Work Text:
In the years following the defeat of the terrorist known as “Lord” Voldemort, part time investigative reporter and full time tabloid sensationalist Rita Skeeter eventually unearthed the truth of Voldemort’s horcruxes.
In a rare show of sensibility over rakish reporting, the tabloid writer consented to be involved in a high-level ministry cover up of the events surrounding the so-called “Lord” Voldemort’s magical efforts towards immortality.
The cover up entailed mostly of the withholding of Rita Skeeter’s book on “Harry Potter’s Year in Exile On the Run From the Dark Lord.”
The rest was accomplished under the guidance of Dr. Hermione Granger and a team of surgical level obliviaters—as well as the cooperation and consent of the given parties.
Where consent for obliviation was not granted, oaths for secrecy and non-investigation were extracted.
In all, 236 oaths or minor surgical obliviations were filed under a newly formed Secrets of War and Anti-terrorism department.
Under condition of secrecy for the more sensitive secrets of the war, the Secrets of War and Anti-terrorism department was also charged with collecting a thorough understanding of the events of said war, the whys and how of its occurrence and future prevention.
Publicly this department is known simply as the newly formed Anti-terrorism Department.
The department released and continues to release journals, articles, and long form publications on risk factors and vulnerabilities regarding terrorism and culture wide bias and prejudice to stable and secure governance and prevention of crimes against humanity.
The department has recommended in a series of journal articles for thorough restructuring and reform of dozens of Ministry Departments including but not limited to the Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures department, the Mis-use of Muggle artifacts department, and the Department For the Enforcement of the Statute of Secrecy.
The journal of Anti-terrorism and societal reform also recommended a series of reforms in regards to education.
The foremost conclusion being that muggle science regarding hate crimes, genocide, and bigotry could not and should not be ignored in favor of wizarding ignorance and isolationism.
In a series of articles, Dr. Hermione Granger herself argued for the availability of “Introductory Study of Racism, Xenophobia, and genocide historically and with cross cultural comparison”, as well as adding cross-cultural studies as an introductory course with particular emphasis on magical, non-magical, and partial-magical upbringing.
Initial work in this regard was intended exclusively as a form of trauma and grief alleviation and healing. The experiences and events of the war and the entire lifetimes of preceding bigotry were deemed necessary to share for the sake of empathy and contextualization of the horrors brought out to by the regime of the wizard known as Voldemort.
But Dr. Granger also argued that the continued sharing of these cross cultural experiences particularly in a formalized context designed to encourage empathy, could be an important component to preventing future crises and acts of similar genocide as those orchestrated under and for the Voldemort regime.
She argues that an entire society wide campaign for Being rights is necessary not only for the upholding of ideals but the prevention of human rights abuses and violence.
The connection she argues is an issue of vulnerability and division. Voldemort’s regime ran on terror and hatred for others exacerbating, fueling, and using bigotry and fear for the purpose of power and control.
That is explicitly that terror and hatred from the masses was focused simultaneously on eliminating a scapegoat and shoring up power and control. The average “muggleborn” did not need fear Voldemort himself, but the acts of his followers both legal and extra-legal that saw “muggleborns” murdered, tortured and imprisoned.
All this was possible due to pre-existing prejudice against “muggleborns”.
In a perverse way, fear of werewolves and other so-called dark creatures was weaponized as a tool for manipulation against those groups themselves even as their oppression ad stigmatization might appear to make them natural allies of other culturally maligned groups.
In the words of Dr. Granger, hatred for werewolves or “muggleborns” are societal vulnerabilities that threaten us all and said hatred must be addressed now in the fresh moments post war before those in power feel more comfortable pretending the atrocities of the war era did not occur, or can be easily forgotten.
A society that is comfortable with its past atrocities, with a power structure that rewards the continuation of prejudice and imbalance will not change. Dr. Granger argues that it is unacceptable to move forward without changing the fundamental and structural reasons for the rise of Voldemort’s regime—whilst also providing reparation and honor to those harmed and killed by said regime.
The regime and the man were separate and yet connected horrors and in the more secret working of the department of the Secrets of War and Anti-terrorism the finer details of who and how and why are reflected on and yet contained from potential copy cat elements in society.