#pappychi rambles

So hello, I’m Pappychi. I’m 33, married, and a mother of one adorable little girl. We have three dogs and four cats 😆 I’m trying to convince my husband we need a horse as I used to ride but he’s falling for none of my bollockywaffle.

I used to teach English but now I work in IT. I hold both a Bachelors and a Masters Degree in Literature and Language.

Now, I was the target age range when Harry Potter very first come out but I’ll confess I never finished the series because Remus Lupin died and I was like? I beg your finest pardon? ✋🏻 absolutely not. Peace out bitches. And I still haven’t to this day finished that series.

I understand the Marauders fandom has changed ALOT since I was a teen with the rise of All Young Dudes - I tried it and it wasn’t for me but the author put their heart and soul into it so fairplay. The beauty of authorship and reading is not everyone’s going to agree and that’s perfectly valid. When I was teaching I had a colleague who loved Austen whereas I was always Team Brontë. Many a debate over a cappuccino over that! Personally I think Austen is drier than a Ryvita found at the back of a cupboard at 3am but I digress.

Anyway god get to the point woman.

Onto the actual point of this post. The first wizarding war - so Rowling borrowed Voldemort as a Hitler like figure from the Second World War but what we see alluded to within the story is less all out and out combat and more Irish Troubles.

Irish Troubles you say Pappychi? What do you mean by that?

Well, sit down and Pappychi will tell you…

The violence in the FWW is less industrial and far more intimate. We don’t see armies facing off against each other but we do see is the insidious creep. People go missing, families are whispered about, Hogwarts because a breeding ground for children being recruited to a fascist cause.

It’s claustrophobic, not epic.

And all the while life goes on as normal. Children shop at Diagon Alley for their school supplies but they’re shadowed by their father or the family house elf.

Werewolf attacks rise aka Greyback and his cronies (Greyback is the worst villain in HP and I stand by that) and the Ministry starts pivoting for harder for MORE legislation. Should werewolves wear medallions so people can see what they are and act accordingly? Should an unregistered werewolf be given the kiss if they bite?

All the while, both deatheaters and Dumbledore’s newly formed Order of the Phoenix are clashing outside of the Ministry of Magic’s jurisdiction. Let’s not forgot what’s one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. So how many of the general population thought the Order was the bad guys? Makes you think.

You’ve got this melting pot of fear, claustrophobia, and paranoia because no one knows who to trust and who is on what side.

Bellatrix Lestrange would have been dancing at her father’s birthday party at 8pm and torturing a muggle family by 3am.

Which brings me to the next point I made yesterday but want to expand on The Marauders themselves. They wouldn’t have been an indie boy group (if that’s your reading then cool! Again books are open to interpretation) but more Bright Young Things. Think a group of young men who are brilliant, beautiful, and unfortunately doomed.

I’m just revisiting my point that the Marauders fit nicely into the wonderful world of Dark Academia. Right down to the archetypes and, especially this, because they’re even a narrative representation of the typical Dark Academia four act tragedy.

James Potter:

Let’s start here.

James is the sun they all orbit. The golden boy of the marauders - the jock, popular, warm hearted. When he dies it’s like someone killing our star. Without James there is no Marauders. In dark academia we’d call him Act I. The call to beauty. That’s what James does. His sunlight calls them all to him. He steals hearts and loyalty.

Sirius Black.

God is canon Sirius Black fascinating. He’s canonically the tallest Marauder. What we see with Sirius is a Fallen Aristocrat. Hubris given humour form. He rejects his family so much he almost becomes its inversion. He’s the descent into madness aka Act 2 of a traditional dark academia book.. Rebellion and glamour become ruin. Eventually he transforms into Stars themselves. He couldn’t save the sun so he’s doomed to burn himself up in a feverish obsession. Sirius steals himself as the most precious jewel of the House of Black.

Remus Lupin.

I’m a big Remus fan. I think he’s so complex. Anyway, Remus is our scholar. He steals an education and belonging in a world where he is seen as a disease on legs . In dark academia Remus is the personification of the ruin aka Act III. He’s ruined himself via the bite. An infection he spends his life worrying that it’ll spread to other corners of himself whether that’s through friendships or romance. He’s our moon. Beautiful but only when he reflects others light. Never enough confidence in himself to see that he has own beauty.

Peter Pettigrew.

Onto our finale - Act IV aka The Elegy. He fits the archetype The Observer. Peter is the rat amongst the relics (I mean that dude literally haunts Hogwarts through the Weasley kids. If I was Molly Weasley id have headbutted that little twirp.). He clung to the edges of the other threes brilliance and what starts as awe festers into resentment. Loyalty becomes betrayal to Peter. He’s the darkness. The silence at the end of a song but he exists because once the sun burned high and bright.

The Marauders as a Group.

Okay. I’ve often seen in Fanon the Marauders transformed into Fred and George 2.0. Pulling pranks and laughing with people.

