People often hated traitors more than enemies.
Why?
Because enemies were enemies. We had never been close to them.
But traitors...
They had once been one of us. They had shared our triumphs and humiliations, and endured the same hardships and suffering.
The day they changed sides, we saw more than a friend's betrayal.
We also saw one of our own fall to hardship and suffering.
That heartfelt failure, magnified by our empathy, dealt a tremendous blow to those who had once been their companions. It hurt far more than any enemy could.
That was why people wished they could tear traitors limb from limb.
To pure-bloods like Malfoy, the Dumbledore family, once so noble and a source of pride to countless pure-bloods, had become traitors through and through.
The Dumbledore family had an ancient lineage and held fast to the pure-blood ideal.
They had even entered into an unknown pact with the powerful Magical Creature known as the phoenix, giving every descendant in their line a chance to earn its favor.
Pure-blood families had even speculated that the Dumbledore family's remarkable descendants owed their excellence, in no small part, to that pact.
Sadly, the Dumbledores had never shared their secret.
But that had not stopped pure-blood families from respecting them. When that respect finally shattered and lay scattered like broken crockery,
the more praise they had once received, the more abuse they faced now.
This, too, was the fundamental reason the pure-blood families had done nothing after Dumbledore's father was imprisoned for harming Muggles.
Some had even deliberately exaggerated his crimes, until Dumbledore's father died in Azkaban.
After learning these secrets from Abou, Voldemort found himself better able to understand Dumbledore's sorrow.
A man who bore the name of a glorious family and had earned the recognition of wizards