The bustling ground-floor atrium of the Ministry of Magic was filled with a cheerful, harmonious atmosphere. On Christmas morning, staff from St Mungo's Hospital and the old-money crowd from the pure-blood families had all gathered here in the name of a charity fundraiser.
On the one hand, much like Hogwarts, St. Mungo's depended on unconditional support from these wealthy families for the coming year's medical research, administrative expenses, and staff allowances. On the other, these pure-blood aristocratic families needed suitable ways to throw money around, exchanging their tangible Galleons for the privileges their families enjoyed in society.
Money and power went hand in hand. A means of exchange like the one used in Britain's Wizarding World could be considered relatively civilized by the standards of human society as a whole. In a place like Azshara, where bastard warlords were everywhere, countless transactions between money and power were far simpler, more violent, and more direct. Roy really had to give methods like this credit for being civilized.
"Let's see—the Malfoy Family, the Parkinson family, and the Goyle family. Those same ones again. Why do people from these families always stick together?"
In a neglected corner of the Ministry atrium, Cedric crouched beneath the Potter family's Invisibility Cloak, holding fireworks specially made by the Weasley brothers. Quietly watching the charity fundraiser for St. Mungo's, spearheaded and funded by several pure-blood aristocratic families, Cedric waited for his chance, then slid straight through a gap in the crowd and into its center in one go.
Casually tossing out the special smoke device Roy had prepared for an escape under cover, Cedric took advantage of the chaos to install his cluster of fireworks beneath the podium.
"What's going on?"
As the representative of the pure-blood family that had donated the most money to today's charity