Alone, in the girl's fitting section of Madam Malkin's, Iris realized that she was both Potter-less and Dursley-less for the first time in almost her entire life.
Unconsciously, Iris's shoulders began to untense, as a bit of tension she didn't even realize she was carrying uncoiled itself. In a much lighter mood, she went up to the assistant, and asked for a Hogwarts fitting.
"Hiya there!" the girl said, as she moved Iris onto one of the stools, "my name is Tonks—just Tonks—and I'll be fitting you today!"
Tonks was an attractive, pink-haired girl that looked to be only a few years older than Iris, with bright, blue eyes, a cute button nose, and gorgeous skin. She was wearing a flattering outfit that drew Iris's eyes down to… down to…
…
…
Magic really was incredible! That must be a charm to draw people's eyes to your clothing! Tonks was rather fetching without it, Iris thought, so with it, she must drive the boys wild!
Shaking off her wonder, Iris introduced herself. "Hi Tonks, my name is Iris… just Iris. Y-you have really… really nice clothes. I like them."
"Well thanks 'just Iris' I appreciate it! I sewed 'em myself, you know!"
Tonks began to pin up fabric to Iris's body. "'Just Iris', huh? Look at us, a couple'a half-named peas in a pod! Together, maybe we can make one full person!"
Iris heard a quiet snickering from the stool beside her. Seeing Iris and Tonks's looks, the girl blushed.
"Hi there, I'm Katie Bell. I'm going into my second year at Hogwarts. It's nice to meet you Tonks, Iris."
"So Iris…" Tonks said, turning her attention back to the girl standing on the stool in front of her, "is this your first year at Hogwarts?"
Katie looked on interested.
"Yes, it is. I just recently learned I was magical, actually, so this is all new to me."
"Well Iris, you're in luck! This is my first week being a shopkeeper, so this is all new to me too! Looks like we'll be learning together! I'm in my seventh year at Hogwarts though, so I can't help you there."
All three girls chuckled.
After a while, the girls fell into a companionable silence, as Tonks flittered around Iris and Katie, taking measurements, and pinning cloth onto every possible body part.
Iris thought that this was the most relaxed she'd ever been in the magical world. No angry, yelling father telling me how he wants to 'discipline' her; no overbearing step-mother trying to get her to convert to Catholicism; and no spoiled, mini-father-clone of a twin Brother flaunting the privileged life she could have had. She thought she could get used to this.
A few minutes later, Iris was drawn out of her comfortable reverie, as she Tonks hummed, looking at the cloth pinned up around Iris's body.
"I-is something wrong?"
"Oh no kid, I just realized that I ran out of pins to fit you with, and I don't think we have anymore up here in the front. Can you two keep each other company while I go look in the backroom?"
Before they could answer, Tonks sped out, and the two Hogwarts students were left with each other.
"Hey," Katie said in English, after a minute or so of silence, "I know you're a muggleborn, so you probably don't know this, but I'd stay away from Tonks if I were you."
"What? Why?"
"Well, her family's actually pretty well-known in political circles. My dad was on the Wizengamot, so I've heard of her. Her mum, Andromeda, used to be a Black—one of the darkest, most evil families out there—until she got kicked out of the family for marrying a muggle, a lot like her cousin Sirius. For a long time, they were considered really strong, proud members of the light. Sounds good, right?"
Iris nodded absently, wondering if this "Sirius" had any connection to her absent godfather.
"Well, a year or two after their child Nymphadora was born—that's Tonks's real name—Andromeda signed on as an advisor to Emil Häberli, the head of one of the biggest neutral families, and started pushing all these non-light ideas wherever she went."
"The dark," she clarified, "is the side that all the purebloods and dangerous dark creatures are on, like vampires and werewolves and stuff! They tell people that muggles are evil, or stupid, or less valuable than wizards, and that muggleborns should be taken away from them, so that wizards can do whatever they want without them knowing any better. I mean, c'mon, you understand, right? Saying you should have been taken away from your family, and that they shouldn't be allowed to know anything about the wizarding world, even if they're in danger from some dark creature? That's just awful!"
