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Grim Truth 92/14/12
Dec. 14th, 2009 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_siriusGreetings, British Wizarding World!
Last time, I wrote about a literal plague – one that the Ministry have denied, but which by all reports continues to rage despite their blind indifference.
Today, I think it’s high time we consider with more gravity the trouble plaguing the corridors of Hogwarts. Who is petrifying people and what can the authorities do to bring it to an end?
I’ve seen some shameful arguments against worrying. They range from dismissing the incidents as pranks to discounting their impact because the victims so far have been deemed ‘less important’ than wizards. That argument, even if it were ever valid, certainly can no longer be believed. After claiming three previous victims, a student is now among their number. Regardless of the justifications or their cogency, whoever is responsible is as misguided as the individual who callously murdered uninvolved innocents in reaction to my last couple of columns. There is a fine line between civil disobedience and vigilantism – and anyone who engages in murder or mayhem to further an agenda of fear, reprisals and oppression cannot claim to have the betterment of society as his goal. He is in moral, as well as ethical, danger.
More to the point is the danger in which the students at Hogwarts now find themselves. Read half of their entries and you may perceive a climate of fear and distrust. No child can thrive in such a constant state of anxiety. To make matters worse, it seems that at least until now, no one has been tasked to find the source of the attacks. The general and appalling attitude seems limited to the idea that once a mandrake restorative can be brewed, the effect can be reversed, thus resolving the threat. This treats the symptom, not the disease. Like the ravages of the Hertfordshire Scourge, the real problem has received next to no attention from the proper officials.
To truly resolve the situation, we must ask and definitively answer several questions:
Is the Chamber real? Prevailing wisdom says no. The castle was searched thoroughly the last time rumours spread about a Chamber and no such room was found. I can testify that as a student, my classmates and I discovered nearly everything we could about the castle, including its more elusive hiding places, tunnels and oubliettes, and found nothing that matches any description of the Chamber. It seems likely that someone is using this old legend to heighten the drama surrounding these attacks.
What sort of dark magic can petrify an animal, a person, and a ghost? Much to the disappointment of my late father, I have never been a great scholar of the dark arts. How lucky for us all that your current government is peppered with wizards who have delved into the field with positively ghoulish delight. I humbly suggest that they be pressured to conduct an exhaustive search until some credible theories may be discovered and tested.
Who is behind it? This is the one that counts. Again, there is certainly no shortage of dark wizards at present within the realm. There is always the possibility that the very people trusted to find the answers may themselves be the perpetrators! But we must also consider that at no time have Hogwarts’ protections been compromised or broken, so far as we know. This assurance alone rules out most of the available suspects, leaving only a handful of candidates. Recall that last year, the culprit in a plot against the school’s safety turned out to be a Professor; it may be so again.
The Hogwarts Board of Governors must investigate any and all persons who had the opportunity and ability to orchestrate these attacks, or else they must appoint someone to pursue the matter on their behalf. If they will not, then they must fully empower the Headmistress to conduct her own inquiry and provide her with any assistance she may require. The threat to the students and other inhabitants of Hogwarts must be neutralised.
I’ve seen people wave away their concerns by claiming that the victims must somehow be enemies of the Protectorate, therefore deserving of whatever they get. This intimation is both unfounded and specious. It’s unfounded because in the first place, it has not been determined whether they are anyone’s enemies and in the second, it is entirely unknown whether the Protectorate’s goals and the attacker’s are the same. It is specious because these claims deliberately mislead everyone from the central issue – whether for reasons of prejudice, a personal or political agenda or to ensure continued blind insensitivity to the realities of the oppression in which you all live. It is also at this point a harmfully spurious attitude, because all signs indicate the exact opposite of the claim. The timing, identities and disparate circumstances point to an attacker who shows neither rhyme nor reason, nor even a premeditated choice. These are victims of opportunity – that is, they were bystanders simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Regardless of their guilt or innocence, if they fell to this mysterious force, anyone can. Until the attacks are unmasked, there is really only one acceptable, if Grim, Truth: Your children are in danger. Call for measures to ensure their continued well-being, before another is claimed in this bizarre campaign.
