Chapter 245: Beaver’s Maneuvers

4^th October 2012, British Ministry of Magic

(Hermione Granger POV)

Hermione Granger had almost achieved all her goals in life, or at least, had come very close to achieving them. She graduated first in her year, she was labeled the brightest witch of her generation, she got the best grades in her OWLS and NEWTS ever recorded and she was currently the first Muggleborn to have ever achieved a high position in the Ministry of Magic, being the current Undersecretary to the Minister himself, Nathan Potter.

And that’s just what’s on the surface; her influence had spread through the entire Ministry and everyday she was coming closer and closer to achieving her dream, a magical Britain where everyone is equal, with the same rights and opportunities.

It had been an uphill battle that’s for sure, and Hermione was opposed by practically everyone that wasn’t a Muggleborn. It made sense, in a way, that the people with the least opportunities and rights be supportive of her ideals.

The fact that a mediocre Pureblood would be picked before a competent Muggleborn disgusted the bushy haired woman. The elitist government that made up magical Britain was one whose goal was to enrich the families of the Wizengamot nothing more. Ministry positions were nothing more than political moves and bargaining chips to gain favors. No wonder that the entire Ministry was barely working under Fudge’s administration, before she came into power that is, where bribes were commonplace and higher ups were incompetent in their jobs.

The only way a Muggleborn or a Half Blood from a poor family could get a job would be if they’re not involved with politics whatsoever. Most of the magical shops in Britain were opened by Muggleborns, and most of the curse breakers, warders, and enchanters, are either Half Bloods or Muggleborns.

It was a neat system where the Purebloods were in power, and the rest are either employed outside of the Ministry, or have businesses of their own. It was a subtle thing that everyone took for granted, especially during the war with Voldemort where he promoted the death of Muggleborns, which pretty much held up the economy and development of the country. Had he won and succeeded in his ambitions of wiping out the Muggleborns, Magical Britain would have fallen in months at most. Because with the lower classes gone, being a member of a high class wouldn’t have meant much anymore. Who would sell the precious little potions and artifacts to the Purebloods, who would work in bookstores and set up wards? No one that's who, and in the end, they would either have had to leave the country because they hadn’t learnt how to do any of this, or they would have had to separate the purebloods into other classes where the lower ones will be segregated against in turn. And the circle would have repeated itself until nothing remained of the former powerhouse that was Magical Britain.

Hermione had learnt a lot during her time in the Ministry. The most shocking thing that she figured out is how much the Ministry depended on the works of Muggleborns, and she was able to leverage this to pass new laws and remove a few to limit the influence of the old families in magical Britain.

Truthfully, Hermione knew that without her friendship with Nathan, none of this would have ever been possible. Had things been different, had Nathan decided not to befriend her during their first years at Hogwarts, then Muggleborns would have grown in the shadow of the government, and they would have continued to be oppressed and sneered at, while they hold up the wizarding economy of the country on their shoulders.

But finally, it took years and a lot of effort, but Muggleborns were now almost equal citizens to everyone. Hermione Granger had successfully created a measure of equal representation in the political landscape of magical Britain. Most of the current Department heads were now either Half Bloods or Muggleborns, and for the first time, the Ministry hired the most qualified applicants, and not the ones that had the most connections in the political scene.

She had tried to do the same with magical creatures, but no one wanted to be on equal ground to wizards or witches, the mermen and centaurs were just insulted, and the house elves just refused to be freed, no matter how much she tried to convince them. Even Dobby, the house elf that Nathan tricked Lucius Malfoy into freeing, had bound himself to Hogwarts and its Headmistress.

The goblins, on the other hand, sneered at her, when she proposed involving them as a major player in the economy of magical Britain, by investing into wizarding businesses and so on. Apparently, they were satisfied with their monopoly as the only magical bank in Britain, that wasn’t even a proper bank, since all they did was rent vaults with various security features for wizards to use. Outside of that, they had their own civilization with their own inner economy in their own nation, but they did hire curse breakers, with some very good wages, to find ancient treasures lost to time.

But it wasn’t their fault. They just didn’t know any better, but if they don’t want to be involved it was their right. Instead of continuing such a pointless endeavor, Hermione chose to focus on the remaining major advantage that the Pureblood families held over the rest of the population, their magic.

Don’t get her wrong, by magic, she doesn’t mean their affinities or inherited magical talents like shape shifting or parseltongue, she meant the magical knowledge that the ancient families have been collecting for generations and keeping it to themselves.

Magical knowledge should be available to everyone, except the dangerous kind which no one should have access to. It was such a logical thing. It was the only thing that would bring true equality to the world. Why couldn’t everyone see it?

