Yes I did, I read and reread them many times as a kid and I never saw enough evidence that he had enough limitations to prevent him from doing something like lobbying for legislation. The degree of influence he held in the Wizarding world was huge and none of the reasons given for why he would struggle with changing things convinced me that they were enough to combat the sheer volume of feats Dumbledore had achieved throughout his career, the number of friends he had in high places, or the fact that he, again, very publicly defeated Wizard Hitler 1.0. The 5th book actually showcased pretty strongly how far his influence had spread and how much it intimidated the ministry. He had inside men in both Voldemort’s circle (Snape) and the ministry’s circle (Kingsley), neither of which were ever suspected or discovered by the leaders of the organizations they’d infiltrated, and he even orchestrated an entire underground order of powerful and influential wizards and witches working in the shadows to fight against Voldemort right under the ministry’s nose. It’s not like Fudge was terrified of him aiming for Minister of Magic for no reason.
And despite all that, he was basically ousted from the school he supposedly had so much control over, for what again? Saying “Wizard Hitler bad, and maybe not actually dead, and we should probably consider doing something about that”? Seems like a fairly uncontroversial proposition, and yet look at the results.
Do you really think that highlighting the slavery supporting wizard society would have been better received? How many of the pure blood families would have left that move unchallenged? How many of his friends in high places would have backed him up? How much of that influence and political capital would he have used up just getting legislation drafted, much less passed?
You don’t maintain influence by calling in favors frivolously, and there are bigger fish to fry than house elves. Wizard Hitler, for example.
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Yes I did, I read and reread them many times as a kid and I never saw enough evidence that he had enough limitations to prevent him from doing something like lobbying for legislation. The degree of influence he held in the Wizarding world was huge and none of the reasons given for why he would struggle with changing things convinced me that they were enough to combat the sheer volume of feats Dumbledore had achieved throughout his career, the number of friends he had in high places, or the fact that he, again, very publicly defeated Wizard Hitler 1.0. The 5th book actually showcased pretty strongly how far his influence had spread and how much it intimidated the ministry. He had inside men in both Voldemort’s circle (Snape) and the ministry’s circle (Kingsley), neither of which were ever suspected or discovered by the leaders of the organizations they’d infiltrated, and he even orchestrated an entire underground order of powerful and influential wizards and witches working in the shadows to fight against Voldemort right under the ministry’s nose. It’s not like Fudge was terrified of him aiming for Minister of Magic for no reason.
And despite all that, he was basically ousted from the school he supposedly had so much control over, for what again? Saying “Wizard Hitler bad, and maybe not actually dead, and we should probably consider doing something about that”? Seems like a fairly uncontroversial proposition, and yet look at the results.
Do you really think that highlighting the slavery supporting wizard society would have been better received? How many of the pure blood families would have left that move unchallenged? How many of his friends in high places would have backed him up? How much of that influence and political capital would he have used up just getting legislation drafted, much less passed?
You don’t maintain influence by calling in favors frivolously, and there are bigger fish to fry than house elves. Wizard Hitler, for example.