Iris just nodded, tight smile fixed on her face. Looks like she couldn't escape the Potters just quite yet.
"No one really knows what happened, but most people think that the Häberlis cut them some kind of deal, so that they'd turn on all their former friends. I mean, for Pete's sake, she was the one who wrote the law that tried to ban the Boy-Who-Lived Adventure Series! How much more dark can you get!"
Iris could tell she was about to continue, but as Tonks returned with a new set of pins, she cut herself off, and greeted the assistant shopkeep with that Iris now realized was forced warmth.
As Tonks resumed measuring and pinning, Iris turned over Katie's words in her head. Being taken away from her family, huh? And also, wait, 'Boy-Who-Lived Adventure Series'?! Is that why that shopkeep had thought Danny had done all those ridiculous things?
Iris was briefly brought out of her thoughts around fifteen minutes later, as Katie left with her robes. The second year not-so-discreetly glanced at Tonks, and whispered "remember what we talked about". Judging by Tonks's grimace, neither her reminder nor her earlier rant went as unnoticed as she'd thought. Poor girl.
A few minutes after that, Iris came out of her daydreams with a jerk, as Tonks accidentally stabbed her with a pin, hair turning canary-yellow in embarrassment.
Wait, turned yellow? Oh my G–
"Oh shi–… cra–… darn! Sorry!"
…
Iris was in shock. Here was someone who could help her understand her powers! James hadn't really been forthcoming in his explanations, so she was hoping to get some more information on one of her many recently-rediscovered birthrights
"E-excuse me, Tonks? D-do you… do you have metamorphism to?"
Tonks turned red, not even attempting to stifle her glare. "Hey kid, I don't appreciate being called slurs, y'kn–… wait, did you say 'too'?"
Confused at Tonks's reaction, but feeling a dawning sense of horror, Iris clarified. "Y-yeah. I was in the muggle world for most of my life, so m-my father locked my condition away. He just told me about it though, and told me what it's called."
Iris shifted her hair to match Tonks's crimson. "See?"
"So…" Tonks said, looking furious, "your dad told you that you had a 'condition' called 'metamorphism', and that he what, locked it away until you were twelve so you could 'responsibly deal with it'? Am I close?"
"Y-yeah, that sounds about right. Not exactly, but b-broad strokes. I mean, don't get me wrong, metamorphism is incredible!" Iris's tone turned awe-filled. I always felt like my skin was just… shrinking in on me, y'know? Like I was trapped. And now I feel so free! It's like I can change my expression, but with my whole body! It's so incredible!"
Smiling sadly at Iris's wonder, Tonks took on a much softer tone, even thought Iris could still tell her eyes were filled with a familiar loathing. "Iris, kid… who's your dad?"
Iris stopped, face white. She really didn't want to deal with the hassle of her family name right now, especially when it seemed that nearly everyone was completely in awe of her brother.
"Hey, nevermind, y'know, it's alright! I was just curious. You don't have to tell me who they are, but I can get a pretty good idea of what they're like from what you've told me. I'm guessing they're really integrationist, and use the term 'light magic' a whole bunch? Do they talk about 'dark creatures' too?"
"Uh… yeah. I mean, I don't know what an 'integrationist' is, but all that other stuff is spot on. What is an integrationist? And what", she lowered her voice, "is 'dark magic' anyways? I tried to read a book in the alley that talked about the history of the political debate about it, but my dad ripped it away from me and said it would turn me evil."
"Jeez kid, your family really are a buncha true-blue Niks, aren't they? How on earth did you end up with muggles?"
"Y-yeah, I guess they are. A-and I don't really want to talk about it, if that's ok"
"Yeah sure kid, keep your secrets. So… let me ask you a question." Her eyes suddenly took on a much more calculating gleam, at odds with her easygoing tone, "I heard what Bell was saying back there to you, she gave you the same speech about me and my parents that your family would probably give."
