TMQ #122 -- Mr. Exion's Daughters

[blaqlives]

Discussion of The Magic Quill #122 - Mr. Exion's Daughters by Robbie Fischer.

DOUBLE CHALLENGE

SURVEY: Which death in Deathly Hallows would be most likely to effect the characters in The Magic Quill?

CONTEST: Now that Voldemort has been finished off, magical crime will tend to be more local and small-time in nature. What kind of magical crime might a small, local ring of rogue wizards and witches get up to?

[OrderAuror]

If you hurt Spanky or stop him from useing magic I won't read MQ any more. Don't hurt Spanky!!!!!

Survey: i think that lupin and tonk's death would have the most affect. spanky and his wife would have known tonks and as many of the MQ group are misfits and outsiders they might have known Lupin.

[Pacmanite]

Ehee... somehow I have a nasty feeling that the poor bloke they identified as Spanky's body was a dummy planted by the Prickly Spindle family...

I like that name, Prickly Spindle. Lovely references to sleeping beauty. Although I wonder if Ilona will have to act as prince charming to revive her husband.

Contest: the rogue wizards, I reckon, could be trashing the front gardens of targeted homes... transfiguring the primroses into three-headed badges of the flesh-eating sort, charming the garden gates to leap off their hinges and bash victims to unconsciousness, and for an especially gifted rogue, igniting those classic bags of flaming poo with gubrathian fire, etc. (though you could probably skip the last one)... then they could blanket entire towns with eye-dazzling graffiti overnight.

For more serious criminals, though, I reckon stealing Muggle money would be one thing they could do. No, seriously. You can convert Muggle money to Galleons, sickles and knuts at Gringotts... the goblins might get suspicious if you do a whole lot at one time and have no muggle connections, but if you do have a number of muggleborn/halfblood friends who can launder it for you and convert it in reasonably small amounts over a long-ish time... then the wizard bankrobbers could get rich quickly. And totally muck up the exchange rate for everyone else, but oh well.

Seeing as the Muggle bankers and security professionals are only really prepared for hardcore muggle criminals, the magical criminals would have an edge... unless the Ministry has already intervened in this security dilemma and provided its own magical security systems for the muggle banks to use in such an event. Could still work, maybe.

[Norman_Greene]

The sontest of which death affected the Magic Quill group the most? I'd say Moody. He's a member of the order, was an auror etc. They probably all knew him, whether they new him in a good way is up for debate.

As for magicall crooks. Delinquents could get along with magical graffiti as some one else said. I also have one other thought, Drugs, Magical drugs. You could make a killing in muggle money if you created a highly addictive drug that only you supplied.

[Linda_Carrig]

Oh dear, Robbie! What is going to happen to our Spanky! Being fed platypus venom while he's bedridden..... I hope he comes out of this ok. Maybe he'll only end up with webbed feet.

I think they probably miss Mad-Eye Moody; one or more of our gang might have been acquainted at one time. He was certainly out there.

As for a petty crime, I can't seem to get the image of a mass 'pinching' of rear view mirrors from 'muggle' vehicles. These purloined mirrors were 'ordered' by someone shady to manufacture mirriors similar to the ones used by James and Sirius.

[greyniffler]

Wonderful start, Robbie!

When dictators go, crime bosses move in. But Voldemort was very quiet for a couple of years, so I expect we'll see increases in smaller stuff: rackets of various kinds, whose bosses all want to become bigger fish. And, of course, schemes of the Prickly Spindle sort.

Whose death? Either Scrimgeour or Thicknesse. They were eager to pile up arrests, even if they were small-time, to boost their approval.

Don't forget the strained relations with the goblins after the Gringotts break-out. The dragon in Diagon Alley (and across London?) won't soon be forgotten.

[Dragonic]

Survey: Fred. The Weasley's are so huge, some family member or another will have some connection to the gang, surely. Or maybe Dobby if you read below...

Contest: I imagine that after The house-elves helped at the attack on Hogwarts, House elf activists all over England will go around and do some pretty crazy things to give rights to the elves. One or two groups in particular might have convinced their children so well that their kids would kidnap Hogwarts elves and set them free against their will.

