Red Bronson Action

Well, until he ended up as a video game antagonist that is.

But such thing can happen to anyone and thus hardly a fair measurement of Prince's skill, and LaCroix shows considerable skill:

enters Anarch city after Kuei-jin invasion and successfully re-establishes Camarilla influence in just a couple of years. That's after decades of Anarch rule.

becomes a hegemonic power in the city despite having little support from LA Camarilla, remanining Kuei-jin holdout in Chinatown and a collection of Anarchs/Independents still holding onto parts of the city. The locals may not like him, but they aren't stopping him from exercising power either. And unlike Nines or Strauss, LaCroix can actually mobilize Californian Kindred to fight on his behalf.

his role as city's hegemon thus established, LaCroix successfully persuades one of two main challengers to his power - Kuei-jin - to help him against the other - the Anarchs. Which runs completely counter to their interests since after LaCroix is done with the Anarchs... then what's to stop him from crushing Kuei-jin?

successfully grinds down Anarch opposition to the point that they don't dare to fight back anymore. When LaCroix declares Blood Hunt on Nines for killing Grout, he frets about starting a war... A war which never comes. Nines just runs away. His pals in the Last Round can't do anything besides... complaining to LaCroix. Meanwhile Therese signs up with Camarilla, Isaac scoffs and makes a brave face, but cooperates with LaCroix' regime.

By the time LaCroix enacts his plot to finally assassinate Nines in Griffin Park... which faction is still there to oppose him? Sabbat and Giovanni are done, not that they were in the running for city leadership in the first place. The Anarchs are being co-opted as his muscle against Kuei-jin. Even someone as diplomatically illiterate as Ming Xiao suddenly starts feeling the heat.

“It was my word against Hagrid’s, Harry. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student… on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls…"

(Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)

Why didn't Dumbledore step up for Hagrid in 1943? Sure, proving that Tom Riddle was the true culprit would be tricky. But Riddle's case against Hagrid was thin to say the least: not only it was Riddle's word against Hagrid's, the basic facts of the case simply didn't match. Hagrid's giant spider, though bloodthirsty and ready to murder, could not lethally petrify people. It all came down to Dippet liking Riddle more than Hagrid and nobody in the castle actually speaking up against such arbitrary justice.

Dumbledore may not have been the man who defeated Grindelwald at the time, but he certainly had enough pull with Dippet to keep Hagrid as a member of the staff after Hagrid (in Dippet's view) has staged several attacks against students and murdered/accidentally killed one of them. If he could get no justice from Dippet, then surely he could raise the fuss with the Ministry, demand actual investigation instead of... the headmaster punishing manslaughter/murder with community service by the authority vested in him by himself.

So why didn't he?

One can certainly suspect Dumbledore of nefarious motives, but in this case I think Hagrid made his own grave.

Let's assume there's an actual investigation taking place. Hagrid is cleared of Myrtle's murder because duh, obviously, but how much an honest investigator shall discover by that point? Raising werewolf cubs by itself becomes very, very problematic considering what we find out about werewolves in the next book. Also there are severe punishments for keeping dangerous animals, like Crispin Cronk going to Azkaban for Sphinxes (four-X-Class creature) in his backyard. How much longer sentence would Hagrid get for keeping five-X creature inside a school? And the way Riddle describes it to Harry, the list of Hagrid's misdemeanors goes on.

An investigation would clear Hagrid of Myrtle's murder - but it would also dig up enough dirt to bury him in Azkaban for a long time. So maybe Dumbledore wasn't being callous when he allowed Dippet to play the judge and the jury.

After seven books one may reasonably conclude that Harry Potter being raised by his aunt and uncle was one of those ideas which did not pan out. And while Harry-focused narrative frames this as a purely moral failure on Dursleys' part, there is another side to the issue, one which Harry is not privy to - or rather, does not wish to engage with.

Problem A: Dumbledore started the party with a bang by humiliating Petunia. Her sister was murdered and nobody bothered to tell her the news in person or invite her to the funeral. Would she have been moved or would she have wanted to go? Perhaps, perhaps not, but Dumbledore refused her even that small dignity, clearly demonstrating that Dursleys were not worth his time - while simultaneously making enormous demands of them.

Problem B: Dursleys never had a choice. Yeah, sure, Dumbledore says that Petunia chose to accept Harry, but Dumbledore started lying in the first chapter of the first book, so his claims (especially self-serving ones) have to be taken with a grain of salt. In fact when Dumbledore sends a howler to Petunia in OotP, he never appeals to her supposed choice - only to his own letter. Dumbledore's missive decided the matter, Dumbledore's words, Dumbledore's will. Harry was already placed on Dursleys' doorstep before they could even read a letter, so clearly nobody was even considering the possibility of them refusing.

