On the subject of Umbridge and Book VII

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 143675

 
> Amiable Dorsai:

<SNIP>
> Th Ministry in general is one of the great hanging threads in the
> whole series.  Harry's view of it has gotten progressively worse in
> each book, starting with Hagrid's genial contempt for Fudge in book
> one and ending with Harry's dismissal of Scrimgeour in book 6.  I
> think Jo is setting up a big shakeup for book 7.  
> 
> I think Umbridge, as the personification of everything bad about 
the
> Ministry, is set to take a big fall in Book 7.  I hope we get to 
see
> it "on camera".  One of the minor disappointments for me in HBP was
> that we didn't get to see Fudge get the boot.
> 


The Ministry is a hanging thread, all right.  And it hangs all the 
more prominently considering the personal factors involved, for 
instance Percy's ultimate fate and Harry's career plans.  

If Harry is to be an auror, and certainly the hints in HBP were 
strongly in that direction, then it would seem that a major shakeup 
in the Ministry would be necessary.  It isn't believable that Harry 
could have much of a career in a Ministry dominated by Scrimgeour 
and where Umbridge still has a lot of influence.  I'm not sure it's 
very believable that Harry would even WANT to work for the Ministry 
after all that's happened, but nevertheless...

The question is how would this be accomplished?  At the end of HBP 
the Ministry's position actually seems very strong.  Dumbledore, 
their most effective opponent within the system, is dead after 
having been shown to have been badly mistaken in some of his key 
judgments.  The public is in a worse panic than ever, and panicked 
people often cling even more tightly to their leaders.  There is a 
strong possibility that Hogwarts, which appears to be the chief seat 
of opposition to the Ministry, will be closed.

What could bring Scrimgeour, et. al., down?  It would take, I think, 
some kind of major bungling/treachery/faux pas.  Umbridge seems like 
a likely character to instigate such an event, and Percy seems 
positioned to be caught in the middle once again.

All very well and certainly plausible.  Yet the problem is that such 
a major storyline would take up quite a bit of space in a book that 
already has far too much to accomplish.  We are back to the problem 
that JKR has spent some 1300 pages over the last two books spinning 
her wheels, so that the final book must now do work that would have 
been better spread out over the last three.  If there was going to 
be a major Ministry storyline, then OOTP or HBP would have been the 
place to do it.  Now it may very well be too late to advance that 
particular plot thread, except perhaps in rapid telegraphic style 
where we are told, rather than shown, what has happened at the 
Ministry and given a scene with Umbridge to drive home what's 
happened.


Lupinlore