Wizard Persecution (was: The Falling-Out of the Hogwarts Four)

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 126100


Valky:
But JKR has pointed this out to be relatively laughable a situation
in Harrys History of Magic essay on Witch burning.<

Lindsay:
<snip>
How are children, or any witch or wizard of the time, who have not
been educated, able to know the Charm to keep them from burning at
the stake?<
<snip>

Alla:
I agree with Valky, because for now that is the only canon we
have...<
<snip>

Betsy:
Except that it's not. Actually, canon points overwhelmingly to
Wizard persecution being a very real threat.

<SNIP quotes which could be found upthread>

The first quote is from Professor Binns, the second from Newt
Scamander and the third from Kennilworthy Whisp. All three
gentlemen are presented by JKR as scholars; two of them are
historians outright. To dismiss their wording and the implications
of their statements would be, IMO, a mistake.

Valky now:
Fair assumptions all Betsy, and I'd like to concede and allow them to
be proof that the book Harry was studying from was erroneous rot,
however..... ;-P   It was Harry's prescribed text for History of
Magic, set by Professor Binns. 

Without assuming that Binnsy has read it cover to cover and nitpicked
the fine detail, personally (he certainly has had plenty of time on
his hands for doing so..) we can yet find that some creedence to it's
authority or author would rather likely be paid by Professor Binns or
else why would he choose it. 

Now, with that in mind it begs exactly what kind of an expert on
History Professor Binns really is. In a sense he is espousing two
contradictory versions of it by the reasoning you have given above. So
either he's not spent a whole lot of time on history throughout his
life (and death) or he has reason to believe that both versions are
relatively true to fact.

I would like to try on option B just for the fit.

One thing I think we can safely assume is that wizard persecution
existed in Salazar's time, I have never tried to dismiss this argument. 

What I question is that to what degree were Muggle methods of battle a
serious and mortal danger to Hogwarts via the admission of Muggle
children. 
In other words, did Salazar have the situation out of proportion or
should the distrust of Muggles really have been escalated thus far?

A simple argument to that Salazar's behaviour *was* irrational, is
that History tells of the inability of Muggles to "kill" wizards by
burning, the most common practise and hence a reason to believe that
the persecution was *relatively* laughable.

The other argument in this case is that Salazar transposed his
distrust onto children, the weakest of all, as Lindsay has pointed out
above so again Salazar's position continues to be quite ironic seeing
as he was one of the "Most Powerful" wizards of the age and pretty
hilarious, to boot.

Although I agree with the most of what you say Betsy, the problem is
that my statement above belongs in this context, and doesn't represent
my position without it. In that way, Alla is correct that this is the
only canon we have to gauge the rational level of fear a wizard such
as Salazar would be justifiably working from, and no matter how you
look at it, he doesn't fit under the bar.

Going from there, I'd like to make a further point, that to me feels
important in this discussion, about my position on Salazar. 

Now here's the thing. Tom used possession to preserve his memory in a
*very secret* diary. Dumbledore *couldn't* work out how this was done,
he's got the headmaster from Tom's time hanging on his wall and if he
consulted him about what Tom was *taught* at school to deduce how it
was being done and drew a blank where does that leave 16 year old Tom
with knowledge of an obscure art even a mystery to DD.

16 year old Tom had possession magic at his disposal after exploring
the COS, a kind of Magic that DD is not familiar with, a kind of magic
that JKR saw fit to label as "very secret".

A kind of magic fit to be stowed in a Chamber of *Secrets*? 

Why not.

Dark Magic? 

It is.

Just to be clear I don't think that Godric and Salazar being friends
is any proof at all that Salazar was not into Dark Magic. The ontology
of the founders era is minus the Evil Overlord threatening all of
WizardKind with Dark Arts and plus the persecution by muggles. 
Hence Dark Arts was *not* the enemy leaving Godric and Salazar freely
able to be on friendly terms. Just as I believe Snape and James may
have been in a time other than VWI.

Valky