riaantheunissen
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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And that was a lie.
The effects shown to us is a man couching blood.
While that might be easily treated, I sincerely doubt the man affected, the two women witnessing it and any others he or those who witnessed it spoke with about it would have the knowledge that it is an easily treated effect, instead of something that would have killed him.
Given that the dust cloud covered half the alley, there should be more than enough victims affected as well as people who witnessed it to make a very large, very bad impression.
As to Dumbledore's statements, nothing was said about how easy the treatments were or how bad the various symptoms were, leaving us with the image of a man coughing blood. What we got from it was that the poisoning was due to potion ingredients in the dust cloud and that there were enough cases that the healers could not check everyone thoroughly.
As to the leaflets, 'Don't buy from Beckett's Potions! He's a traitor to muggleborns! And he'll pay for his crimes!' isn't very clear before you know what the resistance will do.
If those who were maimed don't blame her, I would say that their response is unrealistic. If the majority of the family members and friends of those who were maimed don't blame her, I would say that their response is unrealistic. If the majority of the family members and friends of those who were killed don't blame her, I would say that their response is unrealistic. Mentally healthy people care about friends and actually love loved ones, so killing them, maiming them or appearing to be willing to do either to them does not endear you to their friends, family members and loved ones.
That is where I differ.
You stated that Wizardling Brittan is small, comparable to a city of between 25,000 and 50,000 with a single school. So, the people who were directly affected is a small number, maybe 100 all told, a handful killed, a larger number maimed and the rest caught in the cloud. (And if you happen to see your neighbour coughing blood you will know the cloud is dangerous and you are damn lucky an Auror shoved a bezoar down your throat, no matter what others who weren't affected might later claim.) Maybe a fifth of a percent of the total population. Not much is it?
However, how many of them had family and/or friends. All of them. They're human, and we humans don't just pop out of thin air and live out our lives in isolation, not even the introverted ones. And humans, unless they're mentally disturbed, care about family and about friends. So, on the Wizardling side for the muggleborn victims, perhaps a husband or wife and maybe a child or more than one, as well as a number of friends and co-workers. On the Wizardling side for the halfblood victims, perhaps a parent or two, maybe a grandparent or two, perhaps a husband or wife and maybe a child or more than one, as well as a number of friends and co-workers. This doesn't include all the people who would just happen to know the victim, halfblood or muggleborn, because they happened to go to school with them. (One school for the entire country, so people from all walks of life should at least know the victim and the victim should at least be able to say "I know you, we were in the same house/class/year" to a surprisingly broad range of people.)
Now, there will of course be a large number of cases where the family, friends or friendly acquaintances of one victim are the family, friends or friendly acquaintances of another victim. But even so, the number of people affected will be quite a bit more than just those caught in the attack. Four additional people for every one caught in the attack? Five, fifteen, perhaps even fifty? I'm certain that there are at least some kinds of studies about how many connections a person can have and found this (http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/social-media-affect-math-dunbar-number-friendships) using google, but how many should be shared between the victims is something I can't reason out.
So, maybe a fifth (or a bit more) of a percentage of the Wizardling population of Britain directly affected (there were enough that the healers did not or could not check every case properly). A minimum of four family members or close friends per victim doesn't seem out of the question, with some having quite a bit more, so bumping that up to a full percentage point of the Wizardling population of Britain doesn't seem ridiculous. Of course if you look at the percentage of muggleborns and halfbloods for Wizardling Britain the percentage will be higher.
Add to that that it is usually easier to make friends at school with people who share at least part of your background as well as the fact that everybody goes to the same school and the number of acquaintances (perhaps even friendly acquaintances) the victims and the family and close friends of the victims have among the muggleborn and halfblood portions of Wizardling Britain should be very large. And that matters when it comes to elections.
Now, one percent who says "damn you" to both the Ministry and the resistance isn't much. But to expect that one percent to not speak, to keep their mouths closed? That isn't happening. And they will affect their acquaintances.
Firstly, where was the ministry being genocidal?
Secondly, trust matters. It wasn't portrayed as a honest mistake. Hermione and the resistance lied. They lied big and they used a stupid lie. And once it comes out that they lied everything they previously stated comes into question, as well as everything they say in the future.
Thirdly, an appropriate level of response is a thing. Now, Hermione used a bomb, an area of effect weapon, on a shop, a place where uninvolved civilians could easily be affected, during business hours, when uninvolved civilians actually go to shops that happen to be open, to kill a snitch that as far as she knew, wasn't about to run off. So, she used an area of effect weapon in a place frequented by members of the public at a time when members of the public could be expected to be present not to kill a group of Death Eaters, not to kill somebody who was a significant combatant for Voldemort or the Ministry, not to kill a supplier of money or goods for Voldemort or the Ministry, but to kill a snitch. Not an appropriate level of response.
Fourthly, unlike the French resistance Hermione doesn't have the backing of her government nor does she have the backing of a foreign government, to hide her mistakes and to support her past actions. Once she gets into power she'll be able to do so, but not now.
It would not be a debate. It would be a challenge that Hermione would have to decline or be proved a liar. And in declining it she would show herself to be a liar to that portion of the population able to reason or follow the reasoning of others. All it would need is a statement of "Do this now before you have somebody change your memories if you want to be believed" to make any of Hermione's later prepared statements under Veritaserum suspect. And once she's proved or shown to be a liar about the ministry attempting to poison Knockturn Alley all of her previous statements are brought into question.