My personal reading of them is via the chosen name for the map.

What does this mean?

Marauders means to steal, thieves, take from others.

And that’s what they did. Stealing loyalty, themselves, belonging, and power.

The Map is a theft of Hogwarts and its secrets. All those hidden tunnels, even the hidden lives of its students and professors. All put down on a finely crafted piece of cartography which was 100% illegal.

Their animagus forms are a theft - forbidden knowledge because what young wizards actually do that and remain unregistered?

So, for me personally, I’m seeing less of a group of pranksters and more a group that are sneaking into the library to find forbidden books, skulking around on full moons with a werewolf, and breaking into professors offices after hours because they’re BORED. And. Hey old Professor Hawes might have something cool like a muggle record player in her office…

What you’ve got in the marauders era is this intoxicating blend of a war seeping into every day life like fog across moorland, you don’t even realise you’ve been caught in it until you can’t see through the pea soup. And these four brilliant, beautiful boys who ultimate will become doomed due to their own perceived cleverness and prejudices.

Sirius and Remus get so wrapped up in each other being the traitor, and the irony is because they both see the worst in each other.

Remus: Sirius must be the spy, he’s a Black after all. Look at the Prank.

Sirius: Remus must be the spy, he’s a werewolf after all.

Their own prejudices allow Peter to continue to scuttle around undetected which ultimately leads to our Golden Boy aka James Potter’s light being extinguished.

The Marauders era is a wonderful breeding ground for Dark Academia. Even Hogwarts with its secret tunnels, candlelight, and dusty library is almost a living character itself.

And, eventually, the Marauders haunt it via their map.

Students like Fred and George whispering the names Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs invoking that rebellious streak long after the laughter has faded.

(Also can we talk about how Sirius’s animagus is a dog? Something which has been hysterically used to hunt deer? Sirius spends his whole arc hunting the shadow of James’s warmth via atonement with protecting Harry.)

(Oh and how Peter dies through a silver hand? Silver being the symbol of purity? Damn)

For my next trick… let’s discuss the symbolism of the marauders Animagus/Cursed forms.

James Potter aka The Stag.

Stags are fascinating as they’re both seen as royalty and prey. There’s that duality of something that leads but can also be hunted. Just how Voldemort hunts James and his family. At one point only royalty could hunt and kill a stag,.. sound familiar? Voldemort might not be royalty but he is the leader of the death eaters. He didn’t send anybody out to dispatch the Porters. He did it himself. They’re noble creatures associated with Herne the Hunter (a pagan guardian of the forest). Just like how James was the guardian of his family until he fell in Godric’s Hollow. The spiritual message of a Stag is usually that something significant was about to happen.

Sirius Black aka The Dog.

Now, in England, there is a lot of folklore surrounding Black Dogs. We have Barghest and Black Shuck, both believed to be harmful creatures out to hurt - just like how the wizarding world would perceive a dog leaning house like the Blacks. But, there are legends of Black Dogs being protective guardians which is exactly what Sirius becomes to Harry. In general, Black dogs are meant to linger at crossroads. Just like Sirius who always has one foot between worlds. Too rebellious for one, too reckless for another. Dogs have historically hunted deer which Sirius spends his life doing (he hunts James’s worth in his life and tries to atone for not saving his friend by protecting his son). The dog’s loyalty is both its greatest strength and greatest downfall hence why he went after Peter.

Peter Pettigrew aka The Rat.

Rats are survivors. They endure. Survive, lingering in the shadows and feeding off scraps (of power). In some cultures rats are seen as cunning tricksters which Peter is. He plays the Order in the first war beautifully, even ending up the Potters secret keeper. There’s an old English saying that “when rats flee a ship, it will surely sink.” - THAT IS EXACTLY what Peter thought he was doing. Fleeing the sinking Order and guaranteeing himself survival. Peter’s form is the personification of surviving at any ghost.

Now Remus isn’t an animagus and is 100% cursed (poor boy.) but…

Remus Lupin aka The Wolf.

This form isn’t given to him. It’s forced but then in itself is a representation of who he is. The scholar and the solider. The professor and the beast. We know canonically that a fully transformed werewolf hungers for humans, and without them they bite themselves, but interestingly enough hunger is one of the defining traits of Remus. He hungers for normality, for love, for belonging, for forgiveness from something that was never his fault. In Celtic culture, wolves symbolise perseverance and boy does Professor Lupin persevere - through war, poverty, heartbreak.

In conclusion,

The stag leads. Only to be hunted.

The dog follows. Only to be left behind.

The rat hides. Only to be discovered.

Because he spent his whole life running after James Potter like a Deerhound does a Stag.

And then Harry’s patronus is a Stag.

Again. I used to be an English teacher so everything is up to personal interpretation but I will never refer to the Death Eaters as a cult.

Why?

