Standing Offers (After the Flaw: Oligarchy, Chapter 27)
Title: Standing Offers (After the Flaw: Oligarchy, Chapter 27)
Author: kanedax
Spoilers: Previous Chapters
Rating: PG13 for language
Summary: Hermione's first day as Minister could be going better.
Notes: I own these characters, but the others belong to JK Rowling.
Project Beta / Previous Chapters / Today's Headlines
Minister of Magic Hermione Weasley had been sworn in just hours ago and she could already see her name posted in the Incompetent Government Hall of Fame. They hadn't even taken Kingsley Shacklebolt's name off the door and already England had seen the biggest breach of the International Statute of Secrecy in wizarding history.
Her new office, still filled with remnants and reminders of its previous owner, was packed full of people, raising the heat with each passing minute. The fireplace wasn't helping matters, the flame burning constantly for the last two hours with heads popping up over and over and over again from all parts of the world. Paper airplane memos were flying in as fast as the Owlery could send them, and the office's occupants were sending new ones back twice as fast.
Her mind was racing, but her heart was aching. Percy and Penelope dead. Kingsley and Gawain dead. Ginny maybe dead, maybe not, Harry gone AWOL after her. Caroline barely escaping the attack on London, and Teddy's location unknown.
And all the while the painting on the wall was trying, with increasing volume, to get Hermione's attention because the Muggle Prime Minister wanted a word with Kingsley Shacklebolt NOW.
"Dean!" Hermione yelled over the cacophony. "Go to Number 10, talk to the Prime Minister."
"He'll be doing his nut, Hermi--Minister," said Dean, pushing his way to her desk. "He's going to want to talk to you."
"And he will," said Hermione. Now well beyond frazzled, she was still dressed in the Muggle attire that she had worn to the convention (although the sweat stains and ink blotches were new) and her bushy hair, fallen out of its bun at some point, was as messy as the desk in front of her. "I will meet with him, I will introduce myself to him, I will do whatever it is that I'm supposed to do when I meet with the Muggle Prime Minister for the first time, but not now."
"What should I tell him?"
"Whatever you feel you can," said Hermione, grabbing a memo from overhead and opening it. It was from the Danish Minister. He wasn't happy. Who is? "Tell him what happened to Kingsley, and what's happening here. Tell him we'll have a Muggle-worthy excuse for him soon, but in the meantime to just vamp."
"That's not going to be good enough," said Dean bracingly. "Minister, this is the worst disaster this city has seen since--"
"I know that!" Hermione yelled. "Which is why you need to be extra good! You're the head of the Muggle Liaison Department, so go liaise!"
Dean looked around the packed office, where each department head was doing their best to quell their own office's apocalypses. His lips pursed in frustration, he leaned across the table and spoke into Hermione's ear, quietly enough that only she could hear him.
"Whatever I tell him, whatever excuse we come up with, we're fighting a losing battle."
"I know," Hermione sighed. "But we have to try."
Dean nodded and, pushing aside a member of the Quidditch Department, stepped into the Floo, where he vanished in a green burst of flame.
We're fighting a losing battle. But we have to try.
"Alright!" she yelled over everyone. "I want answers! Who was in the vision? Who sent it? Who knew that Kingsley and Percy were going to be at Puddlemere? And why the hell is there a giant typhon lying dead in the middle of Clapham? Where's Scamander?"
"On holiday, Minister," said a young-looking witch from Hermione's left. "He's in Africa with his wife. We sent him an owl already, but--"
"Who are you?"
"Felicia," the witch stammered, suddenly under the white-hot glare of the Minister of Magic. "Um, Felicia Stanz. I'm the, um, I'm Mr. Scamander's assistant."
"Felicia," said Hermione, "would you know how a typhon that size was able to slip into the Thames without us knowing it?"
"No, ma'am," said Felicia quietly.
"Find your boss, Miss Stanz," said Hermione, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Please. Now. Take the next Portkey to Africa if that's what it takes. It's a lot faster than waiting for the owl."
"Yes, ma'am," said Felicia, escaping the office quickly.
"It wouldn't have been that big," said Dewey Nielsen, head of International Magical Cooperation. "No way something that size could fit in the Thames without us seeing it right off."
"Eyewitnesses said that it wasn't that big to start," said one of the wizards. "When it attacked Tower Bridge it wasn't even half the size of one of the towers. The wizards around it hit it with an enlargement spell, most likely."
"Who are they?" asked Hermione, falling into her chair.
"Oligarchy," said Seamus. "There's no way that the visions could be a coincidence."
"They would have been involved with the attack on Puddlemere, too," said Carlean Foote. "Throw us off our game?"
