This was really really intense and brilliant written. It left me also a bit confuse about some things, like I wondered about all the smoking, especially in the ELA when they have barely enough money for food (and how could Severus pay a rent boy?). I still don't really know why the wizarding world felt pressed to "join" the Muggle world/the government even though the world economy collapsed - isn't the wizarding world more or less complete autarchic from the Muggle world? They have their own money etc. Interesting was the Muggle/Wizard conflict as in Voldemort and his followers with the muggle-hate and Syme with his wizard-hate. Both was extreme and brought only pain. As a German, grown up in a land with a fascistic past, I can't help it but to draw comparisons between the Third Reich and the coalition in your story. As for myself I think that the Britains, who had to endure so much through the Nazi-regime, are more opposed against a regime which acts like the Nazis and terrorise wizards and also muggles alike. Would they let one man with an extreme hate (Syme) get all the power until it's too late when they have witnessed a similar occurrence in World War Two and fought against these circumstances? That's what crossed my mind when I read your story. I don't know if anybody else thought something similar or if I interpret too much but I spent an afternoon mesmerized in front of my computer.