More on my rendition of the Hogwarts uniforms!
Yes, it's the second time I've posted my version of the Slytherin's uniform. Just that this time it's the uniforms for the golden trio era.
Why would they change? You'd ask. The answer is that after Severus became head of house, after facing ridicule in his Hogwarts years, especially what happened in SWM, and knowing how vulnerable the uniforms can leave students, I'd expect he'd change them.
Adding flared trousers as a subtle hint of muggle fashion in a kind of rebellious yet secret way of moving away from the blood purism that plagues the house and making up for it with a more rustic look.
Also moving away from the militaristic style from when he attended school, making the Slytherin's uniforms closer to Gryffindor's and therefore going from "elitist, formal, and strict" to "clever, adaptable, and stylish".
Talking about my version of the Gryffindor's uniform. I made it easy to move in, hinting at their athleticism, very much echoing the mediaeval looks of knights, and also hinting at them being "the heroes" most of the time. So, yeah, houses not only had it worse by their reputation and such but also when it came to uniforms. That's why I would think Severus would try and level it out, especially given what he went through.
Anyways, fun pic from the next chapters of my fic.
"Take the damned picture already before I change my mind."
What do you think about the series treatment towards Muggles?
Most of the muggkes we hear of, are nasty towards wizards who did nothing to them.
Most of the wizards, even the ones who are supposed to be accepting, Seem to treat them as foolish at best or animals at worst.
Even Hermione, began drifting further away from her parents as time passes.
Honestly, I think it's a structural problem that one of the villain's main talking points is that muggles are stupid, lesser, and kind of suck... and then all the muggles we meet are stupid, lesser, and kind of suck.
Like the Dursleys suck. Dudley's friends suck. Tobias Snape is abusive. Mrs. Cole is an alcoholic. The Muggle Prime Minister is a foolish, comic character. (So are Mr. and Mrs. Mason, in like, the one scene they appear.) Tom Riddle Senior is apparently a snooty airhead. The citizens of Little Hangleton are both stupid and mean... probably the most sympathetic muggle character in the whole series is Frank Bryce - who is also crotchety, bad tempered, and (to he honest)... boring.
Once we hit the Fantastic Beast films, we get abusive villain Mary Lou Barebone, some ineffective senators... and Jacob Kowalski. The only muggle character treated unambiguously positively. And I'm not sure I can even give JKR 100% of the credit for him, since I think it's pretty likely he's a recycled Dr. Who companion... and he also gets a wand in the third movie. I would bet money that if the series had continued, he would have been revealed to be some kind of magical something.
What's crazy to me is this is a very fixable problem. Just give Hermione's parents first names and slightly more time on the page. Even just giving them a little more of a moment back in Book 2 would have made a difference. Or (this is my favorite) - make Ted Tonks a muggle, not muggle-born. It changes nothing, and boom. Now at least we have A positive muggle character going into Book 7.
You are completely correct that even the pro-muggle wizards like Mr. Weasley have a condescending, paternalistic view of muggles, and Hermione's decision to commit 100% to wizarding world culture is treated as a complete non-issue, a foregone conclusion. And the books are completely fine with all this.
Magic Is Masculinity: Or, Lucius Malfoy and How the Wand Makes the Man
One thing I'm always interested in thinking about in HP fic is how to realistically create a society with different mores from our own. If you take the premise that pureblood especially and overall wizarding culture more broadly is different from 1990s Muggle British society seriously, you must consider where social norms differ from 90s muggle norms. I personally am interested in the idea that pureblood families tend to live in multi-generational households with extended families rather than in a nuclear family, for instance, though I don't think this was JKR's intention (but who cares it's interesting). You could claim that LGBTQ+ people are more or less accepted than 90s Britain, depending on what you want to do with your story--and you could also consider that the wizarding world might have completely different definitions of sexuality (like, for example, the Roman use of penetrator vs non-penetrator as the main sexual binary). And we know that what is defined as masculinity and femininity varies massively across time and place.
