Resistance to Tyranny in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Part way through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the Dark Lord Voldemort makes his move, takes over the Ministry of Magic, which is the ruling body of J.K. Rowling's wizarding world in Britain, and institutes a reign of terror. Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione are forced to go on the run to find the means of defeating Voldemort. The rest of the wizarding world doesn't seem to know how to resist the tyranny of Voldemort, though, and seems content, with a few exceptions, on hunkering down and hoping at Harry pulls their chestnuts out of the fire.

For example, there seems to be a "magic radio" "Voice of the Resistance" whose programming seems to be a bit lame. The wizarding world of Britain could have benefited from the example of American talk radio as a means of tweaking, ridiculing, and otherwise deconstructing the Voldemort Regime. Where were the satirical songs making fun of Voldemort? Where were the off color jokes about the Bellatrix Lestrange and her "loyalty" (read: "undisguised lust') for Voldemort. As Mel Brooks once said, the one thing that evil cannot stand is being laughed at. The folks running this operation could have benefited from some advice from Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity.

There seems to be a little bit of undisclosed underground activity being conducted at Hogwarts, but nothing that seems to be very effective. For the most part, the wizarding world seems to be cowed into submission by Voldemort and his Death Eater minions.

And isn't that what Voldemort is counting on? That is the use of terror to keep a larger populace quiet. The problem is keeping quiet and hoping that someone else is going to save you (even Harry Potter) is not the way to get your freedom back.

To paraphrase the "Chicago rules" as articulated by Sean Connery in the film The Untouchables, "If they come after you with a wand, you come after them with a magic sword. If they put one of yours in St. Mungos, you put one of theirs in the morgue." In this kind of situation, violence is met by more violence, terror by more terror.

If I were running a resistance war in Rowling's wizarding world, I would start going after the Death Eaters, who are after all are the basis of Voldemorts power. A quick ambush with a stupefy spell to disable them, then quick pass of the knife across their wind pipes to send them to Wizarding Hell. Then I'd either toss the bodies into the nearest body of water or, better yet, hang them from a lamp post in Diagon Alley as a warning to all enemies of freedom.

The likely response of Voldemort will be to send Death Eaters after such assassins. That's a good thing. All the fewer to bother Harry and his friends.

And by the way, where are all the foreign wizards? One would think that the wizarding world outside of Britain would be concerned about that island being taken over by a power mad demon. Now it may be true that the wizards in France, like French Muggles, are cheese eating surrender monkeys (except of course for Fleur Delacour), but what about the American wizards? One of the great oversights of the Harry Potter series is that there has been no mention of the American wizarding world. Surely American wizards would lend a hand to save Britain from tyranny and degradation, just as American Muggles have?

Now to be fair, the British wizards finally discover their fighting spirit when Harry and his friends arrive at Hogwarts and help to toss out Snape and his Death Eater minions. The Battle of Hogwarts will surely be to the wizarding world as Agincourt and Waterloo are for the Muggles. But things might have been easier if a few of the Death Eaters had been picked off earlier in the game.

Let that be a warning if and when J.K. Rowling decides to write: "The Potter Family: The Next Generation." For those who have read the epilogue of the book, you know what I mean.