[HPforGrownups] Portrayal of MoM in the series VERY LONG BEWARE

[Katie Spilman]

No: HPFGUIDX 178814



Katie: Also, semi-retired DEs are people who are obviously drawn to power, so when LV fell the MoM would be the next best place to seek power so people like McNair and the dementors would seek out the MoM so they could have official permission for their unpleasant deeds.  The MoM would be the most powerful organization to join after LV fell, but before he fell no one would be drawn to the MoM because LV has less restraints than the MoM does on the actions of those who want power.

 
Just my two cents


To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
From: dumbledore11214 at yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2007 23:24:50 +0000
Subject: [HPforGrownups] Portrayal of MoM in the series  VERY LONG BEWARE
















  


    
            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




      

    
    
















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