Badger Politics

Badger Politics
by Eilan

Chapter One: Proving Ground

"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in."
George McGovern

The dust has not yet settled, the fires have not yet ceased to burn, the graves have not yet been dug for all the victims.

There are thousands of them. Wizards and Muggles died in this war alongside each other. Death made no difference between them and they are lying on the ground, eyes expressionless, as if there never was one.

And was there really one?

After one year of war this question shouldn´t even be posed. Because in this war we fought on the same side and that´s what should never be forgotten.

Excerpt from an article in the Guardian
12^th June, 2000
Rachel Scott, Ministry of Magic,
Department of Muggle/Wizard Cooperation

15^th June 2000

The banners in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Magic were black in honour of the lives lost in the war against Voldemort. Posters also adorned the exterior of the building, for in three weeks, the new Minister of Magic would be elected. Rachel Scott thought it was good to know that the Ministry´s priorities were clear.

"Good morning, Miss Scott."

"Good morning."

The so-called security at the main entrance of the Ministry nodded and let her through. They were used to her coming and going. There were Apparation barriers around the building and she often needed to Apparate in order to meet with her colleagues several times a day.

The main building of the Ministry of Magic stood not far from Diagon Alley and was actually not a building per se. It consisted of several buildings that could only be reached by going through the passage Rachel had just entered. It was an old place, built sometime in the twelfth century, and Diagon Alley had actually been built near it, not the other way around.

The outer walls that cut it off from the outside world were impressive. More than two metres high, they towered far above Rachel´s head. The stone they were built of was a bright white, magically prevented from ever greying.

During the Second World War, the strong wards around Diagon Alley and its surroundings had nearly been broken in one of the bombings, but fortunately they had remained standing, protecting the wizarding community from exposure.

Now, however, that all seemed far away, especially since the Muggle and the Wizarding world were no longer separated.

And now it was Rachel´s duty to help co-ordinate the future co-operation between the two worlds.

Rachel liked her job, but - it had become overwhelming as of late. She had slept four hours the previous night, and now two hours of paperwork and three hours of conferences lay ahead of her.

In other words, Rachel was not happy.

To reach her office she had to walk through the whole building. The first building she came across was the Department of Accidental Magic Reversal where she had worked in for the first few years after leaving Hogwarts. It had been a boring job as a pencil-pusher and she had been quite happy about losing it when the Ministry needed people for her current position. Next came the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures - the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, specifically - one of her former schoolmates now worked in. Finally, she reached her goal: the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

Rachel always wondered what drugs the person that had created those names had been on.

The office she shared with one of her co-workers was situated on the first floor of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Department of Muggle/Wizard Co-operation division.

Rachel really hated the person that had thought of these names.

The wooden door on the end of the corridor gave way to her small office the moment she was five metres away from it. These kind of magical enchantments were present throughout the building, and only for her first few days had Rachel been amazed by them. Now she thought they were mostly annoying. A few months before, she had been sleeping on her desk after a particularly tiring day and only minutes later the door had opened to reveal her boss, who would´ve never caught her dozing if the door hadn´t opened automatically.

She dropped her bag on the floor without caring where it lay and without taking notice of her co-worker, who was already seated at one of the desks.

"Good morning to you, too, Rachel," Percy Weasley greeted her, barely looking up from whatever it was he was working on.

"Good? And why exactly would this particular morning be good?" Rachel replied, pouring herself some coffee. She hadn´t looked into the mirror this morning, but she could just imagine the dark rings under her eyes that would make it all too obvious that she had had too much work and not enough sleep in the past weeks.

But at least Percy didn´t look any better. And with his red hair and pale skin, the dark rings were even more obvious than they were against her spiky brown hair and normal-coloured complexion.

"Because you look like you have at least had more than three hours of sleep."

"I had four. I gather you have had less?"

Percy was even more of a workaholic than she was and that was saying something. Judging from his answering smirk, she also was right and he had won their little less-sleep-than-thou contest.

"One would think you were a Slytherin, or at least a Ravenclaw, with such an attitude about what constitutes enough sleep."

"Oh, and one could think you were a Gryffindor with such insensitivity and prejudice," Rachel snapped. Percy knew exactly what comments like that did to her and yet he still sometimes said them, not thinking.

"Listen, Rachel, we both have work to do. I suggest we concentrate on that and not on your touchiness when it comes to being a Hufflepuff."