Having all magic be available for everyone would mean that it would be easier for people to find a field of magic to focus on. It means that people without access to this knowledge, wouldn’t have to start from scratch. It had worked in the muggle world without a problem with the internet, and things couldn’t have gone any better.

Everyone would have had the same chance at succeeding and it would only be their intellect, their determination, and their efforts, that would make a difference. Wouldn’t that be the perfect society she had dreamed of?

When she offered to pass this law to generalize the magical knowledge in a single repository of magic, she didn’t expect to be opposed this much. Sure, the Muggleborns supported her, but the rest were just hesitant. And even then, the Pureblood families just put their foot down, without budging an inch. They were somewhat accommodating during her rise in the Ministry, with the giant power gap left by Dumbledore and the Death Eaters that hadn’t been filled even years later, she was one of the biggest political forces in the country, and thus they didn’t want to anger her too much. But the families refused to even give her access to the knowledge of extinct families, claiming that they could be dormant for centuries until an heir resurfaces. The Goblins only confiscated the gold and precious stones from the vaults after being unclaimed for a century, it was in the vault contracts after all, but they left everything else, including the books or artifacts to be claimed by an heir later. The level of opposition was surprising, especially from the Department of Mysteries, which is something Hermione definitely didn’t expect; they should have been grateful that they would have more books for their research. Still, slowly, she was making more headway, convincing more and more people, and having them join her cause.

Things were going well until Rose Potter revealed her power during an attack, where she showed that somehow, she still had access to Jasmine Potter’s spells. Ugh, how Hermione hated the deceased witch. She didn’t know how Nathan’s twin had learnt that magic, but it was more powerful than anything she had ever seen. The girl was globally known as a magical prodigy who could have rivaled Merlin himself should she have grown into her full potential. It irked Hermione on a fundamental level to have someone be this much more skilled than she was. She couldn’t even dispute it; the duel between Dumbledore and Jasmine Potter had contained spells and magics that she still doesn’t have a clue about today.

Rose Potter could have been her key to her ambitions. Having access to Jasmine Potter’s magic would have been the perfect leverage to get the rest of the families to join her. She could end up using it as a bargaining tool where only people who release their family magic to the public would be able to access it. Every single family would have done anything for a glimpse of the deceased prodigy’s spells, which was evident by the ludicrous number of betrothal contracts sent to the Potter girl.

Because the ones that had access to Rose Potter, had the upper hand in the political landscape. She was like the new Dumbledore, a weapon to pressure anyone in the international scene, to gain more favorable conditions from the ICW and so on. But the immature brat didn’t accept her responsibilities to her country and just fled to ‘find her place in the world’ whatever that means.

But inevitably, the girl would return, and Hermione would finally achieve her goals. But, all her machinations came to a stop when a few of her informants in Hogsmeade ran into her office to show her a memory.

It was troubling, it was terrifying, it was a magical fight on a scale she had never seen before. It started in the three broomsticks where an elderly man and a woman seemed somewhat cordial, until the man just started glowing and attacked the woman. Which resulted in an aerial fight, using unaided flight, with spells that were just akin to natural disasters. In the end they teleported and moved their fight elsewhere.

She needed to find out what happened, how this occurred, and she sent an agent of hers to scry what happened. She knew that something happened over the pacific, but the energy output was too high for anyone to try scrying the past. She couldn’t even use a time turner and see the fight herself since for some reason, they had stopped working a few years back.

What she does know, is that the Muggle government thought that a meteorite had fallen down in the middle of the pacific which changed their readings. But Hermione knew better, it was just the result of the fight between the two Titans.

But, if that was it, she would have just been nervous about the victor of the Duel, and what it would mean in the grand scheme of things. Because when she analyzed the memories even further, she recognized the face of the woman in this situation. She looked younger than she had any right to be, barely more than her early twenties, but it was a face that the bushy haired woman could never forget, it was a face that she hated with a passion, the face of a woman she envied, a woman who in a single year, secured her place in the history books while Hermione kept slaving for her righteous goal, it was the face of Jasmine Potter.

Somehow, Jasmine Potter had survived her duel with Dumbledore. Somehow, Jasmine Potter had remained hidden from the world. Somehow, Jasmine Potter became even more powerful than she used to be.

But outside of her shock, the young witch felt a pang of betrayal. Had Nathan known all this time? Did he hide her existence from Hermione knowing that his sister could have been the key to Hermione’s own goals of a utopian magical society?

She needed answers, and she needed them now. The witch stood up in her office and walked towards the fireplace. She sent some floo powder at the fire and bellowed, “Potter Manor!”

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