Capítulo 54: Negotiating with the Ministers
Finally, Gaude was done with cleaning up the parts of Wizarding Britain that had disturbed him the most. Well, almost. There were still the Death Eaters and the pureblood society that needed to be reigned in. That was the precise reason behind his next stop. The guest entrance to the Ministry of Magic.
"I would like to have an audience with the minister."
"I'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to set an appointment. The next free time is on the 26th…"
"Just tell them it's Charles Vywin. I believe the name should hold quite a bit of weight these days."
The voice beside him became silent for a bit, then a silver medallion fell out of the coin slot of the phone.
When the voice spoke again, it was a lot more respectful: "Come right down, sir, it turns out the Minister has some free time right now."
Gaude was a bit miffed at how quickly the reception witch's tune had changed. However, since it fulfilled his purpose rather nicely, he wasn't going to ponder over it for too long. Instead, he took the elevator ride down, went across the Atrium, past the security guy who once again checked his wand and finally to an elevator, this time taking a ride all the way up again to level one.
There was already a pair of wizards waiting for him. A quick check revealed them to be Aurors with their wands a fraction of a second from being drawn. Gaude didn't let that disturb him. The minister should have at least that level of security.
"It's the third door on the right.", one of the stern-looking wizards spoke.
"Thank you. Good to see you both are vigilant. Wouldn't want to lose the minister after I've made so much effort to get his attention."
The corridor that opened in front of Gaude once the two men stepped aside was covered with thick purple carpets. The doors were all polished mahogany. There seemed to be small plaques with the posts of the occupants of each of the rooms.
There were: Special Advisor for Elf Legislation, Exotic Symbol Analyst, Quill Control & Rune Translation, various secretaries, advisors and assistants for the Minister for Magic, and of course, Minister for Magic.
The door didn't look any different than the others except for what was written on the plaque, there wasn't even any kind of special magic emanating from it. However, once Gaude slipped on his goggles, he was able to see that the door was in fact much more heavily enchanted than any of the others.
Gaude knocked on the door, and after a moment it opened. There were bookcases lining the entire room, at least half of them filled with rolls of parchment, the rest had many books that were restricted or downright forbidden in the rest of Wizarding Britain.
There was a gaunt-looking man sitting behind a solid oak table in a tall leather armchair. Gaude had found out that the man was around fifty years old, yet he had a full head of gray hair on him, and there were deep wrinkles on his forehead and frown lines around his mouth. It seemed that the job hadn't done the man any favors.
"Greetings, Minister Minchum. I understand that you've been looking for me."
"Mr Vywin. I've heard many things about you in the past months. When I heard you were looking to have a meeting with me it got me curious. Tell me, for what purpose have you come here?"
"It's simple. I've come to propose a deal. I understand that you've got more problems than solutions regarding a certain group of dark wizards. I'm offering help to get rid of them."
"What exactly does that help of yours entail?"
"As you may have already heard, I happen to have a well-trained force at my disposal with certain special tools and training that allow them to outperform any regular witches and wizards. It is my intention to get rid of the dark wizard and his followers provided that I get a few favors from you in return.
I may not have the means to go against the man behind it all just yet, but I'm offering to bag a few significant victories and let you take most of the credit.
You see, I happen to think that you being re-elected is about the best thing that could happen to Magical Britain this decade or the next one.
In other words, I'm offering you my backing, financially and with manpower."
The man wasn't easily swayed from the promises of getting rid of Voldemort and his minions. He didn't seem to be interested in the support offered either.
He wouldn't let another dark lord, this time with control of the Ministry rise from the ashes of another. He had to make sure he made the right choice, so he asked: "It all comes down to one thing then, doesn't it? What are the favors you're looking for?"
"I want some changes in the social structure of Wizarding Britain. First off, illegalize the open discrimination of Muggle-born and half-bloods. Also, illegalize at least the open discrimination against half-breeds, such as half goblins, half-Veela and others. Finally, illegalize the discrimination against all the sentient magical races, such as Goblins, Veela, Centaurs and so on.