"That might be possible if you thought for one moment before saying something." Rachel was still angry, but she slowly calmed down. Percy at least didn´t do it on purpose. Most people, upon meeting her, were quite impressed to hear where she worked, despite her being only twenty-four. But as soon as she told them what Hogwarts House she had been in -- and if they hadn´t been Hufflepuffs themselves -- they looked at her as if they pitied her. Even Muggles did that these days. They had been informed about the Hogwarts Houses by their media and now thought that Gryffindors were nothing but brave, Slytherins nothing but evil, Ravenclaws nothing but studious and Hufflepuffs nothing but dumb. The only houses that had a positive reputation nowadays were Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.

"I am truly sorry, Rachel. Would you please stop talking now and let me do my work? I need to get this done before the conference." Percy turned his full attention to his papers, and - after contemplating whether she should ask if he remembered that she too would be attending the conference and also had work to complete for it - Rachel did the same.

***

The conference began at exactly nine o´clock. By that time, Rachel was a nervous wreck. She hadn´t had the time to prepare herself properly, although she hadn´t even eaten a decent breakfast yet and had worked on materials for the conference for the past two days.

The topic of this conference was the opening of Diagon Alley to Muggles, and it had required extensive research and the consumption of much coffee on both sides.

Rachel, Percy and the Department Head, Marcus O´Reiley, represented the wizarding population while on the other side of the table Julia Kirnan represented the British Government, Steven Hudson represented the Muggle Civil Union that had been formed a few months before, and Owen Watts represented the London Association of Muggle Interests. There were a few other people present, but no one that in Rachel´s opinion was of great importance.

Normally, Rachel wouldn´t have been nervous before a conference, but that day she would be serving as chairman - or chairwoman - for the first time. If she screwed this up, it would not serve her well in the greater scheme of things.

The conference began with the usual introduction of all participants that Rachel didn´t really listen to. She was too busy sorting though her notes. Finally, she stood up.

"We have come here together today to discuss the following matter," she officially opened the meeting. "Regulation number 24 in the contract between the Department of Muggle/Wizard Relations and the British non-magical population: The Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley and its associated streets and businesses. The discussion will focus upon the question of whether access to The Leaky Cauldron, and therefore entrance to the Wizarding Part of central London, can and will be granted to the non-magical population. I hereby open the meeting.

"The first point today will cover whether the requested access for the non-wizarding population can be granted with the use of magical means. Since the foremost representative of the Wizarding World, the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, is incapacitated due to his death and failure to become a Spirit, and as there is currently no one filling his position, Department Head Marcus O´Reiley will speak as his substitute. According to the Official Rules for Muggle-Wizarding Negotiations, Mr. O´ Reiley has the right to speak first."

Wizarding rhetorics were traditionally even more complicated than their Muggle counterparts, and Rachel thought she had done a good job of opening the meeting. At least she hadn´t stumbled over the words she had prepared.

"Thank you, Miss Scott. The committee that has been founded for the task of finding ways to open The Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley and its associated streets and businesses, consisting of the two present Ministry employees Mister Percy Weasley and Miss Rachel Scott, has, I believe, come to a conclusion concerning their assigned task. I will therefore not keep them from presenting it to you."

Rachel looked at Percy, who nodded slightly before beginning to speak. Percy was by far her superior when it came to applied magic. She had never been good at Charms and such subjects, only at the more theoretical subjects. Percy had, as far as she knew, excelled at every subject there was.

The first point of conference went over smoothly. Percy and Rachel explained the charms protecting the Leaky Cauldron from being detected by anyone who wasn´t a Wizard or a Squib, and presented a solution to this problem: a guarded entrance from one of the other sides of Diagon Alley. Now that the war was over, very few Aurors were left and the ones that were still capable of following their duties were busy tracking leads on the identity of Death Eaters and collecting evidence for their crimes so they could be punished.

However, there were enough young wizards and Squibs that, if paid well, could check the identities of all Muggles that wanted entrance to Diagon Alley. Rachel pointed out that there would have to be hard restrictions on who could enter Diagon Alley and who couldn´t. Diagon Alley was, after all, not meant to be a tourist centre.

It was just when they came to point two of the matter that everything went downhill.

Point two dealt with Knockturn Alley and was the point Rachel had prepared herself to answer for with her research. Some of the research had taken place in Knockturn Alley itself, and it had not been something she had particularly enjoyed.

She had prepared her words so that there would be no delay in the conference.

"The entrance to Knockturn Alley will therefore also be guarded by personnel advised not to allow access to any non-magical people," Rachel concluded after a few minutes.

Dead silence filled the room for a few seconds, before Steven Hudson began to speak.

"That is unacceptable."

Rachel later reflected on how amazing it was that three words could ruin her entire day and maybe even her whole career. Of course the words 'I love you´, uttered by a Hufflepuff in her fourth year at Hogwarts, had ruined her otherwise good opinion of boys for the following year; but her career was, after all, far more important than her love life.

