Starfox5
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Gah! Corrected.
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Hm... so Hermione lost two fighters and has three temporary disabled. On the other hand they've proven themselves and they've got a perspective to end this civil war on their terms. Recruiting more should get easier at this point.
I really hope Dumbledore has figured out a way to find Voldemort and take him out for real. I expect something like putting him into coma or mindwiping him.
Hm... so Hermione lost two fighters and has three temporary disabled. On the other hand they've proven themselves and they've got a perspective to end this civil war on their terms. Recruiting more should get easier at this point.
"Not just them. I've been approached by a number of Aurors who have arrested muggleborns in the last year, and they are all afraid that the muggleborns will take revenge for them doing their duty." Amelia looked at Albus. "They need some assurance that this will not happen."
Albus inclined his head slowly. "I will do my utmost to prevent any revenge being taken. Although I will not protect those who have abused their power. Those who have committed crimes will be punished."
Cornelius nodded happily, but Amelia didn't like that.
"And who decides what a crime is? Are we to follow muggle laws?" the witch said, sneering.
"Those who have helped the Dark Lord will not escape justice," Albus said. "That includes those who have used the opportunity given by those evil laws to harm the innocent."
"Innocent according to what law, Albus?" Amelia stared at him. "The muggle laws, or ours?"
"Since our laws were passed on behalf of the Dark Lord, they certainly cannot serve as an excuse for what was done to the muggleborns." Albus met her eyes. "Although those who have followed orders in good faith will not have to fear much." Though, he added to himself, only because the muggleborn laws did not go that far, yet. "Financial compensation will be enough to compensate most muggleborns for the hardships they endured due to the Ministry's laws." With a glance at Cornelius, who was frowning, he added: "The gold needed can be taken from those who followed the Dark Lord. That would only be just." And would serve to curb the power of a number of Old Families as well. "Those responsible for muggleborns killed while resisting arrest though, and those who relished in hunting the muggleborns…" He spread his hands. "An investigation will determine what exactly happened." He smiled. "Such things are illegal according to our laws as well, after all."
Amelia pressed her lips together. Albus was certain that she was aware of just how many of her Aurors were guilty of what he had just said, if not of outright treason. She didn't like to admit that fact, though, or so he thought. It reflected badly on herself. Justly so, of course - she could have made a greater effort to investigate such claims, at least.
"Desperate people will take desperate measures," the witch said. "Once they realise what awaits them, they'll fight against us."
"I fully expect them to," Albus said.
"Merlin! You are counting on it!" Amelia gasped.
He nodded.
Cornelius was gaping at Albus. "But…"
"It would greatly facilitate matters for all of us if as many of Tom's followers as possible exposed themselves by attacking the Ministry, instead of continuing to hide." It would be far harder to claim that they were unjustly punished if they were caught in the act - or killed. It would also offer those Aurors who had not gone too far the opportunity to redeem themselves.
"I didn't mean to let them go. But if promised some leniency, we might manage to get them to surrender," Cornelius said. "That would spare our own forces from having to fight needless battles."
"I won't condone letting murderers escape justice," Amelia said.
Judging by how Miss Granger's face hardened, she had understood what the older witch meant. Albus fought not to show his frustration with the Head of the DMLE. Forcing himself to smile, he said: "Those who who willingly joined the Dark Lord and supported his goals with gold or spells should not be offered leniency, be they marked or not. They are directly responsible for all the deaths today. But those who simply supported his proposals in the Wizengamot, maybe even unwittingly, should not be forced to join him out of desperation."
"Exactly!" Cornelius said. "We need to draw a line between the Death Eaters, and those who made honest mistakes."
Dumbledore wants to ensure that there won't be any relapse after the war - which means he wants to get rid of all Death Eaters and their sympathisers. That doesn't exclude some tactical concessions. Though it's not really a reversal of his stance - he still wants all those who supported Voldemort with gold or deeds gone, including those bigots who used the laws to hurt mugglrborns. But the idiots who voted for those laws thinking those were needed but did not actually harm others he is willing to spare.
With regards to stopping Dumbledore, the Ministry can't really do anything right now. Dumbledore and Voldemort are like nuclear powers. They can stop each other, but the Ministry can't really stop them. Once Voldemort is gone, Dumbledore effectively has taken over already. That's why the bigots played nice and let Dumbledore push equality for Muggleborns after he had defeated Grindelwald in this story - they knew they stood no chance.
Basically he tried it the nice way, but chances are he'll just be a dictator for a few years once the war is over.Edit: Dumbledore has made many mistakes, but his biggest was his mistaken belief that just because everyone played nice without Voldemort in the picture meant that his reforms had been accepted. With regards to his political moves, he was hampered some by the fact that this Wizengamot is made up of hereditary and appointed seats, meaning the rich Old Families basically rule the Country. Now he might be swaying too much in the other direction - the Wizengamot is cetainly up for "reform" once the war is over, if he has his way.
Basically he tried it the nice way, but chances are he'll just be a dictator for a few years once the war is over.
Dumbledore is "Biased for muggleborn" in the same way the civil rights movement was biased for minorities - he wants them to be equal members of society. He started getting them equal rights after he defeated Grindelwald, proving himself to be the most powerful wizard in the country, and dragged Britain on to become one of the most progressive countries with regards to muggleborns. But he underestimated the resentment of a big part of the purebloods, who really don't like mudbloods.
In short, before he started, things were much, much worse, and he did a whole lot - he changed Wizarding Britain from 19h century Deep South to 1970s Deep South, at least as far as laws are concerned. Yes, there's still a lot of bigotry, and many waited for Voldemort to reappear so they could oppose him, but overall he did very well.
As far as the bigots fighting him... did the racists in Alabama fight the Army once it was deployed? Here, there was the First Blood War, but after that failed, taking most of the brave bigots with them, the rest didn't want to expose themselves again. After all, just because you dislike mudbloods doesn't mean you want to risk your life doing something about them, and a failed assassination attempt would have had quite drastic consequences.
Dumbledore has made many mistakes, but his biggest was his mistaken belief that just because everyone played nice without Voldemort in the picture meant that his reforms had been accepted. With regards to his political moves, he was hampered some by the fact that this Wizengamot is made up of hereditary and appointed seats, meaning the rich Old Families basically rule the Country. Now he might be swaying too much in the other direction - the Wizengamot is cetainly up for "reform" once the war is over, if he has his way.
It is nice to know some of the backstory, but it has no impact. Maybe because it's presented outside the story.
Dumbledore sitting and working through his options after talking to Harry and Ron about the attackers of Haley's Hats, dismissing the Aurors killed (and owner as well possibly) as inconsequential and not arranging the survivors escape only because (if I remember correctly) doing so would make rescuing captured Resistance members more difficult, or perhaps more likely that people would discover he arranged it, has impact. Dumbledore being happy about the "rescue" of the attackers of Haley's Hats make an impact. Buildings on fire because of his memory charmed dupes, a very stupid decision in my opinion, make an impact. (Or perhaps that's just me, since I've seen and helped with a few grass fires.) Regarding the attackers of Haley's Hats, no, given the information provided to us I do not believe they were close to being in the right. And there are a few others things well, although those are mostly him not caring or being negative towards the Purebloods, specifically the Aurors.
Against that... The only two things I can recall is Dumbledore considering what he would decide if he managed to find out where Neville's grandmother was kept, and deciding nothing, and him mentioning once (I think) that he pushed for equal rights for Muggleborn.
That's mostly why I see Dumbledore as biased for Muggleborn and against Purebloods in this story.
Now, how could he be shown as more balanced, striving towards equality?
