Ron watched the bushy-haired witch leave the abandoned classroom with a sense of shock. The girl was barmy! One minute she was upset and now she was off to do homework?
Harry started towards the door to follow Hermione. Impulsively, Ron reached out a hand to grab the other boy's arm.
"Wait, Harry." Harry paused and looked at Ron.
Ron felt his face start to burn even worse, but he had to know. "Why did you bring me along? You could have handled this on your own. Or grabbed a Prefect or even just told a professor and let them deal with it. Why me?"
Harry seemed to weigh Ron with his eyes. It felt like hours before Harry spoke. "Honestly I didn't really think about it at the time. I don't like bullies and you were coming close to earning that title. I've heard from your brothers that you have a younger sister. What would you do if some kid said something like that to her?" Ron felt something inside squirm at that comment.
"I think part of me reckoned that you helped get her into trouble so you needed to help get her out." A small smile crossed Harry's lips. "Or it could be you were the first warm body in reach. We are in Gryffindor after all."
Ron grinned weakly at that but he was still in a bit of shock. He trailed silently behind Harry on the rest of the way to the Common Room. He didn't even realize where he was until he found himself standing in the middle of the Common Room watching Harry's back disappear up the stairs to the boys' dorms. He noticed Hermione sitting at a table with her books already out in front of her. The other two First year girls and a couple of Second year girls too were sitting nearby also.
Without any conscious thought, Ron walked over to the table. He couldn't lift his eyes from the floor but he knew she was looking up at him.
"Hermione? I'm sorry for being a git and what I said this morning. I… I haven't been very nice to you. I haven't been having a good term and took it out on you."
Ron tried to get out the final words but they just froze in his throat. He never really had to at home; Mum and Dad just forgave him, Percy ignored him and the twins pranked him. Ginny would hex him with the Bat-Bogie spell Great-Aunt Muriel taught her. Ron steeled himself like he was about to get hit by a Bludger.
"um, I apologize, er, for what I said today."
"Did Harry force you to do this?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
Ron's eyes shot up to look at her in surprise. "No. He just kind of said he was disappointed and how would I like someone talking to my sister like I did to you." Ron felt his face heating up again and dropped his eyes to the floor again.
"Very well, I accept."
Ron looked up now with an excited smile. Hermione was smiling too but her face was blushing. Ron didn't notice everyone in the Common Room was watching and listening in.
"Thank you," Ron whispered. Then he made a retreat for his dorm.
9 November 1991
"So how did you talk me into this again?"
Padma rolled her eyes at Harry's question. She had explained this to him several times. She'd swear he was just teasing her.
"You need to learn about this world you were just dropped into. The Potters are a very old British magical family," she answered. Teasingly, she added, "Not as old as the Patils of course but still a respectable history." Harry just smiled in response.
The Magical Society Club advertised itself as a group interested in the study and preservation of Magical culture, history, and heritage. What it really was is an association of the children of the higher strata of magical society. In theory that social position was based on three criteria: Blood lines, wealth, and magical strength. Unfortunately, for the last 100 years, the magical strength criterion was set aside although they still paid lip service to it. At one time, a magically-gifted Muggle-born witch or wizard was sought after to bring new blood and power into a Family line. That started to change when the Muggle world entered the Industrial Revolution.
Suddenly, Muggle technology started to explode. In 1900, the horse was the primary mode of Muggle land transportation just like the previous four thousand years. Yet within fifty years horse travel had been completely replaced by cars. Muggle aeroplanes filled the sky and Muggles had weapons capable of destroying entire cities in a single strike.
As technology improved at an ever increasing pace, the old guard of the magical world felt threatened. Many of the Wizengamot and other leaders of the Wizarding World were born before the invention of the electric light and the telephone. The gap between the standards of living between wizard and standard humans shrank for the first time in thousands of years. But it wasn't just that the gap shrank. It disappeared almost completely. Transportation, health care, entertainment, production; suddenly there were areas where the standard world equalled or even exceeded the capabilities of the magical world. And the Muggle-born coming in to the magical world brought those ideas with them.
The magical world had a great deal to be proud of as a culture. Where the standard world was still struggling with racial and gender equality, the magical world was long past that. After all, magical power was not impacted by either factor. It was just as likely that the wife had a greater magical talent than her husband as the other way around. Yes, one could argue that the magical world treated the non-human magical species poorly but the standard world didn't have a much better track record with indigenous people. For example, the magical world never was involved in colonization or human slavery.
The magical world reacted to these rapid changes by closing ranks. Powerful and talented Muggle-borns found themselves barred from advancing in their new magical world. As they pushed for change, the Purebloods closed ranks even tighter. It was in this fear and uncertainty that Voldemort found fertile ground for his particular brand of hate. And if Voldemort hadn't risen on the platform of preserving magical culture (the status quo) it would have been just as likely for another Dark Lord to have risen pushing Muggle-born culture or an aristocracy based solely on magical power.
The Magical Society Club at Hogwarts was the local branch of the elite of Pureblood society. Not necessarily Death Eaters, but also the Light-sided families that existed at that societal level. For every Malfoy, Parkinson, Black, and Nott family, there was a Longbottom, Bones, Crouch, and Patil family to counter them. The 'Neutral' families outnumbered either side alone by enough of a margin that the Dark and Light would have to join together to out vote the Neutrals in the Wizengamot. However, what bound them together was they were all long-established Pureblood families with a vested interest in continuing to maintain their world. They simply disagreed with how to do that.
The Potters were never in that elite class. While they had magical power and a rich family history they lacked sufficient wealth and tended to marry Muggle-borns on an alarming basis. James Potter was considered a Pureblood due to the Potter history but his grandfather and great-grandfather both married Muggle-borns. Padma convinced Harry to attend claiming that his fame and apparent power with his defeat of the Dark Lord was enough to get him accepted. There were a few grumbles when he arrived but Harry simply shrugged it off.
The meeting had been going on for almost an hour and Padma was starting to regret attending and dragging Harry into it. This session was supposed to be a 'social' to allow the First through Third years a chance to get to know each other and establish connections with others of their 'class'. However, it turned out to be polite political warfare to establish the social pecking order in Hogwart's 'lower half'.
Her friend Daphne's family, like Harry's, was an old family but never had the money or influence to enter into the elite. Apparently, Daphne wanted to change that. Padma guessed the Hat put her in Slytherin for a reason.
...
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