Harry's Theories Series
A/N
Yay! After a long hiatus I'm finally writing again.
Here's the first in a series of essays written by Harry in my new story, which is as of yet, untitled. I'm horrible at naming, so any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Summary: What if Harry wasn't quite the putz we see in cannon? What if the Greatest School in Britain wasn't all that great? What if Harry had contact with the magical world before Hogwarts?
Power as a Result of Magical Absorption in the Early Stages of Development
Introduction:
Common knowledge dictates individual magical power is a result of careful breeding and well-developed bloodlines.
The entire British Wizarding Culture centers around this fact. Those, purebloods1 who are born into an old, well documented bloodline, known as a Family2, receive a better education, higher paying jobs, a better standing in the community, more political power and greater respect from their peers. Those who are not from one of these Families are unable to start a business, own land, or obtain higher education without the patronage of a Family. They also are denied access to the best information, which is kept in Family libraries.3 Those who come from a non-magical family, known as Muggleborns4 are put at an increased disadvantage. They are first informed of the magical community at age 11 when they receive an acceptance letter
to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardary5. They enter their first year of schooling without any of the cultural knowledge that provides the basis for their
magical schooling6. The resistance to change, combined with the suppression of a large portion of the population has caused a stagnation7 of the Wizarding culture.
Power is seen as an inherited trait. Evidence suggests otherwise. People with a limited amount of magical abilities, known as Squibs8, are routinely born into Families. Magical children are born to NMA families. Magical abilities differ greatly within families. Evidence shows the ability to do magic is exists inside all. Some are able to manipulate energy easily with very little practice. Others require years of deep meditation. The ability to easily do magic seems to be genetic, a recessive gene expressed in slightly less than 10 of the population9. It is exceedingly clear not everyone has the same personal power. As the power levels vary wildly within families,
even between siblings it must be more than genetic. Also case studies of twins have shown different power levels. This suggests power is at least partly affected by the environment.
Case Study 1:
Study of a Large Family Spanning from Pre-War Years to After-War Years
Observations of siblings in a rather secluded family reveal rather interesting trends. In this family, the father is on, a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest), 9 with a quiet, settled personality and the mother is a 3 with an overbearing, up reaching personality. The first two children inherited a combination of their parents' personalities and power levels. They both became rather high level wizards with a wandering spirit. They were conceived and born during the beginning of a war, so were mostly isolated from outside influences. If power levels and personality were solely inherited, all the children would resemble the first two children. The next child was born just as the war was reaching a fever pitch. To protect their children, the parents became very overprotective. The father was absent a large amount of the time due to wartime responsibilities. The mother stayed inside for protection. She was constantly worried about the state of affairs. This child grew to become a rather weak, very strict and by the rules person.
Next came a set of twins. Their father began to spend much of his time at running missions from home. Their mother was spending a large amount of time with the third child and cooking for a group of vigilantes that visited quite often. The twins were exposed to a number of very powerful people. Of these people, two were pranksters, one was extremely paranoid, but had excellent deduction abilities, one was very intelligent but at war with his wild magic, and one was an unknowing practitioner of Druid rituals.
The twins were two years old when the war ended. They were then given a large amount of freedom for their early developmental years. They were allowed to wonder freely outside, including to nearby magically concentrated areas. The twins grew up to be an interesting mix of personalities and power levels. They had an above average power level, on par with their father, and easily learned the ability to talk and transform into their totem animals. They gained free-spirit, fun loving personalities, later becoming pranksters to rival the ones present for their childhood. However, they were also very paranoid, hiding a large deal of their power and knowledge, even going so far as to create a secret "twin language" and deliberately under-scoring on tests.
