In the Middle Ages, wealthy knights wore armor into battle.
Yet for those who wore armor, rust was unavoidable.
The weather on the battlefield was unpredictable. No one knew whether it would rain in the wilderness, and even thick woolen cloaks could not withstand such weather. Normally, if armor was placed in a barrel of sand and regularly wiped, polished, and oiled, it would not rust.
But after strenuous activity, a knight's helmet could still leave rust marks on his face, as though blood had seeped into the armor, even if he had merely been taking part in a parade rather than fighting.
According to wizarding history, Goblins launched a rebellion in 1612. In truth, Goblins had rebelled more than once, but the 1612 uprising had been especially bloody. Nineteen years later, it led the Wizards' Council to issue the "Wand Use Code," no longer permitting wizards to let Goblins possess wands.
Thus, before the old problems had been resolved, new ones arose.
Wizarding historians believed that the dwarf Abigail Williams had seen in 1692 was very likely Fish-Eyed Kooky, who had taken part in the Goblin rebellion eighty years earlier and was responsible for the deaths of three witches. The Magical Congress of the United States of America had not yet been established when the Salem witch trials broke out, while England's Wizards' Council rarely governed the New World. That vacuum of power gave some dark wizards and troublemakers an opportunity to "celebrate."
After the witch hunt began, those accused fell into the paradox of "I'm not a thief" and "You must prove that you aren't."
A thief had to be caught with stolen goods, but if there were no stolen goods, could that prove you were not a thief? What if you had destroyed the evidence or disposed