So I want to think about how gender roles might differ in the wizarding world. There was a post I saw recently that discussed the idea of Sirius feeling affirmed in exploring femininity by being seen as feminine by Muggles while wearing robes, which I thought was a really interesting idea (and one that could apply to any character exploring gender). Of course the essential premise there is that something Muggles read as feminine--robes--are actually an essential aspect of Wizarding masculinity (see that guy who likes a nice healthy breeze round his privates in GoF).
So what else defines Wizarding masculinity? We can go absolutely wild! But I think there's a lot of canonical basis for the idea that one essential part of being a wizard and a man is having access to and control over one's own wand. This raises interesting questions about how characters who can't control their wands might be seen as emasculated (like Ron in CoS and Neville pre-HBP), and is also significant with regards to Voldemort's search for a wand that will allow him to fight Harry, and the period when Harry's wand is broken. So I'd love if people did additional analysis on this topic. But I'm going to specifically discuss the case of Lucius Malfoy, because I think he's a very clear example of how you need to have a wand to be a man.
"The faces around him displayed nothing but shock; he might have
announced that he wanted to borrow one of their arms.
“No volunteers?” said Voldemort. “Let’s see . . . Lucius, I see no reason for
you to have a wand anymore.”
Lucius Malfoy looked up. His skin appeared yellowish and waxy in the
firelight, and his eyes were sunken and shadowed. When he spoke, his voice
was hoarse.
“My Lord?”
“Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand.”
“I . . .”
Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite
as pale as he was, her long blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath
the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put
his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand, and passed it along to Voldemort,
who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely.
“What is it?”
“Elm, my Lord,” whispered Malfoy.
“And the core?”
“Dragon — dragon heartstring.”
“Good,” said Voldemort. He drew out his own wand and compared the
lengths. Lucius Malfoy made an involuntary movement; for a fraction of a
second, it seemed he expected to receive Voldemort’s wand in exchange for
his own. The gesture was not missed by Voldemort, whose eyes widened
maliciously.
“Give you my wand, Lucius? My wand?”
Some of the throng sniggered.
“I have given you your liberty, Lucius, is that not enough for you? But I
have noticed that you and your family seem less than happy of late. . . . What
is it about my presence in your home that displeases you, Lucius?”
“Nothing — nothing, my Lord!”
“Such lies, Lucius . . .” (Chapter 1, DH)
Having a wand is compared to having an arm: it's an essential part of a wizard's body. All the Death Eaters are shocked by the request. (Interestingly, we know of only two confirmed female Death Eaters, Bellatrix and Alecto Carrow. Bellatrix says that she would gladly give up any SONS specifically to the Dark Lord's service in HBP. This might imply that the Death Eaters are intended to be a majority male organization (though I personally like to explore the idea of there being more female Death Eaters) and so these are men specifically being affronted).
Before his wand is taken, it is specifically mentioned that Lucius appears ill--pale and waxen and yellow. Control of the body and good health is often seen as a crucial sign of masculinity. Lucius has lost this--he cannot control his own body--and is about to lose an important signal of his masculinity, his wand.
Voldemort is also treating Lucius as a child who's transgressed: there is 'no reason for him to have a wand anymore'--Voldemort doesn't respect Lucius's right to have a wand, like he's a child who isn't in control of his own decisions. A main throughline of Lucius's treatment since OOTP is Voldemort's interest in punishing him. This involves reducing him to a child to be ordered around, who can't be trusted with a wand. He treats Lucius as someone deeply beholden to him: Lucius having a wand and having liberty are dependent on Voldemort, instead of characteristics of an adult man with social authority. Voldemort is the patriarch of the Death Eater family.
Voldemort seems to enjoy humiliating him in front of the other Death Eaters: he could have asked him nicely as an equal in private, but he makes a spectacle of it, asking for volunteers he knows won't be appearing, only to single out Lucius and then mock any pretensions he might have to exchanging wands, then intimidating and terrifying him by questioning his loyalty (and the loyalty of his family, which thus insults Lucius's ability as a patriarch). The wand length comparison also serves no real purpose but to emasculate Lucius.
