บท 17: Political Landscape of Magical Britain
Quinn didn't sleep well at night after buying the wand. Even after his usual routine of exhausting his magic that leaves him dead tired at night, he couldn't sleep. Knowing that there was a wand in his cupboard kept him up all night. Quinn spent the whole night staring at the cupboard or trying to look away from the cupboard.
There were times when Quinn sat up on his bed and was tempted to open up the cupboard and take out the wand and hold it one more time. The temptation of once more feeling the heightened focus gripped Quinn all night, but in the end, Quinn didn't open the cupboard and didn't see the wand.
He could only get a brief rest after the sun came up.
The next day, Quinn had to pretend to be all giddy and joyous for finally getting his wand. In the morning, Quinn, before exiting his room, wore his wand holster with the fake-wand replica in it. He had to play the part of the cheerful kid who got his wand.
So he did. Quinn pranced around the house, showing off his fake-wand to all the people and swinging it, pretending to cast spells with whoosh-whoosh noises.
To distract himself, he threw himself into all his usual activities. He kept himself busy. That day, he played the piano and his second instrument, the Violin. He practiced ballroom dancing. Brewed potions and tended to the herb garden. Researched occlumency/legilimency to create an alternative model of defenses to practice against. And practiced other fields of magic. Anything to keep himself from having free time.
It wasn't till the evening when Quinn was called into his grandfather's study. When he entered George's study, Quinn asked, "Why have you called for me, grandfather?"
George gestured to Quinn to take a seat before speaking, "We would be discussing the political landscape of Britain and the notable families inside Britain."
Quinn's eyes widened as he had forgotten all about it. The wand incident had taken all his attention, and the realization that this world maybe being an alternate universe or a parallel universe had completely slipped his mind.
"Ah, yes. I had completely forgotten about that. What was the name I saw in the newspaper? Potters, was it?" said Quinn, slowly shifting his attention from the wand incident to this topic.
George nodded and started, "Yes, the Potters, but we will come to them later. First, let's talk about the creation of Magical Britain." When Quinn nodded, George continued, "The Ministry of Magic is the main governing body of the magical community of Great Britain and Ireland, with the intention of preservation of magical law. The ministry also connects the British non-magical government to the magical world."
Quinn nodded as he already knew that.
"But, before Ministry Of Magic, there was another governing body. The name was the Wizards' Council. Upon establishing the International Statute of Magical Secrecy in 1692, the British magical community needed a more highly structured, organized, and complex government structure to support and regulate the community in hiding. Thus, in 1707, the Wizards' Council disbanded to be replaced by the Ministry of Magic."
George then explained something about the Wizard's Council, "You see, the same group of people ran Wizards' Council for centuries, and the positions on the Wizards' Council were hereditary. So, they dubbed those families as The Noble and Most Ancient Houses."
Quinn nodded with interest. He hadn't known the reason behind the creation of The Noble and Most Ancient House.
"Now, when the Ministry Of Magic was founded, the ministry dubbed plenty more influential families as Noble Houses," explained George. "Now, you might wonder what this has to do with anything. The thing is that many The Noble and Most Ancient Houses and Noble Houses hold positions in Wizengamot."
The Wizengamot was Magical Britain's high court of law and parliament and predated the Ministry of Magic itself. Dating back to the days of the medieval Wizards' Council. And currently had a lot of power in the governing of magical Britain.
"Please note that not all The Noble and Most Ancient Houses and Noble Houses hold positions in Wizengamot, but all the families that occupy seats hold the title of The Noble and Most Ancient Houses or Noble Houses."
George opened a book and showed him a crest, "This is the crest of the Weasley family, and they are a Noble House, but they don't hold a seat in Wizengamot." He flipped a page and showed another crest, "Burke is a Noble and Most Ancient House, and they don't hold a seat in Wizengamot."
He closed the book and continued, "The point is that families can hold power in the Wizengamot, and they are very active in politics. Another noticeable point is that the title of Noble and Most Ancient House can't be revoked, but the title of the Noble House can be revoked."
George leaned back into his chair and stated, "Our family could have gained a title of Noble family if desired," then he snorted, "But, we don't really need it. It is frighteningly easy to get things done in the British Ministry of Magic if you have money, which we have in plenty."
George once again flipped some pages and showed him another crest, "Look at Malfoys; they have the minister in his pockets and spend plenty of money to remain in political power. In the past, they bought themselves the title of the noble family. Neither I, nor my predecessors saw the merit in getting a seat in the Wizengamot. So we never tried to gain the title of a noble family. If you or Lia want to gain the title, then we can just shed some money, and we would have the title, but I would advise against it."
He then opened another page of the book in front of him and showed him a tally, "Every decision in the Wizengamot is decided by voting. You need a clear majority to pass a bill. Heads of titled families have one (1) vote each in the Wizengamot. The minister holds the highest of five (5) votes. Every head of a department in the ministry has two (2) votes. Chief Warlock of Wizengamot has three (3) votes. Finally, the headmaster of Hogwarts holds one (1) vote."
