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Divided and Entwined is an Harry Potter fanfiction written in the Alien Space Bats subforum of AlternateHistory.com. It deals with the Ministry of Magic deciding to appease Voldemort by discriminating against muggleborns and the resulting Civil War that tears apart the Wizarding World.

It can be read here or can read the Story-only thread here (you need to be registered to read either thread). Any unregistered persons can use the version on Fanfiction Dot Net.


This work provides examples of:

  • Adaptational Species Change: Seamus Finnigan, who is now a muggleborn instead of half-blood.
  • Adults Are Useless: This becomes Played for Drama. The fact that the adults at Hogwarts are unable to stop the increasingly racist persecution of Muggleborns, or are actively going along with it, it was drives Hermoine to become a rebel leader.
  • The Alcatraz: Magical Bastille, a French wizarding prison that is as feared as Azkaban.
  • Alternate History: The point of divergence from canon is that the Ministry decides to appease Voldemort by persecuting muggleborns.
  • And Then What?: A Discussed Trope. The muggleborns know that defeating Voldemort will not be enough, especially because the Ministry decided to persecute them out of their own free will
    Hermione: There'll be a reckoning, once we've beaten the Dark Lord.
    Dean Thomas: So what? I bet there'll be a "general amnesty" for all survivors. Maybe there will be an ineffectual truth commission. I want justice for our deaths!
  • Asshole Victim:
    • Dolores Umbridge gets her comeuppance at the hands of Alan.
    • Lucius dies a firey death at the hands of the resistance, but considering he is a proud Death Eater, nobody really feels bad for him. Ginny, who got her hands on Tom Riddle's diary, is very happy to see him gone.
  • Big Brother Is Watching: A concern of the muggleborns once they go into hiding is to find ways to prevent the Ministry from tracking their underage magic.
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: On the villains side there's the Death Eaters, A Nazi by Any Other Name who want to establish a pureblood utopia, and the Ministry, a bunch of Corrupt Bureaucrats who engage in Police Brutality. On the heroes side there's the Order of the Phoenix, a La Résistance group that abides by Thou Shall Not Kill except in most extreme circumstances, Albus Dumbledore who lives to manipulate people and the Muggleborn Resistance, an Anti-Hero Team and both Dumbledore and the Resistance embody Good Is Not Soft.
  • "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Subverted. The Resistance kidnaps with the help of Dumbledore the heirs of major pureblood families in order to extort gold to pay for their activities.
  • Blood Knight: Most members of the Resistance qualify, especially Thomas Dean and Seamus Finningan.
  • Blood Magic: The wards in a lot of pureblood manors were created by blood sacrifices and are strong enough that not even Voldemort could power through them. Muggle bombs though are able to tear apart such wards quite easily.
  • Casting a Shadow: The Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder designed by George and Fred Weasley.
  • Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Inverted, the main complaints over the Order of the Phoenix' French volunteers, is that they have bit too much élan.
  • Civil War: The Second Blood War. Adverted later on as neither the muggleborns or the government are in shape of fighting.
  • The Cynic: Sirius Black regarding the Ministry's good intentions.
  • The Dreaded: Bombs becomes this for the wizarding world.
  • Distant Finale: The epilogue set in 2002.
  • Don't Make Me Destroy You: Dumbledore, growing tired of the Ministry's incompetence and corruption, threatens to do this if they do not back down after Slytherin sixth years flee from Hogwarts.
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: The former military veterans the muggleborns hired to train them to use guns.
  • Evil Reactionary: Pretty much all purebloods, or at least the Old Families, who are very recentful of the egalitarian policies supported by Dumbledore.
  • False Flag Operation: After failing to capture members of the Resistance and numberous attacks against Wizengamot members, the Aurors decided to engineer a trap by pretending to be a fake muggleborn group.
    • Before that there was the riot of Diagon Alley, where a angry pureblood crowd attacks muggleborn-owned shops while apparation and the Floo were blocked. Though subverted in that the riot did not occur under Voldemort's orders and he was displeased with those responsible.
  • Fantastic Slurs: As in canon mudblood, which is casually used by most wizards and witches who are not muggleborn, even those who are not Death Eaters. It's telling that people like Scrimgeour use this slur frequently.
  • Fantasy Gun Control: Played with in that the muggleborns have to get guns from terrorist organizations like the Irish Republican Army and by paying mercenaries to train them
  • Fictional Political Party: After the successful reformation of the Wizengamot new political parties rise. Those include the Reform Party, a radical party composed of the survivors of the Resistance; the Progressive Party, a centrist party lead by Sirius whose main plank is criminal justice reform; the Muggleborn Popular Party, a radical pro-muggleborn party, which later has its extremist wing leave and then there's the Pureblood Party
  • Final Solution: Hermoine can see the persecution of Muggle-borns headed in this direction, seeing direct parallels with the real-life Final Solution against the Jews.
