MetaFic

In the late 19th century a group of British Wizards, known for their excellence in various fields of magic, gathered in London to discuss the state of Magic in England. What they realized, to their great consternation, was a sort of industrialization of magic had occurred. The Ministry of Magic had succeeded in creating a homogeneous, controlled, packaging of magical education in England patterned after the education style used in Muggle schools. While this uniform magical schooling made it easy for all to master the very basics of wizardry, it was stifling to those who were truly gifted. This resulted in an enforced mediocrity creeping into the Wizard community at large. In a precursor to the 20th Century’s struggles the gathering split into two major factions:

• The “Pure-Blood” faction revived the thoughts of Salazar Slytherin. Industrialization was a Muggle phenomenon, its taint in the Wizarding world was a result of allowing Muggle-borns into their society. Only through a Ministry led Pure-blood ethic could Wizardry regain its excellence. Ironically, they actually reinforced the industrialized, lowest common denominator, educational scheme.

• The “Educational Revolution” faction felt that the blame lay with the mandated mediocrity. Something had been lost in how magic was taught to all who possessed it regardless of birth or blood. A reappraisal of educational texts and a more demanding curriculum, letting truly gifted students excel without being held back to a minimum standard, was championed.

The Pure-Blood faction then led by Belisarius Malfoy and the current Hogwarts Headmaster, Phineas Nigellus, quickly gained the upper hand. Laws restricting any Muggle influence to Wizarding society were enacted, as they were the easiest way to remedy this problem. While elevating the social and financial status of pure-bloods it did nothing to remedy the underlying cause for the perceived crisis in magical education.

Tiberius Ogden, Griselda Marchbanks, and Albus Dumbledore supported and fostered the Educational Revolution faction. Madam Marchbanks, as head of the Wizarding Examinations Authority, worked to structure O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. examinations in a way to forward a few of the Educational Factions aims. She and Ogden were also able to deflect some counterproductive legislation within the Wizengamot. Dumbledore, as the Transfiguration Professor at Hogwarts, began to ponder with changes to magical education as a way of incorporating the influx of Muggle-borns from the Muggle population boom following the First World War. While he, too, argued that Wizards had become mediocre, his intellectual focus was not on resolving this problem. A true intersection of the “Mediocre Wizard Problem" and his personal vocation to improve magical training came about through the public rise of Gellert Grindelwald, and then the subversive activities of the half-blood Wizard Tom Riddle, later calling himself Lord Voldemort. These two Wizards served as a wake up call for Dumbledore. He realized how dangerous a truly gifted, but unscrupulous, Wizard could be in a sea of mediocre ones.

It wasn’t until his elevation to Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that Albus Dumbledore formed his “Order of the Phoenix.”

Order of the Phoenix Motto: De scientia advenio potential (From knowledge comes power). The heraldic crest is a text book and crossed wands separated by a bar sinister.

The name “Order of the Phoenix” was chosen to represent the rebirth of magical learning from the ashes of the Grindelwald War. This Order consisted of Wizards and Witches dedicated to advancing their fields of study and bringing those advancements to the education of Wizard children, raising the level of magical competency throughout all society. Albus Dumbledore received some quiet cooperation on research from like-minded Wizards in the Department of Mysteries and enlightened members of society.

The Order of the Phoenix, begun as an exercise to improve magical education, worked quietly in the shadows of a post-Grindlewald society. It strove to establish a more open and demanding curriculum at Hogwarts and get at least some Wizards properly trained. Those efforts progressed in fits and starts even as a new Dark Lord began to achieve notice.

The Voldemort Uprising, growing past the nuisance level, prevented Dumbledore from continuing his magical educational renaissance. Because of their philosophical beliefs, members of the Order began to act as a watchdog organization against the blood bigotry fomented by Voldemort and his followers. As the self-styled Lord Voldemort’s ideas gained favour in the early 1960s the Order became a shadow intelligence unit and then ultimately a resistance movement in the 1970s against the Dark Wizard’s scheme of pure-blood supremacy. Unfortunately the Uprising wreaked disaster upon Britain’s Wizard population. A number of prominent families were destroyed by this war. Many promising Hogwarts students and graduates were killed. The wealthy merchant class, who initially backed Voldemort unconditionally, were placed in dire financial straights due to the precipitous drop in trade and loss of hard currency assets because of the war. After the unexpected defeat of Voldemort in 1981 these families did not have the money or inclination to foster radical changes in magical education. Misunderstanding the causation for Voldemort’s rise, the Ministry for Magic placed additional restrictions on magical education. As a result, students from 1982 through 1999 had a significantly restricted curriculum, even when compared to the truncated education provided during the preceding 50 years.

A major breakthrough in the understanding of Magic and how to train Wizards to better use it was made as the Voldemort Uprising built to its crescendo in the late 1970s. By the time of his post-O.W.L. studies Professor Remus Lupin was already known for his keen mind, as well as his revolutionary understanding, and concise descriptions, of how magic worked. He put his random thoughts and ideas to parchment and began to organize and devise the basis of a new magical curriculum. From their seventh year at Hogwarts through to their murders in October 1981 two of his schoolmates, James and Lily Potter, assisted Professor Lupin in organizing his research efforts. After their deaths Professor Lupin produced a series of essays collectively known as the “Theory of Magic.” This Theory was first published and discussed in the Americas. However, due to British bigotry against the victims of lycanthropy, Professor Lupin’s work was initially ignored, and then banned, in England.

Separate from all of this, a prophecy was made in late 1979 about the birth of a child who would bring about Voldemort's demise. Although made in private to Albus Dumbledore, a supporter of Voldemort’s heard the first portion and immediately informed his Master. Voldemort launched a furious effort to find this “Prophecy Child” and murder him before affecting the Dark Lord’s plans for immortality and domination of humanity by pure-blood Wizards. Two Order members, Lily Potter and Alice Longbottom, gave birth to boys in late July 1980. For their safety these boys, Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom, and their parents were eventually secreted away under Fidelius Charms. Separated from the general Wizard population and possibly meeting Voldemort in the future to vanquish him, they were selected as test cases for a new magical curriculum based on the “Theory of Magic” essays. This plan was nearly laid to ruin by the murder of the James and Lily Potter, and the torture induced insanity of Frank and Alice Longbottom. Harry Potter’s survival was reported to the popular press as The Boy Who Lived, but to a select few Harry was literally marked as the child of the prophecy, the “Chosen One. Neville Longbottom was removed from the Order’s influence when his Grandmother took him to be raised.

Albus Dumbledore believed Harry Potter, as the “Chosen One,” could not be allowed mediocre training in magic. For his personal safety Harry was raised in an undisclosed location, isolated from any influence by the Ministry of Magic or an adulatory public. For a decade rumour and innuendo accompanied any information on The Boy Who Lived. Harry, as the godson of Order member Sirius Black, would remain hidden and grow up under the tutelage of Dumbledore, and Lupin, and selected Order members until such time as the boy was old enough, and skilled enough, to face and vanquish Voldemort for good.

Harry, as the “Chosen One,” saw the end of Voldemort as the perfect beginning to a renewed British Wizard society. His Theory of Magic Insurrection, known as Tommy, came about because Harry and his peers, who included Neville Longbottom, abhorred the corruption they saw about them. Bitterly disappointed by the adult’s failure to act decisively, they took it upon themselves to remake their world.

Ginevra M. Potter
Headmistress, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
From the Forward to The Learning Wars: The Fall and Rise of Magical Education in Britain by Professor Emeritus Remus J. Lupin