A Dark Glamour - Voldemort's Appeal

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 178944


>Mike 
> Which begs the questions: How did he get so many followers? Why 
would 
> anyone *now* choose to follow this Lord Voldemort guy? What was the 
> appeal in this snake-faced guy that never showed affection to his 
> followers?
> 
>a lot of snipping of a very good post.
> 
> One last ingredient is needed for Voldemort's recruitment potion to 
> be complete. A message, a rallying cry. So Voldemort picks blood 
> purity. Whether or not he believes this himself, canon is unclear. 
> For my money, though he was a half-blood himself, I think he has a 
> hatred for anything Muggle. It goes all the way back to his Muggle 
> father abandoning his pregnant witch mother, causing her to die 
> penniless in London. 
> 
> ***************

Potioncat:
In DH around cpt 22, Lee Jordan and K. Shacklebolt are encouraging 
wizards to use charms to protect their Muggle neighbors. One of them 
says something along the line of "You may think Wizards should 
protect wizards first. But from wizards first, you get Purebloods 
first then you get DEs."...probably I've paraphrased this badly, but 
I just heard it today.

I don't think LV started with Blood purity, I think he started with 
Magic folks asserting their place as leaders....much like GG did. 
Kreacher said that Regulus wanted Wizards to come out of hiding.

So I think LV started out with Magic is Power, and from there it 
became Pureblood superiority. And while LV says what best serves his 
purpose, he seems to approve of all Magic-born wizards, even if they 
are not Pure. 

I think it was the idea of coming out of hiding that appealed to 
Regulus and possibly to Severus. And it's easy enough to think of 
yourself as all Prince and not a bit Snape Or, all magic with nothing 
of your Muggle side in your blood. While there's no reason for either 
LV or Snape to believe in Pureblood superiority--both might believe 
that Muggles are bad.

 

> Mike:
> "[T]here were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true 
> colors, who thought he had the right idea about things.... They got 
> cold feet when they saw what he was prepared to do to get power, 
> though." 

Potioncat:
Exactly, it wasn't just Dyed in the wool DE types back in VW1. And 
just look at VW2. Was I the only one shocked by how many wizards seem 
to approve or at least accept the new laws in DH?  

> 
> Mike
> ****************************
> A little add-on quest:
> 
> In the opening quote, Dumbledore gives some reasons why certain 
> personality types would have been attracted to Riddle/Voldemort's 
> cause. Or, maybe you've got a better reasons than Dumbledore's. 
> I have an exercise for the readership. 
> 
> Pick one of Dumbledore's categories (or your own theory) and 
explain 
> how that applies to Snape, Malfoy, or any other DE, and therefore 
> why they were attracted to Riddle/Voldemort? 

Potioncat:
Oops, I snipped that part. 

I think Regulus was attracted to the idea of being a True born Wizard 
leader who should be free to walk as a Wizard and rule the Muggles.

I think Severus was attracted to the freedom to study Dark Arts 
(though by the end of DH, no one seemed much bothered by them) and to 
the power of Dark Magic. I think, like Reg, he wanted to be able to 
be openly Wizard. Somewhere along the line, Purebloods had accepted 
Snape as one of them and he had no reason not to accept the "honor".