References and Inspiration

Leadvone's take on tropes such as lordships, harems and dueling... to name a few is unique. The text below in intended to explain the subtler and less explained phenomena and happenings in DP&SW, to perhaps expand on them and explain their relevance. They often derive from primarily myth, legend or history.

## The English Aristocracy

### History

This group of people often seem an invincible group of people that have existed since ...forever if you go by popular culture. In reality many might descend distantly from Anglo-Saxon warrior-generals and Vikings that invaded England in the years after the fall of the Roman Empire. Of that group, surprisingly little or close to none intermingled with the centuries of French (Normans) who took over the country after Edward the Confessor died, some decades past the first millennium. This didn't happen in continental Europe where the nobility of the Roman Empire held onto their wealth heading into the age of the Holy Roman Empire.

William the Conqueror took action to replace the Anglo Saxon Lords of Britain with Norman, French-speaking Lords that were loyal to him. This is why Latin and French is interspersed in Modern English. As the centuries went on Latin was and remained the language of diplomacy (treaties, contracts and... war). Foreign diplomats from far afield had used Latin to communicate with Europe for centuries at this point and would go on to for centuries as well. And for centuries French remained the language of the English Aristocracy.

Many of these families extracted rent from land. At other times, prominent families gained their wealth during the Dissolution of Monasteries. They ransacked the poor monks , churches and cathedrals of their wealth and suppressed Catholicism.

Even today, perhaps to a lesser extent, the Upper Upper-middle classes are often at the very least taught intermediate Latin and Ancient Greek, which in the magical world are used for incantations to cast spells. Dodging Prison and Stealing Witches has a period of time where Alexandra Black, Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood and the other children get privately tutored by Lady Potter, pre-Hogwarts. This goes back to a time when the Aristocracy did not send their children to Boarding school. Instead they were schooled at home by tutors. The Royals especially practised this - it is a relatively recent (1900s-ish) phenomenon that Prince William and Prince Harry should go to Eton College. But it's the new trend. Prince George has already been put down for Eton College.

### Modern Times

In the 1900s the Decline of the Aristocracy was visible. No British Prime Minister after 1900 had had the title 'Lord'. The Businessmen and the Middle class were rising. Wealth was being made in quantities that the Aristocracy could not match, with their land ownership and properties that they'd often rent out. Their political power faltered against a new emergent and separate financial power. For a long time they had believed money to be too common for them. This, for many proved to be their undoing. Many ceded heirlooms and property to state ownership under the condition that they could live and hold their property. Others were flexible, and many more still hold onto their lands instead.

LeadVonE built his own magical aristocracy upon the British Magical World's most well-known characters and most recognisable Pureblood names. Presumably landed, with Manors and with the privelege of family wealth. This goes hand in hand with the nature of real-life Aristocrats of pre-1900 Britain. They were famous, rich and discussed. Even today many of their descendants enter the mainstream media's eye. Games of Throne's Kit Harington (not his full name) is in fact Aristocratic and related to royalty.  For modern-day prominent members of the British Establishment, one may take a look at Boris Johnson, the former Mayor of London, 'ardent' Brexiteer-for-rent and long-time bumbling buffoon (~~now~~ ex-Prime Minister). His full name: Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. He is an example of the media and journalism profession favouring the descendants of old money.

The relative success of the English Aristocracy (contrasting heavily with the French Aristocracy, (may their bones rest in torment) is due their adaptability in the face of (dangerous) change. When their class power is under threat tradition becomes a mere superfluous aesthetic. The aristocratic class's propaganda tout their superior morality, behaviour and upholding of tradition, which has often simply been born of a desire to keep their ill-gotten Land, despite an entire generation of Aristocratic men being decimated in World War I as they marched straight into enemy fire obeying the commands of their Aristocratic Commanders . The remainder married into money and did the best they could under the great levelling of British society. Today, their income from investments and land bound in secretive trusts provide their sustenance. The Duke of Westminster for instance is a multi-billionaire and owns large swathes of London - Europe's financial centre.

## The Lords of this World

In Europe and some other places of this version of the magical world, aristocratic power is represented by Lords who control votes in the their repective legislatures. In Britain that is the Wizengamot. These Lords play a seminal role in the world of Dodging Prison and Stealing Witches, some holding various important patents, others wielding military power and most holding political power by default. These are inherited roles, the possibility of ascension for a House to Noble status is nil due to the loss of the ritual magicks required for it.

In muggle Britain the House of Lords has less power than the House of Commons - they only have veto powers. Their loss of power was a gradual transition as democratic ideals took hold.

## Aristocratic eccentricity

Behaviours that wouldn't have been tolerated from the common man, middle and working classes were more likely to be tolerated of upper class men. On the unsavoury side of things included paedophilia, other acts illegal at the time including homosexual intercourse as well more generally, it was relatively more acceptable or normalised for men to visit prostitutes (the number of prostitutes in Victorian London were staggeringly high).

Dumbledore is afforded this tinge of 'noblesse excentrique' in his proximity to nobility and status in the magical world despite his halfblood origins, as well as alleged divergent tendencies that appear to crop up from time to time in this world. Lucius Malfoy is also occasionally characterised as flamboyant.

A famous example of Victorian aristocratic eccentricity in literature or real life was Oscar Wilde who was celebrated for much of his life for his plays, novels, personality and wit. His demise came at the hands of a male partner's angered father, the Marquiss of Queensberry, who called him an 'so[m]domite' on account of his flamboyant behaviour. His subsequent trial, jailing, wife and children moving away and changing their names made certain his permanent demise (until death).

