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Spells in Silence (Harry Potter)

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DragonWyrm said:
Edit: In other words. A good AND competent Dumbledore cannot exist without major rewriting. Competence in this case isn't talking about his skills in magic.
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Sure you can. It's pretty easy too.

Let's look at who Dumbledore is.

He's Hogwarts's headmaster. Okay, cool. Full time job, that, running a school is hard enough when every student doesn't have a stick that controls the universe in their pocket.

He's the head of the Order of the Phoenix and therefore the resistance to Voldemort. Another full time job there, Voldemort's a moron, but he's a crafty bastard of a moron.

He's also Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot for some godforsaken reason, which is roughly equivalent to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for us Americans. One must assume that this is also a pretty hefty job.

And, because that apparently wasn't enough, he's also the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, which is roughly analogous to the Chairman of the United Nations. Oi.

The man has four full time jobs. He's not incompetent or evil, he's overworked and overwhelmed. And odds are good that he ended up in this position because he's TOO competent and trustworthy, and there's not a lot of people who could be trusted with those jobs instead of him who also have the clout to hold those positions. Have you seen wizarding society? I wouldn't trust half of them to buy coffee! Dumbledore is overworked to hell and back, but he's not a suspected Death Eater or a certified crayon eater or a corpse, so he's genuinely the best option they have in a lot of cases.

And THEN you get to the guilt part, which is why he doesn't delegate more, because that would mean pushing his responsibility off on other people.
 
Firehawk242 said:
and there's not a lot of people who could be trusted with those jobs instead of him who also have the clout to hold those positions
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For the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts, there's McGonagall. Sure, that'd mean needing to find a new Transfiguration professor and Head of Gryffindor, but those'd both be a lot easier than filling the other positions.

For leading the Order of the Phoenix, no one's actually needed between when the Order dissolved and when it reformed after Harry's fourth year -- and he's probably not needed personally nearly as much between October 1981 and when the Order went inactive as he was in both periods Voldemort was active. Besides that, though, I don't think seeing that the Boy Who Lived, now-orphaned child of two of the Order's leading members, was well cared for counts so much as something competing with Order business for Dumbledore's attention as something that can or should be counted as part of Order business.

For the position of Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, the candidate pool is international; it seems unlikely that there isn't at least one other person who'd be no worse than Dumbledore, especially a Dumbledore already, as you say, holding down three (or four) full time jobs.

So that just leaves the Chief Warlock position for Dumbledore -- a single full time job. Meanwhile Hogwarts can have McGonagall as full time Headmaster (or possibly Headmistress, I'm a bit unclear on the usage), and the ICW can presumably have someone with less attention-splitting too.

But this arrangement would, of course, mean less power and prestige for Dumbledore, and less of an ability to claim that an error or lapse in one of his jobs was because he was just so busy with important work for another one.

And THEN you get to the guilt part, which is why he doesn't delegate more, because that would mean pushing his responsibility off on other people.
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Perhaps that could explain trying to hold the Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump positions at once, but does he have so little trust in McGonagall, or so much fear of the danger Hogwarts represents to its Headmaster?
 
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Reese said:
For the position of Headmaster of Hogwarts, there's McGonagall. Sure, that'd mean needing to find a new Transfiguration professor and Head of Gryffindor, but those'd both be a lot easier than filling the other positions.

For leading the Order of the Phoenix, no one's actually needed between when the Order dissolved and when it reformed after Harry's fourth year -- and he's probably not needed personally nearly as much between October 1981 and when the Order went inactive as he was in both periods Voldemort was active. Besides that, though, I don't think seeing that the Boy Who Lived, now-orphaned child of two of the Order's leading members, was well cared for counts so much as something competing with Order business for Dumbledore's attention as something that can or should be counted as part of Order business.

For the position of Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, the candidate pool is international; it seems unlikely that there isn't at least one other person who'd be no worse than Dumbledore, especially a Dumbledore already, as you say, holding down three (or four) full time jobs.

So that just leaves the Chief Warlock position for Dumbledore -- a single full time job. Meanwhile Hogwarts can have McGonagall as full time Headmaster (or possibly Headmistress, I'm a bit unclear on the usage), and the ICW can presumably have someone with less attention-splitting too.

But this arrangement would, of course, mean less power and prestige for Dumbledore, and less of an ability to claim that an error or lapse in one of his jobs was because he was just so busy with important work for another one.


