Wizarding Britain (1)

[The previous chapter was supposed to be the last chapter before the time skip to the triwizard tournament but I decided to go through the political explanation before the time skip. Once we move towards the triwizard tournament, the story will catch pace and thus I wanted to get it done before hand. So, few more chaptees we move to the next arc.]

Harry and Neville returned from the Chamber of Secrets only after midnight. Despite the courage Neville had shown, he had not been able to make much progress, but even so, Harry was satisfied. He was sure that Neville would eventually overcome the shell of cowardice he had built around himself and make much progress.

Now, Neville was not solely to be blamed for his cowardice and timidity; his upbringing had played a major role in it.

Moreover, Neville was a person in whom many people of the wizarding Britain took an interest in.

After all, Neville Longbottom too ticked all the boxes of the prophecy which had been made by Professor Trelawney and he was also to the heir of the Longbottom family.

By the time Harry and Neville returned, everyone in Gryffindor house was fast asleep. Although it would not affect Harry much, Neville was about to face significant hardship maintaining his sleep schedule as he would not be able to get more than a few hours of sleep each night. Even so, this would serve as good training for Neville, and Harry was not very worried about it.

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The next day, Harry woke up early in the morning before any of his roommates were awake and accompanied Hermione to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Harry had placed a few dishes on his plate when Hermione brought up the topic from the previous day.

"Harry," she said, "you said that you would tell me about magical families, wizarding politics, the Wizengamot, and other things."

Even before he could reply, she added, "And today you will make no more excuses."

Harry chuckled and nodded. "I was not going to make any excuses anyway."

"Just that," he said, "we should finish our breakfast first, then go somewhere else."

"This is not the place to talk about those things," he added, and Hermione nodded in agreement.

Soon after finishing their breakfast, the duo arrived at one of abandoned classrooms.

They both sat on chairs facing each other.

"Hermione," Harry began, "the first thing we should start with is the history of magic—especially the history of wizarding Britain."

Hermione nodded eagerly, and Harry continued.

"Magic, or the practice of magic, is a very ancient art. Exactly how old magic is, no one knows. There were many ancient civilizations, and it can be said that magic had existed in those civilizations thousands of years earlier," he said.

"There are things and creations that cannot be explained without the use of magic."

"I believe you know some of them," Harry added, and Hermione's eyes flickered.

"Pyramids... Stonehenge," she said in surprise. She had never thought about these things and even after learning about magic, she had not considered them in this light. These were quite notable few structures whose construction still remained a mystery to the humans.

"Correct," Harry said. "And for now, we would not go into the debate how magical these things are or are not."

"But to be precise, magic, especially outside Britain, has existed for thousands of years," he added.

"Now, those were the times of the old magical systems, and we hardly have any legacy left of those traditions and systems. The magic we use today is a new, modernized system, and this system is almost the same all around the world."

"You might find some ancient traditions in a few parts of the world, but such things are rare and does not really affect our modern system."

"Now," Harry continued, as Hermione listened attentively, "the modern system of magic that we practice today originated around 1,000 to 1,500 years ago. This system is almost the same all around the world, with a few minor changes."

"I won't go into detail about other countries, at least, not now," Harry said, "and we will focus on magical Britain."

"As I said, the magical traditions and practices we use today arose in Britain almost 1,000 years ago. King Arthur, who was a Muggle, Morgan le Fay, Merlin… they were among the first known great wizards and witches, and these were the people who laid the foundation for our wizarding society."

"Their time was followed by the likes of the founders of Hogwarts and other great wizards and witches."

"A body—the Wizengamot—was formed, which underwent many changes over the past centuries. Magical families emerged around these times."

"Hogwarts was founded around then, as were the Ministry of Magic and Gringotts."

"All these institutions were still in their primitive phase, but we can see the basic framework for everything that came out of those times."

"I believe you are able to get a general understanding of what I am saying," Harry said, to which Hermione nodded.

"Good," Harry said as he continued, "and now we will make a jump to our times."

"The wizarding world of our times, with administrative and power centre, point of view has three major pillars," he said.

"The first and perhaps which could be said to the most powerful is Wizengamot."

"The second and a body which has been gaining a lot of powers in recent of times is the Ministry of Magic."

"And the third," Harry said, "which is often overlooked but controls both the first and second pillars to varying degree are the magical families."

"And now we will consider all the three pillars one by one," Harry said, "and in the end we will also see another institution which has started to emerge as an independent centre of power in the last few decades."

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