Chapter Three

Usually Bart actually reading textbooks would be considered a miracle on par with Lazarus rising from the dead, but during the next few days, Bart read them in a bid to discover spells that he thought he might actually use at Hogwarts. He eventually decided to rehearse the Fire-Making, Severing and Softening Charms both with and without his wand. The former two to use in pranks; the latter so that he could use textbooks as pillows whenever he felt like napping during class.

Being a prodigious talent, he naturally mastered said charms without much difficulty. He also amused himself by vanishing Homer's donuts while he was trying to eat them, enraging Homer into chasing Bart around the house like a crazed axe-murderer.

Soon enough though, Homer's misery would end when, on September 8th at 10:30am, Headmaster Dumbledore apparated onto their front lawn with a startling crack and subtly knocked on the door, after which Bart promptly answered and said, "Ah, greeeeeeeetings Headmaster Dumbledore".

"Greetings to you as well, Mr. Simpson", the wizened wizard indulgently responded, amused by Bart's exuberance. "I trust that you're ready to leave for King's Cross. Do you have your ticket and International Travel Permit?"

"Yes, sir", Bart responded as he placed his wand, slingshot and a few stink bombs into his pocket, at which time Dumbledore transfigured a nearby rock into a cart and levitated Bart's trunk and cage onto the cart, allowing Bart to wheel the cart out onto the front lawn.

Bart and the headmaster then saw Marge and Lisa waving at them from one of the upstairs rooms. After the two wizards waved back, they apparated.

"I just hope my special little guy will be safe", Marge mused.

"He'll be fine, Mum. If anything, I'm more concerned about whether or not the other students will be safe from him", noted Lisa.

Moments after they disappeared from 742 Evergreen Terrace, Bart and Headmaster Dumbledore found themselves at Kings Cross, in between Platforms 9 and 10, just behind a raven-heard boy whom Bart thought looked familiar. Just after apparating, Dumbledore surreptitiously cast a Mass Obliviate so as not to attract unwanted attention.

"Where the hell is Platform 9 ¾?" Bart enquired.

"Well, all you have to do is run as fast as you can through that pillar and you'll find yourself on the right platform", the headmaster breezily responded.

"Run through that pillar? Headmaster Dumbledore, are you insane?" Bart querulously asked.

"No young Bart, though I do accept my advancing age may yet take a toll on my faculties", Dumbledore joked.

At hearing the names 'Bart' and 'Dumbledore', the raven-haired boy spun around.

"Bart! Professor Dumbledore! Did you just say that we have to run through that pillar?" Harry asked, not quite believing his ears.

While Bart was staring at Harry in shock, Headmaster Dumbledore responded, "Ah, good to see you again young Harry. Yes, you have to run through the pillar at full speed with your cart. Do not be afraid; I will be watching you."

Harry shrugged and, with his cart in front of him, quickly ran through the pillar.

The sight caused Bart's eyes to comically bug out, but before he could even consider following Harry, the headmaster put a hand on his shoulder.

"I apologise for the inconvenience Bart, but there are a couple of things I would like to tell you. Firstly, you must not use magic in Springfield because you will risk getting expelled. I regret to inform you that if you get expelled again, you will be forbidden to practice or study magic anywhere. For your safety, I will write a letter to your mother and sister advising them of this particular issue", Headmaster Dumbledore advised.

Upon hearing this, Bart groaned – he had so been looking forward to terrorising Dolph, Jimbo, Kearney and Principal Skinner with his newfound magic. However, it wasn't lost on the mischievous mage that the headmaster apparently deigned not to notify Homer about this particular issue.

He obviously thinks that Homer is too lousy and stupid a parent to bother reading or understanding Dumbledore's letter – well, he's definitely right about that, Bart thought sourly, recalling all too vividly his father's many displays of idiocy and incompetence.

"Secondly", the majestic mage continued, "please try to show restraint in executing your practical jokes. I know full well that not all Hogwarts staff members will take kindly to them. Thirdly, here's some of my own money, so you can pay for food on the train," Headmaster Dumbledore finished as he gave Bart a purse full of wizarding coins.

The headmaster usually didn't hand students his own money, but he made an exception for Bart, not just because he didn't want the young wizard to starve on the train but also because he figured that it would be easier to monitor Bart if he placed himself into Bart's metaphorical good books – and what better way to do so than to give Bart his own money before he even set foot in Hogwarts? To Headmaster Dumbledore's pleasure, this act of generosity had the desired effect.