The sixth child, another boy, was born sixth months before the end of the war. These first sixth months the mother became increasingly protective, even going so far as to leaving the child in his crib all day long. The child was denied social interaction with other persons until he was eight months old. At this time, the oldest child was no longer living at home. The sixth child then proceeded to follow the third child everywhere. He then discovered the only wizarding sport by watching the second child play and focused all his energy into that. During his childhood, an older gentleman, with corrupted high power levels and a devious, manipulative, and self-serving personality was often present. From him he learned to play chess. This child became extremely emotionally unstable being very easy to anger and feeling unexplainable jealousy. His power level was moderate, but he no drive to better himself. He seemed to have very little self-control
and was incredibly insecure. He was brilliant at short-term strategy but was unable or perhaps too lazy to plan for the future and anything more abstract than a chess game.
The last and seventh child is the only female. She usually followed the twins when they would let her. Her mother also expected her to help on the kitchen and with various household chores. She was also exposed to the older gentleman, and while not it such a direct fashion, it was for considerably longer periods of time. She was also exposed to a family with Sidhe blood though she tended to ignore them. Her power level was above average, with good manipulation skills. She became manipulative and self-serving. She became assertive and demanding. She displayed emotional instability similar to her brother, however she also showed the beginnings of mental instability.
Analysis:
The oldest children are easy to explain. They grew up under similar conditions with largely the same influences. They are clearly a product of their father's personality and power level and a reaction to their mother's protectiveness. Both obtained jobs in high magic, high danger occupations. The third child shows a markèd change in both power level and personality. It appears the absence of his father, the more powerful of his parents during his pre-birth development affected his personal power level. Personality has already been shown to develop partly as the an of all of one's experiences, but for magically adapt it seems personality is also partly a result of magic absorbed from their surroundings. The third child was only around his mother, so he obviously inherited her weaker power level. He also inherited her desire for self-promotion, which the father does not seem to have. The fourth and fifth children clearly show how both personality and power level can be absorbed. Their power level and magical abilities is very clearly a combination of the group of people often present as they were in the womb and in early development. The sixth and seventh children suggest power level is absorbed only before birth. Neither of them developed very high power levels despite being exposed to an extremely powerful person. However it suggest personality is still absorbed after birth as they both adopted traits from the older gentleman who only visited after their birth.
Conclusion of Case Study 1:
Power level seems to be absorbed while the child is still in the womb. Personality seems to be a combination of personal experiences and absorbed or learned from outside sources during the early development stage.
Case Study 2:
Study of a Child Affected by Numerous Castings at an Early Age
A child was born with only eighteen months left in the war. At this time, the war was in full swing and the parents and child were forced to go into a secluded hiding. The mother had been staying in the ancestral home while pregnant. When the baby was born, he showed all signs of being a very intelligent child, alert, and interested in his surroundings. The next year the child seemed to be growing into an increasingly intelligent and magically powerful being. At eighteen months of age, the family was attacked. The parents were tortured with a level three corrupted curse. While it did not appear the child was hit, the combination of seeing his parents tortured and the influence of the corrupted magic created many psychological problems. Given the state of science in the magical world10, the child received no counseling or therapy. Worse, it was decided the best thing for the mental health of the child would be to erase his memory if the event. As the modern world knows, mental magic is strongly advised against in children11 and the spell used to erase memories in Britain is a Class 2 corruptor on adults. Research suggests that corruption levels are inversely proportionate to age, making this spell Class 5, possibly higher. Such a combination of corruption and mind spells has seemed to affect the mind of the child. He seems to have numerous developmental problems including a low IQ, learning disabilities, social problems, extreme forgetfulness, and an overly timid personality. His magic seems to be blocked requiring a large amount of concentration and willpower to access and control. He also grew up in the place where his parents were tortured.12
Case Study 3:
A Study of a Typical Pureblood Child
The pregnant mother was kept under house arrest, in a suite of rooms traditionally used by expectant mothers in the Family's Manor. The child then stayed on the Manor grounds with very few exceptions for the next ten years. The family completely controlled who had access to the child. Following a schedule passed down by the family, they were able to control the child complete, even his personal beliefs13
Conversations with John Doe #1 and his contemporaries John Doe # 4, 7, and 8 and Jane Doe #4 and 5 reveal this is typical of the Families. It seems the pregnant mothers are required to stay in the Family Manor, usually in a room near the ward keystone. It is possible so called "Family Traits" in regards to magical abilities are not inherited but left residual in the Manor and then absorbed by the children.