***

Thirty minutes after the conference ended, Rachel sat in her office, on the verge of tears and already drinking her third cup of the calming tea Percy had prepared for her. Unfortunately for Percy, it didn´t really calm her down.

"Why the hell did they do that?" She nearly shouted at him and, as he had the previous three times, Percy winced. She wasn´t normally that loud and upset - except for when it came to being a Hufflepuff - and she actually felt sorry for Percy for being stuck with her, but that didn´t stop her from taking her rage out on him.

"Rachel, they did have a point..." For the third time, Percy tried to interrupt her tirade. Without success.

"They didn´t have one. What the hell would they do in Knockturn Alley? It´s fucking dangerous there! They didn´t even listen to me when I explained my point. What is the point in negotiations when you don´t negotiate?"

"Normally, negotiations include both sides exchanging arguments..."

"This was not a goddamned normal conference! Knockturn Alley is dangerous, and they should´ve left it at that. Damn the Muggles."

"And your father?"

"My father has a lot more sense than the three so called 'representatives´ put together. 'We won´t accept being excluded from a mere street´, my foot. Knockturn Alley is not a mere street. Why can´t they accept that there are things they just don´t want to see?"

"Maybe because we have been keeping secrets from them for the past thousand years?" Percy suggested calmly.

Rachel stared at him. How dare he have a valid point when she was furious? She sighed. The problem was that he was right and that she was just as guilty of the rather abrupt end of the conference as the Muggles were. After all, she had been the one who had refused to allow the Muggle delegation to visit Knockturn Alley, and she also had to admit that she had been the first to raise her voice.

"Okay, so I screwed up. Happy now?" Rachel took one more sip of her tea, decided that it did her no good and had no taste anyway, then shoved it aside. Her left foot began to twitch, a habit she had picked up years ago. In boring conferences, the only parts of your body you could move to relieve tension were your feet, and whenever Rachel wanted nothing more than to punch her opponent - a desire which occurred to her pretty often, but for obvious reasons was not an option - she resorted to lightly tapping her feet until the other person began to get nervous. It was one of the weapons that had brought her into one of the most important committees there was at the moment.

"No, not happy. Contrary to your usual opinion, I am not happy to see you, as you call it, 'screw up´."

"Oh, come on, Percy. Twenty years from now it could be between you and me for Minister of Magic. You had better stab me in the back now." In spite of herself, Rachel had to smile slightly.

"Who told you I want to be Minister of Magic?"

"It´s obvious. No one would do that much work without wanting to climb the ladder to the top."

"You shouldn´t assume that everyone thinks like you do. I have, as of yet, no intention to become Minister of Magic."

"What? You really don´t? Then why are you here? Is it 'I think my work is important and I´m doing this for the good of society´? Please, that´s the line for Hufflepuff use." Whilst she didn´t like other people attacking Hufflepuffs, Rachel had no scruples about doing so herself. She had earned the right to.

"You know, Rachel, I think I´ll leave you to insult someone else´s intentions now. Good day." Percy was out of the door before she could even think of a reply.

Rachel felt like crying. She was usually a pretty introverted person, but as soon as she began to feel the slightest bit comfortable around someone, there was a ninety percent chance that during an attempt at friendly banter she would manage to insult them. She and Percy had accidentally been through this a few times before, and each time it happened it became more difficult to rebuild an atmosphere in which they could at least do their work.

Sometimes Rachel wondered how she had ended up in Hufflepuff. Sure, she could work very hard when she saw a reason to do so, and she was also pretty loyal. Her time in Hufflepuff had been very nice, since the other Hufflepuffs managed to make up for her lack of social skills, but still... she sometimes felt as if the Sorting Hat had just put her into Hufflepuff because she didn´t fit anywhere else. Not studious enough to be in Ravenclaw, nor brave enough to be in Gryffindor, not cunning enough for Slytherin.

Someone knocked on her door and in a flash of optimism, Rachel thought it might be Percy. But then she reminded herself of the fact that if that were the case, the door would´ve opened already to let him in.

"Yes," she called and the door opened to reveal a young woman who looked like she was barely out of school. Rachel had never seen her before, and even if she had, she was sure she wouldn´t have remembered.

"Miss Scott?" The girl was breathing heavily, as if she had just ran through the whole building.

"That´s me."

"Marcus O´Reiley has just been found dead, Miss Scott."

Rachel stared at her in shock. Apart from being the Head of her department, Marcus O´Reiley had also been her mentor.

And the most popular candidate for the position as the next Minister of Magic.

To be continued...