The Bad Life

chapter 2

Upon entering her office Hermione immediately went to the cupboard where she kept a few robes for work. Putting one of them on she left the room into the bustle of the Ministry nodding her hello's to the people she passed. Once she got off the lift on the third floor she went to Seamus Finnigan's office where she placed her memory of the meeting she had just had into a pensieve. While she chatted with a girl behind the desk the memory duplicated itself into another pensieve.
Hermione took her memory back into herself before leaving the other to be transcribed and filed.

She looked at her watch and decided she had some time to kill before she had to be to her next appointment. She took the lift down to the basement floor before walking down a corridor to a door on the right leading to a staircase that went even further down. This door was only able to be passed through by members of the Minister's current inner circle. Now they were in government, though, they were called his cabinet.

After descending two flights she moved into the dungeons of the Ministry; they had been around for centuries but had been vacated in the previous century when Azkaban had built. As she walked by the cages, each held far enough away from the others so the prisoners couldn't touch or pass things over, the people inside huddled into the rear, shaking and giving her scared looks, relieved when she had passed them. When she stopped it was in front of the cage of the only person who still dared to talk back to her.

"So, Arthur, how has your day been so far? It's really rather lovely out. Too bad you can't go out." Her voice would sound sympathetic to a random passerby but to everyone who heard her, the stab at polite conversation brought fear right into their hearts. This witch was the only one who ever acted nice, only to be one of the more twisted when it came to what would befall them. The first time she had gone down some of them had even gotten their hopes up only to have them swiftly stolen.

"Simply marvelous, Miss Granger," he answered, his voice dripping with distaste. He knew that no answer, or an answer of complaint would only end badly for him. She had been surprised how long it had actually taken him to learn it.

"I'm glad to hear it. But you know, it really is more polite to also inquire as to how my day is going." He flinched more than slightly as she said this. "But, I think I'll ignore it at the moment because I have some news that I want to share with you. Molly, close your mouth. Your brains may be addled but its no reason to look as though you have no motor functions at all. That's better. As I was saying though. I had a lovely interview today. I think she's going to come to Hogwarts. She's an empath, she'll be really quite handy in a few years when she's trained up."

At her mention of Hogwarts he made a grumbling noise. "Do you have something you want to say, Arthur?" she asked in such sweet tones one would instantly be reminded of Umbridge, who was still well and good. No longer Undersecretary to The Minister, but now the Head of the Wizengamot. He twitched in response. "Now, now Arthur, tell me what you're thinking. And be honest, you know how much I hate lies."

"That school has been shot to hell since ...." he skipped over what he truely wanted to say and instead skirting the thought rather than say anything to provoke her anger, "Snape was put Headmaster. No respected family would sent their child there."

"On the contrary, all the most respected families do that exact thing. We have the best professors in Europe and no one feels like they should send their kids to Durmstrang or Beauxbatons any longer because Hogwarts now outshines them in everything."

It was true; the school being under The Minister's control was far better in its academics than when the old man was Headmaster. Snape was headmaster, and Professor Alan Davis had stayed, as had a number of professors who had previously had no specific allegiance in the war. Those who had fought openly for the light were given the option to stay, provided that they were able to prove that they were worth keeping around. There were really only three that were no longer there; Hagrid, who had actually died of a heart attack from the excitement when Fang had been brutally killed in front of him, Flitwick, who had died a rather gruesome death, and McGonagall, who was in one of the cages but now being blind and mute.

Arthur made another disgusted noise. "Fine, if that's how you want it, so be it. Incendium!" The curse, which was thrown at his wife, was reasonably unharmful. Her robes caught fire from the bottom and worked its way to the top, much like burning off the lint from a sock. It didn't hurt the woman physically but with her current mental state she started freaking out and screaming, hitting herself to put out the fire even when the small flames had subsided. Arthur was on the floor of his cage reaching out to his wife while sobs racked his body.

Hermione glanced down to her watch. "Well, it appears I must be going. Have a wonderful day, everyone. I'll be sure to send you down some company later." Her voice was cheerful and bouncy as she waved to the captives, most wincing at the thought of company, and made her way back to the main part of the Ministry.

The rest of Hermione's day was chock full of boring meetings with various organizations that The Minister was working on influencing for his benefit within the muggle world. While his interests were mostly in Wizarding Europe (right now he was working to prove that his systems work in Britain so there would be less resistance when he moves onto the continent) he wanted to make sure that he could control some aspects of the muggle world, if for no other reason than to prove his power if need be.

When she got home to the flat she shared with Draco it was to find him not there. Looking around she saw that he hadn't left a note but wasn't worried; he was often away on business. He rarely ever told her exactly what it was he did when he was gone but she knew it often involved looking for the few Order members and other extremists for the Light that had yet to be captured.

