So, sorry for the late reply, but I was rather uncomfortable with the political discussion because while the discussed parallels weren’t things I agree with per se, they seemed rather close to being strawmen of those beliefs.

As for Purityworld, I had a thought:

It’s pointless.

See, Purityworld is kinda supposed to be based on a past world, right? So...why not just set your story in the Past!Potterverse? The whole thing is pointless, because you could just set it in the past!

—Ls

After all the weird social etiquette stuff, I'm glad the Hogwarts students had a chance to just hang out for a while and be kids, and that Harry's Muggle friends got to join in as well! Ron was especially cute reacting to some of the technology he encountered, plus the "normal" haircut on Rose. Although boy oh boy, if there's one undeniably good thing about the Wizarding World, it's the fact that wizards can't turn into screen addicts, with no television or internet around. I wonder if that tends to become a problem for the wizard members in mixed wizard-Muggle families . . . I definitely felt a teeny bit of dread when Ron started fixating on the tv. : (

I liked the little detail of wizard chess sets being more or less cooperative based on their familiarity with the players. Feels very much like it fits the product and the universe! Also, yay, Jenny's crew are getting more involved in the narrative!

—today doctorlit learned that jelly babies are apparently a real candy in Britain, and not something made up for Doctor Who, yeah?

There's always something cathartic in a character like Harry, who has no family left and no friends before Hogwarts in canon, have a proper Christmas with friends and at least some family!

Ron amazed at Muggle stuff was fun, and I really like where you're goign with havign Harry have two Muggle friends, a boy and a girl like his wizarding friends. Compare, contrast, they're all people anyway. Clever.

Of course, the little bits of Pureblood traditions that made it in still put me on edge, but it was done neatly. Lily mentions them off-handedly when it makes sense, and not only they're chilling for what they are, but it's also chilling how the definitely more progressive than the norm Lily thinks that they are normal! Perfect use of Mubggle-backgroudn Harry here, he's just as confused as we are.

I haven't been commenting very hard (on anything, really, I've been kinda keeping up with Shirayuki's stuff but I feel obligated to say something intelligent if I comment and I can't find the motivation), but I have been following, and this is some really good plotting! The choice to leave in some of the boys-and-girls joking struck me as... odd, though? I could just be being a grumpy old dog again, though, CONSTANT VIGILANCE tends to make you paranoid. I trust you to handle everything well, anyway, just wanted to put my mind at ease. That said, the point about James dying because his family helped fund the anti-misogyny potion was every bit as slimy and evil as this world should be, and Professor Greengrass just gets worse and worse and worse. And to think, this is only a taste of what's in store for us in Year 5... can't wait to freeze Umbridge's house with dry ice! I like that Ron gets to do and know stuff, too, he's definitely sorely lacking in that in fics.

Since you've written the whole first year, is there a consistent upload schedule right now?

I had to suffer through dance lesson sessions at school, too, but at least that was a misguided attempt at forced exercise, and not some classist bullcrap. Oh, and Professor Greengrass can go, like, die in several woodchippers, I guess. Caning a student for not dancing well? Dang lady, Count Olaf would find you cruel!

Aha! aha! AHA! aha! Ah. Ha. I was wondering what the explanation would be for James's death in this timeline, since Mr. Marvoldelo Just-a-Gaunt is a politician. And as we all know, politicians only kill people through austerity measures, not direct murder. But now I see that it was James's connection to this anti-misogyny potion that put him in harm's way . . . I love reading new chapters of this and peeling back more layers of this story!

I love the idea of Harry hanging out with both his canon wizard friends and his Muggle OC friends! For attempting to condemn the worldview of the Death Eaters, Rowling sure didn't involve many Muggles in the originals series!

—doctorlit is sorry he took so long to respond to this, but Halloween weekend was a VERY busy one

Less Pureblood nastiness here, which was appreciated! A nice breather chapter, that also developed the plot. I just love how you tied in the Plot-Important Potion to the Potters' potion making businesses, the Potters' potion manifacturing went criminally unmentioned in the books.

Unfortunately, me having just finished an aircraft dogfight-heavy story arc means I keep reading Enchanted Quadrille as Enchanted Esquadrille... the later being French for "squadron". I am now imagining a quartet of very disgruntled fighter pilots being forced to play music for some stuck-up wizards.

Dang, Lily, this chapter really makes me want to go find a cat to pet! : )

It's nice seeing more of Sev, here. Without Lily in the room, she's much more laid back and relaxed. I do find it funny that Harry still accuses Sev of enchanting his broom, but either lets it drop or gets too distracted to hear an explanation for what really happened. So much of the original series is centered around Snape keeping secrets; I'm really curious to see how you're going to write around that!

