Recently in my rant in the review section I mentioned a Call to Arms , later on I checked the fics where it is done .. well my results haven't been very good , I found about 4 fics where you can see that they'll do it , and one , sadly deleted (Birth of the Phoenix) where it has been done . Seriously guys , you forget about Wizarding Britain , and the other nations. Most Authors only remember about the inhabitants Hogwarts , Hogsmade and Voldemort followers.

What do you think ?

Will it slowly become a clichee or will the idea be used only from time to time by the Authors who are not concentrated on writing the Best slash sex scene ?

 

I think I recall seeing your comments before. Since you didn't restate your complaint I can only comment on what I remember of it. Essentially your gripe is why the wizarding population isn't mobilized against the Death Eaters, correct?

The reason that idea has never appealed to me is from how the population has been portrayed in canon. Most wizards and witches are shown as hopelessly afraid of Voldemort, or complacent about the war, and then there are those who just don't want to get involved on either side of it.

I think Fudge's reaction at the end of the fourth book was telling. It was not only because he didn't want a threat to his own position, but he knew that people did not want to hear, know that another war was on their door step. They are willing to sit back and let Dumbledore or Harry take on the fight.

There was a reason why the Order of the Phoenix was established in the first war. Voldemort had essentially had a grip of fear on the nation, and no one knew who the enemy was. What do you do with an army if it doesn't know who or where the enemy is?

Very importantly, from clues that we have of Voldemort's tactics, it is easy to see that having a mobilized army would not help. He used subversion and guerilla tactics to strike fear and spread uncertainty. Where would you deploy your battalion of 'war mages' when there isn't a dark army standing on a plane somewhere with Voldemort leading them under his banner.

 

And building on that, the best they could do (and did do) was with the Aurors and Hitwizards, with limited success.

The Dark curses the Death Eaters used had too much of an edge against the Aurors, who had to abide by protocol, presumably even after Crouch approved the use of the Unforgivables to them. I.e. tactical advantages of the Imperius Curse are immeasurable, and the Cruciatus is a very effective psychological motivator providing that the former curse doesn't function properly.

I think the Ministry did the best it could do, given the circumstances. It's like what Bush is doing with his 'War on Terror'. It's hidden, invisible, nonexistent, even. You can't fight an enemy that doesn't reveal itself in the slightest.

 

Well you have a point , but there are many pre HBP Fics where there is a sentence : After the Fall / Defeat of the ministry ...
Dumbles is known as the most powerfull light wizard , he has much influence. If it would be me I would send a Call to Arms then , All people able to fight come to Hogwarts , they would be trained there etc. Every wizard has to take adleast the DADA Owls , so most wizards should know standard shields and curses , it would be a start. From there on they could be trained and forged into an army , what would a band of DE's (lets say 10 ) do if while slaughtering muggles and all in all having a good time , 100 people apparated in and started firing even the most useless curses tickling , stuners etc. at them . Shields aren't strong enought to withstand such a barrage , and they would get run over pretty fast.

 

Well, Voldemort had his agents in the ministry. The 'fall' in those stories could simply mean a take over. Or if we ever find out in canon why Voldemort is so terrible, it could have been that he alone has the magical power to cast wide area destruction spells and simply obliterated the ministry. In the face of that kind of power, wizards and witches with OWL defense training or even above probably would not stand a chance, no matter how many of them are there.

But that is such a generic line, it can be used to do a quick set up, or be the end of a major sequence.

Dumbledore did exert his influence and gathered 'useful' wizards and witches to him to the Order. And people usually do not react to that kind of sentiment unless they feel threatened or are desperate. Until the situation gets desperate, their sense of self preservation would win out, and they will sit back saying its the ministry's job, or Dumbledore's etc.

 

The point that you forgetting is that teh whole wizarding world didn't want to believe in the threat to their usual senile lives. So much so that they even truned against Dumbledore when he supported Harry's claims in OoTP. We don't directly see him getting badgered about it. But there are instances where McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley say how it has become stressful for Dumbledore. He also has collected all the wizards who are willing to stand-up against Voldemort's threat in the Order. So, technically the rest are either not trustworthy enough or basically are too scared.

Also, Politically the ministry can't ask for help from other countries for the fear of appearing weak. Grindlewald did not originate in Britain, he was a global threat. Voldemort has originated in Britain and hasn't yet turned into a global threat.

Or atleast this what I think.

 

Think of the ratio of muggles to wizards. That's about 2000 to 1. Now also think of how many of these wizards are in/have had combat training magical or muggle.

That doesn't exactly lend itself to having a well-built army. The Call to Arms deal that I have seen alot lately in some of the newer pieces of fanfiction just doesn't fly. It already is a cliche.

 

Well , you have points , but apprearing polliticaly weak or being dead ... you do the math.
As in my opinion Muggles can't do shit about wizards , a Nuke woudn't work in hogwarts , and they have no idea where it is. I actually prefer the fics where the pureblooded wizards are portayed as being better . I started writing a fic but i want atleast a 30k word count before posting , where harry does a blood clensing ritual in which he erases are of his "tainted" muggle blood.
Getting back to the topic now : The call to arms would have to be provoked by a War declaration from Voldemort , where the people see no other option : They Join or They fight to the death .

 

The Order is basically comprised of 'civillian' wizards, not highly skilled fighters, for the most part - Daedalus Diggle, Molly Weasley, etc can't really do much about fighting Death Eaters. I think that because Dumbledore believes that nobody but Harry can fight back against Voldemort, he has focused on gathering information rather than acting on it. And as for the majority of the wizarding world, it seems like (during Voldemort's original rise to power, anyway) each wizard was concerned mostly with keeping his or her head down so as not to become a target. There was no such thing as 'unity' because the masses believed that if they took a side, they would be killed, either by Voldemort's terror organisation or by Barty Crouch Sr's Aurors (who were authorised to use Dark Arts, I believe - or was that fanon?).

Death Eaters would probably kill/maim a number of those 100 before disapparating. A basic shield that schoolchildren can perform without much effort (Protego) blocks the Stunning spell, so I doubt they would be very effective... and in all likelyhood the 100 would act like headless chickens in an actual combat situation. Then again, the Death Eaters arent such fearsome warriors either; most of them have done no Death Eating for 15 years.... meh.

At any rate, the biggest problem would be to convince 100 wizards to band together and stand up for themselves.

 

Then there is the question, how many wizards really oppose Voldemort?

Characters like Umbridge and Fudge indicate, that quite a lot of people believe in the pure-blood dominance, and even the Weasleys don't speak about a squib uncle. It's a sort of everyday's racism.

Those who claim to be pure don't need to stand up against Voldemort. If Voldemort wins, they might even benefit. They won't openly side with him - he is committing crimes - but that doesn't mean they don't sympathize with his cause.

Dumbledore knows this. A call to the arms would force those people to declare themselves - and some of them would prefer to side with Voldemort.

I don't remember any story with a real call to the arms in the wizarding world. Some stories had some mobilizing of additional Aurors / Order members, but nothing like compulsory military service.