How will the Second Voldemort War be fought?

[Jim Ferer <jferer@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50294

Steve:"Voldemort's war will not be war fought on clearly draw battle 
lines;  it will be a terrorist war; a war of terrorizing. For the 
most part, it  will not be a war of soldiers against soldiers. It 
will be random and  brutal raids on the magic and muggle civilian 
population."

Not early on; and I think we should limit ourselves to the first 
phases of the War, since we can't predict further ahead than that.  
The War will not be a terrorist war of the kind we've seen in RL.  
How can Voldemort's goals be achieved that way?

Voldemort wants the wizard world to sleep while he prepares, so he 
does not want a frightened population demanding action and turning to 
Dumbledore when they don't get action from Fudge.

I agree completely that the war won't be one of soldiers v.  
soldiers, certainly not in the sense of battles, at least in its 
early stages.  This will be a clandestine, underground war, the OSS 
versus the Sicherheitdienst.

Steve:"Voldemort will start attacking  his primary targets, Azkaban, 
Hogwarts, and the homes of Dumbledore's  allies."

I can go so far as to imagine Voldemort taking control of Azkaban 
without the Ministry knowing about it.  Put the non-Dementor staff of 
the prison under Imperio (if they're not his agents already), have 
everything look normal, even to the extent of having the Lestranges 
in their cells if Fudge comes to visit.  When the boat comes over 
with a new prisoner, the Dementors are there to receive him and lead 
him off.  And nobody knows.

Steve:"General comments:  I have nothing to base this on but a 
thought, but I foresee, someone  besides Dumbledore being put in 
charge of Hogwarts. That person will  probably be Malfoy. Getting him 
out of there and getting Dumbledore  back will be one of the main 
subplots."

Absolutely, but not Malfoy.  He will return to being a Governor, with 
a fair-seeming but foul underling as Headmaster.  A good twist?  
Snape as Headmaster, who seems to be doing Malfoy's bidding as puppet 
Headmaster but is preserving Hogwarts for the good guys right under 
his nose.  I still think Snape is in deep, deep trouble.  In the 
Muggle world, there's no way he would have "gone operational."

Steve:"Dumbledore is in a spot. He can't attack because there is 
nothing and  nowhere to attack. All he can do for now is gather his 
forces, and  react when things occur. All the accused Death Eaters 
are currently  prominent and power citizens. Voldemort's whereabouts 
are unknown. Then  we are faced with the fact that Voldemort is not 
an easy guy to kill."

Dumbledore's strategy is not wrong because it's difficult.  I agree 
he can't attack - directly - but he is a subtle cove.  I have no idea 
how he can disrupt Voldemort's plans, but Dumbledore does have the 
advantage of knowing who his enemies are *and* knowing a lot about 
them.

Steve:"The Dementors? Should Dumbledore turn the Demontor loose; 
drive them  out of Azkaban, or should he add additional forces to 
Akaban to force  the Dementor to stay contained, and allow his own 
forces to protect  the prison at the same time."

Excellent point.  The Dementors will be a most difficult enemy.  
Despair is the enemy of victory.  Other messages have questioned if 
Dementors can be destroyed; very likely they can't be.  It probably 
is better to contain them so they can't join Voldemort.


Jim Ferer, who wonders if the ghost of Stephen Ambrose will write 
about this someday (and footnote JKR)