At this point, it is rather difficult since Brenda Brocktuckle and Dapne Greengrass are basically out of the picture. Either of them having discussions with old timers about the "good old days" and how Dumbledore ruined it could have shown Dumbledore in a better light. Now? Perhaps Dumbledore having a discussion with somebody, a Wizengamot member who opposes both him and Voldemort, with said member stating how this whole fiasco would never have happened if Dumbledore didn't push such and such legal changes through years ago.
My point about the poisons, potions, explosives, knifes in the back, killing curses from behind, rituals and powerful magic items was that with how Amelia sees his current actions, her attempting to find a way to counter him would not be unexpected. Let's see how Amelia might see his actions. She now knows that he was involved with the Resistance, he told her that he saw the death of a number of innocents and neutrals as acceptable collateral damage, he threatened her and Fudge, he told her to her face that he was trying to push as many Aurors as possible to join Voldemort so he could kill them and he suddenly changed his tune when Voldemort escaped. The various conclusions she could draw from that is rather bad. So if she sees bad stuff coming anyway, why not work on a counter or ten?
I don't know, I think the school was his biggest mistake. He had decades as headmaster to influence the new generations and from what was written in this story he screwed it up. Snape is a major one, Christmas and Halloween is another, and not using it to influence the kids is the biggest.
Mandatory classes in Pureblood culture on the one hand, so unintentional rudeness does not occur and mandatory expeditions into Muggle cities on the other hand, with optional shopping, movie and dancing trips so Purebloods and Halfbloods can learn something about what shaped Muggleborn. If he had the clout to force in Halloween and Christmas that should have been possible. Teachers who aren't bigoted and who quietly push for greater understanding. Grooming of Wizengamot heirs, not obviously, but still, doing so would have let him accomplish a lot in the long term.
It's mentioned in the story as well. Voldemort thinks about it, after he has talked to Augusta. Dumbledore thinks about it, and mentioned it to Bones and Fudge.
It's also quite clear that a lot of the Aurors are bigots who will happily abuse the law to abuse muggleborns.
He's biased against the Old Families, and the bigots. The latter make up a sizeable part of the pureblood population. So, yeah, he is biased against the racists.
He is striving for equality. It's just that many purebloods are more or less violently opposed to that. I think I pretty much wrote it out how close Wizarding Britain became to Nazi Germany at the start of the story. And just like Nazi Germany, that wasn't just a tiny part of the population supporting it.
She might try to - but if she fails, or if he finds out what she's preparing, he could decide that the Ministry is too far gone to be reformed, and crush it.
And he did influence the children. Things did improve greatly - but just as our world is not perfect, things are not perfect there either.
As Fred explained to Daphne, her "pureblood culture" is not the pureblood culture - the Weasleys, and many other "blood traitors" don't give a damn about that culture since it has long excluded them for marrying mudbloods. And, to be quite clear: For Draco's kind of pureblood, mudbloods will always be "unintentionally rude" just for not bowing to "their betters".
Dumbledore has been trying much of what you mention - but as anyone can see in the real world, racism and bigotry is not easy to change, or quickly changed with such "soft measures". Which is, incidentally, part of the reason that he's grown quite callous towards the bigots and their system, and thinks maybe the Allied solution for Germany after WW2 - crush the whole damn militarist culture and rebuild the country - might work better.
My apologies, but could you give an indication about where I should look to see Dumbledore's thoughts about how bad things were? Voldemort's thoughts basically just were that Dumbledore was progressive and the purebloods didn't like it and Dumbledore's talk about the muggleborn situation was "nothing to lose and everything to gain" and seemed to be about European muggleborn mostly. (Or didn't I look closely enough at chapter 24? Say the word and I'll look at it again.)
Considering his thoughts shown about the attackers of Haley's Hats and his feeling of guilt at allowing the firebomber to be executed, but not a sympathetic thought about the neutrals killed along with Malfoy, the people burned in the first firebombing and those affected (and perhaps killed) by his arranged firebombing, as well as the fact that he arranged the firebombing in the first place… Has he started to assume the worst of purebloods automatically unless he knows differently or knows them personally?
You most definitely showed how the country was sliding downwards towards something horrible. But I hope you understand that I took Dumbledore's thoughts about the growing bigotry in Slytherin that he had left alone for far too long as an indication of a growth in bigotry over the years, mirroring what was happening among adults, not something very recent. (When I thought him flawed.)
My point is basically that Amelia's actions should depend upon how she sees his actions, what she believes or "knows" that his actions indicate and her personality. She might believe that her chance of success is slim, but so far in my opinion you have written her as rigid, competent, dutiful and brave, not the kind of person to ignore a possible coup in progress, and what she had seen from him could very well be interpreted as getting ready to overthrow the ministry. (Whether she does see his actions that way is of course up to you.)
If she believes, even if she only strongly suspects that he is working towards usurping the Wizengamot (involved in the killing of a large number of neutral members, weakening the Aurors by pushing neutrals and edge cashes to join Voldemort and raising forces to support him in his takeover, the Resistance and Order of the Phoenix) then she should act and plan accordingly. Perhaps move dangerous order members who are Aurors out of sensitive or vulnerable positions ("Moody, you're now part of a rapid response team based out of Hogsmead"), have not so dangerous ones quietly observed by reasonably trusted co-workers ("You have your orders, but let me repeat myself , observation only unless…") and if manpower permit perhaps have non-Auror order members observed as well. I would expect that she'll try to work or most likely have others, halfbloods perhaps, do so on how to counter the resistance ("So, if this jinks works no new non magical fires in the affected area will burn? And this helps us how?") and have her Aurors train using any spells or tactics devised. I would be surprised if she did not try to plan or prepare for Dumbledore, either when he shows his true colours (she believes he is planning a coup after all) or when the Wizengamot gives the orders.
If she believes that he isn't planning a coup, pushed the neutral and edge case Aurors to join Voldemort to strengthen himself politically, but will work within the current system to change it, I expect that she'll try to get him and those who follow his orders the hell away from her remaining Aurors, so that they can't be sacrificed again. Same if she believes he did it out of spire, justice or revenge. Of course, her orders might not allow that, leading to either unhappiness or anger and attempts to safeguard her people from political sacrifice as much as possible.
That is actually not nice to hear. If he acted competently as a headmaster, actively tried to influence and teach the children for the better instead of believing that purebloods just needed to be exposed to muggleborn and did not make major mistakes, the country's future is bad in my opinion.
Why? Because then there is no medium term solution to the country's problem via the education of children.
The number of enemies he and the resistance have made and will make when taking over is bad, but if education and the school environment is unable to sway the middle and lower classes from bigotry then those enemies will have a decent support base in the population. Unless of course there's lots of deaths among the lower and middle class population and the Resistance has the opportunity to quite visibly step between the survivors and the enemy. And even then, positive acceptance might apply only to the resistance, not the general muggleborn population which was in hiding
Which leads to the Resistance having to stay in control and what they need to do to stay in control.
So, then they learn about both sides. Maybe even something about the cultures of other countries, even if only the basics.
And Draco's kind isn't the purebloods Dubledore should care about having muggleborns insulting accidentally. Friendly purebloods like Neville need to stay friendly and neutral (or at least non hostile) ones need to be befriended by muggles. That is why they should learn about the pureblood culture or cultures.
Not that thats either here or there for this story. Although if you want to write another story... Go for it. You don't have to use it in a new story to make me smile, you just have to write a new story. And another. And another. And some more. You are basically one of the best, if not the best writer of serious Harry Potter writers I enjoy. (Not to say that Castle doesn't make me smile.)
Nothing in the books or that I noticed in the story up to now seemed to indicate to me that Dumbledore was or is a competent headmaster that actively worked to minimize bigotry through the use of the school. (I could have missed something in the books and it's always possible I missed something in your story.) Please understand that that is why I wrote what I wrote.
