Unseen Changes part 3
Unseen Changes (1971-1974)
The early 1970s were a challenging time for both the Muggle and magical worlds. In the United Kingdom, the oil crisis wreaked havoc on the economy, leading to widespread downturns and uncertainty. However, it was not just the global crisis that shook the nation, but a peculiar domestic issue—the Three-Day Week. In December 1973, a miner’s strike was announced, raising fears of power shortages that crippled the country’s ability to function efficiently. This added to the chaos in both the magical and Muggle communities.
In an alternate timeline, Tobias Snape lost his job, fell into alcoholism, and began mistreating his family. But in this version, very early on Eileen Snape had taken matters into her own hands. Determined to provide for her family and change their fortunes, she began selling potions at affordable prices to marginalized sectors of the magical community a couple of years prior. With a keen business mind, she understood the importance of keeping costs low and sought creative ways to do so.
Eileen rented a modest two-acre plot of land from her little friend Petunia from the Shafiq land inheritances at a shockingly low price. She didn’t pay much, but the deal came with a two-story farmhouse that featured eight bedrooms, along with an annex for full moon accommodations. Eileen invited Fenrir Greyback’s pack of werewolves to live and work on the land. In exchange for their labor cultivating plants and potion ingredients, she offered them a space to live in relative safety—complete with a vegetable garden and a chicken coop to ensure they could be as self-sufficient as possible.
While this arrangement might have seemed unusual, it benefited both parties. The werewolves, who often faced persecution from both the magical and Muggle communities, found a place where they could contribute meaningfully, while Eileen ensured that her potion ingredients were cultivated efficiently.
Eileen’s business also began to prosper, and she eventually connected with Theodore Black through Gringotts. Black had a plan to establish a blood bank that would provide blood to both the vampire community and Muggle hospitals. Though initially skeptical about the venture, Eileen discussed the idea with her husband Tobias. After much deliberation, they decided to invest in Black’s enterprise, with Eileen purchasing 10% of the shares.
Around the same time, Severus, their son, went off to Hogwarts. This period of separation proved to be a turning point in Eileen’s life. She was finally able to reconcile with her father, who, upon seeing her success, offered her a dowry of $250,000. At first, her pride wouldn’t allow her to accept this gift, but after seeing how even the small amounts of money she had earned had made a difference in the lives of the werewolves she employed, she realized that accepting the dowry was the right choice.
With the new influx of funds, Eileen made a bold decision: she hired Gringotts goblins to expand her muggle home and the farmhouse with magic, creating a larger, more functional living space. She also took the opportunity to enroll in advanced potions studies, becoming a pupil of Damocles Belby, the renowned potion master. Under his guidance, Eileen earned her Potion Mastery, coauthoring a new version of the Wolfsbane Potion with him.
However, Eileen was not entirely satisfied with Belby’s version. She believed it could be improved, so she quietly began work on her own enhancements to the potion. The collaboration was useful in her educational pursuits, but her real innovation came later, with the help of the werewolves and her consultations with Professor McGonagall about Animagus transformations.
After Severus’s tragic mistake involving his attempts at becoming an Animagus, Eileen’s obsession with improving the werewolf condition led her to a groundbreaking discovery. By carefully altering the Wolfsbane Potion and adding a few additional ingredients, she created a new potion that allowed werewolves to transform into Animagi during the full moon—specifically into a wolf form. Unlike the typical Animagus transformation, this version of the potion required the full moon to trigger the shift. Moreover, the transformation was strictly limited to the lunar cycle, and the werewolves could not transform into their wolf forms without the aid of the potion or the full moon.
The new potion allowed the werewolves to maintain their human intelligence during their transformations, preventing the wild, uncontrollable bloodlust that typically plagued them. Though it was not a true cure, it was as close as anyone had ever come. Eileen was pleased to see the werewolves thrive under this new arrangement. By carefully selecting low-cost ingredients, she ensured that the potion remained affordable for those in need.
Eileen’s success as a potion master and businesswoman not only transformed her own life but also changed the lives of those around her. Through determination, creativity, and a deep sense of responsibility, she was able to carve out a future where both her family and the marginalized werewolves she employed could live in dignity, free from the harsh prejudices of both worlds.
Though Ted Tonks, now known as Theodore Black, had once capitulated to the Black family's demands in order to marry Andromeda, he was determined to forge his own legacy. He knew that to earn their respect and be seen as an equal, he had to be successful on his own terms. Upon graduating from Hogwarts, Theodore wasted no time. He completed his studies in law, rapidly becoming one of the youngest and most successful lawyers of the decade in the wizarding world. With Andromeda by his side, supporting him both emotionally and financially, the couple soon made the move to a modest but comfortable 2 stories townhouse in the suburbs of London, where he used the lower level as his lawyer firms office. Andromeda’s dowry helped them secure a stable financial foundation, but it was her own dedication to becoming a healer that had also contributed to their financial success.
As Theodore’s law career flourished, he knew that he couldn’t stop there. His ambitions extended beyond his legal success, and with Andromeda’s encouragement, he decided to make his mark in business. He turned to Gringotts for advice and soon became involved in a lucrative venture—investing in the emerging idea of blood banking, something that had initially caught his attention due to the rising need for rare blood types among the vampire community. It was then that he heard whispers of Eileen Snape’s innovative work with werewolves, a business that centered around the marginalized members of magical society. Theodore was intrigued, and he quickly saw the potential for a similar venture—this time, catering to the vampire population.
Inspired by the concept of Muggle blood banks, he decided to adapt it for the magical world and create a blood bank business aimed at the vampire community. But Theodore wasn’t simply looking to set up a blood donation service; he wanted to make it both profitable and socially responsible, all while supporting Muggle born who might be struggling to find meaningful employment in the magical world. He developed a model that would be both beneficial to the vampires and provide work for the Muggle-born community.