"Carlean, you're our Muggle Liaison representative until Dean gets back," said Hermione, pointing at her. "And Seamus, you're the temporary MLE Head. Congratulations."
"I'll take the well-wishing later," Seamus growled. "Witnesses said one of the witches had a cat head."
Hermione sat up. "Like in Teddy and Victoire's dream?"
"The same," said Seamus. "And three others with black holes instead of heads."
"From the attack in Poland," Hermione said, rolling her head back. "Of course..."
"The group that wiped Luna and Charlie," said Seamus. "But it doesn't get us any further because we're talking masks, not faces. They're still as unfindable as they were before."
"They're out of hiding," Hermione added. "They're not afraid to show themselves anymore. That's something we can work with."
"Yeah, we know they're not going to be discreet," said another official. "Which only leaves us with finding out when, where, who, and how many others they're going to kill when they poke their heads out again. And all that without once source. That's not going to be easy."
"It's more than we had before," said Seamus.
"We know that, whoever they are, they have access to some extremely rare and dangerous magical creatures," said Hermione. "Typhons, Stymphalians, who knows what else? When Rolf gets here he has a lot of questions to answer. But our most immediate concern is the Muggles. Excuse Committee, what do you have?"
"You're serious?" asked Carlean, looking around at some of the other members of the Muggle Department. "We have nothing."
"We have to have something," Hermione said. "This is the biggest breach in... in..."
"It's the biggest breach ever," Carlean said hopelessly. "And it might be too big. Our ship might be sunk."
"Carlean, we have to try--"
"They have cameras, Minister!" said Carlean. "Little cameras in their mobile phones! They have satellite television beaming across the globe and cameras in the sky! They have the Internet! This isn't like the West Country Incident, where the giants attacked and escaped with very few Muggles actually seeing them. This is millions, billions of people seeing a body that hasn't vanished yet."
floomph
"I spoke to the Prime Minister," said Dean Thomas, stepping out of the Floo.
"And?"
"And we're fucked," he said bluntly. "If it were just the typhon, we might be able to spin it. Some, I don't know, heretofor unknown amphibeous dinosaur, living in the ocean and finding its way to shore. It would be a huge stretch, but there are so many conflicting theories floating around right now that it might have worked."
"But..." Hermione said, knowing what was next.
"But the typhon's not our only problem," said Dean. "We just had a global phenomenon of people seeing a vision telling them that their government has been lying to them for hundreds of years about us. And they have visual evidence of broomsticks flying around the typhon. And they have footage of the typhon and of the destruction of a squadron of F35s. Full-motion, high-definition video of a jet fighter turning into a whale in mid-air."
"Damn it," Hermione groaned, holding her aching head.
"The Prime Minister's out," Dean said. "We've killed too many people, left too big of a mess, and if they cover up for us they'll lose the trust of their people. And, frankly, I agree with him. If they try to cover it after all of that, they're asking for anarchy."
"So what is his position?"
"They've been attacked by us," said Seamus. "We've killed hundreds, maybe thousands of people. Of course we're the enemy now."
"But we didn't!" said Nielsen.
"Do you think that matters?" said Carlean. "It doesn't matter to them whether the Ministry did it or not! It was witches and wizards that caused all of this mess! How are they supposed to know the difference between the good ones and the bad ones?"
"Well, it's simple," said Nielsen, "we just-- ow!"
Dewey Nielsen swatted at the back of his head, where a particularly fierce memo was poking him over and over. He snagged it from mid-air and pulled it open. As he read it, his face dropped.
"No..." he breathed.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"We..." Nielsen said, swallowing hard. "It's... It's Cairo."
"What about Cairo?" Hermione asked. "What happened?"
"There's been a coup," said Nielsen, tossing the paper away like it was dirty and covering his face with his hands. "The Egyptian Ministry, they... they took Prospero's words to heart. They rose up and overthrew the Muggle government."
"Oh, God," said Dean, falling into a chair.
"This has to be put to an end," Hermione snapped. "Something, anything, worst-case scenario, go."
"Secrecy Wave," said Nielsen.
"Out of the question."
"It's not out of the question," he said. "In fact, it's very much in question right now. Half of the memos that I've received from across the globe are talking about using it. There's going to be an emergency meeting of the International Confederation to debate the merits."
"The Secrecy Wave hasn't been used since the Statute was implemented!"
"What's the Secrecy Wave?" asked Seamus.
"Ultra-powerful magic," said Nielsen. "It's a complex combination of Imperius and Memory Charms. It was used to change history. Since we couldn't find all of our evidence, we made the Muggles do it for us. Imperiused them to destroy all relevant documents: journals, newspaper articles, that sort of thing."
