Wand-Leader & The Spy

33- Hallows Reunited

London, Ministry of Magic, September 26th, 1999, 17.15 hours

"A word, Hermione."

Wand-Leader Hermione turned towards Benjamin. The senior Wand-Leader of the Corps' Investigative Branch was leaning against the wall outside her office and had apparently been waiting for her to return from seeing Tonks and Cresswell off.

"Of course, Benjamin," she said, with more confidence than she felt.

"In private." He gestured with his head towards his office.

Once inside, Benjamin cast a privacy spell and sat down on the edge of his desk. "You've been investigating the Obliviators."

"I told you that." Hermione remained standing.

"You said you were not allowed to observe them in the muggle world. But you did it anyway, didn't you?"

She nodded.

"You found something. Something worse than corruption. You didn't check our files just to be thorough in your investigation." Benjamin's tone was calm, but she could see that he was tense. Not aggressive, hopefully.

"Yes." She didn't like to admit it, but denying it would have been worse.

"What did you find out?" He stared at her.

She didn't flinch. She had expected that. Had planned her response. "You have to see that for yourself."

He didn't say anything for a few seconds. She was almost certain he suspected what she had found out. "We're in the middle of a war. If what I suspect you found out is true, then this could destroy us."

"We need to decide our own future. We can't do that if we don't know our past," Hermione said.

"You sound like Dumbledore." Benjamin frowned.

Hermione fought to keep her expression from betraying her thoughts. If he suspected that she had been working with Dumbledore… She shrugged, and said: "You know that he'll be ruling the country after the Dark Lord's defeat. If the Corps doesn't make a decision, he'll decide our future."

"He also said entering politics was a mistake for many." Benjamin folded his arms over his chest.

"Letting others decide our fate is a worse mistake. Do you trust the acting Minister with our lives?" Hermione sighed. "And you know as well as I do that if what Tonks and Cresswell told us is true, then the Corps will change no matter what we do."

He pressed his lips together but didn't deny it. "Do you want us to become Aurors?" His tone made it clear what he thought about that idea.

She shook her head. "No. I've been thinking about this for some time." She saw his eyebrows rise marginally. "It's not the blood that makes us different, it's how we are raised."

"And that will change. If the exiles aren't lying." Benjamin didn't add 'if we're not taken from our families anymore', but she knew his meaning.

"It just means we'll have to start training the new Wands later. After Hogwarts."

"Like the Aurors?" Benjamin sneered.

She scoffed. "Certainly not. Signing your name on a parchment and receiving a red robe is not training. I'm thinking a few years, at least. To teach them all they need to be Wands. To be part of the Corps."

"It still won't be the same. They'll have families, friends outside the Corps."

She had friends outside the Corps. She didn't say that though. Instead she said: "No, it won't. But I'm hoping it'll be close enough." She sighed. "The alternative is that the Corps ends. We'll not get any new Wands, and we'll either get folded into the Aurors, or they join us." She shuddered at the thought. "But we can't keep going as we did." They couldn't take children from their families and raise them like they were raised. That would make them no better than the Minister.