Chapter 15: The Royal Historian
A/N: Thanks to all who answered my request for input on where the story is going. I appreciated all of them (even the cool flames), and I've incorporated some of these comments into this chapter. Can't do everything at once; those of you looking for how Ginny goes ballistic in my little world have a bit more time to wait. Caution: this is a banter-free snog-free plot-driven chapter. Also, the two links within the chapter do a better job showing the chapter's setting than my descriptions.
Disclaimer: Not my characters, no money being made, etc., etc.
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Day 4, Monday 8:15 am
The black Bentley had leather bench seats, tinted glass, and a black soundproof divide between the front and back seats. You couldn't have asked for a more private place for a relaxing snog…which was why Harry Potter was so irritated that he was sitting alone in the back seat.
Hermione had left Number Four early that morning to catch Arthur Weasley before he left for his job at the Ministry. She then planned on meeting up with Ron in Diagon Alley, and join Harry once they'd visited the bank on his behalf. Brian was presently driving Harry to the British Museum; a meeting had been pre-arranged with a muggle historian that reportedly specialized in muggle/wizard interactions.
Harry wasn't certain how much snogging would have taken place even had Hermione been riding with him. They had experienced their first quarrel as a semi-official couple the night previous, over Wally's revelations about just how much the muggle government knew about the wizarding world.
The list of identified muggle-born Hogwarts students that they'd been shown was disturbingly accurate, save for the omission of those born and raised in the Irish Republic. Wally was pleasantly surprised when Harry told him this; MI-5 ¾ hadn't realized that Hogwarts drew students from beyond the borders of Great Britain. He had, in fact, been poised to confirm Wally's list right then and there before Hermione stopped him.
Later that night Hermione laced into Harry for his willingness to divulge wizarding world secrets to Wally and the muggle government that he worked for. She reminded Harry about his obligation not to reveal, to the extent practicable, any information about the magical realm to muggles. When Harry responded with disparaging comments about the wizard governments that made the non-disclosure laws, she reminded him that running afoul of the Ministry put him at risk for sanctions and/or jail time in Azkaban that would hamper his horcrux hunt.
The one good thing that came out of that discussion was their willingness to find common ground once the two had staked out their initial positions. Harry had seen Ron and Hermione have similar arguments many times before, but rarely were they able reach consensus. But last night, Harry had been willing to accept that he'd been a little too loose with information, and Hermione was willing to accept the idea that there were extenuating circumstances that clouded what would otherwise have been a black and white issue (like the fact that without Wally's list there wouldn't have been the surveillance in place to warn her parents away from their house). They finally resolved to obtain some wizard's world legal advice from someone they could trust.
Wally had provided them with the list of suspected Hogwarts students, and they'd spent a good deal of time figuring out how to enter the contact information onto the laptop computer that had been included in Harry's refurbished bedroom. While they'd been encouraged by the fact that Dean Thomas's house hadn't been hit by Death Eaters, they wanted to confirm that observation with the other muggle-borns. By the time they decided to call it a night neither was much in the mood to deal with the possibilities afforded by unchaperoned adjacent bedrooms; that would have brought on an entirely new discussion and some probing self-evaluation. So they parted not that much differently than if Ron or her parents were right there with them - a hug and quick peck on the lips before retiring to their separate rooms.
It had been too late to call the other students to confirm their phone numbers and addresses the night previous, so Harry was using his time in transit to call on some of his classmates, spreading word of the Death Eater sightings at Hermione's house, and gathering additional contact information. As Hermione had pointed out, it was unlikely that the Ministry of Magic was currently monitoring e-mail traffic.
A call rang in from Hermione's cell phone when Harry was about five minutes away from his destination. It was Ron, amazingly enough; Hermione and he had already been to the bank and Hermione was giving Ron a lesson on muggle technology as they rode towards the Museum in a taxicab.
