In The Court of Public Illusion

One of Gideon's top skills had always been his charisma, his ability to make himself shine. He had decided that the Ministry needed to comment about its operations that had been raised recently.  If he were going to bother with it, then he certainly wasn't interested in fiddling with any old journalistic hack.  No, no.  

Gideon wanted someone who understood the seriousness, the commitment that wizardry needed to have for tradition, the old ways. Someone raised properly.  He had had stacks of messages and owls and letters requesting an interview,  including a raft of them from the reporter he had chosen to allow--Pansy Parkinson-Nott. Nott--(oh, lord, Parkinson-Nott--Must get it right)--was a proper Slytherin, from the old ways.  A woman who understood the proper order of things.  That served him.

He had taken great pains to restore, as an ongoing process, the Ministry to the glory that it had seen before Robert Lupin had insisted on what Robert had called "becoming down to earth."  Lupin's greatest flaw, as Gideon saw it, was that he was too damned approachable.  He was, after all, a farmer.  He had no great estate, although he had great wealth. Lupin never wore the time honored wizarding robes. He wore very practical business suits, and it was the same sets of suits he wore when he worked with "them" at the hospital. When he worked with people who either bled or puked all over him.  Revolting, Gideon thought.  

Gone was the clean, simple lined furniture, the comforting artwork, the bloody little fish that Melissa had on her desk.  He'd simply killed the bright little happy fish, and then had told the ditsy blond that he was truly sorry for her distress. He was considering keeping his promise about replacing the fish, but he was looking at piranhas, honeslty.

He had gone back to elegant antiques, things that were ornate and impressive, heavy dark fabrics, and sculpture and artwork worthy of museums.  Lupin's office was empty.  Locked. Gideon had had the "homey" furnishings stripped out of it, and he had furniture to his own personal tastes on order to restore that space as well.

He had sent Melissa a memo reminding her that he would not allow nicknames. She would not be Millie anymore here. She would be Melissa or Mrs Hayes.  She would dress appropriately in the required robes of her station.  

He had ordered Melissa to prepare a proper formal English tea and to have it ready for elevenses, when Parkinson-Nott was due to arrive.  He had insisted it be flawless, and he himself was impeccably dressed in the sleek black robes trimmed in black satin that was appropriate to the highest officials in the government.  Propriety was everything.  He checked his gold pocketwatch, flipped the case shut and put it back in his vest pocket.  If she were on time, she would be arriving soon.

So Pansy Parkinson-Nott had managed to successfully land herself an interview with Gideon Pierce, the mystery man people knew very little about. All that was public knowledge was that the new deputy minister had been a ministry attorney. Pansy had requested an interview regarded the disappearance of Hogwarts' board of governors and action the ministry would be taking to rectify this problem but the witch knew there were other things she wanted to ask.

About two months ago, just before Gideon found his way into power Pansy had sat down with Ana Levski for an interview regarding the marriage law. It was an interview the reporter decided not to publish, despite the money and respect she would receive from the Daily Prophet. Of course Parkinson-Nott had intended to publish, that was until the end of the interview when Khaat Lupin's words echoed in her head.

Albus Dumbledore's strength was not in what he said. His strength was in what he didn't say.

Pansy had never been a fan of Dumbledore. Of course the reason for that was entirely down to her upbringing. Her parents were in contact with death eaters, muggle born haters, pure blood supremacists and felt it their right to punish house elves how they see fit. Things Dumbledore shared different views on. Then there was Draco Malfoy, publically announcing his distaste for Dumbledore in the Slytherin Common Room. Pansy, someone who idolised Malfoy, adopted these views. However, she couldn't deny this strength was something she had painstakingly taken up.

At the end of the interview Levski said the person behind the marriage law was a ministry attorney. A week or so later Gideon was announced deputy ministry. Was he the person behind the law? If Pansy had published the article would Gideon have risen to the spotlight? Who knows. Even Katrina-Carlotta didn't have much to say on this when Pansy presented her with the information. Instead she chose to sit on the information, which could suggest Pansy was wrong in suspecting Gideon. Either way she'd have to go into the interview on neutral grounds, whether she'd leave on neutral grounds was a different story.

At five past eleven Pansy knocked on the deputy minister's door and, when she heard a voice from inside, opened the door.

'Good morning, Mister Pierce. Sorry I'm late.' Pansy announced insincerely (she had been expected approximately eleven). 'The elevator was full and I had to wait.'

Her dark eyes spotted the tea and a smile slithered onto her face. Gideon was also in his best wizarding robes. Pansy would most certainly mention this in her report on the interview, which she wouldn't be keeping secret this time. If there was one thing Pansy liked in a wizard it was his ability to uphold tradition and so far Pierce had lived up to her expectations so far as to ensure the office had been revamped from when Pansy had done an interview in here a year or so ago.

'I see you've made yourself at home.' Pansy pointed out taking a seat on an antique chair besides the table housing the tea, her handbag on her lap.

