Order Only: Vale of Glamorgan situation
Jun. 27th, 2011 12:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_arthurWe had an interdepartmental session this morning, involving both Purity Control (i.e., the Committee for Muggleborn Labour Services) and Muggle Domestication. It was horrible. I'm sitting down to write this report with reluctance. In all honesty, I'd really prefer to be off drowning the memory of the meeting with shots of Firewhiskey.
It's become increasingly clear that the Vale of Glamorgan was a refuge of sorts for both muggles and muggleborns. Sort of a commune, if you will, run by several branches of the Wood and Ackerley families. They weren't involved with Dogstar (although that has been muddied in the Prophet). By way of a mix of bribes, sloppy record-keeping, and the occasional use of Imperius and Confundus, the wizarding families of Vale Glamorgan tracked down all their surviving muggle neighbors and arranged to have them consigned to them as 'labourers.' The muggles don't seem to have been under any constraint to stay, so with luck a few may have slipped through the Ministry's cordon, though the raid came at night and they had little warning. Their 'labour' seems to have taken the form of farming, and the produce from the farms appears to have been shared equally among wizard and muggle residents of the Vale. The muggles are all in excellent health, even down to their teeth, and apparently wizarding potions such as Dreamless Sleep were found in some of the muggle homes.
It must have been a lovely arrangement, while it lasted. But naturally, such beautiful cooperation between wizards (including a few muggleborns) and muggles is complete anathema under our present regime and must be soundly punished. And so we spent the morning squabbling over their fates. I don't know what will happen to the adult pureblood or halfblood wizards, as that's not my department, but I am sure it will be quite grim. I do know that their children will all be taken away and fostered with other families.
There were eight muggleborn wizards--well, nine, but one managed to kill himself within twenty-four hours of being placed in custody by the simple expedient of hanging himself with his belt. A check of the records showed that the muggleborns are apparently the newest arrivals. They were only there for a few years, and so I wondered whether the argument could be made that that they should be retrained for service somewhere they'd be treated 'properly.' There's always demand these days. The opinion was bruited about around the conference table, however, that the muggleborns in question most likely had been entirely 'ruined' by their dangerous exposure to traitorous ideas. A consensus quickly developed that they should be turned over for experimentation, meaning they'll be given to the likes of Rookwood and Carrow.
There are close to two hundred muggles, on the other hand, many of them children obviously too young to work. Deverill and Harkiss cheerfully spent fifteen minutes in a barbaric argument over whether it would be better to kill all the adults, or merely kill the men and then split up the women and children (with no regard to family ties of course). I caught Norma Brownmiller's eye, and saw she was close to tears although doing her level best not to show it. Clearly, she didn't dare to raise her voice to argue for mercy. I know the humanitarianism she's shown in the past has made her opinions suspect in department decisions.
I didn't dare speak up for both the muggleborns and the muggles. In the end I opted to cast my lot with the hopes of saving as many as possible and so I spoke in favour of sparing the muggles. They were mere animals, easy enough to terrorise into obedience with threats, and why should we not take advantage of their labour? Let them be reassigned to the camp at Cardiff, which lost many during the epidemic, and we can farm them out on various work details.
I don't know what will be decided yet. I imagine there will be a memo out tomorrow.
It's become increasingly clear that the Vale of Glamorgan was a refuge of sorts for both muggles and muggleborns. Sort of a commune, if you will, run by several branches of the Wood and Ackerley families. They weren't involved with Dogstar (although that has been muddied in the Prophet). By way of a mix of bribes, sloppy record-keeping, and the occasional use of Imperius and Confundus, the wizarding families of Vale Glamorgan tracked down all their surviving muggle neighbors and arranged to have them consigned to them as 'labourers.' The muggles don't seem to have been under any constraint to stay, so with luck a few may have slipped through the Ministry's cordon, though the raid came at night and they had little warning. Their 'labour' seems to have taken the form of farming, and the produce from the farms appears to have been shared equally among wizard and muggle residents of the Vale. The muggles are all in excellent health, even down to their teeth, and apparently wizarding potions such as Dreamless Sleep were found in some of the muggle homes.
It must have been a lovely arrangement, while it lasted. But naturally, such beautiful cooperation between wizards (including a few muggleborns) and muggles is complete anathema under our present regime and must be soundly punished. And so we spent the morning squabbling over their fates. I don't know what will happen to the adult pureblood or halfblood wizards, as that's not my department, but I am sure it will be quite grim. I do know that their children will all be taken away and fostered with other families.
