Filling some gaps about the first war (part 2) - Early Conflict
We left Albus wondering why Tom was doing so little to advance his powers.
Sometime around 1970 something changed. Something caused people like Minerva and Hagrid to fear mentioning the name 'Lord Voldemort'. Something caused Molly and some friends of hers to elope. At the same time, mainstream pureblood wizards still thought this Lord Voldemort guy had the right ideas about who should be running things in wizarding society. At this point Tom was no longer making public appearances, or if he was they were rather brief - because he had become a fugitive from the law ('a wizard who has eluded capture for almost three decades' said fudge in 1996). We do not know what he was accused of. As the case of Morfin Gaunt shows, the original charge may have been something minor (like giving a Muggle hives), but refusing to show up to a hearing is an arrestable offense.
What happened in 1970? Well, in GOF Albus tells Harry "the years of Voldemort's ascent to power were marked with disappearances." And in HBP we see where many of those people may have disappeared to - many of them became inferi, guarding the place in which Tom hid the locket. If Albus thought the disappearances were caused by Tom then people who believed him would fear for their lives (especially if the disappeared came from their social circle), while the official charges against Tom remained his refusal to be interrogated for some minor offense.
There must have been more that the DEs were doing in the open at this time, because even Tom's supporters in the general population thought the means he was using to promote his revolution were a tad extreme. The clearest example of this sort of thing in canon years is the march of black-robed wizards during the QWC, a march that included the torture of a Muggle family. (BTW members of the audience joined the marchers as the evening progressed - in 1994 there were non-DEs who approved.) I imagine that in the 1970s many mainstream wizards thought that random magical violence was not a nice way to express to Muggle-borns that their company wasn't desirable, but that 'those people' were the ones at fault, for not knowing their 'rightful place', being too 'uppity', walking in wizarding spaces as if they were real wizards. Take the QWC riot and repeat with variations.
In HBP Severus remarks that Voldemort used inferi in the past. This must have been during this era, but it isn't clear how they were used before they were left guarding the underground lake. Inferi can certainly be used to terrorize. Perhaps some of them accompanied riots and marches?
And somehow, despite his fugitive status, Tom was getting the word out about his claimed proposals for the future of wizarding society. Perhaps he was making brief appearances at demonstrations. Or perhaps releasing recorded messages. Or running an underground Wizarding Wireless channel.
There was little the Ministry could do about the disappearances. By the time it was obvious someone was gone it was too late to help them. At most evidence could be gathered from places the victim may have disappeared from - home, work place, surroundings of favorite pub etc. Between the delay and the DEs' use of masks and hoods, I imagine the chance of such an investigation leading to identification of a suspect and an arrest was very low. Preventive action was limited by the way wizard homes were dispersed over the country. At most the Ministry could install some Aurors to patrol the few places with high concentration of wizards - Hogsmeade, Diagon/Knockturn Alley, perhaps the perimeter of the Ministry and St Mungo's. In HBP Aurors Tonks, Dawlish, Proudfoot and Savage are stationed by the Ministry in Hogsmeade. Scrimgeour (or Thicknesse) may have resurrected a policy from the first war.
The demonstrations were a more fruitful place for intervention. Call Aurors to keep the peace. Attempt arrests if things got too much out of hand. Again, patrols in likely places may have been placed in anticipation. In addition to the places I mentioned above, that would also be at major public gatherings such as Quidditch games.
The broom-riders that were chasing James and Sirius in the prequel? They may have been rioting DEs that James and Sirius took on, but they may have well been Aurors assigned with keeping the public peace that the two derailed from their duties with their hilarious illegal activity.
Of all of Tom's noticeable activities, I think the one that caught Albus' attention most was the use of inferi. Because that was what Gellert had once spoken of as the use to which he would put the Resurrection Stone. That served to Albus as certain proof that Tom not only had the Stone, but that he was aware of it and was using it. I'm wondering if it was Albus' reaction to the first sighting of inferi, maybe in 1970, that caused his followers to start using the 'You-Know-Who' epithet. And perhaps Albus' mistaken belief that Tom was using the Resurrection Stone lead him eventually to found the Order of the Phoenix. He wouldn't need a private army for replicating the Ministry's efforts, but he did have some unique information about Tom he wasn't sharing. And Tom's ownership of a Hallow was an actionable piece of information. Perhaps the reason some Order members could count three close and personal encounters with Tom himself was that their mission was to try to obtain an object described to them as a source of unique power that Albus believed Tom was keeping on his person. (No, not to add another Hallow to the one Albus had, it was all for the Greater Good of course.)
Clarifications in response to readers' comments:
There was some confusion about my speculations regarding the inferi. We know Tom didn't know about the Deathly Hallows (he only knew about the Elder Wand from Ollivander, never learned of the other two). We do not know how he made the inferi, but it is implied that being drowned in that underground lake turned one into an inferius. I think Tom's inferi were made from bodies of his own victims, possibly only those he killed himself (I'm assuming inferi answer to the one who originally killed them.)
What I proposed was that following Gellert, Albus believed it should be possible to use the Resurrection Stone to make many inferi at once, and he took the appearance of multiple inferi in Tom's service to mean that was how they were made.
