Empathetic Wizard

Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus Read on AO3

A post-war Harry Potter story about the kids who inherited the questions no one wanted to ask. (Yes, the gif is thematically relevant) (First Book COMPLETE)

Summary

The Statute was built for doors. Time, as my Muggleborn friends keep trying to explain, is increasingly fond of Windows.

Hogwarts, 2006. The war is over. The castle is still standing. The staircases still try to kill people. Muggle Studies still thinks the 'internet' is a type of cauldron. The ethics curriculum? Still designed for medieval dueling disputes. And yet. Widdershins Weekly arrives monthly, anonymously, charmed to look like scrap parchment and packed with satire. And a handful of students are beginning to ask inconvenient questions, such as "Is our entire society held together with Spellotape and siege mentality?"

Characters/Ships: 5-OC Ensemble, mostly genfic - M/F OC subplot Rating: Teen Tags: OC ensemble cast, postwar/canon, political themes (esp isolationism), friendship, satire, humor and angst and drama (POV rotatation), character-driven slow-build Words: 142,122 (Complete, first in a series)

Excerpt:

"That isn't something a prefect of one House should be telling a first-year of another," Cassian said.

There was that look in the Muggleborn boy's eyes now, the one Cassian had prior labeled as discomfort, and this time Cassian thought perhaps it was more guarded. "Is it true?" ventured Little.

The vaguery sent icy papercuts of doubt through Cassian's skin.

"What? That you should be careful?" Marius put in, which was just as well, for Cassian didn't trust his own read of what the boy truly wanted to know.

"…No," said Little, a small knit forming between his eyebrows. "I'd read the history books before school," he added, in a clarification that stung with the grim awareness of what he'd likely read. "But - the prefect. She said…"

Cassian sat back, adjusted his sleeves.

"She said they- you- Slytherin. That Slytherin…" His voice faded.

With heavy thoughts, Cassian picked up the thread and permitted himself to guess. "She said that Slytherin would weigh your background. Or something of that nature."

Little's gaze lingered on Cassian's as he nodded, something in it more challenging than shying - not hostile, but yes, his read earlier. Guarded. Cassian held the look without flinch.

The Bad Guys: Muggleborns are fake, lesser wizards.

The Good Guys: Muggles are safari animals that occasionally birth real people. Oh, and we occasionally feel like kissing one.

The Bad Guys: Muggles are pest animals.

(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.

Chapters: 28/28 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Hogwarts Staff, Hogwarts Students, Original Characters, original ensemble cast Additional Tags: Ensemble Cast, Post-Canon, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, Post-Second Wizarding War, Slytherins With Conscience, Squibs (Harry Potter), Fix-It of Sorts, Worldbuilding, Friendship, Humor, Platonic Relationships, Wizarding Politics (Harry Potter), Drama, Coming of Age, Slow Build, Found Family, Muggles, Major Original Character(s), Statute of Secrecy (Harry Potter), Memory Magic, Anti-Nihilism, Post-War Hogwarts: Lost Generation, Original Characters - Freeform, Hogwarts Inter-House Unity, Light Angst, Muggle/Wizard Relations, Canon Divergence - Post-Hogwarts, Canon Respectful, Magical Terrorism, Psychological Drama, Harry Potter Next Generation, POV Multiple, No Character Bashing Series: Part 1 of Widdershins - The Post Script Universe Summary:

The Statute was built for doors. Time, as my Muggleborn friends keep trying to explain, is increasingly fond of Windows.

In 1998, the war against Voldemort ended. Allegedly, in 2017, all was well.

Hogwarts, 2006. The war is over. The castle is still standing. The staircases still try to kill people. Muggle Studies still thinks the 'internet' is a type of cauldron. The ethics curriculum? Still designed for medieval dueling disputes. And yet.

Widdershins Weekly arrives monthly, anonymously, charmed to look like scrap parchment and packed with satire. And a cross-house group of misfits are beginning to ask inconvenient questions, such as "Is our entire society held together with Spellotape and siege mentality?"

---

"So the plan is: orchestrate a first contact worthy of the Federation of Planets, convince the Wizengamot to join the seventeenth century at minimum, persuade the rest of Earth not to panic about the underground society with amnesia grenades, and hope everyone settles for mutually assured delusion as a starting point."

"How long before this starts by accident?"

---

"How long before this starts by accident?"

-Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus on AO3

A post-war HP slice-of-life political thriller where the Statute of Secrecy is collapsing and nobody knows what they're doing.

Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus Read on AO3

A post-war Harry Potter story about the kids who inherited the questions no one wanted to ask. (Yes, the gif is thematically relevant) (First Book COMPLETE)

Summary

The Statute was built for doors. Time, as my Muggleborn friends keep trying to explain, is increasingly fond of Windows.

