Question about the Ministry of Magic

[Amy Winters]

No: HPFGUIDX 8094

Has there been any discussion about how long the Ministry of Magic 
has been in place?  Or Mr. Weasley's department?  (Misuse of Muggle 
Artifacts)  In the first chapter(?) of PS/SS when Hagrid flys in on 
Sirius's motercycle, it didn't seem like that big of a deal to 
Dumbledore or McGonagall.  Which means that a)that didn't really care 
that the motorcycle was illegal, b)the Department for the misuse of 
muggle artifacts didn't exist, or c) Sirius was exempt from the rules 
that the rest of the witches and warlocks had to abide by.  I think 
I'm personally going for b.  I was just curious if anything like this 
had been addressed on the list before.

Amy