Portrayal of MoM in the series VERY LONG BEWARE

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 178812

Everything that said below is my interpretation of the canon facts, 
MY OPINION. I am arguing one side here and not trying to be neutral 
at all, that does not mean that I think this is the only possible 
interpretation.



"Ministry o' Magic  messin' things up as usual"

(Hagrid, PS/SS, am.ed. paperback)

I always loved how consistently Rowling portrayed corruption of the 
ministry throughout the series and when I look back now I can also 
see how elegantly she foreshadowed its fall as well.  This post is 
just an attempt to show the canon support for this and not all 
inclusive either, so feel free to add if you wish.

>From the beginning of the series we get one message pretty clear 
IMO.  Ministry of Magic and its Minister is a bunch of incompetent 
morons and Minister wants Dumbledore's advice on every single matter.

"They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never 
leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bugger if 
Here comes Chamber of Secrets and we see no one else but Minister of 
magic himself taking Hagrid to Azkaban. Was Hagrid convicted of any 
sort of crime? Was he convicted of attacking muggleborns or anything 
like that? No, it turns out in WW you can be taken to the prison 
with most horrible guards as **precaution** simply if Ministry deems 
so. Oh dear. As precaution. But of course there is a reason why 
Ministry decided to take Hagrid in prison as precaution and not say 
Lucius Malfoy for example. In his past Hagrid was framed by lovely 
Tommy as we know. I guess for Ministry that is enough to think that 
you are a criminal for life.


"Bad business, Hagrid," said Fudge in rather clipped tones. "Very bad
business. Had to come. Four attacks on Muggle-borns. Things've gone
far enough. Ministry's got to act."

"I never," said Hagrid, looking imploringly at Dumbledore. "You know 
I
never, Professor Dumbledore, sir -"

"I want it understood, Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full 
confidence,"
said Dumbledore, frowning at Fudge.

"Look, Albus," said Fudge, uncomfortably. "Hagrid's record's against
him. Ministry's got to do something - the school governors have been
in touch -"

"Yet again, Cornelius, I tell you that taking Hagrid away will not 
help
in the slightest," said Dumbledore. His blue eyes were full of a fire
Harry had never seen before.

"Look at it from my point of view," said Fudge, fidgeting with his
bowler. "I'm under a lot of pressure. Got to be seen to be doing
something. If it turns out it wasn't Hagrid, he'll be back and no 
more
said. But I've got to take him. Got to. Wouldn't be doing my duty -"

"Take me?" said Hagrid, who was trembling. "Take me where?"

"For a short stretch only," said Fudge, not meeting Hagrid's 
eyes. "Not
a punishment, Hagrid, more a precaution. If someone else is caught,
you'll be let out with a full apology -"

"Not Azkaban?" croaked Hagrid."  - Chamber of Secrets, ch.15, 
paperback, am.ed.

TELL ME WHO YOUR FRIENDS ARE AND I WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING ABOUT 
YOURSELF.

Alla:

>From CoS to GoF we see Cornelius Fudge and Lucius Malfoy getting 
closer and closer and closer. I wonder what does it say about Fudge, 
folks.


Here is Lucius Malfoy with the order to suspend Dumbledore in CoS.

"Dreadful thing, Dumbledore," said Malfoy lazily, taking out a long 
roll
of parchment, "but the governors feel it's time for you to step 
aside.
This is an Order of Suspension - you'll find all twelve signatures 
on it.
I'm afraid we feel you're losing your touch. How many attacks have
there been now? Two more this afternoon, wasn't it? At this rate,
there'll be no Muggle-borns left at Hogwarts, and we all know what
an awful loss that would be to the school."

"Oh, now, see here, Lucius," said Fudge, looking alarmed,
"Dumbledore suspended - no, no - last thing we want just now
"The appointment - or suspension - of the headmaster is a matter for
the governors, Fudge," said Mr. Malfoy smoothly. "And as
Dumbledore has failed to stop these attacks -"

"See here, Malfoy, if Dumbledore can't stop them," said Fudge, whose
upper lip was sweating now, "I mean to say, who can?"

"That remains to be seen," said Mr. Malfoy with a nasty smile. "But 
as
all twelve of us have voted -"

Hagrid leapt to his feet, his shaggy black head grazing the ceiling.

'An' how many did yeh have ter threaten an' blackmail before they
agreed, Malfoy, eh?" he roared.

