Later

Five years had passed. The Potters travelled the world as much as they liked. Hermione took her mastery in Transfiguration first, and then Charms, followed by Potions and was currently working on gaining mastery in Ancient Runes followed by Arithmancy. Along with travelling and studying, she was also able to bring Harry two children and was currently working on the third.

Her parents didn't stay in Australia, as Harry had initially advised them. They moved to the Canary Islands, close enough to the Potter Island to visit each other several times a year. Their clinic was doing nicely, giving them a more than comfortable income.

Neville and Luna had eventually settled in Florida, liking the warm weather and the lack of formality. They bought a yacht where Luna liked to stay nude most of the time. Their first child was born after they inaugurated the yacht and she was now expecting her second, also conceived on the yacht. It was also useful for visiting the Potters, where both women were glad to go clothes-free. Both husbands liked it.

In Britain, things weren't that good. The economic downfall that started as just a few isolated businesses having problems, turned into a landslide. With businesses closing, more and more families lost their livelihood. With no new jobs offered in the magical world, witches and wizards had to learn how to function in the Muggle world in order to find a job. That was not a problem for most muggle-born and half-bloods, but it was a massive problem for the purebloods. Worse, none of the magically educated had enough Muggle education to opt for the higher paying jobs. They needed to make do with low-level jobs and low-level income. That also made it impractical to buy stuff at magical stores, where similar items cost five to ten times as much, due to manual low-volume manufacturing. Diagon Alley looked like a ghost town. Most of the shops closed and the remaining few had a very limited choice of merchandise and were staffed only by the owners. Everything that could be bought in Muggle shops was no longer sold there.

George didn't really feel the change. He moved to France as soon as his Paris shop was doing better than the London one and already had five more shops in major magical districts in Europe and the USA. Ginny was also quite happy. She found a mate in France and was now a proud mother of two and not planning on having any more children. Her two pregnancies made her lose her slim figure, turning it much closer to her mother's figure than she liked.

Ron, on the other hand, wasn't happy. Since that blasted letter that Hermione read for all the world to hear, he couldn't find a good job, and he couldn't keep the ones he did find. Of course, he didn't think that his laziness and his disregard to rules and good work practices were the cause. It was much easier to blame his former best friends. If only they hadn't found out about the potions all would have been fine. He was spending most of his time at the Burrow, eating everything he could find. Molly had to resort to casting disillusionment and notice-me-not charms on all foods put aside for another meal or just to cool off, or they would vanish before anybody would notice. This didn't help with Ron's figure, of course. He was becoming too wide and too heavy to ride a broom and certainly to manoeuvre with one, but he blamed the old brooms in the family shed.

Molly also couldn't feel happy. Although her social status was still very low, she was no longer outcast. With almost everybody becoming poor, even her financial situation was no longer a deterrent. She only wished she could see her grandchildren more often. She just couldn't afford to go to France more than once a year, and her children found nothing attractive in Britain. She couldn't blame them, really. Had she been younger, she would have searched someplace else for living at.

There were only a few families in Magical Britain who were doing well, relatively speaking. They still had control of the Ministry, they still had the wizengamot in their collective pockets and they still had most of their gold, although it was diminishing at an alarming rate. Yet what was it good for? Most of the magical folk were working for Muggle businesses. There was no way to force them back, since there was no way to pay their salaries. These wizards and witches were now getting new ideas about how the world around them worked, how the wizarding society should work. That was dangerous. New ideas were the stuff revolutions were made of, and the controlling elite didn't want to lose its power, but what could it do?

"Didn't Potter say something about change?" one asked.

"Yes. He wanted the Mudbloods and Halfbloods to be considered equal in all ways to us. That's unacceptable!" another said.

"Can't we make some superficial changes and make him return, without really giving in?"

"It won't work. I'm sure he has that mudblood genius with him. She'll see through our schemes. Besides, if he comes back without infusing our economics with his money, it won't do anything. It might even be worse."

"Can't we force him to bring his money back?"

"Not really. It's all invested in various businesses. If he sells all at once, he may lose most of his money and then it won't help us. If we let him do it gradually, as economically wise, he'll have time enough to see the truth. He's quite smart even without her help, as we've seen."

"Then there's nothing we can do right now," concluded the first.