Crush the culture and rebuild it? Would that even be possible without crippling the country, for several generations at least?
Yeah. Dumbledore's and Hermione's problem is going to be to enact a cultural revolution without the usual negative side effects of a cultural revolution. They've got a real problem if they need to purge the ministry too much. Trying to replace your entire administration is a catastrophe waiting to happen. There's a reason why the allies didn't go too purge happy after the second world war in Germany.The country's not dependent on the Old Families, like the Malfoys or the Longbottoms. It depends on people like the Weasleys - hard-working, talented wizards and witches. People who do not think that it matters who your parents were, or who you marry. People who are open for new things and thoughts, and not stuck in the past. Let me be a bit clearer: The pureblood culture of the Malfoys and Longbottoms, is bad for the country. It stifles progres, it provides a glass ceiling for competent wizards and witches, and it is, if not the sole cause, so responsible for a lot of the country's problems. Nepotism, bigotry, corruption - much of that stems from the idea that blood matters, that being born into the right family matters. And that is, in a nutshell, the core of the pureblood culture of the Old Families.
Yeah. Dumbledore's and Hermione's problem is going to be to enact a cultural revolution without the usual negative side effects of a cultural revolution. They've got a real problem if they need to purge the ministry too much. Trying to replace your entire administration is a catastrophe waiting to happen. There's a reason why the allies didn't go too purge happy after the second world war in Germany.
If they only need to replace the leadership and some personel that's fine. But a grand purge isn't really feasible.
Oh well I guess in that case the muggleborn resistance should try to seize the opportunity. If they integrate themselves deeply into the governing structures it'll be very hard to set up that kind of discrimmination again.Well, after the Battle of the Ministry, the staff has been reduced to a skeleton crew by the losses taken on all sides. The catastrophe is already happening, so to speak.
Oh well I guess in that case the muggleborn resistance should try to seize the opportunity. If they integrate themselves deeply into the governing structures it'll be very hard to set up that kind of discrimmination again.
It's that part. I didn't think I would have to go into more detail than there:
He shook his head. "What you call a catastrophe, two dozen wizards and witches killed, would have been called a skirmish by those fighting Grindelwald. Thousands died in that war." With a sneer, he added: "But since they were not British, and most of them were not purebloods of Old Families, I guess you didn't care."
"Muggleborns were the most numerous of those fighting for Grindelwald!" Amelia said.
"And they had good reasons to fight for Grindelwald," Albus said. Once more, the two were shocked. He sighed. "Why do you think I pushed for equal rights for muggleborns so hard after Grindelwald's defeat? I know first-hand how people fight who have nothing to lose and everything to gain." He snorted. "And now you know it as well."
"But… but… why didn't you tell us that?" Cornelius looked confused and desperate.
"And let the Death Eaters in the Wizengamot claim the muggleborns are the second coming of Grindelwald? You know how that would have been received." He smiled grimly.
"You didn't warn us in private either," Amelia said, glaring at him.
"I know what you would have done, had I warned you of a muggleborn uprising in the style of Grindelwald." Amelia would have done her best, or worst, to get the authorisation for a pre-emptive strike. And she would have received it - from the Minister and the Wizengamot.
"You… you protected them! You wanted them to be prepared for this war!" The witch sounded mortally wounded.
"I wanted to avoid this war. I failed. Now I want to win this war. At all costs," the Headmaster said.
The muggleborns didn't have equal rights in Britain, and in Europe. And the situation was bad enough that they joined Grindelwald in a brutal devastating war against their own countries. Dumbledore pushed for reforms, to get muggleborns equality, to avoid such a thing repeating itself, at least in Britain. Was that a bit too subtle? I didn't want to go too blatantly "and things were really bad!"
I think you're a bit biased there. The attack on Hailey's Hats was motivated by getting revenge on a pureblood who made a killing buying the property of a muggleborn who was forced out of business (and worse) for a pittance. That's on the level of Germans profiteering from the persecution of jewish business owners. The people killed were Hit-Wizards enforcing said policies.
And the "neutrals" mingling with Malfoy? They were basically showing their conditional support for the Dark Lord, should he win. As Dumbledore said, some would consider this treason.
With regards to the firebombing attack Dumbeldore engineered, that was on Knockturn Alley - and they attacked the roofs of buildings, most of which should have anti-fire wards, not the people on the street. The odds of anyone getting killed by such an attack were rather low, with the Auror patrols out and about.
The thing is, Amelia does see all those things - but she also knows that there is not a damn thing she can do to stop Dumbledore, because if Dumbledore wins this war, he won't be needing a coup; the entire country will be rolling over and present their bellies to him. It happened before, after Grindelwald, and it'll happen again because that's how things work in Wizarding Britain. Or have worked so far - wizards with the power of Dumbledore can only be checked by other wizards of similar power. At least that's the perception of the majority of the pureblood population. That's how Dumbledore reformed Britain before - he came back the conquerring hero, and everyone did what he suggested, because they knew that if he really wanted, he could go Grindelwald himself.
I prefer to think that changing things takes time. In this story, contrary to canon I believe, it wasn't that things were good and grew worse under Dumbledore's nose. Things were bad - 19th century Deep South bad - and grew better thanks to his efforts. But things are not perfect. Long-term, the solution is to keep going, but it will take a long time. It took almost 150 years from the American Civil War to having a black president, after all, and racism certainly is not dead yet.
Don't forget that the middle and lower classes are not represented in the Government so far. Just reforming the system and turning it into a democracy will win a number of people over. And many, especially the half-bloods, are already leaning towards muggleborns - hiding or not - since they have muggleborn relatives. But to reform Britain, to truly Reform it to a Point where such bigotry can't raise ist ugly head again, one thing has to be done:
The pureblood culture as practised by the Old Families has to go. Friendly purebloods of those families are basically the well-meaning plantation owners in the Deep South who think African-Americans are people too, who might even have freed their slaves, but don't really accept them as equals. And that's because their entire culture has been built upon blood ties, excluding anyone not having born into it.
Well, things were far worse before he started. They simply were not as good as he thought they were, which he realised early on in the story. Whether failing to completely change an entire country in two generations through peaceful and sublte means makes him an incompetent headmaster or simply a man taking on more than could be done by anyone is a matter of debate.
The country's not dependent on the Old Families, like the Malfoys or the Longbottoms. It depends on people like the Weasleys - hard-working, talented wizards and witches. People who do not think that it matters who your parents were, or who you marry. People who are open for new things and thoughts, and not stuck in the past. Let me be a bit clearer: The pureblood culture of the Malfoys and Longbottoms, is bad for the country. It stifles progres, it provides a glass ceiling for competent wizards and witches, and it is, if not the sole cause, so responsible for a lot of the country's problems. Nepotism, bigotry, corruption - much of that stems from the idea that blood matters, that being born into the right family matters. And that is, in a nutshell, the core of the pureblood culture of the Old Families.
The below took me along time, I'm not fast, and I hesitated to post it, seeing as I enjoy your story and do not want to be negative, and I think I came close in one spot. That said, I thought it would be a waste not to post it so read, ignore, pick whatever part you want, basically whatever suits best.
A bit too subtle for me at least. I saw that things were bad, but as Dumbledore mentioned those killed weren't British I saw it as mostly an European issue, with Britain's Muggleborn not being involved because their situation was better. As to the equal rights, considering I saw Dumbledore as biased by the time I read it and he had been shown to manipulate the truth a time or two by then I did not hazard a guess how far behind Purebloods and Halfbloods the Muggleborn were, but rather waited to see what would be revealed. I could imagine anything from Muggleborn being prohibited from holding certain positions (justified as them being able to easily betray the magical world to muggle governments if they held those positions) to purebloods being able to buy a muggleborn's school debt (technically justifiable but so open to abuse no decent person would try to justify it) to purebloods legally being able to kill any muggleborn so long as they can produce any witness that states the muggleborn insulted the pureblood (I can't see that anybody could justify that).