"Then Memory Charmed them to forget all of it," said Dean. "Not our most heroic hour, but we had to do it if we wanted to truly go into hiding."
"There's still lots of evidence of magical existence in the world," Neilsen added. "Paintings, stories, that sort of thing. But the Memory Charm convinced everyone that they were all purely fictional. The Secrecy Wave was just used to destroy any evidence that would be deemed credible."
"So that's what they're talking about using now?" asked Seamus. "Why is that a problem? It would fix everything!"
"It's a problem because this isn't the eighteenth century!" said Hermione. "The world is a lot more advanced than it was back then. You know what happens when powerful magic is used near electronics, right?"
"They stop working."
"Right," said Hermione. "Sending out a Secrecy Wave today would be the equivalent of sending out a global EMP pulse. It would kill all electronic devices."
"Which would destroy all of the electronic evidence of today," Nielsen countered. "All the video, all of the digital photographs, all of the websites..."
"But it would destroy everything else," said Hermoine. "Muggle society today is an electronic society. An electronic economy. Do you realize how much of today's Muggle society is run through digital commerce? How much of Muggle currency is digital currency? It would be total economic collapse. Not to mention all of the damage it would do to power grids. To transportation systems. If we send out the Secrecy Wave we would be sending the Muggles of the world back to the Stone Age."
"We'd be killing more people than the typhon," said Dean. "Planes falling from the sky, nuclear meltdowns, failing medical equipment..."
"But if we--" Nielsen started.
knock knock
Hermione stood up as she saw who was at her office door. Both Ron and Harry were pale and disheveled, and the bags under their eyes made them look like they had been awake for a week.
"I'll talk to you outside," said Hermione quickly to the two. "No Secrecy Wave," she said to the others. "Keep thinking." She closed the door behind her as she stepped into the hall. It had barely latched before she threw herself into Ron's arms.
"You're safe," he said into her hair.
"Thank God you're here," she whispered. "I've been going out of my mind."
"I dunno if I should say congratulations, or--"
Hermione pulled away, looking at Harry desperately.
"She's alive," he said.
Relief flowed over Hermione like a warm shower. She let out a relieved sob as she felt her legs buckle beneath her Ron grabbing her to keep her steady. With so much happening, she had no idea just how much the fate of Ginny Potter had been weighing on her until she heard Harry say those two little words.
"She's alive," she repeated, her voice shaking.
"She's alive," he said, and this time she heard something in his voice...
"What... what is it?" she asked, grabbing Harry's hand. He opened his mouth to speak, but he seemed like he didn't have the strength to say anything.
"She got hurt," Ron said for him. "Bad. She was near the explosion when it went off. And it was a magical explosion, so they don't know how much of the damage was from the actual explosion or how much was from the debris and from the fall."
"No..." Hermione said, covering her mouth. She thought of Bill's face, Lavender's neck, George's ear. All of Mad Eye Moody's scars and missing body parts...
"They're still sorting her out," said Harry clutching Hermione's hand for support. "But... But right now she's paralyzed. She can't... feel anything below the... the..."
"She'll pull through," she whispered. "I know she will."
"If the spine was hurt from the fall," said Ron, "or from being hit by chunks of the bleachers, they say they'll be able to fix her. But if the damage is magical, it's... it's not going to get better..."
"Then we pray that it does," said Hermione, hugging Harry and stroking the back of his hair. "That's all we can do."
"I know," said Harry, holding her tight.
"Everyone's at Mungo's with her," said Ron to Hermione. "Mum and George and... and... Mum's an absolute wreck right now. Dad... Dad went to Hogwarts to tell Gid and Fab before they read it in the Prophet..."
"Goddamn it," Harry groaned, pulling away.
"They'll probably... probably move in with Mum and Dad. Or the Clearwaters, since Mum and Dad already have Charlie... God..."
Hermione jumped when she heard the loud thump of Harry punching the wall in frustration.
"We're going to find them," said Hermione fiercely. "We're going to find whoever did this and make them pay."
"Yeah," said Ron with a nod. "Yeah, I know..."
"Has anyone heard from Teddy?"
"Yeah," said Harry, shaking his hand. "They're at Andromeda's. I don't know how he and Caroline got out of Clapham, I was only able to get what fit on the coin. But Teddy didn't say anything about them being hurt."
"Caroline's not with him," said Hermione. "She's at Mum and Dad's."
"What?"
"I don't know!" said Hermione. "Mum and Dad sent me an owl, told me not to worry, Caroline's safe, she flew her broomstick to Oxford and--"
"She flew?"