The trip to Gringott's had been very short; the goblins had ratcheted their security procedures up to 11 on a scale of 10. Only the vault owners were allowed access, even if they'd authorized another person to use their key. Had Harry shown up in person there still would have been a day-long queue to get though their verifications. When Harry observed that he would have to make a trip himself, Ron told him that the goblin they had spoken with was most apologetic, and seemed to understand why Harry couldn't be there. Arrangements had therefore been made for Harry to meet with a Gringott's representative at a muggle bank in The City the following morning. Harry wondered just how the goblins would swing that one off once Ron confirmed that his brother was the only human that worked for the bank.
Ron then handed the phone to Hermione, who told Harry that she'd had a little more success in her mission. She'd explained to Arthur that her parents were in hiding from the death eaters, and that she was considering arming her parents with some knowledge about wizard attacks as well as a few of the toys that proved useful against the Aurors. Arthur appreciated her situation, but said that she was within the gray zone of wizard's law and that he didn't feel qualified to give rock-solid legal advice. He did, however, give her the name of a wizard friend whose legal counsel he trusted. This barrister had an office in Diagon Alley, and Hermione had taken the initiative of setting up an appointment with him for the following afternoon at the Leaky Cauldron.
They ended their conversation just as the Bentley pulled up at a side entrance to the British Museum. As it was a good two hours before its scheduled opening there wasn't much of a crowd. Harry jumped out of the back seat and, practicing constant vigilance, scanned the street for potential threats, as did Brian when he left the driver's seat. His Aunt Petunia, forced to come along to provide Harry the required nominal oversight, got out of the front passenger seat paying attention to little more than her own indignation.
Once Ron and Hermione arrived and the taxicab was paid off two well-dressed men wearing micro-headsets ushered the small group through the main entrance. Brian steered Petunia towards the museum's coffee shop while the Trio were led into the Museum's central court.
Hermione gasped when the entered the courtyard. Harry looked around and wondered what had caused that reaction; the architecture was strange, but not really startling. The space was bordered by four neo-classical buildings that stood in stark contrast to a futuristic cylindrical building that sat in the middle of the court. The central building had wide winding staircases rising up on either side, long rectangular windows, and a string of bright lights that rimmed the roofline. Harry noted that "roofline" was a relative term, since the entire courtyard was covered by a huge glass and metal roof.
"I'd forgotten it's gone," Hermione said quietly. "I mean, I knew it was gone…my parents brought me to the Millennium Celebration, after all, but still..."
"What's gone?" Harry asked.
"The British Library," she replied quietly. She spoke as if a close relative had died, but given Hermione's love of books and libraries Harry figured that wasn't far off the mark.
Hermione explained that the British Library used to sit in the area now occupied by the cylindrical building, and that the Library had a special reading room that only researchers (over the age of 18, of course) were allowed to use. Many famous writers had worked there, including Karl Marx, Kipling, and Oscar Wilde. Once, when she was nine years old, a college professor who was a friend of her parents had smuggled her inside for a quick visit. The way Hermione described the visit was reverential, like the way an Elvis fan might describe Graceland, or the way a shoe lover might describe Imelda Marcos's closets.
Hermione scoffed when Ron read a descriptive plaque that stated that the Reading Room had been preserved, with the cylindrical building constructed around it. It wasn't nearly the same, she said, if for no other reason than the fact that anyone off the street could use the new building. Harry laughed at her viewpoint; if his Hermione was going to be snobbish about anything in the world, it would have to be having access to restricted library collections.
Their escorts led the Trio past statues set within the courtyard's concourse, up the stairs and into the new Reading Room itself. Harry, at least, was impressed. The circular room had a glass onion dome that poked up through the contemporary glass and steel flat roof that connected it to the surrounding buildings. The perimeter of the room was covered floor-to-ceiling with bookshelves, and the center was occupied by a luxurious librarian's reference desk area that Madame Pince would have died for.
A young woman in dreadlocks that was working in the reference area gave their escorts a friendly wave and pointed them towards a table, where a wizened old man sat with a short stack of books. The man introduced himself as Robert Baxter, the Royal Historian appointed by the Queen to maintain the Court's knowledge of the wizarding world. In what was fast becoming a routine means of introduction, he offered them his muggle identification card. He then stated that the Prince had asked him to provide some information and answer questions they might have about the extent of muggle knowledge of the wizarding world.
