hey I just met you and this is crazy
After a rather stressful day at work ("Can you spend several hours on the phone with a firm of Scottish engineers? It'll be just like Christmas dinner with your in-laws!") I went to London this evening and had dinner with the South African Siren! For late arrivals to the party of my endlessly fascinating life, I spent a year living abroad some time
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For the meme, from "a historic and seismic shift":
"I am the Secretary of State for Magical Affairs," she says, and smiles. "It's not a cabinet post most of the time. That said, most people do call me the Minister for Magic."
"You're... who?"
She reaches for his hand. Numbly, he goes to shake it, with the muscle memory overriding conscious thought, and she smiles at him, warmly. "Oh, and my name is Hermione Granger. It's a pleasure to meet you, Prime Minister."
It's only about the second or third time someone who isn't from the BBC has called him that, and the warm glow spreads to his toes even as he says, "What do you mean, magic?"
"Now" - she consults a clipboard which he could swear wasn't there a moment before - "I understand you lead a coalition government. That's a little problematic. Perhaps you could organise a meeting with the other chap some time soon? If you can get him up to this office unaccompanied we'll take care of the rest."
"The other..."
"Nice man, wears a yellow tie on the television? You'll have to excuse my ignorance, I've been perched on the roof at work holding up a TV aerial trying to escape the magical interference, it's been very exasperating. Now, about..."
"Wait!" He takes a step back, privately castigates himself for yelling - the media doesn't like it - and follows it up with a deep breath. "I don't know who you are, madam, and I don't know how you got into this office, but..."
She waves a lazy hand. "Look, it's been a difficult night for me as well and I'd quite like to go home and go to bed. Briefly: yes, magic exists, yes, there are witches and wizards in Britain, there have been for centuries, there are many, many people who already know this, and more than one of them is in your cabinet, in case you want to go and have a good shout about it tomorrow. Your deputy doesn't, and he needs to know. And if you're lucky, you won't ever see me again."
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"I am the Secretary of State for Magical Affairs," she says, and smiles. "It's not a cabinet post most of the time. That said, most people do call me the Minister for Magic."
I can't take credit for the original idea of this story, I have to admit. Someone came up with it on Facebook the night of the election, I saw it, and wrote this in a frenzied couple of hours on sight. It's such a perfect notion.
"You're... who?"
She reaches for his hand. Numbly, he goes to shake it, with the muscle memory overriding conscious thought, and she smiles at him, warmly. "Oh, and my name is Hermione Granger. It's a pleasure to meet you, Prime Minister."
It's only about the second or third time someone who isn't from the BBC has called him that, and the warm glow spreads to his toes even as he says, "What do you mean, magic?"
Of course it had to be from Cameron's POV if you wanted to maintain the surprise. But that meant, ah, writing from Cameron's POV. I hope I managed it. I was holding my nose the whole time.
"Now" - she consults a clipboard which he could swear wasn't there a moment before - "I understand you lead a coalition government. That's a little problematic. Perhaps you could organise a meeting with the other chap some time soon? If you can get him up to this office unaccompanied we'll take care of the rest."
This line, I swear, wasn't meant to sound so blatantly pornographic. But that's how my friends chose to read it!
"The other..."
"Nice man, wears a yellow tie on the television? You'll have to excuse my ignorance, I've been perched on the roof at work holding up a TV aerial trying to escape the magical interference, it's been very exasperating. Now, about..."
"Wait!" He takes a step back, privately castigates himself for yelling - the media doesn't like it - and follows it up with a deep breath. "I don't know who you are, madam, and I don't know how you got into this office, but..."
She waves a lazy hand. "Look, it's been a difficult night for me as well and I'd quite like to go home and go to bed. Briefly: yes, magic exists, yes, there are witches and wizards in Britain, there have been for centuries, there are many, many people who already know this, and more than one of them is in your cabinet, in case you want to go and have a good shout about it tomorrow. Your deputy doesn't, and he needs to know. And if you're lucky, you won't ever see me again."
Hermione knows exactly how flustered he is - she, too, comes from Muggle stock! But she doesn't like him that much either, hence the immense impatience. I love her, I think I've made it clear, but Hermione, grown-up, confident and fiercely socially progressive, is one of my favourite characters to write.
The thing about other members of the Cabinet being aware of magic - I merely meant that some of them might be the parents of Muggle-born children at Hogwarts. But again, people took it in all sorts of directions, to my absolute delight. In general, I was delighted with how many people enjoyed this story, and didn't throw things at me for writing Cameron RPF!
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I love seeing Hermione as the Minister for Magic - as you say, it's perfect.
On the subject of members of the Cabinet being aware of magic, it definitely seems likely that some of them would. (When considered at any length, the ignorance of wizards regarding the Muggle world and the successful concealment of the magical world from Muggles seems deeply unlikely. Loads of the characters we see are Muggleborn or have one Muggle parent - lots of people should know! And Muggle culture shouldn't be quite so alien to the wizards.)
I love your writing, and can completely see why Hermione is one of your favourite characters to write - she is so great. I want to see her fighting for her causes and righting wrongs forever. (I wonder how she/her parents reacted when they found out she was a witch, incidentally. By the time we first see her, she's read as much as she can about the wizarding world and is much less overwhelmed by it than Harry, but the initial moment of revelation must have been a shock.) This is a lovely fic. One nitpick, though - even with a busy job as Minister for Magic, I refuse to believe Hermione wouldn't know all about Muggle politics and exactly who Nick Clegg is (much as I love the "Nice man, wears a yellow tie on the television?" line).
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