Politics of Fear open slytherin table closed

There were more people listening in than Rebecca had anticipated, it seemed apparent that Slytherin was not only the house of cunning and ambition, but also incurable nosiness. Almost as soon as he'd spoken, a girl giggled at his bold claims, then quickly stopped herself, looking a little nervous. Next to her, another Slytherin spoke up with a frown. "I hate to break it to you, but I highly doubt that would do anything good. The jinxing part, that is."

Rebecca gave the new person an appraising look. He'd seen them hanging around the common room before, and heard them complaining loudly about one of the prefects: his roommate, specifically. A bit of a rookie mistake, frankly. If they were mouthing off on Avery Leveret in a public place, word would most certainly get back to the boy in question. Besides, Rebecca liked Avery, and didn't appreciate the harsh whispers that seemed to trail the Slytherin like a cloak.

"My father is involved in politics at the ministry, and while he doesn’t tell me much, it's fairly obvious that those in power are using S.C.A.R.A.B. as scapegoats," they continued.

Rebecca's face was schooled to perfect neutrality, but he didn't trust a single government official 'involved in politics' as far as he could throw them. At least it seemed that their kid wasn't simply parroting whatever 'daddy' told them about S.C.A.R.A.B.

"That's the point, isn't it?" The girl who'd laughed once again immediately appeared to regret her decision to speak and clamped her mouth shut. Rebecca nearly felt obligated to give her an encouraging pat on the back for bravery.

"Of course it's obvious, the real question is why no one's been called out on it yet. It's not as if this hasn't been going on for the past three years," Rebecca pointed out.

Ruby nodded, but gave Rebecca an unimpressed stare.

“Defending a group that’s been painted as a terrorist organization by committing more acts of violence? That’s a good idea,” she commented sarcastically. Rebecca rankled at her tone, but knew the truth to her words.

Learn to be more careful before you get yourself in too deep.

Rebecca shook his head. "I promise to take your advice. But..." he hesitated, choosing his next words with delicate care.

"If the Ministry decides to make a peaceful revolution impossible, then they're making a violent revolution inevitable. I'm not saying that's what'll happen for sure, but it's never going to be as simple as 'good' versus 'bad.'"

His grandmother had a saying, 'Sometimes you have to pick the wand up to put the wand down.'

By this point Colin had arrived and taken the opportunity to steal the last bit of bacon from Rebecca's plate. First my bird, now my best friend! I'm surrounded by thieves! "Are we talking about what I think we're talking about? Is this about Scarabs?" the other boy asked with an eager grin.

Rebecca hadn't realized how tense he'd felt before, but a nameless weight lifted with Colin sitting by his side. He rolled his eyes at the boy's antics and pointed wordlessly at the newspaper for him to read.

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The boy who had started this conversation responded by explaining that a violent revolution was inevitable if a peaceful one was prevented. “So now you’re saying they are violent, but it’s justified? I thought you believed they were nonviolent.” She raised an eyebrow. “And if those attacks were made by S.C.A.R.A.B., I fail to see how poisoning random Leaky Cauldron patrons, setting pureblood homes on fire, harming a train full of students, and all of the other events that have been associated with S.C.A.R.A.B. would be useful for their cause or justifiable. Sit-ins that escalated to violence or targeting people who are known to be strongly anti-squib or anti-halfbreed would be slightly more understandable. But if the attacks talked about in the Prophet are, as they claim, made by S.C.A.R.A.B.? That’s significantly less defensible, even if you believe violent revolution made by them is necessary.”

Another boy arrived much too energetically for the morning, hugging the first boy and commenting on the ordinary breakfast foods like it was the best thing he had ever seen, and even standing on the bench. Ruby raised her eyebrows, looking thoroughly unimpressed as he finally took a seat. "Ye're not on about hexing people again, are you?" Just teasing a friend, or was this eagerness to hex people a pattern in that boy’s behavior? "Are we talking about what I think we're talking about? Is this about Scarabs?" “Firstly, it’s S.C.A.R.A.B., not Scarabs. Secondly, please do read the article your friend has directed you to and catch up.” She sighed. “Anyway, those attacks also just don’t make sense to have been by S.C.A.R.A.B., as Prince’s articles both past and present have eloquently been pointing out ever since last year, but I don’t like all this muddling of the organization’s purpose and reputation. I don’t think it’s wise to support S.C.A.R.A.B. itself—rather, support the original cause instead of the organization until this mess is sorted out.”

She paused. “I wish the adults out there whose job it is to protect people would find out the truth behind all those attacks and allow it to become public, rather than just letting all this speculation, fear, and hate go around,” she lamented. “And whoever is behind these attacks needs to be stopped. It’s a concern to people of all blood types and magical races, beliefs aside, as people from any background are being caught in the crossfire of whatever the hell this is.” She was probably preaching to the choir with that one, but she wanted to make sure they were focused on what was, in her opinion, the most important goal. Which wasn’t this silly debate full of inaccurate wording from the boy.

Real people were being hurt in the name of an organization that was out of control. People were claiming it was everything from a noble advocacy group to a terrorist organization to a secret pureblood supremacist movement, and none of it made sense anymore, with the actions unclear and S.C.A.R.A.B. leadership not responding to questions about responsibility for too much of it. In Ruby’s opinion, the organization was too far gone, becoming nothing more than a scapegoat for acts of terrorism. It should be disbanded, buried, forgotten about, with a new and more focused organization taking its place in the field of activism and advocacy. There was no saving S.C.A.R.A.B. anymore, and she wasn’t sure she would want it to be “saved” if their leadership couldn’t even present a strong front and confirm or deny involvement in a truthful manner. Ignoring the claims being made had only made things worse for them.

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