"Thank you, Headmaster", Bart replied with genuine sincerity, "and I'll try to behave at Hogwarts", he finished, with altogether less sincerity. With that, Bart ran towards the pillar, jumping on the edge of the cart as the boy and his cart hurtled the pillar.

Headmaster Dumbledore watched Bart pass through the pillar and, ever wise to Bart's insincerity, thought to himself, Don't think I won't be keeping an eye on you, Bart, before walking into a nearby toilet block and apparating with a resounding CRACK! This caused a man occupying a nearby cubicle to empty his bowels instead of his bladder like he desired.

Meanwhile, Bart had run through the pillar and quickly realised that he was on Platform 9 ¾.

Cooooooooooool. A hidden platform. So Dumbledore wasn't kidding about there being a Platform 9 ¾, Bart thought, as wizards in robes rushed past him. He then sighted the steam train that he was obviously meant to enter.

A steam train? Pretty old-school next to Ilvermorny's magic speeding bus. You'd think that these guys would use something faster.

He then pushed through the crowd with his cart, trying to find Harry as he approached the train. "Hey, get out of the way, Very Important Wizard coming through. Hey, move it beardo. You too, mega-gut", were just a few of Bart's choice remarks as he did so.

Having not found Harry, Bart stood in front of one of the open train doors and, with wand in hand, quickly levitated his trunk and cage into the train before banishing his cart into the distance.

Hey, it's even easier to lift stuff with a wand than it is without one, Bart observed as he took his cage and trunk and opened the nearest compartment door.

When he did so, he saw an older girl sitting there perusing a magazine which appeared to be called Witch Weekly while putting one of her ankle boots up onto the opposite chair.

"Hello there. You have such a trim, attractive figure. May I sit next to you?" Bart asked, pouring on the charm.

At this, the girl stood up to survey him, which rendered Bart's throat dry. In Bart's eyes, she was very attractive, standing at 172cm with long, wavy brunette hair that went down just behind her shoulders, aristocratic high cheekbones and a reasonably voluptuous figure, which her tight green blouse and dark denim jeans were accentuating. What struck Bart most, however, were her brown eyes, which burned into Bart's being with the intensity of a thousand suns as she stared at him, with the apparent intention of sizing him up.

Why do I always fall for older women? Bart thought, thinking back to his crushes on Darcy and Laura Powers. However, the prefect's response shook him out of his trance.

"Shove off, firstie", she brusquely stated, apparently seeing through his attempts at charming her.

"And if I don't?" Bart playfully asked.

At this, the older girl gave him a nasty smile. "Well, then I might do this…" she responded. In a split second she whipped out her wand and before Bart could blink, his wand was in the older girl's hand and he was hoisted up in the air. He was held in place by her wand, as if she was controlling him like a puppet on a string.

"I wasn't made a prefect for nothing, you little brat", she hissed, pointing to the shiny silver 'P' badge on her chest. "This compartment is for prefects only. Now get lost", she ordered as she made to release Bart and throw his wand back to him.

However, before she did Bart slyly responded, "Who says I need a wand to perform magic?"

WHAT? the prefect thought. Before she could blink though, Bart had banished her into the wall, breaking her concentration and sending him to the floor. Using his ballet training, he landed delicately on his feet and wandlessly summoned his wand from her hand, much as he had summoned Homer's wallet so many times to buy things, like that lousy Itchy and Scratchy cel.

However, before he could do anything else, she had her wand trained upon him. Bart prepared to dodge but surprisingly no curses or hexes came. In fact, she was giving him a very shrewd, calculating look.

Hmmmm…so he can perform wandless, non-verbal magic. I've never seen a firstie do that in my time at Hogwarts. Even most seventh years can't do both at the same time. Yes, he's definitely worth getting to know. He's clearly attracted to me, so I think that I can persuade him that his place at Hogwarts is in Slytherin with me.

Once he gets into Slytherin, I can mould him into somebody who can help me take care of my family's opponents both within and outside of Slytherin House. When that's done, my family and I will have more influence than ever before within wizarding Britain, enough so that we might be able to seriously influence its direction. I will need to ask him a few questions before I can plan any further though…

At that, she gave him a stunning smile before holstering her wand and advancing towards him. As she did so she said, "I'm very sorry for my rudeness before. You just startled me, that's all. Here, let me help you up", extending her hand towards him.