And if you think that blood protections would not have worked if Dursleys were bullied into accepting - that's the same setting where Harry could be forcibly conscripted into the Triwizard Tournament and then he has to compete, come hell or high water. Clearly the magic has very dubious ideas about what consent means, if it has any at all.

Problem C: Dursleys were placed in mortal danger. Potters were murdered and their surviving son was placed with Dursleys. So now they're targets for whoever wants to get at Harry Potter. Their home can be easily found (as evidenced by Weasley twins, Sirius, Dobby, Umbridge and basically anyone who ever wanted to find it) and Dursleys are not protected in any way whatsoever. Harry was (maybe), but his relatives got nothing, as evidenced by the dementors attacking Dudley. Almost 15 years in Dursleys received some very bad protection for summer and nothing for the rest of the year. Only when the Ministry began falling apart was their safety taken somewhat seriously and Dursleys were led to some hideout where they were presumably allowed to stay until the rest of the war.

Problem D: Dursleys received no financial assistance. Dumbledore held control over Harry's vault for a decade, he had free access including the key - and he never bothered to throw some cash Dursleys' way for raising a child he forced them to adopt.

Were Dursleys strapped for cash? No, they could comfortably support their lives without financial infusions from someone else, but it's the general principle that matters. And the general principle was - the Dursleys were to do what they were told and nobody cared whether they had inclination, ability or capacity to do so.

Problem E: Dursleys received no administrative assistance. Picking up babies from the front porch is not how adoption works. You need documents and appointments and explanation how exactly did a child end up there because dead people usually don't run across the country to deliver their kids to someone else. Bonus points for possibly previously non-existent child, because who knows whether Harry was registered anywhere until he ended in Little Whinging.

One has to wonder whether Dursleys' insistence that Potters died in a car accident and that Harry should shut up about it was their idea - or whether it was the official story Ministry Obliviators came up with and Dursleys were terrified of contradicting people who could floss their brains clean at their leisure.

Problem F: Dursleys received no special assistance either. Harry was doing acidental magic and while it's all well and good in Harry's retelling, for Dursleys it's pretty much Twilight Zone at home. They have no emergency contact, no protection, only a reality-warping child shoved into their lap. If tomorrow Harry accidentlally shrinks Dudley instead of Dudley's shirt - what are they gonna do?

The question is rhetorical, but if PS is any indication - they're supposed to un-shrink Dudley themselves.

In short, Dursleys were forced to raise Harry, received zero support, had a bull's eye put on them and their child, got treated like dirt since day one... And Dumbledore Muggle-baited them with enchanted glasses while having the gall to voice disappointment that his Muggle minions (who agreed to nothing and weren't given anything) somehow didn't do the job to his satisfaction. Even though he told Harry two months prior that he expected Dursleys to be bad guardians.

Concerning Marauders' bullying and Severus' eventual decision to join Voldemort: without the benefit of the hindsight, Severus had every reason to expect all of his tormentors to be there, right near Voldemort for the meet-and-greet.

James Potter: pureblood, literally invited to join along with his less-than-kosher wife. What reason would Severus have to believe that his bully of all people would join very heroic and rapidly dwindling resistance instead of grabbing the offer with both hands?

Sirius Black: pureblood who did not receive an invitation, but whose entire family either signed up or sympathized. Sure, Sirius ran away from home, but there's a massive leap between hating one's parents and signing up to fight the most powerful Dark wizard of the age plus his army of murderous minions. What did Sirius ever do for Severus to ever think he'd do something as noble and self-sacrificial?

Remus Lupin: the only werewolf who fought against Voldemort. So you have a follower of two guys who by all accounts could be expected to join Death Eaters, who himself has every reason to sign up.

Peter Pettigrew: a certified Death Eater. A guy who follows, a guy who adapts to the strongest side. Oh yeah, after seeing this dude in action for seven years, Severus definitely had him pegged for a "brave rebel against the tyranny" type.

Fanfic writers usually conceive of Grey faction as not-quite-baby-murdering version of Lucius Malfoy, concerned with some notion of pureblood culture and whatnot. But I think that Slughorn would be a much better model for the Grey faction than Lucius.