"Now my family isn't 'dark' like Bell was saying, but they certainly aren't 'light' either. So, my question is, why is the kid of a hardcore Nik couple coming to me for advice? Shouldn't you be going to your parents?"
"Well…" Iris said, "I kinda… I think I feel that the fact that you're neutral is actually a good reason to ask you questions. Like I said, J– my father doesn't really give me any good answers, he just talks about how me asking questions is a sign I'm being corrupted. I just want to understand, y'know? Even if dark magic does end up being as evil as he says it is, would figuring that out for myself really be that awful?"
Tonks stared directly at her for a solid minute, making Iris begin to sweat from discomfort.
"Kid… you know, you shouldn't really be saying things like that in public… Your parents, whoever they are, along with all rest of the Niks, are the ones in power right now, they have been for almost a century. Talking about stuff like that isn't exactly the quickest way to avoid suspicion."
Looking around, Tonks pursed her lips in thought, and eventually came to a decision. Muttering to herself, she get up, and closed the door to the fitting room, turning around the privacy sign on the door, and sending some sort of spell at the doorframe for good measure.
"To make sure nobody overhears us"
Iris grew intrigued. Were the arguments of her James's enemies really that forbidden? Just what exactly time of political climate had she come into?
"Alright kid, I'll give you a brief rundown of the political system of this messed-up Sprachbund. But only until I finish fitting your clothes, alright? I don't think I could get away with any longer."
She smirked. "I may been a Hufflepuff, but that doesn't mean I'm not good for encyclopedia-duty, so get ready for a whole lotta information, all at once!"
"So", she began, "the first thing you have to realize is that you are not just a sorcerer mage with a condition, you're what's called a 'changeling', a sub-race of sorcerers. Most of the Integrationists, the Niks that is, like to pretend otherwise, but we changelings have our own separate history and culture, just like the Coblynau, or Elves, or whatever."
"…sorcerer? mage? Coblynau? Wait, Elves are real?"
"Ah crap, that's right. Alright kid, the first big political difference that you gotta know is the one about terminology. One of the two main political points that the Nik, or more properly 'integrationist' philosophy is based on, is that muggles are basically the same kind of people as you, me, and your dad."
"Niks say that muggles and sorcerers are one race, called 'humans', and all the other races— Coblynau and Elves being two of those—are 'magical creatures', which are a lot like animals that can talk. They see themselves not as a separate race of being from muggles, but as a human that's been gifted with magic—usually by God—and use the word 'sorcerer' or 'magical' to mean just that, a human that has magical ability."
"Most Niks, and a lot of more integrationist neutrals, really love the muggle world, and think its better than the magical one. They see things like the muggle government, muggle schooling, muggle social roles, and really everything muggle, and wand to bring them into the magical world."
"They'll generally say that by secluding ourselves away, the magical world is actually committing this big offence against the muggle world, because we could solve so many of their problems with magic, and make their lives a whole lot better. The magical world originally hid away because of the purges being done by all the Roman Christians, but most integrationists are Christians themselves, and say that the muggles have moved past those 'barbaric' times, and are ready to accept magic, and all the benefits it could bring to their lives."
"Because of this view, the big central point of Nik policy is proposing measures to help bring the muggle and magical worlds closer together. They have a lot of bills trying to make magical social norms more like muggle ones, but they haven't had a whole lot of luck with those. The only one they've managed to pass is the restriction on divorce, none of the sodomy laws have really gained any ground, thanks to the neutrals.
"Another big thing for them is trying to assert supremacy over the other races. They're big into the whole 'made in the image of God' creation thing, which means that they think humans—sorcerers and muggles that is—are God's chosen race, the ones he made modeled after himself. For most races, they'll just try to limit their power, because most of the mages of those races are pagans and obviously don't buy into all that God-given human supremacy stuff, but for some, like us, they'll try to fit them into their category of 'humanity'."