When a whole week had passed and he hadn't returned, she was practically beside herself but still quite able to put up a professional front for work purposes. It was on the seventh day that she had her meeting with the Mack family to learn of Alex's decision. She arrived on their doorstep at precisely 2 in the afternoon and knocked on the door. This time Alex herself opened it. "Hi, Hermione, how are you today?" the girls asked, bouncing around as she let the woman into the house.

"I'm well, thank you," she replied smiling. If the way the girl was acting, this was definately going to be a trip of good news. She was led back into the sitting room where Mr. and Mrs. Mack were already sitting, a tray of tea and biscuits waiting on the coffee table in front of them. "Good day, Mr. Mack, Mrs. Mack," she greeted them, shaking their hands. Mrs. Mack looked decidedly unsettled.

"So, have you made your decision, Alex?" she asked, getting straight to business.

"Yes, I have. I want to be a witch."

"I am very pleased to hear it. Do you have any other questions that you thought of in the last week?"

"Well, I need to know what I need for school and how to get it and how to get to school and stuff like that but I just can't wait."

"We can go over all that in a minute, but first I need you to sign a contract saying that you have chosen to enter the Wizarding community with the knowledge of the most important laws, which are the ones I told you about last week."

"She needs to sign a contract to become a witch?" asked Mrs. Mack in an incredulous tone.

"No, not to become a witch, she is a witch right now. She needs to sign the contract for proof that if ever anything were to happen we would know that she at least had basic knowledge of how our world works. We had a few issues a couple years back with a some people who decided that they were going to wrongly claim that they didn't know the laws when they broke them and since that time, this contract has been in effect."

"I'll sign it, no problem.... where is it?"

"Oh, right." Hermione then took out her wand and gave it a wave, the document in question appearing on the table with a quill. "Feel free to read it first," she said as she handed it over to the girl. "I also need you, Mr. and Mrs. Mack, to sign contracts binding you from speaking of your daughter's status as a witch and anything having to do with actual magic as compared to faerie tale magic to any muggle other than each other. It is also a clause in the contract that Alex has to sign."

"Why do we need to sign these contracts? Can't we just promise not to say anything?"

"We don't like to leave these things to chance, Mrs. Mack. If word got out about us and people believed it, muggles would either want to kill us for being different, or they would want to use our powers for their own gain. We would never let this happen and there would be war."

"That's a bleak way of looking at things," the woman commented dryly.

"That's a realistic way of looking at things."

"And what if we refuse?"

"Then there would be two options. Either Alex could change her mind and revoke her powers, or she could be taken away to live permanantly in the wizarding world and all of your memories of her would be erased from you."

"And that's legal? That is highly unethical."

"No, it's really not unethical. After all, we give you the option. Unethical would be if we jsut took her away with no notice and didn't let you have the choice. And yes, it is legal. It is also something that I have had the misfortune of doing before, so don't believe that I can't or won't. I'm sorry if it all seems harsh, but as far as The Minister is concerned, secrecy of our world is of the utmost importance." At this Mrs. Mack harumphed and folded her hands over her chest, but was resigned to signing the contract.

As her mother and Hermione were talking, Alex scanned the paper before taking the quill, which she looked at curiously, and signed on one of the lines at the bottom, gasping at the pain she felt when she saw that her signature was written in her own blood. She looked up at Hermione with wide eyes, who just smiled back down before taking the quill and signing her own name on the witness line.

"Why did that quill (she knew what it was, having seen a few period films and such just like most muggles) write with my blood?"

"The blood creates a magical binding contract."

"You never said anything about needed our child's blood!" Mrs. Mack huffed out.

"No, I didn't. No offence but many muggles are greatly put off by the idea, though it is rather commonplace within the Ministry." Next, Hermione handed the blood quill over to Mr. Mack along with the contract for him and his wife to sign, which he did with no qualms. When he handed the quill over to his wife, she sighed before she put the tip to the parchment, glowering even more as she felt the sharpness of the cut on her hand.

Hermione then waved her wand again and the contracts disappeared, only to reappear momentarily on the desk of The Minister, who let out a great laugh. The contract in front of Hermione was replaced with Alex's letter from Hogwart's that said what she would need, as well as her ticket to the Hogwart's Express. She then explained each item and offered to take the family to Diagon Alley the next week to get Alex her stuff, as well as her first peek at the world she was now a part of.

When she left the Mack household with a hug from Alex, a handshake from Mr. Mack and a dark glower from Mrs. Mack, Hermione apparated to the Ministry and went directly to The Minister's office as she had been ordered.