"Dear, dear, you know, that temper of yours will lead you into 
trouble
one of these days, Hagrid," said Mr. Malfoy. "I would advise you not
to shout at the Azkaban guards like that. They won't like it at 
all." – CoS, ch.15.

Alla:  

I had no doubt myself that Lucius Malfoy's political power is more 
than Minister of Magic Fudge will ever dream of having. I thought it 
was clear that Fudge does not want Dumbledore suspended, but 
whatever Malfoy says goes. 

"Very strange tales they told me, too .... Several of them seemed
to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they 
didn't
agree to suspend me in the first place." - CoS

Malfoy gets kicked out of the Board at the end, but in PoA we see 
that he has enough power to have the whole committee of disposal of 
magical creatures at his fingertips.

And he is being better and better buddies with Minister Fudge it 
looks to me.


We see in GoF that Lucius Malfoy is at Quidditch cup as no less than 
guest of Minister of Magic himself, because of his generous 
contribution to St. Mungo Hospital ( GoF, am.ed., p.101, paperback).

It looks to me as political and financial power of Malfoy Sr. is on 
the rise and nothing less as being caught as DE one book later was 
able to stop it.

BACK to the MINISTRY.
So, after what happened to Hagrid in CoS I really was not surprised 
to read about what happened to Sirius. I mean, I was surprised by 
plot of PoA, do not get me wrong, LOL.

I am just saying that when I read the story about man being sent to 
Azkaban for crime he did not commit, I was not *shocked* by Ministry 
at all. I was like, oh it is Hagrid all over again, only in more 
horrifying way. Here they did not find a culprit in days or weeks, 
so Sirius had to suffer for years.

I also think that even good people working at the Ministry get 
sucked in the atmosphere of  corruption of power, no matter how 
harmless it is to me on the grand scale of things. I love Weasleys 
by and large, no matter if I sometimes have Molly's issues and 
Arthur I just love. But eh, writing a law and make a loophole to be 
able to amuse oneself with muggle car seems just wrong to me.  

Of course I refuse to think that it means that Arthur will ever 
write a law that would truly hurt somebody, so to me it is 
relatively harmless, but I am just saying that it is telling to me 
of what Ministry of Magic truly is.

Of course Arthur does not get to be a personal guest of Minister of 
magic, he is stuck in the job with low pay for years, so I guess 
everything is relative, but I think the atmosphere of we can do 
anything we wish sort of influenced him in this situation.
By the way, the fact that he got good seats to World Cup did not 
bother me one bit. I saw no evidence that he did not pay for them or 
that because of that somebody did not get their tickets.
Maybe Department of Sport official did not want to go and sold the 
seats given to him to Arthur. Fine by me.

As an aside, for the reason that I was absolutely convinced that 
Ministry is unequivocally portrayed as bad place, despite the fact 
that several good people work there, I was absolutely sure that no 
matter how Percy' storyline ends, it will not end with Arthur 
apologizing to him. I cannot claim that I knew what JKR had in store 
for Percy, but this one thing I was sure of. I knew that if Percy 
comes back, he will be the only person apologizing. Since he chose 
the Ministry, which condemned Sirius' without a trial, Ministry who 
almost expelled Harry, Ministry who sent Dolores Umbridge to 
Hogwarts over his family.  Again, I do not claim great prediction 
powers, I thought Percy will die likely enough, but when I thought 
he would not die, I knew that if somebody will be apologizing, he 
will be the only one.


Of course I think corruption and other weaknesses of  the Ministry 
are shown in all its glory in OOP more than any other books.

In the infamous conversation between Dumbledore and Fudge  in GoF  
we finally hear that they have very different ideas of how to fight 
a war.

"You are blinded," said Dumbledore, his voice rising now, by the  
love of the office you hold, Cornelius! You place too much 
importance, and you always have done , on the so called purity of 
blood! You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is 
born, but what they grow to be!" – GoF, p.708, paperback.

"Now, see here, Dumbledore," he said, waiving a threatening 
finger. "I've given you  free reign, always. I have had a lot of 
respect for you. I might have not agreed with some of your 
decisions, but I have kept quiet. There aren't many who'd have let 
you hire werewolves, or keep Hagrid, or decide what to teach your 
students without reference to the Ministry." – GoF, p.709.

Let's read the last line again :

decide what to teach your students without reference to the Ministry.

And this is connection to Hermione's "Ministry is interfering in 
Hogwarts" in OOP, isn't it?

My disdain for MoM as an institution of power reached all time low 
with arrival of Dolores Umbridge.

