Douglas stood up and began pacing around the office too.
"When a wizard who can easily divert a river with his wand faces an unarmed Muggle who might have a leader with a finger on the nuclear button behind him, where does trust come from?"
"When a child from a pure-blood family discovers that the bloodline and magic he takes such pride in might be worthless in a Muggle financial system, where does his dignity belong?"
"Fear only breeds fear."
Dumbledore's gaze grew profoundly deep.
"The medieval witch trials happened not because Muggles were stronger than us, but because they feared the neighbors around them whom they could not understand, who possessed strange powers."
At this point, Douglas noticed that Dumbledore's hands were trembling slightly.
"When that fear is reignited in a new age, its scale and destructive power will be unprecedented. We may face an entirely new, even crueler witch hunt."
"So your choice is to keep reinforcing the walls, maintain the status quo, and erase memories in the Muggle World until, one day, the people outside knock those walls down in ways we cannot understand?"
Douglas challenged him head-on.
"No, Headmaster. That isn't solving the problem. That's just leaving it to the next generation, just as we're cleaning up the mess the last generation left behind."
"My choice is..."
A rational light bordering on madness gleamed in Douglas's eyes.
"To open a window in those walls that we control, or even a door that we design."
"We set the rules. We direct the flow of people. We dictate the pace of change. Rather than passively waiting for tensions to build until they explode, we should begin a controlled pressure test now."
He stopped, turned, and looked at Dumbledore with burning eyes.
"And that cave will be our first