Immediately after taking the wand, Vodlemort also brings up Tonks's marriage to Remus to insult Lucius, Narcissa, and Bellatrix--another insult to Lucius's abilities as a patriarch as he cannot stop his family members from shaming the family through marriage choices. Again, it is delberate that Voldemort does this so soon after taking Lucius's wand. Now that Lucius is wandless, his masculine authority can be questioned.
Lucius clearly wants later to reclaim this lost authority --and implicitly his sense of his own masculinity.
When the Trio is captured, Lucius is extremely excited. He appears to be motivated by a desire to lessen his punishment (which involved Voldemort taking his wand, and said wand being destroyed by Harry):
"Harry had never heard Lucius Malfoy so excited.
“Draco, if we are the ones who hand Potter over to the Dark Lord,
everything will be forgiv —”
“Now, we won’t be forgetting who actually caught him, I hope, Mr.
Malfoy?” said Greyback menacingly." (DH)
Greyback says 'Mr. Malfoy' in a menacing way: it seems to be belittling him, reminding him that he doesn't actually have that much power in this scene compared to Greyback, who actually captured them by his own efforts compared to Lucius passively waiting for something to improve his situation. Greyback may be saying 'Mr. Malfoy' to say: all you have is your social position, compared to me--you might have the title of 'mr' but you don't have a wand and you don't have the power to act, so I am more masculine and can threaten you.
It's also really interesting how Narcissa is directing Lucius and Draco in this scene: she greets Greyback and brings him in, she refers to Draco as her son only, she is the first one to instruct Draco to examine them. Malfoy Manor might be Lucius's home, it has his name, but Narcissa appears to act as patriarch in this scene: it's her home, her son, she is greeting visitors and taking command, and she is the one to say 'we need to be sure and shouldn't immediately summon Voldemort' and the one to identify Hermione. This might be the typical Malfoy family dynamic, it might be because Narcissa is the one who still has a wand.
Then Bellatrix comes in, and she orders both Lucius and Narcissa around. She also asks Narcissa what happened, treating her as the leader of the family. Now Bellatrix has always hated Lucius, they certainly didn't seem to get along well during the DoM battle. But here she's just contemptuous of him, and provides key evidence for my wand-equals-masculinity theory.
"“I was about to call him!” said Lucius, and his hand actually closed upon
Bellatrix’s wrist, preventing her from touching the Mark. “I shall summon
him, Bella, Potter has been brought to my house, and it is therefore upon my
authority —”
“Your authority!” she sneered, attempting to wrench her hand from his
grasp. “You lost your authority when you lost your wand, Lucius! How dare
you! Take your hands off me!”
“This is nothing to do with you, you did not capture the boy —” " (DH)
Lucius lost his authority when he lost his wand. He is no longer the patriarch, the master of the house, specifically because he does not have a wand: Bellatrix then goes on to order Draco around, which Narcissa protests because it's 'her house': a striking contrast to Voldemort calling it Lucius's house in the first chapter, before he took the wand, and to Lucius trying to call it his house. While Lucius has a wand it's his house, but when his is taken it become's Narcissa's (though of course she is talking to her sister about herself, so you don't necessarily have to read that much into it). Interestingly, Bellatrix doesn't give orders to Lucius: maybe because she just doesn't like or trust him but maybe because he doesn't have a wand and is thus useless.
The whole concept of authority in HP--and Lucius, owner of Malfoy Manor, husband and father, has specifically patriarchal authority as Head of his family--is linked to having a wand. Lucius seems to have expected to be able to exercise some control over Bellatrix as a fellow Death Eater and as his sister-in-law who appears to be living with him, but she rejects this possibility by saying he can't control her as a male patriarch might because he doesn't have a wand. Thus he is failing to meet the requirements of being a patriarch in wizarding society. Bellatrix can do whatever she wants in his house, and he has no way of stopping her. She seems to have replaced him as patriarch of the Malfoy family.
The linkage of masculinity with authority with having a wand is made extremely clear through Bellatrix's line. By taking Lucius's wand, Voldemort removed the last semblance of authority and masculinity he had, to humiliate and emasculate him for losing the diary and the prophecy (and I think the broader narrative is doing this to Lucius at least a little as well, he becomes more pathetic and pitiable, because in JKR's view of gender pity is for women).