"For example, around thirty years ago, right at the beginning of The Dark L– of You-Know-Who's Civil War, Dumbledore and his hardcore Nik supporters put forward this bill in the Wizengamot th–"
"Sorry, 'Wizengamot'?"
"Oh right, you wouldn't know that. Well the Wizengamot, is the legislature in Occidentia. They're made up of around seventy-five percent Noble Families: old, powerful families that have been around for a long time. The other twenty-five percent of the seats used to go to the Office of the Minister—that's the executive branch, under Minister Fudge—to assign, but ever since the Niks passed a measure back in the fifties, around two-thirds end up going to muggleborns elected by popular vote."
"Now, back to what I was saying. So, around thirty years ago, the hardcore Niks in the Wizengamot, who are all led by Dumbledore, but forward this bill whose big proposed purpose was to create an official registry of any 'wizards and witches with unusual abilities', mostly changelings and the other sub-race of sorcerers, skinwalkers. They said it was a 'protective measure', so because 'the dark' was trying to recruit changelings and skinwalkers, and so they'd be in danger."
"But the real purpose of the bill, and the thing I think shows what the Niks are all about, basically made it so that anyone on the registry—changelings especially—were banned from having any jobs that were deemed 'trust-essential'."
"According to Dumbledore, our powers made us 'prone to deception' and 'susceptible to corruption'. He and his followers basically said that because we could potentially impersonate people, if we cover up our marks with makeup or something, we shouldn't be allowed to work with 'average witches and wizards'! He even said that the Dark Lord was using changelings to impersonate ministry employees as a plot to gradually take over the ministry!"
"So this"—she waved to her shopkeep's outfit—"is basically our only option, no matter what school we go to; because of the Niks, mages like you and me can't hold around 50% of the jobs in the magical world! That's the reason my family switched to neutral after I was born. My mom said she realized that she couldn't ever side with the old coot again after I told her that I wanted to become an auror, and she had to watch my face when she told me I never could!"
Breathing heavily at the end of her rant, Tonks took a moment to calm herself, and then blushed in embarrassment.
"Er… sorry Iris, I guess I wasn't being as balanced as you'd want me to near the end there. Sorry?"
"Oh no," Iris said, fascinated by Tonks's ideas and passion, "this is actually exactly what I wanted. I hear enough stuff about 'the light', or the integrationists I guess, from James, I really want to hear what the other side has to say. So, what do the opponents to integrationism believe?"
Once again fixing Iris with that calculating look, Tonks stepped away from the pin she was pushing in, and rechecked the charms on the door.
"…Alright, fuck it. In for a penny, and all that."
"So basically, the main opponents of the Niks are called the Seclusionists, or the Rells. Unlike the Niks, they think that muggles are a completely separate race from every type of mage, including sorcerers. To the Rells, sorcerers are just one more magical race among many, and make up a united magical world, which only exists because the muggles haven't found out about it yet."
"For Rells, Muggles are generally pretty awful, and'll destroy mages the first chance they get, like back before the Seclusion. Back in those times, the races of mages that could pass for muggle were beaten, flogged, or burnt at the stake, and the ones that weren't had it even worse, with their whole communities being wiped off the face of the earth by 'monster hunters'."
"For most seclusionists, the goal is to totally separate themselves from the muggle world. One of their big, defining policies is what's called 'muggleborn adoption', taking away any sorcerers born into muggle families to be raised by parents of their own race, and then blood-adopting some random muggle kid to take their place."
"They don't want anything even remotely stinking of muggles to have a place in the magical world; the really mean it when they call muggles 'muds', and Muggleborns 'mudbloods'. They think that any mage who was raised by muggles is gonna try to change that magical world to be more like the muggle one, which means that the majority of the mages are going to die."
"Actually, now that I think about it, some of them used to advocate something similar to that adoption scheme for changelings like us too, but the 'racial purity' seclusionists have been pretty insignificant ever since Walburga Black died, and the Dark Lor– uh… You-Know-Who rose to power."