"Hardly at home," He laughed cordially. "No, but the wizarding race has a history well worth being proud of, and certainly there is no place more important to remember that than in the heart of its government. If we, here, who serve don't remember our tradition and our history, who will? Our actions set the tone for what we want our children to remember. So, yes, I have turned back the hands of time a bit from the, well, farmhouse décor we've had the last couple of years, no offense to our beloved minister. Do help yourself to the crackers and biscotti. How do you take your tea?"

He poured two cups of tea, one for himself and one for Parkinson-Nott.

"I have found some generous donations of some of our citizens that wish to restore the ministry to the pride we used to have, so, well, you'll see that we are doing just that. We are have mounted a project called Wizarding Pride that is dedicated to restoring our history. Its a project I'm proud to be involved in." He looked at her and smiled.

"But that isn't what you came here for, is it? We've had a great many issues lately that go deeper than décor and I presume those are far higher on your list of questions than the new Wizarding Pride project. I apologize I couldn't do this sooner, but I've had much to do to try to address all the things that have been left undone. So, go ahead. Shoot. Ask your questions."

There was something in the way Gideon presented himself Pansy couldn't help admire. Maybe it was the facial hair and the Victorian hairstyle, or perhaps the fact he was a traditionalist but whilst he spoke Pansy had momentarily forgotten why she was there in the first place. He was all about the wizards. The line 'magic is might' rang a bell in her mind, an exciting jingle.

'Five sugars.' She had replied, watching as he poured two cups of tea.

Wizarding Pride. It was certainly of an interest to Pansy, maybe Gideon wasn't the person behind the marriage law after all. What supporter of wizarding pride would have pure bloods mate with muggle borns? There was a difference between pure blood pride and wizarding pride, but to Pansy they were interchangeable. Like two sides of the same coin when the witch heard the words both brought about the same ideology: A pure blooded society.

'I'm sure we may have time at the end to discussing Wizarding Pride.' Pansy replied sweetly, her eyelids fluttering slightly as she examined Gideon's leading of the conversation. That's what she desired in a man, someone to take charge of a situation, tame her - something Theodore Nott had failed to do. Who could blame her for her adulterous lifestyle.

'The board of governors has dissolved.' Pansy began, extracting a roll of parchment and her quick-quotes-quill from the handbag on her lap. In a second the roll of parchment had laid itself neatly besides the tea and the quick-quotes-quill was ready to write.

'Why was this? Did all of the members resign, or were they forced out? Both my colleagues and I have been unable to find a single member for interview and it appears as though they've vanished from the face of the earth. Why is that? Are you doing anything to find the missing members? What is the ministry's intentions with Hogwarts now that it is under their control? Do we expect to see another Umbridge situation?'

He'd told her to fire her with questions and Pansy did so, retaliating in an equally dominating fashion.

He didn't react to her request for five sugars but merely added them to her tea and handed the cup to her.  He added one sugar to his own and settled in to talk with her.  

He took a sip of his tea as he listened to her initial questions.  

"Ah.  Hogwarts.  Seems a proper place to start," he agreed.  "Good questions. Some of them, though, I'm afraid I have no answers to.  I'm afraid I got notice of the dissolving of the board late night, at home.  Got an owl, and..." he shrugged. "That was all there was.  Signatures on the owl from the governor's board members, no reason given other than the exact wording from the proviso in the school's own bylaws. Nothing that made any sense.

"I'm afraid I'm as clueless as everyone else.  When I got the owl, I came back here and rousted out the aurors and sent them to look for the board members, check with their families and friends, and begin missing persons investigations on all of them, including using their magic tracers to find them.  So far, we've come up empty.  We haven't found any sign of foul play.  In fact, we haven't found sign of anything at all.  Its maddening.

"Aside from wanting them all to be found safe and well, I want them back at their posts.  The last thing I need or want is to have to have us running the school as well. It tends to run better on its own.  And, for the record, no. I want no repeat of Dolores Umbridge on our hands.  Heavens, no. No one wants that. If I see anything like that occurring, I will certainly take whatever measure is necessary to stop it at once. I want no hint of our school becoming an improper place for our children.

"So far as I know, Headmistress Du Hunt does not need anyone doing her job for her.  I've had no complaints about her performance, so until such time as there is a reason to think otherwise, my intention is to allow her to do her job without my interference.  That's the last she needs.

"At this point, I would much prefer to provide her the support she needs to care for the students properly so that they can continue to get the time honored excellent education that Hogwarts has been renowned for. Its my own personal hope that this situation is only temporary and that we can find the members of the school's board quickly and put this all to rights."

Pansy, one leg crossed over the other, folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. It seemed as though this interview was proving to be a waste of time. What had she found out? Nothing, nothing besides the fact the ministry were hoping to find the board members and have them reinstated. As Gideon said taking control of Hogwarts would be a challenging task on top of the marriage law and werewolf packs. Unless, of course, he was lying.

'If you want them back in their posts why don't you simply hire new members for the board?' Pansy asked, an eyebrow raised. Her quick-quotes-quill looked between it's own and Gideon.

It would look better if the deputy minister managed to have the board members found, it was somewhat disconcerting having a large number of important people missing, but why not reinstate the board with new members? That way Hogwarts would continue to run as it did and the ministry could focus more attention on locating the previous board members.