Ron looked rather skeptical. "I didn't know muggles knew anything about the wizarding world."
"Mr. Weasley," Baxter replied, "royal families have long been aware the world of magic, and for good reason."
Harry asked a more probing question. "So who do you work for…the Prince or MI 5 ¾?"
"Both, actually," the historian replied.
"Well can you explain something then?" Harry asked. "When I talked with the Prince he made it sound like he was operating independently of the Prime Minister's office…and that he knew much more than the P.M did about the wizarding world. Yet now we're being told that the P.M. created MI-5 ¾ and has been getting information independent of the Royal household. And we've got people like yourself that say they work for both…so what's going on?"
The historian looked at Harry appraisingly. "It is a rather complicated situation," he finally admitted. "The Royal household has always been aware of the wizarding world, to some extent. I've held my position as the Royal Historian for twenty-three years, for example. In contrast, up until the past year the civilian muggle government knew very little about the wizarding world. That all changed when your Ministers of Magic told our P.M. about your troubles; there has been a massive ramp-up in information gathering by the civilian government since that time, led by MI-5 ¾. This effort necessarily involved the recruiting of new agents, and focus was made on enlisting the help of c-mugs and others already aware of the wizarding world. Brian Willox and I were part of that recruitment class. But since we kept our jobs with the Royal Household, we're currently working undercover, so to speak.
"So the Royal Household doesn't know about MI-5 ¾?" Hermione asked.
"No," Baxter replied, "and the Prime Minister, in turn, doesn't know that the Royal family knows about the wizarding world."
"Why all the secrecy?" Harry asked.
"Plausible deniability," the historian replied.
"Plausible what?" Ron asked.
"Plausible deniability," Hermione explained, "is when people that work for a political leader keep sensitive information from him or her, so that the leader can truthfully deny any knowledge of that information if things go wrong."
"Well put, Dame Hermione," Baxter said, "although in this case the knowledge is withheld so as to protect it."
"What," Harry asked, "you can't trust the Royals or P.M.?"
"On the contrary, Sir Harry," Baxter replied. "It's that we don't trust their occlumency skills. Since they have direct contact with wizards as part of their duties, it's important that their knowledge of the wizarding world be kept to more or less what the wizards think they should know. And it's all the more important for the P.M to keep clear of our work, given the fact that he's got one of your wizard policemen sitting outside his office door."
"An Auror working at Number 10 Downing?" Harry marveled. "Wonder if Tonks knows who that is."
"Speaking of withholding knowledge, Sir Harry," Hermione chided. The historian chuckled as she turned towards him. "No offense, Mr. Baxter."
"None taken," he replied. "I rather like the current contents of my brain, and don't fancy the thought of getting obliviated needlessly."
"Perhaps, then" Hermione said, "we should focus on what you can tell us what you do know about wizards and muggles."
"Right then," the historian replied. "Perhaps you can tell me how much history they teach at Hogwarts?"
Hermione was fairly forthcoming. "Every Hogwarts student studies the history of our school, and that necessarily spills over into more general wizard history. But while I've always been fascinated by the subject," she continued, making a pointed glance towards Ron and Harry, "some others find it hard to apply themselves."
Ron smirked, "Well, Hermione, you have to admit that the instructor wasn't the liveliest on staff.
"Ah, I see," said the historian, "and how much do you know about the history of Great Britain, or the muggle world in general?"
"There is a muggle studies class, but from what I hear the textbook's more than a century old ," replied Harry. "But Hermione and I attended muggle primary schools, so I guess we know the basics."
Harry was amazed to see Hermione shake her head in agreement. An admission that she had only a rudimentary understanding of anything under the sun was a rare event.
The historian nodded, and began his story with the days of Camelot, when the realms of magic and monarchy openly coexisted. Merlin served as King Arthur's closest advisor and sat at the Round Table amongst other wizards, knights and paladins. Subsequent kings and queens had a Royal Wizard on staff to advise them as well. This situation wasn't unique to England; kings and queens on the Continent had their own wizards as well. As a result, when one king warred with another, the wizards on each side joined the battle.