Later, Lucius's role as a Death Eater has clearly been reduced: Voldemort dismisses his suggestions around the Battle of Hogwarts as only being concerned for his son, and assigns him the menial task of fetching Snape. He has been reduced from advisor to fetch-and-carrier. Lucius's last appearance on page is NOT fighting in the Battle of Hogwarts, appearing only concerned with his son (and JKR often associates concern with a child only over any other concerns with maternity and femininity, but that's another post).
In working on this meta I also had a lot of thoughts about warrior masculinity through martial magic in the Wizarding World, and the idea of a Death Eater specific masculine warrior ideal, but that's another post LMAO. I hope this has been helpful in imagining how magic might affect gender roles!
brief list of Lesser Appreciated 70s Music to put in your fics
(because I love Queen and Led Zeppelin and Bowie as much as the next woman but we remember the pop hits that rose to the top of the sludge puddle, and these guys would have been listening to all kinds of other stuff. most radio used to play only top 40, sometimes segregated by genre, so you'd get a lot of variety.)
Slade, but especially the original "Cum On Feel The Noize" (1973)
Donny Osmond charted in the UK. my readers who have listened to Donny Osmond will be begging me to shut up. no, I say. go forth and listen. make an edit about teenage crushes set to "Young Love".
Paper Lace's "Billy, Don't Be A Hero" and "The Night Chicago Died"
Gary Glitter is a child predator but unfortunately his music was deeply popular in the UK during the 1970s and if you're aiming for period accuracy someone is listening to him.
"Kung Fu Fighting" was #1 in late September 1974. you're welcome
"Don't Cry For Me, Argentina"
The Floaters - "Float On". this is a truly ridiculous song and it deserves to be memorialized in fanfiction.
Boney M. had multiple charting hits in the UK, not just "Rasputin"
Pink Floyd
Wings, which was Paul McCartney's post-Beatles band
the soundtrack to Grease
Mungo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
everybody talks up Bowie but nobody talks up Elton John, who had a fantastic decade and who definitely featured in Lily's rotation of LPs. imagine her having to explain "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" to Pureblood students who've never seen or read The (Wonderful) Wizard of Oz.
(Or, How I Broke My Brain And Fell In Love With Statute of Secrecy Discourse)
Now, before I begin, let me escort the first elephant out of the room: Yes, the Death Eaters were basically a Nazi parallel (or an X/Y/Z cocktail of various prejudices).
This is not about that. This is, if you will allow me, sidestepping that to suggest that there is another motivating factor in the wizarding world that not only strengthens psychologically exploring Death Eaters and similar, but could arguably be treated as their source code.
I am referring, of course, to the International Statute of Secrecy (est. 1689).
Second elephant out of the room. Yes, in canon, the Statute is a franchise convenience. The wizarding world as it exists in Harry Potter and its cousins only exists as-is with the Statute as foundation. Masquerade trope. Doylist, yadda and that.
Elephant out? Good.
Now let’s look at the elephant that we’re sitting down for tea: a society that has spent three hundred years reciting and digesting scattered medieval witch hunts as a reason to maintain a mind-control-enforced insular culture.
As we know from the real world, hardcore fear-fueled isolationism always produces functional, well-adjusted people.
Sarcasm aside, moving on.
Imagine you are a pureblood wizard, if you would. You grow up in a house out in the countryside. You occasionally glimpse Muggles, maybe, but you aren’t allowed to meaningfully talk to them. Not much. Besides, Muggles burn people and have nukes and all of this and that and the other. Imagine what they would do if they found us - that is the mantra you hear all your life. But wait no, we have magic, we’re safe, we’re superior.
Which one is it?
And then you go to school, and you notice there’s a whole class of wizards whose parents and siblings and aunties and uncles are Muggles. What if one of them cracked and said something? What if one of the Muggleborns decided they liked the Muggles better than you? Half-bloods? Them too. People who marry Muggles? They've actively decided it, haven't they?
And then along comes this fellow saying don’t worry. We are superior to Muggles. And you know what? Muggleborns probably are conspiring and plotting against us anyway. They don’t get our ‘culture’ (and I use the the word loosely, considering canon population distribution), not to mention they were born out there.