"Just barely escaped," said Hermione.
"Good for her," said Harry, Caroline's flight instructor, with a hint of pride.
"But no one knew where Teddy was until now."
"What did he think he was doing?" asked Ron. "Did he actually think he could fight that thing, or something?"
"Mum didn't say..."
"I don't know," said Harry. "I'll get in touch with him when we know more about Ginny."
"You should go back," said Hermione, taking his hand again. "Harry, I appreciate you both coming to update me, but you should really be there--"
"I will," said Harry. "We will. But we... um, we've been talking. And we wanted to toss something by you first."
"We want in," said Ron.
"In?" asked Hermione. "In where?"
"In whatever you lot are planning to do against the Oligarchy. We want in."
"We don't have any plans yet," said Hermione. "We're still trying to figure out who these people are. And by in, you mean...?"
"I'm ready to take the Ministry up on the job offer they gave us when we beat Voldemort," said Harry. "I want to join the Aurors."
"We both do," said Ron with a nod.
"The offer..." Hermione said slowly. "The offer that was made twenty years ago?"
"Well, I always assumed it was a standing offer," said Ron weakly.
"No!" Hermione said. "No, I am not going to let you two get involved!"
"Hermione," said Harry as calmly as possible, "whoever this Oligarchy is, they're going to do it again. I can't sit by and let it happen. Not after what happened to Ginny."
"All the more reason for you to sit by!" said Hermione, her temper slipping fast. "Don't you think James and Al and Lily have enough to worry about with their mother in the hospital? Maybe paralyzed? And you!" she said, turning on Ron. "What would I tell Rosie and Hugo when they find out their father's been killed in the line of duty? What would I tell Molly after Fred and Percy and--"
"Hermione, you're the Minister of Magic!" said Ron. "I hate to say tell you, but you haven't exactly been handed the safest job in the world."
"Which is why I don't want you to do this!" Hermione said, grabbing his arm. "Ron, I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you. Or what if something happened to both of us? Think about Percy and Penelope! Think about Gideon and Fabian! What happens to our children if we're both dead?"
"It's not going to happen!"
"It might!" she yelled. "They were at a bloody Quidditch match and now they're dead and now we're talking about purposely putting you in danger?"
"And how do you think I'd feel if you died and I wasn't doing anything to protect you?" Ron argued. "Hermione, I just found out my wife suddenly has a giant 'Kill Me' sign taped to the back of her shirt! Do you think I'm actually going to--"
"Ron, I'm the Minister, I have the Ministry protecting--"
"Tell that to Kingsley," said Ron. "And to Scrimgoer. Hermione, you know we can help. And you know Seamus would want us on board. Besides, we've already talked to Mum about it, all of us."
"All of you?" Hermione asked, sure that he had just misphrased it.
"Bill and George and Fleur are putting their names in to the MLE," said Harry. "Along with probably half of the country. We'd be doing the same, but we figured it'd be easier to just cut through the red tape. You know, standing offers."
"We're all behind you, love," said Ron, putting his hands on Hermione's shoulders. "We can't take this lying down. Besides, you know Harry. He's going to hunt these pricks whether you give him the go-ahead or not--"
"I'm not going to dispute that," said Harry.
"--so why not do it with the Ministry's support? Why not do it with me and the Ministry?"
Hermione looked at Harry, and could see in his eyes that Ron was telling the truth. Harry wanted to fight. Harry needed to fight. And they were right. The three of them had risked their lives twenty years ago so this would never happen again. Harry had died so this would never happen again. Yet here they were, right back in it, whether they wanted it or not.
But we don't have to go it alone. Not anymore. And if you don't let Harry and Ron on, they will go it alone.
"Alright," she said quietly. "Alright, I'll talk to Seamus after the meeting's over. God have mercy on my soul if anything happens to any of us, but alright."
"Excellent," said Ron with a relieved smile. "The Big Three ride again."
"Thank you," said Harry, giving Hermione a hug.
"Don't thank me yet," said Hermione. "If this goes wrong, you have a lot to--"
The three broke apart as the underground building shook violently. A distant rumble could be heard from below.
"What was that?" asked Ron, bracing himself against the wall as the shake subsided.
"An explosion," Hermione said. "Downstairs."
She could smell the first hints of dust and smoke wafting from the lift shaft as Ministry employees began to pour out of their offices. From what floor it originated Hermione couldn't tell, but the fact that she wasn't hearing a continuous rumble of falling debris was a welcome sign.
And when the lack of multi-floor destruction makes you breathe a sigh of relief, Hermione thought as she, Ron, and Harry ran back into her office to contact emergency personnel, you know that things have gone as badly as they possibly can.