[ralucacoldea]

i think snape's death will affect the story. because he was a master at making potions, maybe he sold a very critical potion to a member of the gang, and now that snape is gone, he/she can't get it any more.

local crime, hmmm... traffic of banned imports, like for example dragon eggs (think norbert), or flying carpets.

[_houdini]

i guess lupin's death can affect the gang... or maybe Fred as he also owns the shop which sells cool gadgets in diagon alley, so the gang might have got some special stuff to help them in their missions from him...

local crime... i guess there is plenty... the death eaters mainly just kill and use dark magic so petty crimes there are plenty examples.. just look at Dung... haha ... anyway for a group of rouge wizards i like the idea of permenant graffiti, which i guess can be charmed to make all sorts of annoying rude noises and gestures when somebody comes by... makes it even more annoying then ever...

or maybe if its a team made of a variety of skilled wizards and witches... they can rob houses, wizard houses... some can break magical barriers, while others go in and grab anything valuable...

[OrderAuror]

local crime could be Muggle baiting. planting bitting doorknobs ordoor mats that trip you when you walk over them.

[Linda_Carrig]

There might be an upsurge in the demand for eyes like Mad-eye's; this would lead to unscrupulous crooks making what looks like a swiveling blue eye, but in reality causes severe conjunctivitus and/or temporary blindness. The poor suckers will finally land in St. Mungo's to have them taken out again because they harbor a nasty curse as well making them almost impossible to remove.

[_houdini]

There might be a series of Hallows scams, where wizards or witches claiming to have obtained one of the 3 Hallows especially the Elder Wand and doing all sorts of daring stuff like trying to attack the Minister for Magic... and much to their shock when the wand they were holding turns into a rubber chicken...

Similarly there will probably be frauds claiming that they have found a Voldemort-made Horucrux. Well actually this would be much more of a benefit as only death eaters in hiding would want such stuff to try to ressurect the Dark Lord. Imagine to their horror the object has a curse that cause them grow pimples on their faces to form offending words or the name of Voldemort... hmm.. then i guess this would give an easier time for Aurors

[Celairiel]

I think that Lupin and Tonks would affect the group the most. Either them or Moody.

Hmm... Crimes... Well, Mr. Weasley's old job of muggle protection would be very active right now. Muggle haters will now resort to minor irritation of their non-magical neighbors with the absence of a leader for greater destruction. Shrinking keys, biting tea cups, and cars that make unnatural sounds would be the perfect passtime for magic bullies.

[greyniffler]

Anybody home here? Robbie?

Anyone?

[Mad_Alice]

I rather think small-time (but daring!) criminals would take advantage of the wizarding communities' fear of Voldemort. Imagine how conveniently empty a wizarding village would become if someone, say, shot the Dark Mark into the sky above. All the residents would floo/apparate away, leaving the thieves to have their pick of the valuables. Hopefully, though, they would choose not to do this is view of Hogwarts....

Anyway, can't wait for the next update from TMQ.

P.S. In response to the survey question -- well, the obvious answer is Voldemort himself, wouldn't you say? Inasmuch as his death affected all wizards...But more personally, I'd say Moody. Judging from the nature of the main characters' past deeds, they're sure to have run into him more than once between the lot.

[FishEByrd]

I am here. I've been checking in from time to time. I'm down to writing approx. every other week now. The editorial staff is also kind of snowed under, or so I hear. So please bear with us!

[TWZRD]

Hey, cool. While I was away I won the contest! What a nice homecomming surprise.
I have to agree that Moody and Tonks would be the most likely to have personal connections to our wizard agents. In practical matters, perhaps Scrimgeour.
I rather like the idea of "post Voldemort " artifacts being faked. I'm sure there would be chunks of Hogwarts for sale, probably without even the seller knowing for sure, and , as someone else said, maybe a bunch of Elder Wands on the market, not to mention fakes of any other famous wand that could get a good price from it's association with all the previous trouble.

[FishEByrd]

TMQ #124 is out of my hands now. It's all up to the editors now! Congratulations to the winner (singular, this time), and if anyone is lurking but not participating, please join the discussion and enrich TMQ with your ideas!