I understand a victim wanting revenge. I also understand somebody profiting from another's misfortune. But there is a difference between somebody approaching the owner, Auror at hand, and threatening her into selling for her shop almost nothing, a person making an offer, saying that that's the highest they're willing to go (and leaving the owner free to choose between offers) and a poor person, offering in good faith all he could scrape together. While all three profit from the owner's situation I would say that one is an evil bastard that deserves an attack, one is a hard bastard that I would feel conflicted about and one is a poor bastard who doesn't deserve an attack.
But all of the above doesn't matter much since it wasn't shown what kind of person the buyer was. For all that was shown it could have been a case of the owner lowering the price again and again until the shop was eventually sold, and it doesn't matter in the slightest when discussing whether what has been shown so far shows Dumbledore as biased or not. What matters when considering whether what has been shown shows Dumbledore as biased or not is whether it has been shown that he knows what the person who bought the shop is like and under what circumstances he bought the shop. As we are not shown anything along those lines I hope you understand why, considering the other items I have also mentioned, I came to the conclusion that Dumbledore automatically assumed the best of the muggleborn and the worst of the buyer.
As to the Hit-Wizards? A direct attack on the Hit-Wizards or Aurors, not killing them to get into your happy place, is one thing I cannot argue against. Not because they enforce the ministries policies, doing it because of that makes it personal and happy place related in my opinion, but because I see them as combatants, a legitimate military target. However, I don't believe that killing them while committing a crime is the same thing.
Let me think a second about why a neutral might have attended Malfoy's ball.
One of these reasons I would admire, three of them I understand and one I both understand and pity, as I have a colleague I once helped talk out of answering one of these "YOU HAVE WON..." emails that landed up in all our spam folders. But Dumbledore is biased against the old families, so it doesn't actually matter.
- He or she is showing his or her conditional support should Voldemort win.
- He or she is not actually a neutral but somebody who has already been swayed (or is looking for an excuse to be swayed) to Voldemort's side.
- He or she wants to make it clear that if Voldemort wins he or she will accept it as business as usual.
- He or she hates both Voldemort and Dumbledore and want to see if there is a possibility of somehow arranging for them to confront and hopefully kill each other.
- He or she is not an adult and was ordered to come by a parent.
- He or she is not too bright and thinks of it as just a ball.
- He or she is concerned about his or her family, spouse and children, and wants to make it clear that so long as they aren't targeted he or she will stand aside. (This person for some reason, maybe good or maybe bad, doesn't believe that Dumbledore or the Ministry could or would protect his or her family.)
- He or she is concerned about his or her workers and wants to make it clear that so long as they aren't targeted he or she will stand aside. (This person for some reason, maybe good or maybe bad, doesn't believe that Dumbledore or the Ministry could or would protect his or her workers.)
- He or she is there to take a quiet look without drawing much attention so he or she can judge how much support Malfoy and Voldemort has among the neutrals and let Amelia know, either at Amelia's request or on his or her own initiative.
- And the last one, which was brought up. He or she judge that with returning from the dead Voldemort has proven that he is greater than Dumbledore and is now showing Voldemort his or her belly.
Now, let's take a look at some who we know attends.Daphne, her sister, her mother and her father. Basically, a husband, a wife and all the children old enough to attend a ball. It probably won't be a family group attending in all cases, but I feel it safe to say that a number of those attending consist of family groups. Now, consider the children. While it is possible that Daphne, Astoria, Tracy, Pansy and Draco were the only children that attended, that being so would be something I would see as very unlikely. Why? Because if there's only going to be five of them, why bring any of them? Also, Daphne, Astoria, and Draco being the only teens left when the bomb went off? There was still dancing and according to Daphne, Astoria should have gone home due to not being allowed to stay up so late, but nothing she thought indicated that there were any other reason. So... Given that and the fact that I noticed nothing in story that seemed to contradict it, I see it as overwhelmingly likely that teens, probably some young teens as well, were killed by the bomb blast. But you advised a while ago that Dumbledore is biased against the old families, so I basically just spent far, far too long on this. Hopefully you or somebody can find some of my reasoning interesting.
As to Dumbledore saying something about it being seen as treason? If he cared about things like that he wouldn't have associated with the Resistance.
Don't take any of the above to mean that I believe attacking was wrong though. I saw and still see it as something that needed to be done. Given the information available to Hermione at the time, not attacking would have been stupid and wrong. Also, given the damage done to Voldemort's followers I consider the attack at least a partial success. My comments are about how what was written along with my thought about it formed my opinions about Dumbledore and how he sees those killed in the attack.
So, it's good because it was a bad part of town and the odds of somebody being killed was small?
I can easily be wrong, but I do not recall Dumbledore worrying about any possible deaths or feeling any sympathy for any loss of life, injury or damage caused. It was a callous plan at best. Any deaths among non combatants, and I do believe it was implied that there were some, I cannot see as acceptable collateral. In fact, as he is not flawed, this makes me hope he gets his teeth kicked in.
I also stand by my words that it was a stupid plan. A bit of good luck on one side and bad luck on the other would have given the Aurors a prisoner (one attacker falling hard, surviving but badly hurt and unconscious, the other poisoning himself), and with those supporting Voldemort knowing that their side had nothing to do with it I cannot see how something would not have come out.
It is a great story, truly something I enjoy and look forward to. But while I can emphasize with a flawed Dumbledore who screws up or doesn't realize what he actually did until too late, a competent Dumbledore who arranged this is not somebody I feel positive about.
I do not see that automatically showing your belly is the response of all, never mind people used to power. Sometimes we'll act, despite knowing it is stupid. Well get angry and "Do", not "Don't". Got myself beat up rather badly two times because of that, once when two s***s tried to mug me and once when I confronted a thief, a former co-worker who just asked for "just a little help" before absconding from work. Her husband worked me over quite a bit. And I'm not a fighter. I'm very bad at it. But in both cases I wen't for the "Do" despite that. Or we'll remember, and act when we can or through intermediaries. (It didn't succeed anyway as they had moved when I decided enough time had passed and checked the house.)
The only thing I can think of to explain it is that the culture they live in basically teaches that those who are sufficiently more magically powerful than you have to be deferred to, with larger differences in power and skill requiring more obedience. If it's a culture wide learned experience, something that basically is taught from birth I suppose I can see it. Although something like that seems to go against blood purity.
Oh, I agree that change takes time. A short term fix would likely just butterfly into ten other problems and without really solving the original problem.
However, if educating the children about the realities of bigotry was an area that Dumbledore was lacking in, relying on proximity and examples instead of working at it, it would mean that more could be done in the future. A lower population, greater control over the school environment (I believe that currently Hogwarts is the only school in Britain, although I expect that to change) and forced attendance could I believe do more than what is usually the case to educate children.
The riot in Diagon Alley seemed to indicate that bigotry against Muggleborn is a bit more widespread than just the Old Families. As to the demographics of racism, I always thought it was more widespread among the poor and the lower middle class than among the upper middle class. However, that is just an impression I have due to minimal reading about skin heads in England and I could very well be wrong.
As to reforming the system, a true reform into a democracy is messy, take a look at Africa and all the failures, corruption, massacres and exploitation by the leaders of various countries as they moved from a colony to a democracy. Add to that I can't see how it would not be opposed by the current government, so Dumbledore would likely have to organize a violent take over, and be a dictator in fact if not in title. Perhaps rather inherited positions, the current ones, as well as a number of positions determined by vote as an intern measure? With the purebloods not realizing they'll slowly be phased out, one by one as the years pass?
