December 28th, 1894 — Crouch Residence, Bartonburg, Hogsmeade

Aldous Crouch had never had any difficulty promoting the needs—even simply the wants—of Britain on the international stage. For himself, though, he had only ever actively asked three things:

• Helga's hand in marriage (successful)
  
• For the voting populace to place their faith in him (unsuccessful)
  
• For Reuben to be useful and stop inviting chaos to the various Crouch doorsteps (TBD)
  

Selfishness, for lack of a better term, had simply never come naturally to the wizard. That was not to say he was without ambition: one could not rise as far as he had without it, and some decades ago, the Sorting Hat had placed him in Slytherin. Aldous was not, however, the most assertive sort. While he knew what he wanted, seeking it out... well, that was another matter.

The Dempseys had, not for the first time, been invited to dinner, the Malfoys present as well to keep the evening from being considered too intimate. Aside from one of Mrs. Dempsey's work-related stories, the dinner had gone quite without a hitch; the ladies had since adjourned to the sitting room, leaving the gentlemen to their brandy and smoking. With Gaius having excused himself to the necessary, Aldous knew he would not have a better opportunity this evening.

"You must be pleased, Dempsey, to see your elections bill bearing fruit." The matter had been passed by the Wizengamot in the autumn, but its natural conclusion—the compilation of an updated list of votors— was to take place early in the new year.

Ozymandias Dempsey

  

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— Aldous walks with a cane and pronounced limp as the result of a splinching accident. —

— graphics by lady ❤ —

Oz was pleased, but thought it would suit his office best not to show it too openly. The question of suffrage had been enough in contention that he hadn't wanted to admit to his stance during the campaign, and indeed might not have done so without Emilia Wright pinning him down on the subject and forcing a genuine opinion from him. Even after having made it a focal point of his campaign he had still quietly been of the opinion that it was an impossible problem — not one without solutions, but one in which any solution would make enough people unhappy that it was unlikely much progress would be made in any direction. He'd approached it carefully as a result. The committee had been meant to put distance between the bill and him personally, to ensure it wasn't rejected on the basis of Lucius Lestrange's opinion of him as a man, which he assumed was lackluster. The bill had been well-argued, and supported by a wealth of research — it was smart, in other words, not easily dismissed as a folly of eager idealism. Even then, he'd been nervous about it's passage. His youngest brother had nearly threatened to derail the thing by distracting the country with scandal, but fortunately he'd been able to handle that as well, and Don Juan had graciously prevented his next entirely distracting scandal from coming to light until after the bill had passed. Oz wasn't sure how this business that had come out over Christmas was going to resolve itself, but he didn't see any avenue which managed to shutter a bill which had already passed.

"I am," he agreed mildly (humbly, not an adjective he could often claim). "For all his historical grievances with the past few Ministers, I've found our Chief Warlock surprisingly easy to work with." Which was not to say that Lestrange was amenable to change, exactly — but he was a man with predictable wants, at least in this case, so it had not been difficult to ensure the bill pandered to him enough to garner his reluctant support.

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MJ is the light of my life <3