Grey faction is not about blood or tradition. Grey faction couldn't give two shits about nebulous ways through which Muggleborns destroy "their" culture because even if there is such a thing, they are not a part of it. They're are quite well-versed in the Muggle affairs. And they care not for arbitrary distinctions between Dark and not-Dark magic.

Grey faction is a lifestyle. A lifestyle which revolves around exploiting Muggles and their resources, just like Slughorn did when he needed to hide.

These people flourish in seemingly small cracks (which are in fact buttomless pits) between wizarding and Muggle worlds. Where wizarding powers that be can't follow because they can't be everywhere at once and where Muggle powers that be can't reach because they aren't equipped to deal with magic.

These people don't have the time to climb the short and very greasy pole of wizarding politics where your boss will probably die in the next century, if you're lucky. These people know that every man can be a king of his little fiefdom in the Muggle world today if he knows how to use his wand and not to make a public mess.

You want to have money? A curse here, a hex there and voila, you can profit from the resources of any major institution, along with expertise of insiders who know how it works.

You have a passion project, like running your own art gallery or curing cancer? Again, there are thousands of marks waiting to be exploited, who have no idea how vulnerable they are or even what they are vulnerable to.

You have socially unacceptable vices? Well, it's significantly easier to abuse victims when you can swiftly remove all evidence - including memories - and disappear without a trace. And also make someone else a fall guy for Muggle authorities, if you're so inclined.

There is only one golden rule - don't make a public mess which will lead the Ministry to your doorstep. After all, they can't find you if they don't know about your dealings. And you are as much a beneficiary of the Statute of Secrecy as they are.

Grey faction wants to have St Mungos for medical help because not everyone can be Healer, a few shops in London because travelling around the world for ingredients and items is a bit tedious and the Ministry to keep the gravy train of secrecy going. They are the dreaded part-timers of wizarding society, perfectly willing to reap a few benefits and be absent for the rest. As long as their shadowy domains are left unmolested, the Grey faction couldn't care less about anything else.

That's a silly question, I hear you say. Of course he did. That's his thing.

Or is it?

I. The sources are lacking, to say the least.

Salazar Slytherin lived a thousand years ago. Nobody alive has met him and ghosts aren't talking much about him. Professor Binns references some "reliable historical sources", but the same sources also inform him that British wizards suffered much persecution at the time of Hogwarts' founding, and we know that's five centuries off the mark.

So maybe those oh-so-reliable historical sources are full of shit.

There is the Sorting Hat, but the Hat never says anything about the Chamber nor the monster, nor the Heir.

In short, the account about Slytherin and his nefarious plan is rather dubious and who knows how much the story was re-told and re-adjusted to suit current agenda over the centuries.

II. The (Renovated) Chamber of Secrets & the Basilisk

But Harry found the Chamber of Secrets! That surely proves everything!

Except, of course, it proves absolutely nothing. There is a secret room with Slytherin's statue in it - or at least people believe it to be Slytherin's statue - with a basilisk tucked inside. That's all. There is no proof it was built by Salazar, there is no proof that the basilisk is meant to leave the chamber, let alone target a specific group in it.

After all, Dumbledore too had a murderous monster placed in a room inside Hogwarts, but nobody says Dumbledore planned a massacre at Hogwarts.

Furthermore the Chamber is connected to the castle via pipes which stretch throughout Hogwarts, with an entrance nested away in girls' bathroom. And a thousand year ago neither castle-wide plumbing nor modern-style toilets would be a thing. Which means that either the Chamber was constructed way, way later than Slytherin's time, or someone took care to conceal the Chamber during Hogwarts' numerous reconstructions over the centuries.

And while the first option simply discards Slytherin's involvement alltogether, the second one presupposes that there was one (or several) Parselmouth(s) who took care of the original Chamber. And this one (or several) person(s) who had knowledge of and access to the Chamber never decided to utilize it for its alleged purpose.

In fact the only person in a thousand years who tried to use the Chamber to pursue radical anti-Muggleborn agenda was Tom Riddle - someone raised in Muggle world, who had no connection to Salazar Slytherin whatsoever beyond unverifiable legends and maybe some distant relation.

III. The Basilisk

Also, the basilisk.

First things first: that basilisk couldn't give two shits about blood purity, only speaking of its hunger and desire to rip and tear. It has no issue following a half-blood, so its commitment to pureblood extremist agenda is questionable to say the least.

Second: what kind of a weapon is a basilisk?

I mean sure, it worked for Tom Riddle and his horcrux diary to some extent, but there was (un-)healthy dose of luck involved. Nobody saw the basilisk despite dozens if not hundreds of ghosts floating through its walls and Hermione was prevented from speaking up at the very last moment.