As to the culture having to go, I see no quick fix that doesn't have the possibility of blowing up spectacularly, unless an outside force conveniently destroys the majority of the Old Families, making it not Dumbledore's fault. If that doesn't happen, then time, education and subtly making it nothing special is all that I see. If specific forms of greeting is a thing among old families, push it for muggleborn since "that is how wizards do it", until it's more common among muggleborn than among old pureblood families. Demystify their traditions, so that a young know it all can lecture her friends, "... considering the type of wards used that still makes sense. However, the Maiden Room is just a holdover from when they tried to stamp out female homosexuality due to the low population caused...". As to their religion, spread it or something identical to it among muggleborn and halfbloods, so that religion doesn't stand in the way of marriage. Until the only thing that makes them special is their family history, and education can take care of that. But that would take decades.
As I see it to crush the culture, he'd have to crush the Old Pureblood Families, his enemies, those who oppose him out of some principle, those neutral to him, those allied to him and those friendly to him. And I cannot see that they would not oppose him once they realize what he started so hello civil war. So he would need to take their existing wealth, destroy their ability to generate new wealth, destroy any political influence they might have and destroy their ability to oppose him using existing, new, obscure and unknown (family) magic.
So, he would need to succeed in a coup and purge the ministry of all Old Family Purebloods, all sympathizers and family members and all family members of any Aurors he pushed to join Voldemort who were subsequently killed. That would lead to some political problems, both external and internal. Then he'll need to confiscate all of their money, at least all he can. After that he'll need to confiscate their businesses and properties. Then he'll need to confiscate all family libraries as well as all items that might be items of power. He'll also have to kill or mind wipe any of the Old Family Purebloods, the sympathizers, family members of sympathizers and family members of any of the Aurors he pushed to join Voldemort who were killed in the ministry attack who might have knowledge of or the skill to create spells or rituals dangerous to him or his supporters. Lastly, he'll need to control the education of all of the (surviving) children of the Old Family Purebloods, the sympathizers, family members of sympathizers and family members of any of the Aurors he pushed to join Voldemort who were killed in the ministry attack, to ensure that they cannot learn how to create spells or rituals dangerous to him or his supporters.
Also, the confiscated businesses, monies and properties. Who gets them. The money is easy, the government gets it.The properties, so long as they aren't farms or business properties, shouldn't be too much of a problem, although the resentment from those who aren't rewarded might be an issue. The businesses though... Running a business, whether a farm, import export business, some kind of manufactory or a service business takes knowledge about the clients, knowledge about the suppliers, knowledge about the business and skill. Start to just hand them out to trusted followers and there will be a lot of failed businesses. That isn't considering any people or businesses that say no, their contract was with the previous owner, not the new one and any businesses whose product depended on or was enhanced by spells only known to the family.
That's my thoughts at least about a quick fix crush the culture solution. A civil war that if successful leads to a lot of very ugly actions, possibly destroying the new governments reputation followed by an economic collapse.
I generally assume that British muggleborns were treated like coloured people in America - in the 1940s. Discriminated by laws, as well (and more so) by custom - they'd not be promoted past base-level in the Ministry, for example, without any law prohibiting it, just because such a thing is not done. I also assume that it was worse in the rest of Europe.
The odds that instead of a profiteering bigot a poor pureblood bought the shop with their last money without wanting to hurt the muggleborn or profit from their misery is about zero. It's on the same scale as assuming that the three people in white robes and masks torching a house in Alabama 1940 are actually students protesting the KKK by showing how evil their actions are and using an abandoned house that is unsafe and could collapse and hurt playing children as an opportunity. I work at a penal court, and some hypothesis, while not completely impossible (I didn't know it was full of drugs, I just found them in my jacket, I must have mixed my jacket up with someone else's... half a day ago...) are so absurd, they can and will be dismissed without further evidence.
If the attack on those profiteering from the war against muggleborn is legitimate, then attacking the Hit-Wizards defending them is legit too.
It's basically collateral damage. And Dumbledore is also trying to discredit those who give a Death Eater the time of the day.
Even prisoners wouldn't have done that much. In a propaganda war, truth is not as important as perception.
It's more that as a whole, countries tend to submit. Those who are as inflexible as to not submit when it's hopeless rarely stay in positions where they actually can do much when they are losing a war - they tend to die before the end. In this case, most of the radicals who would not agree that Dumbledore's views are actually correct and would actually oppose his reforms are already fighting him. As Fudge shows, those used to power will adapt, given the opportunity.
I don't really see why we should hold Dumbledore to higher standards than our own societies. We teach children that racism and bigotry is bad - seen the Superman comic where he tells students that discrimination is unamerican from the 40s? - and yet bigotry and racism is not over. You can't simply brainwash kids, not with the parents still in the picture. Not even in boarding schools.
The Old Families are not middle class - they are the aristocracy. The Billionaires of Wizarding Britain. And the riot was staged. Some will get caught up and join, but it was pretty much directed by some Death Eaters.
Why would Dumbledore have to organise a violent coup if he is, de facto, and arguably de jure thanks to his offices, the leader of Britain? But, and this is important: He tried the slow, subtle way. For decades. It did not work. The corruption, the nepotism, all the things that plague the failed democracies you mention, has deep roots in the system.
...
As I said - if Dumbledore wins, there's no need for a coup if you're all that is keeping the present Ministry going. There are no political problems if you could easily take over by force and everyone knows it. There are not many stupid enough to oppose Dumbledore by trying to back political ideas Voldemort stood for.
Why should anyone care about "pureblood culture"? Why teach anyone about it? Why try to preserve and even value what is, essentially, the culture of a rather small minority and built upon looking down on anyone else? It's far easier to break their hold on power, politically and economically, and then simply let them fester and rot in their own tiny pond while the rest of Wizarding Britain goes on. I have to reiterate again: At its core, the Old Families's pureblood culture is built upon the belief that blood matters most. You really do not want to spread that sick ideology around. All the rest? The traditions and such? Trying to spread that to muggleborns is pretty close to trying to tell black kids that white robes and pointy hoods are fashionable, because while that same garb is used in religious ceremonies in Europe, and therefore not evil per se, it stands for something evil in the USA.
Also, the Old Families are already quite prominently engaged in a civil war on both sides. If they had any new, obscure and unknown family magic, they would have used that already to fight their current enemies.
You seem to think that the Old Families were merchants and businessmen. That's not true. They are aristocrats. They have people - hired help, maybe some of the poorer relations - running their businesses for them.
I've given you my thoughts. I think the main difference is that you see the Old Families as a true elite, leaders knowing more than others, knowing more spells, more about business and magic than others. In this story, that's not true. Their power is based on having been born into families who own Britain. Land, businesses, seats in the Wizengamot. And since they dominate the politics, they can and did ensure that things stay like that.
Also, if you simply confiscate all the wealth from those who supported Voldemort, and end the stranglehold of the aristocrats on the economy, odds are that the new businesses generated by this will sweep the rest of those unable to adapt away. Especially if the most competent employees of the Old Families can now found their own businesses.
First of all, if you wish me to stop with a line of thought, just say the word. It will cut down on the amount of time it takes me to answer at the very least, leaving me more time for reading. Which I'm about to do.
I don't believe I ever disputed that whoever bought the shop profited from the situation or the owner's need to sell, even said poor person making an offer in good faith. I used an extreme example to show one end, the bigot using an Auror to force a sale at the price he wanted, a mid range example of somebody making an offer (yes, bad considering the value of the shop) and implied both that said person making the offer could have afforded more but the offer was accepted as the best of a very bad lot, another extreme example on the other end of the scale of a poor individual making a normally inadequate offer in good faith and threw in the possibility of the owner just having to keep on lowering her asking price until somebody eventually approaches her to accept.
