[HPforGrownups] Re: The Case Against Ludo Bagman

[Susan Hall]

No: HPFGUIDX 25602

Cindy said

>What
information could F&G have that would make for an effective
>blackmail?  It must be the bet on Harry.  It can't be just that
Bagman didn't honor his bet with F&G.  That hardly seems substantial
>enough to support a blackmail threat.

I don't agree.  A senior civil servant makes a bet in serious money (a
galleon is worth 5 according to JKR) with the minor children of a junior
civil servant and then welshes on it?  Pretty serious - until comparatively
recently in the British civil service it was a formal disciplinary matter
for a senior to *borrow* from a junior civil servant.  Anyway, F&G didn't
say they were going to blackmail him - Ron and Harry overheard one of them
say "We can't say that, it'll sound like blackmail":  I assumed what the
letter was going to read was something like "If you won't pay us, we'll tell
our father and ask him to raise it at a higher level in the ministry".

However, I do agree that the case against Bagman, while apparently
watertight on the surface, does not preclude his reappearance, and the
evidence of his helping Harry (although obviously Harry would be the
candidate on whom he could get the longest odds, and so make the largest
killing) is capable of two interpretations.

Susan