Chapter 17: Political Landscape of Magical Britain (1/2)

Quinn didn't sleep well at night after buying the wand. Even after his usual routine of exhausting his magic that leaves him dead tired at night, he couldn't sleep. Knowing that there was a wand in his cupboard kept him up all night. Quinn spent the whole night staring at the cupboard or trying to look away from the cupboard.

There were times when Quinn sat up on his bed and was tempted to open up the cupboard and take out the wand and hold it one more time. The temptation of once more feeling the heightened focus gripped Quinn all night, but in the end, Quinn didn't open the cupboard and didn't see the wand.

He could only get a brief rest after the sun came up.

The next day, Quinn had to pretend to be all giddy and joyous for finally getting his wand. In the morning, Quinn, before exiting his room, wore his wand holster with the fake-wand replica in it. He had to play the part of the cheerful kid who got his wand.

So he did. Quinn pranced around the house, showing off his fake-wand to all the people and swinging it, pretending to cast spells with whoosh-whoosh noises.

To distract himself, he threw himself into all his usual activities. He kept himself busy. That day, he played the piano and his second instrument, the Violin. He practiced ballroom dancing. Brewed potions and tended to the herb garden. Researched occlumency/legilimency to create an alternative model of defenses to practice against. And practiced other fields of magic. Anything to keep himself from having free time.

It wasn't till the evening when Quinn was called into his grandfather's study. When he entered George's study, Quinn asked, ”Why have you called for me, grandfather?”

George gestured to Quinn to take a seat before speaking, ”We would be discussing the political landscape of Britain and the notable families inside Britain.”

Quinn's eyes widened as he had forgotten all about it. The wand incident had taken all his attention, and the realization that this world maybe being an alternate universe or a parallel universe had completely slipped his mind.

”Ah, yes. I had completely forgotten about that. What was the name I saw in the newspaper? Potters, was it?” said Quinn, slowly shifting his attention from the wand incident to this topic.

George nodded and started, ”Yes, the Potters, but we will come to them later. First, let's talk about the creation of Magical Britain.” When Quinn nodded, George continued, ”The Ministry of Magic is the main governing body of the magical community of Great Britain and Ireland, with the intention of preservation of magical law. The ministry also connects the British non-magical government to the magical world.”

Quinn nodded as he already knew that.

”But, before Ministry Of Magic, there was another governing body. The name was the Wizards' Council. Upon establishing the International Statute of Magical Secrecy in 1692, the British magical community needed a more highly structured, organized, and complex government structure to support and regulate the community in hiding. Thus, in 1707, the Wizards' Council disbanded to be replaced by the Ministry of Magic.”

George then explained something about the Wizard's Council, ”You see, the same group of people ran Wizards' Council for centuries, and the positions on the Wizards' Council were hereditary. So, they dubbed those families as The Noble and Most Ancient Houses.”

Quinn nodded with interest. He hadn't known the reason behind the creation of The Noble and Most Ancient House.

”Now, when the Ministry Of Magic was founded, the ministry dubbed plenty more influential families as Noble Houses,” explained George. ”Now, you might wonder what this has to do with anything. The thing is that many The Noble and Most Ancient Houses and Noble Houses hold positions in Wizengamot.”

The Wizengamot was Magical Britain's high court of law and parliament and predated the Ministry of Magic itself. Dating back to the days of the medieval Wizards' Council. And currently had a lot of power in the governing of magical Britain.

”Please note that not all The Noble and Most Ancient Houses and Noble Houses hold positions in Wizengamot, but all the families that occupy seats hold the title of The Noble and Most Ancient Houses or Noble Houses.”

George opened a book and showed him a crest, ”This is the crest of the Weasley family, and they are a Noble House, but they don't hold a seat in Wizengamot.” He flipped a page and showed another crest, ”Burke is a Noble and Most Ancient House, and they don't hold a seat in Wizengamot.”

He closed the book and continued, ”The point is that families can hold power in the Wizengamot, and they are very active in politics. Another noticeable point is that the title of Noble and Most Ancient House can't be revoked, but the title of the Noble House can be revoked.”

