Lots of Topics

[Susan McGee]

No: HPFGUIDX 3290

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Joywitch " <joym999 at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, Catlady <catlady at w...> wrote:
> > Meanwhile, just how bad were things "when Voldemort was in 
power"? 
> We
> > hear that during the 11 years before That Halloween, Voldemort 
> killed so
> > many families that everyone was scared all the time, they 
couldn't 
> even
> > bear to say his name, no one trusted even their best friends 
because
> > "anyone" (not just Slytherins) could have gone over to the Dark 
> Side, or
> > been put under the Imperius Curse by the Dark Side --- but the 
> Quidditch
> > World Cup still went on, people still had jobs and got married 
and 
> sent
> > their kids to school, the Marauders cared about their mischief 
> making,
> > and sneaking out of school to have fun, not about protecting their
> > families from being attacked by the Dark Side....
> > 
> I think Rita has hit upon something important here that we havent 
> discussed (imagine that!  an aspect of HP that we havent picked to 
> death yet!).  Why IS everyone so scared of Voldy?  All we know is 
> that he killed a bunch of people.  While that is pretty bad, is a 
> wizard serial killer bad enough to put a whole society in such a 
> fright

Well, I lived in Ann Arbor during the year and a half when we had a 
serial rapist/killer. In the summer, the streets were mostly deserted.
There were no women walking alone. A few mixed gender couples. But 
mostly people went around in crowds. Women jogged together. The fear 
was palpable.

Voldemort killed and tortured a lot of people. The terror was in
the uncertainty -- who would be next? Anyone was vulnerable. 
Voldemort was "taking over" according to Sirius Black. No one was 
sure who could be trusted. Hogwarts was a small island of safety 
(like Britain in WWII) besieged, surrounded.