He then jumped a few centuries to 1066, when William the Conqueror and the Normans invaded England. The Normans brought their wizards with them, and they fought the English wizards in a battle separate from the defeat at the Battle of Hastings. The historian noted that in contrast to the muggle armies, the English wizards actually defeated their Norman counterparts, under the inspired leadership of the King's wizard Gryffindor.
"So Godric Gryffindor was the English King's wizard?" Hermione asked. "That's not something that's well known in our world."
"Wait a minute," Ron said, as he worked out the math. "Isn't Hogwarts supposed to be more than a thousand years old? Godric would have had to been at least 150 years old by 1066."
"Ron," Hermione said, "maybe you want to recall how old our last Headmaster was?"
"Oh yeah," he replied. "Never mind."
"Now when the Norman King William took control of England," Baxter continued, "he demanded that Lord Gryffindor swear fealty to him. But Gryffindor was tired of battle, and tired of being intertwined in muggle politics. And so he quite simply vanished, and took the wizarding world with him."
"He went back to Hogwarts," said Harry. "That makes sense, since it is in Scotland, which wasn't under Norman rule at the time, right?"
"Correct, Sir Harry," the historian said. "Legend has it that he had joined forces with the great wizards of Wales, Ireland and Scotland and formed a magical United Kingdom long before the muggle version came into being."
"So the other founders were also king's wizards?" Hermione asked.
"That, Dame Hermione," he replied, "we do not know."
Ron looked at Hermione and Harry with no small amount of confusion over why the historian was calling her "Damn Hermione." Harry looked at Ron, and acknowledged his confusion with the one word promise of "Later."
"Yes," the historian continued, "as you no doubt know, ever since that time wizards and witches have lived amongst us but apart from us for the past thousand years. Given things like the Hundred Year's War and Spanish Inquisition I can't say I blame them. But over that time, there have been times when our worlds have collided, or at least overlapped a bit more than either side likes. And so, there has always been a need to keep muggle leaders in the know about the wizard's world. These days, it is your Minister of Magic and our Prime Minister that meet from time to time, but back in the old days, when the House of Windsor had a bit more power than it now enjoys, it was the Queen or King of England that was kept in the loop."
"Interesting," Hermione said. "But why does the Queen's family still know about the wizarding world now that they don't actually control the government?"
The historian smiled and stated that given the frequency of changes in muggle civilian government that there were no doubt advantages in maintaining long-term contact with the Royal family. He also noted that since members of the Royal family almost always married members of other European royal families, that there weren't that many people that had to be trusted with the truth. He then said, somewhat cryptically, that there was a much more compelling reason for the Queen to know about the wizarding world, but stated that the Prince had asked to explain that to them himself.
Out of curiosity, Hermione asked the historian about the books that were on the table. He explained that he had brought a few ancient texts with him from the new British Library in case there was some question about his story.
Hermione's eyes grew wide at that comment, and asked whether the Library had within its collections any depictions of Godric Gryffindor. Baxter nodded, and carefully opened one of the vellum-paged tomes in front of him. After flipping through a few of the yellowed pages of handwritten text he found the image he was looking for.
"Here is a depiction of his investiture as Lord Gryffindor, ten years before the Battle of Hastings," he said. "From what I understand, Sir Harry, it's not very different from what your investiture would be, should you wish to claim your birthright."
The historian then turned the book around for the three to see. Under other circumstances, they would have been peppering the man with questions about Harry's birthright. As it was, however, all of their focus was upon the image itself.
It appeared to be a knighting ceremony, with a man kneeling before a king. There were several clues that suggested that it was indeed Gryffindor that was kneeling. That he was an English wizard was indicated by the badge that he wore; it was the very same starburst-patterned emblem that Harry and Hermione had been presented when the joined the Order of Arthur. That it was Godric Gryffindor was indicated by the sword shown held by the king; it was Godric's sword, and Harry and Hermione both recalled the Queen's comment that the knight could choose the sword used for the investiture service.
But the one feature within the image that the Trio immediately focused on wasn't what was in the king's hand, but rather, what was in Godric's; a shield that bore the Gryffindor crest.
"Well boys," Hermione said rather quietly, "We might just have another artifact to find."