The extremes I consider unlikely because, well, because they're on the two extreme sides of possible buyers, and if we have been shown that it is either I did not read it as such. The middle one, like I said, I'm conflicted about that one. If the attackers had not been attackers but rather robbers, getting the difference between what was payed and what the shop was worth without any killing, I would applaud them. If they got a bit extra I would feel that they deserved it. If they wrecked the shop without killing anybody I would congratulate them. But the killing, which was planned for, considering the explosives, I cannot bring myself to consider appropriate revenge for what we were shown. (And I do not believe that revenge should be planned to spill over onto anybody but he or she who you know harmed you.)
You already know my opinion about how I think Dumbledore saw it, the muggleborn in the best light and the pureblood in the worst, but... You make sense. It makes sense for Dubledore to automatically think ill of the buyer, the pureblood, in this case. I do not believe thinking the best of the muggleborn makes sense unless he is biased, but then I am of the opinion that revenge should not exceed, or not by much, the harm done, and this obviously was revenge
I see the attack as an act of revenge, I do not see it as a legitimate attack against the ministry, against the ministry's infrastructure, against the ministries forces, against the death eaters or against the death eaters' resources. Because I see it as an act of revenge, not war, I see any Aurors and Hit Wizards killed as killed while trying to protect the public. If your intention was for the killings to be seen as something else then I will have to be the person who cannot see it as such.
I've always seen those killed in the bombing as acceptable collateral damage, and I think I have always stated it as such. My point has been that from what has been shown of his thoughts, Dumbledore doesn't feel any sympathy about any of those who died. And given the possible reasons for attending as well as the young ages of some of those killed it shows us something about Dumbledore that he does not feels sympathy.
That operation of his basically showed him willingly and out of his own initiative doing something that could (and did if I read Fudge's comment to Dumbledore in chapter 27 correctly) allow for non-combatants getting killed so he could try and shift the blame for certain actions to Voldemort. And if he felt any worry, sympathy or sorrow I do not see where it is shown.
Quite true. But consider that the ministry appears to be in control of the majority of the media. So, to use the media to influence the ministry isn't possible. That means the ministry needs to be influenced by what gossip and information they receive from their contacts in the Aurors, what truth and lies they receive from Dumbledore and his mouthpieces and what truth and lies they receive from Voldemort's mouthpieces. So, while Voldemort's supporters and Dumbledore's supporters are working on the unaligned ministry members, interfering with each other, the two prisoners are interrogated quite thoroughly because one is a Muggleborn captured in Hogsmeade and the other a Pureblood captured in Knockturn Alley and that doesn't make sense at first. So, what perception is created when it becomes known that the Muggleborn attacked out of his own will and did so for the first attack as well while the Pureblood was compelled to do so via charms? Vicious Muggleborns and victimized Purebloods at best in my opinion. And in the meantime, the Aurors try to find out who did it.
The countries I don't agree with, since countries submit to countries, not individuals. If you want my reasoning, I can give it.
I don't hold Dumbledore in this story to higher standards, I actually preferred him and emphasized with him when I thought him to be severely flawed, unsuited for his positions but doing what he honestly thought best, without always realizing what he was doing. (Currently I hope he gets his teeth kicked in. Violently.)
My apologies, I've been working with your statement that a sizable part of the pureblood population are bigots as well as with the riot mentioned in story with regard to the middle and lower classes turning towards Dumbledore, since I don't think bigots will.
I believe there is a miscommunication here. How did you mean "crush the whole damn militarist culture and rebuild the country"?
I took it to mean, considering what was written about friendly Purebloods, that he wished to crush it, not apply pressure, work at educating people or work within current the system.
If I understood "crush" correctly, once he started showing what he was doing, he would be opposed by the all remaining members of the Wizengamot who are not senile, since he is attacking them. Hence the coup.
I think we're talking about two different things. I'm talking about the superficial aspects of the culture, the greetings, holidays stripped of original meaning and, somewhat deeper, the trappings of their religion being made into nothing special, because it's common. The demystifying of their traditions. You're talking about the goal of the culture, the deep part.
And why did I write what I wrote? Why say spread the superficial aspects far and wide? Because with the way the story has been set up so far I one of four things.
The bigoted poor, the bigoted middleclass, the families of the Aurors pushed to join Voldemort and then killed, the families of neutral Purebloods killed in the attack on Malfoy Manor and remaining Old Family Purebloods who oppose Dumbledore pulling together due to their dislike and hate basically destroying the country, either by splitting the country or by what happens when the rest of the country acts to put them down in a quick fix.
Dumbledore acts to break their political and financial power, to crush their culture and rebuild the country, before the split between his followers and the bigoted poor, the bigoted middleclass, the families of the Aurors pushed to join Voldemort and then killed, the families of neutral Purebloods killed in the attack on Malfoy Manor and remaining Old Family Purebloods who oppose him becomes obvious. After the newest war and what "needed doing" there are no more Old Pureblood Families, the country's financial situation is exceedingly bad and the new government's reputation is bad.
Voldemort does something that basically solves Dumbledore's problem. Not an immediate fix, but his actions clear the path and make it possible.
The bigoted poor, the bigoted middleclass, the families of the Aurors pushed to join Voldemort and then killed, the families of neutral Purebloods killed in the attack on Malfoy Manor and remaining Old Family Purebloods who oppose Dumbledore are left causing a split in the country, but due to the education of Muggleborn in their culture, the superficial aspects, the difference between Pureblood and Muggleborn appear to be minimal for the younger generations, allowing the two parts of the country to gradually come together, after which education works to destroy the present goal of the Pureblood culture.
I see obscure magic as something that is learnable if you know where to go to learn it. Not something really secret, but something that requires quite a bit of effort to learn, because of the low number of practitioners who know it. Something like the curse Bill Weasley used.
I see family magic is just that, something someone in the family researched, wrote down and that did not enter into general knowledge. A number of people might know their own variations of it, each variation developed by somebody in a different family, but it isn't taught to outsiders The withering curse used on the Creeveyss may qualify, depending on how you write it. As for the rest, your choice, but all that dark spells and rituals Voldemort knows had to come from somewhere, and to me it makes more sense that such things are closely guarded family secrets that Voldemort bargained for or stole, than that there are books with them for sale in the right pawnshop.
I see new magic as just that, a spell or ritual the wizard or witch has just researched. Considering that I doubt active combatants do much research, I see that as a problem for Dumbledore for after the current conflict.
Actually, given the number of different Greengrasses and Parkinsons shown I see the Old Families as extended families, clans are perhaps a better term. (Then again, perhaps clans is not quite the right term.) Extended families that own businesses and properties.
And they have been at it for quite some time, are still there and are still rich. Now, when it comes to business, you are quite correct, I don't see the head of the family as the one managing the various businesses. That is given to other family members to do, so long as they are competent enough to turn a profit. Unless of course the family tree has been rigorously pruned, like the Blacks I believe, in which case an outsider, somebody who doesn't have any blood ties to the family, would need to be hired. And what kind of manager would they likely hire? The kind of Pureblood who, as far as they can see, shares their values or the Pureblood who doesn't care for them? I believe the managers of most of the businesses owned by them would either be family members or the kind of people Dumbledore would not wish to leave in charge.
I see them as having something that works though. Kind of. The most efficient, most profitable system it is not. The best person for a job does not wind up in charge, the most profit isn't being made and magic isn't being advanced the way it could be, the way it should be advancing. The amount of wasted talent and skill is enormous. The cracks in their society is large and the current underlying goal of their culture is stupid. Given a minute or two I could think of several things they could have done to improve their country while still remaining on top, and I'm not fast
But I also see them as having been around for a while, with all the advantages that entails. Property, businesses, books and magical items. So long as each family head adds just a little, eventually there would be a lot.