Hogwarts, 2006. The war is over. The castle is still standing. The staircases still try to kill people. Muggle Studies still thinks the 'internet' is a type of cauldron. The ethics curriculum? Still designed for medieval dueling disputes. And yet. Widdershins Weekly arrives monthly, anonymously, charmed to look like scrap parchment and packed with satire. And a handful of students are beginning to ask inconvenient questions, such as "Is our entire society held together with Spellotape and siege mentality?"

Characters/Ships: 5-OC Ensemble, mostly genfic - M/F OC subplot Rating: Teen Tags: OC ensemble cast, postwar/canon, political themes (esp isolationism), friendship, satire, humor and angst and drama (POV rotatation), character-driven slow-build Words: 142,122 (Complete, first in a series)

Excerpt:

The Statute was built for doors. Time, as my Muggleborn friends keep trying to explain, is increasingly fond of Windows.

A "lost generation" cohort of Hogwarts students in 2006 try to navigate the beginning of the end of the Statute of Secrecy in the face of the digital age.

Despite the serious descript, it's also a fair bit about friendship/found-family, humor, banter, coming of age, and anti-nihilistic quiet drama. Light bit of romance too.

expect the likes of:

⁠introverts

teenagers overthinking things

teenagers underthinking things

people who are definitely reading

wingmanning with nuclear subtlety

⁠snakes as metaphors

snakes as non-metaphors

⁠toast

umbrellas

magical history building

⁠kids looking after first year babs

⁠oh and the Statute issue nbd

Chapter 24 Excerpt

TL;DR: coin ‘Lost Generation’ for Hogwarts ’98–’08; invite original-character-centric stories about rebuilding, reconciliation, and non-main-cast lives.

In we go:

I would like to propose what may be a gap in both fandom terminology - and fandom exploration.

One that I think there would be both writers and readers for, if given the chance.

I'm naturally referring to the state of Hogwarts and the lives and issues of its students from 1998-2008 (give or take a few years). The rebuilding era. The generation in the immediate wake of the war. The kids who lived through the consequences rather than the plot.

Come on, guys, we already throw out the epilogue often enough. May as well consider exploring some of why 'all was well' is a little... under-considered.

For angst writers: Students who experienced a year under the Carrows. Students who lost people in the war.

For drama writers: Muggle-borns who lived through the war. Muggle-borns coming in later and learning about the war. Young Slytherins trying to navigate whatever post-war state of things you envision. The experiences of new professors brought in, and the on-the-ground rebuilding of Hogwarts as feeling safe... likely in all of the wizarding world's clumsiness.

For the friendship/fluff/humor writers: Probably some awkward attempts at post-war reconciliation. "Cross-House Unity Parties" or the like. Kids trying to be normal and have their own issues while the adults deploy various politicking post-war band-aids. Kids making those cross-house friendships through the awkwardness. Quidditch 'mixed squads' week. A disastrously earnest professor's pairing of students for group projects.

For romance writers: overlap with any or all of the above depending on your taste. Enemies-to-tentative-allies. Awkward-side-eye-to-slow-burn. Idk, I don't write romance genre, you probably have better ideas than I here.

I'm sure there's more.

There's a lot of places one could go with it. The Lost Generation takes place in a time period usually reserved for eighth year or postwar main cast recovery. I'm not saying anything against those. I'm saying there might be space for something new. Room to explore the people who weren't at the heart of the war, yet live in its consequences - the fallout, policy changes, and haunted corridors.

Elephant in the room time.

Yes, this effectively requires original characters. And to that I say... so? The premise is real. Just because we got traumatized by a handful of thirteen-year-old writers in 2005 doesn't mean original characters cannot stand on their own. We were all thirteen once. I wouldn't want my thirteen-year-old writing to cause a two-decade creative ghetto either.

Star Wars EU (among other worlds) was expanding its universe's corners with new faces decades before My Immortal or anything similarly silly existed. Surely it's not only okay when corporate does it. Since when has fandom abided by that?

Original characters are workable. And so is, I think, the lost generation.

Hope someone else loves the idea as I do.

ngl I dream of the day when fanfic communities realize that they cut off an arm because of a few fics written by some 13-year-olds in 2005

Original Characters are not only legitimate and reasonable to use, but in some cases optimal.

But instead they're relegated to this weird pigeonhole where they're only slightly valid if

dating canon characters

sibling/child/goldfish to canon characters

following canon characters around

And if they're not any of the above...

....apparently they're somehow less valid than 'Harry Potter got raised by scientists and is basically in Ravenclaw but I swear it's still Harry Potter guys'.

Some fandom worlds are big and have corners that could be explored. Sometimes even better by original faces than retrofitted canon ones. Perhaps.

Star Wars EU predates fanfiction.net. So I guess original characters to expand canon are fine when corporate does it?

Expanding universes with OCs could be a whole subgenre.