You may have read a book by Robert Greene and Joost Elfers, The 48 Laws of Power. That book illustrates the importance of 48 maxims, or laws, of power and their importance, along with examples of powerful people in history utilizing these laws to attain the height of power. I'm writing this essay to prove that it's not only the people in history who follow these laws, its people in fiction as well. History or fact rather, inspires fiction. But some stories are so cleverly written, that most readers would not know how successful these characters would be, if they appeared in our real world today. The main case in point, is Harry Potter. You will see how the main character, who is not Harry Potter, would fare, in today's world of power dynamics.
Let us take the first major player in power, the main villain, or rather, the antagonist of the Harry Potter series. Lord Voldemort has been knowingly playing the game of power since his Hogwarts years, where he practices the first Power Law, Don't outshine the Master. The young Lord Voldemort, or Tom Riddle, was adept at amusing the master, to not go too far to the sun. He charmed his way into the post of Prefect and Head Boy, and this place in power gave him information for his beginnings as the Dark Lord. Tom also goes to show that he could stay the emperor's favourite, particularly in the eyes of Horace Slughorn, a man who also comes up in this essay. Voldemort particularly follows the third Power law, Conceal Intentions, as he was very secretive during his school years about his forays into the Dark Arts. He used Hag rid as a scapegoat for the murders performed by him, when Tom opened the Chamber of Secrets. But Voldemort somehow forgets this. It seems as though he only utilizes the tenets of Power for information gathering, and now that he has power, he does not think to protect it. He blatantly gives of his Death Eater's names in front view of Harry Potter, announces his plans for the wizarding world, thus falling foul of many Power laws, and he fails to truly crush the enemy.
Or is it?
Voldemort's true goal was not to rid humanity of Muggles, mudbloods and the like, but to ensure immortality for himself, using his pureblood mania as a cover. Voldemort is holding his cards close to his chest, he spies on his own, not trusting his Death Eaters. In recreating himself as a pureblood bigot, Voldemort appealed to most of the pureblood groups feeling angry for the new changes in the wizarding world. More and More Power laws seem to be followed by Voldemort, such as cultivating a cult like following (his Death Eaters), he manipulated other peoples decisions, particularly of one inexperienced Harry Potter, and we might even say that Voldemort used his failures due to Albus Dumbledore pulling the wool over his eyes as a flaw, to ensure that even he was just one of them, really, and that even they were important leaders of his revolution. But Voldemort disregarded two laws. He never crushed the enemy totally. Instead of Killing Harry Potter in the Grave at Little Hangleton, which he could have done even before he called the Death Eaters had been summoned =, he did not. He preferred to create a spectacle but failed to deliver. He more often than one times failed to realize the protections Dumbledore placed against him a chose instead to dive for the free lunch, to act impulsively. He never considered ancient magic, not even when he should have torn apart all the knowledge required on the twin cores after two times of defeat. Voldemort was not a perfect Power player, as he considered the most important laws to not be of much interest.
We turn at least to the man who was purposely written to follow the laws and be a Machiavellian figure, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.