Chapter Text
This was an incredibly interesting piece to write, mostly because I was trying to show glimpses of what happened in the territory known as the Former Wizarding Britain in the background of a slice-of-life story about Aldon and Francesca and where they were in this alternate world. This appendix is for anyone who wants more on what went differently—though, there is a fair amount here that breaks down the key pieces of rev arc as a whole and why that revolution was able to succeed while this one had decidedly mixed results. Why was Aldon as important as he was? What about Archie? Is any one character really that important, and if so, why?
So, here we go.
I: Evan and Christie
The premise here, of course, is that Evan marries Christie. Whether it’s because Lina talked him into it when Christie got pregnant, or because Christie decided she couldn’t give Aldon up and Evan changed his mind then, Evan somehow felt supported enough to do it. The resounding scandal rocks Wizarding Britain in 1977.
Evan is a businessman—particularly, one who relies on others to trust him and give him their money for investment. Given the way politics and wealth are intertwined, the scandal is probably enough for Evan to lose most of his clientele. Even if he didn’t, however, I don’t see Evan as being the sort to try to stay and weather the storm. So, he picks up and moves to France, where his family has roots, and he completely reinvents his business as The Rosier Group.
In this timeline, a lot of the innovations that Aldon makes in the rev arc extras are made by Evan himself, because Evan has to adapt to a new society and culture. In so doing, and having already lost everything once, I thought he’d have gained the courage to be all of himself, which means he openly interacts with Muggle culture and embraces his Algerian heritage (referenced in ties that bind). I’d note that Evan himself was probably born before Algerian independence, when Algeria was a part of France—and this background is not uncommon for people living in southern France anyway. Evan settles at the family vacation home in Montpellier, but opens The Rosier Group in Marseille, the closest major city.
Christie is less professionally successful here. She doesn’t speak French, and with Aldon, Antoine and Anais (there is really no reason in France for Evan and Christie to stop having children), she likely doesn’t re-enter the workforce at least until all three of them are at school.
Rosier Place itself was probably stripped of everything of value for Evan to sell, and the property itself was sealed off. The house-elves might have come along to France or not, though some might have taken service in other families too.
II: Aldon And His Siblings
Aldon and his siblings have a very normal childhood. Even if Evan was bad with kids to begin with, under Christie’s influence I figured he would take a bigger role and develop into a decent father figure. Like in rev arc, he does groom Aldon as his successor to his business; unlike in rev arc, Aldon latches onto it and never considers doing anything different.
All three of them go to Beauxbatons. While Étienne had a bad experience and the school is notoriously pureblooded, the Rosier siblings have three things working in their favour: their noble past, their money, and each other. Evan does have business experience and skill, so chances are good that he sets the Rosiers up well in France, and Aldon is clever enough to flaunt exactly what he needs to get by.
In classic eldest-child style, Aldon himself is more responsible and steadier than in rev arc. There’s a good chance he was named as a prefect or class monitor of some sort at Beauxbatons, though Antoine and Anais probably are not. Given the business, and the fact that a significant part of the Rosier wealth now comes from Muggle business, Evan probably values knowledge of the Muggle world. All three Rosier siblings self-study for the bac (the French exams leading to a high school diploma) while at Beauxbatons. There are three varieties of bac: one for the humanities, one for economics and social studies, and one for sciences. Aldon probably picked up the one in economics and social studies, while his siblings could have gone either economics and social studies or the humanities.
Post-Beauxbatons, Aldon studied for the entrance exams for Montpellier Business School, one of les grandes écoles (the French Ivy League), and made it in. After his Muggle studies, Aldon leaves Montpellier for Paris, setting up the secondary offices of The Rosier Group and starting the consulting side of the business.
Antoine runs off to Auror Training Academy instead of anything business-related and, owing to his fluency in English, is promptly assigned to the Calais refugee camp with Wizarding British refugees; Anais, the baby of the family, went and partied her way through a standard three-year university degree, somewhere far away from her parents and brothers. When she finishes school, Aldon takes her on as his assistant, just because she’s family, and she accepts because Paris nightlife is great.