Last time, I wrote about a literal plague – one that the Ministry have denied, but which by all reports continues to rage despite their blind indifference.
Today, I think it’s high time we consider with more gravity the trouble plaguing the corridors of Hogwarts. Who is petrifying people and what can the authorities do to bring it to an end?
I’ve seen some shameful arguments against worrying. They range from dismissing the incidents as pranks to discounting their impact because the victims so far have been deemed ‘less important’ than wizards. That argument, even if it were ever valid, certainly can no longer be believed. After claiming three previous victims, a student is now among their number. Regardless of the justifications or their cogency, whoever is responsible is as misguided as the individual who callously murdered uninvolved innocents in reaction to my last couple of columns. There is a fine line between civil disobedience and vigilantism – and anyone who engages in murder or mayhem to further an agenda of fear, reprisals and oppression cannot claim to have the betterment of society as his goal. He is in moral, as well as ethical, danger.
More to the point is the danger in which the students at Hogwarts now find themselves. Read half of their entries and you may perceive a climate of fear and distrust. No child can thrive in such a constant state of anxiety. To make matters worse, it seems that at least until now, no one has been tasked to find the source of the attacks. The general and appalling attitude seems limited to the idea that once a mandrake restorative can be brewed, the effect can be reversed, thus resolving the threat. This treats the symptom, not the disease. Like the ravages of the Hertfordshire Scourge, the real problem has received next to no attention from the proper officials.
To truly resolve the situation, we must ask and definitively answer several questions:
Is the Chamber real? Prevailing wisdom says no. The castle was searched thoroughly the last time rumours spread about a Chamber and no such room was found. I can testify that as a student, my classmates and I discovered nearly everything we could about the castle, including its more elusive hiding places, tunnels and oubliettes, and found nothing that matches any description of the Chamber. It seems likely that someone is using this old legend to heighten the drama surrounding these attacks.
What sort of dark magic can petrify an animal, a person, and a ghost? Much to the disappointment of my late father, I have never been a great scholar of the dark arts. How lucky for us all that your current government is peppered with wizards who have delved into the field with positively ghoulish delight. I humbly suggest that they be pressured to conduct an exhaustive search until some credible theories may be discovered and tested.
Who is behind it? This is the one that counts. Again, there is certainly no shortage of dark wizards at present within the realm. There is always the possibility that the very people trusted to find the answers may themselves be the perpetrators! But we must also consider that at no time have Hogwarts’ protections been compromised or broken, so far as we know. This assurance alone rules out most of the available suspects, leaving only a handful of candidates. Recall that last year, the culprit in a plot against the school’s safety turned out to be a Professor; it may be so again.
The Hogwarts Board of Governors must investigate any and all persons who had the opportunity and ability to orchestrate these attacks, or else they must appoint someone to pursue the matter on their behalf. If they will not, then they must fully empower the Headmistress to conduct her own inquiry and provide her with any assistance she may require. The threat to the students and other inhabitants of Hogwarts must be neutralised.
I’ve seen people wave away their concerns by claiming that the victims must somehow be enemies of the Protectorate, therefore deserving of whatever they get. This intimation is both unfounded and specious. It’s unfounded because in the first place, it has not been determined whether they are anyone’s enemies and in the second, it is entirely unknown whether the Protectorate’s goals and the attacker’s are the same. It is specious because these claims deliberately mislead everyone from the central issue – whether for reasons of prejudice, a personal or political agenda or to ensure continued blind insensitivity to the realities of the oppression in which you all live. It is also at this point a harmfully spurious attitude, because all signs indicate the exact opposite of the claim. The timing, identities and disparate circumstances point to an attacker who shows neither rhyme nor reason, nor even a premeditated choice. These are victims of opportunity – that is, they were bystanders simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Regardless of their guilt or innocence, if they fell to this mysterious force, anyone can. Until the attacks are unmasked, there is really only one acceptable, if Grim, Truth: Your children are in danger. Call for measures to ensure their continued well-being, before another is claimed in this bizarre campaign.
