Hey everybody!

So Sunny and I (and a couple of others!) have been chatting about a potential new plot line to pull in some Harry Potter canon stuff that we haven't really had a chance to explore on AO before.

The Gellert Grindelwald era has always absolutely fascinated me, even though it was barely touched on in the books.  JK Rowling has hinted that the war against Grindelwald paralleled World War II, and we know from Deathly Hallows that he spent years terrorizing Europe and murdering countless wizard and Muggles.  Obviously, he's now long gone -- since Voldemort killed him in his prison cell at Nuremgard -- but one would imagine that some of his followers are still around.

Obviously, it is a bit of a challenge to use in AO, since we are set in 2010 and not the 1940s.     But we're trying to brainstorm ways that it could come up again, so that our characters have the opportunity to explore what things were like in the past.  Our basic idea is that there could be someone -- either a former supporter or a younger dark wizard -- who is interested in tracking down some of the old dark artifacts that Grindelwald used for their own nefarious purposes.  Or on the flip side, someone could be trying to take revenge on Grindelwald's old supporters or their descendants, and we could stir up trouble that way.

We've been planning a few small things plot-wise, which can hopefully build into something bigger:

• An old wizard dies mysteriously in the middle of the Three Broomsticks, after being gifted with a strange music box.  Further investigation into his death will reveal that he once supported Grindelwald, but possibly switched sides during the war.  But who was it that killed him?
  
  
• Three foreign wizards are caught in the act when they try to steal a Grindelwald-era artifact from the National Museum for Wizarding History.  But why would someone be interested in that after all this time?
  

Anyway, with all that being said -- are there any other writers who are interested in getting involved?    If you are, we can brainstorm ways to pull your characters in.  Family connections, actual involvement in WWII, a curiosity about history, investigating one of the crimes -- even just chatting with one of the characters involved. 

This is something brand new, so we'd love to see what twists and turns we can work into things!  And we can find a way to get anyone interested involved, even if your character doesn't have a strong connection to the history or the characters that are already involved. 

I'm already wrapped up in the second thread linked, but I'd love to find the motive there for stealing. Seems to be the time to irritate the Russians (chosen at random, but reappearing here in political, criminal trouble of the other direction).

I do sway on the thought that there might be talk that 'wald had some sort of artefact or clue to some of his very powerful magic and that the person who collects it might obtain similar power. If so - perhaps its not just one group after it? Perhaps its more than one and some are commissioned to search for it?

My rough maths puts 'wald at Durmstrang between 1893 and 1900? I've not got that far back in my family tree to assign ages, but families may have crossed with my Storms waaay back.

I reckon DIMC would like to be in here in some way, (not only because we're a bit short on numbers on level five) because of the international slant. Jenn and Mel both have international law types.

This is a nicely timed idea!

I've been setting up some groundwork IC and on the the wiki for something I've really wanted to do: pensieve powered 'field trips' in History of Magic class.

To that extent I've been thinking of actual NEWT level classes too and exploring Grindelwald with WWII would be such a topic.

Until I get time to read the thread of guy dropped dead in the 3 broomsticks, would it be possible for this Wizard to be a recent contributor for the Memory Repository? This a Thoughts Chamber sub-office in the Deptmarment of Mysteries that keeps records of significant memories. Memories of the First Wizarding War (Grindelwald) would be such the kind of significant memories to store here. This is where Sissel is leasing the memories for HoM class demonstrations. It will also allow ideas to be generated for a look into '1940s Wizarding World' without being time travel-y and leaving our current calendar year

If so, it could add further intrigue and get Sissel wrapped up into some plots outside of school.

I honestly have no idea how I can be involved, but I think Kiva is a character that could be integrated somehow! 

All of these ideas are so exciting whatever way it can be incorporated, maybe even with the MAO or something of the sort... that'd be quite fun!

I have Miss Aureliane here, who'se a lawyer specializing in international criminal law so I'm sure she can be of some use.  She also lost her memory after being attacked when she went to interview a potential witness to a case....which could potentially be related to this... She was attacked about a year or so ago...

Ahh, Will, I love the idea of one of the dead guy's memories being used in a class!  That is absolutely brilliant.     Maybe we can use some of the other WW2-era NPCs inside the memory?  That would be a lot of fun to figure out, and it's a great way to explore what happened back then.

Hmm, so DIMC involvement...

I love the idea that there's some kind of strange Grindelwald dark artifact that a couple of groups are trying to track down -- maybe one is a burgeoning dark wizard, and the other is trying to prevent them from finding it?  Some of our played criminals could even get involved if people are interested, either by getting paid to find it or hearing rumors and becoming interested themselves.

Jenn, if you want it to be involved with the case that Aureliane lost her memory on, I would say run with it!  Maybe that case went cold, and when the new theft happens, someone (Johann or someone else in the department?) notices a connection?

I know there's also Jaqueline and Sissel (and maybe Josephine and Raizel?) who have expertise in historical artifacts -- maybe they could look at the thing that the Russians try to steal after it's recovered, to try to figure out what it does.

Jessica, did you want 'kiva's grandfather to be involved?  That would be an easy tie-in, I think.     And Akiva's skills as a librarian will also be immediately relevant, I think.  I'm trying to think of how to pull MAO in...maybe a Muggle WW2 researcher happens to get too close to something Grindelwald-related, and it raises a flag?  MAO has to help smooth things over?  That could bring in Level 3 too, but I know they're seeing a lot of action lately.