Perhaps that could explain trying to hold the Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump positions at once, but does he have so little trust in McGonagall, or so much fear of the danger Hogwarts represents to its Headmaster?
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So the OoP is pretty clearly a political movement as well as a guerilla organization. Not caring for Harry is actually not its main failure. Failing to knock the Death Eater sympathizers out of power afterwards is. So it was active between the wars, albeit in a different form.

For the ICW, that likely came out of the mess with Grindelwald, actually. So that's a sticky one.

Hogwarts he probably could/should give up, but I think it's clear that's the only one of his jobs that he actually wants.

I'm not saying it was smart of him to end up in this position, but it's easy to see how a proud, highly competent, but also guilt-laden man could end up in that situation. He can't think of anyone who could do the job better than him, and if he did let someone else do it and something went wrong he would feel responsible, so why not just cut out the middle man and do it himself?

It tracks well with his canon characterization, and makes far more sense than either claiming he's secretly evil or claiming he's an idiot. He's just a hypercompetent workaholic with a guilt complex and no idea how to truly delegate or say no to responsibility.
 
Firehawk242 said:
For the ICW, that likely came out of the mess with Grindelwald, actually. So that's a sticky one.
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Honestly that position should not be one that a single person can keep for decades. Same for the other government position he holds too honestly. And Fudge's position, he's had that for over a decade.
Wizards just can't let go of their positions.
 
FictionPack said:
Honestly that position should not be one that a single person can keep for decades. Same for the other government position he holds too honestly. And Fudge's position, he's had that for over a decade.
Wizards just can't let go of their positions.
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I can't believe I'm saying this but Fudge might actually be in the okay here. Specifically because wizards have longer lifespans, so his time as minister is less comparatively. It would really depend on how long wizards live, we know living to 200 isn't impossible and there is supposedly some 700 year old dude without any philosopher's stone or similar. I think that wizards might actually have a lifespan that isn't known and wizards always just get killed by something, nit old age. There's always a chance you will trip and break your neck and thr longer you live the more chances you get, so that 700 year old was just really lucky.
 
FictionPack said:
Triply so if you are Dumbledore and invest in a beard that constitutes a tripping hazard and live in a building that is 65% staircases.
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Not only staircases, but moving staircases at that. Some of which have trick steps that your leg will just straight up get stuck in. It's a miracle that none of the 11 year olds just trip and fall to their deaths, never mind old Dumbles with his floor length facial hair...

Actually, do you think maybe he knows magic to explicitly prevent him from tripping or otherwise falling? Or maybe he can just straight up fly if he wants, like Voldemort did that one time? Or maybe he has Faux taxi him around so he doesn't need to use the stairs?
 
Firehawk242 said:
He's Hogwarts's headmaster. Okay, cool. Full time job, that, running a school is hard enough when every student doesn't have a stick that controls the universe in their pocket.

He's the head of the Order of the Phoenix and therefore the resistance to Voldemort. Another full time job there, Voldemort's a moron, but he's a crafty bastard of a moron.

He's also Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot for some godforsaken reason, which is roughly equivalent to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for us Americans. One must assume that this is also a pretty hefty job.
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And a competent person would delegate to trusted subordinates. Ergo, him being overworked shows his incompetence, or as you yourself said:
And THEN you get to the guilt part, which is why he doesn't delegate more, because that would mean pushing his responsibility off on other people.
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Which is a way that Dumbledore's trauma exhibits itself. So, you explained exactly how Dumbledore can be good, if he has trauma that stops him from acting competently. Supporting my point, instead of disproving it.
 
The thing is that we know very little about the ICW or the Wizengamon. While many claim that those positions are full time I don't think there is much proof that they aren't purely ceremonial and merely require Dumbledore to officiate a few meetings each year. Especially the position of Supreme Mugwump could be a way to punish magical Britain for their stance with Grindelwald and lock them out of the international scene say by preventing them fron having a voting representative.
 
Firehawk242 said:
So it was active between the wars, albeit in a different form.
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Even if so, not one that required Dumbledore to be on call to head into literal battle. And wouldn't that benefit from him being able to turn more attention to his position as Chief Warlock?

For the ICW, that likely came out of the mess with Grindelwald, actually. So that's a sticky one.
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...Why? It seems pretty unlikely he would't be able to step down.

Hogwarts he probably could/should give up, but I think it's clear that's the only one of his jobs that he actually wants.
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Which would be putting his own desires ahead of both the wellbeing of the children in his care and all the political matters he's also supposed to be working on, wouldn't it?