There’s no reason for Aldon to meet Francesca throughout the time period that rev arc stretches. While Aldon might have been on the Beauxbatons team, especially if a sibling was playing, Beauxbatons was in a different pool than AIM and doesn’t have historical ties with any of the North American schools. Aldon wouldn’t have had any reason to pay close attention to AIM games, nor was he really in a position to get an invitation to the North American League banquet.
III: The ACD and Its Development
Without Aldon seeing the ACD and analyzing it in the Triwizard Tournament, and without meeting Francesca almost immediately after the ACD is first shown, and without Blake & Associates, ACD development proceeds quite differently.
However, given John’s connections and the fact that Francesca will eventually realize she’s stalled without more funding and help, Francesca likely gets funding from another source no later than 1997. Since she is still supplying ACDs to Archie and her friends (mostly because they’re her friends and who’s to say she can’t), it’s reasonable that the military applications would have drawn MACUSA’s interest, and she probably had a major US military grant in hand around 1997.
IV: Vanguard
The largest changes begin in Vanguard.
Archie’s Trial
First, without a Truth-Speaker on hand to summon Justice, Archie almost certainly gets crucified at his trial. I imagine Archie still tries to fight it, but fundamentally his arguments’ strengths only come out in a world where there is some form of fundamental rights that are being betrayed, which today are codified in various constitutions. The kind of law written into the background of rev arc was common law without such fundamental rights (barring the summoning of Justice).
That said, it is somewhat unlikely that he goes to Azkaban; under common law, precedence still applies, so between Percy and Lady Bones, chances are good that Archie just gets the maximum sentence that has previously been given for conspiracy to commit and aiding and abetting blood identity theft, i.e. a major fine. However, the political consequences are less clear—Riddle and the SOW Party would no doubt be infuriated and come after him in other ways, so Archie might find himself needing to seek political asylum in America.
Bridge
In rev arc, the fact that Justice Herself outright said in obiter that the laws were unjust and that she would have struck them had Archie had appropriate standing gave Archie and his friends more legitimacy when they started Bridge. Justice Herself said that Archie was right and only convicted on legal technicality—for the public, this gave them a moment of pause and it was interesting enough for many of them to pick up Bridge and read it at all.
In this world, because Archie has no quasi-victory to lean on, plus he may have been run out of the country, Bridge only deepens the divide between foreign-educated Muggleborns and halfbloods on one side, and purebloods on the other. Instead of acting as a uniting voice talking about problems in Wizarding Britain in general, Bridge acts as just one more thing dividing Muggleborns and halfbloods from purebloods, because purebloods likely just don’t read it.
Further, since Aldon isn’t there to act as an editor knowledgeable about Dark society and to edit articles before they go out, working Bridge is more dangerous. It’s probable that at least a few people working on Bridge, from writers to distributors, are caught and tried for sedition and/or have to make a run for political asylum elsewhere. Each time this happens, Bridge has less legitimacy to work with.
The Unity Ball
Aside from being possibly the most fun chapters for me to write ever, the Unity Ball played a very important role in Vanguard! The purpose of the Unity Ball was to get Aldon and Francesca in a position where Caelum would be Caelum, Aldon would lose his shit, and Aldon would duel him. And win, and once he won, he could wring a life debt out of him that could be used to position Caelum as an early spy.
So—without Aldon and Francesca, Archie and his friends never go to the Unity Ball at all. Given the other changes, it’s probably considered too dangerous for them, even if they haven’t had to claim political asylum elsewhere. That said, Voldemort still attacks the Unity Ball, and Riddle and Dumbledore would still fight him off, though the casualty numbers might be increased since Lina and the Queenscoves aren’t there.
Caelum has a happier ending in this universe (maybe). He sees the writing on the wall after the attack on the Unity Ball and gets the hell out of Britain while the getting is good. Given his educational history and language skills, he likely heads back to Russia and works in potions as he wanted all along.
Other Changes
Without Bridge and without Aldon, the groundwork for the earliest alliances just aren’t there. The Welsh, the shifters, and the Scots, even if they have grounds to be unhappy, just don’t think that those behind Bridge can be helpful. Some of them might reach out to Sirius in lieu of Archie, but they would take far longer to do so.
Without more internal voices from Wizarding Britain itself, Bridge can’t gain any momentum outside its original readership of BIA members, many of whom remain abroad.
