The Falling-Out of the Hogwarts Four

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 126124


Alla wrote:
<snip>
> Besides, I tend to take as true the  fact that real witches were 
> able to escape persecution. <snip>
> 

Carol responds:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only canon I can recall about witches
and wizards escaping persecution relates to witch-burning.
Historically, witches were also drowned (if they died, they were
declared innocent; if the survived, they were guilty and subjected to
some other punishment) or hanged, as at the Salem witch trials in
1692. Admittedly, that was long after Salazar Slytherin's time, but I
don't think it's coincidence that the Statute of Secrecy was passed in
that same year. So I think it's likely that *not* all witches and
wizards escaped persecution. Either that or in JKR's version of
history as in the RW version, a lot of (presumably) innocent *Muggles*
died as the result of anti-witch/wizard hysteria.

Carol, whose ancestor Martha Carrier, an English settler married to a
Welshman, was one of the "witches" hanged in Salem in 1692