Hermione and Benign Brainwashing

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Hermione was nervous. It was her first time in the wizarding world and she had no idea about many things. Her main concern was about being at a disadvantage, but she was relieved by Miss McGonnagall about that on her tour of the diagonal alley. Apparently, every wizard and witch receives their wands when they are invited to Hogwarts. She was slightly lucky to have a birthday in late August and have nearly a year of time to study the teaching materials. She read every book from the first Hogwarts and several books not mentioned in the list...

But still she wanted to make friends. Since she was a child, she was always a genius. Above-average IQ, accompanied by above-average EQ, made the girl very smart. However, her high emotional intelligence also made her feel hurt a lot easier. Hermione didn't think she was pretty no matter what her parents said she was. Thick brown hair and slightly more pronounced front teeth than the others depressed her. Add to that her intelligence and we have a loner. Any grown man or even teenager would find the girl cute and a future beauty, but boys her age just teased and bullied making it easier for her to develop low self-esteem and mild depression.

She wanted friends. What old child of hers doesn't want? But she also wanted to head up these friends, for that reason she often sounded bossy and pedantic, like an old lady.

In her entire life, her only companions were adults. Not even her elderly relatives liked her, however hard she tried. Damn, she really wished she could be more social…unfortunately she couldn't connect with anyone. Even the few people who approached her previously just wanted to use her intelligence on her behalf, asking for help in completing jobs and duties. It did not help her cause a vehement refusal in public. Her bad reputation only increased like that.

To top it off, things started to happen when she was 4 years old. Books being brought towards her. Windows exploding when she got nervous. To suddenly appear in the neighborhood library when before that she was at home. All this happened to her. Only now did she know that it was accidental magic and that she was a witch. A talented one to finish off. After all, her accidents were much stronger than many thoroughbreds.

So when Hermione finally came to the wizarding world and learned about dozens of new things... she figured she could make friends in this world this time. It was with this in mind that she found herself helping Nevile Longbottom, a plump, intimidated, plump-looking pureblood wizard who will lose his pet. She didn't understand how it was possible until she knew she was a frog of all things. But Nevile looked like a good boy. Cute and easy to hurt. She found him similar to a puppy. So when he asked about her missing frog, she decided to help.

Hermione walked to several booths and asked everyone she saw. Some were quite nasty, like a girl with straight brown hair and a sullen face. She called her a Mudblood although Hermione didn't know what it meant she could still feel it was offensive by the tone. Anyway, she just continued her search. Maybe if people saw her helping a friend they'd feel good about being friends with her too... at least she'd convinced herself of that while crying softly.

It was then that she decisively wiped her tears and headed towards another cabin. This one was near the end of the train already. Which was worrying. There was nowhere else to look for this frog. By the way, who the hell has a toad of all bloody things? On second thought, if she was closer to the front now, she could have the engineer make an announcement asking the students in the cabs to check it out and bring the frog to them. Damn, now she had all this work done. This frog had better be found.

She opened the cabin door as she had done with all the previous ones and came face to face with a lonely boy with a beautiful puppy with black fur in his lap. Hermione was surprised by the boy's appearance. Black hair with greenish streaks and gray eyes. Clear, smooth skin, apparently. Aristocratic face and blank expression. She couldn't tell what the boy was thinking. He just looked at her and waited. The only thing going through her mind now was that this was the cutest boy she had ever seen. Almost like one of those movie models and actors. Only better! Was it possible to look so beautiful? Is it magic? If so, could she be prettier too?

"I…I'm looking for a frog. A boy named Nevile lost... the frog... that belongs to him... I wish I knew... Did you... see?" She said nervously.

"Frog?" The boy tilted his head slightly to the left in confusion making Hermione's already anxious heart flutter even more.

"Yes..."

"Sorry, but I don't know if we met. Shouldn't you introduce yourself before asking questions?"

The question caught Hermione off guard. Introduce yourself. She forgot about that in her nervousness. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't done it in any of the previous cabins. Some of the older students glared at her and she only realized why now. Damn it. Tears began to fall from her eyes quickly as she choked back sobs. The shock of seeing the boy, the more cursing along the way and now the perception of her behavior had her in meltdowns. Normally she would have run to her cabin and cried there instead of letting others see her like this.

Damn it!

"That…Miss…I didn't mean to be rude. Forgive me... Can you... stop crying? If mum knows I made a girl cry I could get in trouble…seriously, stop, please…" Hermione almost smiled when she saw the boy startled by her tears.

He was cute!

"It's… it's okay…" Hermione takes a deep breath. This boy doesn't look bad like the others. Maybe we are friends? "My name is Hermione. Hermione Granger. Can I know his name?"

"Vitra. Vitra Astaroth Von Benno. Heir to the noblest and oldest Von Benno house." He announced indifferently. A nobleman? House... noble. Hermione didn't understand much about nobility. Was that a thing in the wizarding world? But in the Muggle world, nobility was just... a bow title. Without any real power. Even royalty only existed to appear in the news.

