A Story of Mortality

Chapter 5

"Are there any objections, my friends?" Harry finally called out, signalling the end of the meeting.

"A united fight for a united magic!" his followers called back to him.

Good. They would all have the rest of the day now to prepare for the ball itself.

The room was wide and professional. While there were a couple of people dancing by the musicians, most of the present attendees were roaming the room and finding others of interest to speak to. Hanging from the tall ceiling were rectangular Ministry banners, and this made up the decoration, for the most part. As Harry strode into the room, many of the scattered guests acknowledged him with a nod, some of his followers also already present.

While his followers had the task of schmoozing the less imposing guests, Harry had goals of higher prestige. He was planning to win over the higher government officials, and potentially attack the Light themselves. Many of his own followers would be affected if the bill on possession of dark books was allowed to pass, and he certainly did not want his organisation to be associated with illegal activities from it. He had a personal obligation to block it from being passed.

Balls were largely considered to be tedious affairs once one was integrated in the world of politics. As a younger man, Harry had attended a couple of balls, and thoroughly enjoyed the dancing and the socialising with his friends. As an adult, however, he did not have the time to dance as much as he would have liked to. He had instructed his followers to have an enjoyable time, but he himself had very little time off his work. There was too much for him to be doing, and while his followers needed time to rest, he was happy to make his work his life. And so tonight, he would be dealing with the arduous task of conversing with pompous politicians, while trying not to let his brain dry out from boredom.

He caught the eye of Lord Malfoy, and headed towards the man.

"Lord Potter," Malfoy greeted with a handshake. "You are looking rather dashing this evening."

"You flatter me, Lord Malfoy, I look the same as I would usually," Harry responded with a charming smile. "Have you been well?"

Harry knew Lord Malfoy well from his political exploits, as the man often sided with Harry against Dumbledore. He had obvious Dark sympathies, and Harry had been trying to convince him to join his own organisation. The late Lord Malfoy had been more moderate, but his son, Abraxas, was already establishing his own political footprint. With the return of Voldemort, however, Harry strongly suspected that Malfoy's allegiances were strongly towards the other Dark Lord. He had no way of confirming it, as Voldemort's followers had been wearing masks every time he had seen them, but Lord Malfoy had been in the same Hogwarts year as Lord Voldemort, and so it was unlikely that the two would have avoided each other.

With his targets in mind, Harry made his way around the room talking with a variety of politicians, putting all of his effort into subtly swaying their views. He had had much success, many of the moderate Lights quickly wishing to defend liberty, as Harry explained how authoritarian it would be to censor an adult's personal education in the form of banned books. Politicians who had had muggle upbringings were especially on board with this idea, as it had been far more common in muggle history to see the control of a nation through censorship of publications and press, and they certainly did not want to see the same happen in the wizarding world. Dumbledore would have no chance with both the Dark and the Light fighting against him.

"I never thought that I would be agreeing so strongly with a Dark Lord such as yourself, Lord Potter" one of the lighter politicians laughed as they concluded their discussion.

"And you see that's the ridiculous thing, isn't it?" Harry pushed, pleased with his success with such a staunch Light supporter. "In British politics, there's such a divide between the Dark and the Light, when really we want many of the same things. I certainly only argue for the rights of my people, in the same way that you would want to fight for the rights of yours if you had any less freedom than you have. Magic, as an entity, is one with both Light and Dark, and so we really ought to be bringing this into our politics."