The main problem with new businesses are the old, existing ones with the resources behind them to provide a service or item at a better price than the start up. The stranglehold as you call it. How would you end it, without destroying the economy in the transitionary period?
Rebuilding the economy wouldn't be too hard either. Reparo is king.If the war goes on for much longer, then the economy is already destroyed. Fortunately, magic means that even with a destroyed economy, people are not in danger of starving, or losing their houses. Provided they have some basic competency with magic.
Rebuilding the economy wouldn't be too hard either. Reparo is king.
Anyway interesting chapter here. So we've just seen Voldemort's plan B. I'm curious how the good guys are going to counter. Just turn people into magic cyborgs, I guess. They can't really afford to wait forever for a cure now.
Either way if Voldemort had any chance to win back significant support he just blew it.
I wonder what the muggleborn in France actually do. Return to the muggle world?
A classroom that's available to be used for unofficial activities but is not "abandoned"? Preposterous!Hermione Granger checked the privacy spells in the unused classroom the Resistance had taken over. She
Good twist!
A classroom that's available to be used for unofficial activities but is not "abandoned"? Preposterous!
By all means, keep giving feedback (although I might be slow in replying since I do need to get the next chapter written too ).
You later mention making an example - making an example out of a war profiteerer might cut down on the amount of such things happening. But it was disproportional revenge taken there, objectively. But the muggleborns do see the parallels between their own situation and the situation of the jews in Nazi Germany. They don't see just war profiteerers, they see people supporting the mass-murder of muggleborns and making profit from it. And Dumbledore likely doesn't really show that much understanding for such a distinction either. It's a civil war against nazis - people are getting radicalised.
Since those same Aurors will dutifully persecute muggleborn the next day, I'd say it makes no difference just when you're attacking them.
Good point. I might add something to that extent when I go over the chapters again before posting on AO3 - he does feel sympathy for the children, at least.
I might add some there, but for him, there it's really mostly "needed to be done" thinking, with the actual risk of innocents dying rather slim.
"But it will seed doubts." And, once the war was won, it would allow the purebloods to blame the Death Eaters for all those attacks, which should help with reconciliation.
If it ever comes out that the pureblood was charmed - Dumbledore is not exactly an average wizard, and he has moles inside the Aurors too. So, even if there had been a survivor to be arrested, that wouldn't have meant anything came of it. (Like Voldemort, Dumbledore usually has a few failsafes for his plans).
Thing is, in this story (and most of mine) wizards like Dumbledore and Voldemort are the equivalent of armies where military might is considered. So, yes - Wizarding Britain would submit to him or Voldemort, whoever wins.
I see him as the Western Allies in WW2. Far from being pure and saints, far from being perfect, but compared to the other side? They're the white hats.
A sizeable part of the purebloods are bigots. Just as a sizeable part of the population in our world are racists. But usually not on a "let's go an murder people" level.
What was done to Germany after WW2, just a bit more thorough - less Nazis going free or getting pardoned because they are useful. But as with the Hitler greeting and the svastika, symbols of the culture responsible canot be preserved. That includes religious ceremonies and traditions long since tainted by pureblood ideology, but also those more recently instrumentalised by Voldemort's ilk. You don't have to make all of them illegal - discrediting them through various forms will suffice. There certainly were no marches with torches in Germany for a long time after WW2, or anything that reminded people of the style of the Third Reich.
The superficial aspects are symbols of the pureblood bigotry. They are linked to the deeper part - that blood matters.
Or it could be that the majority of the population is so sick of the war and deaths, that it doesn't take that much to blame the blood purists for it, and the Old Families still clinging to their bigotry will lose the support of the rest of the purebloods. As cynical as it is, blaming everything on the leader(s) makes for easy converts to the new regime.
That's a very tall order. Expecting the muggleborns to show understanding for pureblood traditions that they associate with mass-murder? Or wanting to learn about all those nifty quirks of a group of people who looked down on them for generations, when instead they could band together with the rest and build something new?
Those who would make such an effort are very likely to already making an effort in the war.
The withering curse was created by Voldemort himself. Like many other spells he uses. (I generally don't like the "ancient magic is so powerful, we are but shadows of our ancestors" trope.) So, there won't be many "old family spells" that are anything but quaint variations of common spells - and often already outdated and outclassed.
Well... the two most talented wizards who have the capability to actually do such research are Snape and Hermione. So, unless he really screws things up with them, he'll be good for about 20 years until there's another genius around on that level. Unless there's trouble with the foreign countries. But even so - wizards on his level are not common.
Sometimes the blood ties grow rather thin. Or sometimes, a more competent non-relative is hired to keep the competent relative in check. In any case,there are a lot of people able to take over, and enough of them should be untainted.
The Headmaster didn't have to wait long. "He wants me to prove my loyalty, and deliver a child as a sacrifice to him!"
Albus took a deep breath. He had hoped that Severus would be able to gain Tom's trust thanks to his spying and his skill with potions, that the deed the younger wizard had done to earn his mark, and his past services in the last war, would be enough, but the odds hadn't been that good to start with. "I see."
Severus was looking at him. Albus knew what his friend was asking, and shook his head. Some prices were too high to be paid for anything.
If the example you're talking about is what I originally believed he'd do when crushing the pureblood culture, then I have to say that while I believed it something Dumbledore as how I currently see him would do, it isn't something I would approve of either. But then, Dumbledore as currently portrayed… I believe me stating I hope he will get his teeth kicked out is a hint of how I see him at the moment.
Also, this wan't shown as somebody making an example. It was shown as revenge. Revenge taken too far in my opinion. That is why I said that Dumbledore's thoughts about the attackers showed bias for muggleborn.
Or, to put it another way. What the attackers did revealed something about themselves. That they are the kind of people willing to take revenge (not a problem in my opinion) and to go too far while doing so (definitely a problem in my opinion). It can be argued why they are the kind of people willing to take things too far, and if shown in any thoughts that could be a reason for sympathy, But Dumbledore wants to help them them to escape and the reasons, if I recall correctly, that he doesn't is that it might make future escape attempts for more valuable prisoners more difficult and that it might be traced to him. And then, when they do escape, he feels he should be happy and would have been if they just used a different escape route. So, to me that shows that Dumbledore has no problem letting Muggleborn who take revenge too far out on the street. I feel that that reveals something about him, how he sees Muggleborn and how he sees Purebloods.
For me it's not the when, it's the why.
I believe that intent matters and that the attack indicated the intent was revenge, making the Aurors and Hit Wizards defenders of the public when killed. (Not very competent ones true, but still, acting as defenders.) While practically there might not be much of a difference between the outcome of them dying in a legitimate war attack and this one, why they went to die and what their killers were doing does tend to colour my view. What can I say, a person, utter bastard or not, risking his or her life to protect somebody I feel deserves to be respected for that. It is one of those things I have a firm opinion about.
Risking non combatant lives, innocents perhaps, for that? "Some doubts" and after the war the ability to blame the losers for things that the perpetrators should have been punished for. What he did... Unfortunately one of the blurbs at the top of the chapters already indicated he would survive.
Now, you've been writing him as taking some questionable actions for what he believe is the right reason. That means that some people, myself in this case, will look at the question and will answer it as a "No", not a "Yes" or a "Maybe". And truth to tell I see nothing wrong with having a person or two in a story that requires one to think about actions and costs to others. Of course, I do prefer if said person do not escape all the consequences of their actions, but that's a personal preference.
