[HPforGrownups] CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 15 (The Hogwarts High Inquisitor)

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 94387

Debbie wrote:
>Questions
>
>1.  According to the Daily Prophet, the High Inquisitor position was
>the result of "surprise legislation" passed by the Ministry on a
>Sunday night.  Who passed that legislation?  A legislative body?  If
>so, who is it composed of?  How is it chosen?  Why wasn't it
>mentioned by name?

We've never had any hint of any legislative body, short of a Wizarding
Congress, and there doesn't seem to be one of those in standing session:
they seem to be called infrequently to deal with really big issues.

My own feel is that the Minister has a standing authority to introduce
legislation: that's one of his duties and responsibilities. so the answer to
the question is that it's composed of C Fudge. He's chosen by election,
that's said explicitly, but not whether it's any sort of election that we
would recognise as such in our world (was there more than one candidate, for
example, or was it just a vote formally to approve someone who'd already
been nominated: how many electors were there, how are they chosen, are they
susceptible to bribery (jingle, jingle goes Lucius's moneybag...))

But one more interesting question: before Fudge was Minister, he was a
Junior Minister: obviously one step above mere bureaucrats, but does the
power to legislate go below the Minister's own office? Is there even some
sort of power for the Ministry departments to introduce sets of rules (on
the thickness of cauldron bottoms for example) which the rest of the WW are
expected to follow?

>2. The Daily Prophet quotes Percy Wesley extensively.  How
>enthusiastic do you think his support really is?  Does he honestly
>believe what he says, is he doing it to get ahead of the Ministry,
>or does he really think he owes unquestioning obedience to his
>superiors?  How does the Percy we see here square with the Percy we
>saw in PS/SS who admired Dumbledore's brilliance?

Percy gets quoted because he's the one who relays the story to the paper. I
don't think he's being anything other than a mouthpiece for Fudge and
Umbridge in that - they are clearly pulling the strings and he is doing what
he's told. Whether he's come to _believe_ it by now is another matter: he's
had a few months in the Minister's office, surrounded by people giving him
the party line all the time and with no countervailing influences outside
work to get him to question what he's told. Not good at questioning what
he's told, our Percy: it let him down when Crouch was kidnapped and it's let
him down again.

Cheers

Ffred

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