this was created for a class project. i wasn't planning on submitting it, but it was fun and i would like to get your reactions.
this is a oneshot for now, but it could turn into a series if people want it
thanks
Gellert Grindelwald's Puppet Government
Hermione Granger was tired. More than tired. She was exhausted. She just had to take every course available to third years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was the end of her school day and she had already been through her double Potions lesson, Charms, Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures, History of Magic, Arithmancy and the Study of Ancient Runes.
To any normal person this would be insane, but Hermione was no ordinary witch. She was one of the few students in the Wizarding World who were driven by the thirst for knowledge. Thus, her ambition to take all of the courses offered. To take every class available in the Hogwarts curriculum should have been impossible. Well it wasn't, you just need the right tools. This led to her possession of a Time Turner. She takes all of her classes by turning back time every hour in order to not miss a single fact available to her. After a grueling day of classes there was only one left to attend-- Muggle Studies.
By this point Hermione was so tired of hiding in the hallways and attempting not to run into herself that she almost missed a conversation between two seventh year Hufflepuff's and the Muggle Studies Professor. All she had heard was, "War. . . Grindelwald. . . Cover-up." Being a naturally curious person, she could not help but ask, "Who or what is Grindelwald?" Little did she know that this question would open a discussion that would change her view on Muggle and Wizarding History forever.
"Why we were talking about how Gellert Grindlewald managed to cover up his entire war in the 1930's and 40's by creating a Puppet Government in the Muggle World. Didn't you know about that? No? Well he was responsible for millions of deaths, not including the soldiers that died on both sides of the war." One of the seventh year Hufflepuff's replied absently.
Hermione was speechless; they could not be talking about what she thought they were. It would mean that everything she was taught in grammar school was a lie. She had just begun to question them again when the Professor announced that it was time to start class and the two seventh years left. She reluctantly returned to her seat and was on edge the rest of the class. While the Professor was droning on about spark plugs and televisions, questions about the conversation were invading her mind with frightening speed. She would have to ask the Professor when class time was over. She needed answers. Abruptly she was pulled out her reverie when the professor came to wake her out of her stupor. Hermione stood, turned to the professor and asked in a shaky voice, "Was Gellert Grindelwald the true reason for the Second World War and the Holocaust? Why didn't we know this before?"
The Professor looked at Hermione and sighed, "Miss Granger, much of the Muggle History you know are fabricated lies made up by the various Magical Governments around the world. They do this in order to uphold the International Statute of Secrecy. Of course, most high Muggle Government officials know the true details, but some do not. The English Ministry of Magic in particular keeps these details to themselves. They think by doing this it will be easier to control the Muggle Government by keeping them in ignorance of how powerful magic can be.
"However, many other European, North, and South American Governments do not hide details from officials of the Muggle Governments. The general muggle populace is ignorant of these details but measures must be taken in order for similar events not to happen in the future. That is why other countries have both sides of history taught in the Wizarding World. This way the façade can be held up and future plausible stories can be fabricated. Britain on the other hand does not teach Muggle History or any relative Magical History for your generation. While other countries have knowledge of Grindelwald, the British magical population is, for the most part, ignorant.
"My personal opinion to why Professor Binns is still on staff is because he will not teach current events and for him nothing after the Salem Witch Trials could never have any historical significance. Minister Fudge does not push the Headmaster to replace him because he wants both the Muggle Government and our own magical population to not know these details because he is afraid past events will happen again. That however, did not stop He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named from rising in a similar fashion to Gellert Grindelwald forty years after his defeat."
Hermione was trying to absorb all of this information. The British Ministry was trying to keep the public in the dark about how influential the Wizarding World could be in the muggle one. She needed to know how this could happen. She asked the Professor, "Could you tell me how the Grindelwald War was started and why?"
The Professor nodded and explained, "Grindelwald was born in 1883 and was schooled at Durmstrang until he was sixteen. He was expelled for his experiments in Dark magic. He eventually started a Dark Army and slowly started to exert influence through Europe. The Wizarding populace of Europe was already terrified of him and the next step of his goal was to take over the Muggle Governments and create a social hierarchy. Naturally, the magical population would be at the top and the muggles would act as the servants. This would spread all over the world until the magical people were masters. In order to gain power over the muggles he set up a Puppet Government in Germany of which a man named Adolf Hitler would rule. Then when absolute power was in Hitler's hands in the Muggle Government, he would take over and mix the two worlds with him as the supreme ruler.
