Chapter 3
In the Wizarding world as much as in the Muggle world, drinks are almost always vegan unless one can taste milk in them. When Rose and Hugo were on the train to Hogwarts on 1 September, Rose–just to be safe–confirmed with the witch who pushed the food trolley that the pumpkin juice did not have honey in it. Even with Rose’s rudimentary knowledge of veganism, she correctly guessed that in most cases the avoidance of animal products extended to honey.
When Rose and Hugo got to Hogwarts, however, Rose was far more disgusted than she had been in previous years to see how heavily meat-based the Welcoming Feast was. However, there were enough vegetables that she could technically get enough to eat, although the vegetables did not have as much protein as meat did. James was sitting across the Gryffindor table from Rose–as was Lily Luna, who along with Hugo was in her second year. Despite being members of Rose’s family, James and Lily Luna were quite surprised to see Rose not eating the most filling food items on the table; clearly Ron had not told Aunt Ginny–or anyone else in the Weasley family–that Rose had decided to go vegan. “I don’t even remember Uncle Ron telling me that Aunt Hermione did anything like this,” said James. “He did tell me a story about Hermione refusing to eat any food at all after Nearly Headless Nick let it slip that the food was prepared by slave labour.” Rose explained, “I’m doing something similar, but I believe I have more pressing concerns than Mum did back in her day. How could I not agree with her views on elf rights, having grown up with her? But I have even more of a concern with what the food is made of.” “But aren’t you making the choice to not eat it?” asked James. “And are you being honest with me about why you’re not eating meat? I could easily verify that, but I don’t want to continue the image that Dad, Uncle Ron, and Aunt Hermione created in the teachers’ eyes when they stole from then-Potions master Professor Snape’s private stores to illegally brew Polyjuice Potion. It wouldn’t be that particular potion I needed, anyway.” “You’re not going there. I at least hope Mum understands, with everything she did to improve house-elves’ quality of life when she worked in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures,” Rose said, to which Hugo replied, “I’m having trouble seeing a connection”. (Later in her Ministry of Magic career, Hermione had transferred to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.)
The next day, after all of Rose’s classes were done, she did exactly as her mother would have done: she went to the library and tried to see if she could find any books that would help her maintain her veganism. She could not find any vegan options, other than toast which she chose not to butter, at breakfast; all other meals were quite heavily meat-based. But over the course of the next few weeks, even though Rose spent as much time in the library as she could, she did not find any helpful books. As a matter of fact, she did not find any books that even mentioned veganism, as such a lifestyle (though Rose did not know then that it was more than a diet) was even more foreign to wizards, with their old-fashioned existence even with magic, than it was to Muggles.
Rose did not know that it was a major practice of the vegan lifestyle not to use animals in the service of humans in any way–other than rescuing pets, which was viewed as improving their quality of life; Hermione had done this when she got her old cat Crookshanks, a half-Kneazle (a cat-like magical creature) from a shop in Diagon Alley called the Magical Menagerie. Therefore Rose, being desperate to communicate with Hermione–another problem with Rose and almost all other Wizarding children spending most of the year at boarding school–thought it was all right to send the following letter to her by owl:
Dear Mum,
I am having trouble maintaining my veganism at school. I do not believe this situation is related to magic–it could even be helped by magic; you must have Dad ask Grandma Weasley about this–but hardly any of the school food is vegan. I suppose it’s because veganism is a fairly new concept even in the Muggle world–I would never have noticed this on my own, but with Granddad Weasley’s obsession with Muggle technology and lifestyles, I’ve heard him saying that even with magic we wizards (and witches) live a fairly old-fashioned lifestyle by Muggle standards. There are certain problems that come with this, and–as I said above–these could possibly be helped by magic.
Growing up with you, I’ve learned that I should not make any extra demands on the house-elves in the school kitchen, even though Uncle George has told me stories about going there to “nick” food–although this may not be the right word, as he says that in his day the house-elves, enslaved as they were to wizardkind, couldn’t wait to give the food away–at least those of them who you believe had accepted their status as slaves. Not all of them had, I know–Uncle Harry has told me stories about a house-elf he knew named Dobby, who was set free from his Death Eater masters by Uncle Harry himself, and was later hired by the headmaster at the time, Professor Dumbledore, to work in the Hogwarts kitchens. (I believe you have told me stories about Dobby as well; were you not shocked that Dobby turned down a measure of freedom offered to him by Professor Dumbledore, even though it would seem that Dobby liked freedom?)
Do you know of any books that may help me maintain my veganism, or learn more about what veganism is? It is okay if they are Muggle-published books; I have not found anything helpful in the Hogwarts library, even though you’ve told me that I have inherited your research skills. (Come to think of it, I am sort of jealous that you found such extensive information in the library about elf enslavement when you wanted to research it in your fourth year.)
Love,
Rose
Rose then went up to the Owlery to send the letter–unaware that Muggle vegan activists would not think very highly of such a practice, even though it is perfectly normal in the Wizarding world. A few days later, Hermione received Rose’s letter at home; Hermione wrote in her reply that if Rose came home for Christmas break, they could visit Hermione’s parents and finally meet Mrs. Granger’s vegan friend in person.
Rose thought she could continue going to Hogwarts without violating her new vegan beliefs–which, at the time, only included the avoidance of killing animals or using dead ones for anything. However, she was shockingly reminded otherwise in Potions class the next day; a great many non-vegan ingredients are used in potions, which would not work without such ingredients. Mostly these are dead insects, but sometimes body parts of other types of dead animals were used. So of course Rose was disgusted by this.
After Potions, Rose went to the headmistress, Professor Minerva McGonagall–who had been working at Hogwarts when Hermione was there, though McGonagall had not been the headmistress then; she had been deputy headmistress, Transfiguration teacher, and head of Gryffindor house. Rose explained about her vegan lifestyle–which it turned out was a completely foreign concept to Professor McGonagall, like it was to almost all wizards and witches (possibly even Hermione)–and how this was a problem in Potions. Rose asked if she could drop Potions, but Professor McGonagall said that it was a required class for all Hogwarts students up until O.W.L. (Ordinary Wizarding Levels). McGonagall said that after O.W.L.s, it was up to the teacher how high of a passing O.W.L. grade a student needed to continue with Potions. As Rose walked away from the headmistress’ office, she thought that she might have to leave Hogwarts–Potions was the only class that went against Rose’s vegan lifestyle, but if she had no choice but to take it, she’d be better off away from Hogwarts even if it meant she didn’t fully develop her magical powers.