Dolores Umbridge is a ministry official after all, let me say it 
again, Dolores Umbridge is a ministry official. This woman sent 
Dementors on the student. This woman used blood quill on at least 
two students. This woman thought that students do not need to learn 
practical DADA spells in class.

This woman actively promoted the "Voldemort is not back" line of the 
Ministry and did as we all know many horrible things. That woman is 
a ministry official and not only an official but in the position of 
leadership.

I do not see how the MOM can be viewed with any sort of sympathy 
till people like Umbridge work there, again despite many good people 
working there as well.

We see MOM actively trying to discredit Dumbledore and Harry and 
trying to tell wizarding population that No, Voldemort is not back. 
Of course not, how can he be?

He is not back and we will put our head in the sand and leave it 
there.

It is funny how little it takes for the Ministry to finally believe 
that Voldemort is back. It only takes one person's death, right? 

"HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED RETURNS

`In a brief statement on Friday night, Minister for Magic Cornelius 
Fudge confirmed that He Who Must Not Be Named has returned to this 
country and is once more active.
"`It is with great regret that I must confirm that the wizard 
styling himself Lord - well, you know who I mean - is alive and 
among us again," said Fudge, looking tired and flustered as he 
addressed reporters. "It is with almost equal regret that we report 
the mass revolt of the Dementors of Azkaban, who have shown 
themselves averse to continuing in the Ministry's employ. We believe 
the Dementors are currently taking direction from Lord - Thingy.
"`We urge the magical population to remain vigilant. The Ministry is 
currently publishing guides to elementary home and personal defence 
which will be delivered free to all wizarding homes within the 
coming month. "
`The Minister's statement was met with dismay and alarm from the 
wizarding community, which as recently as last Wednesday was 
receiving Ministry assurances that there was "no truth whatsoever in 
these persistent rumours that You-Know-Who is operating amongst us 
once more"."  - OOP, p.845, paperback.

So, one would think that now Ministry will do their best to prepare 
people to war and start doing smart things, right?

In HBP we see Fudge telling Muggle prime minister that his junior 
minister is under Imperius curse.

I thought it was a nice foreshadowing of Pius Thickness being under 
Imperius in DH.
In fact, I thought (in retrospect obviously, since I totally did not 
predict that the Ministry will fall in DH) that one of the reasons 
JKR wrote this chapter was to stick in some hints that Ministry will 
fall in DH>

I mean, we know DE can get really close to high politicians now, 
again Quacking minister as an example. Witness DH and just see how 
close they can get.
Witness Voldemort being so kind as personally going after the only 
strong and powerful witch who is also as we know firmly on the side 
of good and who probably can resist Imperius, resist bribes, etc. I 
am of course talking about Voldemort being as kind as personally go 
and kill Amelia Bones, who put up a fight, but was unable to win.

And of course we see that Fudge is being sacked.
"My dear Prime Minister, you can't honestly think I'm still Minister 
of Magic after all this? I was sacked three days ago! The whole 
Wizarding community has been screaming for my resignation for a 
fortnight. I've never known them so united in my whole term of 
office!" said Fudge, with a brave attempt at a smile." – HBP, ch.1

"I won't deny that morale is pretty low at the Ministry," said 
Fudge. "What with all that, and then losing Amelia Bones."
"Losing who?"
"Amelia Bones. Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. We 
think He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named may have murdered her in person, 
because she was a very gifted witch and--and all the evidence was 
that she put up a real fight." ( HBP,  ch.1)

Alla:

Isn't it beautifully done? At the beginning of HBP morale is already 
pretty low at the Ministry, should it be really wonder how Voldemort 
and co managed to get in?

Funny, JKR mentioned in the interview that in the first war 
Voldemort could not that far because he was unable to infiltrate the 
ministry. For those of you who consider interview at least somewhat 
canonical, why do you think he was unable to infiltrate Ministry in 
the first war?

I mean, from what we hear the atmosphere of mutual distrust and fear 
was also there. What do you think was different? 

Well, what happened in DH we all know and of course in the days 
before the takeover, Scrimgeour shut himself in his office and as 
many people hoped to work on the plan, but even if he was, obviously 
plan was not successful?



Again, all that I attempted to do was to show that JKR portrayed 
Ministry or at least its leaders in a very consistent way through 
the books – as bunch of corrupted, incompetent and often evil morons.

Thanks for reading guys.

JMO,

Alla