บท 47: A Family Meeting
Harry paused for a second before turning to Hermione and asking in a very confused tone of voice "Is it me or does Dobby sound different to you too?"
Hermione thought back to all of her recent encounters with their elves and realized that Harry was right. She had noticed something before but had put it out of her mind with all of the stresses of the tournament weighing on her. "Now that you mention it, I did notice something different about both of them a while back but I guess that it just slipped my mind."
"Hmm, I think that I like it. They don't sound like a couple of uneducated kids anymore. I'm glad but I wonder what brought about the change?" Harry asked.
"I don't know. Why don't you just ask him when he returns?" Hermione replied simply.
"I guess I will. I just hope that I don't offend him or something."
There was another pop and Dobby reappeared holding a very large jug of what appeared to be slimy balls of gillyweed. It looked disgusting and Harry was beginning to wonder if he would be able to chew the stuff.
"Thanks Dobby. Where did you get it?" Harry asked while pointing to the jar of gillyweed that Dobby had set on the table in front of them.
Dobby had a very sheepish grin on his face and he was shuffling his feet. He said with a tone that brooked no argument, "Perhaps it is better if you don't know sir." What Dobby wasn't telling them was that he had taken all of Professor Snapes private stores of gillyweed and replaced it with sauerkraut since they looked very similar.
Harry gave Dobby a long look before deciding that it probably was for the best that he didn't know. "Okay Dobby. Nevertheless, could you tell me why you and Winky sound so different now? We like the change, we are just curious."
"Mistress Hermione's parents have been giving us lessons in the evenings and we are giving them lessons on the magical world in return." Dobby said happily.
"Oh. That's great Dobby!" Hermione said enthusiastically. "Would you say hello to them for me when you see them next please?"
"It would be my pleasure, Miss." Dobby said with a slight bow before he popped away to return to whatever task he had been performing before they called him.
Sirius and Remus were just about to sit down for a late night snack when Hedwig arrived in the kitchen of number twelve.
"Hello Hedwig." Remus called out to the bird while extending his arm for her to land on. Once she had settled he untied the letter attached to her leg and carried her over to the perch in the corner that they kept stocked with owl treats and fresh water.
Remus quickly read the letter and handed it over to Sirius. When he had finished reading it too Remus said, "I think that we should go visit Annabelle and John so we can discuss this with them as it involves Hermione too."
"I'll call them to make sure they aren't busy." Sirius said as he headed over to make a quick floo call.
A few seconds later he came back into the kitchen and said "Let's go; they were just having tea and said it was a good time to visit."
They took turns using the floo to get to the Grangers. After everyone had settled down at the kitchen table with their tea Remus handed the letter over and waited for the Grangers to read it.
"NO!" Annabelle shouted. "There is no way that I am allowing my daughter to be a part of this tournament. It's bad enough that they are making Harry participate but to force him to rescue Hermione from the lake is insane!" she finished furiously.
"Calm down love. Is there anything that we can do?" John asked Remus and Sirius while patting Annabelle's back.
"You could send a letter stating that to the Headmaster." Remus said after a few moments thought. "I'm not sure what good it will do though. He has a long history of doing what he wants regardless of other's wishes."
"Do we have any legal standing to prevent this from happening?" Annabelle asked in a hopeful tone.
Remus' face darkened at this question before he answered. "I'm afraid not. Muggles, non-magical people, have no rights in the magical world. In fact, up until a couple of years ago it was even worse. Arthur Weasley was finally able to get a Muggle protection act enforced. That basically prevented magical people from interfering in the day to day lives of non magical people."
The Grangers were both looking a bit outraged and upset at the same time. "How can they do that? Our daughter is a witch and I'm sure that there are plenty of others in our situation too." Annabelle said heatedly.
This time Sirius spoke up. "Well, in many ways our society is still very Victorian and many of our laws date from that era too. Wizards and Witches live longer, on average just over 120 years, so our laws are slower to change. If I'm not mistaken, Harry got a warning for underage magic use two years ago from a law that was laid down in the 1870's."
"I'm not sure that I like what I'm hearing about the magical world." John said in resignation. "Are all magical communities like this or are some more modern in their views and laws?"
Remus answered this question because for the last decade Sirius had been incarcerated." Some countries are better, similar to how some countries are more modern than others are. The North American Ministry for Magic is one of the most forward thinking because of how young their magical government is in comparison to the ones in Europe. However, they have some similar issues because of magical life spans. The biggest difference is the size of their country. The United States and Canada are enormous and can hide quite a few magical communities with no one being any wiser."
"Do you think that we should consider moving out of the country and taking the kids with us?" Annabelle asked.
"Part of me wants you to do just that while another part wants you to stay here for selfish reasons." Remus said while Sirius nodded in agreement.
"Would the kids get as good of a magical education outside of Britain? I've only ever heard Hermione talking about the other two major European schools. Surely the North Americans have something equivalent?" John asked the two wizards.
"Well, the other European schools are probably out. Harry is well known there too. I haven't been back in the magical world long enough to put together any thoughts on what the schools are like in the Americas." Sirius replied.
Remus piped up with his opinion on the matter "I've been to the Salem Magical Academy while traveling in the United States. It's about on par with Beauxbatons in terms of its facilities but its classes are about the same. The classes there are as good as Hogwarts in some areas, worse in some, and better in others."
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