Chapter Text

P O L I T I C S

Politics: the activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having power.

power.

The moment the war ended, the belief that power was the true currency of this world crept up on Hermione. She always wanted to believe it was something more wholesome- love, confidence, humour maybe. She wanted to believe that some people could live with no ulterior motive. But everyone she knew- who she thought she knew- had soon revealed that the lust for power was behind every one of their plays.

They claimed they had won; ousted the evil and set into motion the light. But those lines were blurred. They didn't see that there still had been no real change. They were just another group of people clasping at power, dictating their beliefs to everyone else and locking away those who disagreed.

They claimed to have defeated the "evil". But had all failed to notice it as the need for total control inflated it within themselves more and more everyday.

So you see, it didn't feel like victory to her. Too many people's lives had been ruined and now they were what?, expected to continue their fucking lives as if nothing had happened? - That's what they wanted, to sweep it under the rug and move on.

People had died- Fred, Lavender, Sirius, Tonks, Lupin- there were too many to list. And not to mention the countless people, herself included, who now felt like they did.  Lost in a kind of purgatory. A version of themselves trapped in the pre-war. A version they couldn't get back, and probably never would.

She knew, unlike the others,  that those feelings were not restricted to a side of the war. A thought that had plagued her over the past two years. That some of those who fought against them did so out of fear and not choice. But in their eyes compliance was just as incriminating and shunning them from society fixed that. Meanwhile worse perpetrators smiled back at her in the crowd before her, free to live their lives and walk among them- all because they chose the "right" side.

Is this what winning is meant to look like? to feel like?

All she felt was empty.

Like the world had opened her up and hollowed her out.

"smile" she heard Harry hiss in her ear- "Hermione everyone's watching."

This is what her life had come to. Pageantry and show. It was all so fake.

Flash. Click. Flash

She looked across the podium to watch as Harry and Ron soaked up all the attention next to Kingsley Shacklebolt, her new boss. The crowd of photographers and passers by smiling back at them.

She wished she never agreed to this press call. She could already read the headlines now; "The War's Golden Girl joins the ministry.", "Trio reunited under Shacklebolt."

She only accepted the position as an assistant advisor because she wanted to make a dent in the damage that still stuck. She had taken her time to be selfish after the war. Used her freedom to ignore what was going on and leave to re-cooperate, to travel, to reflect. But then she returned and buckled down to work hard for her future. She returned to Hogwarts, took her exams, graduated top of her class in a record time. It had only been two years since the war ended.

Harry and Ron hadn't bothered. They both used their notoriety and joined the Auror Department as soon as they could. It was a win win for both of them- the boys felt they had a purpose and the ministry could spin their actions into propaganda that peace was being restored. But Hermione couldn't sit their and be handed her future. She wanted to earn her place. She needed that.

She knew to make a difference she had to join the ranks. Tackle things from the inside. Set to right what had been wronged.

If power was the currency of this world, she needed to be among the rich.

It was either play or get played.