Final Conclusions:
Personal power levels are determined while the child is still in the womb. The child absorbs both the pure power and a residual of the energy attached to their certain abilities and personality. These abilities cannot be cleansed, as it becomes the child's natural magic. Personality is a combination of personal experiences and the absorption of other's personality. While the actual power level cannot be changed, corruptive magic can affect the ability to access all magic. Corruptive magic also corrupts personality and development. Perhaps an individual's personal power subconsciously protects one from corruption, which drains them and stunts their development.
Topics for Future Consideration:
How does corruptive magic affect young children?\
What exposure to magic should young children have?
Can power levels and personality be manipulated and at what cost?
1 Pureblood is actually a misnomer. Research of historical documents shows modern day purebloods are the result of magical creatures intermixing with the weaker human wizards. The purebloods deny this and have gone to great lengths to erase all traces of their non-human blood.
2 The Great Families are the original founders of Wizarding Britain, usually feudal lords who donated land and resources. These Great Families each received an automatic vote in the Wizengamot. Over time, many of the Great Families have merged or been lost completely. There are also the Lesser Families which have applied to be considered as "pureblooded" and received a vote in the Wizenmagot.
3 There are no public libraries in Wizarding Britain. There are limited records available from the Ministry of Magic, but those require the permission of a Family or an overview committee, which takes at least six months. There is one library at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardary for students only. There is one official bookstore, which charges from 20-30 for basic knowledge books, with a limited quantity of higher knowledge books.
4 Magical children from non-magically aware families are known by the purist term Muggleborn, coming from the term for non-magically aware people, Muggles. A less polite term for muggleborn is mudblood, which most believe refers to the "dirtiness" of their blood. In fact, this term refers to most NMA's belief in the Judeo-Christian God and his creation of mankind out of mud, much like a golem.
5 Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardary often refers to itself as the best school in Great Britain. To their knowledge, they are the only school in Great Britain. This, however, is untrue. There is a small private school in Northern Ireland which is open only to Irish nationals. There is a second school in Wales which teaches an older branch of magic, a combination of druid rituals and a pagan respect for nature. This school is only open to select families in a small community. Compared to the rest of the world, Hogwarts can be directly compared to Durmstrang in the Ukraine and Beauxbatons in France.
6 This is often overlooked because they are able to overcome the great disadvantages. Their NMA schooling has taught them basic study skills. There are also afraid of being "kicked out" and loosing the chance to study magic and tend to work harder to compensate. Others work hard to prove themselves.
7 A much overlooked example is the continued use of Roman "point-and-shoot" spells.
8 Squibs are seen as second class citizens, even lower than "muggleborns". Some families are in the practice of killing Squibs at birth to avoid the mark of shame.
9 Where this 10 arose from varies. Some believe it came from other magical races intermixing with mankind. Others believe it to be a natural mutation.
10 Science is virtually nonexistent in the British Wizarding world. Historians believe when the Wizarding world split during the Middle Ages, a charm field was laid down to discreetly promote a choice of one or the other worlds. Very few magically adapts live in the non-magically aware world, and those who do tend to deny magic.
11 Magic tends to erode the myosin sheath on the neurons, preventing the brain from working efficiently. Structured magic also reacts in unpredictable ways to a child's inherent magic, which is both still developing itself and the child's physical body. While children are encouraged to be in places of wild, unstructured, and cleansed structured magic, they are not under any circumstances to perform structured magic of any kind until puberty. This is a large problem in Wizarding Britain as their type of magic is largely based on forcing the magic to do their bidding.
12 A simple cleansing ceremony would cure the young man in case study 2. It would also cleanse his home.
13 It was difficult, but with time the child was able to overcome his programming.