บท 82: Chapter 78: Elitist pure-blood supremacists
"They intend to present Regulus Black as the heir so that everyone will take Sirius Black for granted without having to actually mention anything," Hermione said, slowly understanding the situation.
"It seems that your cousin is remarkably quick to figure things out, now I understand your decision in making her take care of several of the Prince family businesses despite her age. Very wise," Lord Greengrass commented, making Hermione blush slightly at his compliment.
"And indeed, you are right, Miss Prince. Doing this allows the Blacks to introduce their new heir to all the pure-blood British families without tarnishing their reputation"
It was then that Severus and Hermione realised that this year's Malfoy Yule Ball was a ploy by both families to formally introduce Regulus to all the pure-blood British families.
Despite the Blacks' public image of associating with only the most "respectable" pure-blood families, they have business dealings with almost all the pure-blood British families.
Both those they consider "respectable" and those they do not.
Using the upcoming engagement between Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black to invite everyone was the perfect cover to introduce Regulus as the heir and at the same time let everyone know that Sirius Black was no longer the heir without having to mention it, which would save them from being embarrassed by the disinherited young Black.
"But more importantly, this whole Malfoy/Black move together is to be feared, it will let all the British pureblood families know that they support each other and as much as I don't want to admit it, this whole Malfoy/Black alliance being formalised in public will greatly increase their influence in the Wizengamont, in the Ministry and in the other families of Britain," said Lord Greengrass with a frown.
"Which means that they will be able to pressure more wizards and neutral families to join them," Hermione commented.
"That's right Hermione, the combined political and economic power of the Malfoy's and Black's is not something that others can withstand without support, and although my family usually supports and intervenes for all wizarding and neutral families to prevent them from being pushed too far..., it won't be that simple now," said Olivia Greengrass, speaking for the first time in the conversation.
"It never was my dear, but at least so far we have been able to keep things from getting worse, but with recent events, things are going to change a lot, so much that even we will find it difficult to intervene for most of these wizards or families who are still neutral," commented Lady Greengrass.
Hermione stood quietly processing all this, it was a rather complex matter, the majority of the most influential families already supported either the Ministry or the Purist cause, the Greengrasses being one of the few who had remained neutral in support of the other families and wizards who wished to stay out of the conflict, but it was one thing to deal with the different pureblood houses separately and another to deal with two of the Sacred Twenty-Eight together.
"Severus, I understand that you have a close relationship with Lucius Malfoy and even Narcissa Black as well, in fact when I and many others heard of your position as the new heir to the noble house of Prince we were convinced that you had decided not to support the Ministry and remain neutral only to eventually join the cause of the purebloods," Lord Greengrass admitted truthfully, it was a topic that had been discussed a lot with various wizarding families over the last few months.
"Imagine my surprise when Olivia told me that you had a conflict in the Slytherin dormitories with Mulciber, Avery, and Rosier, your old friends if you want to call them that, and that you had then made it very clear to two Slytherin seventh years that the Prince would remain a neutral house," he added without the need to clarify that his conflict with these three people already pretty much disassociated him from the cause of the blood purists after all the houses of all three of them supported the Dark Lord.
"Well, I can only say that your daughter certainly took full advantage of the whole situation," Severus joked as he remembered with some amusement how he had found himself being one of the 'leaders' involved in a group that Olivia had formed without even anticipating it, though he never actually did anything, she just used him as a dissuasion to the other Slytherins, apparently there weren't many wizards out there willing to mess with Severus.
Yes, Olivia formed a group with Slytherin students from less important houses and she and her group started hanging out with Severus at meals, in class, in the library, or in the Slytherin common room to give the impression that he, Olivia, and the others were a close-knit group, a group that remained completely neutral to what was going on between Slytherin and the death eaters.
Severus noted that for all the Slytherins who had no support and did not want to get involved with the death eaters, it was a great help, it may have seemed like a small thing, but what Olivia had done was to form for the first time a group led by herself and "Severus" inside the snake house that stood together in the face of the pressures of the aspiring death eaters who used to pressure the other snakes to get them involved in the cause of the blood purists.
"Oh, actually we know, I apologise if my daughter has brought you trouble, but I cannot deny that as a mother I am very pleased and proud of what she has achieved in Slytherin, she finally did what Dumbledore as headmaster or Slughorn as head of her house did not," said Lady Greengrass with considerable annoyance at the mention of the latter two people as both should be doing something to help Slytherin students not involved in the cause of the blood purists...
But neither of these two did anything, either they were blind or they just didn't want to see everything that was going on in Slytherin, which was not logical since they all noticed how the other three houses were segregating the snakes.