"Just who was You-Know-Who? I tried to ask Mi– my… mother what his name was, and she wouldn't tell me, she just paled and told me nobody says his name, or what he looked like, or anything about him."
Tonks fixed her with a glare.
"Kid… I don't care how 'curious' you are, I'm not gonna be caught in the middle of Diagon Alley talking about the goals of the Knigh– er… the Death Eaters. Everything up until now was just me talking about politics to you, but that? If that reached the right ears, I could go to prison."
Iris fixed her with a desperate look.
"Please Tonks, I promise, I won't tell anyone! It's just that I haven't found anyone to tell me this stuff, and I want to know! I want to know everything about the magical world, but you're the only one who'll tell me anything!"
"…"
"…"
"…damnit, I'm not used to being on the other side of changeling puppy-dog eyes"
"Ok, kid, fine. The group the Niks call 'the Death Eaters' was a group of radical Rells, who wanted to use force to rebuild the 'muddied and corrupt' ministry from the ground up, and… well, all I'll say about that is that the political debate isn't just about seclusion or integration, its also about different types of magic, and magical religions."
"Most Rells practice an older set of pagan beliefs, and no, don't ask, I won't tell you what they're called. Now those aren't exactly legal, but they're an open secret, because they're mostly just rituals about connecting with and worshipping magic, and are just burning an offering and making a prayer."
"The thing is, the Dark L–… You-Kn–… fine, Lord Voldemort, because you're so bloody curious, didn't just want to make those rituals legal, but also way more complex rituals to do other stuff, like making enchantments on objects permanent, or crafting new spells that were way more efficient and powerful. Now unlike pagan rituals, those types of rituals are very, very illegal, and is what your dad is probably calling 'dark magic'."
"I'm serious Iris, you don't ever talk about this stuff. You know what the thing that most politically-aware Niks associate those types of rituals with? Human sacrifice. This is really not something you go looking into where people are watching."
"But wh–"
"No kid, I told you. That's all I'll say on the matter. Now straighten up, suck in your chest, and let me tell you about the Offices of the Minister."
A half-minute later, Tonks continued in a much more relaxed tone. "Ok so basically, the Offices of the Minister contain most of the departments you'll hear about as being 'in the ministry'. That's stuff like the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Now I know those can be a mouthful, so most people usually just use abbreviations or Nicknames, like the DMLE, the Zappers, or the DIMC."
"Now, I'm sure you know that Occidentia is divided into three provinces, with thirty prefectures, but what you might not know is that each department actually has–"
*knock knock knock*
"Hey sis!" Marietta yelled through the thick wood, "are you ready yet? Danny's getting impatient, he finished twenty minutes ago!"
Tonks stiffened, immediately connecting the dots in her head, and temporarily lowered the silencing charm.
"Y-yeah Marietta, I'm almost done! Just give me another minute or two!"
When she turned back away from the door, Iris was met by a panicked glare.
"James fucking Potter, that's who this mysterious 'James' is? I thought you were the abandoned bastard kid of James Ximenes, or James van Ryskamp! You mean to tell me I've just been talking about seclusionist politics to the daughter of James Potter, the fucking 'Sword of the Light'?"
Iris hesitantly nodded her head.
"Kid, you can't tell anyone that we had this talk, anyone. You can't even tell anyone we met. I'm serious, I would be fucking crucified. Not even metaphorically, I mean literally crucified, considering your father is JAMES FUCKING POTTER."
Iris just started at the frantic mage, wide-eyed. "W-would it really be as bad as you're implying?"
Tonks just stared at Iris, disbelieving. "kid, you've fucking met your father, right? What do you think he'd do if he heard the daughter of one of the most famous "dark-traitors" in the country was giving his daughter a nice ol' talk on the political goals of the Dark Lord?"
Iris paled.