Bart wasn't entirely convinced by her apology and momentarily wondered what her angle was, but the lovesick lad was so swept up in her beauty that he quickly disregarded that concern, rather than taking it seriously as he otherwise might have. Instead, he took her delicate, slender, soft, perfectly manicured hand and pulled himself up.

"I believe that introductions are in order. I'm Gemma Farley – and whom might you be?"

"Bart Simpson, and the pleasure is all mine madam", Bart unctuously replied, recalling Headmaster Dumbledore's earlier greeting.

Gemma smiled at that response, inviting Bart to sit next to her after she helped him put his trunk and cage up, which Bart duly did.

"Why did you call me a firstie? And where are the other prefects?" Bart asked.

"A firstie is a first-year. I knew you were a first-year because you had no idea what the badge on my shirt was, plus younger students who spent some time here would know better than to bother a prefect. As for the other prefects, I expect that they'll be joining us soon enough. Now please, let me ask you some questions. I really want to get to know you better", Gemma stated, to which Bart nodded.

"You know, you have a really cute American accent", Gemma said in a bid to butter Bart up. Bart's blush indicated that she had succeeded. Continuing on, she asked, "Why are you studying at Hogwarts and not Ilvermorny like every other American firstie?"

"Ummm…I got expelled from Ilvermorny", Bart said with some embarrassment.

Gemma raised her eyebrows at this. "You were expelled in your first week? Why?"

"Uhhhh…well, I crashed one of my house's brooms into the headmasters butt."

At hearing this, Gemma burst out laughing. She eventually composed herself and asked, "Shouldn't you be forbidden from practising or studying magic?"

"Well, Headmaster Fontaine let me study overseas because I'm really talented."

Having had her suspicious about Bart's magical talent vindicated, she pressed on. "Do you have magical parents?"

"No, I don't. Actually, it's really a good thing that Ho-I mean, my Dad doesn't because he would probably have turned my home town into a giant crater by now."

Gemma chuckled outwardly at this remark but inwardly thought, So he is a Muggleborn. That does cause a few complications – I don't remember a Muggleborn being sorted into Slytherin in all my years here. It also makes any hypothetical marriage to him trickier, because my family will not accept me marrying a Muggleborn by reason of reputational loss.

What I will have to do is to get him to go to the goblins and procure some fake I.D. so he can pass himself off as a pure-blood. He's an American, so he can pass himself off as a wizard from a historical American pure-blood family that may or may not have gone extinct, like the Stewards. The British pure-blood families are insular enough that they wouldn't be any the wiser. Now to try and convince him that Slytherin is the right house for him.

"You know Bart," Gemma said, addressing Bart by his first name instead of his surname to try and ingratiate herself with him, "I would really like you to be in Slytherin with me. Fontaine was right; you are a really talented wizard and if you were with me, I could help you to be that great wizard."

"Really?"

"Yes, Bart. Slytherin values students who have the potential for greatness more than the other houses do and to be honest, you could be the greatest wizard that Hogwarts has seen for many decades", Gemma continued.

"Cooooooooooooooooool", Bart said, thinking about all of the attention and glory that he could receive if he became as great as Gemma said. "But how could you help me become great?"

"Bart, I am the second-best student in my year and by my estimation one of this school's best students. The vast majority of students here can only dream of doing what I can do", Gemma boasted.

"Which is?"

At this point, Gemma discussed her extensive knowledge of charms, curses, hexes and jinxes, some of which were family secrets, how she was a dab hand at potions and her mastery of transfiguration, to the point where she had just started learning human transfiguration with her father, who was quite skilled in the practice. She joked that she was going to transform her more randy classmates into turnips this year, to which Bart laughed.

Bart then regaled her with tales about how he had used non-verbal, wandless and transfiguration magic to prank people from an early age. Much as Seraphinus had previously, Gemma laughed before asking him more probing questions.

"When did you discover that you could use non-verbal, wandless magic?"

"Well", Bart responded in his eagerness to impress, "I was about 6 years old. I went into my bedroom and discovered that my Mum had moved my toys to the other side of the room. As I went over to get them, I imagined myself pulling the toys into my hand, because I thought that would be awesome. A couple of toys then lifted themselves and came towards me before falling down again. After a little trial and error, I figured out that I really needed to concentrate on the toys and picture them coming into my hand.

