Dark Magic Doth Never Prosper, Part II

[terri_testing]

Part II contains:

Drawback to Not Teaching the Dark Arts
Harry: Seriously Evil Wizard Coming Through?
Blood/Death Magic, Lily’s Sacrifice, and Albus (The White One)
Why Teach that Dark = Evil?
Historical Considerations

Comments

Rest of your comments

[terri_testing]

Yes, about the Animagus transformation, both would be logical?

Regarding children's magic--Whitehound did point out that it would qualify as Dark by Jodel's definition, and you're right, if we put that together with Dark Arts Dementia ALL early-bloomers are at some risk. Which in fact would be another reason for Albus's great-grandpapa to urge that he be given early (supervised) access to a wand. And considering Neville in the mix--he's the only really late bloomer we see, and the one with the strongest moral sense. Nice catch! You're right also, of course the Muggle-raised would be at greatest risk.

Followed by children of Group 3 parents. Little Fred or George isn't evil, so what he's doing isn't Dark, so I don't need to worry about him damaging his empathy. (Though I should imagine how to properly channel your early-bloomer's magic must be as much a feature in Witch Weekly as how to stimulate your late-bloomer.)

Ron is a Weasley, and his parents shun and abhor Knockturn Alley. So I think Molly and Arthur are in group 3, despite Arthur being a Ministry employee. (But then, that would hardly be the only way in which Arthur is out of step with current politics.) As group 3, they would never entertain the notion that an innocent baby defeated Voldemort (clearly a good deed) with Dark magic. Dark magic is evil!

And, just as Harry decided the Map couldn't really be Dark because it wasn't evil, the Weasleys must have decided when Harry proved he was a Parselmouth that Harry, despite that, couldn't really be Dark because they knew him and he wasn't evil. (Which is also Ginny's probable decision-making process with the Diary--my parents warned me to be suspicious of something that thinks for itself, but Tom is nice to me, so the Diary isn't Dark.)

Everyone who's CLEARLY in the ideological anti-Dark group is both Gryffindor and a Dumbledore acolyte. And in my companion essay over on Snapedom, I posit from the Mulciber argument that Severus had no idea that Lily belonged to that group, and argued as though he'd never heard of such a thing as anyone considering ALL the Dark Arts to be INNATELY evil. So I conclude that this group might be extremely young indeed. (Not quite the same as believing all its members to be young.)

I'm posting another soon on Albus's protection on Four Privet. That's an interesting thought, that Harry's threats had weakened the protection. But for now, let's just mention that Albus never said the protection would be good against Dementors. Just against Tom.

Harry's comment hubris? Perhaps.

If I remember correctly, Merrythought was said to have retired circa 1945 after about a fifty-year career. So hired about in the mid-nineteen-nineties. Phineas would then have been just shy of fifty--still strikes me as young for the WW, but not unduly so. And we don't know his previous accomplishments. So that would work.

The shift to stop teaching the Dark Arts could have taken place any time after Phineas's death in 1926 and Tom's conversation with Horace in 1943(?). We don't know when Albus was hired except before 1938; we don't know how long it took him to gain such authority with Dippet that he could influence such things as Dippet's hiring decisions, except that he exercised such sway in 1946. I put the date late-ish because I thought that the Gellert problem and the Riddle would combine to suggest to someone like Albus that knowledge is power, let's disarm the enemy. And I did think Albus the sort to think "I and only I can handle the temptation."

Re: Rest of your comments

[lynn_waterfall]

Ron is a Weasley, and his parents shun and abhor Knockturn Alley.

Well, Arthur and Molly definitely don't want their kids going there, but that isn't necessarily shunning and abhorring. Hagrid doesn't want Harry to go or be there, either, but he saw nothing wrong with going there himself.

It seems to me that they mostly just treat Knockturn Alley as a dangerous part of town, and not somewhere kids should go alone, or without *close* supervision.

In HBP, Harry tells Arthur that the Trio followed Draco to Borgin and Burkes. Arthur knows that that's in Knockturn Alley; we know that from the conversation in CoS right after Hagrid leads Harry out of there. But he doesn't express any particular emotion in response to hearing that they went there.

In short, Arthur had already realized that they'd put themselves in danger by going off somewhere without their bodyguard, and the fact that they'd gone to Knockturn Alley didn't make much difference on top of that, at least not once they had gotten back safely.

Re: Rest of your comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

More on the Elder Wand:

According to Xeno (as well as Albus) the Elder Wand tends to show up in public view for a while, for the term of a Dark Lord or two, and then vanishes. Somewhere in the early 18th century this happened, and then Loxias was defeated by 2 wizards and it isn't known which one of them became the wand's master - which suggests to me that whatever said master did with the wand didn't receive much attention. Also, Gregorovitch kept it in his workshop, mentioned it to other wandmakers, but apparently didn't use it for more than making better wands - as far as anyone can tell. It appears the wand amplifies hubris in an individual manner, whether that means advertising oneself as the best wandmaker around by virtue of having the Elder Wand or believing oneself capable of resisting its lure and taming it.

Regarding 4PD protections: Severus should know enough about Dark Arts to recognize the relative/servant/enemy triad once he gets thinking along those lines. How does that influence his interactions with Petunia in your story? He got to the point he is ashamed for Tom's atrocities against Muggles. And she does give him an interesting outsider's perspective about the first war. There is a beginning that might lead to some level of reconciliation - but if the price is Harry's safety will he go that way?