he later found out was a normal thing to happen when a new minister of magic was first elected. He'd kept that note and later had it framed.
Fudge and Major had lunch together before being driven to Buckingham Palace for their meeting with the Queen. When they reached the palace they were taken to a private office where the Queen received them. It was Prime Minister Major who did most of the talking while Fudge mostly listened, only speaking when he was asked questions. Near the end of the meeting the Queen asked Fudge outright what his opinion of the whole situation was and what she should do. Fudge sat and thought about that for a long moment before speaking.
"I think the biggest problem we're going to have to deal with is fear" he said, "fear of the unknown, of the different, the other. I mean what does the average non-magical person know about wizards and witches beyond fantasy stories? Nothing. The same holds true the other way for most pureblood magicals and half-bloods who grew up in Wizarding Britain. We all know almost nothing about each other and that leads to fear. I can't believe that I, of all people, am about to say this but now that the Statute of Secrecy is completely broken I think we need to educate both worlds about each other as thoroughly as possible and as quickly as possible so we can demystify each world to the other."
"I agree" said the Prime Minister, "how shall we do this?"
"I can start with the wizarding world" said Fudge, "there's going to be a meeting of the Wizengamot later today. These developments will be a shock to almost everyone there. Hopefully I'll be able to impress on everyone that this new world we're living in is the way things are going to be from now on. Chief Warlock Dumbledore will be there as well and I'm very glad that he will be because these changes are more likely to be accepted with his support."
"As for the normal side of things" said Prime Minister Major addressing the Queen, "your majesty I think it would be a good idea if you would speak to the nation about what's happening and the sooner the better. People will be more accepting if they hear about if from you."
The Queen agreed and it was decided that she would give a televised address to Britain and all of the other countries of which she was Queen (like Canada and Australia for example) the next evening, much as President Clinton would do in America on the same day.
"You handled yourself better than I've seen you do in the past" said Prime Minister Major to Minister Fudge as the two of them were being driven back to 10 Downing Street from Buckingham Palace.
"What do you mean?" asked Fudge.
"If you'll forgive me for saying so" said Major, "when I first met you, you were much more narrowminded than you seem to be now. You were all about how I'd never see you again because the magical world had so little to do with the mundane one and we shouldn't trouble ourselves about it. Today, however, you were much more engaged with the bigger picture."
"You're right" said Fudge, "I was like that during the first years of my term. Today is the first time we've spoken since the Sirius Black crisis was resolved. Since then things happened that have strongly challenged my world view. If, as you say, I seem like more of a 'bigger picture' person today a lot of that has come about because of a superhero team from your world called The X-Men."
"You know of the X-Men?" asked Major with some surprise.
"I've met them a few times" said Fudge who proceeded to tell Major about the three times that the X-Men had helped Magical Britain fight off various attackers in the last year and a half. Major was impressed and said so.
"It sounds like the X-Men have been good for Magical Britain" he concluded.
"They've helped us a lot" said Fudge, "we gave them our highest award back in June after they defeated the Dark Lord." Major nodded in understanding. Not long after that the two governmental officials arrived back at 10 Downing Street. Prime Minister Major went back to his office to begin preparing for the Queen's speech the next day. Meanwhile Fudge returned to the Ministry of Magic to get ready for the Wizengamot meeting which was only a few hours away.
At 5:00 PM Fudge and Dumbledore faced a Wizengamot that was unhappy to be called in on such short notice. It was also obvious that none of the members knew why they were there. There was still a shortage of members because many of the seats that had been held by Death Eater families had yet to be filled. If a family had no regent or proxy to hold a seat right now (and there were a bunch like that) it was either being held in stasis for the moment until its heir was old enough to take it or, if there was no heir for a seat, it could be assigned to a new family.
As Chief Warlock Dumbledore called the meeting to order before giving the floor to the minister. The two of them had decided that Fudge would make the initial announcement after which Dumbledore would take over to give the details.
"Fellow members of the Wizengamot" said Fudge standing in his place, "the Chief Warlock and I come to you with grave news about a crisis that is literally changing our world. We have long feared such a thing could happen while at the same time we hoped it never would. Now it has. We have been exposed to the muggles."
There was a storm of protest from almost everyone in the room as people refused to believe such a thing could happen.
"Just obliviate them and have done with it!" yelled more than one person as Dumbledore pounded his gavel for silence.
"It's not that easy" said the Chief Warlock taking over from Fudge, "it would be if it were only a few muggles who found out about us but this time it's far, far more than that."
Dumbledore held up a few of the mundane newspapers.
"Each of these newspapers has a circulation of hundreds of thousands of peopel, even millions in some cases" he said, "and there are many more such papers that have been published today not just in Britain but all over the world. By this time tomorrow at the latest most of the muggle population will know about the magical world. That's more than five and a half billion people. Think about that: more than five and a half billion. There's no way we can possibly cover this up again. Whether we like it or not the muggle world now knows about us."
"So what do we do?" asked Amos Diggory.
"I don't know" said Dumbledore, "but one thing we must not do is panic."
"The Chief Warlock is right" said Fudge, "the muggle Prime Minister is on our side and so is the Queen. I met with both of them earlier today and they both want to keep the situation from turning bad."
"All we can do right now is wait and watch" said Dumbledore, "but in the meantime all of us should continue to act as normally as possible and that means acting as if the Statute of Secrecy hasn't been broken." This made sense to everyone. The muggle world might now know about the existence of their world but that didn't mean they knew who specific witches and wizards were. That, at least, was a silver lining.
The next day Queen Elizabeth II spoke to the people in the U.K. and all of her other dominions. Her speech was similar to that of President Clinton. She explained the truth about the magical world and urged her subjects to be calm and to learn as much as they could about their fellow mutant and magical citizens. It was a very well written and well delivered speech and for the moment it had the desired effect. There were no panic-driven riots in Britain that day.
(To Be Continued)
A/N - That's it for this chapter. Just a last reminder that the next chapter will be posted three weeks from today on June 23rd. Charles Xavier will come face to face with Bolivar Trask next time so I hope you come back to see how it all goes down. As usual please take a moment to leave me some feedback. Constructive comments are always welcome but no flames or trolls please. As always stay safe and well everyone.