Chapter 65: Gossip Mill
Hadrian Black insipidly sat there as he watched his fellow heirs and heiresses sit in one of the closed-off rooms in the dungeons.
This room was only ever used by the Slytherins when they wanted all political hiers to come together and discuss something.
This room wasn't used often and it also had another name to it which was only ever said in frantic whispers. It was called 'The Slytherin King's Court'.
Though there was a strictly followed hierarchy in the house, any of these teens could cause enough panic in the outer world if they so much as flexed their muscles or stomped their feet.
Therefore, in here, the heirs could be said to be participating in a mini Wizengamot, all on its own.
This meeting had been jointly called by him and Malfoy and Harry knew that the only reason these children had agreed to come and the current Slytherin Court had agreed to the usage of this room was because he had mistakenly stepped into the minefield of running for the position of the next Slytherin King.
He and Abraxas had discussed the issue of him coming to Riddle's rescue on All Hallow's Eve and decided that the only way to offset the damage was if they showed a united front.
After all, these teens might not be able to do much to them inside Hogwarts, but the same couldn't be said of their parents - who wouldn't mind taking a bite off the Blacks and Malfoys.
Hence the joint invitation and all this politicking. They could simply use this to show that there weren't any fractures between their alliance and could also use this meeting as a pretext to stifle others who had designs on them.
Reginald Greengrass was the first one to start.
"Hier Black, we all know that you have called this meeting for a specific reason and everyone has been making small talk until now. But some of us are weary of that. So, mind telling us what is the purpose of this meeting?"
Harry watched with rising amusement as everyone present tried to deduce his reasons for the meeting from his facial expressions or body language.
Really.
If these teens were a decade or so older and placed in a muggle political situation, they would run circles around more than half of Britain's finest no-maj heavy-weight politicians.
He had come prepared to deal with the future major players in the wizarding world, but the meeting was altogether a new experience for him.
In the past lifetime, he had been left with precious few friends who had visited him infrequently. All his genuine knowledge about magic and Magical Britannia had come from listening to them or from the books they had recommended.
He had never even wondered what he would be sitting in what could be dubbed as his first official meeting for the running of the position of King for a house which he had detested for as long as he had studied at Hogwarts.
Life sure gave him a curveball.
But since things had already come to this point, he might as well use the power and connections at his disposal, to further his own agenda than let anybody else get a head start over him.
Standing up from his armchair, he walked a few steps away from everyone and then with a spell revealed a blackboard he had already prepared.
The board had the headlines of major newspapers around the world - the words screaming about imminent war and the casualties suffered every day.
Harry turned towards his peers and pointed out, "We all see or hear these news daily but they don't seem impactful all on their own. However, when you look at them together and think of the bigger picture, what do these headlines tell us all?"
The lower years didn't seem to understand the hint behind his words but the heirs from the fifth year and above watched him with thoughtful crowd marring theirs faces.
Each headline hinted at a guerrilla-style warfare tactic employed by Grindewald's Acolytes and each skirmish - whether big or small, was severe in its own way.
Some involved a handful of wizards and witches getting incapacitated in some permanent way and some involved entire wizarding villages being razed to the ground.
Yet, some others hinted at mindless scares while others were from skirmishes when the Acolytes had gone to have their fun in the muggle world.
In general, an everyday wizard might think that the skirmishes between the Acolytes and the other magicals were the worst of the lot.
But in this room, where most of them adhered to Lady Magic and performed the various pagan rituals, knew that the worst were the ones where the Acolytes spread terror in the muggle world.
This wasn't an alarmist's talk. This was serious.
On an instinctive level, magicals would always have the upper hand over their muggle counterparts.
But the problem began when the knowledge of a hidden world was leaked to more than a select few.
The muggles discriminated against their own on the basis of caste, creed, religion and even skin colour.
How would they react when they realised that there was an entire society hidden from them that were virtually gods?
The magicals could do things that their own science and technology couldn't explain. If it was a benign muggle, he or she night treats the magicals as a sideshow attraction and forget about in the grander scheme of things.
However, with the muggles gearing up and fighting their own grand scale war, wouldn't it be a miracle if they found people who had superhuman abilities?
In such a scenario, if the magicals agreed then, the powerful ones could be used by the muggle authorities as war generals - to direct the flow of war and the lesser ones would be used as meat shields.
Still, why would the magicals bother about people whom they viewed as lesser humans? Why would they leave their heritage and culture behind to fight a war that was of no consequences to them on a personal level?
One also shouldn't forget that the top brass of the muggle governments knew about the magical world.
So, in a situation where thousands of their own countrymen were dying daily, what would the government's response be?
Would they still be polite to the magicals on account of the fact that they had the upper hand?
Wouldn't a cornered beast on its last leg fight desperately to get a chance of living through the tragedy?
If it was only that, the magicals could certainly place all their immovable property under Fidelius Charms and be done with the lot - since nobody could ever find a place under a Fidelius until they had the secret keeper's cooperation.
However, there was another aspect that none of the pure blood's could ignore.
First, many of the unmentionable squibs of their lines were living incognito in the muggle world and even if the purebloods had not shown them an ounce of care, they were still family.
And for a pureblood, the creed 'Magic first, family second and faith third' had a poignant meaning and was followed religiously.
This was the reason why most pure blood's agreed to a betrothal set by their parents because it might just benefit their magic and in turn, help the next generation of the family.
Secondly, the muggleborns.
Even if they were detested for their misconceptions and know it all attitude, nobody could deny that they were an integral part of the system.
Even if the purebloods spouted off the rhetoric about blood purity and mudbloods and blood traitors, they couldn't deny the fact that the muggleborns were like a cog in the machinery. An unattractive but a necessary part that could be better used if polished off properly.
The MoM and the intelligent magicals wouldn't cut themselves off from that source.
So, in a situation where the magicals refused to help their counterparts, the muggle authorities would certainly look and find these children who hadn't learned the difference between directed chaos magic and an accidental one.
And since they had already been refused aid, the muggles could either take this bountiful source of supernatural abilities as their hostage in exchange for help from the magicals or the so-called 'progressive thinkers' would suggest conducting experiments on the innocent children.
After all, the human heart knew no bounds and greed resided in the darkest corners of each person - whether magical or muggle.
Who wouldn't want such power at their own fingertips?
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Shiksha_Jerath
Shiksha_Jerath Heya Folks
I am in need of an editor - someone who could reread my work before I update it on the site and check out for any grammatical errors.
Well, you might ask what would the editor get in exchange for helping me?
*puppy dog eyes*
An early look into the next chapter before it is updated is all I can say.
If any of you are interested, please do tell me in the comments or DM me on discord.
Sending loads of hugs your way.
Shiksha Jerath x
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