How we read HP books WAS :Re: Half-Blood Prince

[zanooda2]

No: HPFGUIDX 183889

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:

> Without looking at the books yet, how do we know that he was not 
> yet working at the Ministry in the first chapter of DH? Say he was 
> apprehended at the end of HBP, did anybody recognize him before he 
> escaped? I mean he obviously did escape, right?


zanooda:

When I said "escaped", I meant escaped later, not from the top of the 
tower :-)! But you may be right, we don't know exactly what happened 
there. Here is what Scrimgeour said to Harry to explain how the 
Ministry knew that Harry had witnessed DD's murder: "Somebody 
Stupefied a Death Eater on top of the tower after Dumbledore died. 
There were also two broomsticks up there. The Ministry can add two 
and two, Harry" (HBP, 648 Am ed.).

You see, I understand it like this: the Ministry investigation team, 
that arrived together with Scrimgeour right after that night's 
events, found Yaxley and the brooms. Harry cast full body-bind on 
Yaxley, so he couldn't escape, unless somebody freed him.

But, as I said, it's possible to read this passage differently (which 
you probably do :-)): maybe someone else found Yaxley and the brooms 
before the Ministry representatives arrived, so they didn't actually 
apprehended him, but just were told later that he *was* there. I 
think it's less likely than the first scenario, but still possible.

You are right about the MoM being infiltrated by the DEs (and by more 
than two, IMO) - this was mentioned a few times in "The Dark Lord 
Ascending" and in the following chapters, and Yaxley *does* seem to 
be in charge of all Ministry-related operations. He definitely has 
access to some Law enforcement workers (Thicknesse, Dawlish). He also 
mentioned that the DEs "now have several people planted within the 
Department of Magical Transport", but I can't remember any of the 
planted DEs being mentioned by name.


> Alla wrote:

> I mean, if he indeed has an access to Minister, no less, isn't 
> easier assumption to make that he was working at the Ministry 
> rather than he did it somewhere else?

zanooda:

No, Yaxley didn't have access to the Minister - Thicknesse was 
*only* :-) Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement back 
then. If Yaxley had access to the Minister, he wouldn't have needed 
the help of Thicknesse and other high-ranking officials to overpower 
Scrimgeour. Yaxley's plan was to Imperius Thicknesse so that 
Thicknesse could Imperius other heads of departments. 

He said: "... as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, 
Thicknesse has regular contact not only with the Minister himself 
[doesn't this mean that Yaxley himself doesn't have such a contact?], 
but also with the Heads of all the other Ministry departments. It 
will, I think, be easy now that we have such a high-ranking official 
under our control, to subjugate the others, and then they can all 
work together to bring Scrimgeour down" (DH, p.6).


> Alla wrote:
 
> I am not trying to find a solution that will satisfy me, as I said, 
> I believe that I saw a quote mentioning him working in the MoM 


zanooda:

Oh, oh, maybe it was not in DH, but somewhere in HBP? I'll be on a 
lookout for this quote too :-). Maybe I just forgot :-)! Anyway, if 
we find it, I will consider it a little Flint, LOL!


> Alla wrote:

> I really do not see how him being stupefied ( we do know for 
> sure that it was him?) in HBP makes it impossible for him to 
> work at the ministry. After all Scrimgeour does not name him 
> to Harry, no?


zanooda:

No, he doesn't :-). In fact, he just says "a Death Eater".