Finally, Neal is still there, but without Aldon guiding him through Wizarding British politics, he either never steps foot in the Wizengamot, or he walks out in the fit of rage like a week into the sittings. He’s not cut out for politics. This means he doesn’t establish friendly relations within the Light Faction.
V: Cataclysm
Coming out of Vanguard, the major differences in a war without Aldon are twofold: there’s even less trust between Muggleborns and halfbloods, as represented by the BIA, and those that remained in Britain, and they have effectively no intelligence arm. In Cataclysm, these minor faults explode.
The Coup
They have no forewarning of the coup, which isn’t critical except for one character: Blaise Zabini. The only reason Hannah and the other shifters are patrolling outside Malfoy Manor that night is because they’re tracking Voldemort, and they’re doing this because Aldon has information that something was planned. Without that, there’s just no reason for them to be there. Blaise could be caught here by Voldemort, but since his mother isn’t high in the Riddle administration, he probably isn’t killed outright. There is an outside chance that he escapes in the chaos on account of being a wolf shifter, but where he goes for assistance is then an open question, since he isn’t welcome at the Warren.
The major difference here is that Lina is not there. Without Lina to lead an escape, both the Malfoys and the Parkinsons most likely die. Voldemort might be a madman, but one of the first thing coup leaders do once they gain control is murder the leaders in the previous administration or they can act as a rallying point. There’s an outside chance Pansy/Pandora manage to sweet-talk their way out of immediate execution, but even if she does, the list of people she can reach out to is limited.
The fact that no one escapes (unless Blaise does) isn’t critical. Voldemort is not secretive as a coup leader—he probably blares his conquest from the rooftops within the next few days anyway. The bigger issue is that the second major resistance spy, Pansy Parkinson, is either dead, or she’s cut off from any resistance movement and doesn’t have an easy person to reach out to as her handler.
Negotiations
The resistance alliance itself is where the real trouble starts happening. In rev arc, most of the factions established some sort of friendly relations with each other in the course of Vanguard through Bridge, and the only true newcomers to the table in Cataclysm were the Lower Alleys and the Light Faction; in this one, they all come to the table separately, if they come at all. More importantly, since everyone comes to the table separately, plus Neal didn’t establish close links to certain of the Light Faction earlier, the Light Faction now has an outsize impact because the other groups can’t coalesce their opposition.
Therefore, while Archie would still build enough consensus to get an alliance going, the terms of the alliance are likely shifted closer to the Light Faction, with generic promises made of “we’ll talk about your other issues after the war is over” instead of concrete promises of referendums and emancipation. In the face of a more violent and crazed Voldemort (because Pansy did have a modulating effect on him), the other groups don’t really have a choice but to fall in line behind the Light Faction, but they certainly aren’t going to be happy about it.
Who Can Act As Spymaster?
The difficulty in any revolution/war narrative is that intelligence is key, and without Aldon, there isn’t anyone who can act effectively as a spymaster. The importance of Aldon was that he had grown up in Dark Society and he knew how it worked—but he hated it. He hated it to the extent that he had no qualms about using what he knew to his advantage, no matter how cruel it was, in the pursuit of his aims.
Muggleborns and halfbloods educated abroad might have the same ruthlessness, but they don’t have the knowledge of Dark Society or, indeed, of British society, to make it work for them. The few former Dark Society purebloods who are with the resistance just aren’t ruthless enough to go against the people they loved who are now on the other side.
Without Aldon, the next best spymasters would be Draco (who likely died at the coup), followed by Sirius and Blaise (if he escaped at the coup or shortly thereafter because he’s a wolf shifter). Blaise might have developed the appropriate ruthlessness if he witnessed Voldemort torturing and killing his friends and his mother, but I’d have to traumatize him quite a bit to get him to that point.
I don’t consider Harry because fundamentally, Harry is too nice to be an effective spymaster, plus she would want to save people. She has the right kind of mindset to be a spy, but she does not to be a spy handler. She’s simply not cruel or ruthless enough and, given everything she went through in just the first three books of RBC, I don’t think I can traumatize her enough to become truly ruthless.