Project Beta / Previous Chapters / Today's Headlines
Author: kanedax
Spoilers: Previous Chapters
Rating: PG13 for language
Summary: Hermione's first day as Minister could be going better.
Notes: I own these characters, but the others belong to JK Rowling.
Project Beta / Previous Chapters / Today's Headlines
Minister of Magic Hermione Weasley had been sworn in just hours ago and she could already see her name posted in the Incompetent Government Hall of Fame. They hadn't even taken Kingsley Shacklebolt's name off the door and already England had seen the biggest breach of the International Statute of Secrecy in wizarding history.
Her new office, still filled with remnants and reminders of its previous owner, was packed full of people, raising the heat with each passing minute. The fireplace wasn't helping matters, the flame burning constantly for the last two hours with heads popping up over and over and over again from all parts of the world. Paper airplane memos were flying in as fast as the Owlery could send them, and the office's occupants were sending new ones back twice as fast.
Her mind was racing, but her heart was aching. Percy and Penelope dead. Kingsley and Gawain dead. Ginny maybe dead, maybe not, Harry gone AWOL after her. Caroline barely escaping the attack on London, and Teddy's location unknown.
And all the while the painting on the wall was trying, with increasing volume, to get Hermione's attention because the Muggle Prime Minister wanted a word with Kingsley Shacklebolt NOW.
"Dean!" Hermione yelled over the cacophony. "Go to Number 10, talk to the Prime Minister."
"He'll be doing his nut, Hermi--Minister," said Dean, pushing his way to her desk. "He's going to want to talk to you."
"And he will," said Hermione. Now well beyond frazzled, she was still dressed in the Muggle attire that she had worn to the convention (although the sweat stains and ink blotches were new) and her bushy hair, fallen out of its bun at some point, was as messy as the desk in front of her. "I will meet with him, I will introduce myself to him, I will do whatever it is that I'm supposed to do when I meet with the Muggle Prime Minister for the first time, but not now."
"What should I tell him?"
"Whatever you feel you can," said Hermione, grabbing a memo from overhead and opening it. It was from the Danish Minister. He wasn't happy. Who is? "Tell him what happened to Kingsley, and what's happening here. Tell him we'll have a Muggle-worthy excuse for him soon, but in the meantime to just vamp."
"That's not going to be good enough," said Dean bracingly. "Minister, this is the worst disaster this city has seen since--"
"I know that!" Hermione yelled. "Which is why you need to be extra good! You're the head of the Muggle Liaison Department, so go liaise!"
Dean looked around the packed office, where each department head was doing their best to quell their own office's apocalypses. His lips pursed in frustration, he leaned across the table and spoke into Hermione's ear, quietly enough that only she could hear him.
"Whatever I tell him, whatever excuse we come up with, we're fighting a losing battle."
"I know," Hermione sighed. "But we have to try."
Dean nodded and, pushing aside a member of the Quidditch Department, stepped into the Floo, where he vanished in a green burst of flame.
We're fighting a losing battle. But we have to try.
"Alright!" she yelled over everyone. "I want answers! Who was in the vision? Who sent it? Who knew that Kingsley and Percy were going to be at Puddlemere? And why the hell is there a giant typhon lying dead in the middle of Clapham? Where's Scamander?"
"On holiday, Minister," said a young-looking witch from Hermione's left. "He's in Africa with his wife. We sent him an owl already, but--"
"Who are you?"
"Felicia," the witch stammered, suddenly under the white-hot glare of the Minister of Magic. "Um, Felicia Stanz. I'm the, um, I'm Mr. Scamander's assistant."
"Felicia," said Hermione, "would you know how a typhon that size was able to slip into the Thames without us knowing it?"
"No, ma'am," said Felicia quietly.
"Find your boss, Miss Stanz," said Hermione, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Please. Now. Take the next Portkey to Africa if that's what it takes. It's a lot faster than waiting for the owl."
"Yes, ma'am," said Felicia, escaping the office quickly.
"It wouldn't have been that big," said Dewey Nielsen, head of International Magical Cooperation. "No way something that size could fit in the Thames without us seeing it right off."
"Eyewitnesses said that it wasn't that big to start," said one of the wizards. "When it attacked Tower Bridge it wasn't even half the size of one of the towers. The wizards around it hit it with an enlargement spell, most likely."
"Who are they?" asked Hermione, falling into her chair.
"Oligarchy," said Seamus. "There's no way that the visions could be a coincidence."
"They would have been involved with the attack on Puddlemere, too," said Carlean Foote. "Throw us off our game?"
