DEs Entering the Ministry (and Sturgis Podmore)

[Scott]

Phyllis wrote:
"I assumed the DEs Apparated into the Ministry, since there don't 
appear to be any anti-Apparition charms (Arthur Apparates to work 
each day and Harry sees witches and wizards Apparating on his way to 
his hearing).  I don't think anyone would have stopped Lucius Malfoy 
from Apparating into the Ministry anyway, since he's in league with 
Fudge."

--I got the impression that, although there is no canon to back this 
up, a person could apparate ONLY into the atrium. After all Harry 
sees a lot of people coming into the MoM, but if they could would 
they not just apparate to their desks/offices? And what's the good 
of guarding the DoM door if someone can just apparate directly into 
the room of Prophecy? I think it makes sense that the Atrium is a 
terminus of sorts for coming-and going; therefore, if the DE's 
apparated they would've done so into the Atrium. I don't think they 
used the phone-booth.

Monika wrote:
"Maybe security is down during night hours when the building is 
empty? A bit unlikely, since there are quite some items of interest 
to Voldemort stored there."

--Yes as Phyllis pointed out this is *exactly* the point. If you 
don't  believe that Voldemort's returned why are you going to have 
security against him? It's part of the delicious irony that fills 
these books. The Order had to hide under invisibility cloaks and go 
about guarding the DoM in a very secretive way. If the ministry had 
found out what they were up to if would have been hell to pay, and 
Fudge would have painted them as delusional. BUT a group of most-
wanted Death Eaters can walk right in, because, after all, the MoM 
won't admit that *they* are a threat.


"Although I wonder what it was that brought Fudge to the Ministry 
after the Voldemort-Dumbledore duel.  There must have been something 
that triggered his arrival armed with his Aurors – perhaps when a 
prophecy is removed from a shelf after hours, it triggers some sort 
of alarm?"

--Could it have been Harry et al. going in via the phonebooth (this 
had to have registered *somewhere* since they got those nifty 
badges) that triggered the alarm?

Why wasn't there a member of the Order standing guard as usual?

And speaking of members of the Order...why did no one see Sturgis as 
a great security risk? After all he had shirked his duties several 
times. Hermione makes the assumption that he was under the Imperius 
Curse when he tried to break into the DoM, but we don't have real 
proof of that. It seems to me that it's just as likely he could have 
been a Voldemort spy in the Order, or even if he wasn't (and was 
under Imperius) it seems like a DE or someone would've pressed him 
to see what he was doing. Find out about the Order...

Then again maybe they *have*. They can't get to Grimmauld place 
because even if they know *where* it is they don't know it from 
Dumbledore, and therefore couldn't gain access (that's how Fidelius 
works [right?]).

I just don't see why everyone wrote off Sturgis. There seems to be 
more than meets the eye there (if you ask me).  Well I could've 
missed something. I often do.

Scott