In rev arc, Aldon kept his hands clean of torture mainly because he never needed to torture anyone, and the presence of Francesca meant he didn’t want people to be afraid of him. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t willing to resort to dirtier tactics if necessary (there’s a scene on the cutting-room floor of Aldon torturing a captured prisoner of war for information and Archie being Very Upset about it).
Finally, while it was only referenced in aftermath, Aldon did let at least four spies hang when they were caught. Like any good spy handler, he simply did the mental arithmetic of what that spy knew and decided it wasn’t worth taking the risk of attempting to rescue them or, indeed, to do anything at all. Pretty cold-hearted of him, and not something I can see from any other character.
Wizarding Ireland, Wizarding Scotland, and the BIA
The actual fallout of the war becomes somewhat messier after that point. The First Battle of Malfoy Manor probably goes off pretty much the same as it did in rev arc, since that was a Light Faction-led initiative, with Moody playing the role of Lina and signalling the retreat. Wizarding Ireland still takes the opportunity to revolt and secede, and Voldemort either still wipes out Wales, or he does something else wildly violent to set an example.
From there, however, things do differ. Since the Irish were educated abroad alongside the BIA, the BIA has closer sympathies to the Irish than they do to the Light Faction, and in this world, they trust and like the Light faction much less. They likely begin a backroom deal with the Irish on their own terms. Neal and the Queenscoves, too, are more similar to the BIA and the Irish than he is to the Light Faction and is at least invited to these backroom deals. While he might not act with the Irish and the BIA, he also doesn’t have enough knowledge of or loyalty to the Light Faction to narc on them either.
The Scots don’t have the same groundwork as the Irish, the BIA, and Queenscove, but they do see the example set by the Irish and they don’t have as much loyalty to the Light Faction-led resistance. Like in rev arc, they also make a break for independence; unlike in rev arc, the Light Faction might not be involved in that same break. Given their numbers and their knowledge of their own terrain, plus Voldemort’s split attention, they probably succeed earlier than they do in rev arc itself.
Voldemort and Counter-Terrorism Tactics
As previously noted, without Pansy there as a moderating influence, Voldemort is probably less controlled and more violent. Further, he probably doesn’t care about Muggles and acts in the Muggle world as much as he does the Wizarding one. See Harry Potter canon, for example, where he destroyed a Muggle bridge and sent hundreds of cars into the sea, and Kingsley Shacklebolt is assigned as the Prime Minister’s security.
In Harry Potter canon, the Muggle UK is portrayed as pretty much helpless to the magical threat. As should be obvious, I find it ridiculous that the Muggle government simply knows nothing about the whole alternate magical society in their midst, and that they are completely helpless to it. Also, why isn’t the international community taking note here? I imagine that magically destroying a bridge and murdering many Mugglescounts as a threat to the Statute of Secrecy?
At some point, the international wizarding community is going to intercede. Whether it’s because Voldemort does something that they consider threatens the Statute of Secrecy too much, or whether it’s because the Muggle UK government seeks help, someone somewhere will order one of the most common counter-terrorism defenses that requires almost no military boots on the ground: the decapitation strike. In short, someone aims a cruise missile or something at Voldemort and takes him out, along with anyone who is with him at the time.
Decapitation strikes are interesting because they’re one of the primary tactics against terrorist organizations. The theory is that they work because terrorist organizations are often a cult of personality. If one takes out the personality, the organization should fall apart. However, in real life, the research shows that their effectiveness is mixed. The US has conducted many decapitation strikes against ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and the organizations, like bacterium, evolve. Sometimes a new leader steps into place; other times, the whole organization falls into factions that fight over the power vacuum left.
In this chaos, the Light faction probably has the wherewithal to take London and Diagon Alley, the seat of magical government. However, given the chaos of the rest of the country as Voldemort’s remnants fall into factions, it’s almost a certainty that they stick to a martial government “until the other unrest subsides.” How can the BIA possibly be thinking of free emancipation and elections in the middle of a war?
This likely causes the BIA to revolt and quit the resistance alliance. Given their ties to Ireland and Queenscove, they can use Queenscove as a staging ground to take Manchester and Liverpool for themselves. Once they have their own territory, the name British International Association doesn’t make much sense, so they rebrand themselves as the English Republic.
