The mood was grim for the group after that and Nick chose to let his friends have the time needed to process this information. It was a tough piece of meat to swallow but he was confident that they would be able to handle it without much issue. What he failed to consider however was that Hermiones bleeding heart would cause her to do something REALLY short sighted. She sent a letter to her parents containing this information and her parents without the correct context for the situation did what any upstanding person would and started warning their friends who in turn warned their own friends.-
This created a ripple across all of London that drew the attention of the ministry and muggle governments both. A simple letter had caused a breach of the statute of secrecy that revealed the existence of wizards to the muggle government in the british isles beyond the prime minister and royal family that was already in the know about it. The ministry quickly traced the source of the problem back to Hermione and early in the morning of the final day of school three aurors came for her.-
"Hermione Granger , in accordance with the laws pertaining to the statue of secrecy you are hereby under arrest for revealing the existence of magic to muggles , please come quietly." the auror in charge of the case said loudly before motioning for the other two aurors to take the horrified girl. Nick wasted no time at all diving into the leading aurors head to figure out what was going on before feeling a great deal of frustration when he found out. Dumbledore rapidly approached the group as he hadn't gotten any warning about this and wanted it explained.-
The leading auror explained the charges against Hermione and how they came about and the girl herself was in tears. As far as she knew all she had done was tell her parents what was going on in order to convince them to leave the city like Nick suggested but she had clearly not realized what actions her parents would take. "What a mess!" Nick complained in frustration. "I'm just saying that this doesn't sound like Hermione at all , she's smarter than this." Ron argued for the umpteenth time. "I told all of you what was going on so you weren't caught off guard but somehow she took that to mean telling her parents as well and so here we are." Nick said with a sigh. -
"That's so stupid though! How was she supposed to understand that warning her parents would lead to this?" Tracy asked angrily. "The ministry doesn't care about the intent behind the action so much as the outcome. In this case Hermione has caused a serious problem , a lot of people needed to be obliviated to fix it so this does not look good for her at all. She won't be going to Azkaban though if Dumbledore and I have anything to say about it." Nick said firmly. -
"What can you even do? Politics won't help much at this point and aren't you rather low on money at the moment?" Daphne asked confused. "You'll know soon enough." Nick said before leaving to go find Dumbledore. The old man was of course in his office getting ready to leave himself when Nick walked in. The old goat looked at Nick and sighed "You know there is no going back if you do this right?" he asked softly. Nick nodded "We both knew it would come to this eventually but I agree that the timing is less than ideal." he said determined.-
The signs of Nick becoming the next great wizard had long since been clear and both of them knew that at some point Nick was going to show that he was the next powerhouse of the british isles. In a way it was Dumbledores time to step out of the spotlight and let someone from the younger generation take it. Hermiones matter was troublesome for Dumbledore to solve because he was a well known factor to be considered but Nick was an entirely new powerhouse that would make Fudge more likely to pardon Hermione than test how he would react to her being sentenced.-
The way to accomplish this was quite simple really , Nick was going to go to the ministry with Dumbledore all while letting his mana flow from him freely. There was no chance in hell that Fudge wouldn't immediately be able to understand the implication behind the suppression that felt like Dumbledores own. "If that is your choice than i can only wish you luck on your path as it is a treacherous one." the old goat said before having Fawkes teleport them both to the ministry.