Naturally, their crimes must be justly punished, with a thorough explanation of why what they did was wrong from a wizard's point of view, if the crime is a result of cultural differences. I don't want a Goblin war because a wizard smiled at one with too many teeth showing and the Goblin was incarcerated without further explanation for accepting the challenge.
Also, it would be nice if each of the magical races were promoted based on their more admirable qualities, instead of how many acts of violence they had committed throughout their history."
"The Wizengamot would never allow your ideas to pass. Those proposals would be shot down faster than a sitting duck on hunting season."
"You don't have to worry about the noble houses. They'll have their hands much too full to worry about some small changes to the way the world works. You see, I happen to have quite the comprehensive information network and I've discovered that most, if not all of the noble and even most ancient noble houses have at least one Death Eater in their ranks.
This brings us to another favor I'd like to ask you. I ask that I get the right to hold onto any Death Eater and follower of Tom Marvolo Riddle, that is, the current dark lord, for as long as a year.
The only purpose of that is to have their houses be compliant with the proposals I have presented. Unfortunately, it will look like blackmail from the side, but with you being clued in to my plans, I'm sure you'll be able to keep the Aurors off my back.
Just don't cut their pay or reduce their numbers to achieve that goal, rather keep them so busy they don't have time to investigate. You can even put them on patrol in all the wizarding settlements and Britain in general."
"Your proposal sounds a bit too good to be true. What else do you want me to do for you?"
"There will be some other matters later, but none of them will be against morals or ethics, even if they do infringe upon a few backwardly laws. Before you ask, I've memorized all forty-nine volumes of it.
My first offer to you will be the capture of Fenrir Greyback, as my agents claim they've already tracked him down to three possible locations, meaning we'll be raiding the locations one after the other."
"I'll be more than happy to accept Greyback's head. I'll see to the favors you asked for after that. I do hope you've been paying taxes on all the Galleons you've been earning and spending everywhere. I hear you recently bought and rebuilt Hogsmeade?"
"All my taxes are being properly paid. There's no way I could refuse the Tax Fairy. Now, let's get to the final matter. There's a new brand of Werewolves in town. In fact, they're the forces I was talking about earlier.
They're special in that they retain their full sanity and fighting ability while transformed even without wolfsbane, and the best of them can transform even outside a full moon.
That is why I want a new Werewolf subclassification to be made. A Skinwalker, one that is able to freely transform, similar to a Werewolf Animagus while retaining their faculties."
"So, you're saying you somehow cured the Werewolves' insanity?"
"Truthfully, there wasn't much that needed curing in the first place. The only thing that had to be done was having the wolf part of the Werewolf form a bond with the human part. After that, the Werewolves became able to think and reason just as they could in their human form, not succumbing to their instincts. Honestly, it's an effect similar to Wolfsbane, except with the added benefits of transforming whenever it is deemed necessary."
"I'll have to see one of those Werewolves before I can make a decision."
Gaude looked at the air beside him and said: "Laly, bring Irma over."
Suddenly, a Werewolf appeared out of nowhere, in a fully transformed state. The minister scrambled for his wand and pointed it at the creature before Gaude pointed it away with the wave of his hand.
"It's rude to point your wand at your guests without their consent.", Gaude reprimanded.
"A fucking Werewolf just appeared from thin air in my own damn office, how did you expect me to react?"
"About how you just did, actually. As you can see, she's quite docile. Irma, say hello to the Minister for Magic, Mr Harold Minchum."
The Werewolf's head changed into that of Irma's with wolf ears, causing Gaude's hand to twitch uncontrollably the moment he saw it.
"Hello, Mr Minchum. I am Irma Smith, the leader of Charles' Werewolf troops."
After seeing Irma's face, the minister suddenly had a visible recognition on his face.
Minchum asked: "Did you have anything to do with the changes to the fountain of magical brethren in the Atrium?"