VI: Wizarding Britain in this Timeline
I sprinkled hints of what Wizarding Britain looked like throughout Aldon’s thoughts and the characters’ conversations. However, for those craving more detail:
- The Light Faction government, led by James, still holds London. They don’t have enough resources or support to conquer the rest of the island, but they are well entrenched in London and Diagon Alley. Since they hold London, they receive financial backing from the Muggle UK and possibly from MACUSA, who would prefer them to any of the Voldemort remnant factions.
- The BIA, rebranded as the English Republic, holds Manchester and Liverpool. By this point in this timeline, their hold is very secure, and they are a de-facto independent state. They hold elections within their territory and negotiate on their own terms both with nearby powers and states. Given their location, they likely have defensive pacts negotiated with Wizarding Ireland, Scotland, and the border lords, as well as a non-aggression pact with the Light government. While they would like to take over the rest of the island, they don’t have the manpower to do it. They have widespread international support from Western democratic countries, financial backing from MACUSA, and the ACDs from Francesca.
- Archie himself is probably straddling the line between the English Republic and the Light government. He’s a liaison between them and is perpetually trying to get them to unite against outside forces, to no avail. The impasse issue is free elections; the Light government, with its many Light faction members who stand to lose their privilege with free emancipation, want to host free elections about as much as the English Republic wants to lose their political process, i.e. not at all.
- The Northern Border Lords are Queenscove, Naxen and Goldenlake. While Neal didn’t get early alliances with them in this timeline, ultimately location and security will matter more to Naxen and Goldenlake than historical ties. All three are closer to Scotland and English Republic territory than they are to London, so they are quasi-independent and basically form a buffer between Scotland and the flaming dumpster fire that is England. They receive heavy support from Scotland, who desperately wants to keep them there as a buffer state.
- The Save Our World Party under Dawlish is the largest of the Voldemort remnants. Their goal is simply to re-establish the Wizarding British state exactly as it was under Lord Riddle. They hold the most territory throughout Wizarding England and Wales and receive financial backing from the French, who basically want stability on their borders and no more refugees. They also enjoy widespread popular support from purebloods both noble and non-noble, because they promise stability and no further changes. Unfortunately for the widespread public, a restoration of the world under Riddle is likely impossible because most nobles are probably dead (one does not want to be noble in the middle of a revolution, see: The French Revolution).
- There are also at least two other groups called the Save Our World Party under Travers, Mulciber, and others that Voldemort held in high esteem. The differences in ideology between these groups and Dawlish’s is minimal—they probably promise more voice to non-noble purebloods, but ultimately this is a straight power struggle of “I want the same thing, but I want to be in charge of it”.
- The Lestranges form another faction. Their fundamental discontent, before Voldemort took power, was that they were families that had done everything “right” and still didn’t have much power. However, they are more violent and extreme than the other Voldemort remnant factions. The Russians provide financial backing to them simply because chaos in Wizarding England benefits them on a broader international scale.
- The Light Faction government holds Wizarding England’s seat at the ICW, but both Dawlish’s Save Our World faction and the English Republic also have representatives in Geneva lobbying to be considered.
On reflection, it seems that I’m saying that Aldon was so important that the revolution couldn’t have been carried out without him. That’s not entirely wrong, but his real importance is the role he played, not Aldon himself. For example, a terrifyingly traumatized Blaise Zabini who watched his friends and mother die at the hands of Voldemort with an iron will to see that Hannah didn’t suffer that fate might have turned the tide around for a larger Light faction success.
I’d argue that pretty much all the central characters and some of the non-central characters were all important to the extent that had any of them been missing, the revolution wouldn’t have succeeded (or not to the extent it did). Without Archie acting to build consensus, they would have failed; without James relying on his past trust as Head Auror leading the Light Faction militarily, they would have failed. If Aldon is there but Chess is not, Aldon is probably too unstable to be effective and they might have failed; if either Caelum or Pansy aren’t there to provide information, they might have failed. If Harry and Leo aren’t there to handle the Floo weakness and conduct supply strikes, they probably fail (the Floo weakness is quite serious).
In short, revolutions are delicate things, and everyone ended up being important.