"You gotta understand kid, after Lily Potter died, James Potter went full-on fucking psycho trying to get revenge for her. He stated trying to whip up an actual crusade, yes, that's literally what he called it, against anything even remotely stinking of 'dark magic'. And the thing is, because of the whole Boy-Who-Lived hype, he almost managed to do it. Marrying your mother calmed him down some, but everyone knows Miriam Potter is an über-Catholic nutjob, so his views actually got even more extreme."
"Uh… M-Miriam isn't my mother… I-I'm Danny's twin actually…"
"…"
"…T-Tonks?"
"Holy shit, holy shit, HOLY SHIT."
"HOLY SHIT, THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING"
"wha–… T-Tonks?!"
"Circe kid, you have no idea how dead I am if this gets out. Seriously, notorious dark-leaning neutral witch taking the Boy-Who-Lived's twin sister and trying to 'seduce her to the dark side'? My whole family would be in Azkaban before you could say 'manufactured evidence'. I think the only thing that might actually be worse is if I literally tried to seduce you."
Iris paled even further, and then, registering Tonks's last comment, flushed a bright scarlet.
"…"
"…"
"…really kid, that's what gets the big reaction out of you?"
"This is… this is just fucking too much. I gotta sit down..."
Tonks collapsed into the wooden armchair next to the counter, giggling only slightly hysterically.
"Don't… don't worry kid, I promise, you're around twenty years too young to be my type. Magical Morgana, what a morning. Danny Potter's twin, and I told her about the fucking Old Rites. Fuck I'm such an idiot."
"T-type?... Y-you're a…Wait… Did you… did you say twenty years too young? I'm only six years younger than you!"
Tonks chuckled. "What can I say kid, I like my lovers to have a bit of grey in their hair. A permanent grey", she added, pointing at a silver-haired Iris
Iris thought she really did have the worst luck. Right after Tonks had made her comment, by some awful coincidence Iris's shifting hair chose that moment to settled on a dignified grey.
Tension bleeding out of the room at Iris's obvious discomfort, Tonks finished taking the final few pins out of Iris's robes, and casting the final few sewing spells.
"You know kid, I wasn't just working myself up earlier, you really can't tell anyone what we talked about. I wasn't joking about the 'manufactured evidence' thing, that actually happened a few years ago with one of the Hailwicks. Hell, it's probably better if you pretend you never even met me, for both of us."
"Yeah… I know…" Iris said with a sigh.
She really liked Tonks's open personality and self-depreciating sense of humor. She wanted to spend more time with her, get to know her, and maybe even discuss magic and politics. Unfortunately, it seemed that once again, the Potters would be responsible for ensuring she remained friendless and miserable, albeit a little more directly this time.
"So… I really haven't had any friends before, so I never really figured out how to do this. Good… goodbye forever, I guess?"
Looking at her a bit oddly, Tonks shook her head. "No friends? Well, that's the fuckin' muds for ya', I guess."
"…"
"…er… don't tell anyone I said that either. I'm officially supposed to be neutral and all, like the rest of my family, but… yeah. Circe, I really can't keep my big mouth shut today, can I?"
Giggling at Tonks's antics, Iris stepped down off the stool. "Well, Ms. Unnamed Shopkeeper, it was a pleasure doing business with you. My name is Iris, Iris U. P. Potter, and I love my father very much! He's the 'Sword of the Light', you know"
"Well Ms. Potter, it was truly a pleasure serving the sister of or wonderful Boy-Who-Lived, and I hope you have many happy days ahead of you of beating back the forces of darkness! I must ask though, would you prefer the hems of your robes to be kissed now, or one you've broken them in?"
Laughing Iris gathered up her new robes and walked towards the now-unlocked door, waving goodbye to Tonks with her free hand.
"Wait!" Tonks said from the backroom, right as she was about to twist the handle. "What do the middle initials stand for?"
"Why my dear nameless shopkeeper," Iris replied, "they stand for 'Unicorn Phoenix', the true representatives of my deepest inner being."
Stepping out to Tonks's roaring laughter, Iris marveled at how free and… herself she felt. When was the last time she'd traded banter like this with Dudley? Months? God Al-… Merlin this felt good.