Charles responded with a question of his own: "Hypothetically, if I did have something to do with it, what would happen?"
"You'd be held responsible, and we'd have you restore the statues. That's what would happen."
"It's a good thing that I, Charles Vywin am not involved in it in any way then.", Charles says with a smug grin.
Minchum had been occasionally glancing at the lie-detecting ring on his finger and discovered that so far, the man in front of him hadn't told a single lie.
The minister suddenly suspected that the ring might be malfunctioning, so he said: "I need you to tell me a lie."
"What for?"
"No reason in particular, I just need to check something."
"Alright. I want to become the Minister for Magic."
No sooner had Charles finished with the statement that the gemstone on the ring lit up with a red glow.
"Thank you.", the minister said.
"Now, how about making the new Werewolf classification?"
"The moment you bring me Greyback I'll get it done."
Both Gaude and the minister then swore magically binding oaths to hold up their ends of the deal.
Gaude got the Minister's permission to contact the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher.
He was even allowed to use Minchum's Floo to enter her office.
He walked out of the Floo to a startled lady. "Hello, Mrs Thatcher. I am Charles Vywin. I'm sure minister Minchum has already given you the talk and told you about the ongoing war.
I'm not here for that. In fact, I'm here for something entirely different. I'm here to set up a Jolly Cooperation between you and me.
By that I mean that you push for a few changes in laws and regulations, for the betterment of the standard of life.
As for what I'll be offering in return for what you're about to do for me: I happen to have a very capable intelligence network and an even more capable personal security company. I'm willing to give you enough dirt on anyone who opposes you to bury them alive.
In fact, here's a little office warming gift for you."
He had to freeze the lady in the middle of his introductory speech because she looked like she was about to push a panic button under the table.
Gaude took a thick folder full of photos and files from his Mokeskin bag and quietly placed it on the Prime minister's table.
"These are four people that would absolutely love to spend the rest of their lives opposing you for their personal gain. This is enough to, as I've heard some people in your employ put it, 'put them in a hole so deep they'll never see the light of day again'."
Finally, Gaude swapped from a immobilizing charm to telekinetic hold, allowing her to speak.
She started with a loud: "Guards! I'm being attacked!"
Gaude placed his finger on his lips as if gesturing her to be quiet. He then said: "The entire room is warded against sound exiting it. I'm afraid there won't be any guards coming before I've left."
Gaude then snuck a few drops of calming draught into her system. The draught worked its magic, as her words that followed were much more reasonable.
"Why are you doing this? What kind of changes do you want made?"
"Finally, we can talk like human beings.
I simply wish to make the lives of children easier and safer.
You see, there are no good methods to avoid domestic abuse currently. I propose that neighbors will be tasked with reporting all cases of domestic abuse, and if they fail to do that while aware of what's happening, they be fined. I understand that it would require some more police manpower, but I'm willing to donate for the cause.
There should also be infomercials that state the symptoms of an abuse victim. This should also decrease the number of abusers getting away with it. I think there should be trained personnel for approaching suspected victims and getting them to talk. I believe I'll be able to provide said personnel."
The lady took a moment to take it all in, then spoke: "What else do you want? That can't be all."
"I'll become quite active in the non-magical business world, so there may be a favor or two that I'll be asking. Finally, I'll be providing my own security personnel for you starting now. You won't even know they're there, unless you're in danger."
"How is that any different from being incarcerated and put under constant observation?"
"The difference is obvious, you'll be free to go wherever you want and do whatever you want, as long as it is in line with widely accepted morals and ethics."
"Will I at least be allowed my private moments?"
"You needn't worry about that. The guards are non-human, very loyal and know when to give you privacy."
Once Gaude and Irma left the Ministry, he checked with his trusty elves and the human, or more precisely Werewolf intelligence team on how the search for Greyback was going. The exact location was yet to be narrowed down and Gaude got the idea of just checking all of them in order.