He worked with Andromeda to secure funding and resources, and with Eileen Snape’s investment backing him, Theodore launched his idea. The premise was simple: he set up a mobile blood donation service using a fleet of buses that would travel throughout London. These "blood mobiles" would offer free juice, sandwiches, and even movie tickets to anyone who donated blood. While the Muggles were simply donating for general health reasons, Theodore’s real clients were the vampires, who had a unique preference for the blood they consumed.
Through his connections within the vampire community, Theodore learned that vampires had a particular taste for certain types of blood—specifically, alcoholic or drug-laced blood, which was considered an exotic indulgence for them. So, Theodore expanded his blood bank to cater to this demand. He allowed homeless individuals, alcoholics, and drug addicts to donate their blood as long as they didn’t display violent behavior. To ensure the safety of his medical staff, he hired two vampires to serve as guards and keep watch during the blood donations.
The service quickly gained popularity among both Muggle-born and the vampire community. The mobile blood donation centers became a common sight in London, with a steady stream of donors lining up to give blood in exchange for rewards and a sense of goodwill. In just a few short years, Theodore's business expanded beyond London, eventually spreading across the entirety of England.
Eileen’s financial backing proved crucial, and with her investment, Theodore was able to scale the operation. He saw his business grow into a highly profitable network, while also providing much-needed employment opportunities to Muggle-born and support for those who often went unnoticed by society. For Theodore, this success was a way to prove to both the Black family and the wider world that he was not just a product of his heritage—but a force to be reckoned with, on his own terms.
As the wizarding world continued to shift in response to the changing landscape of blood purity, the Black family, under the leadership of Arcturus Black, began to emerge as the voice of moderation and reform. While many of the old, staunchly traditionalist families continued to cling to their ideals of pureblood supremacy, the Black family recognized the value in adapting to the new world, particularly in a time when profitable businesses, like those developed by Andromeda and Theodore, were transforming the economy.
Arcturus, with his sharp mind and understanding of both tradition and progress, saw the growing need to modernize the laws surrounding magical creatures. The creature laws of old had often been cruel and discriminatory, subjecting magical creatures to harsh treatment and marginalization. Recognizing the potential benefits of allowing magical creatures to live more integrated, productive lives in society, Arcturus worked tirelessly behind the scenes to reform the creature acts. Under his influence, new legislation was passed that offered creatures more humane treatment, as long as they were registered and paid a creature tax. This tax was implemented to appease the more conservative elements of the Wizengamot, ensuring that old wizarding families would still retain their perceived superiority by maintaining a sense of control over the creatures.
The new laws gave creatures the ability to own property, run businesses, and partake in other privileges traditionally reserved for wizards, as long as they adhered to the tax system. This was a groundbreaking moment for the magical world, and the Creature and Tax Act would later serve as the foundation for broader creature rights, including health care, education, and legal protections. While this move was controversial, it was seen as a necessary step toward modernizing the wizarding society, and under the guidance of the Black family, the creatures gained a measure of respect and recognition that they had long been denied.
Beyond the matter of magical creatures, Arcturus Black’s influence also reshaped the conversation surrounding blood purity. As the patriarch of the Black family, Arcturus had access to resources and knowledge that few others could match. He used his position to investigate the origins of Muggle-borns and uncovered a surprising truth that would forever change the way the old families viewed blood purity.
In a private and highly confidential meeting with the heads of the Sacred 28—the most powerful and influential pureblood families in the wizarding world—Arcturus presented the results of his extensive investigation into Muggle-borns. His research, which involved sampling the bloodlines of over 1,000 Muggle-borns of varying ages and genders, revealed that 99.9% of them were descendants of squib lines. Arcturus’s findings showed that Muggle-borns were not the product of random magical phenomena but, rather, were the children and grandchildren of squibs, who were often written off as failures within the magical world.
Arcturus argued that the rising political extremism from some factions of the pureblood aristocracy, which sought to exclude these "new bloods" from wizarding society, would ultimately be disastrous for their own families. He urged the Sacred 28 to integrate these Muggle-born descendants into their world, as doing so would help address the ever-diminishing pool of viable marriage candidates within pureblood circles. In addition to this, Arcturus pointed out the growing infertility and squib problems within highly inbred families, where excessive intermarriage had led to declining magical potency and, in many cases, irreversible magical curses.
As a personal example, Arcturus referenced his own family, specifically his grand-niece Bellatrix Lestrange. He demonstrated how Bellatrix, the youngest generation of the Black family, was already showing signs of the infamous "Black Insanity Curse"—a long-standing family curse believed to stem from generations of inbreeding. By laying out the statistical and biological evidence, Arcturus argued that the obsessive insistence on maintaining a pureblood-only society was not only morally misguided but also physically detrimental to the magical gene pool.
Although the details of the meeting were kept secret among the Sacred 28, the impact of Arcturus’s speech reverberated throughout the wizarding world. The Black family’s stance on blood purity began to shift, and the family solidified its position as the leader of the neutral faction within the Wizengamot. While still upholding some traditional values, they had made a decisive break from the more extreme factions and paved the way for a more inclusive, pragmatic vision for the future of the wizarding world.
The result of these reforms and Arcturus’s influence was clear: the Black family, once seen as conservative and rigid, had now positioned itself as the most powerful force in the Wizengamot, championing moderation and reform in a rapidly changing world. Their leadership in the Neutral Party allowed them to navigate the political landscape with skill and precision, making sure that their family—and their values—remained at the forefront of magical society.