The second castle's inhabitants know it's a basilisk, that thing becomes absolutely useless. Why? Basilisks are vulnerable to something as basic as roosters. Wizards can conjure up animals. Having enchanted roosters running around would be a bit annoying, but stop any attempt to use the basilisk dead in its tracks.

Salazar Slytherin was supposed to be a great luminary of his age. If he wanted to leave his heirs a weapon to bring Hogwarts to its knees - surely he would have chosen something that couldn't be countered by a moderately competent student?

IV. The Legend

Speaking of legends...

If Salazar Slytherin constructed the Chamber to outsource ethnic cleansing of Hogwarts to some nebulous successor down the line - how the hell is there a legend about it?

Who blabbed?

Did Salazar tell other Founders about it? I suspect that in that case poor bastard would have been lynched on the spot. If we presume the legend is true, Salazar obviously didn't think himself strong enough to purge the school, relying on some descendant to make his vision a reality. And this descendant's chief weapon would be secrecy, so Salazar (or the people whom Salazar presumably saw as his successors) would have no reason to mention it to anyone.

Did the mysterious caretaker(s) talk about it? Seeing how everything was done to conceal the Chamber, it would be very strange for them to spread any information about it to the public.

V. Summary

The legend about Slytherin's plot to purge the school of Muggleborns has dubious sources. The legend makes no sense in terms of the legend's very existence and Salazar's choice of weapon. There were people who opened the Chamber in the past, but the only one who used it in the way suggested by the legend was Voldemort. A Muggle-raised half-blood bigot who had no connection to those previous custodians of the Chamber, but did have a large chip on his shoulder.

The idea of tribute - goods or services extracted by the victors from their defeated opponents - is not a new one. Over the course of history tribute took form of basic resources, luxury or specialty items, workforce allocation and even conscription.

In the wizarding world it takes the form of a bank.

Imagine a bank which consists of hundreds (if not thousands) of underground vaults with complicated defensive enchantments, a complement of guards and exotic beasts. A bank which has a division of Nathans Drake/Laras Croft with wands who run around various cursed hellholes trying to scrounge up some forgotten treasure. A bank which services literal wizards, a small group of people who have little need for things like loans and credit lines. A bank which performs a rather tedious - and quite frankly very illegal - task of converting Muggle currency into wizarding one and vice versa.

Also - a bank which levies no fees on its customers. A bank which has little to no industries to invest money into. A bank where clients' money just lies in giant piles generating no profit whatsoever while incurring massive daily security and storage costs.

That's Gringotts. And nobody is their right mind would ever build or operate such a place because it's just a giant money sink with a side dish of extra danger from thieves and robbers.

Magical thieves and robbers.

Unless, of course, the owners didn't have any choice. Goblic were repeatedly defeated by wizards, after all. They operate under the dominance of the Ministry and while they like to pretend they have autonomy, in practice they don't have any. The Ministry under more conventional leaders like Fudge seems to be somewhat mindful of Goblin sentiment, but if someone like Voldemort is in charge, there's just no way for Goblins to defend themselves.

Vae victis and all that.

Given Goblins' subservient position, it's not inconceivable that their Ministry overlords have just decided to saddle them with some onerous tasks for the benefit of (human) wizarding public. Like operating a system of underground vaults. Or sending curse-breakers to clean up accursed dark corners of the wizarding world. Or converting currency between wizards and Muggles. And if the Goblins need to purchase services of wizards to carry those tasks out - all the better for wizards.

After Voldemort's fall in October 1981, his entire army has collapsed. Almost all of his Death Eaters have surrendered to the Ministry claiming to be under Imperius, thus escaping punishment. The few who persisted were imprisoned in Azkaban. While the fate of lower-ranking, unmarked servants is not described explicitly, there are hints to them being partially imprisoned and partially scattered: Sirius claims about a bunch of Azkaban inmates hating Karkaroff for rating them out and Fenrir seemingly remains at large, but doesn't continue the fight.

What is remarkable about this situation is the Ministry's leniency towards Voldemort's middle management. During the war the Ministry authorized torture, enslavement, indefinite imprisonment and murder of anyone suspected of following Voldemort. The Ministry didn't care about someone being under Imperius, or being rich, or being from a prominent family. Nor was there some kind of leadership or policy change after the war to explain the Ministry's sudden leniency: the same Minister remained in power for a decade till 1991 and despite war's end there was no attempt to investigate cases of people thrown into Azkaban without trial.