He can't think of anyone who could do the job better than him
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...I think that that rather undercuts the "highly competent" part. Like, okay, say Dumbledore had 150 points of job effectiveness he could put towards things, and the next-best candidate he can find for each of the positions he'd be giving up only has 75, half as good as he is. Except, by your argument, he's splitting those points over three or four jobs -- meaning that, if it's an even split, each is getting only 50 points, and if he wants to do even an equal job to the second best in one of them, the other jobs would get even less.

so why not just cut out the middle man and do it himself
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So it'd be less likely things would go wrong -- because they certainly are with him trying to do all those jobs himself, if we suppose a good!Dumbledore.
 
I just discovered this story and have read everything posted so far. Here are some of my thoughts.

There is lots of original world building and original characters, but the parts that intrigue me the most would be where the story intersects with canon.

What strikes me is the absence of canon characters and concepts and usual aspects of fanfiction. Hazel has not yet interacted with characters like Ron and Draco and Hermione has been reduced to someone who haunts the library. Hagrid who is usually an unwitting faunt of much needed information and exposition was only seen once and nobody has yet brought up the fact that Hazel is expected by her peers to have inherited at least some money at gringotts.

Dumbledore is the most glaring absence. You would expect him to take an interest sooner or later one way or another.

It is all very interesting so far, but with how inquisitive Hazel is (compared to Harry) and with her always on mind reading ability, the misunderstandings and missing information can't really continue forever.

One thing that worries me is that wizarding society is shown to be ignorant of a lot of things that a preteen girl figured out by herself.

This can be excused for some or most members of that society, but it seems unlikely that Hazel was the first to ever research what she did.

Unless the wizards are supposed to be so stupid that it breaks the suspension of disbelief, what is left is that someone is actively working to keep things the way they are.
 
Iridesce said:
From what we know about the history books at least being doctored this is probably straight up what's happening.
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Including the murder of the Druids because they wouldn't separate from Muggle Society, and scrubbing their existence so thoroughly that modern magical Britain has no idea they even existed.
 
Cyrus 21 said:
Including the murder of the Druids because they wouldn't separate from Muggle Society, and scrubbing their existence so thoroughly that modern magical Britain has no idea they even existed.
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That kind of stuff is probably incredibly common. We already know that respected professors like Flitwick literally thought that no witches or wizards were killed in the witch hunts somehow. So unless not a single witch or wizard was caught we know is wrong.
 
Iridesce said:
That kind of stuff is probably incredibly common. We already know that respected professors like Flitwick literally thought that no witches or wizards were killed in the witch hunts somehow. So unless not a single witch or wizard was caught we know is wrong.
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FictionPack said:
There is a canon witch that was said to have let herself be 'burned' at the stake multiple times for fun.
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Iridesce said:
Which is obviously propaganda.
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Honest a lot of things are pretty shady with the British ministry. And corrupt.
 
Loki-L said:
One thing that worries me is that wizarding society is shown to be ignorant of a lot of things that a preteen girl figured out by herself.

This can be excused for some or most members of that society, but it seems unlikely that Hazel was the first to ever research what she did.
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She probably isn't even. Who knows if there isn't or hasn't been some historian or explorer somewhere in magical Britain who has come to pretty similar conclusions as her, but just hasn't been able to find mainstream appeal. Any ideas that suggest that wizards did some questionable shit in their history and also don't have a clue about many disciplines of magic would probably have a hard time catching on without overwhelming evidence, and possibly not even then.

Just look at our own relationship with history. I mean, the Lost Cause movement has literally been part of the official curriculum in Texas as recently as 2018, and that's in a time where literally anyone can just open up a web browser and find out just how wrong it is from the comfort of their own home. Couple that with the fact that magical Britain only seems to have one mainstream newspaper, mostly in the control of the conservative faction, and it's really no surprise that ideas like that wouldn't proliferate.

Who knows, maybe the Quibbler has some theories about druids somewhere in there. I doubt Hazel has gotten around to checking it yet.
Aside from maybe some limited run books written by fringe historians that everyone politely forgot about, that's the kind of place that I'd most likely expect a theory like that to actually find any purchase at all.
 
Crazy idea. Any wizard or witch that gains traction in learning 'uncomfortable truths' get Lockhart sent after them to remove them as a concern and rewrite the narrative of their discoveries and accomplishments.
Think about it, one of those books was about werewolves, and another was about hags!
 
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