"Carlean, you're our Muggle Liaison representative until Dean gets back," said Hermione, pointing at her. "And Seamus, you're the temporary MLE Head. Congratulations."
"I'll take the well-wishing later," Seamus growled. "Witnesses said one of the witches had a cat head."
Hermione sat up. "Like in Teddy and Victoire's dream?"
"The same," said Seamus. "And three others with black holes instead of heads."
"From the attack in Poland," Hermione said, rolling her head back. "Of course..."
"The group that wiped Luna and Charlie," said Seamus. "But it doesn't get us any further because we're talking masks, not faces. They're still as unfindable as they were before."
"They're out of hiding," Hermione added. "They're not afraid to show themselves anymore. That's something we can work with."
"Yeah, we know they're not going to be discreet," said another official. "Which only leaves us with finding out when, where, who, and how many others they're going to kill when they poke their heads out again. And all that without once source. That's not going to be easy."
"It's more than we had before," said Seamus.
"We know that, whoever they are, they have access to some extremely rare and dangerous magical creatures," said Hermione. "Typhons, Stymphalians, who knows what else? When Rolf gets here he has a lot of questions to answer. But our most immediate concern is the Muggles. Excuse Committee, what do you have?"
"You're serious?" asked Carlean, looking around at some of the other members of the Muggle Department. "We have nothing."
"We have to have something," Hermione said. "This is the biggest breach in... in..."
"It's the biggest breach ever," Carlean said hopelessly. "And it might be too big. Our ship might be sunk."
"Carlean, we have to try--"
"They have cameras, Minister!" said Carlean. "Little cameras in their mobile phones! They have satellite television beaming across the globe and cameras in the sky! They have the Internet! This isn't like the West Country Incident, where the giants attacked and escaped with very few Muggles actually seeing them. This is millions, billions of people seeing a body that hasn't vanished yet."
floomph
"I spoke to the Prime Minister," said Dean Thomas, stepping out of the Floo.
"And?"
"And we're fucked," he said bluntly. "If it were just the typhon, we might be able to spin it. Some, I don't know, heretofor unknown amphibeous dinosaur, living in the ocean and finding its way to shore. It would be a huge stretch, but there are so many conflicting theories floating around right now that it might have worked."
"But..." Hermione said, knowing what was next.
"But the typhon's not our only problem," said Dean. "We just had a global phenomenon of people seeing a vision telling them that their government has been lying to them for hundreds of years about us. And they have visual evidence of broomsticks flying around the typhon. And they have footage of the typhon and of the destruction of a squadron of F35s. Full-motion, high-definition video of a jet fighter turning into a whale in mid-air."
"Damn it," Hermione groaned, holding her aching head.
"The Prime Minister's out," Dean said. "We've killed too many people, left too big of a mess, and if they cover up for us they'll lose the trust of their people. And, frankly, I agree with him. If they try to cover it after all of that, they're asking for anarchy."
"So what is his position?"
"They've been attacked by us," said Seamus. "We've killed hundreds, maybe thousands of people. Of course we're the enemy now."
"But we didn't!" said Nielsen.
"Do you think that matters?" said Carlean. "It doesn't matter to them whether the Ministry did it or not! It was witches and wizards that caused all of this mess! How are they supposed to know the difference between the good ones and the bad ones?"
"Well, it's simple," said Nielsen, "we just-- ow!"
Dewey Nielsen swatted at the back of his head, where a particularly fierce memo was poking him over and over. He snagged it from mid-air and pulled it open. As he read it, his face dropped.
"No..." he breathed.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"We..." Nielsen said, swallowing hard. "It's... It's Cairo."
"What about Cairo?" Hermione asked. "What happened?"
"There's been a coup," said Nielsen, tossing the paper away like it was dirty and covering his face with his hands. "The Egyptian Ministry, they... they took Prospero's words to heart. They rose up and overthrew the Muggle government."
"Oh, God," said Dean, falling into a chair.
"This has to be put to an end," Hermione snapped. "Something, anything, worst-case scenario, go."
"Secrecy Wave," said Nielsen.
"Out of the question."
"It's not out of the question," he said. "In fact, it's very much in question right now. Half of the memos that I've received from across the globe are talking about using it. There's going to be an emergency meeting of the International Confederation to debate the merits."
"The Secrecy Wave hasn't been used since the Statute was implemented!"
"What's the Secrecy Wave?" asked Seamus.
"Ultra-powerful magic," said Nielsen. "It's a complex combination of Imperius and Memory Charms. It was used to change history. Since we couldn't find all of our evidence, we made the Muggles do it for us. Imperiused them to destroy all relevant documents: journals, newspaper articles, that sort of thing."