Sometime around 1970 something changed. Something caused people like Minerva and Hagrid to fear mentioning the name 'Lord Voldemort'. Something caused Molly and some friends of hers to elope. At the same time, mainstream pureblood wizards still thought this Lord Voldemort guy had the right ideas about who should be running things in wizarding society. At this point Tom was no longer making public appearances, or if he was they were rather brief - because he had become a fugitive from the law ('a wizard who has eluded capture for almost three decades' said fudge in 1996). We do not know what he was accused of. As the case of Morfin Gaunt shows, the original charge may have been something minor (like giving a Muggle hives), but refusing to show up to a hearing is an arrestable offense.
What happened in 1970? Well, in GOF Albus tells Harry "the years of Voldemort's ascent to power were marked with disappearances." And in HBP we see where many of those people may have disappeared to - many of them became inferi, guarding the place in which Tom hid the locket. If Albus thought the disappearances were caused by Tom then people who believed him would fear for their lives (especially if the disappeared came from their social circle), while the official charges against Tom remained his refusal to be interrogated for some minor offense.
There must have been more that the DEs were doing in the open at this time, because even Tom's supporters in the general population thought the means he was using to promote his revolution were a tad extreme. The clearest example of this sort of thing in canon years is the march of black-robed wizards during the QWC, a march that included the torture of a Muggle family. (BTW members of the audience joined the marchers as the evening progressed - in 1994 there were non-DEs who approved.) I imagine that in the 1970s many mainstream wizards thought that random magical violence was not a nice way to express to Muggle-borns that their company wasn't desirable, but that 'those people' were the ones at fault, for not knowing their 'rightful place', being too 'uppity', walking in wizarding spaces as if they were real wizards. Take the QWC riot and repeat with variations.
In HBP Severus remarks that Voldemort used inferi in the past. This must have been during this era, but it isn't clear how they were used before they were left guarding the underground lake. Inferi can certainly be used to terrorize. Perhaps some of them accompanied riots and marches?
And somehow, despite his fugitive status, Tom was getting the word out about his claimed proposals for the future of wizarding society. Perhaps he was making brief appearances at demonstrations. Or perhaps releasing recorded messages. Or running an underground Wizarding Wireless channel.
There was little the Ministry could do about the disappearances. By the time it was obvious someone was gone it was too late to help them. At most evidence could be gathered from places the victim may have disappeared from - home, work place, surroundings of favorite pub etc. Between the delay and the DEs' use of masks and hoods, I imagine the chance of such an investigation leading to identification of a suspect and an arrest was very low. Preventive action was limited by the way wizard homes were dispersed over the country. At most the Ministry could install some Aurors to patrol the few places with high concentration of wizards - Hogsmeade, Diagon/Knockturn Alley, perhaps the perimeter of the Ministry and St Mungo's. In HBP Aurors Tonks, Dawlish, Proudfoot and Savage are stationed by the Ministry in Hogsmeade. Scrimgeour (or Thicknesse) may have resurrected a policy from the first war.
The demonstrations were a more fruitful place for intervention. Call Aurors to keep the peace. Attempt arrests if things got too much out of hand. Again, patrols in likely places may have been placed in anticipation. In addition to the places I mentioned above, that would also be at major public gatherings such as Quidditch games.
The broom-riders that were chasing James and Sirius in the prequel? They may have been rioting DEs that James and Sirius took on, but they may have well been Aurors assigned with keeping the public peace that the two derailed from their duties with their hilarious illegal activity.
Of all of Tom's noticeable activities, I think the one that caught Albus' attention most was the use of inferi. Because that was what Gellert had once spoken of as the use to which he would put the Resurrection Stone. That served to Albus as certain proof that Tom not only had the Stone, but that he was aware of it and was using it. I'm wondering if it was Albus' reaction to the first sighting of inferi, maybe in 1970, that caused his followers to start using the 'You-Know-Who' epithet. And perhaps Albus' mistaken belief that Tom was using the Resurrection Stone lead him eventually to found the Order of the Phoenix. He wouldn't need a private army for replicating the Ministry's efforts, but he did have some unique information about Tom he wasn't sharing. And Tom's ownership of a Hallow was an actionable piece of information. Perhaps the reason some Order members could count three close and personal encounters with Tom himself was that their mission was to try to obtain an object described to them as a source of unique power that Albus believed Tom was keeping on his person. (No, not to add another Hallow to the one Albus had, it was all for the Greater Good of course.)
Clarifications in response to readers' comments:
There was some confusion about my speculations regarding the inferi. We know Tom didn't know about the Deathly Hallows (he only knew about the Elder Wand from Ollivander, never learned of the other two). We do not know how he made the inferi, but it is implied that being drowned in that underground lake turned one into an inferius. I think Tom's inferi were made from bodies of his own victims, possibly only those he killed himself (I'm assuming inferi answer to the one who originally killed them.)
What I proposed was that following Gellert, Albus believed it should be possible to use the Resurrection Stone to make many inferi at once, and he took the appearance of multiple inferi in Tom's service to mean that was how they were made.