Sure, one might try to explain it all away by claiming corruption, but if gold was all it took to claim innocence-via-Imperius, how come Rookwood and Dolohov were left to rot in Azkaban while Macnair did not? Was Macnair, an executioner, that much richer than a Department of Mysteries empoyee Rookwood? And why would the Ministry care to take Death Eaters' gold in exchange for their freedom if it could just take all of their gold to the last Knut and leave them to rot for treason and rebellion?

Barring a sudden outbreak of post-war naivete, how come the Ministry just let most of Voldemort's lieutenants go?

Consideration 1: the state of the Ministry

While 1981 Ministry was never quite as pathetic as to allow itself to be couped by Voldemort, every description of the war provided to us paints a rather grim picture of a decade-long war where the Ministry was slowly losing ground. Despite emergency measures championed by Barty Crouch Sr, Voldemort was gaining strength, his army was growing via recruitment/bewitchment/intimidation, while his enemies were fading - opponents intimidated, families wiped out one-by-one with the Dark mark left in the sky to remind everyone what happened to people defying the Dark Lord.

It is most probable that after a decade of fighting the war - and almost losing - the Ministry was in no shape to continue the fight against Voldemort's minions, even if Voldemort himself was removed from the board.

Consideration 2: the state of Voldemort

In a great contrast to 1995, 1981 Ministry - and indeed society at large - seems to believe that Voldemort is not finished and that he may return. When Crouch Sr accuses his son & co of conspiring to bring Voldemort back, it's treated as a valid prospect, and Voldemort himself mentions how the Aurors were searching for him between wars.

With the prospect of Voldemort's immediate return in mind, it would be perfectly logical to break up his army by granting clemency to his followers, and focus on looking for the Dark Lord and preventing his return to power.

Consideration 3: the state of Death Eaters During the first war, Death Eaters used hit-and-run tactics to fight against the Ministry: Dark wizards apparate in, torture/enslave/murder using superior numbers, leave the Dark mark for extra terror and disappear again. The Ministry was obviously at a disadvantage since it couldn't be everywhere at once, thus allowing Death Eaters to eliminate their enemies piecemeal.

What was to stop Death Eaters from continuing the same thing without Voldemort?

Absolutely nothing. Having Voldemort was certainly a massive advanatage, but it's not like Death Eaters couldn't repeat the same strategy without him. And that's something the Ministry was bound to tak into account while considering how to proceed after Voldemort's fall.

Consideration 4: Death Eater morale

Voldemort's army had very bad morale. It was held together by fear. Most people - even objectively bad people who liked torturing, killing and enslaving - didn't want to be there by 1981. Nobody is happy to see Voldemort back in 1995, and that was a reuinion of marked Death Eaters, the chosen servants. Sure, there were Lestranges and Crouch Jr, but most Death Eaters are very happy never to see Voldemort again.

In short, most Death Eaters were willing (and eventually did) abandon Voldemort once he fell from grace and wasn't there to threaten them anymore. All the Ministry had to do was to make sure that fear of being murdered by Voldemort for desertion was not replaced by fear of being fed to the Dementors.

Conclusion: it was a deal

The Ministry didn't just develop a sudden case of mercy 1981. The story about Death Eaters being pardoned because they were placed under Imperius curse - it was just that, a story. A hastily invented, very stupid cover story, a little fig leaf to hide the deal made between the Ministry and Voldemort's middle management.

People like Malfoy, MacNair, Goyle and the rest laid down arms in exchange for pardons. Given how all hardliners were quickly caught and placed into Azkaban, it's very probable that turncoat majority helped the Ministry to catch their hardliner compatriots. Maybe not directly, but by providing information where and when hardliners planned to go next. Deprived of leadership, the rest of Voldemort's army collapsed overnight.

The Ministry could dedicate its meager remaining resources to looking for Voldemort (which again, they did according to the man himself) for the next few years until complacency finally took hold and most people persuaded themselves that Voldemort was gone forever.

And Karkaroff - a foreigner with no connections or family in Britain - was conveniently made the public scapegoat, allegedly providing all that juicy information which led to arrests and imprisonments. Naturally Karkaroff had no desire to test fate by waiting around for some remaining fanatic to punish him for his betrayal, so he buggered off to the continent, eventually becoming a headmaster in a foreign school.