"Then Memory Charmed them to forget all of it," said Dean. "Not our most heroic hour, but we had to do it if we wanted to truly go into hiding."
"There's still lots of evidence of magical existence in the world," Neilsen added. "Paintings, stories, that sort of thing. But the Memory Charm convinced everyone that they were all purely fictional. The Secrecy Wave was just used to destroy any evidence that would be deemed credible."
"So that's what they're talking about using now?" asked Seamus. "Why is that a problem? It would fix everything!"
"It's a problem because this isn't the eighteenth century!" said Hermione. "The world is a lot more advanced than it was back then. You know what happens when powerful magic is used near electronics, right?"
"They stop working."
"Right," said Hermione. "Sending out a Secrecy Wave today would be the equivalent of sending out a global EMP pulse. It would kill all electronic devices."
"Which would destroy all of the electronic evidence of today," Nielsen countered. "All the video, all of the digital photographs, all of the websites..."
"But it would destroy everything else," said Hermoine. "Muggle society today is an electronic society. An electronic economy. Do you realize how much of today's Muggle society is run through digital commerce? How much of Muggle currency is digital currency? It would be total economic collapse. Not to mention all of the damage it would do to power grids. To transportation systems. If we send out the Secrecy Wave we would be sending the Muggles of the world back to the Stone Age."
"We'd be killing more people than the typhon," said Dean. "Planes falling from the sky, nuclear meltdowns, failing medical equipment..."
"But if we--" Nielsen started.
knock knock
Hermione stood up as she saw who was at her office door. Both Ron and Harry were pale and disheveled, and the bags under their eyes made them look like they had been awake for a week.
"I'll talk to you outside," said Hermione quickly to the two. "No Secrecy Wave," she said to the others. "Keep thinking." She closed the door behind her as she stepped into the hall. It had barely latched before she threw herself into Ron's arms.
"You're safe," he said into her hair.
"Thank God you're here," she whispered. "I've been going out of my mind."
"I dunno if I should say congratulations, or--"
Hermione pulled away, looking at Harry desperately.
"She's alive," he said.
Relief flowed over Hermione like a warm shower. She let out a relieved sob as she felt her legs buckle beneath her Ron grabbing her to keep her steady. With so much happening, she had no idea just how much the fate of Ginny Potter had been weighing on her until she heard Harry say those two little words.
"She's alive," she repeated, her voice shaking.
"She's alive," he said, and this time she heard something in his voice...
"What... what is it?" she asked, grabbing Harry's hand. He opened his mouth to speak, but he seemed like he didn't have the strength to say anything.
"She got hurt," Ron said for him. "Bad. She was near the explosion when it went off. And it was a magical explosion, so they don't know how much of the damage was from the actual explosion or how much was from the debris and from the fall."
"No..." Hermione said, covering her mouth. She thought of Bill's face, Lavender's neck, George's ear. All of Mad Eye Moody's scars and missing body parts...
"They're still sorting her out," said Harry clutching Hermione's hand for support. "But... But right now she's paralyzed. She can't... feel anything below the... the..."
"She'll pull through," she whispered. "I know she will."
"If the spine was hurt from the fall," said Ron, "or from being hit by chunks of the bleachers, they say they'll be able to fix her. But if the damage is magical, it's... it's not going to get better..."
"Then we pray that it does," said Hermione, hugging Harry and stroking the back of his hair. "That's all we can do."
"I know," said Harry, holding her tight.
"Everyone's at Mungo's with her," said Ron to Hermione. "Mum and George and... and... Mum's an absolute wreck right now. Dad... Dad went to Hogwarts to tell Gid and Fab before they read it in the Prophet..."
"Goddamn it," Harry groaned, pulling away.
"They'll probably... probably move in with Mum and Dad. Or the Clearwaters, since Mum and Dad already have Charlie... God..."
Hermione jumped when she heard the loud thump of Harry punching the wall in frustration.
"We're going to find them," said Hermione fiercely. "We're going to find whoever did this and make them pay."
"Yeah," said Ron with a nod. "Yeah, I know..."
"Has anyone heard from Teddy?"
"Yeah," said Harry, shaking his hand. "They're at Andromeda's. I don't know how he and Caroline got out of Clapham, I was only able to get what fit on the coin. But Teddy didn't say anything about them being hurt."
"Caroline's not with him," said Hermione. "She's at Mum and Dad's."
"What?"
"I don't know!" said Hermione. "Mum and Dad sent me an owl, told me not to worry, Caroline's safe, she flew her broomstick to Oxford and--"
"She flew?"
"Just barely escaped," said Hermione.