Because when we talk about cults we talk about isolation, coercion, brainwashing, loss of agency.

This softens them.

Whilst cult framing works in a grooming context for characters like Barty Crouch Jnr and arguably Regulas at 16 (still, he had Voldemort’s crimes stuck to his bedroom walls!).

What we see in adults of the series is pure believe. They benefited from the system and whole hearted believed in it when they signed up.

It’s a perfect reflection of a rural class losing its grip on power - ideology would’ve been whispered about at cocktail parties, at the dinner table, during high society polo parties.

TLDR.

Again. This is a matter of opinion and if you don’t hold the same one that’s super cool.

As with most things in the Harry Potter world, one only has to look to the real world to see where JKR drew her inspiration from.

Voldemort’s real world counterpart is Hitler (and arguably Oswald Mosley if we take into account that Bellatrix is a blend of Diana x Unity Mitford) but as referenced in a previous post the FWW was less WW2 and more the Northern Irish troubles.

So, how did Voldemort recruit?

For that let’s turn our attention to 1930s pre-war Britain, and especially, the aristocracy. At this point in time we’re seeing an upper class which has stopped having any real power and has become performative. The estates are crumbling and the once dominate British Empire is starting to fade.

And what happens when someone who held power find out they don’t any longer? They panic and in that panic they turn to the old ways, the glory days etc.

So, looking at the 1930s aristocracy, what does this mean for our Pureblood families? It means some are still able to afford their grandiose manors and lifestyle (like the Blacks and the Malfoys) whereas others are sat in their once great estates (like when we’re introduced to the Gaunts) whilst it literally and metaphorically rains on their heads.

Voldemort takes this anxiety of being ‘relics of the past’ and instead of selling hatred initially, he sells certainty for a group terrified of their own decline.

This is EXACTLY what Oswald Mosley and Adolf Hitler did. They promised others that they could belong to something glorious again.

Once he’s pinpointed they’re fear, the language becomes important. Classic scapegoating - dirty blood, impure, contamination. The upper classes needed a reason why their power was slipping (couldn’t possibly be because they were relics of a bygone era) and he gave them that on an embossed platter.

There’s a social theatre to his recruitment as well he starts at Hogwarts with the gang Voldemort leads. Befriending those names like Rosier, Avery, Lestrange let’s him access the drawing rooms, saloons, and balls where the real recruitment takes place in the upper echelons.

That message is then trickled down, children learn it over the dinner table and pass it on to classmates who pass it on and on and on until you’ve got the working class, werewolves, and snatchers. That’s how fascism wins its numbers - not through loyalty but through trickled down fear and the need to scapegoat someone. Anyone.

The great irony in all of this is Tom Riddle is himself a half blood. A muggle father and a witch mother from a once great line. He is the personification of pureblood societies fears - the heirs of the once great Slytherin sullied themselves and are left with nothing but a half blood son to carry them forward. It’s a sensational metaphor for how real world fascism is riddled with hypocrisy and how it often collapses under the weight of that hypocrisy. It survives long enough because the lie BENEFITS those who believe it.

Another great irony is even the blood traitor aka class traitor families still are complicit in holding up the status quo even if they don’t parrot the rhetoric. Potters are pure until James marries Lily. The Longbottom’s and even the sainted Weasleys are all pure until Arthur and Molly’s numerous children marry half-bloods and muggleborns. Even that sense of rebellion is slow in the wizarding world.

So, next topic. .

So, how is Voldemort and his death eaters dark dark academia?

If the marauders are the bright young things, stars that burn themselves up in stolen brilliance. The death eaters are their antithesis - the candlelight in the library that rots and withers until it stains the table and burns the pages of knowledge.

The marauders steal knowledge, belonging, a childhood in a world slowly collapsing into ruin.

The death eaters violate. They violate forbidden knowledge, families, lives all in the name of fanaticism. Their pursuit of the forbidden is not curiosity, it’s consummation - it rots the very soul of academic hunger.

A nice parallel to what Voldemort does to himself as seen in this quote “"I have experimented; I have pushed the boundaries of magic further, perhaps, than they have ever been pushed —" (HBP). His own academic hunger for the dark arts literally causes him to devour his own soul to conquer death itself. If that ain’t dark academia idk what to tell you.

And the true horror, the one that always personally sat with me, is that there were those amongst the death eaters and their allies who didn’t believe the rhetoric but were hedonistic. Those who just used the movement as a way to indulge their cruel fantasies. They wanted to torture, to maim, to kill and being a death eater allows them access to easy prey. People who performed cruelty because Voldemort gave them permission.

Exactly like Greyback (who is literally a walking metaphor for a child predator but that’s a whole other post) who uses Voldemort’s movement as a way to gain access to the children he favours. He joins not out of believe but for appetite.

That’s the danger of movements like this: they thrive on fear, and in doing so, invite the monsters already among us to step into the light.