The story of Voldemort's parents is fairly simple: a young witch named Merope Gaunt falls in love with local muggle Tom Riddle. Merope's tyrannical father tries to murder her on the grounds of magical racism and ends up fighting the law, which lands him (and his son) in prison in September 1925. Merope, free of her shitty family, bewitches Tom Sr and they run away to London. Merope becomes pregnant with Tom Jr, future Lord Voldemort, but Tom Sr somehow breaks free of Merope's magic and flees back home. Merope becomes destitute, gives birth to Tom Jr in a random muggle orphanage and dies in December 1926. Her father Marvolo Gaunt (who has returns from prison early 1925) is completely shocked and dismayed by her desertion and quietly dies in his shack. Or at least that's how Dumbledore presents it. However it should be noted that the story has several problems:

the story actually relies on a lot of conjecture. There's no proof that Merope actually bewitched Tom Riddle, or that his falling out with Merope was caused by him breaking free/being released from her magic, or that Marvolo Gaunt actually quietly sat in his shack for the remainder of his life after being released from prison

speaking of quietly sitting in a shack - Marvolo sure does a complete 180 after Azkaban, doesn't he? Marvolo is ready to strangle his own daughter in front of Bob Ogden for a mere suggestion that Merope fancies a muggle lad. That's how he gets his half a year in Azkaban. But once released, he is allegedly informed that his daughter ran away and married the muggle in question and Marvolo... kinda takes it in stride. Quite a shift for a would-be murderer of his own child.

Maravolo Gaunt, a murderous magical racist who was dangerous enough for Bob Ogden to run away from him and summon reinforcements to put him own, returns to the same village where Riddles live in spring 1926... and his forgiving streak continues. Marvolo, who previously approved of his son cursing Tom Riddle for merely being fancied by Merope, doesn't try to brutalize Riddle Sr. or his family in retaliation for his dishonor either. Who says Azkaban doesn't reform people?

Tom Riddle Sr suddenly develops resistance/Merope suddenly has a complete change of heart about bewitching him, thus allowing Tom to leave and go home while his wife is pregnant at some point in spring/summer of 1926. That's... convenient either way to be sure.

Merope dies in the muggle orphanage. Why would Merope die, exactly? Women do die in childbirth, but the average chance of it happening in Britain in 1920s was something like half percent. That's some seriously bad luck for Merope, isn't it?

Also, Merope dies in the muggle orphanage. That's a curious choice for a witch who could go to St Mungos to receive truly magical levels of medical care.

In short, the story which Dumbledore assembles from available facts is a bit wobbly. Let's try to re-assemble it with fewer contradictions:

Merope Gaunt fancies Tom Riddle, her father and brother are furious, Marvolo Gaunt attacks Merope and Bob Ogden and both of them go to prison in September 1925.

Merope, freed of her dad and brother, runs away with Tom Riddle Sr in late 1925.

Marvolo Gaunt returns home in March 1926 and finds out about his daughter betraying her magical blood, dishonoring her family and running away with a muggle. But Marvolo doesn't have this character reversal from violent murderous bigot to a depressed wreck. He simply departs for London to do what Bob Ogden stopped him from doing half a year ago.

After some time Marvolo Gaunt finds his daughter and son-in-law. There is a confrontation and Marvolo exacts his revenge against his daughter by cursing her something nasty and probably fatal to punish her "betrayal". Whether he leaves her to suffer or Merope escapes by the skin of her teeth, the result is all the same: Merope is getting sick, she is terrified of her father, terrified that he'll hunt down her child as well, so she avoids any contact with magical world and makes sure her son is hidden safely away in muggle orphanage. With a muggle name, in a muggle city, isolated from the magical world, Tom is practically anonymous and thus protected from his grandfather/uncle.

Being a Muggle, Tom Sr. is defenceless against a madman "brandishing his bloody knife and firing hexes indiscriminately from his wand". And this would be the end for Tom Sr. but there is a snag: the Ministry already knows that Marvolo and his son Morfin were attacking this guy. If he turns up dead, or horribly mutilated, Marvolo might have to deal with another trip to Azkaban - so he does something clever, almost diabolical instead. He enchants Tom Sr. to detest and hate his wife and his unborn child and sends him back on his merry way. Not only does Tom Sr. suffer from a violation arguably worse than any physical attack, he becomes a cover and bait at the same time. The Ministry can't find out that Marvolo is doing something to Tom if Tom is seemingly okay and back home after a little romantic misadventure. And if his daughter turns up at his doorstep, they won't find any help there anymore. Practicality and sadism, all rolled into one.

Some in-universe sources imply that it did, but it's been 1500 years ago, so there's a healthy dose of historical revisionism going on. In truth, the notion that military victory in a conflict between interstellar empires was attained through a sterility plague of all things is pretty unlikely.