"Good for her," said Harry, Caroline's flight instructor, with a hint of pride.
"But no one knew where Teddy was until now."
"What did he think he was doing?" asked Ron. "Did he actually think he could fight that thing, or something?"
"Mum didn't say..."
"I don't know," said Harry. "I'll get in touch with him when we know more about Ginny."
"You should go back," said Hermione, taking his hand again. "Harry, I appreciate you both coming to update me, but you should really be there--"
"I will," said Harry. "We will. But we... um, we've been talking. And we wanted to toss something by you first."
"We want in," said Ron.
"In?" asked Hermione. "In where?"
"In whatever you lot are planning to do against the Oligarchy. We want in."
"We don't have any plans yet," said Hermione. "We're still trying to figure out who these people are. And by in, you mean...?"
"I'm ready to take the Ministry up on the job offer they gave us when we beat Voldemort," said Harry. "I want to join the Aurors."
"We both do," said Ron with a nod.
"The offer..." Hermione said slowly. "The offer that was made twenty years ago?"
"Well, I always assumed it was a standing offer," said Ron weakly.
"No!" Hermione said. "No, I am not going to let you two get involved!"
"Hermione," said Harry as calmly as possible, "whoever this Oligarchy is, they're going to do it again. I can't sit by and let it happen. Not after what happened to Ginny."
"All the more reason for you to sit by!" said Hermione, her temper slipping fast. "Don't you think James and Al and Lily have enough to worry about with their mother in the hospital? Maybe paralyzed? And you!" she said, turning on Ron. "What would I tell Rosie and Hugo when they find out their father's been killed in the line of duty? What would I tell Molly after Fred and Percy and--"
"Hermione, you're the Minister of Magic!" said Ron. "I hate to say tell you, but you haven't exactly been handed the safest job in the world."
"Which is why I don't want you to do this!" Hermione said, grabbing his arm. "Ron, I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you. Or what if something happened to both of us? Think about Percy and Penelope! Think about Gideon and Fabian! What happens to our children if we're both dead?"
"It's not going to happen!"
"It might!" she yelled. "They were at a bloody Quidditch match and now they're dead and now we're talking about purposely putting you in danger?"
"And how do you think I'd feel if you died and I wasn't doing anything to protect you?" Ron argued. "Hermione, I just found out my wife suddenly has a giant 'Kill Me' sign taped to the back of her shirt! Do you think I'm actually going to--"
"Ron, I'm the Minister, I have the Ministry protecting--"
"Tell that to Kingsley," said Ron. "And to Scrimgoer. Hermione, you know we can help. And you know Seamus would want us on board. Besides, we've already talked to Mum about it, all of us."
"All of you?" Hermione asked, sure that he had just misphrased it.
"Bill and George and Fleur are putting their names in to the MLE," said Harry. "Along with probably half of the country. We'd be doing the same, but we figured it'd be easier to just cut through the red tape. You know, standing offers."
"We're all behind you, love," said Ron, putting his hands on Hermione's shoulders. "We can't take this lying down. Besides, you know Harry. He's going to hunt these pricks whether you give him the go-ahead or not--"
"I'm not going to dispute that," said Harry.
"--so why not do it with the Ministry's support? Why not do it with me and the Ministry?"
Hermione looked at Harry, and could see in his eyes that Ron was telling the truth. Harry wanted to fight. Harry needed to fight. And they were right. The three of them had risked their lives twenty years ago so this would never happen again. Harry had died so this would never happen again. Yet here they were, right back in it, whether they wanted it or not.
But we don't have to go it alone. Not anymore. And if you don't let Harry and Ron on, they will go it alone.
"Alright," she said quietly. "Alright, I'll talk to Seamus after the meeting's over. God have mercy on my soul if anything happens to any of us, but alright."
"Excellent," said Ron with a relieved smile. "The Big Three ride again."
"Thank you," said Harry, giving Hermione a hug.
"Don't thank me yet," said Hermione. "If this goes wrong, you have a lot to--"
The three broke apart as the underground building shook violently. A distant rumble could be heard from below.
"What was that?" asked Ron, bracing himself against the wall as the shake subsided.
"An explosion," Hermione said. "Downstairs."
She could smell the first hints of dust and smoke wafting from the lift shaft as Ministry employees began to pour out of their offices. From what floor it originated Hermione couldn't tell, but the fact that she wasn't hearing a continuous rumble of falling debris was a welcome sign.
And when the lack of multi-floor destruction makes you breathe a sigh of relief, Hermione thought as she, Ron, and Harry ran back into her office to contact emergency personnel, you know that things have gone as badly as they possibly can.
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