  • For Want Of A Nail: Cornelius Fudge appeasement policies backfire so massively that the Second Blood War turns into a four-way war, between the Ministry, the Order of the Phoenix, the Death Eaters and the Muggleborn Resistance which later becomes a two-way war as three of the factions unite to fight Voldemort. Also Sirius is exonerated early on because of the Ministry's acknowledgment of Voldemort's return.
  • Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: While Hermonie and Dumbledore know Malfoy turned out the way he did because of his racist father, is still doesn't justify his mistreatment of others and that he only has himself to blame for his actions.
  • Fun with Acronyms: The British Armed Magical Forces.
  • Good Is Not Soft: The Muggleborn Resistance will target not only Death Eaters but also traitorous muggleborns. Also Dumbledore who admits he would gladly blow up a meeting of Death Eaters if it killed Voldemort in the process.
  • Godwin's Law: Quickly invoked by muggleborns. Hermione even compares Voldemort to Hitler during a secret muggleborn meeting. Lampshaded later during a discussion between Harry and Tonks regarding the Aurors' enforcing anti-muggleborn laws.
    Tonks: Are you saying that we're Nazis?
    Harry: The laws are the same, the excuses are the same... maybe you should think what exactly your duty is.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: The Ministry's discrimination against muggleborns results in them being expelled from Hogwarts due to failing Wizarding Studies. Thanks to Dumbledore, this gets muggleborns being declared adults and the trace removed from their wands which greatly helps the Resistance early on.
  • Hollywood Voodoo: Doubles with Necromancy. Practioneers of this magical art are known as Houngans and they primarily live in the Caribbean
  • The Horseshoe Effect: The Muggleborn Alternative forms an alliance of convenience with the Pureblood Party because they both hate the Reform Party. The Wizarding press has field day and the Daily Prophet names them the Unholy Alliance, a nickname Hermione think is fitting
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Hermione's reaction to Sirius' proposal to have a ménage à trois.
  • In Spite of a Nail: In spite of the fact that the story has severely diverged from the series, Dumbledore, Moody, and Snape still die, though under completely different circumstances
  • Istanbul (Not Constantinople): When the Secrecy Statute was implemented, every muggle country that existed at the time (ie Prussia, the Ottoman Empire and a monarchist France etc) continue to exist in the Wizarding World. Also, the United States does not exist, with the North American wizarding world being split in small warring communities.
  • The Klutz: Nymphadora Tonks is this in spades.
  • La Résistance: The Muggleborn Resistance.
  • Magically-Binding Contract: The Muggleborn Resistance uses one that causes traitors to be Obliviated of all information regarding the organization.
  • Magic Versus Science: As in canon, the usage of magic disrupts electricity. When purebloods go into hiding to escape from the Resistance in the muggle world, their wards severely disrupt power grids.
  • Mêlée à Trois: Between the Death Eaters, the Ministry and the Muggleborn Resistance, or at least till Dumbledore manages to pressure the Ministry to ally with the MR
  • Muggleborns Do It Better: When the Ministry throws them under the bus to appease Voldemort, muggleborns fight back hard for their rights.
  • A Nazi by Any Other Name: As in canon, the Death Eaters.
    • Also most of Wizarding Britain can be seen as this. No pureblood does anything to oppose the Ministry slowly taking the civil rights and increasing persecution and discrimination of muggleborns. The story shows that not being a Death Eater does not mean open-mindedness and most purebloods and half-bloods look down on muggleborns.
  • Never My Fault: The purebloods, especially the Old Families, whose ruthless persecution of muggleborns lead to the rise of the Muggleborn Resistance. For a moment Dumbledore is tempted to just let them reap what they have sown. Lampashed by Fred, after reading a transcript of Draco's group rants.
    Fred Weasley: Stupid Slytherins, they attack us, and then blames us for defending ourselves!
  • No Ontological Inertia: Enchantments will fade over time unless recast again. This is why Horcruxes are not so popular, because the dark spells that created it will only last for a few centuries and then end, resulting in the wizard getting Barred from the Afterlife and unable to return to Earth as a ghost.
  • Organization with Unlimited Funding: Subverted with the Muggleborn Resistance, whose funding is quite limited but compensate for being an Oddly Small Organization.