The ministry is actively trying to discredit Hermione and they know she lied about the Knockturn Alley poisoning, quite publicly via her leaflets. Them not using this opportunity would be very stupid.
They should be doing something similar to Sirius as well in fact.
If they care about their friends, if they care about their families, then I cannot see them "not really mind" those friends and family members being harmed. It's just not part of how most humans are put together.
Will they jump in bed with the ministry? I can't see it. (An individual respecting an Auror who pulled somebody out of the cloud yes, the ministry as a whole no.) Will they welcome the resistance? I can't see it either. Like I said a while ago, "A pox on both your houses" make sense to me.
Your story is very good, excellent in fact, but given the small size of the country and the fact that everybody up till now attended the same school makes this unrealistic. After all, what are the chances that even Amelia Bones did not have somebody currently living in Knockturn Alley as a housemate while at Hogwarts? Unless she was in Slytherin it is a given and more than one wouldn't be surprising. If she was in Slytherin it's a maybe, and even then she would have had classmates who are currently living in Knockturn Alley.
Ignoring the bombing won't make your story go from excellent to just good but the bombing not affecting Hermoine politically make no sense with a country this small, only one school and just, what was it, the muggleborn only being around a sixth of the population I think you said.
You haven't shown any community leaders except Aberforth. But then, what are the chances that there aren't several respected businessmen, respected priests, respected retired Aurors or just liked and respected members of the community around? Muggleborn, Halfblood and Pureblood? The kind of people who have shown that they are honest, intelligent enough, can build up and run a business and are good employers? The kind of people who have shown that they are moral, intelligent enough and willing to stand by their flock in a time of trouble? The kind of people who have shown that they are brave, intelligent enough and willing to risk themselves for civilians? The kind of people who have shown that they are friendly, intelligent enough and can act to bring people in a community together? Not big names, but with the small size of Wizardling Britain and the relatively large number of current Wizengamot members, how many votes would they need? 1,000 votes? 2,000 votes? Seems more than doable.
As I recall this part of the discussion started about "Although those who have followed orders in good faith will not have to fear much." My point was that those Aurors who had followed orders in good faith shouldn't have been threatened at all if the laws were the sticking point, that they should have had to fear nothing, because the laws shown weren't put together to be evil, rather, they were crafted to be abuseable.
And these Old Family members, I assume their children and maybe grandchildren would automatically be Old Family members as well, so as to not give the person in a position of authority a reason to want to upset the system so that his or her children and grandchildren aren't excluded?
And sometimes the consequences aren't so minimal. At least, not as shown on the personal level.
The majority of those who did not support Voldemort being gone by the time the bomb when I have no problem with.
"Again, if you attend his parties, you clearly show that you consider him acceptable in society."
And
"And, honestly, if you're not ostracising scum like Malfoy, who openly acted as the Dark Lord's mouth piece, you are taking his side."
Implying that all who attended the party must have supported Voldemort and by extension deserved to die I have a problem with because you write a serious story and in a serious story it just doesn't seem realistic to me.
Could have been a very great deal better. Should have been a hell of a lot better if anybody in the resistance even thinks lying and claiming it was some kind of self-defence. For instance...
Check what time he comes in every day and what time he opens the store. If there is a set time a bomb could have been set to go off five minutes before he opens, while he's getting everything ready.
Check what time he closes the store and what time he leaves every day. If there is a set time a bomb could have been set to go off five minutes after he closes the door.
Go in disguised when there isn't anybody else in the store and leave a disillusioned bomb set to go off in five minutes time. (Much smaller bomb.) A disguised member of the resistance surreptitiously uses tripping jinxes or something similar to make a mess of anybody trying to enter.
Binary poison delivered in a number of ways.
Stun a regular customer, use veritaserum to question the customer fast and then memory charm the customer. Do this to try and find out where he stays. Actually do this to a number of people so as much as possible can be learned.
Ask the Weasley twins for help (or use Ron or Harrey to ask them) and use their new insanely useful Traceless Tracker to find out where he stays. In fact, ask them about other possibly useful items.
Finding out where he stays give more options. An attack at 04h00 really reduces the number of possible bystanders.
There are a rather large amount of additional options available, but I'm not fast so I'll stop here with possible options, otherwise I'll easily spend an hour or more on this.
The fact is that the method, time and place used made the attack likely to involve civilians. If Hermione had proper training or enough experience such an attack used to kill just a snitch would deserve to be viewed very harshly. As it is I see the way the attack was carried out as a mistake on her part, caused by her lack of experience and training.
So "Those who choose family over justice are enemies of any modern civilisation since ultimately, they oppose the rule of law" doesn't apply then. And self-defence can currently be claimed by all survivors.
(A personal opinion though is that it isn't the passing of the Muggleborn Laws that made cost Wizardling Britain's government its legitimacy, but rather allowing itself to be bullied into passing the laws. To me a strong evil government needs to be opposed or changed, but something that just bends and keeps on bending to outside pressure isn't a government at all.)
He was an example of somebody seen as a respected community leader by his group, and by the mercenaries as well if I recall correctly. If his group is too small then there would be other leaders, well regarded by their groups, with larger groups. And if you have to vote for somebody, who do you vote for, somebody you know personally is competent or somebody you just know about? I know which I would choose.
Somebody not aligned with any specific political group or party at the time of the election.
My thought is that by the time a bloody revolution is finished there won't be a country or, at best, the country will be a puppet state of whichever foreign power decided to intervene.
And now to read.
Edit: My apologies, I forgot to like your previous chapter. I have now done so.