And without any support from Hogwarts or the teachers, many in Slytherin who weren't initially interested in being part of the cause ended up joining under the influence or pressure of others.
Of course, now thanks to Olivia's new group more and more snakes could choose to remain neutral without feeling the constant pressure from their house or other wizards.
"Don't worry Lady Arabella, I agreed with her so I can't complain, although I admit it was strange, before that Olivia and I had no relationship, I don't even remember talking to her," Severus smiled.
"Actually we did," Olivia cut in, making Severus look at her curiously.
"We've spoken a few times in class, I just doubt you were paying attention enough to remember, apparently you could only think of one person at the time," she added boldly, clearly referring to Lily Evans, something Hermione and Severus understood instantly.
"Yes..., well, I'm not going to deny that that's possible, because it is," Severus nodded, not ashamed of what he did or didn't do as Snape, things were different now.
Hermione smiled slightly at Severus' response, she knew how obsessed he was with Lily Evans to the point of ignoring or dismissing most people being only a few with whom he had any conversation or relationship.
"So tell me, what exactly did my daughter tell you to make you agree?" asked Lady Greengrass a little intrigued as her daughter didn't explain how she convinced him or how the conversation with him went, Olivia had only told them just the necessary things about what she was doing at Hogwarts to keep them well informed.
"Um, I remember her mentioning that the pressure and tension in Slytherin was growing and that there aren't many snakes that can be trusted anymore, but that me being a Prince and her being a Greengrass, families that the other Slytherins can't easily push around, we could team up to make things easier for each other at Hogwarts and avoid getting picked on," Severus explained as he remembered the situation, though he probably missed several details.
Olivia Greengrass glared with her light brown eyes at Severus as if she had expected him not to be so insolent as not to mention that he had teased her several times about refusing to join only to later agree to it as long as he was not disturbed.
But Severus ignored Olivia's glare with a simple smile that made it clear to her that he wouldn't mention that, but if she wanted to comment on it she was welcome to.
To which she just rolled her eyes and looked away to her father who was about to speak.
"The truth is that we told Olivia that at Hogwarts she should join those who chose to remain neutral and that it was convenient if any of them were from a renowned house, so when I heard about your rather peculiar situation I suggested that she try to talk to you"
"Although the rest of it was entirely her own doing and I had nothing to do with it, in fact, I was quite surprised when she told me what she had done," Lord Greengrass commented with pride clear in his voice as he mentioned what his daughter had done to help the Slytherins.
"Yes, and both Charles and I thank you for accepting our daughter's proposal, we were very happy and relieved to know that things could be a little easier for her and the others, especially when she had told us that lately, everything was quite complex in Slytherin and that her friends along with their families were going through some very complicated situations," added Lady Greengrass thanking Severus.
"There's no need to thank me, actually I didn't really do anything, it was all down to her, I just provided my name and she took care of everything"
"'Maybe it is, but still, I thank you, now I feel much calmer and more confident about sending Adelaide, our youngest daughter, to Hogwarts next year,' smiled Lady Arabella Greengrass.
"My wife is right, you have our thanks. We try our best to help as many wizards and wizarding families as possible to remain neutral with our influence in the Wizengamon and the Ministry, one could say that we maintain a united front with several major and minor families. But inside Hogwarts we don't have as much influence as we would like," explained Lord Charles Greengrass.
"And Olivia couldn't do much for herself as the only one from a neutral house with influence in Slytherin, she could barely maintain a small group with her friends and keep a low profile and avoid communicating with future sympathisers of the Pureblood cause"
"Everyone was having a very difficult time when Hogwarts should be a place where everyone can relax and feel safe, but for the Slytherins, it wasn't and it was very hard for me to feel there was nothing more I could do for Olivia," he added with a soft sigh as he finished speaking.
"You know it's not your fault father, Dumbledore, and Slughorn are responsible for Slytherin falling under the control of the more elitist pure-blood supremacists," said Olivia.
"I agree with Olivia on that. Maybe it wasn't obvious and that's why Dumbledore or Slughorn couldn't do anything, but I'm sure that at least the Headmaster of Hogwarts must have known perfectly well the difficult situation that everyone in Slytherin house was in as it was obvious to all the snakes and I don't believe that a wizard like him didn't know about it, few things must happen at Hogwarts without that man knowing about it" clarified Severus earning a nod from the three Greengrass.
Even Hermione, who frowned slightly, had to nod in agreement with what Severus said.
Dumbledore was an extremely powerful and intelligent wizard who could be quite manipulative, so it was impossible for him not to be aware of what was going on in Slytherin.
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