A Modest Proposal (Hogwarts Legacy Fanfic)

There is a reason why the Black family considers certain individuals "filth", a reason which didn't age well as the years passed. It was this reason, though, that Phineas wanted to change the way students were admitted to Hogwarts, but it had nothing to do with banning Muggleborn as Sirius Black would likely be inclined to believe his ancestor did.

Disclaimer - I don't own Hogwarts Legacy. This is written for the first regular Froday challenge for August 2023, the prompt being selection.

The inspiration for this story lies in the idea Sirius Black is an Unreliable Narrator when it comes to his family, the Black family. More specifically, I'm interested in degrees of prejudice and why a particular character may or may not hold a degree of prejudice, which in turn left me wanting to examine Phineas Nigellus Black's character to which I realized for his character's historical context is essential.

This, in turn, made me realize historical context is actually essential for all the characters given how Muggle and Wizarding societies separated from each other in 1692, which in turn would mean cultural schisms between the two groups regarding the way they think about certain things. This particular story focuses on the workhouse still existing around the time Phineas Nigellus Black was headmaster, but also the assumption his wanting to change how students were admitted had to do with him barring Muggleborn, and this not being the case.

This isn't to say what he wanted wasn't controversial, because it certainly is, although it's also not as controversial as Johnathan Swift's modest proposal was.