Brutus Scrimgeour - man of mystery?

[AnitaKH]

No: HPFGUIDX 154992

Yes, I mean Brutus Scrimgeour.  I was rereading Quidditch Through the Ages, and he is mentioned in the book, along with providing a review excerpt.

I checked the old messages, and found this delightful reference (made in 2004, BTW) by Carolyn White:


Message #94119

[snip an inspired Radio TBay]

 TT [Ted Tonks]: Oh...we have just received an urgent owl from someone called
 Agatha Chubb(18), who is some kind of Quidditch history expert..
 she's very interested in what you can remember of Hamish MacFarlan,
 as all her efforts to uncover what happened at the ministry have been
 blocked. She wants to know if MacFarlan or your mother ever
 mentioned, or introduced you to someone called Scrimgeour?
 
 KMcC: Yeah, Brutus Scrimgeour often came to my mother's parties – she
 really liked him, and actually she's named after one of his clan(19);
 well, you know what Scots are like – blood thicker than water. He's
 the Editor of the Beater's Bible.(20) I think either he or his son
 works at the Ministry.(21) I remember an awful dinner where he went
 on and on about the first rule in his book `take out the seeker'.(22)
 He sounded as though he really had it in for anyone who played that
 position; sad really, why don't these people get a life? He and Ludo
 Bagman were pretty close.
 
 TT: Agatha seems to think that there is a secret international terror
 organisation linking high ranking government figures and top
 Quidditch players and officials across the world. Have you heard
 anything about that?
 
 KMcC: Only rumours, like everyone else, but I'm right out of my depth
 here.. this is exactly why I play in a band, not chase a snitch.
 
[more snippage, followed by a truncated set of footnotes:]

(18)QA, p.22. An expert in ancient Wizarding artefacts, especially
 bludgers.
 (19) Catriona Scrimgeour is one of the editors of the Scottish clan
 Scrimgeour website (www.scrimgeour-edin.freeserve.co.uk ).
 (20)QA, quotes on reverse of title page.
 (21)OOP, p.113.
 (22)QA, p.27

My questions are legion, but the ones I have time to posit while skirting work are:

1) The two Scrimgeours are likely to be related; are they brothers/cousins/ father/son?  Is this another "Mark Evans?"  (That's not as likely with a name like Scrimgeour, but then again, why waste an opportunity to use such a juicy name?)

2) Brutus was introduced to us before we knew about Rufus, but now that we've met both of them, what is the significance of "take out the seeker?"

3) I like Carolyn's international terrorist theory, and it fits nicely with some of the theorists who speculate about Scrimgeour as DE to the stars...  I mean DE to the MoM.

Are we going to learn anything more about Brutus?  While he doesn't figure into the novel canon, he has been introduced in Quidditch, more than once.  Hey, Fred and George are beaters; maybe they're all over our Buddy Brutus!  Or not...

Any and all ideas about this man of mystery are welcome!

akh, who's about to journey to the wilds of Missouri, and so won't have access to the Internet for about ten days.  Talk about timing!


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