There were eight muggleborn wizards--well, nine, but one managed to kill himself within twenty-four hours of being placed in custody by the simple expedient of hanging himself with his belt. A check of the records showed that the muggleborns are apparently the newest arrivals. They were only there for a few years, and so I wondered whether the argument could be made that that they should be retrained for service somewhere they'd be treated 'properly.' There's always demand these days. The opinion was bruited about around the conference table, however, that the muggleborns in question most likely had been entirely 'ruined' by their dangerous exposure to traitorous ideas. A consensus quickly developed that they should be turned over for experimentation, meaning they'll be given to the likes of Rookwood and Carrow.
There are close to two hundred muggles, on the other hand, many of them children obviously too young to work. Deverill and Harkiss cheerfully spent fifteen minutes in a barbaric argument over whether it would be better to kill all the adults, or merely kill the men and then split up the women and children (with no regard to family ties of course). I caught Norma Brownmiller's eye, and saw she was close to tears although doing her level best not to show it. Clearly, she didn't dare to raise her voice to argue for mercy. I know the humanitarianism she's shown in the past has made her opinions suspect in department decisions.
I didn't dare speak up for both the muggleborns and the muggles. In the end I opted to cast my lot with the hopes of saving as many as possible and so I spoke in favour of sparing the muggles. They were mere animals, easy enough to terrorise into obedience with threats, and why should we not take advantage of their labour? Let them be reassigned to the camp at Cardiff, which lost many during the epidemic, and we can farm them out on various work details.
I don't know what will be decided yet. I imagine there will be a memo out tomorrow.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 09:06 pm (UTC)I wonder though...do you think we should offer to foster one of the children? The pureblood children, I mean: one of the Woods or Ackerleys. They must be so frightened and distressed, and it hurts to think of them going to a home where they'll be told that their parents did something despicable.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 09:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 09:09 pm (UTC)After all, Percy will probably be finding a job soon. I suppose he will live at home for awhile, but I know he hopes to eventually move out into his own flat.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 09:16 pm (UTC)Fostering a child draws an extra level of official scrutiny toward a pureblood family, and I bet it'll be especially high with these kids in particular. They'd want to be sure that whatever traitorous ideas they absorbed from their family were crushed.
Can you really risk that extra level of official oversight?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 09:28 pm (UTC)Private message to Molly Weasley
Date: 2011-06-27 09:31 pm (UTC)Re: Private message to Molly Weasley
Date: 2011-06-27 09:32 pm (UTC)Re: Private message to Molly Weasley
Date: 2011-06-27 09:32 pm (UTC)Re: Private message to Molly Weasley
Date: 2011-06-27 11:05 pm (UTC)Re: Private message to Molly Weasley
Date: 2011-06-27 11:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 09:16 pm (UTC)I hope your speaking up will tip the balance, enough to save as many as possible.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 09:20 pm (UTC)Private message to Bill Weasley
Date: 2011-06-27 09:21 pm (UTC)Re: Private message to Bill Weasley
Date: 2011-06-27 09:22 pm (UTC)Re: Private message to Bill Weasley
Date: 2011-06-27 09:24 pm (UTC)Or I can always send them out to play pick up Quidditch. That never fails to get the others out of the way. Except Percy, and he's mostly been lurking in his room anyway.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 09:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 09:36 pm (UTC)Otherwise, if the muggleborns are sent to Carrow, I should be able to get the information from the processing parchmentwork.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 09:44 pm (UTC)I'd like to be one of the people that checks up on him. I owe him that much, if not much more.
and we can check him for tracking charms, see if we can get him out.
I know you're up to your arse in parchment right now, but when it comes to terry boot, the sooner the better.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 09:46 pm (UTC)Such a cost for such a little bit of happiness.
I'm so sorry, Arthur.
And I know how hard it was for you to sit through that meeting, but because of your presence, you've managed to save a few more lives than would have been otherwise. Thank you.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-27 10:24 pm (UTC)I can't imagine how distressing that must have been. And to be forced to take such an awful, impossible decision.
Alice is right, of course, we need you in that job because if you were not there, things would go very much worse for a great many people.
And I mean that sincerely, Arthur. These are not meaningless noises of sympathy I'm mouthing. Even in her inability to speak up, your Norma Brownmiller was making a contribution by filling a chair that might otherwise have been filled by someone ready to speak vociferously in favour of the worst possible course.
And you took the risk she could not.
I'm very grateful to you for that.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-06-28 02:58 am (UTC)Then again, so does the enemy. Heard today that they had half the muggles in the Stevenage camp outside in the heat for hours while they shuffled them all about, took them through their paces, put the stronger ones on harder work details out in the fields and generally threatened wholesale slaughter if anyone so much as breathed a word about labour stoppage or protest. Took some of the teenagers, too, Merlin knows where. Birchmore's a heartless son of a bitch, that's for sure.
I do hope you managed to save most of them from the worst indignities, anyway.