Still, Narcissa did not really care about that. She would never stoop so low as to engage in muggle baiting. No, what did bother her was that the Magical World was now a dull and dreary place. She could not even partake in a quick visit to the muggle world for some entertainment. If anyone saw her heading to the muggle world for a night of Opera or the theatre...no, that did not bear thinking about. They would brand her a muggle sympathiser or worse and then not even her husband's position within the inner circle would be enough to save her.
The stupidity of the thugs that made up the majority of Voldemort's forces never ceased to amaze her. Here they were struggling to get along. The economy was in the toilet. They didn't have enough people to conquer Hogwarts. Hell, the problem was that they didn't have enough people, period. Did they do anything about that? No. Did they try to make the country more attractive to magical immigrants from other countries? No. What did they spend their time doing? They went around interrogating people on their blood status.
That woman Umbridge had to be the worst. She had wormed her way into a position of power at the Ministry and she used it to form a group of thugs called Snatchers. They were originally meant to find and detain Muggleborns. Unfortunately, for the rest of them there were no muggleborns left in Britain so now the Snatchers went around bothering whoever they could find. I mean really, did it really matter if someone had a muggleborn for a Grandparent. She knew of at least a dozen people who Umbridge had drummed out of the Ministry for precisely that fact. Did it matter to her that they only had one muggleborn for a grandparent and that the other three had been purebloods. No. That was not good enough for Madam Umbridge. Didn't she realise that a pureblood ancestry only went so far? A single muggle or muggleborn Grandparent - Hah!
While one may not want to invite such a person over for dinner there was nothing wrong with putting them to work. Why couldn't people like this Umbridge understand that? Fools, the whole lot of them. Just look at Snape for example. Even though he was only a half-blood, the Dark Lord had still made him a member of the inner circle. Why? Talent. Pure, unadulterated talent. Umbridge and people of her ilk would never understand that.
It was finally getting too much for her to bear which was the reason behind her trip to Diagon Alley that day. She was going to audit the Malfoy vaults. Hopefully, Voldemort and Lucius had not managed to squander all of what had once been a vast fortune. Hopefully, there was enough there for her to live a comfortable if not luxurious life in another country. It was high time she said farewell to England. Brazil should be lovely this time of year.
She would not regret leaving Lucius. The once proud pureblood she had married was now no more than a mere lickspittle. The fool who would let Voldemort lead them all to ruin did not deserve her sympathy. She would regret leaving Draco though. She had tried to talk to him but had found it futile. The idiot boy seemed hell bent on following in his father's footsteps. Why couldn't he see that those footsteps were leading him to penury and ruin? Voldemort would bleed them all dry before he was through. All of them, except for her.
Head held high, Narcissa Malfoy entered Gringotts.
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Harry Potter was extremely nervous. The next few hours were incredibly important for his future. He was here at the central testing centre in Chicago. A pilgrimage that magical students from all over the States had to undertake at least once in their lives usually during their final year in high school. He was here for that most dreaded of events. He was here to take his MSAT.
Magical Education in the States only really kicked off after the student enrolled in college. Prior to that, most American students tended to enrol in the same schools and high schools as their non-magical peers. Of course, they usually spent the summer months learning all that they could about magic but there was really no fixed curriculum or syllabus that the magical summer camps followed. People studied whatever they were interested in and the standards varied widely from camp to camp. This was the main reason behind the MSAT. A standardised test was the only fair way to evaluate the student's college applications.
What the Mages of America had done was to ensure that their people received the very best college education that the States had to offer. This meant that they had long ago infiltrated the top American Universities and Colleges. There, unseen to non-magical eyes, existed departments of Magic in nearly every top tier University.
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