[the_old_crowd] Fun and games with Baggy

[Magda Grantwich]

I agree with Kneasy that Ludo Bagman is an under-appreciated
character in the books so far and that he probably is, as Winky said,
"a bad wizard!"

I used to work in a very large government department and there were
guys like Bagman dotted here and there in the various layers of the
ministry.  Mostly they kept their heads down, did their (not onerous)
jobs and looked forward to retirement but some were more forthright
and they did the same kind of thing that Bagman seems to do in GOF.  

He's the go-to guy who can make things happen, who knows a wide range
of people and isn't shy about calling in favours, with the unspoken
commitment that he owes you one and he's good for the payment.  I can
definitely see Bagman as the kind of guy who owes so many favours
that he pays each off by doing yet more favours: the currency of
likeability without drawing down his own personal deposit at the
Bank.

He gets into trouble when he actually puts his own resources on the
line and goes up against the goblins of the banking system.  They
don't care about pricey seats at events or the usual stuff Bagman can
produce and for the first time in a long time he can't charm his way
out of things.  And so he takes a flit.

I don't see Bagman as a terribly pro-active person.  He's basically a
lazy, what's-in-it-for-me?, reactive guy, moving when he has to move,
trading on cheap charm because it costs him nothing.  

I think he did for Voldemort what he did best: charm bright and
upcoming young wizards in the MOM, dazzling them with his sporting
background and then doing little favours to make them feel special,
maybe getting them low-level jobs at the MoM, then introducing them
to DE recruiters and not looking back.  I doubt if Bagman ever went
DE-ing himself; he was a procurer, not a foot-soldier in the war.

And he probably told himself that he wasn't doing anything wrong by
making introductions; if the young wizards he passed on did foolish
or criminal things, well, he hadn't told them to do it.

I think this is how Peter Pettigrew first got approached for DE-dom,
when PP was looking to find a new James Potter to coast along in the
wake of.

But I don't think Bagman messed with Bertha's brain or did anything
that didn't have an immediate payback for him.  He's just not that
forward thinking.

Magda


	
		
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