I was about 7 or 8 when I discovered that I could make things disappear or change colour. One day, I just pictured turning my principal's hair pink because I thought it would be funny and it just kind of happened. Same thing when I saw my kindergarten teacher; I pictured making her clothes disappear just to see what would happen and…well…they did. I then practised making my dad's underwear disappear and change colour. You should have seen his face when he opened his drawers after I did that.

A bit later on, I figured out that I could also unlock doors by walking in front of a door and picturing it unlocking and opening."

Bart then bragged, "I can also make myself invisible and silent. That was a little trickier. I tried picturing my arm becoming invisible, but all that did was make my arm disappear while the rest of my body was still visible. I freaked a few people out but that wasn't what I wanted.

I later looked at a mirror at home and pictured my entire body disappearing, which did the trick. It wore off pretty quickly, but I kept on practising and now I can change back when I want by picturing myself looking into a mirror and seeing me look back."

To make myself silent, I pictured myself walking without making a sound. Again, I soon started making noise, so I kept using that charm so my body could get used to it. I only use it when I have to but, because people kept bumping into me when I walked around the corner because they couldn't hear me coming.

At around age 10, I pictured turning one of my sister's books into a rat. It only turned into half a rat, so obviously I had to practice more and focus better. What I did was stare at one of my teacher's books and keep a picture of it turning into a rat in my head for more than 30 seconds. After that time, it did. It really scared the class", Bart laughed.

"So I practised transforming things into larger animals or objects, like dogs. That was more difficult; to turn something into a dog I had to focus a picture in my mind for over a minute. But it was worth it just to see the look on Groundskeeper Willie's face.

Anyway, I just practised more and now I can do it pretty much instantly. I really caused a stray dog problem in my home town for a while", Bart explained as Gemma laughed.

"Were you bullied because of your gifts?"

"All the time. I mean, I was glad that the reverend banned me from church –"

"Reverend?"

"He's a guy who leads a group of Christians."

Gemma darkened at the reference to Christians but nonetheless invited Bart to continue.

"Yeah, as I was saying, the reverend banned me from church, my neighbour used to change me around with exorcism tongs because he thought that I had a demon inside of me -"

"WHAT?" Gemma exclaimed, sitting bolt upright.

"Yeah I know, right? Every day, the bullies would attack me to try and beat the 'freakiness' out of me and the town even tried to burn me alive but my Mum stopped them."

Gemma looked absolutely horrified and responded, "It might not mean much, but I'm sorry you had to go through all of that, Bart. No one with your gifts should have to cope with that", to which Bart simply shrugged.

She then thought to herself, The Muggles around him are absolute monsters - he's definitely not safe in his home town. I'll invite him to stay at Farley Manor over Yule so he can become closer to me. I assume that we both have International Travel Permits, so if he has a fireplace I'll give him a container of Floo Powder and he can use that before he comes to visit me. If not, I'll have my father apparate me to his house so I can collect him.

"How did they even know that you were behind all of these things?" Gemma asked.

"Well, my principal was sure that I vanished the teacher's clothes. He couldn't prove it, but rumours started spreading about me afterwards. That I made my arm invisible that time didn't help, nor did the way objects kept lifting and transforming in front of me.

Then my little sister Lisa started doing similar things – lifting objects and changing the colour of her clothes. I'm better at disappearing and staying silent because she's too much of a goody-two-shoes to sneak around places very much, but she can still unlock doors and she's even better at, um, transfiguring and stuff than me. She once turned my elephant, Stampy, into a pot plant to hide him from some ivory dealer before convincing Dad to smuggle him to a game reserve, after which she turned him back into an elephant. Then she cursed some older girls who tried to bully her. Basically, that stuff just added fuel to the fire and that's when the town and the reverend got upset."

Gemma looked at him with wide eyes and thought, His little sister can transfigure an elephant? She's obviously worth getting to know as well.

She then regained her composure and asked him, "Did your parents or relatives know about this?"

"I think they wondered but they weren't sure. Mum seemed cool with it, but Dad started calling me 'Freaky Barty' because of all the weird stuff that happened when I was around. Tell me about your family."