People don’t like the narrative that makes them afraid. They like the one that makes them feel in control.
Now, enter the 1970s and surrounding years. The Muggle world is changing rapidly. The Cold War is afoot. The other is in its rapid-pulse state.
And we look at our pureblood and we wonder why he might become a Death Eater.
I want to be clear: I am not saying the Death Eaters are right or good or the real victims. I’m saying that the fundamental premise of the Statute of Secrecy does not create a stable, healthy society. It creates a highly paranoid one. (Which also raises some interesting pressures on canon’s British Ministry’s behavior, come to think.)
It breeds radicalization.
So, yeah. Has anyone else considered that 300 years of militant isolation might fuck up a society?
One of my constantly reoccurring thoughts over the years is a Harry Potter plot. Yeah, yeah. Hear me out.
Little Lion raised by snakes.
Literally.
Harry Potter, at a young age, has accidental magic. He already has a problem with being kept in a small cupboard and treated like an animal. One day, his accidental magic acts up. He wants to escape. Wants to be smaller so he can hide or escape or scratch and attack back. And suddenly, the world is a whole lot bigger, and he is a whole lot smaller and uncle is looking down on him in shock and rage. So he runs.
Surely he will transform back at some point. Right?
Wrong.
He is hiding, just a small black kitten on the streets. There is so much danger at every turn. He forages and hunts, and that’s how he comes across his family. Someone who can speak to him. The other animals don’t make sense, but he happens upon a snake, and the snake seems pleasantly surprised that he is what it calls a speaker.
Years pass, and he gets a little bigger, but not by much for a cat. And he is still stuck as a kitten. He has learned from the snakes how to hunt, how to survive, and eventually finds out about a secret place where funny looking humans exist, and they have funny looking creatures that they keep. Harry quickly learns to stay on the safe side and avoid the owls, since he looks like a bite sized snack to them, just like the snakes warn him about. But he slowly comes to realize that perhaps, with some of these odd people’s help, he may be able to transform into a person again! It’s been so many years, part of him has begun to forget what it was like to have two legs and hands and to speak human speech instead of the language of hissing snakes.
And the people here, with the funny hats and odd dress ,seem to like him as a black cat, rather than condemn him as a bad omen like they do elsewhere. Some even try to keep him, calling him a ‘familiar’ or some such. He is quick to escape the overly grabby humans.
It’s during one such trip where he is exploring areas in this new and separate world from what he had known, that he ends up in a place where the street sign reads ‘Nocturne Alley.’ There are a lot more spiders to pounce on, but also a lot more suspicious looking people, a few of the nastier ones try to shoot lights at him with vicious sneers and laughter.
It’s while he is hiding under an empty crate after a particularly vicious attack that he hears her voice. Clearly she doesn’t know he can hear what she is saying. Hissing about what a delectable snack he will make as she slithers closer. Talking about squeezing him and enjoying his struggle before she bites him. It’s just as he is turning around to tell her off that he realizes just how BIG the owner of that voice is! Sure, many things are big compared to a kitten, but she is bigger than all of the much more common snakes that he has seen before. She is probably bigger than he is if he ever turned human again!
She doesn’t seem to care that he noticed her, probably because he is in striking distance even if he decided to run. And he has seen snakes striking speed. And her jaw is definitely big enough to end his already far too long and miserable existence.
He does his best, using his knowledge of the pride of snakes from those he has known in the past to charm her. To praise her beauty and size and intelligence. Speaking to her about how he is much too unworthy of a meal for one of her magnificence and beauty. Talks about how he is but a poor, orphaned kitten that has lived on the streets, and no doubt has diseases that would upset her stomach while digesting him. He offers to hunt for her, and bring her only the best treats he can steal from the stupid humans to pay tribute to her. This silences her as she watches him, and he hopes against hope that he has charmed her as he slowly steps back, only to realize that she, while he was talking, has completely encircled him with her long, thick body. To the point he won’t be able to escape with how little room under the container there is, and how thick her coiled body is.