George placed a blank sheet of paper on the table. Drew a circle on it and then divided it into three parts. With a swing of his wands, one part turned black, the other part turned grey, and the third part remained blank.
"I divide the current political landscape into three factions; Dark, Grey, and Light. The Dark faction is pure-blood supremacists and tries to keep the power within the pureblood community. The Light faction tries to keep the power away from the Dark faction and their pureblood propaganda. They have a Liberal mindset that supports half-bloods and muggleborns. The Grey faction acts with the motive of self-interest; they would support anyone if they are benefiting. But, they also keep the other two factions at bay. The Grey faction rejects any outlandish, extremist ideas from either party. This is assuring because I hear some really ridiculous ideas presented at the Wizengamot."
Quinn stayed silent and just took in the information provided by George.
"Now, before we dive into the leaders of the factions. I would like to talk to you about the Wizarding War from 1970 to 1981. In that war, a dark lord rallied the pureblood supremacists and declared a war against the muggles and muggleborn. He took advantage of one of the wizarding world's greatest weaknesses: the beings and creatures they had outcast. The Dark Lord recruited the giants, who had long ago been driven by magical humans into the mountains, and werewolves, who were persecuted by most magic kind." George explained in detail about the war.
Then George looked at Quinn and said, "People even feared saying the name of the dark lord, and called You-Know-Who or The-One-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Do you know why people feared saying his name?"
Quinn shook his head, even though he knew the reason behind the hyphenated alternatives.
"The Taboo is a powerful spell, which designated a word as a key to revealing the speaker's location. They used this spell during the War. During the said war, saying the dark lord's name was made Taboo." George solemnly continued, "I had already left Britain with your parents and newly born sister, so we were never near the war, but even then, we would hear stories of people getting captured by the dark lord's Death Eaters."
George wrote the words on the paper and recited the name on the sheet, "The name of the dark lord was Voldemort."
Quinn knew the name was an anagram from Voldemort's real name; Tom Marvolo Riddle.
"Then on 31 October 1981, Halloween, the dark lord died at Godric's Hollow. He died at the hands of a one-year-old babe. The name of that babe was Harry Potter, popularly known as the Boy-Who-Lived. But, not before killing off Harry Potter's grandparents, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter," George sighed once before continuing. "I wouldn't call Fleamont and Euphemia friends, but they were easy to do business with. I lost potential business that day. Their son, James Potter, isn't one bit interested in business."
Quinn nodded. It was surprising that his grandfather had contact with the Potters. But when taking in the fact that his grandfather had his hands in every possible business opportunity in Britain, it made sense that he knew many people. Potters were, as George said, business opportunities.
"From that day onwards, Potter became extremely famous, and Harry Potter became the savior of Magical Britain. That fame has lasted till this day, as the Potters used that fame to enter politics and rallied all the Light families under the Light faction. Currently, the light faction is led by Albus Dumbledore. You must know this name, correct?"
Quinn affirmed, "Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He also holds seats in Wizengamot as Chief Warlock, Head of the Noble House of Dumbledore, and the headmaster of Hogwarts," he paused for a second before continuing, "Doesn't that make his vote count equal to the minister's five votes."
George chuckled, "Yes, it does. Albus Dumbledore works hard to keep all those positions. Along with his five votes, the entire Light faction's support, and all their votes. Potters follow him, and so does the rest of the Light faction. We can say Albus Dumbledore is the Light faction."
Quinn thought about something he wanted to ask, "Do we have some business in Hogwarts?"
George's eyes sparkled and enthusiastically answered, "Yes, we do. We own Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop in Hogsmeade, so all the school stationery for all Hogwart's students and professors is supplied by us. Plus, we also cater a portion of the school's potion ingredient and food supplies."
Quinn nodded and curiously asked, "Why do Hogwarts still use quills and parchment instead of pen and paper?"
"I truly do not know, but they don't want to change, so we supply what they demand," George spoke while shrugging. "I guess they are trying to keep up an old tradition alive, or maybe they don't want to adopt non-magical advancement."
George bought back the conversation to the track and spoke, "Now, let's talk about the Dark faction. The dark faction is the remnants of the dark lord's Death Eaters," George scoffed, "After the war, most of them pleaded the case of being under the influence of Imperius Curse, and with a lot of bribery, Wizengamot acquitted them with heavy fines that went into ministry coffers. During the war, the dark lord led the Dark faction, but before the war, the dominant force was the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. They were in power since Wizards' Council's time. But, in the war, most of the Black family either died or imprisoned. Only two people of Black family are still in Black House, Arcturus Black (A/N, below) and Sirius Black. Arcturus Black is extremely weak, and no one has seen him since the war, I saw him after we returned from our tour, we talked some business. Sirius Black spends his time at the Auror Office or with the Potters among the Light faction. That lad is close friends with James Potter, plus Sirius Black is also disowned by the Black family. There are some more Blacks, but they are married or disowned."
