Severus & Azkaban

I have at least three people who probably just froze a little reading that title, don’t worry, this is actually not what you think it is.

So after that little Murder Rant and the friendly reminder of Severus being a War Criminal, I want to preemptively cut off the question why isn’t he in Azkaban then? 

First and foremost – J.K.’s world is flawed, but she deliberately designed a corrupt government and that government’s #1 philosophy is pretty much I do what I want with a hard sprinkle of Rules only apply when we want them to. 

Severus did spend six months in Azkaban. During that time other cases were being presented, which were much more high profile than his own. Albus Dumbledore had compiled a strong defense of Severus, but it did have a lot of holes. Ultimately though – you could say Severus got away with it for two reasons.

One, the wizarding government is the laziest slug to ever exist, and avoids conflict like a plague historically speaking. A very influential Good Guy™

was vouching for Severus and that was pretty much good enough. 

Two, Severus was meaningless. They couldn’t make an example of some no-name halfblood anyway, not like they could with the Lestrange family – the wizarding government is hugely gold and reputation motivated. The Malfoys were able to buy their way out, but they still needed some Big Satisfactory Names to pat themselves on the back with. Lestranges, Blacks, and those involved in the torture of the Longbottoms were their big game. 

Severus, whose counts of murder all fell under battle conditions, had twelve counts of torture against people who had neither the money nor the influence to make a fuss about his release so it didn’t matter in the long run. They had the argument of ‘he was a spy all along’ so they ran with it even if it wasn’t true, because it’s all about what Looks Good and not what happens to be justified.

I wholeheartedly believe that in the new government formed by the survivors of the second war this shit won’t occur during the Next Dark Lord because lets be real, there will be one, that oppressive society breeds them like no tomorrow and will continue to do so until real change happens, but as it happens the Millennials Weren’t In Control Yet when Severus in his main verse was tried for the Second War.  

Severus was tried posthumously and defended by Actual Saviour Of Our World Harry Potter, so when it turned out he was alive the Ministry basically went SHRUG EMOJI. They’d already passed their judgement, and Severus made no moves to return to Hogwarts, but instead right under the Ministry’s own thumbs so, why fuss? It’s all about appearances, and Severus kind of had a ‘good guy’ name now, even if it was Questionable As Fuck. No need to stir the pot, really.