## Markets

Dodging Prison in some ways subverts the idea of magic and ascribes the logic of the market and scarcity to it. Cases such as the human trafficking chapters and the mandrake arc suggests this. There are normal elements of scarcity with mandrake, which are natural magical plants that may require certain conditions to flourish - questions remain as to why they cannot be sourced quickly from elsewhere or why competition does not occur though it is stated and implied Lord Greengrass controls the trade in it's totality. In a different example of how market forces in the wizarding world may operate, Dragon heart strings that are cruelly extracted from 3 month old dragons to ensure brother-wand rarity, are an example of the potential barbarity of the market or monopolist, that is in this case fundamentally present in the very symbol of wizarding society.

There are also legal enforcements of patents and scarcity in a world when temporary magical copies are easily made with basic magical training. This is in effect an anti-piracy pro-copyright legal system, that presents the protagonist with obstacles and opportunities to exploit.

This (meaning the expensive legal enforcement of patents and copyright) would imply Magical Britain has a large domestic market for patents but contradicted by the relatively smallish population. The market must obviously be global and internationally connected instead (as seen in the case of the Mandrake supply chains). But that would bring into question how there is so little immigration or at least movement of people back and forth to accompany movement of money- that we hear of. Perhaps this is because levels of poverty and standards of living are not as highly stratified as in the muggle world, therefore there are less incentives for immigration. Magical means can also bridge the gap between muggle methods of contact and distance to enjoy the benefits of in-person contact. Gringotts also appears to have global magical presence while adhering to local laws that presumably work harmoniously with markets.

## The Media of this World

The British media has a long history of bad behaviour, some good journalism and a rich and proud history of blackmailing Victorian aristocrats, threatening to reveal their penchant for visiting brothels serving (upper-class) homosexual men. More recently a celebrated gay rugby player was forced to out himself as HIV positive.

The media's development in the West is tied to the development of markets. The news was read by many who wished to keep abreast of political events and stability in neighbouring and foreign countries.  It was also a vehicle for propaganda wherein foreign governments or domestic ones would pay for favourable coverage, for example, of a war being fought or for bonds that they were selling.

LeadVonE plays on these themes, as well as the modern situation of the monopolisation of the media sphere with his three major papers of wizarding Britain each representing the interests of the major political factions. The media clearly is a vehicle of power and its exercise. LeadVonE's (and Rowling's) newspapers are a riff on the corrupt and monopolised nature of the British political news media.

The media are oftentimes working hand in hand with politicians (i.e. the revolving door between 'journalism' and politics) and so oftentimes the news media acts as an entry point into the British mainstream or a way to buy success. See the case of the German discounter store Aldi wherein they faced negative media coverage and derision in popular culture until they invested in cheap pandering advertisements, brightly coloured packaging and union jack flags that appealed to the base chauvinistic attitudes of the simple minded people working within British news and mass media (as well as a recession that made their discount pricing more attractive), and thus expanded their business in the UK.

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William\_the\_Conqueror
2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20120924035635/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8424904/People-with-Norman-names-wealthier-than-other-Britons.html
3. ↑ L monk
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution\_of\_the\_Monasteries
Book 2 - TFoP - Ch. 24 - Ginny Training in Dreamland,

Alexandra Black and Ginny Weasley listen to Lady Lily drone on about muggles, the ministry and obliviators..
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit\_Harington#Early\_life\_and\_ancestry
7. ↑ It was a common mistake to assume that the Germans in WWI couldn't shoot back like their impoverished and weaker colonial opponents in Zululand for instance. What a nasty surprise!
8. ↑ https://www.businessinsider.com/sunday-times-rich-list-2016-the-aristocrats-that-are-richer-than-the-queen-2017-1?r=US&IR=T#1-hugh-grosvenor-son-of-the-recently-deceased-duke-of-westminster-14
Book 3 - NRiCaD - Ch. 49 - Soul Anchors - 2/4,

Curtis the drug dealer doubts the man (Malfoy) was a police officer, 'he was too flamboyant for that. He was either the real deal or a conman'..
Book 1 - RiBSR - Ch. 7 - Hey, Grab a Drink, I'm The-Boy-Who-Lived,

The trade in fresh mandrake was one of those Daphne Greengrass’s father [Lord Greengrass] controlled...
Book 3 - NRiCaD - Ch. 49 - Soul Anchors - 2/4,

Lord Jacob Greengrass tells his daughter Daphne Greengrass that the 'global mandrake supply is crippled across the whole world'..
Book 1 - RiBSR - Ch. 2 - Flying Under the Radar - Wand,

Harry is able to convert 250 British Pounds to Galleons in a Gringotts Branch at the Ongiin Khiid Monastery complex, the centre of the Mongolian magical community..
13. ↑ https://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12321/11810121/gareth-thomas-forced-to-reveal-hiv-diagnosis-having-kept-it-secret-for-years
14. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History\_of\_newspaper\_publishing#Latin\_America
Book 2 - TFoP - Ch. 18 - Slytherin's Outcast,

Harry surmises that the Gray now had the Quibbler, the Light had Witch Weekly, and the Dark had the Prophet in all but name while talking to Jacob Greengrass and Xenophilius Lovegood..