บท 76: The Weight of Allegiance
"In my country, you'd be dead by sunrise and your parents and brothers sterilized lest they breed any more children like yourselves." She shrugged. "Of course in my country you'd have been lucky to survive your childhood at all, Hermione Granger. The Chinese muggles don't like magic and routinely put all magic users to death when they find them."
"So the magical community exists in deep hiding. When they learn of a magical child born to muggles they'll sneak out and grab the child if they can. If they can't, they'll kill it to prevent the government from nosing around looking for more magical people."
The group of girls turned and left the trio standing there with their mouths hanging open and extremely grateful they were citizens of England and not China, Japan or India. Ron muttered something to that effect to Hermione and Ginny as the girls walked away to which his girls nodded quietly.
That was when Susan Bones decided to burst that bubble. She knew the law through her Aunt Amelia and knew exactly what Cho and the twins had described as a suitable punishment for them was indeed a possibility should word reach the Ministry of what they had done. She told them as much adding, "If I were you three, I'd rediscover how to pray to every deity that ever was for divine intervention. The Wizarding World loves Harry despite how every school year since he's returned to us has turned into a deadly nightmare and scandal."
"When this gets out, and those girls are right -it will get out-, people will be clamoring for the Ministry to do something to prove it. I do believe you're familiar with how very much our current Minister likes to be seen 'Doing Something' when things go wrong?" She titled her head at them questioningly waiting for their acknowledgment. They gulped and nodded clearly remembering how the Minister had arrested Hagrid when the Chamber was being opened and how he'd sent the dementors to patrol around the school to keep the students safe when Sirius Black was on the loose.
She nodded in return. "You need to remember there were Slytherin students in the Library when you so foolishly decided to confront him. Whatever happened to your brain that day Hermione Granger? You couldn't have been any stupider if you'd tried.
Ravenclaw students were there as well. Those students heard every word that was said. Students smart enough and rich enough to own more than one dicta quill. You do know that means they caught every word that was said, right?" Again the triad gulped but this time they winced understanding what she was driving at.
"You can count yourselves lucky there weren't any Puffs in there. We'd have contacted our families before that nights dinner. And many of us don't need to bother sending an owl to do so. We have other ways of contacting our families. Those Slytherin students have highly connected, influential parents and relatives. So do most the Ravenclaws in Hogwarts these days. Heck, even a lot of us Hufflepuffs are highly connected."
"There's no way they haven't already sent word to their parents and guardians. Wasn't Draco Malfoy sitting at a nearby table when you had your brain's leave on The Midnight Train to Georgia without you? You can bet he sent a letter to Daddy about all this. Probably more than one. You do know his Father has the ear of the Minister. Right?" With grim looks they nodded again.
She smiled at them but there was no friendliness in it. "Just as I have sent word to Aunt Amelia." They paled slightly. "And most of us will be believed by our adults. Minister Fudge is going to find himself in a very uncomfortable place when all those highly placed and influential adults begin demanding he do something to show Harry our allegiance.
Which they will do as soon as they get confirmation our story is true and you are marked. And yes. Auntie Amelia will be right there with them. He's going to be hearing from so many parents and concerned parties he'll have to do something. I think it goes without saying he'll be eager to."
"I'd say, handing you three to Harry as slaves definitely fits with our current Minister's mental capacity. Nor is there anything in our laws that would prevent it. Not since magic herself declared you guilty. One thing is for sure."
"He will do something when enough of his supporters come to him complaining about your abuse of our national hero. Especially if it is discovered the Weasely parents had a hand in this mess as well. And if they didn't, I hope they can prove it or there's nothing in this world that will save your family or name."
"The Weasely bloodline is already known as a disgraced and cursed line. You may have glossed over why all the pureblood students call your family Blood Traitors when you were explaining it to Harry and Hermione here. But that doesn't mean other students aren't more forthcoming to those who don't understand the designation."
"A lot of very powerful and influential people not only remember that also but they know exactly why it is cursed. What do you think news of what you three tried to do will do to the family reputation? How long before Bill loses his job? He does work for Gringott's. Where we all keep our family fortunes. People might not like the idea the goblins are employing someone so closely connected to you. People might actually begin wondering if he helped you pull it off."
"How about Percy trying to work his way up in the Ministry? How long before he suddenly finds himself pushed out? Or your Dad. He's got a lot of time in there. A lot of respect. But you know he has a lot of enemies, too."
"Always pushing for harsher punishments for those who target muggles and wanting to reform the laws regarding the muggles. Yeah, he's got lots of enemies. This may be just the push they need to force his department to close down. Because your mark just puts a whole new spin on why he keeps pushing for that legislation. And then what?"
"And Charlie. Dragon Keeper's a highly honorable job you know. But the Reserves count on donations from the public to take care of their dragons. Might cost the Reserve some backing it gets out they hired someone related to such dishonorable thieves as you two. What you three have done. . . " She paused to shake her head sadly.
"Well, I'll just remind you Minister Fudge doesn't like people who make him or his administration look bad or weak and leave it at that." Then she and her group of friends also turned and walked away leaving the Trio of Misfortune to nervously eye each other and wonder just how to get this mess back under control. Ron and Ginny had both paled when Susan had mentioned their parents. And then their brothers. None of the family would forgive them if they lost everything because of this.
Harry, however, didn't care in the slightest for the misfortune of his so-called former friends. He was too busy quietly settling into his normal routine. He went to his classes and sat quietly in the back of the room. He asked no questions and didn't volunteer any answers to questions posed to the class as a whole by the teachers. But those questions asked of him personally, he answered to the best of his ability.
What assignments he was given, he did and turned in without comment. He barely even bothered to check the marks and comments on returned assignments because to his mind the teachers were once again against him due to his call for judgement against their favored pets. He didn't need to see their remarks to know they were against him.
But just as the teachers were now targeting the Trio of Misfortune, they were actually grading Harry's work correctly. Even Professor McGonagal. Instead of docking points for every little mistake real or fabricated, they now left comments in the margins to help him improve his work or knowledge.
All of them knew exactly why he wasn't interacting in their classrooms and none of them pushed him to do so. They had worked too hard and for far too many years to marginalize him to expect him to just bounce back to being a normal student simply because they now knew they'd been wrong.
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