The do-nothing Ministry

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186384

I've been thinking about the Ministry for some reason, maybe because Scrimgeour came up in the discussion recently. Setting aside the question of whether he understands the significance of Harry's raised fist and the Umbridge-caused scars on it (I don't see how he can, honestly), I'm wondering whether the Ministry is quite as inefficient as Harry thinks it is. He's judging, IIRC, based on three things: Umbridge is still there, Stan has been arrested but apparently not tried, and Scrimgeour covers up the second mass break-out from Azkaban.

But that isn't quite all that the Ministry has--or hasn't--done. Poor Fudge had to choose between yielding the government to Voldemort (which, of course, he couldn't do) and having Voldemort carry out his threat to kill some Muggles. Fudge, showing more backbone than we might expect, refused to yield to Voldemort's blackmail, but the result was the disaster with the bridge. Before he stepped down, he admittedly belatedly but publicly that Voldemort was back and allowed the Daily Prophet to report the break-in, apparently restoring what passes for freedom of the press in the WW, and the Ministry arrested all the DEs involved except Bellatrix Lestrange.

Once Scrimgeour takes over, he sends Fudge to inform the Muggle Prime Minister (whom Fudge has kept updated throughout his own term in office) of the true state of affairs. Scrimgeour has already placed Kingsley Shacklebolt on the Prime Minister's staff to make sure that he isn't Imperio'd, and he's had Herbert Chorley, the junior minister hit by a faulty Imperius Curse, placed in St. Mungo's so that he won't endanger his own family.

The Ministry is investigating the recent crimes (they know, of course, who's responsible). They've printed and distributed lists of protective measures that the public can take, not concealing the possible danger from Death Eaters, Dementors, or Inferi. Scrimgeour has created a new department whose long name I've forgotten, with Mr. Weasley in charge, to deal with all the fake charms, potions, and amulets that unscrupulous wizards are selling to the gullible and fearful public. Security measures have been increased not only at the Ministry and Gringotts but at the Burrow while Harry is there (not that the Ministry's reading the Weasleys' mail or the security questions are very helpful), and Harry is provided with a Ministry car and an Auror escort to Platform 9 3/4. Hogwarts itself has locks on the gates and Aurors standing guard in Hogsmeade. And, of course, all the Aurors are searching for any known Death Eaters who are still at large and for Voldemort.

Ultimately, of course, many if not all of these measures fail. Without the Dementors, Azkaban is apparently no longer secure and there's another mass breakout (this one concealed from the public). Death Eaters penetrate Hogwarts by a means that not even DD could have anticipated, and he is killed. The Ministry is infiltrated, an influential MoM official is Imperio'd, Scrimgeour is murdered, and the DEs take over the Ministry.

Up until the Ministry is infiltrated and Scrimgeour is killed, it seems to me that the MoM behaved exactly like a Muggle government under attack. In fact, I'm reminded of 9/11--enhanced security measures, public advisories, speeches, warnings. Of course, JKR planned her books long before 9/11, and she's not American. I suspect that she's basing the MoM on British, not American, government and quite possibly satirizing what she perceives as government inefficiency and bureaucracy, with the takeover by the DEs as a dire warning of the potential consequences.

And yet, as Dumbledore says, Scrimgeour is an able and forceful man who has fought Dark Wizards all his adult life and does not underestimate Voldemort. Aside from informing the public about the second breakout from Azkaban, what else could he have done? (Yes, he could have investigated Umbridge if he understood Harry's hints, but it would have been time-consuming and I'm not sure what else it would have accomplished. Someone else would have run the Muggle-born Registration Commission. And Stan Shunpike, guilty or not guilty, is small potatoes in the battle against Voldemort (though, of course, I agree that justice should not be suspended in time of war). True, Scrimgeour would have been better off spending the last month of his life doing something other than studying Dumbledore's will and the artifacts that he willed to the Trio. I can't be sure, but I think he must have expected to find something that would help him in the fight against Voldemort. Unfortunately for him, he could not have been more wrong.

Carol, not making any particular point, just wondering what else the Ministry could--and should--have done