It is just as he has resigned himself to his fate that the creature states that she already had an unusual hatchling, but he is grown, and boring, and doesn’t seem to appreciate her greatness like he should anymore. He will surely regret not paying her any interest when she replaces him with a new hatchling. Not to mention her old hatchling is much larger and able to protect itself, while Harry is small and pitiful and weak. And if it ever decided to leave her or replace her as his queen, she could easily eat him for his insolence.
Harry, rather terrified, agrees to become her hatchling and follow her back to her nest where her other, grown and rather ungrateful hatchling resides.
A hatchling that, he learns, is a human. A human that is arguing with other ‘lesser’ humans (as his new den mother informs him). And is honestly sort of terrifying. He decides quickly that he probably shouldn’t let this human know of his speaking skills until he can trust it, and his snake, not to kill him. After all, some of the things he just heard him talking to those other humans about he probably wasn’t meant to understand. And if he were to find out Harry were also a human stuck as a kitten… he’s probably as good as dead.
Meanwhile, Tom Riddle is somewhat annoyed by his snake, who seems to have brought her snack home with her and has decided to toy with her food rather than eat it. The kitten looks ragged and rather unappetizing and quite honestly petrified with fear. Which is somewhat amusing. Nagini, clearly trying to make him jealous, announces that she found a better hatchling that actually recognizes her beauty and strength. It’s cute, so he plays along and listens to her while the kitten tries to slowly escape before her coils wrap around it and nearly cover it till it lets out the most adorable panicked mew.
He decides to get the kitten the best food, and find a good cleaning charm for pets. At least when she decides to eat the creature she won’t get too sick and will actually be provided with some nutrition. He tells her as much, speaking with her indulgently. It’s rather odd how the kitten clearly starts acting more and more terrified as he speaks. Almost as if it knows what he is saying. Which is silly. It’s just some silly little black cat. Too young to be a predator yet. Just the right size to be prey. He much prefers the feel of smooth scales beneath his fingers, but he can see himself enjoying the kitten fur while it lasts. However long that may be.
Meanwhile, Harry is terrified. But he is sure that if he sticks around in this place long enough, he may learn a few things about this magical world. Specifically, he may find out how to transform back into his human body! If such a thing is even possible. It just kind of stinks that the first human he has ever met that might somewhat understand him he can’t even consider asking for help. Because he has a strong suspicion this human doesn’t like surprises. And the more he stays (the kitten food is amazing and the best stuff he has eaten in a long time. Along with what scraps he steals from the human), the more of the man’s plans for world domination he learns. And people don’t just walk away from finding out stuff like that. Perhaps it’s for the best he stays a kitten.
Idk when or how Harry eventually transforms. All I know is when he does, he is still scrawny, but much bigger than he was. Almost an adult size. Was he stuck as a cat for that long? His speech patterns are odd. It’s hard for him to speak human language because he has become so accustomed to snake language, and when he does remember to speak people, he is much more blunt and to the point and unsettling to normal human speakers. Snake speakers are much more simple to converse with considering he was raised by them.
Meanwhile, Tom is beside himself because he has been housing his enemy that he assumed was dead and created reforms because of for quite some time. After all, if he couldn’t kill the brat, how dare some muggles be the reason his equal died?! How can he just announce to the wizarding world and his followers that the kid who’s death he created his platform on to rebuild himself as a dark lord is alive and was chasing butterflies in a field as a cat for most of his formative years!? And the level of latent magic this kid had to maintain an accidental animal transformation for that many years because he felt unsafe to turn back is outrageous! How does this oblivious little Lion exist, much less how did he survive to his magical majority?!
Hi! I absolutely love reading your HP theories and metas. they are so well researched and well written!
something i have always wondered about and would love to get your thoughts on is: is Azkaban the only wizard prison? From the books it seems like Azkaban is for serious offenses like being a DE or murder, etc. I’ve always wondered, is there a lower tier jail, perhaps a locked down branch of the Ministry where criminals are kept? I’m thinking of lesser crimes like petty theft, or illegal potion making or something like that. I can’t imagine someone would be sent to Azkaban for stealing.
