But somewhere along the line someone in the Ministry decided to change things. Either they were power hungry or just greedy. Either that or they had an axe to grind against the tribunal way of settling disputes. Whichever the reason, the Ministry proposed a bill that allowed for the formation of the Wizengamot to be a court system for people who broke the laws. A little footnote on the bill that had allowed the formation, allowed the new Wizengamot to create, draft and vote on new laws for magical Britain for which they included both Scotland and Wales under the British Ministry. Up to that point in time, both magical Wales and magical Scotland considered themselves to be separate from magical Britain. But when that little footnote went unchallenged in the Ministry, both countries lost their right to set the rules for their people.
Naturally, the first law the Wizengamot made was to outlaw the tribunal system of justice and mandate that all cases involving the breaking of the law had to be heard before the Wizengamot so as to assure both the accused and the accuser a fair trial. It is the nature of any government to outlaw that which circumvents itself. And the British Ministry of Magic was setting itself up as the center of the British magical government.
While some districts refused to obey the new Wizengamot, going underground with problems in their area, others welcomed it since their non-magical brethren had a similar central body for their government. Others felt they would be more likely to win their cases if total strangers were hearing both sides of an argument rather then locals who knew both parties involved. Gradually, the old laws had been set aside as the new Wizengamot crafted laws to give themselves more and more power and to make more and more things legal or illegal depending on which way would benefit them the most.
It was really the acquisition of Azkaban that changed things, though. People found themselves forced to follow the Wizengamot's rulings or face time in Azkaban. But never did the Wizengamot actually outlaw using judgement magic to call upon magic itself to determine the guilt of a person accused of wrong doing. What Harry had done to Granger and the two Weasely's was still completely legal. Because he wasn't a tribunal by any stretch of the imagination. And it was only the tribunal system of hearing legal cases that had been outlawed.
Slowly people stopped calling on Magic to assist them in using their gift. With the passing into obscurity of the old common laws, old traditions and customs had fallen by the wayside as well until no one actually remembered they didn't need the Wizengamot or their wands half as much as the Ministry needed them to need them. And the cessation of commonly used rituals to celebrate the traditional holidays or strengthen a persons connection to magic was a natural outgrowth of that.
With the help of the Wizengamot, the Ministry passed laws regulating the use and creation of wands by which they could keep track of the people by making certain only select people of their choosing were licensed to make and sell them. And of course by insisting that each new wand carry a tracking device monitored by a new department within the Ministry, letting them know where and when each was used. They also passed a law that made it forbidden to practice magic without a lawfully owned and registered wand. That meant all witches and wizards had to go to those shops they approved of to get their first wands if they wished to continue using magic in their daily lives. Which is why it's considered such a heinous thing even now to break the wand of another witch or wizard. You're literally telling them they can no longer practice magic.
Which led to the first magical shopping district in London which was where the Ministry was. Because why would someone from Scotland or Wales or even northern or southern England go all the way to London just to buy a wand if they couldn't also get books, clothes food and toys there as well. That shopping district is known today as Diagon Alley and Ollivanders was the wand shop the Ministry approved to make Englanders their wands.
The Ministry spread a lot of propaganda about how using wands was safer for children who didn't have control over their growing cores to encourage the parents to purchase the wands for their children. And to cover up the fact they wanted a measurable method of keeping track of their people no matter where said people called home. In time, those children grew dependant on their wands, forgetting their parents hadn't used wands at all or coming to believe they themselves were more powerful than their ancestors had been because they had a wand. Because of this reliance on wands, magical society overall forgot magic was their gift and not their birthright. And the old ways slid into forgotten history.
A knock on his door signaled the end of Harry's reading time. He knew it would be Professor Snape on the other side as no one else except Mr. Filch ever bothered him in his chambers and Mr. Filch had already stopped by for evening tea tonight.
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