The power of the mind was a wondrous thing. In Anton's eyes, wizards were gods.
But in Voldemort's and Snape's eyes, wizards were madmen.
It wasn't easy to drive someone insane. From the perspective of nature and society, there weren't many extreme circumstances that could truly push someone over the edge.
After all, humans were remarkably resilient creatures.
For example, the Obscurial that emerged in Dumbledore's nephew Credence had been driven into existence by his environment and society.
Back then, the union of wizards and Muggles was strictly forbidden. Anyone caught would be punished for breaking the law, and their children would be killed.
Under the oppression of that era, Aberforth's romance with a Muggle girl could only end in tragedy.
The Muggle girl secretly gave birth to their child, then died at sea. This made life even harder for Credence, left behind as an orphan.
If anyone discovered that he was a wizard, he would be put to death. There was no doubt about it.
An orphan with no one to protect him had to suppress his magic at all times. In the end, an Obscurus formed inside him, and he became an Obscurial.
By comparison, Professor McGonagall had been lucky.
She, too, had been a Half-blood wizard in that era. Her father had even been a church minister aligned with the Witch Hunters, yet she had still lived well thanks to her mother's family influence. She had even gone on to become an official in the Ministry of Magic. (Her mother's grandmother, Minerva, had been an exceptionally powerful witch.)
As for Dumbledore's sister Ariana, she had been broken by the harm inflicted on her by three young boys.
The reason Anton was thinking about all this was the Magic Corps before him. Their minds were churning with memories