But then I was thinking about a post you made where you said wizards have a different view on “pranks” (like whatever childhood mess Fred and George did to Ron), and how wizards may think these things are not that big of a deal if they can be remedied by magic.
Do you think wizards view these petty crimes as similar to pranks, where if the “crime” is easily remedied by magic, then its not a crime? (like, you could duplicate or retrieve a stolen item with magic, or said item has some kind of magical protection) As far as I recall none of this is ever mentioned in the books. This kind of strayed into multiple topics but I would love to hear your thoughts on crime/prison in the wizarding world (or what it might look like), if you have any :)
Hi, thank you very much! 😊
Personally, I don't think there is a lower-tier prison, just lesser sentences. I also don't think low-level crimes, such as theft, are considered like these more violent pranks (Fred and George melting Ron's tongue with an acid pop, for example), as in, I don't think they are legal, but I don't think they are prioritized by law enforcement.
What I mean is that the average wizard can fight off the average intruder with a wand on their own. Aurors would only really be needed in cases where magically dealing with the problem is beyond the average wizard. Or if the Ministry determines the criminal is a problem for them for this reason or another. We repeatedly see that crimes against the Ministry or Ministry personnel or crimes done by people the Ministry doesn't like are all treated with more severity.
Basically, crimes that aren't assault/murder/other violent crime or crimes on a state level, like terrorism (being a DE) or breaking and entering Ministry facilities, aren't taken care of by aurors, it seems, but by other departments. We see Arthur, and his office is responsible for fining for crimes related to their jurisdiction:
“I like Ludo,” said Mr. Weasley mildly. “He was the one who got us such good tickets for the Cup. I did him a bit of a favor: His brother, Otto, got into a spot of trouble — a lawnmower with un- natural powers — I smoothed the whole thing over.”
(GoF, Ch5)
It had been clipped out of the Daily Prophet, and it said: Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, was today fined fifty Galleons for bewitching a Muggle car.
(CoS, Ch12) - In this case, it seems he didn't have a choice because of how visible the car was and fined himself 🤷♀️.
And we know minors get expelled from Hogwarts as a punishment instead of Azkaban often:
“We always knew Hagrid had been expelled,” said Harry miserably. “And the attacks must’ve stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise, Riddle wouldn’t have got his award.”
(CoS, Ch14)
He was found guilty of at least the negligent manslaughter of Myrtle, so it's a lesser sentence since he is a minor.
Harry is almost wrongfully expelled:
What if they ruled against him? What if he was expelled and his wand was snapped in half? [...] had his breach of the International Statute of Secrecy been severe enough to land him in a cell in Azkaban?
(OotP, Ch3)
Breaking the Statute of Secrecy is a serious crime. One that seems to warrant a short Azkaban sentence (seen later) when the Ministry feels like it. Harry knows it can land him in Azkaban (though he is, of course, panicking; this panic isn't completly unfounded).
Cases of assault on muggles (both for the assault and the breach of the Statute of Secrecy) are sent to Azkaban:
“And my father went after the bastards that did it,” said Aberforth, “and attacked them. And they locked him up in Azkaban for it. He never said why he’d done it, because if the Ministry had known what Ariana had become, she’d have been locked up in St. Mungo’s for good. They’d have seen her as a serious threat to the International Statute of Secrecy
(DH, Ch28)
Morfin Gaunt is also sentenced to a few months in Azkaban for it:
Morfin, who already had a record of Muggle attacks, was sentenced to three years in Azkaban. Marvolo, who had injured several Ministry employees in addition to Ogden, received six months.
(HBP, Ch10)
The quote above proves they have *short* Azkaban sentences of a few months or a few years for more minor offenses:
Podmore was arrested by Ministry of Magic watch wizard Eric Munch, who found him attempting to force his way through a top-security door at one o’clock in the morning. Podmore, who refused to speak in his own defense, was convicted on both charges and sentenced to six months in Azkaban.
[...]
“Six months in Azkaban!” whispered Harry, shocked. “Just for trying to get through a door!”
