Heresy! Where are they storing all this inherited magical power? Their big, pureblood magical cores? Somebody call Taure!

 

Maybe we can go back to the philosopher's stone? I previously made a thread on it and there was that shitfic with an interesting concept but terrible execution.

Flamel after inventing the stone make a whole bunch of them and sells them for a ridiculous price. And then dies with the secret. If we say there is a limit to how many people a philosopher's stone can make immortal at once then they become a highly coveted and immensely powerful object to build houses around.

Houses exist because the once-in-a-blue-moon Dumbledore tier wizard lives forever so you can build powerful houses around them and last in perpetuity.

 

Isn't that basically just Taure's Lords of Magic fic?

 

On the contrary, we see Voldemort pretty casually withstand the force of a state. Dumbledore and Voldemort can each take on dozens of skilled opponents simultaneously with little fanfare. Dumbledore strode into the Atrium and disabled every single Death Eater in combat in moments. If you trapped the Order minus Dumbledore in a room with Voldemort, who are you putting your money on?

 

But at the same time, if he could have just walked into the Ministry the day after Dumbledore's death why didn't he? You have to wonder why he was bothering with all this cloak and dagger, assassination, infiltration bullshit and why it still took him a couple months unopposed to take over.

They can definitely stop lots of skilled opponents, but there's some kind of implicit limit.

 

One person can't control a nation by themselves though.

Also as VanRopen said, there clearly is a limit as he didn't just solo the whole Ministry after Dumbledore literally bit the dust.

Edit: Also Madeye, McGonagall and the auror members together might be able to at least chase him off, which implies Voldemort feels it's too risky.

 

I thought that the only reason McGonagall/Slughorn/Kinglsey were able to stave off Lord Voldemort was because of Harry's sacrificial magic?

Edit: Lmao sorry. Disregard. Was in full canon mode not this dope AU mode.

 

I think you might be underestimating the importance of environmental impact on character. While magical power is clearly inheritable to a great degree, it also clearly makes a difference if Draco was personally taught by Dumbledore as compared to never having even attended Hogwarts. Further, it turns out that there are some resources necessary for the development of magical power which might be appropriated and rationed out in accordance with a feudalistic system.

This was touched on in previous posts (e.g. spell knowledge). But the fact that the HP magic system is meritocratic can be put down to the abundance of the two fundamental requirements for magic use, wands and knowledge of magic. Good wands are cheap, and a great magic education comes virtually free.

Take these vital resources away and even the greatest of wizards would struggle to develop their magical potential. Rowling notes for example that a Dumbledore without a wand is still greater than a Crabbe with one, but that comes inclusive with his extensive knowledge of magic acquired throughout his life. I think it’s fair to say that he might be comparable to an average wizard while wandless, and probably something far less had he grown up in an impoverished environment.

So envision a feudal system where good wands are rare and average people have to make do with makeshifts (like Harry with Hermione’s wand); a system where Draco attends Hogwarts and Voldemort stays in his muggle orphanage, learning magic by apprenticing to Burke in his later years.

Hogwarts would become an elite institution for the powerful. Or alternatively it could be that rare example of a public institution in an era where it stands out as unusual. It’s geographic location in Scotland chosen deliberately to be as far away from the European continent as possible, where the very concept of such a school would be met with open antagonism.

Notice this doesn’t quite solve the entire problem of the inheritance of magical power; one great wizard could in theory be cursed by a Goyle offspring. But I think we can alleviate this by pointing out that magical power is associated with certain character traits (e.g. intelligence, wisdom, temperament, and other mental abilities) which in turn are at least partly heritable. While an Einstein likely won’t give birth to another Einstein, he surely won’t sire a moron unless he’s truly unlucky (in fact his own children went on to become quite competent professors). Consider also how amenable these traits are to upbringing and environment in turn.

This I think is more than enough to perpetuate a feudalistic system throughout the medieval period. This gets us a system wherein the truly great houses will be associated with good wizard/witches. We might expect a Mcgonagall to be descended from a Dumbledore who founded such a house etc... Of course once a great wizard/witch does actually get born into a great house they do have the potential to change the world, but that’s no different from the real world where such visionaries happen into existence from time to time.

Lastly, the greater lifespan of the wizard and witch compensate to a degree for the inheritance problem in prolonging the life of any house.