Snapedom

Regarding the fear of Voldemort: I think you are right that we have to separate between the reactions of Dumbledore's circle (which went beyond the Order proper to include the faction in the Wizengamot that kept offering him the position of Minister and other allies who did not get involved directly in the war such as Arthur or the McMillan family) and British wizarding society at large. After all, how many hurried weddings were there in 1996-7 aside from Bill&Fleur and Remus&Dora? (Not that I know how we would have heard of them had there been any - Hermione doesn't seem like someone to read the Prophet's society column. Maybe Ginny.) So perhaps the rest of British wizards developed their fear of Voldemort much later than this circle, but we know that at some point they did - in POA we hear Rosmerta and Fudge use You-Know-Who, in GOF Fudge uses this term in front of Dumbledore, as well as in an interview for the Prophet in OOTP and the Muggle Prime Minister in HBP. During the DE trials (which Harry saw in the Pensieve) Crouch used You-Know-Who and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The Daily Prophet uses the nicknames as policy, not just when quoting people - as we see in OOTP and HBP. Rits Skeeter uses the nicknames. I doubt You-No-Poo would have been such a marketable product had the use of You-Know-Who not been widespread. All this means is that by the end of the first war fear of Voldemort's name spread into broader wizarding society, but we do not know when.

Since we are given many indications that Harry's year had some 40 students initially, and OTOH we see many indications that the Hogwarts student body was much larger than can be expected if this cohort size was typical - especially over 100 occupied desks when Severus' cohort took their DADA OWLs, it seems Harry's year was smaller than past years. (Even if the 100+ represents both OWL and NEWT students, Severus' year was much bigger than Harry's considering that not everyone can make it to NEWT level - in Harry's times out of 40 students 25 took DADA for NEWTs). A small cohort can be explained by people delaying having children because of the unstable situation (though note that of the 40 students in Harry's year at least 8 came from families that were involved in the war, 4 from each side). The oldest children in Harry's cohort were conceived around December 1978, so I would say fear was widespread by this time. If so then perhaps we should look for the reason behind the increased fear elsewhere. Too bad, I liked the idea of linking it to the locket Horcrux, because I like theories that give a rational (or semi-rational) motivation to why characters do things, especially characters that are supposed to be brilliant, like Tom was originally made to be. If he changed his policies he must have had a reason.

Regarding attitudes towards the Order - we know Slughorn was not happy to be associated with the Order, but then his position was delicate as former Head of House to most DEs. And we see how easy it was to turn public opinion against Dumbledore.

I agree about the photograph, I think Peter made a copy and brought it to Voldemort.