\u201cI\u2019m so glad you came\u201d, Lyra looked at aunt Andromeda with a big smile. \u201cWe are incredibly bored, now that we can\u2019t really leave home much and go visit people because of the babies\u201d, she adjusted Lucia\u2019s position on her breast. \u201cAlso, Teddy is a blessing; James and Lily get bored and neglected now that we have to constantly wrap our lives around the newborns. They love to play with him\u201d. Hermione nodded approvingly, listening to the sounds of children giggling upstairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe pretends to be above those things because he\u2019s so much older, but he can hardly wait to see them\u201d, the older woman smiled. \u201cI\u2019ll let the others know when I visit; they\u2019ll be glad to come and see you, but they didn\u2019t know if you\u2019re too busy with the babies\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, we\u2019re busy, but we\u2019re also starved for company\u201d, Hermione sighed. \u201cWe\u2019re used to always being around people and visiting everybody and we miss it. I can\u2019t even read books now because it takes too much focus away from the baby, and the men are dealing with the work and the politics for all four of us, so they are hardly ever home\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout that, Lucius and Narcissa have been completely socially rehabilitated after dealing with that scum\u201d, Andromeda giggled. \u201cEverybody loved it. They\u2019re no longer seen as the two Death Eaters who eschewed punishment for their crimes, but rather as the tough, protective grandparents minding the babies while the parents get to stretch their legs a bit. I visited them last night, and everything is much brighter there. They no longer look depressed or anything. Rather, they like their new role as the senior protectors of their heritage\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad to hear it\u201d, Hermione smiled. \u201cI was worried about them for a while\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe newspapers are in a buzz about Lyra addressing the court\u201d, the older woman nodded wisely. \u201cThey are saying that she\u2019s the least intimidating most powerful Witch in the world\u201d, she grinned. \u201cThey are describing you as a soft, kind young mother who casually disarmed the entire Wizengamot as a demonstration, and then excused herself to go nurse her baby\u201d, she smiled at the young blonde. \u201cI think they are starting to outright adore you\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs they should\u201d, Hermione smiled at her blushing sister, kissing baby Igor\u2019s head.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey quoted you saying that it doesn\u2019t matter what you can do, and they should rather look at what you\u2019re actually doing, and then they remember you destroying all the dementors, hunting down the Werewolves and the Death Eaters, and dealing with murderous thugs, first as an Auror, and then as head of the Auror Office, and ended up quoting the Minister, saying that it\u2019s perfectly right and proper for the head of the Auror Office to be the most competent magical person in the world, adding that the fact that it just happens to be an adorable young woman is a big bonus\u201d, she grinned. \u201cThey also mentioned Harry and his treaty with the Goblins, and asked him how come you two are not Ministers with your political acumen. He told them that you are more useful as national security shields, with your skills, and one can hardly argue with that\u201d, she nodded. \u201cThere was also a passing mention of your motherhood laws, and how well that worked \u2013 specifically now that you were giving birth and nursing, and there\u2019s been no interruptions at work since your husband deals with things that require physical presence and your mind is still completely available when he needs your help\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to working with Viktor like that\u201d, Hermione sighed. \u201cI missed him when we worked different jobs and couldn\u2019t be together at work\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot imagine that we used to all work like that before\u201d, Andromeda noted. \u201cIt is all wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHermione was teaching me about the muggles and their ways of doing things, and how we somehow copied their foolish ways\u201d, Lyra looked at her aunt. \u201cSome of it looks like a societal suicide pact \u2013 things like feminism. I honestly never heard of a worse bunch of nonsense, but Hermione convinces me they are quite serious with it and say it all with a straight face, things like women actually aspiring to be strong and independent, without realising that it actually means dying alone without love. It is as if they are actively trying to achieve a state of complete failure\u201d.<\/p>\n