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Beyond the canon Inferi, there's also Zombies whom are cursed humans who, while one of their limbs has rotten away, are alive but mind-controlled. note 
  • Police Brutality: In the first year of the story a lot of muggleborn shop owners end up killed 'while resisting arrest' by aurors. It was speculated that the muggleborns might have been placed under an Imperius curse by Death Eaters and ordered to attack aurors, though this hasn't been confirmed. It's also suspicious that none of them has been mentioned to have been taken alive
  • Political Overcorrectness: This how purebloods feel about the fact that Hogwarts celebrates secular holidays like Christmas instead of pagan ones like Yuletide.
  • Pragmatic Hero: Hermione.
  • Properly Paranoid: Once they're on the run from the Ministry, muggleborns take various precautions to ensure they're not being tracked by The Government, including getting new wands and using non-magically hidden safehouses in order to stay under the Ministry's radar
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dumbledore gives a downplayed one to Amelia Bones and Cornelius Fudge after sixth year Slytherins flee Hogwarts.
    Dumbledore: I am growing tired of struggling to protect the innocents while remaining within the bounds of laws passed by inept and corrupt people. I would suggest you stop pushing me, before you go too far. Neither of you know what a real war is like. Ask some of the few remaining British wizards and witches who fought at my side in Grindelwald's War and you might understand why they and all of Europe scoff when you talk of the "Blood War" twenty years ago that you fear so much. Ask, and then ask yourself if you truly wish to have me as your enemy. For if it comes to it, I will not merely fight you, I will wage war against as I did against Grindelwald.
  • Religion is Magic: Subverted. While purebloods worship pagan gods, their powers are not the result of prayer because they're a Mage Species.
  • Rogue Agent: Allan is one, eventually Hermoine noticed a lot of Aurors tend to disappear whilst he was 'visiting a girlfriend', she also found out he attacked halfbloods disguised as a Deatheater. In order to prevent anyone from finding out she made him disappear.
  • Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Beckett, a muggleborn who turns in a fellow muggleborn to the Aurors who later receives the Dementor's Kiss, has his shop blown up, with himself inside by the Resistance.
  • School Bullying Is Harmless: Very much averted. The racist bullying Hermione and other muggle-borns face at the hands of students and staff isn't just soul-crushing, but Hermonie knows that such mistreatment only opens the door to further prosecution.
  • Scrapbook Story: At the beginning of every chapter there's an excerpt from history books originated at an unspecified point in the future.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Dumbledore is very tempted throughout the fic to openly align with the Resistance against the Ministry and only the desire to avoid innocents to be put in harms way stops him. However as Voldemort wins support, though slowly due to Death Eater attacks (real or staged), he gives the Ministry an ultimatum. Subverted in that Voldemort launchs a full attack on the Ministry before Dumbledore turns against them.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The first major operation by the Resistance was to blow up Malfoy Manor, and in doing so killing in a single stroke some of Voldemort's most politically powerful allies
  • Tinfoil Hat: Luna gives one to Ron, after she reads muggle Conspiracy Theorist magazines.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Hermione and the muggleborns.
  • Unknown Rival: Brenda Brocktuckle to Hermione. For Brenda It's Personal as Hermione killed her partner in self-defense and humiliated her to the whole Auror corps. To Hermione its a non-villainous version of But for Me, It Was Tuesday as Brenda is just an Auror who was sent by the Ministry to arrest her.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Played with the "historians" that write the Scrapbook Story excerpts. They are mostly from Dark wizarding families and while having a clear, albeit subtle, bias towards purebloods they do make an accurate assassement of historical events.
  • War Is Hell: The few descriptions of Grindelwald's War include large armies of The Undead, unspecified abominations that spread plagues and the fact that French wizards started setting on Fiendfire anything that could serve as a hideout for Grindelwald's forces.
  • We ARE Struggling Together: The Ministry tends to suffer from this as a lot of its members sympathize with either Death Eaters or the Order of the Phoenix. After their alliance with the Resistance and subsequent betrayal of the Ministry by Death Eater-sympathizers, their relationship with the Order and the Resistance suffer from this, thanks to Amelia Bones' Lawful Stupid Revenge Before Reason attitude some people even fear an Inevitable Mutual Betrayal after their victory over Voldemort.
    • Also what happens amongst the radical muggleborns in the Distant Epilogue as the extremist wing of the Muggleborn Popular Party as its extremist wing leave to form a new party, the Muggleborn Alternative
  • We Have Reserves: Adverted, the Muggleborn Resistance is not very large and they do have casualities. That is why after Voldie's defeat they decide to go on a recruitment campaign
  • Whip Sword: The Fire Whip Spell is a magical version.
  • With Friends Like These...: The Unholy Alliance in the Distant Epilogue.
  • Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The Muggleborn Resistance, with their penchant for collateral damage and Blood Knight tendencies. Played with in that they focus on Death Eaters and never become He Who Fights Monsters. Played straight in that, while the term terrorist is not used, this is how the wizarding world sees the Resistance.

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