She rolled her eyes at Homer's nickname for Bart but discussed her family. Her mother, Bella, ran an apothecary while her father, Jake, was a seasoned curse-breaker for the Ministry of Magic, hence explaining Gemma's knowledge of charms, curses, hexes and jinxes.

"Coooooooool", Bart responded, before discussing his family in cursory detail. He didn't want to talk much about Homer's occasional abusive behaviour – he had already revealed more about his past than he had expected to and it was more of a sore point for him than he let on.

Luckily, Gemma let it slide and asked him, "So what did you do about the bullies?"

"Well, I wanted them to break out in boils before they could touch me. I basically practised on my sister and mastered a few hexes that way. Before long, the bullies were breaking out in boils, having their skin turn into bloody scabs and suffering from nasty genital rashes. For the last one I had to picture them naked", Bart said as he shuddered, "but it was worth it. My sister got me back though, by making my butt break out in boils. I couldn't sit down properly for a little while after that", to which Gemma snorted in laughter.

Unfortunately for them, their privacy was then disturbed as another prefect, this time with red hair, opened the door.

"Farley, non-prefects aren't allowed in this compartment; it's against Hogwarts regulations! What is this boy doing with you?" the prefect asked.

"I invited him, Weasley", Gemma deadpanned.

"That doesn't matter, Farley! I'm going to have to report this!" Weasley threatened.

"Weasley, the school year hasn't even started, so I can't get into trouble for this, you prat. Now go mope outside", Gemma ordered as she shut the door.

"What kind of stupid name is Weasley?"

"Well, it suits him because he's a weasel", Gemma snarked, to which Bart chuckled.

Man, I look forward to pranking him, Bart thought to himself as two more prefects came in. They gave Bart a suspicious look, but Gemma's shake of the head dissuaded them from saying anything. The three prefects then exchanged pleasantries and discussed their summers. He then tuned out, again fantasising about Itchy blasting Scratchy in a million ways using his wand and hence remaining oblivious to the occasional cycling of prefects in and out of the compartment.

The trip wasn't entirely uneventful, though. A smiling, dimpled woman came by with a cart and offered them any number of sweets. As Bart bought some and examined them, he came across one called Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. He then chuckled as he thought about Homer vomiting after eating one that tasted like a combination of pie crust, cloves and Tom Collins mix.

Eventually, Gemma informed him that they were nearing Hogwarts and that he should change into his robes outside. Bart complied, disillusioning himself in the process.

A voice then called out, "We'll be at Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken separately."

Well that's something, Bart thought as the train slowly stopped. After it did, Gemma, Bart and the other two prefects stepped out.

Immediately afterwards, Bart heard a voice that he recognised as Hagrid's calling out for the first-years to follow him. Bart looked at Gemma, who responded with a nod and a dazzling smile before saying, "Good luck Bart. It would be a massive shame for you to not be with me in Slytherin", she said as she trooped off with the other prefects.

A short time later, Bart followed Hagrid's giant figure. He eventually discovered that, because he sat in the prefect compartment rather than with the other first-years, he was at the very back of the large mob of said first-years, who walked down an apparently narrow, steep path. Ahead of him, Hagrid pointed out that the castle could be seen just around this bend. The other first-years were apparently fascinated by this, but Bart himself was singularly unimpressed.

Pfft, people are impressed by anything these days, he thought. Just last week I saw another castle. I'm sure they all pretty much look the same.

Eventually, they reached a large black lake with several small boats.

What, couldn't these brilliant wizards come up with a faster way to move people from Point A to B? Bart asked himself as he recalled how Ilvermorny's magic bus transported people directly onto the school grounds. Nonetheless, he complied with Hagrid's order to do so and duly stepped in. As he did so, Bart heard a voice utter, "Bart? Is that you?"

He turned to his left to find Harry gawking at him, with his other two accomplices looking at Bart in confusion.

"Oh hey Milh-I mean, Harry", Bart greeted. "Who are these other dudes?"

"Wait a minute Harry, do you know this boy?" a bushy-haired, buck-toothed witch sitting opposite him asked.

"Yeah, I do. Hermione Granger, meet Bart Simpson. Ron Weasley, meet the guy who fought with Malfoy in Madam Malkin's," Harry said as he introduced Bart to his new friends. Bart inwardly snickered at the name 'Weasley' but kept up a neutral front.

