She smiled sheepishly. "The reason it took so long, is I wanted to arrange something special and usually only available to old families." She indicated the silk covered object on the wall. She grasped the silk. "Allow me to formally introduce you," she pulled off the silk, "to Portrait Elizabeth Greengrass, the former Lady Greengrass, and Heiress Daphne Greengrass's grandmother."
The surrounded muggleborns's eyes widened, while Padma looked both surprised and impressed.
Portrait Elizabeth smiled an elegant smile that revealed the wrinkle lines under her fierce, ice-blue eyes.
"She will make sure I don't miss anything. Any questions?" Padma raised a hand. "I didn't know you were allowed to bring paintings into the castle."
Hermione shrugged. "It's not common, but it's not against the rules. Some students bring them in to act as tutors and to communicate with their families without using owls. Why do you think we're not allowed to hand in dictaquilled essays?"
"You mean…?"
Portrait Elizabeth took over, her voice oozing quiet nobility. "Yes, Dear. In fact, it was during my time that the rule was introduced. A Hufflepuff was caught handing in essays written by the portrait of his many times great grandfather. I was lead to believe that the fool forgot to adjust for changes in the language." Sophie was carefully taking notes.
"So," Hermione picked up a piece of chalk and wrote, 'LESSON ONE' on the blackboard. "We'll start with what exactly happened with Justin and Malfoy and go from there. There's a lot of background to cover."
And thus she began to explain, assisted every so often by Portrait Elizabeth Greengrass. She explained about pureblood privilege and how it came into being, and how it was different from noble privilege. She explained why people like Crabbe and Goyle resented muggleborns, and how families like Malfoy, Nott, and Parkinson had long ago boxed themselves into a position where they had to support purebloodism to maintain their business interests, despite themselves already being noble, and how after many generations they'd come to genuinely believe in a cause that at first they'd supported merely out of market pragmatism.
She explained about the discrimination that muggleborns faced in the workplace and gave examples of many of the common tricks that unscrupulous wizards would use to trap muggleborns into less than favourable situations. The blackboard was now covered in chalk.
"This," she said, holding up an ornate looking piece of parchment, covered in silver like markings, "is Gringotts contract parchment. It is charmed with all sorts of protections and safeguards to ensure that the person signing it is signing only what they think they are signing, and nothing more."
In her other hand, she held up another piece of parchment. "This," she continued, "is normal parchment like we use in our school essays. Padma?" She turned to the Indian witch who jumped at the sudden address. "What is the very first thing we learn about family business?"
Padma took a deep breath. "Never ever, ever, ever sign anything that is not written on Gringotts contract parchment." The words sounded like they'd been forced into her brain over four dozen lessons and probably had been.
Hermione nodded. "Exactly." She glared around at her wide-eyed peers. "Anyone could spell this with anything!" She waved the normal parchment in their faces. "You could sign away your life savings! You could sign a confession for a crime! You could even accidentally marry off one of your own, as yet unborn children!"
Kevin stammered. "But, the law—" She shook her head. "—This isn't like muggle contract law, Kevin, where the courts interpret and enforce. In this world, magic also has a say, and the penalties for breaking a magical contract can be enforced instantly. Often, a fine doesn't even need to be brought to Gringotts — the money just automatically moves from one vault to another. And that's to say nothing of the more… physical… penalties."
Sophie was now taking notes at a furious pace, the back of her notebook flipped over many times, dangling over her knees.
"Now, because we are still minors, there's a limit to what we can accidentally sign, although it can still be nasty. But once you're an adult, there's almost no limit. You can theoretically enslave yourself."
"Only theoretically?" Dean asked, looking extremely worried.
Hermione looked towards Portrait Elizabeth, who answered.
"The Wizengamot and ICW made actual slavery of human beings illegal quite some time ago, but magic doesn't recognise those laws. You can still be enslaved by contract, but it is illegal to do so. If it's found out, the courts can order the slave owner to break the contract or face extreme penalties."
"And if it's not found out?" Sophie asked in a quite voice, looking up from her notebook.
Portrait Elizabeth shrugged. "I daresay there are a few unfortunate souls hidden away out there — who signed the wrong thing, at the wrong time, to the wrong person."
The assembled young witches and wizards all shuddered.
Harry made his way to the fideliused spot in the library, satisfied that Hermione was handling herself just fine. He dropped into his trunk, and emerged minutes later as Lord Slytherin, ready, aged, and masked.
He met an impeccably dressed Daphne in the entrance hall, and together they made their way down to the dungeons, stared at by every wide-eyed student they met.
As they descended the stairs into Slytherin territory, Harry felt the welcoming magics wash through him. He smiled. "Daphne?"
"Yes, my lord?"
He reached into his robes. "Read this."
Daphne took the parchment, unfolded it and read the first few lines. "From the Black Heiress?" "Indeed."
Daphne read some more. Her eyes widened. "Necromancy?" she whispered.
"Any magic that affects the dead is necromancy."
"But…" she read some more. "But it sounds like this isn't the first time she's used it." "The letter does give that impression, doesn't it?" Daphne folded the parchment up and handed it back. "The Black Library must be incredible."
Harry frowned. "Yes, I really should do something about that… it would be a shame to lose it."
They arrived at a door marked, 'SLYTHERIN HEAD OF HOUSE'. Harry knocked. The door opened. They both entered.
For the next twenty minutes, Harry sat opposite the Baron, Daphne at his side, while they went over the half-dozen or so issues he had with the house, everything from punishments for use of certain words, to the layout of the common-room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you enjoy reading? Visit my site on Tiendup! There you will find the advanced chapter in PDF format, ready for your convenience.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://fictiontopia.tiendup.com/