death to capslock

This was inspired by oryx_leucoryx’s reply to condwiramurs’s post “I would sell out the nation”; oryx was trying and not succeeding very well in fitting this new hypothesis, that the intrinsic crime of the Death Eaters was their stated intention to overturn Secrecy, with Albus and Tom’s conversation when Tom dropped by Hogwarts to ask for a job.

So I reread “Lord Voldemort’s Request” in HBP, and indeed, the objections Albus articulated to Tom there had to do with Tom’s magical research, not his political agenda.  In fact Albus gives no sign of realizing that Tom and his (apparently newly so-called) Death Eaters had a political agenda.  If indeed they did at that time; we don’t know whether Tom took over and extended the old organization of the Knights, or whether he’d formed a group separately and eventually merged it with the older group.  In which case the merger may have taken place only after Tom and his followers adopted the Knights’ goals, which might have been quite some time after Tom first formed his group of friends.

It really does seem that what Albus objected to was Tom’s experiments in the Dark Arts.  Which seems to contradict our argument that his Death Eaters’ primary offense had been to plot treason/heresy.

Because why should there be any correlation, in either direction, between an interest in studying or practicing the Dark Arts, and affiliation with a political group interested (treasonously) in undoing Secrecy?


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This idea came up in an exchange with, if I recall, madderbrad, but for those who missed it there, here’s my theory on Felix Felicis.

Horace told his class it was “Desperately tricky to make, and disastrous to get wrong.” (HBP 9)

Old Sluggy is glossing over things a bit here because Dumbledore is so hot against any Dark Arts theory being taught at Hogwarts.

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