Next, Gaude checked up on the Vywin conglomerate's head office. While the actual headquarters was still under construction, he had ended up renting two more floors in the same office building – business was growing and so was the staff.
Gaude discovered that the legal department had finished going through the files from his indoctrinated Muggle businessmen's companies.
Gaude discovered that not only was there exploitation of workers to the point of near-slavery, there were also multiple violations of environmental and workplace safety regulations and generous bribes to any inspectors. It seemed almost as if the companies had taken the safety guidelines, thrown them into a pit created by detonating a nuke because it was simply the fastest, poured toxic waste from the processing plants into that pit to make sure nobody goes for that safety manual, poured concrete over everything and built a school on top of it, saying that they were just that charitable. They also said that any chronic illnesses and birth defects were most likely due to congenital diseases, nothing to do with their companies at all.
Gaude ended up giving Human Resources the instructions to hire an engineering taskforce specialized in environmental safety, so that anything affiliated with the Vywin conglomerate would be green enough to raise your children around without a worry. Naturally, all the work, safety and purification systems would be paid by the companies that had committed those 'oversights' in the first place.
After Gaude's eyes had been opened to just how bad the situation was, he decided to start a 'green wave' in industries, intent on cleaning up Britain first and then move to other countries. He hoped that at some point, people would start feeling bad about being disastrous to the environment and ask for guidance on how to stay in business. Of course, that was just a hope, complemented by a firm resolve to just indoctrinate the leadership of every single company if need be and force the green pill up their arse.
Gaude also tasked the geoengineering team to get to work on figuring out how a ultra-deep borehole geothermal power and heat plant should work and look like – he wanted to have a completely green and viable alternative to fossil fuel burning power plants at least. It was also his door into the energy market, by offering something innovative and acceptable for the people that would be living near it.
#AN: I know, it already exists in our world, at least in Finland, but if I'm not mistaken, it was only an idea back then#
Next, Gaude discovered that it was about time to expand the staff of his conglomerate in both the Muggle and magical world once more and conducted a spree of interviews – except this time, it was more about picking the brain of the candidates with Legilimency and going over all their past interactions in a sneaky manner to find out if there had been any suspicious activities. Using the help of a wand for Legilimency had taken a huge load off his mind, allowing for much more flexibility – something one wouldn't normally expect from wand-mediated magic.
Gaude had to admit, those human traffickers that got turned into vegetables had made a sacrifice for the greater good, as it made the interviews so much easier – he didn't have to ask as many questions as he did with Veritaserum and he also got a lot of peripheral data, such as the person's emotions during a past action or interaction. Sure, he wasn't good enough to get the exact read on the emotions, but he did get a general grasp on whether they had reacted positively or negatively.
Since most of the people applying for the magical jobs were Muggleborn, they had little to do with Death Eaters. The picture was different for the Half-bloods. Among the half-bloods, a third at least knew somebody that was part of Voldemort's merry band of miscreants.
After two whole days of interviews, he had finally staffed all of the establishments that were now under his name, well, the name of Charles Vywin anyway, and would be passed onto Gaude Vywin in the event of Charles Vywin's death. In addition, he had rented two more floors of the same building for his conglomerate management staff. The actual headquarters was still under construction, as the permit had come through only a month earlier due to the unique architecture of the building raising more than a few eyebrows. In the end, it was considered safe and a future landmark that would enrich London's skyline.
Once they had been taught to speak proper English, the east-european girls had really proven themselves, most chose to transfer to office work while some found the kitchen work more to their liking. They had been treated against any ptsd with the help of a little obliviation and a little counseling by the 'company shrink' Elphistone Cracknell, who, as Gaude had only recently discovered just so happened to be the disowned brother of one Dolores Umbridge.
Gaude didn't have any plans to utilize that knowledge, however. At least, for the time being. Still, as he remembered a certain Umbitch acting up, he would have just the thing to remind her of her place, as Gaude had also tracked down the Muggle mother of the siblings.
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