"For some people, the world is only ever divided in two. The gain of one side is viewed as the loss of another."
Aaaaaaah. Again, jeeze, such a reflection of real world culture. And again, it's a very Dumbledorian line, despite not being spoken by the man himself. (Also, this text box doesn't recognize "Dumbledorian" as a typo, despite the fact that I very literally made it up just now? What!?)

(I keep saying "you write lines like Dumbledore" as code for "you write lines that remind me of some of the good, wise lines Rowling writes," but without wanting to sound like I'm saying "you write like Mean TERF Lady" so just understand when I say it, it's a compliment that you're emulating the better parts of canon, not that I'm trying to shove you in a box with her or anything.)

—doctorlit, neurotic that his compliments don't get taken the wrong way

A bit short, perhaps, but iI dare say it helped put Severina firmly into the good guys here. Not that I suspected otherwise, of course, but it is nice to see Distaff Piton be more open instead of having him be vindicated as the Undercover One All Along at the very end after being a royal PITA for Harry for seven full books.

And I have a suspect I know who J is...

I'm glad you enjoy Sev! And yes, Greengrass is... certainly A Character hahaha

Yeah, it's very medieval -- technically Regency, since the original fics read like if someone tried to smash Harry Potter and Jane Austen together without understanding how either work, but I'm being pedantic hahaha

Jenni's already shown up on her Chocolate Frog card! And Jacques and Liu Siyuan -- Ryan Liu in this AU -- are set to show up in later years. I feel like I call it deep undercover because they're functioning like natives to the canon and they aren't going to make any references to HQ or any of that (I don't even think they have knowledge of the PPC -- Jenni might, since she's Jenni, but she's not going to talk about that on screen :P while Ryan and Jacques are just Potterverse AU versions of themselves), but they are in the story to help the protagonists take down the system. So they're not going to suddenly make references to the PPC or call for backup from HQ.

I mean, if you have existing Potterverse variations of your agents, I could have them cameo, but otherwise there'll be no call for backup since it's not really a mission in a traditional sense, but rather in a meta sense (since PPC missions deconstruct what's wrong with a given badfic, but this one is deconstructing an entire genre of fic).

But thank you for the offer!

“I am interested in the magical world,” retorted Harry, brows furrowing. “I just don’t see why it has to have all of these extra rules and layers.”

Harry has a very good point. I don't see why, either.

Cooking and house-elves, eesh. Cooking my own food is something I love doing, and it makes me happy that I can throw things together that actually taste decent. It's also a family thing. Most of my folks are good cooks, and I suppose it's something of a tradition that I want to continue.

That's all I have for now. I am very behind on reading this.

Now I get more of what you and doc were talking about. Though I’m not quite sure why y’all were comparing things to modern politics so much.

Anyway, I wonder if the Culture class or whatever it’s called is a replacement for Muggle Studies. If it isn’t, I imagine that Pureblood Culture!Muggle Studies wouldn’t be a very accurate or fair class at all.

—Ls

I barely know where to begin. Obviously, the pureblood stuff in the other chapters bothered me, but this chapter, seeing it all from someone who's trying to conform . . . Hermione is losing herself. She doesn't deserve this. No one deserves this. And her conversation with Farley shows what a catch-22 the whole situation is—literally, choose between your own health, or adapting quickly enough to win acceptance. Win acceptance during semester one at age eleven. Ugh. Honestly, the whole scenario just sickening: Hogwarts having a class that's just social control propaganda; a genealogy text named Nature's Nobility; the fact that Grindelwald, a known genocidal mass murderer, supported the pureblood nonsense, yet no one thinks to examine that connection. And the whole "New Blood" situation shows how irrational the entire mindset is to begin with; if a Muggleborn can be made "as good as a Pureblood" by some ritual, then pure blood can't actually mean anything, right? I guess it depends on what was in that potion. I am very skeeved out by the potion, and very glad Hermione didn't drink the Kool-Aid potion. "You’re not like the other Muggleborns." Gross. Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross.

Putting all that baggage aside, it was interesting to see Pansy and Lavender getting along better with Hermione than in canon, though elements of their "proper" personalities definitely seep through at times; Pansy in particular is probably mostly acting. I also got thrown for a loop when the Chamber of Secrets was mentioned as a widely known location; I had forgotten that Voldemort is just another guy in this timeline, so no basilisk, no Myrtle, no secrecy to be found here. (Actually, since the chamber isn't secret, and contains no secrets, shouldn't it just be called the Chamber of Brickwork now?) But then I got thrown for another loop when the troll showed up later, because I assumed Quirrell would be a good guy in this timeline, but I guess either he or Gaunt are still after the Philosopher's Stone? (You don't have to answer that.) I must say, while my sense of dread was rising and rising as the initiation drew closer, the end of the chapter made me feel much, much better. Seeing Hermione finally realize that it was nearly cult-o'clock, and then have her lie and disparage the ceremony to protect Harry and Ron, and then leave with them . . . yeah, made me feel a lot better for her, that's all.

