In 1790,
the fifteenth President of MACUSA, Emily Rappaport, instituted a law designed
to create total segregation of the wizarding and No-Maj communities. This
followed one of the most serious breaches of the International Statute of
Secrecy, leading to a humiliating censure of MACUSA by the International
Confederation of Wizards. The matter was that much more serious because the
breach came from within MACUSA itself.
In brief,
the catastrophe involved the daughter of President Rappaport’s trusted Keeper of
Treasure and Dragots (the Dragot is the American wizarding currency and the
Keeper of Dragots, as the title implies, is roughly equivalent to the Secretary
of the Treasury). Aristotle Twelvetrees was a competent man, but his daughter,
Dorcus, was as dim as she was pretty. She had been a poor student at Ilvermorny
and at the time of her father’s ascension to high office was living at home,
hardly ever performing magic, but concentrating mainly on her clothes, the
arrangement of her hair and parties.
One day,
at a local picnic, Dorcus Twelvetrees became greatly enamoured of a handsome
No-Maj called Bartholomew Barebone. Unbeknownst to Dorcus, Bartholomew was a
Scourer descendant. Nobody in his family was magic, but his belief in magic was
profound and unshakeable, as was his conviction that all witches and wizards
were evil.
Totally
oblivious to the danger, Dorcus took Bartholomew’s polite interest in her
‘little tricks’ at face value. Led on by her beau’s artless questions, she
confided the secret addresses of both MACUSA and Ilvermorny, along with
information about the International Confederation of Wizards and all the ways
in which these bodies sought to protect and conceal the wizarding community.
Having
gathered as much information as he could from Dorcus, Bartholomew stole the
wand she had obligingly demonstrated for him, showed it to as many pressmen as
he could find, then gathered together armed friends and set out to persecute
and, ideally, kill all the witches and wizards in the vicinity. Bartholomew further
printed leaflets giving the addresses where witches and wizards congregated and
sent letters to prominent No-Majs, some of whom felt it necessary to
investigate whether there were indeed ‘evil occult parties’ happening at the
places described.
Giddy
with his mission to expose witchcraft in America, Bartholomew Barebone
overstepped himself by shooting at what he believed were a group of MACUSA
wizards, but which turned out to be No-Majs who had the bad fortune to leave a
suspected building while he was watching it. Fortunately nobody was killed, and
Bartholomew was arrested and imprisoned for the crime without any need for
MACUSA involvement. This was an enormous relief to MACUSA who were struggling
to cope with the massive fallout of Dorcus’s indiscretions.
Bartholomew
had disseminated his leaflets widely, and a few newspapers had taken him
seriously enough to print pictures of Dorcus’s wand and note that it ‘had a
kick like a mule’ if waved. The attention focused on the MACUSA building was so
intense that it was forced to move premises. As President Rappaport was forced
to tell the International Confederation of Wizards at a public inquiry, she
could not be sure that every last person privy to Dorcus’s information had been
Obliviated. The leak had been so serious that the after-effects would be felt
for many years.
Although
many in the magical community campaigned to have her imprisoned for life or
even executed, Dorcus spent only a year in jail. Thoroughly disgraced, utterly
shellshocked, she emerged into a very different wizarding community and ended
her days in seclusion, a mirror and her parrot her dearest companions.
Dorcus’s
indiscretions led to the introduction of Rappaport’s Law. Rappaport’s Law
enforced strict segregation between the No-Maj and wizarding communities.
Wizards were no longer allowed to befriend or marry No-Majs. Penalties for
fraternising with No-Majs were harsh. Communication with No-Majs was limited to
that necessary to perform daily activities.
Rappaport’s Law further entrenched the major
cultural difference between the American wizarding community and that of
Europe. In the Old World, there had always been a degree of covert cooperation
and communication between No-Maj governments and their magical counterparts. In
America, MACUSA acted totally independently of the No-Maj government. In
Europe, witches and wizards married and were friends with No-Majs; in America,
No-Majs were increasingly regarded as the enemy. In short, Rappaport’s Law
drove the American wizarding community, already dealing with an unusually
suspicious No-Maj population, still deeper underground.
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