George leaned back into his chair and stated, ”Our family could have gained a title of Noble family if desired,” then he snorted, ”But, we don't really need it. It is frighteningly easy to get things done in the British Ministry of Magic if you have money, which we have in plenty.”

George once again flipped some pages and showed him another crest, ”Look at Malfoys; they have the minister in his pockets and spend plenty of money to remain in political power. In the past, they bought themselves the title of the noble family. Neither I, nor my predecessors saw the merit in getting a seat in the Wizengamot. So we never tried to gain the title of a noble family. If you or Lia want to gain the title, then we can just shed some money, and we would have the title, but I would advise against it.”

He then opened another page of the book in front of him and showed him a tally, ”Every decision in the Wizengamot is decided by voting. You need a clear majority to pass a bill. Heads of titled families have one (1) vote each in the Wizengamot. The minister holds the highest of five (5) votes. Every head of a department in the ministry has two (2) votes. Chief Warlock of Wizengamot has three (3) votes. Finally, the headmaster of Hogwarts holds one (1) vote.”

George placed a blank sheet of paper on the table. Drew a circle on it and then divided it into three parts. With a swing of his wands, one part turned black, the other part turned grey, and the third part remained blank.

”I divide the current political landscape into three factions; Dark, Grey, and Light. The Dark faction is pure-blood supremacists and tries to keep the power within the pureblood community. The Light faction tries to keep the power away from the Dark faction and their pureblood propaganda. They have a Liberal mindset that supports half-bloods and muggleborns. The Grey faction acts with the motive of self-interest; they would support anyone if they are benefiting. But, they also keep the other two factions at bay. The Grey faction rejects any outlandish, extremist ideas from either party. This is assuring because I hear some really ridiculous ideas presented at the Wizengamot.”

Quinn stayed silent and just took in the information provided by George.

”Now, before we dive into the leaders of the factions. I would like to talk to you about the Wizarding War from 1970 to 1981. In that war, a dark lord rallied the pureblood supremacists and declared a war against the muggles and muggleborn. He took advantage of one of the wizarding world's greatest weaknesses: the beings and creatures they had outcast. The Dark Lord recruited the giants, who had long ago been driven by magical humans into the mountains, and werewolves, who were persecuted by most magic kind.” George explained in detail about the war.

Then George looked at Quinn and said, ”People even feared saying the name of the dark lord, and called You-Know-Who or The-One-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Do you know why people feared saying his name?”

Quinn shook his head, even though he knew the reason behind the hyphenated alternatives.

”The Taboo is a powerful spell, which designated a word as a key to revealing the speaker's location. They used this spell during the War. During the said war, saying the dark lord's name was made Taboo.” George solemnly continued, ”I had already left Britain with your parents and newly born sister, so we were never near the war, but even then, we would hear stories of people getting captured by the dark lord's Death Eaters.”

George wrote the words on the paper and recited the name on the sheet, ”The name of the dark lord was Voldemort.”

Quinn knew the name was an anagram from Voldemort's real name; Tom Marvolo Riddle.

”Then on 31 October 1981, Halloween, the dark lord died at Godric's Hollow. He died at the hands of a one-year-old babe. The name of that babe was Harry Potter, popularly known as the Boy-Who-Lived. But, not before killing off Harry Potter's grandparents, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter,” George sighed once before continuing. ”I wouldn't call Fleamont and Euphemia friends, but they were easy to do business with. I lost potential business that day. Their son, James Potter, isn't one bit interested in business.”

Quinn nodded. It was surprising that his grandfather had contact with the Potters. But when taking in the fact that his grandfather had his hands in every possible business opportunity in Britain, it made sense that he knew many people. Potters were, as George said, business opportunities.

”From that day onwards, Potter became extremely famous, and Harry Potter became the savior of Magical Britain. That fame has lasted till this day, as the Potters used that fame to enter politics and rallied all the Light families under the Light faction. Currently, the light faction is led by Albus Dumbledore. You must know this name, correct?”