Other minor changes I reacted to here:
-Poor Filch. Like he didn't face enough prejudice in the canon timeline. At least Dumbledore is still the type of guy to give a Squib a job!
-Ugh. Of course Percy would be even worse in this timeline. He's like Hermione, with his need to feel accepted . . .
-Oh, but I like Sophie Roper, though! yes, girl, question that arbitrary status quo! She's got my vote for Minister of magic, when she grows up! (Didn't realize she was canon until I searched her name just now, but I'm glad you used her as a mouthpiece for a tiny fraction of the questions I would love to ask the idiots in this society!)
-I love your "stone, cloak, wand" Wizard variant of rock, paper, scissors. I reckon stone and cloak are identical to rock and paper, but wand must be one or two pointed fingers, rather than the V-shape for scissors?
-Aaaaaand great to see Hogwarts still prioritizes winning at Sportsball over enforcement of safety rules, even in this twisted alternate society. Just like real life schools!

—doctorlit gonna go bingewatch She-Hulk now

I have no idea what the trolley witch does in CC and maybe I don't wish to find out hahaha. (The only thing I care about from CC is that Albus is in Slytherin and is best friends with Scorpius :P)

Draco is indeed very Draco! He's very fun to write and I have some paradigm-rocking in store for him.

Hermione -- yeah. I always got the feeling that when she first found out she was a witch, she had this drive to prove herself worthy of being a witch, because no one in her family has ever had magic. She also wanted friends -- Ron pointing out she had none and causing her to cry all afternoon in the bathroom told me she didn't really fit in with Muggle friends as well. (Bookishness to the point of pedantry can be offputting with kids, ask me how I know! ;P) So with her, I want to do a balancing act between assimilation and pride in her roots. The next chapter is going to be her POV, anyway, and you'll see whether or not she makes the right friends then!

Also, she's acting like that because the Pureblood nutters lovebombed her before she got to Harry and Ron's compartment. She wants to fit in and say the right things; she doesn't know that what she's saying is BS just yet.

Zabini and Nott being substituted for Crabbe and Goyle here is part of Malfoy wanting to put his best foot forward in attempting to sway Harry to the Pureblood side. Nott is also Heir to a Most Ancient House and Zabini is just... handsome, lol. Crabbe and Goyle will still be used as bodyguards later, but this is a purely superficial decision for this one moment.

Yes, Lily appears to be taking more of a Dumbledore role here. Especially since Voldemort Marvolo Gaunt isn't batshit insane Dark Lord (but is still quite evil in the ways a politician can be), so there isn't really a prophecy out there to take him down.

Severina is indeed Snape. She's cisswapped, but we're planning to use that as a critique of JKR: she has bobbed hair like regular Snape, which by Purityworld standards is a masculine haircut, so you can imagine what James Potter would say to that. So you're not off the mark!

There's a theory that Crookshanks is the cat that Harry terrorised with his first broom in Lily's letter. I'm using that theory haha

Yeah, not bothering with writing out that accent. It's annoying and classist.

Yes! Jenni, Jacques, and LSY (going by Ryan) are going to be major players later on, since they're there in Marauders era. Allegoric Alley is actually riffing off of the Purityworld author's "Leisure Alley", which we felt was too like the name you'd give a red light district than the high-class shopping street it claimed to be.

Thanks for catching the typo! And I look forward to sharing the rest of first year with you! :)

I actually talked about it on the Board a couple times: here and here. Nesh's reply in the thread leading from the 2nd one has the link to the worldbuilding being spoofed used for this AU.

I'm also glad to be taking the time to explore Lily as a parent, and all the little changes that occur because of that! I reckoned that, given what a nightmare regency dystopia this Wizarding world is, Harry deserves a safe space with his mum.

I have no plans to kill Crookshanks.

I mean, well, some people might be more interested in Jenni, Jacques, and LSY mucking with the Potterverse in that way!

Severine is an actual name, so it's more of an Anglicisation of that? But honestly, it's riffing off of the horrible names for Fem!Harry that the Purityworld Author has done: Hathiel, Heloise, Hortensia, etc...

Don't worry, Malfoy gets punched later. He's set to undergo a pretty complicated emotional arc (from his perspective, anyway).