The downside of this was that, as far as she knew, magical guardians were only used in cases where the child in question was of nonmagical parents. She supposed it could equally apply here and while all this made logical sense to her she had to acknowledge she lacked the specific grounding to know if it made any legal sense. She simply didn't have enough information to make a determination one way or the other.
While she'd love for Harry to be free to enjoy his life in the manner he saw fit and to reclaim everything he was entitled to, she didn't want to think so poorly of Professor Dumbledore. Well-meaning but negligent, or perhaps unintentionally ignorant of any "mismanagement" on behalf of the Dursleys or this Gropegold, either due to overwork or spreading himself too thin, was one thing but intentional nefarious intent was something completely different.
"Enough processing," her father said, rousing her from her thoughts.
Hermione felt her stomach tighten as she saw her mother perusing the letter herself, though she noticed she set it aside when it switched from Dumbledore to Harry's family's past. After all, why should she care, the boy was only important to her daughter. She wished she'd had the presence of mind to wait until she'd been alone to read the letter as she had all the other ones so her mother wouldn't have been involved.
"What do you think of this Dumbledore?" her mother asked.
"Despite being a surprisingly silly old man who looks like Merlin from that Disney cartoon," Hermione started, hoping to somewhat irk her mother with the nonsensical reference before shifting to regurgitate facts at her. "He's supposed to be quite the accomplished academic and lawmaker, having risen to prominence after his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945."
"His track record when it comes to children leaves much to be desired, if this is any indication," her mother continued. "Perhaps we should review the options?"
"No," Hermione said quickly, glad once again she'd kept the entire Sorcerer's Stone and Halloween incidents to herself. "This is nothing more than a private legal dispute between Harry and Professor Dumbledore. Aside from this massive donation to a scholarship program, Harry didn't indicate this had anything to do with the school. I've only been told about it as a friend so I don't see how any reviewing is necessary."
"And yet," her father added, "this is the person who's being trusted to oversee the health and well-being of - what, a thousand students or more? Perhaps we should consider a review."
Hermione stood abruptly, so scared she was close to shaking. They were not going to take her from Hogwarts!
"If I say no review is necessary then no review is necessary. Need I remind you that you sat at this very table and said - and I quote - 'Professor McGonagall, we don't believe that a magical guardian is necessary. We know Hermione better than anyone you can name and know her to be very level-headed and trust in her judgment.'? If you could say that when I was ten, I don't see what could've happened in two years to change your mind, especially when this issue has nothing to do with me, doesn't affect me, and the man in question has yet to say a dozen words to me. And since my magical education clearly falls into the realm of the magical world, it means the decision of where to go to school is mine to make."
Her tirade had her father's eyebrows bouncing back up to his oddly frizzy hair, as if he was amused it had happened. It washed by her mother like a river around a boulder though, leaving her completely unfazed as she waited for it to end.
"It's not your critical thinking or decision-making ability we're calling into question," her mother said. "Rather, it's your bias."
"Bias?" Hermione asked affronted. "How am I biased?"
"Everyone has their bias," her mother said. "The trick is finding it."
"And you have to admit," her father added, "you do have a rather large reason now to want to think of this as an isolated incident."
What followed wasn't a particularly enjoyable conversation, especially since it had her trying to mitigate any wrongdoing by Professor Dumbledore, which for some reason she found particularly irksome. While she could freely say that if Harry's allegations against Dumbledore were true then he certainly wasn't fit to be anywhere near children, she then had to go back and poke the very same holes in their arguments she'd privately done to Harry's assertions before, and remind her mother it's not their job to ascertain the truth of the issue - Harry had a lawyer for that.
As she was released to go back to her room, her mind still firmly set on 'leave me alone, you don't know what you're talking about,' she was all the more glad her parents had opted not to designate a magical guardian when Professor McGonagall suggested it. If they had, the school would've been forced to notify her parents about what had really happened last Halloween. And even if they had chosen not to withdraw her after the run-in with the troll, she doubted all the rule-breaking and death-defying ordeals surrounding the Sorcerer's Stone would've given her any chance to see the inside of Hogwarts again.
Despite everything she'd said to her parents, what was going on at Hogwarts troubled her greatly. Abandonment, embezzlement, systematic neglect and abuse, giant three-headed dogs and possessed teachers - these did not sound like things the great Albus Dumbledore, head muckety-muck of all he surveyed, should've been a part of. Harry's 'new friend' had warned things were going to be bad at Hogwarts but it seemed the warning had come several years too late.
Rather more harshly than she intended, Hermione pulled out and flipped through the books she had which made any mention of Albus Dumbledore - only to quickly realize they were the same four she'd gotten for background reading, the three which mentioned Harry plus Hogwarts, a History .
Everyone has their bias, her mother had said. The trick was to find it .
Hogwarts, a History had a rather glowing review of Dumbledore's time as Headmaster, and even held him up as the single shining point of light in the school's administration by Armando Dippet. Angry at her younger self for being so deluded as to buy all that without a second thought, even to the extent of wanting to go into Gryffindor simply because it claimed both him and Professor McGonagall as members, she shoved the once-beloved book aside to check the next.
Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century were all full of glowing praise as well. If someone didn't know any better you'd think Magical Britain was gearing up to either crown him as their King or kneel to him as their god. It was disgusting.
Slamming the last book on top of the others, she noticed it; the way the wording lined up made it impossible to ignore.
'Of course,' she thought, 'a book is only as biased as its author .'
On the spine of the books one word was repeated: Bagshot, Bagshot, Bagshot, BAGSHOT .
As quickly as that her mind was made up. Hermione grabbed the offensive texts, marched over to the trash bin by her door and stuffed them roughly inside before burying them under other trash. After a second's thought she stuffed A History of Magic down there too, the preface said the woman had been editing editions of it for decades.
She didn't know who this Bathilda Bagshot was, or how she knew Dumbledore, but her bias was obvious. Hermione knew Harry though, and even if she had her own reservations about things, she trusted him.
If Harry Potter was her bias, it was one Hermione Granger had every intention of keeping.
.....
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