The first problem with genophage as a weapon of war is the fact that it doesn't do anything to the enemy military. The Krogan of that era had actual space fleets which could contest void dominance and transport troops from one planet to another. That dreadnought pounding a planet to dust from orbit? Genophage doesn't do a thing to it. It doesn't do anything to the armies in the field, not to the industries that supply those armies. Even military recruitment won't drop immediately since even Krogan need some time to grow up and become capable of serving in the military. In short, genophage would take years to make any appreciable difference on the battlefield.

The only immediate effect is a theoretical blow to the morale, but Krogan throw their young to a Thresher Maw as a rite of passage into adulthood, so kids dying wouldn't have nowhere near as much of an effect on them compared to, say, Turians.

The second problem is the fact that genophage doesn't just spread itself on a press of a button - it has to be deployed. Mordin mentions that he "released it on Tuchanka, other krogan-centric areas" when discussing modified genophage. And back in the day, the Krogan were numerous and they had an empire of their own. Four hundred years of colonization/claiming already settled planets between the end of the Rachni Wars and the beginning of Krogan Rebellions. And for the genophage to work, entire Krogan population had to be infected. Which means that the Council had to find every single planet, every single asteroid, every single space station where Krogan were, deliver their tanks full of sterility and then spread the stuff around. That... doesn't necessarily require complete dominance in space, but at very least reliable access to all Krogan holdings. Which means that genophage deployment couldn't be completed before the Council had already secured if not a victory, then a solid advantage in the war. Otherwise there would be pockets of fertile Krogan ruining the whole operation.

In short, genophage wasn't a desperate measure to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The Council was already winning the war, genophage was a measure to make sure the Krogan would stay down after they were fully beaten. Sort of like Turian bomb on Tuchanka.

How did the Council actually beat the Krogan?

"The krogan never had the resources to rebuild the solar arrays, depriving them of their fleet's main fuel supply for the remainder of the war." (Description of Mantun)

The Krogan had to be uplifted by Salarians and Asari in the first place, so it's hardly surprising that they had difficulty maintaining infrastructure without Council's help. To the point that they couldn't rebuild the facilities crucial to their war effort. Fuel for warships, if the Krogan "never had the resources" to deal with that issue, what resources did they have?

So Council's campaign of sabotage at the war's start wasn't just a problem which the Krogan could deal with, they were getting crippled permanently. And Turians provided the muscle. It wasn't all smooth sailing - the Krogan did drop rocks on three planets and even invaded Palaven's moon, but it worked out in the end. And after genophage was deployed, the era of explosive Krogan breeding was over, eliminating the issue which drove the Krogan to attack the Council to begin with.

Sirius argued with Hagrid and begged Hagrid to let him have Harry only after Hagrid would not budge did Sirius then give him his motorbike so he could get Harry there safely and then he went after Peter. There was no way of knowing what would happen after that but Sirius 10000% would have gone back for Harry if he hadn’t been thrown into Azkaban without a trial

Two issues at hand:

"Dumbledore said so"/"Hagrid wouldn't budge"/"Sirius was distressed" is not an excuse.

Sirius was, by his own admission, supposed to act as Harry's guardian. That's what Potters asked of him, that's what he agreed to. A guardian is not supposed to allow people - even if they are friends or even old school headmasters - take their charges away and place them with some third party (whom nobody even asked beforehand, by the way). That's a bare minimum expectation and Sirius blew it before Potters' bodies got cold.

Mrs Cole did better by Tom than Sirius did by Harry, and Mrs Cole was a gin-sucking alcoholic who didn't even like her charge. Even she had to be brainwashed before she let Tom be taken away, Sirius just backed off after a conversation. As for Sirius "10000%" coming back if not for Azkaban... There's zero chance of that.

Sirius is a "Dumbledore said so" kind of guy. Dumbledore tells him to give up the child under his care - and Sirius gives up the child. Dumbledore expects Harry to stay at Hogwarts for the Tournament - and Sirius soothes Harry into doing just that. Dumbledore commands an information blackout for Harry after the Tournament - Sirius abides by this command.

Time and time again we see that when Dumbledore makes a decision about Harry, even if it's a bad and abusive decision, even if it places Harry in mortal peril - Sirius accepts. He tries to make Harry feel better about it, to soften the blow, but he accepts.

Does Dumbledore want Harry to stay with Sirius? No, he does not, literally the first thing he does after Potters' death is to take Harry away from Sirius and place him with Dursleys. And as we have established, Sirius always sticks to what Dumbledore commands.

