Hi, I'm new/ The wizarding community/ Voldemort's rise to power

[Ebony AKA AngieJ]

No: HPFGUIDX 16323

Welcome, Itai!  Please make yourself at home...

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., itai_halevy at h... wrote:
> Sure, there's the "Ministry of Magic", but are they a ministry in 
the 
> British government (like the Ministry of Agriculture for example)or 
> are they the actual government of wizards?


I'm no expert at all on this, being American.  But when I first read 
this series, I supposed that the MoM *was* actually a secret branch 
of the British government, and all wizards and witches with UK 
citizenship or equivalent were "subjects of the Queen".

However, there's been some discussion here already about there being 
differences between magical and Muggle borders.  For instance, we 
know that Hogwarts is the school for magical kids in the UK.  But 
Seamus Finnegan is Irish--he attends Hogwarts... and at the Quidditch 
World Cup, the British Minister of Magic seems to be the counterpart 
to the Bulgarian MoM.  In the Muggle world, things are a bit 
different. 

Brixperts, please don't yell at me if I'm wrong.  I suppose I'm 
responding to this because this is something I'd like to know too.

> Suppose they are an actual government, do the laws and restrictions 
> apply to British wizards only or to wizards of other nations as 
well? (in other words- is the "Ministry" an international body?).

There is mention of an International Confederation of Wizards in 
GoF.  However, my guess would be that this organization functions as 
something like a wizarding U.N...

There's a FAQ upcoming that should summarize our archived discussions 
on this matter.  It's called "Wizarding World and Government".  
Meanwhile, I'd love to continue this discussion onlist, over at 
OTChatter, or offlist... speculating about all those faces at the 
Quidditch World Cup and what kinds of governments/schools/lives they 
might have is great fun IMO.

Again, welcome, Itai!

--Ebony AKA AngieJ (resident rabblerouser)