Oh, I'm certain Dumbledore's spellwork is subtle. However, when his own brother stated that there were Aurors capable of spotting even his Dumbledore's memory charms, he did not dispute it, he stated that he would have the captives act in such a way that they not survive so that it would not be a problem.
The thing though is that I cannot see how Amelia would not see both purebloods and muggleborn attacking in roughly the same manner at about the same time as both unusual and an opportunity. The unusual part should have her investigating it very thoroughly. The opportunity part should have her be careful about her prisoners. Add to this that she probably knows enough about Dumbledore to not completely trust him and that he has both sympathizers and agents among her people. (It goes without saying that she knows that Voldemort has both sympathizers and agents among her people.) So I see the best and most trustworthy people guarding and examining the prisoners.
Now, if Dumbledore owns both Amelia's best and second best examiner, if Amelia has no reason to think that they might have any outside loyalties and no reason to think that somebody (Voldemort) might be able to apply pressure he could have them conceal the fact that the pureblood was memory charmed. That of course also requires that any changes made are not changes that would appear to conflict with the prisoner's previous actions and behavior.
As to the prisoner committing suicide by smothering himself with a pillow? I can't see him being left without a guard.
All that said however, there is a possible form of insurance that could have been used and that you could have Dumbledore mention or think about. Slow acting poison. Something that would kill them after a certain period of time. So any interrogation or examination would have a limited window of opportunity unless bezoars were kept handy or used. Far from perfect and liable to raise questions, but still an added bit of insurance. Making the plan a bit less stupid.
Oh, it doesn't matter that in combat potential Dumbledore can match a small army. That's not any part of my reasons. The problem with a country staying submissive to him instead of to another country comes in when you consider that he is available to be plotted against and has no redundancy.
Availability.
Dumbledore is there to be observed, plotted against and assassinated. His habits and general reactions to certain situations can be observed with relative ease, decisions can be made and unexpected situations can be taken advantage of either immediately or at a very short notice.
When it comes to the leaders of a country that forced your country to submit and the leaders of its armed forces, then there's the distance between you and them, necessitating the use of various agents to observe them, the delay between order and action, more points of discovery, more failure points and being unable to take advantage of opportunities due to the delay between agents reporting the opportunity, reaching a decision and the new orders reaching the agent.
Basically, when plotting to assassinate the leaders of a country or the leaders of the armed forces of a country there are a number of agents required, a line or multiple lines of communication required and a time delay. This leads to more points of failure, more possible points of discovery and delays.
Redundancy (The Main One)
Say you successfully kill Dumbledore, two very small very sharp needles enchanted to cause no pain at all, a painless binary poison that is very quick, very deadly and has no symptoms. Or a fast acting poison gas, odorless and colorless. Or a focused explosion. Or a ritual. Or one of several other things. What then? What happens to the military might he controlled? It goes away.
Now, what about the military might of a country? You kill the king, president, minister, controller of the army or whoever. His or her replacement takes over and whoever ordered the assassination is killed while your country is stomped flat. There are successors.
So, while Dumbledore can win, I cannot see that he can keep a government submissive if doing things that they will recognize as destroying their power, their religion, if they are true believers, or their culture.
I believe that this part of the discussion started with me making a statement that Dumbledore and the resistance has made a number of enemies, who will likely have a support base among the middle and lower classes, since education apparently would not work in the medium term against the bigotry of the middle and lower classes. That led to a statement that just by giving the poor and middle class purebloods the ability to vote Dumbledore will win a number of them over. It appears as if this part has wandered and twisted until it serves no purpose anymore.
Given that almost the only piece of Pureblood culture we've seen so far is their religion and that seemed to be more private and family based than anything else, I cannot really say much. (Perhaps it is the only part shown since I can't recall anything else.) As to the religion, have you ever met a true believer of a specific religion? Just to point out, if Dumbledore starts working against any religion he will make enemies who won't forgive him. Ever. (Actually, considering that he's already messed with it once, that might be why some neutral families wouldn't have wanted anything to do with him.)
There we'll have to disagree. For me the various polite ways to greet somebody is just that, polite greetings. The various small courtesies are just that small courtesies. What they originally meant are worn away by use.
For instance, a handshake is a handshake but the woman (or girl) is the one who actually initiates an embrace and a kiss on the cheek if she feels close and friendly enough. A male starting an embrace and kissing the girl and or woman is not exactly wrong, but it can be seen as rude depending on whether the lady has or has note done so first on previous occasions and what the relationship is. A stranger doing so to a family member (or friend) is seen as overly familiar and rude. Where this comes from I do not know and do not care.
The oldest male present is the one who says grace, unless he asks somebody, generally only when visitors are there and the visitor is liked and close. A visitor who on his or her just starts saying grace is very rude. Again, I do not care about where it comes from and any meaning has been worn to almost nothing.
You screw up and you're seen as rude. You don't screw up and you're seen as polite.
And holidays? For instance Christmas, how many people still see it as a church day to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and how many see it as "Gifts & Party" day? By spreading it and commercializing it it is being robbed of deeper meaning.
I can't see that Dumbledore and the Resistance's enemies will go away. (The families of the Aurors pushed to join Voldemort and then killed, the families of neutral Purebloods killed in the attack on Malfoy Manor and remaining Old Family Purebloods who oppose Dumbledore because he's trying to weaken them politically and financially.) That leaves non bigoted portions of the poor, middle class and upper class as well as any bigoted persons who decvide to accept Dumbledore's changes.
Actually, the new muggleborn generally know nothing about the various magical cultures, traditions and histories. They got their letter, got a visit from a professor (maybe) and, as far as we're shown, now has to cope. At 11 years of age. Frankly, basic classes for first years called "Wizardling World: Good Idea - Bad Idea" would be a blessing.
I agree. Obscure magics could be a problem for Dumbledore after the war, not during it.
I see basically four kind of family spells
First, the stuff that isn't worth it. Created years ago, very useful when created but it isn't part of an illegal or controlled tradition or school so there has been enough improvements that it's less fast/penetrating/whatever than newer spells. Or, it has an interesting, useful or unique effect but it needs to be recreated to keep up with the capabilities of new spells.
Secondly, worth it but so specialized that it generally isn't taught or researched, and useful in a not so profitable field. For instance an area of effect fertility ritual that increases the fruitfulness on a farm. Very very useful to know if you have a farm, almost worthless to know if you don't.
Thirdly, worth it and valuable in a specialized and profitable field. For instance, enchanting of brooms if the family has such a business, with family members and talented outsiders researching to improve spells or create new spells to improve brooms. (I expect that non family members who research or know the "family" spells are well paid and agreed to be bound by magical contracts / conditional curses so that they can't let secrets slip.)
Fourthly, the bad stuff. Illegal, controlled and "dark" spells and rituals. Magics that can't be openly researched or taught and just knowing the spells and rituals will get you in serious trouble. Old stuff unless a family member researched and updated some of it within the last generation or two. Since such magics generally aren't researched there are less likely to be counters and less likely to be more modern versions. How such magics compare to modern ones? Probably not too well, though there will likely be some exceptions. But they can be used as a shortcut to research more modern versions. And magics like these would not be taught to children or be common knowledge.
So in this story one needs to be a genius to research new or modified spells and rituals?
I don't know, if somebody believe in the importance of family and blood, who would they appoint to a position, all else being close enough to equal, the blood relative, distant though the link may be, or the stranger? Who would they hire, if no blood relative was available, all else being close enough to equal, the person who shares their religion, culture and views, or the one who doesn't?
As to a relative being too competent, I expect that they're called in, told that they're being considered for an important position in the family, and asked to swallow some Veritaserum. "Nothing against you, but unfortunately it's family policy that everybody assigned to such important positions be dosed once a year."
I assume it is the sacrifice and not the death of the child that is giving Dumbledore difficulty?