Do You Hear the People Sing?

[Antonia Greyback]

Antonia had spent rather a lot of time in the club since the announcement that the minister of magic had resigned his post. Her personal opinions on the ministers politics aside, she was curious as to the direction the winds of politics were blowing. She had long sermonised her family about the wrongs done against those who were werewolves, even those who were vampires, or veela. The current mood had made the entire situation worse. They couldn’t go to Hogwarts! They couldn’t get jobs, even the housing situation for them was dire at present with no one wanting to risk the social outrage of renting to known halfbreeds, or the plain racism of excluding those who couldn’t prove themselves entirely human.

Her family of course, could ‘pass’ – after all the children were born human – and none of the women took the virus which meant it was hard to prove that a child had anything other than fully human parents. Generations of practised solitude meant it was a little easier for the Greybacks to keep their secrets. Still the current Mrs Greyback, was no shy flower, she wouldn’t be kowtowed, or blowed over by the winds of favour, or disfavour. She would be subtle though, she would see how the ladies of club were feeling, before revealing her hand.

  

[Prudence Silvertree]

Though normally empathetic and understanding, in the present moment, Prue couldn't imagine that there was a single person more stressed than her about the new challenges facing half-breeds. Merlin, even the name they were known by was an ugly one, and the disparaging term was the very least of their problems. While Prue was not publicly known to be one, she still counted herself among their number. Her father, with his lingering prejudices, preferred to pretend that he had not been fooled by a Veela all those years ago, but neither Prue nor her sisters could afford to avoid facing the truths of their nature.

Every day, immediately upon waking, she reminded herself that she was not fully human and had to conduct herself accordingly to avoid suspicion. Even before all this, she'd avoided men like the plague. When interaction with them had been unavoidable, she'd made sure to get it done with as quickly as possible, expertly playing the part of the widowed shut in. If it weren't for her family and her club, she would've withdrawn from society completely. Now, she was seriously considering it again. She was only out currently because she had to talk to some reasonable women about the recent goings on. 

"This is madness," she said, anxiously stirring her tea. "That people wanted the Minister to resign in the first place was absurd and now that he has ..." Prue trailed off, shaking her head. "I thought he might be a reasonable voice in the midst of all this fear mongering. Don't you agree?" 

@'Aeror'
@'Antonia Greyback'

  

[Antonia Greyback]

Before too long Antonia was joined at the tea table by a few rather dour faced ladies and Mrs Silvertree, an exceptionally pretty woman, who although out of morning kept rather to herself. There were whisper of course that Mrs Silvertree was part veela, but they were hard to pin down since so few had seen her around a man other than her husband. Not that that coloured Antonia’s view of her at all. She had always been a rather pleasant woman and had given the Mrs Greyback no reason to think ill of her. Indeed her reticence to be in society was a feeling that Antonia rather understood. Still the news of the minister’s resignation had brought everyone to the club – eager to hear tit bits of gossip or reactions – any new piece of information was treated like gold dust.

’Oh I quiet agree’ Antonia echoed upon being addressed, she had like minister Urqaurt, he seemed a nice sort of chap and his treatment of his children had impressed her greatly in the midst of what the family had considered their misfortunes. ’that dreadful Malfoy man would have had him hanged for being the father of a child afflicted with werewolfism if he could have had his way’ Antonia’s expression made it very clear what she thought of Barnabas Malfoy and his ilk. ’No doubt Malfoy will run for Minister as well – it was probably what he was after all along.’ she added, ’I’m sure plenty of people like him now will crawl out of the woodwork to take Urquarts office and undo all of his good work.’

  

[Prudence Silvertree]

Though the thought brought her a great deal of anxiety, Prue would be remiss if she didn't acknowledge the truth in Mrs. Greyback's words. The Ministry had always been full of conservative, prejudiced types (Prue would know, her father was a long time employee) in a struggle for power and the vacuum the Minister's resignation had created was just the opportunity they were looking for. She wasn't overly familiar with Mr. Malfoy specifically, but she knew very well what his cohort believed.

"I hate to say I agree, but it's certainly looking that way." She sighed heavily. "And I don't know that there are any potential candidates who'll stand up to them. I mean really stand up and not just endlessly make compromises to 'keep the peace' or some such nonsense. No one's announced their bid for the spot yet - at least I don't think so - but I'm not hopeful about those who will. I suppose the best we can hope for is that someone competent runs."

@'Aeror'
@'Antonia Greyback'