Andromeda looked at her as if trying to understand if she\u2019s missing a joke. \u201cYou can\u2019t be serious?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, she is\u201d, Hermione nodded. \u201cI actually adopted some of that insanity briefly, so I understand how insidious it can be. Essentially, they are convincing women that men are unreliable, violent and what not, and they might eventually either leave them or abuse them, so they need to live in a state of constant wariness and readiness for such an outcome \u2013 have their own money and always be ready for divorce. That\u2019s what that \u2018strong and independent\u2019 nonsense actually means\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if you\u2019re living that way, constantly treating your husband as a potential or actual enemy, without love and trust, you will be actively ruining your marriage and directly causing the outcome you are preparing against\u201d, Andromeda was aghast.<\/p>\n
\u201cExactly\u201d, Hermione nodded. \u201cWhich explains the extremely high divorce rate, especially among the feminists\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that fear of abusive husbands actually grounded in fact? Did the muggles have some epidemic of spousal abuse, or men abandoning wives and children?\u201d, Lyra was curious.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, no. I looked into the statistics. It was almost unheard of. Men who abandoned or abused their families were socially ostracised and seen as the lowest of the low, and for the most part, they lived in harmonious and loving families very much as we do. Then they started introducing all sorts of social reforms calling it progress, and messed everything up. In fact, the only statistically relevant reason for women being abandoned was when their husband died. There were work accidents and wars, and a woman with children without a man to take care of them and earn money would find herself in a terrible predicament. Society tried to accommodate for them, but all those reforms in the last two centuries seem to have caused terrible wars where huge numbers of men died and their families needed to survive somehow, and this seems to have coincided with the feminist nonsense\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, basically, their reformist, progressive ideologies caused the problems that they then blamed on the traditional marriage?\u201d, Lyra surmised.<\/p>\n
\u201cPretty much so\u201d, Hermione smiled. \u201cThey essentially employed arsonists in the fire department\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFire department?\u201d, Andromeda asked as if she never heard of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe muggles, not knowing magic, can\u2019t easily extinguish fires when they happen, so they have people who come and spray water on the fire to extinguish it\u201d, Hermione explained. \u201cFire department, police and ambulance are considered the most basic services in a society\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpraying water on a fire instead of an Extinguishing Charm\u201d, aunt Andromeda gestured incredulously. \u201cIt would get all the furniture soaked and ruined\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does\u201d, Hermione laughed. \u201cWhen the fire department extinguishes a fire in your house, the house is pretty much ruined, but they stop the fire spreading to other houses\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo wonder they invented feminism\u201d, Andromeda was exasperated. \u201cThey are completely unreasonable people\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only time in my life when I had to be strong and independent was when my parents made our ancestral home into a den of Voldemort and his minions, and Harry left me, thinking I sided with Voldemort, and kissed other girls. I thought I would die alone and never have children, and the only reason why I didn\u2019t kill myself was to care for my parents. It was the most desperate, hopeless, darkest and terrible two years of my life and I am actively trying never to think about them because it was so horrible. Actively working on turning your life into that, as if it were somehow a worthy goal rather than the worst possible outcome, is indeed so irrational, so self-defeating and stupid, that my mind refuses to accept that there are people who would choose that\u201d, Lyra shivered.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd yet, there are, and this shows you what propaganda can do if applied diligently for a long time with incredible funds\u201d, Hermione nodded. \u201cThey even convinced people that smoking cigarettes makes you cool, independent and sophisticated\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cCigarettes?\u201d, the two women asked curiously.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmall wads of some herb called tobacco, that are lit on fire on one end, so that a person inhales the smoke, which causes a mildly calming effect, but is very addictive and causes all sorts of deadly illnesses in the long run\u201d, Hermione explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose people are completely insane\u201d, they both nodded in agreement as Hermione broke into laughter. \u201cSeeing it from your perspective makes it extremely hard to disagree\u201d.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m so glad you came\u201d, Lyra looked at aunt Andromeda with a big smile. \u201cWe are incredibly bored, now that we can\u2019t really leave home much and go visit people because of the babies\u201d, she adjusted Lucia\u2019s position on her … Continue reading