"He was obsessed with blood purity and wanted the magical purebloods to be the elite of the hierarchy. Have you heard the quote from Hitler about the Americas, 'The man of Germanic race on the continent of America having kept himself pure and unmixed, has risen to be its master; and he will remain master so long as he does not fall into the same of mixing the blood(?)'1 Grindelwald thought that master race was of the true wand wielding magic users, especially the pureblooded, while any mixing between magical and the muggle people would result in the extinction of magic altogether.
"Muggle History shows a longtime hatred of the Jewish faith. By promoting the Aryan race in the Muggle Government, opportunities to extinguish the magical mixed blood would present itself. Thus, Grindelwald set up Hitler in the Muggle World to slowly exterminate the much-hated Jewish population while secretly exterminating those who were not pureblooded of blood or magic and kill those who opposed him. Hitler targeted Gypsies and sympathizers to the Jewish faith because Grindelwald saw them as corrupted magic users.
"Grindelwald also had his own reasons for targeting those of the Jewish faith besides the muggle hatred for Jews that many believed. The Muggle Jewish population had ties to the first Egyptian Wizards of ancient times. Some traditions and some magic such as golem creation and some astrology were passed down for generations. Much of the ancient magic was then twisted and gained different variations of magic that Grindelwald opposed. Gypsies and travelers in the Muggle World were actually magical clans in the Wizarding World or rather they were on the fringe between the two worlds. They, for the most part, were exiled squibs who created their own families and had full knowledge of the wand wielding Wizarding World, but chose to live in the Muggle World to exploit their magical knowledge. These bands would often produce Muggleborn witches and wizards. For example, witches would commonly excel at Divination and the wizards at Charms and Creature Taming. This led to the gypsy fortunetellers and the performance-oriented nature that is common in muggle society today.
"Grindelwald saw these variations of the Jewish and Gypsy magic's as perversions to the 'traditional' wand waving practices of his forbearers and thought that they should be eliminated along with his enemies. This means that the Holocaust of the Jewish faith and Gypsies in the Muggle World and the extermination of those of mixed blood in the Magical World were one in the same."
The Professor paused, observed Hermione's open jaw, and then continued. "So while the Holocaust was taking place, Grindelwald and his Puppet Muggle Government were spreading across Europe country by country. This put fear into Britain and the Americas. Britain started fighting back on the muggle front while Muggle Japan allied with Hitler's Germans. In the Magical World Japan did not ally with Grindelwald while Britain stayed neutral. Dumbledore was extremely powerful and Grindelwald kept away from Britain so as not to anger him while Magical Japan was not interested in the fight at all. The turn of the war came when Muggle Japan attacked an American naval port. Both the Muggle and the Wizarding America were enraged and fought back with everything they had.
"Then in 1945, Dumbledore could not remain neutral any longer and fought a duel with Grindlewald in which Dumbledore was victorious. Grindelwald was sent to Nurmengard Prison and the Muggle Puppet Government fell to pieces without their secret magical support. The American and British Muggle forces had been gaining ground for years and new support from Russia meant that Hitler was being pushed on two fronts, Grindelwalds defeat was the last straw. With no hope for victory, Hitler killed himself and let Muggle Japan take care of itself."
The Professor sat back and tried to catch her breath while Hermione collected her thoughts. So much new information had been explained to her. This was some very complex information. It made sense that ancient magic would be twisted and adapted to other cultures and societies as they evolved. She was just surprised that Grindelwald was opposed to any culture that did not rely on wands. In a way, it seemed more powerful and more spiritual. She could also see how Voodoo, the shamanistic tribes of the American Indians, Asian and Aborigine cultures, the paganistic practices of England, Greek and Roman theology and Aztec ritual could be magical as well.
This led her to question if some of the ancient religions and practices that she thought were no longer performed were actually being exercised in the magical communities around the world today. The things that she believed about the Muggle and Magical World could be more intertwined than she had previously thought. She realized that before the Statute of Secrecy of 1689 these ancient practices were openly displayed in the non-Christianized cultures. Only after the separation of the two worlds did things start to get muddled. The complete separation of the two worlds was probably due to the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. That was also the same year the magical creatures started to be hidden. What else had she missed that Professor Binns had neglected to mention during his lectures about the Goblin Wars?
Hmmm. . . .
She needed a trip to the library. She had research to do.