Chapter 147 - An unexpected offer! (Patreon)

{2nd Floor, Hogwarts}

{17th Oct 1991} 

{3rd person POV}

"What are you saying?" Susan asked. There was visible confusion on her face as she listened to Rigel's rant. 

"Well, you know that inherent discrimination exists in Hogwarts, right?" Rigel asked, getting a nod in return, "The Slytherins hate the guts of Gryffindors, and the Gryffindors hate Slytherin. While that may be the easiest way to simplify the situation, it is a lot more complicated. The Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry is a century-long feud, but in addition to that, because of the pureblood supremacy views held by most Slytherins, they look down on most half-bloods and muggle-born."

Seeing that she was still following his explanation, he continued, "Since this prejudice is well known to almost everyone, almost all half-bloods and muggle-born aren't sorted into Slytherin. With a few exceptions here and there..." Rigel admitted Tracy was one of them, after all.

"So since most of the population of wizards actually belong to half-bloods. Most of the students in the rest of the houses are someone whom the Slytherins can't look favorably upon... I know I know you know all this, but let me explain." Rigel interrupted her before she could stop him from getting a humph~ in return.

"As you can see from my explanation and from your point of view, Slytherin is the one who has the problem, right?" Rigel asked, and Susan easily nodded at his point.

"This was the case, at least during He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's first rise," Rigel spoke, his words finally causing the Bones heiress to stop.

"Now, I don't know if the house rivalry was as bad before the pureblood supremacy debate. But the rise of the Dark lord meant that Hogwarts was divided. Slytherin stood alone against the other three houses in its views on the surface, and that led to the divide. The other three houses became suspicious of Slytherin students, and an inherent bias was developed. To combat this, Slytherin students started moving together in groups."

"When the war ended, the faces of most of the Dark Lord's staunch followers turned out to be the purebloods, even if they already knew about it. The situation worsened. It's been 17 years, hasn't it? Countless batches of Slytherin students have graduated and joined the ministry, but the situation remains the same. To this day, you can see the isolation; most of the Slytherin students are now stuck together in their own circle, being discriminated against by the rest of the student population." His words finally reached Susan as she deciphered what he meant.

"Small circles meant that the graduating students joined the ministry through the connections shared among the groups. Since Slytherin has the most pure blood, these connections are powerful. And slowly but surely, the Ministry is being corrupted from within, with most of its workers who have grown up facing bias from the other three groups for 7 years at Hogwarts..." Susan whispered the last part out. Her face had a disturbed expression.

"Exactly...If I could guess, the power of the traditional faction is rising in the Winzengamot. Not only that but if the Dark Lord or someone with similar power comes back to join the Traditional faction, I'm guessing it wouldn't even take them one year to gain control of the ministry and control wizarding Britain from within." Rigel pointed it out. Susan's face paled a little as she looked into Rigel's eyes.

"It's all theoretical, of course; who knows what could and would happen." Rigel placated, not wanting to sound like a controversy crackpot.

"Yeah..." Susan breathed, as they arrived at the Library. As predicted, there was no one in sight other than Madam Pince, who was sorting through some books at her desk. Rigel swiftly made his way to an unoccupied table and sat down.

"So, about the trail?" Rigel questioned, bringing their talk back to its initial topic.

"Yes, the trial. It has been scheduled for the end-of-term hearing, which is on October 30th." Susan replied, her face showing that her mind was elsewhere.

'Hmmm, she seems quite troubled. It seems like my words had more of an effect than I thought they would.' Rigel mused.

"Hmm, that's good. Are you going to it?" Rigel asked.

"Hmmm?" Susan asked, breaking out of her daze.

"The trial? Are you going?" He reiterated and then elaborated.

"Yes, I had to beg Aunty for it, but she allowed it. If you want to come, I'm sure you can apply for a short leave in the name of the inheritance ritual, and then Aunty could take you with me. We'll leave early in the morning on the 30th." Susan spoke, her enthusiasm returning.

"Sure, thank you for that. I was not looking forward to asking Professor Snape to take me to the ministry." Rigel grimaced at that. Even if he wasn't the son of Sirius Black, just his surname was enough to gain Snape's disinterest. He was sure if he wasn't in Slytherin, it would be several times worse.

Susan nodded at that. She opened her mouth to say something but then closed it with an audible snap. Rigel gave her an amused look as he motioned for her to go on, knowing what was on her mind.

"Did you really do the Ritual with Evelyn?" she asked before she shook her head. I mean, since you did the Ritual with Evelyn, you can only do the Ritual with the first years now, right?"

"Yes, that should be the case. The ritual would only work if my partner hadn't undergone one before. Why are you interested?" Rigel asked as he leaned forward slightly. He saw Susan blush as she stammered.

"W-well, i-it's a chance to gain a magical ability—" she stammered, but Rigel cut her off with a grin on his face.

"And you want bigger boobs. After our intellectual discussion just now, I thought you were wrongly sorted into Hufflepuff, but it seems the sorting hat wasn't wrong." His words were met by a glare as her face and neck were turning red.

"Alright, alright, if you want, you have to tell me soon, though. I'm guessing you have to go through the heirship ritual as well on Halloween." Rigel pointed out.

"I know..." She muttered as she looked away, a shy look on her face as she debated the words in her mind.

"Can we do it? Tomorrow?" She asked as she looked back. Finally, she dared to make eye contact with a grinning Rigel. She rolled her eyes and stood up.

"I'll be waiting for you after dinner." She mumbled before she rushed out of the Library under the watchful eye of Madam Pince.

'Well, that was unexpected...'

...

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AN - I don't want Rigel to go through this Ritual with a lot of people even if he has the autonomy to decide who gets the power up or not. 

What kind of Lingerie would look good on Susan? A little more intimate or more intricate expansive kind?