Assuming Sirius does not go to Azkaban, Dumbledore will tell Sirius to get lost and Sirius will do just that, tail between his legs. Oh, he'll beg and argue for a bit, but in the end he'll do what Dumbledore tells him to do because that's exactly what he keeps doing in the books.

To sum it all up, Sirius never transitioned from a fun godfather to a full-time parent whose main concern is Harry's welfare. Overwhelming majority of parents would either resort to violence or call the cops on any "friend" who would try to take their child away, no matter who told them to do it. But Sirius didn't have that kind of mindset. For him there was always something else that came before Harry, be it revenge against Peter or Dumbledore's orders.

Okeer's "lance" is a scam too.

A lot of discussion about Krogan - both in- and out-of-universe - revolves around Krogan regaining their numbers and sweeping the galaxy like an unstoppable tide, overcoming all. This is what Mordin fears, this is what Weyrloc representative raves about (if you have patience not to press Renegade interrupt). The Krogan horde is coming, the Krogan horde is coming, to the... to the...

BLACKADDER: "You see, there was a tiny flaw in the plan."

BOLDRIK: "What was that, sir?"

BLACKADDER: "It was bollocks!"

Where exactly is the hypothetical Krogan horde supposed to go? And how?

In Mass Effect 2 we get to visit Tuchanka. It is a bombed-out ruin. The most advanced piece of technology around is a big truck. The Krogan are divided between clans who are constantly engaged in border skirmishes. There is some kind of economy going - planetary descriptions/characters mention mining, growing crops, producing weapons for their little wars - but it's not some advanced industrial powerhouse.

Tuchanka is Somalia or Afghanistan in SPAAACE!!!

Let's imagine genophage is gone. There is now a massive new generation of Krogan underway.

What are they going to eat?

If population explodes, the Krogan will have to either farm more or produce something else and trade that something for food. Who is going to do that and how? These guys who shoot at each other on the daily? Oh yeah, they're all hard-working little bees, with qualifications to match.

And then numerous new generation of Krogan will need clothes and housing and eventually some kind of education to earn their keep without shooting each other. So again - a lot of money, a lot of qualified workforce, a lot of industrial output to make it happen.

And if these Krogan are ever to threaten anyone besides each other, they'll need space ships. Lots of space ships. They'll need Krogan space shipyards and Krogan space engineers, Krogan pilots and Krogan navigators. And giant Krogan factories to produce specialist steel or whatever ME ships are made of. And Krogan ship designers.

I'm sure Lord High Reseracher Fortack has learned a lot about building space ships while stabbing his way to the top. Unless someone is ready to sponsor the Krogan and nurture them back into an industrial civilization of sorts, the horde isn't happening. They'll starve and eat each other before they get anywhere close to other species.

The lance isn't happening either. Okeer was nuts. Grunt was taught nothing but how to kill people. His sentiment about improving Tuchanka is admirable, but what's he gonna do to make it better? Shoot people? Tuchanka has no shortage of people who can do that.

Mass Effect is a space age story. Having a lot of guys isn't bad, but you need more than just a lot of guys to matter on the galactic stage. Or you need a sponsor, but no sponsor will support Krogan horde rampaging across the galaxy.

And just wanted to highlight Hagrid literally says Sirius asked to take Harry, he says that Sirius argued when Hagrid wouldn’t let him take him. Sirius tried to take Harry and look after him (mind you this was a 21 year old man) it’s only after Hagrid didn’t give in that he went after Peter and personally I don’t think he would have actually killed Peter he was angry and grieving

“Well… your parents appointed me your guardian,” said Black stiffly. “If anything happened to them…” (PoA)

Sirius was (as per his own words) Harry's guardian, a replacement parent responsible for him. And he just let Hagrid take away the child... after a short argument? Because he was angry and grieving?

Do you think it's a thing? That parents are likely to comply with child abduction after a short conversation? That they'll go - oh, but this guy kidnapping our child wouldn't let us do anything, wouldn't give in, so we'll just let it slide? That they won't start a fight or call the cops? And if they're angry and grieving, it'll be this spoonful of surgar that'll make child abduction go down easier?

I don't think so.

Sure, there're bad parents/guardians, but letting someone just take away the child - we're talking bottom of the barrel, crack whore kind of bad. Even Mrs. Cole had to be brainwashed with magic when Dumbledore tried to take away Tom Riddle to some nebulous school in Scotland. An argument didn't cut it.

Sirius did worse than a state-appointed alcoholic who didn't even like the child in question.