It really was a shame that she wouldn't be able to see Tonks anymore, Iris thought, she was the first person she'd met in the magical world who she felt comfortable around. If she was any indication of the types of people that the "dark" had to offer, then she might just have found a new secret political allegiance.
Besides, she thought, she'd never met a single muggle that had ever been kind to her, simply because she was a mage: it wasn't as if she disagreed with most the ideas Tonks had expressed.
"Muds" indeed…
AN: So, how did you guys like your first dash of independent, snarky, semi-self-confident Iris near the end there! The Potters, especially James, really do a number on her ability to express herself, so you haven't seen the type of character she's going to grow into in the coming chapters. Buckle up, you're in for a wild ride!
—
The chapter title means "Only the Educated", and comes from the Ancient Greek text of the Discourses of Epictetus, meaning "only the educated". The full (English) quote is: "We must not believe the masses, who say that free persons only ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the philosophers, who say that it is only the educated who are free."
—
If any fellow Linguaphiles are reading this, the term that's being translated as "mud" in English is "cænum", which, if you can believe it, actually has more insulting connotations than its English translation, also referring to filth and muck in general. "Mudblood", then, would be "Sanguis Cænī", or "Sanguis Caini" in Magical Latin
—
Yes, "Nik" and "Rell" in this universe function a lot like "Tory" in the irl UK. That's not to say that there's any sort of equivalence of policy between the two, because I did my very best to make magical politics entirely unique thanks to the existence of magic, but just that the nickname is used in similar semi-official ways.
And if you're wondering, the terms come from corruptions of "Phoenix" and "Thestral", the two most common symbols for vigilante organizations for each side, respectively. If you want to see why Thestrals are so commonly used by seclusionists, look at their entry in the magical bestiary in my profile
—
I have a lot of things about the HP canon and fanon that I want to make more rational when I write this fic, but the one that really inspired me to write in the first place was the typical fanon way of making the "dark" seem more sympathetic is REALLY terrible. Basically, authors confuse making the "dark" realistic with making it sympathetic. What most authors do is take the canon dislike of muggleborns, and instead of attributing it to blind prejudice, attribute it to a desire to "maintain wizarding culture" or "protect magical traditions" from the muggle influence which seeks to change them. Incidentally, they often don't really define what those traditions are, or how they in any way make them superior to muggles.
Now yes, this is a realistic ideology, and one that many real-life people could believe in, but the thing those authors ignore is that all those people are far-right radicals. Seriously, just replace "muggle" with "Muslim", and "mudblood" with "refugee", and you'll basically have the operating rhetoric of the British National Party Now I really don't want to start any arguments in my comment section, but I just wanted to put that out there because I wanted to give the rationale I had when designing the political system of this fic.
I'm going to speak a bit from the heart here, so I apologize if I get a bit sappy or emo. I'm a very cynical person in general, and I feel that human history justifies my dark, pessimistic view of the human race. Sure. I'd love to see a solution to climate change, or a treaty-borne world peace, or a socialist society in which everyone is cared for, or what have you, but I largely think humans are too petty, jealous, and greedy to ever bring those things into a reality.
Certain political and economic systems can have some successes at curbing that, but they can't really fight the flow of nature forever. Everything that humans set their hands on rots within a generation. Even the hardest-one societies, borne of struggle and revolution, only fulfill their promises for as long as the revolutionaries live.
Magic is my way of fixing that. When I'm writing this fic, magic lets me change human nature, it lets me make people better. The Old Rites in this universe actually unequivocally fulfill on the promises of religion by connecting you to the magic of the earth: they make you more empathetic, more loving, more generous, more understanding, and just… better.
I wanted to create an asylum against the horrors of the human race, a society that could do nothing but live harmoniously in peace for ten thousand years. No expansions, no wars, to murder campaigns. That's the only society for which I could justify fighting a longterm vigilante campaign to protect (a la Voldemort), and the only society I could justify isolating from the rest of the world.