Quinn wasn't surprised when he heard Sirius Black was out and not in Azkaban because if the Potters were alive, they would have spoken for Sirius at his hearing. That probably meant that Peter Pettigrew was either in Azkaban or maybe even dead.
George sneered before flipping some pages and showed Quinn another crest, "Now, Malfoys lead the Dark faction, they were the main sponsors of the dark lord after the Blacks, and with so much money funneled into the corrupt ministry, the Malfoys got out scot-free. Now, they are in power because a lot of Dark families had to pay a lot for getting out of Azkaban, and Malfoys were the best prepared for it, so they are the strongest among the Dark faction in the post-war times."
Malfoys in power was not surprising as the power of money was very potent in Magical Britain. Malfoys had the minister in his pocket. And, from listening to George, the West family also had a considerable amount of money in the ministry.
"Now, the last faction is the Grey Faction, with the Noble and Most Ancient House of Greengrass leading them. Jacob Greengrass is a cunning man. He is a smart man and an excellent leader. After the war, he held the Grey faction together without any internal turmoil, and just like me, he saw the profit after the war subsided. I was a little upset when he tried to compete with me for resources, post-war. He and Lucius Malfoy are the two people who can rival my business in Britain," George laughed and spoke as if looking down on the two heads of houses. "But, that only means that they earn as much as our business in Britain. They wouldn't even touch the soles of my feet if I took into account our business from overseas."
Quinn held back a hell yeah and just smiled as he listened to his grandfather boasting about his earnings and accomplishment as he compared himself to two men who would be younger than Quinn's father if he was still alive.
George closed the book of crests, and he was back to his usual stoic self, and with a caution staining his voice and words, he warned, "Beware of Albus Dumbledore, anytime I have met the man, he has tried to get me to join his cause. The man had tried to make me sponsor his vigilante group before I left the country, and when I returned, he once again tried to get his hands in my wallet by trying to have me sponsor the Light faction. Albus Dumbledore is too manipulative, and even though I am no stranger to manipulation, I just don't like it when it is done against me. Your future headmaster holds too much power, which might haven't been bad, if he was putting it to good use, and even if his reputation is positive and people think that he is the next big thing since Merlin, that man has been through two wars and was at the forefront in both of them. If I have learned anything from my father, then it is that war changes people; think what two wars could do to a person."
Quinn solemnly nodded as even without his warning, Quinn was going to avoid Albus Dumbledore. From what Quinn had read in the books, the man was treated like a person who could do no wrong and had the following of a cult leader.
Quinn didn't want to approach the headmaster even if he offered to teach him alchemy, as Quinn was a hundred percent sure that it would come with a catch. After all, Albus Dumbledore once was romantically involved with Gellert Grindelwald. Quinn was sure some manipulative tendencies were rubbed onto Dumbledore from Grindelwald.
Or was it the other way around?
For the rest of the month, Quinn learned from George about the ins-and-outs of the political landscape of Magical Britain. Except for Albus Dumbledore, George didn't warn Quinn to stay away from anyone. As long as Quinn understood that blood supremacy was false and stupid, it was okay to build connections with children from Death Eater/Dark faction families. George said that Quinn could make friends with anyone who wasn't after money.
Quinn spent his remaining time before Hogwarts with his family and practicing magic. He wasn't comfortable with free time as he ended up thinking of the wand in his cupboard, and Quinn made sure to only spend time in his room for sleeping and when Quinn wanted to browse books from his bookshelves, but other than that, he spent time away from his wand.
On 1 September 1990, it was time for Quinn to leave home to start his journey of learning magic at Hogwarts.
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(End of Volume One: Pre-Hogwarts)
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A/N [1]: NO! Albus Dumbledore won't be bat shit crazy. He WON'T be Evil (with capital E). He would keep his cards close to his chest. He will be complicated. As I generally wing it when it comes to the finer details of the plot as I write, I don't know what will be Dumbledore's final personality.
I generally don't like when SI-OC (at least when they are young) in HP communicate with Dumbledore right off the bat. He will communicate with Dumbledore when Quinn gets confident enough in facing Dumbledore (Hint: Quinn's confidence is tied to his magical prowess. Part of his personality)
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A/N [2]: I don't know if Ivy Potter (Harry's OC Sister) will be a romantic interest. My current purpose of creating her is because of Harry's new personality (He won't be the canon personality, but he won't be spoiled. He will be a prankster/bully but with Lily's influence he will be a slightly smarter version of James Potter.)
With Harry's new personality, Hermione Granger might not join to form the Golden Trio, but I am going to use Ivy Potter to fix that somehow. R.I.P Golden Trio.
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A/N [3]: Arcturus Black is Sirius Black's grandfather. He is NOT an OC character. He is a CANON character. He is alive at this point in time in the CANON. So, I mentioned him here.
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