"You're the one who fought with Malfoy? Wicked!" Ron exclaimed as he eagerly shook Bart's hand. Observing him properly, Bart saw that he was a tall, gangly, freckled boy with a long nose.

"Yeah. He called me a Mudblood before running out of the shop like a bitch", Bart replied, earning a dark look from Ron. "Hey, what's a Mudblood anyway?"

Ron sighed and explained, "A Mudblood is an insult directed towards someone with two Muggle parents. It's like saying that their blood's dirty."

Bart wisecracked, "Yeah, my dad's about as Muggle as you can get", to which Harry and Ron chuckled.

"So what house do you think you'll be in?" Ron asked.

"Slytherin", Bart briskly responded. To his surprise, Ron looked as if Bart had just admitted to murdering his entire family. "Was iiiiiiit…something I said?" Bart asked, absolutely nonplussed at Ron's affronted expression.

"Yeah, it was! You can't be in Slytherin! They're a bunch of slimy snakes! There wasn't a witch or wizard that went bad who wasn't from Slytherin! Malfoy is going to be a Slytherin, for Merlin's sake!" Ron exclaimed.

"That's why I want to be in Slytherin – to make Malfoy's life a living hell", Bart responded, causing Harry to chuckle and leaving Ron utterly dazed and confused.

"You want to get sorted into a house just to bully someone? That's not very nice!" Hermione exclaimed.

Before Bart could respond, a voice to his right piped up, "Hey look, it's Simpson. So you've finally decided to show yourself, have you, you stinking Mudblood? Here I was thinking that you chickened out of coming to Hogwarts, but when I'm through with you, you'll wish that you had!"

Much to Bart's displeasure, Malfoy was on the next boat with two gorilla-like thugs. The trio eerily reminded Bart of Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney. If his interactions with the latter trio were anything to go by, this group would look to cause him no end of problems. I'll need to keep an eye on them, Bart thought.

"Yeah, you keep on saying that, Drain-o Mal-formed! I'm more than you or your boyfriends can handle", Bart responded, eliciting laughs from Harry and Ron. Even Hermione smiled.

Draco scowled, but before he could respond Bart had already clambered out of the boat and disillusioned himself so that the blond boy could not see him.

Where did he go? Surely the little Mudblood doesn't know how to disillusion himself? I didn't even see him use a wand! Draco thought in vexation.

Bart silenced himself before chuckling, with his chuckles only increasing when he realised that a fellow student actually owned a toad. He then shuffled up the stairs, lifting the disillusionment charm as he did so. He quickly found himself in front of a large, oak door, upon which Hagrid knocked three times before the first-years filed in.

Author's notes for Chapter Three:

Chapter Three was originally meant to cover Bart's sorting, but the chapter was so long that I decided to make the sorting part of Chapter Four.

The Itchy and Scratchy animation cel is a reference to 'Lady Bouvier's Lover'.

As I promised to do this earlier, I've added a section explaining Bart's ability to cast charms/hexes non-verbally/wandlessly. Hope the explanation is reasonable enough.

I did not want to have Gemma Farley be a Mary Sue type character without any real flaws. It should be apparent to readers that while she is charming, ambitious, driven, resourceful, high-achieving and a long-term planner, she is also incredibly manipulative, self-interested and quite amoral, to the point where she has no compunctions about taking advantage of a child's attraction to her in order to make him do her bidding. In other words, a quintessential Slytherin.

To this end, I also did not want to make Gemma too overpowered for a fifth-year. Her ability to perform non-verbal magic and her learning (but not mastering) human transfiguration is considered to be above O.W.L. level, but learning spells above that level is certainly not impossible for younger students, as Harry and Hermione have repeatedly demonstrated.

RE Gemma's attractiveness, I am describing her from Bart's POV. Many guys would no doubt view her as attractive, but her beauty IMO isn't otherworldly. She doesn't have particularly exotic hair or eyes, nor is her name unusual.

When you're lovesick, as Bart was with Gemma, it can be hard to view them in a realistic manner. Bart being a child would just worsen this issue since children typically lack the life experience and perspective of adults.

I don't think that Gemma's ambitions are too unrealistic, certainly not by the standards of a universe wherein a megalomaniac takes over the Ministry of Magic and Lucius Malfoy effectively has the Minister of Magic in his pocket.