"Are there nobles in the wizarding world?" The question generated a slight surprise for the boy and he stared at her as if he had found an interesting specimen. His smirk startled and bewitched her at the same time. He was so cute.

"Well, let me introduce you to the wizarding world, young Padawã." The boy, Vitra say.

"Do you watch Star Wars?"

The boy then began to explain about the wizarding world to her. Light and Dark factions. And the supposedly neutral gray faction, but nothing more than a freeloader who would lean to the winning side as quickly as possible. Blood Purists. Prejudice against muggleborns... the meaning of the mudblood name she was called. He also revealed about the houses and how children were selected… Hermione seemed to have swallowed something unpleasant. She thought her efforts would be recognized, but hearing that it didn't matter left her heartbroken. She finally realized that wizard society was not as wonderful as Professor McGonnagall had told her.

She was neither stupid nor stubborn. There was no reason for Vitra to deceive her as she would find out for herself as soon as she could be in the Hogwarts library. So the only logical conclusion was that everything the boy told him was true. The magic was amazing, but the wizarding world was full of darkness. And to think she imagined she would make friends! Friends! From wizards with a superiority complex based on the blood of all things! Honestly, she still didn't understand how wizards didn't know about inbreeding.

"But the truth is, muggleborns are mostly idiots. Or maybe it's a massive spell they cast on them before they entered the magical world. I do not know." the boy said coldly at the end of his speech.

"What you mean?"

"The current wizarding laws are quite unfair to them, biased indeed, in fact. It's ridiculous for being so obvious. But Muggle-borns are still the majority. Why instead of trying to fit into society they don't create their own wizarding community?" The question caught Hermione off guard. But it made sense. Muggleborns were despised so why not create a society of their own where they wouldn't be? With magic it was not impossible to take possession of an island and develop a country there. It would be pretty easy actually.

"That makes sense. But... how would Muggles do that?"

"It is not obvious? With magic, of course. Every year Muggleborns go to Hogwarts to learn magic. This school is basically giving muggles the tools to grow and change their situation, but what do they do? They resent society and hope that the wizards in power will change their situation. It's ridiculous." The boy spoke passionately and Hermione found herself agreeing with him. Well, if what he said about society was true, it is. She would read up on the subject and find out for herself. "Government enters, government leaves and nothing changes. The laws are controlled by Wizengamot and the minister is in the pockets of wealthy and influential families. Seriously, there's no reason anyone would want to be in this magical community. If I weren't a nobleman with all the advantages that entails, I would have already fled to some remote place and built a refuge protected by Fidelius."

"Now that you've talked about it, I think you're right. Muggleborns are kind of idiots."

"It is not? Just take an island or even build your own island with magic and create your own city or country. Honestly, it's not difficult. Ancient mages built towers to increase their powers, but they almost always made a circular area around the tower completely isolated. You don't even have to go to sea to build a viable island." The boy got more carried away in his monologue. "Nothing stops students from copying Hogwarts books so it's not impossible to establish a public library or even a community magic school. While it's not easy to copy the restricted-session books, but look at the amount of free magic we have in the open library... there's just enough magic there. Besides, knowledge can be gained with enough galleons. For the economy? Just make a deal with Goblins after establishing your country and you'll have a Gringotts branch. Think it's not efficient? Create your own bank and start filling it with coins." Vitra explained with simple rationality that embarrassed Hermione. Not that she was to blame for the other muggleborn's idiocy, but as a muggleborn herself she felt ashamed.

"Still... the order and all that..."

"Honestly, Muggle cops are quite efficient in general. They can't affect White Collar crimes and major drug cartels, that would be MI6's responsibility, if I'm not mistaken, but everyday crimes are pretty well resolved. I don't think keeping order is a problem. The point is that Muggleborns want to change the wizarding world that belongs to the Thoroughbreds. The Thoroughbreds did not accept this at all and began to retaliate with violence and intelligence. Ministry laws are created and approved by thoroughbreds so it's no surprise that you're suppressed."

"So should we leave?" Hermione felt bitter.

"Don't think about it like that. See, muggle born wizards are the majority. A vast majority of Muggle-born wizards enter the wizarding world every year and the wizarding world's economy revolves thanks to that. Think about it, the diagonal alley stores. When do they sell the most?"

"When classes start…" Hermione suddenly realized. "Without new wizards, the shops wouldn't make as much money and…the economy would collapse in a few years…let's not even talk about the fact that creating an island in the middle of the ocean makes the place a country not associated with the British crown. .. the laws of ministry are invalid there." She looked horrified. "That... muggleborns have so much power..."

"That's why I call them fools. The birthrate among wizards is neither very high nor very low, however the chances of a magical child being born are increasingly low due to inbreeding. If I'm not mistaken, this year maybe only 9 Thoroughbred wizards are going to Hogwarts, but every year about 40 wizards enter the first year. Most mestizo and muggleborn." She explained. "Purebloods use everything they can to their advantage, but muggleborns don't. Do you see where I want to go? If they establish their own country outside the British wizarding community then their only concern would be the International Confederation of Wizards which has no restrictive laws. As long as the international statute of secrecy is maintained then you can do what you want. In essence."