(OotP, Ch14)
Trespassing into government property is bad enough for six months in Azkaban. It's possible trespassing in general is sentenced for a few months in Azkaban, the way assault is (Marvolo's six months). Though, it's also possible it's because the assault and trespassing were crimes against the ministry, and that against private property or any magical individual that isn't the ministry, the sentence would be a fine or perhaps a month in Azkaban (Harry reacts like the sentence Podmore got is way out of proportion for the crime. But that could also just be Harry thinking that breaking and entering the ministry should be legal. I mean, he does it twice).
Morfin's sentence was longer (3 years) due to him attacking muggles, meaning it was the breach of the Statute of Secrecy that makes the sentence longer. And we see Morfin does indeed return home after his first stint in Azkaban to be framed for the Riddles' murder later. For the latter crime, he seemed to have received a life sentence in Azkaban. But he proves people do get released from Azkaban if they survive to the end of their sentence.
But with all this, we can see clearly that Azkaban is the only prison, and even minor crimes that require a prison sentence are sent there. We also see that Azkaban isn't inherently a death sentence (that's what the dementor's kiss is for) or a life sentence.
That being said, many Azkaban sentences end up being for life — even if the sentence is only a few months, since many don't survive that first year:
They don't need walls and water to keep the prisoners in, not when they're trapped inside their own heads, incapable of a single cheerful thought. Most go mad within weeks.
(PoA, Ch10)
“He [Barty Jr] died?”
“He wasn’t the only one,” said Sirius bitterly. “Most go mad in there, and plenty stop eating in the end. They lose the will to live. You could always tell when a death was coming, because the dementors could sense it, they got excited.
(GoF, Ch27) - "Barty" died about a year after he came to Azkaban. Sirius states this is a common occurrence.
So here I am doing some research on these schools since we know little about them, only to come to an unsurprising conclusion.
These schools make no sense at all.
First of all, Beauxbaton took in basically all the countries around it, except, apparently, Switzerland and Italy, and some other countries around those countries. Fine, okay, makes sense considering maybe that happened because of WW1 and WW2, ya know. Cool, got it, they don’t want Nazi’s, and sure maybe a bit sore about the other neutral/““neutral”“ countries like Denmark kinda was and wasn’t, and Sweden, too...
Durmstrang apparently said FUCK NAH to non-magical born mages and only magical born ones… The opitimy of Death Eater mentality fr fr. And maybe that had smthn to do with Soviet Russia? Idk I’m still confused and researching history to make that shit make some sense. But apparently they take in all the other countries down to Bulgaria…
But what about all the nonmagical born kids? Like. Just fuck them and dip right?
Nah. My Headcanon now:
Two minor schools that took in different parts of this area in Europe. One in Poland and the other in Italy/Greece (I chose near Athens but up to anyone else fr).
The one in Poland started because they wanted to protect jewish mages and anyone who opposed the Nazi's, didn't agree with Durmstrang, and also happened to be nonmagical born. They didn't care too much as long as you weren't a fascist Nazi, really.
The one in Italy/Greece was started as they took in Nazi mages and fascists all around this part of the world that couldn't go to Durmstrang or Beauxbaton, especially nonmagical born ones, AND I think was influenced by Grindelwald during his rise to power and the Great Global War he started. They weren't so deep into the pureblood mentallity, but it was definitely a superiority complex against nonmagical folk and probs speciest against goblins, merfolk, and centaurs.... I also think that they never really stopped being fascists, when Voldemort was around the first time.
It just does not have a good reputation anymore. AND it just made some sense with people prefering Blaise Zabini to be italian, or from Italy. Like, Beauxbaton wasn't going to accept Italians or Switzs, so they had to go somewhere, and if Blaise' mother wanted him to go to a good school, then maybe it was smarter to go to Hogwarts instead politically, while keeping her child safe? The school in Poland was too anti-magical Nazi, and the Italian/Greece one was just not safe, so Hogwarts was the perfect middle.
IDK, this is just some thoughts I wanted to spit ball. Let me know your thoughts if you want, but remember I'm thinking roughly about the 1940s-1990s times. and filling gaps in OC's backstories for my own story (that may not ever see the light of day but whatevs lol)
