"The moment you're Sorted, you're branded with a label," Dudley continued, his voice steady and measured. "As I said before, most young wizards don't arrive here with pre-existing conflicts. They fall into these rivalries because it's what everyone else does. It's expected."
"Worse, the system plants a powerful suggestion in every student's mind. During the Sorting, it's practically a form of hypnosis. A child is told, 'Because you are not singularly brave or clever, you must be a Hufflepuff.' The moment they arrive at that table, a seed of mediocrity is planted in their mind, regardless of their true potential. Perhaps their defining trait was simply honesty, but the system rebrands it as a lack of other, more 'desirable' qualities."
"Likewise, a student who craves recognition and plans their actions carefully is sorted into Slytherin. And what happens then?" Dudley's gaze hardened. "The whisper campaign begins. 'Look, that one is a Slytherin, so they must be evil. As a righteous Gryffindor, you should put them in their place.'"
He turned his gaze fully on the Headmaster. "Professor Dumbledore, how many students in Gryffindor hold that exact belief?"
"They actively seek confrontation, exchange a few harsh words, and suddenly, the rivalry is real. It's a textbook example of herd mentality, manufactured by the very walls of this school."
"The irony," Dudley mused, "is that the more one studies magical history, the more absurd the Sorting becomes. Godric Gryffindor himself, Salazar Slytherin's closest friend, once described him as a man driven by a powerful sense of justice."
Hearing this, Snape gave a nearly imperceptible nod of agreement. It would not, of course, stop him from deducting points from Gryffindor in his next class. That was a matter of principle.
"Are Slytherins truly born evil?" Dudley posed the question, which hung in the air.
"During my time in the dungeons, I've found that aside from being mean-spirited, prone to troublemaking, and quick to curry favor with the powerful, most Slytherins are... manageable. They aren't the monsters they are made out to be. Even some of the older students, like the Carrows, can be quite reasonable."
"As for the accusation that studying the Dark Arts makes one evil... one might ask the 'greatest white wizard' just how much more he knows on that subject than the Dark Lord himself. Knowledge is not a crime."
"It's not impossible for someone to be born truly wicked, but such cases are exceptionally rare. Slytherin's tendency to flock to power is a product of their family and environment, not some innate corruption. The environment a young wizard grows up in has a profound impact on their development. It is far more accurate to say that students have their personalities molded by the Houses, rather than being sorted because of them."
"Take two identical children. Place one in Slytherin and one in Gryffindor. After seven years, though they started as the same person, they will have become two entirely different people. The castle itself will have made them so."
Dudley's piercing analysis left the Headmaster and the Potions Master in stunned silence. These were concepts they had never considered with such stark clarity.
"Furthermore," Dudley pressed on, "Hogwarts' entire teaching philosophy is flawed. I don't know your thoughts on it, Professor, but I find myself in strong disagreement."
"The teachers generally turn a blind eye to the hostility between Houses. As long as the conflict isn't flagrant, they adopt a policy of willful ignorance. They don't see, they don't ask, and they don't intervene. But inaction is a form of condoning. It's an indulgence that allows darkness to fester, creating the perfect breeding ground for the bullying that permeates these halls."
"Hogwarts is meant to be a place of education. And what is the purpose of education if not to cultivate character?"
"An education that imparts only knowledge but not virtue is an undeniable failure. The years a young wizard spends here are the most formative of their lives, the time when their values are forged. For seven years, this school has more influence over them than their own families, yet that opportunity is squandered."
"Look at Slytherin," he said, his voice dropping. "It has all but become a recruitment camp for Dark Wizards. It is horrifying to think that with a single command from the right person, half the house might pledge their allegiance to a new dark lord. This is the most famous magical school in Europe, and it produces legions of wizards who would readily betray the very world it's meant to protect."
"Is that normal? It is profoundly abnormal. Hogwarts seems to teach so much, yet at the same time, it teaches nothing of substance. It condemns dark deeds but fails to teach students what is right."
Dudley's internal conclusion was harsh: The wizarding world, for all its power, is remarkably unsophisticated. They don't know how to truly educate their young. They've built a school that teaches spells and potions but fails to teach them how to be good people.
The weight of these words made Dumbledore fall into a deep, heavy silence. For a fleeting moment, in the boy's passion and fierce intellect, he saw the shadow of another brilliant, charismatic young man from his past.
The resemblance was so striking it compelled him to ask, "Then what do you propose should be done?"
Dumbledore had moved from initial curiosity to rapt attention. He had known Dudley was different from their first meeting, but he had never imagined the boy was this extraordinary.
If you were to ask Dudley, he would have told you he was merely standing on the shoulders of giants from a world these wizards couldn't comprehend.
"I have three strategies," Dudley announced. "An upper, a middle, and a lower."
"The Upper Strategy: Abolish the old ways. Disband the four Houses entirely. Prohibit all forms of discrimination. Unify the student body under a single management and teaching philosophy. Eliminate the barriers that divide them."
His voice grew strong, ringing with conviction. "The guiding principle would be Education Without Distinction! We must treat every student as an individual, not as a label. We must teach them virtue as well as knowledge, and cultivate a truly exceptional next generation with courage and integrity."
If successful, the wizards produced by such a system would undoubtedly become the pillars of their world. Integrating the four houses was a move so bold, so revolutionary, that not even Grindelwald had conceived of it.
After a long moment, Dumbledore shook his head, his expression filled with profound regret. "I am sorry... I cannot do that."
"Those are the rules established by the four founders. I only hold the authority of Headmaster. Unless I could gain the consent of all four of them, my hands are tied." Dumbledore was the master of Hogwarts, but he was also its servant, constrained by a thousand years of history.
"The Middle Strategy, then," Dudley said. "Reform the school's system. Break the existing rules and establish a new order from within."
"I am sorry, Dudley," Dumbledore repeated, his voice heavy. "That too..." He shook his head again.
To be called the greatest white wizard of the age, yet to be so utterly bound, made Dudley frown. It forced him to wonder if the man before him was truly the most powerful wizard in the world, or simply its most famous prisoner.
After a moment of tense silence, Dudley spoke again.
"Then I also have a Lower Strategy."
"We form a disciplinary committee."
[Chapter Complete]
***
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