I was so excited when you brought this up because one of my favorite parts of reprising Hooch for AO was her long history, including being young during WWII.  I've been looking for ways to explore her personal life and get her involved with more than firsties and and quidditch! (As delightful as they are.)

Hooch was 24 when WWII began and went from being an owl-keeper and broom messenger to working in a factory in Leeds (on the muggle side of the effort) and...

During this time, she also worked for the magical war effort as one of their fastest war messengers.  Because of the bombings and the heightened muggle security, owls became unreliable messengers and skilled broom fliers were the only way to get word out quickly.

I think she must have lost people during the war, and that some truly haunting things happened that were never resolved.

If Xiomara began to hear about those things coming up again, she'd get immediately on edge and drawn to sorting it out. 


I'll have to think more deeply on something concrete to contribute.

Gaah!!! I love this! There are so many interesting characters floating around and I want to poke at the cool parts of all of them! I don't think Bethan is likely to allow this to get away from her, so I just want to state for the record that I'd like to keep her involved! Every WWII throwback plot requires a nudgy kid who can't quite remember what year the war even was, right?! Haha! Hopefully this will be an educational experience for her, since she's doing a rotten job revising for her NEWT re-takes. I imagine a lot of her role will involve getting people involved via her universal, centrally located perch behind the bar at the Three Broomsticks. Having a big mouth can occasionally come in handy!

The memory repository stuff sounds AWESOME. I think it would be a great way to pick up some little but significant clues about this person and why someone might have wanted him dead. Who knows what could be lingering around the corners of a memory? I love it!

I've introduced a spinoff topic for the planning of 1940/Grindelwald sourced memories, so as to not detract from this thread too much.

As for connections to this plot in the present, what might be interesting is the significance of this music box (or whatever the era artifact is). That (or anything) could be a significant tidbit in the memories. Which could then lead any investigators into the wizard's death into finding that his memories have already been checked out of the Repository. Which then leads to Sissel outside of the classes he uses them in.

One idea we had knocking around during the pre-brainstorming phase was that the music box belonged to the man's daughter (or another significant little girl in his life - but daughter makes the most sense, probably), and we got kind of excited about eventually involving a child inferi. The music box itself definitely has SOME significance for sure, even if it's on the strictly emotional side of the story. I'm personally really interested in discovering whatever it was that made this man change sides during the war, and I feel like it would be cool if this was somehow part of it. The music box was obviously chosen to house the dybbuk for a reason! It could almost be a sort of red herring, I think - but also eventually function as a clue? I don't know! It's more fun to collaborate!

I'm so excited about this plot!  I have a few connections I could contribute as a few of mine were involved in WWII or have connections to it. 

Being in the same class as Xiomara, Deaglan was around during he war but, for better or worse, took a very different approach.  Avoiding the draft and conflict was his main motivation for leaving England and returning to a nomadic life back in neutral Ireland.  He ended up more involved with the IRA / Sinn Féin efforts in his youth. 

The Schlagenweit / Waldgraf family could potentially be indirectly or directly involved with the Grindelwald side of things.  Their grandparents/great grandparents were all fairly high ranking and involved within the National Socialist party in Germany with a few of them holding officer positions in the SS / SA.  Though mostly muggle, I have established that one of the brothers of the Sasha/Jacoba's maternal grandfather was a muggleborn wizard who died during the war.  In addition to supporting the Nazi regime, he could very well have been a supporter of Grindelwald.  So, if that's of any help with the music box/set up, etc, that's a possibility. 

Eek, I love all of this.  I think having the Waldgraf tie-in will be really cool, if there's some sort of Grindelwald connection there.  And I think a Muggleborn wizard who turned out to be a Grindelwald supporter could be really interesting as well.

What if we made our dead wizard one of Deaglan and Xiomara's classmates at Hogwarts?  Maybe he got involved in the war as a Grindelwald supporter, and then flipped?  We could even maybe do a wake scene for him...kind of folks getting together to remember him?  Maybe he's a huge donor to some organization  or charity (St. Mungo's?  The Witches' Home for Wayward Children?)   and they're throwing an evening of remembrance for him, even though he was a crotchety old curmudgeon and wouldn't have wanted it. 

That might give us a way to connect other characters, too, if anyone else is interested in getting involved and isn't sure how!

What if we made our dead wizard one of Deaglan and Xiomara's classmates at Hogwarts?  Maybe he got involved in the war as a Grindelwald supporter, and then flipped?  We could even maybe do a wake scene for him...kind of folks getting together to remember him?  Maybe he's a huge donor to some organization  or charity (St. Mungo's?  The Witches' Home for Wayward Children?)   and they're throwing an evening of remembrance for him, even though he was a crotchety old curmudgeon and wouldn't have wanted it. 

Love it! What a great idea. 

And I think a Muggleborn wizard who turned out to be a Grindelwald supporter could be really interesting as well.

Definitely!  The more I think about this, the more I'm envisioning there being a fair bit of crossover / shifting back and forth between supporting Grindelwald and supporting the Nazi party based on what was safest.  A muggleborn getting in trouble with Grindelwald and 'seeking shelter' within the Nazi party and vice versa.  I love espionage type stuff and there's a lot of room for interesting backstory. 

And, love the classmate idea! 

Since the Daily Prophet thread is up, I'd love to get a thread going for Hooch where she read the news and immediately has some cause for alarm.  Have her fly to meet someone in a worried state. 

How open is this plot? You know me, liking to make up little things as I go along.