\/\/\/

It took two more years before the wizarding economics came to a complete halt. As more and more stuff was being bought from Muggles, more and more gold was converted into Muggle money, yet nothing flowed in the other direction. The goblins became really worried as more and more vaults were being emptied. What had initially been a trickle, when only the poorest families were emptying their vaults or abandoning them, when no items of real value remained there, turned into a flow, as even the richest families were depleting their gold at an alarming rate. Gringotts announced all vault holders that the annual fees must be paid in advance or the vault emptied, otherwise the vault's contents would be seized and auctioned. Very few families emptied the vaults and even fewer paid the annual fee, yet the auctions didn't go too well either. Very few items found a new owner, mainly the cheapest items. Nobody seemed inclined to buy expensive items of no immediate use unless they could be sold to Muggles at a higher price, and very few still had enough gold to pay for such items. The Goblins found themselves in a real problem, one that couldn't be solved by another rebellion.

Some of the rich families saw the writing on the wall. They packed all they still had and moved elsewhere before they lost everything. They lost a large part of their gold but still had enough to settle comfortably wherever the social climate fitted them. Other didn't. They used their gold to the last and then had to find some source of income. The smart ones looked for Muggle jobs. A few tried to use magic for robbery and thieving. It worked only for a short while. The Muggle Police was good enough to find them, and somebody had probably taught them how to make magic suppressing cuffs. Spending several years in prison with other criminals was not something any of them liked, but without their wands and with the cuffs, they could do nothing to escape.

\/\/\/

By that time, Hermione was already finishing her fifth mastery and was also contemplating a fourth child. With the Potter house-elves helping so willingly, raising children was no problem at all, and her pregnancies had not been too difficult, nor giving births. Harry had become a multi-billionaire, quite well known in the right circles. Most of his investments were in Muggle companies, giving a better return than the few investments he still kept in the magical world. He practically owned a racing broom manufacturer and a chain of apothecaries, along with some magical newspapers, none of them in Britain.

It was this interest in newspapers that made him aware of the British situation. Once in a while, he was browsing through "The Weekly Prophet" – the only newspaper still published in magical Britain. The headline intrigued him. "Ministry closes. Some departments to operate with volunteers."

He delved in, trying to understand some more.

"After the slowdown and then the total collapse of the magical economy, the Ministry was unable to collect taxes, making it unable to pay salaries. First to resign was Minister Fudge Jr. who told the Prophet that he couldn't shoulder the
burden of responsibility when he needs to find some income for his family. His wife is already working as a secretary at a Muggle firm, and only due to that income can his family eat, so he said.

The heads of the departments convened to reach some decisions. They decided to dismiss all workers of the DMLE, including the Auror force, due to lack of funds and the fact that most magical Brits now work in the Muggle world and are subject to its laws. The departments of sports, foreign affairs, and health were also disbanded. St. Mungos will continue to function but will need to charge quite higher fees for its services. There may also be some cuts in staffing. As Hogwarts was already closed last year due to lack of funding, the department of education is no longer needed. All youngsters needing to pass their OWLs or their NEWTs must turn to the ICW for taking these tests. The resigning head of department also advised the public to let the youngsters attend Muggle schools, so they can opt for better jobs as adults.

The Ministry's building will be closed starting next week, All cleaning, maintenance and security personnel were dismissed. Most had not got their salaries for two months or more. The Muggle Prime minister was made aware of the potential danger in leaving this building unattended. He promised to put the whole area under day and night surveillance. A few offices in a nearby building were secured for the use of the few workers who still want to keep our legacy alive. Several unspeakables will continue their work part-time, as volunteers, using a private entrance. The heads of the departments of Goblin affairs, Muggle affairs, MLE and education will try to help the public three times a week in the evenings, as volunteers. The exact times will be published next week.

The most troubling, though, is the disbanding of the department of transportation. That means that within a few weeks, no Floo travel will be possible, as the Floo network stayed the same since its invention, three hundred years ago. The system suffers from frequent breakdowns, that had been effectively used by the Death Eaters to cause harm at the time. Without constant maintenance, it's bound to act increasingly erratically until it stops working altogether. Renovating the Floo system and bringing it up to the standards used in other countries requires a major investment that is currently impossible to find, when we're all struggling to just survive. Some former employees of the department may be able to help with local problems, but any system-wide problem will not be handled.

As for portkeys, only people licensed to create them should do that. Anybody found creating portkeys without a proper license will be prosecuted as driving without a license by Muggle authorities. New licenses can be obtained from the ICW."

Harry turned to his wife. "What do you say? Shouldn't we try to do something?"

Hermione shrugged. "What for? Who for? It looks like the ICW will practically govern Magical Britain. Isn't it better for all? The British wizards and witches didn't prove themselves worthy of self-governing. Maybe this way, in a generation or two, they will finally become what they should have always been – a just and modern society."

It would take another generation before a Potter descendant visited Britain and a few more years before one settled back in the ancestral Potter manor. By then, the notion of pureblood would be practically extinct.