Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Half-Blood Prince/Chapter 1
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Chapter 1 of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: The Other Minister
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[edit] Synopsis
The story opens with the Muggle Prime Minister in his office. As he recollects the past week's events, a wall portrait requests an immediate meeting with Cornelius Fudge, which the Prime Minister reluctantly grants. Fudge appears a few minutes later via the Floo Network, although the Prime Minister is unhappy to see him; every previous meeting has brought bad news. It has been a difficult week for Fudge too, with the Brockdale bridge collapse, Bones and Vance family members being murdered, and the ruckus in the West Country. To the Prime Minister's dismay, Fudge reports that these events involved the Wizarding community.
The Prime Minister first met Fudge shortly after his election several years ago when Fudge informed him about the wizarding world and the Ministry of Magic, the governing body in the UK. He recalls several other Fudge visits the past few years, usually to discuss how the magical community was affecting Muggles. With each visit, Fudge looked increasingly haggard and stressed, and the Prime Minister wonders what bad news Fudge, looking worse than ever, has brought this time.
According to Fudge, He Who Must Not Be Named has returned, and the past week's crises were perpetrated by him and his Death Eaters. The bridge collapse was caused by Fudge's refusal to be blackmailed, the West Country hurricane was not a hurricane at all, and it is suspected Giants caused it. Members of the Bones and Vance families were murdered by Voldemort or a follower. Then there are the Dementors; the creatures are roaming the countryside and attacking people since defecting as Azkaban prison guards. And they are breeding, which is why the weather has been so bad. Fudge admits he was forced to resign over mishandling the Voldemort affair and is there to introduce his successor, Rufus Scrimgeour.
Arriving through the office fireplace, Scrimgeour informs the Prime Minister that due to the recent events in the Wizarding world, wizards will handle his security. Scrimgeour's new secretary, Kingsley Shacklebolt, an Auror, has been assigned to protect him. The Prime Minister is displeased that the wizarding realm has leaked into the Muggle world, but Scrimgeour and Fudge assure him that they are doing all they can.
[edit] Analysis
The meeting between the British Prime Minister and Ministry of Magic officials is a rare instance where Wizard and Muggle domains overtly collide. For centuries, Wizards have secretly coexisted alongside Muggles, remaining carefully hidden and separate. And while there have always been Muggles who are aware that Wizards exists, and even some who have married into that society, what happens in one realm rarely affects the other. This changes when Voldemort's violent attacks begin to include Muggles. Whether or not this is deliberate is, as yet, unclear; Voldemort may intend for the violence to spill over into the Muggle realm as a brazen act to confuse and intimidate other wizards and to demonstrate just how far he can and will go. He may also be intending to breach the long-standing divide between the two realms, bringing both under his rule. Whatever Voldemort's intent, the Prime Minister is powerless to protect his own people, and he has little choice but to accept the Wizarding world's help and to hope that Voldemort can be defeated, or at least contained to his own sphere.
It may be worth recalling Dumbledore’s warning to Fudge, at Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire's conclusion, that "history will remember you as the man who stepped aside, and allowed Voldemort a second chance to destroy the world we have tried to rebuild!" Clearly, this has now come to pass. When Voldemort was revealed to be alive, thus showing plainly that Fudge's ministry, by discrediting both Harry and Dumbledore, had been systematically lying to the Wizarding world, retribution by the general populace was swift. Despite Fudge's efforts to retain power, he has been ousted and replaced by someone who appears more dynamic and better prepared to fight Voldemort and the Death Eaters.
The Prime Minister recalls from an earlier visit, Fudge mentioned that he was required to inform the Muggle government that they were importing dangerous magical creatures into Britain for a Wizarding competition: three dragons and a Sphinx. This may confuse some readers, who remember that there were four dragon species at that competition; however, one was a Common Welsh Green and therefore a native species. It should also be noted that this conversation was quite likely before Harry's name had unexpectedly come out of the Goblet; the original plan might well have been to import three Dragons, and when a fourth was needed, a native variety was used so they would not have to notify the Muggle government again.
In yet another date confusion endemic to the series, Fudge says, "I must say, you're taking it a lot better than your predecessor. He tried to throw me out of the window . . ." (italics in original). If we accept, according to the internal timeline, that it is 1996 when this book takes place, then the Muggle Prime Minister must be John Major, which would make his predecessor Maggie Thatcher, definitely not a "he". Ms. Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979, so Fudge would have had to introduce himself to her in 1979. If, as we assume from the same timeline, Voldemort murdered Harry's parents in 1981, that would mean that Fudge would have been in power before Voldemort's fall. However, the story states that Barty Crouch Sr. was being groomed for that position, and when his son went to Azkaban, after the fall of Voldemort, they tried to tap Dumbledore for that position, and only elected Fudge when Dumbledore refused. So Fudge could not have come into power before 1982 or so in our timeline, which would mean that he could not have introduced himself to Ms. Thatcher immediately after her election. One could try and fit the timeline to the tenure of Tony Blair, who took power in 1997, but there is little point: the story does not depend on any specific interaction with our world, and errors of this sort do not even distract the reader unless we let them.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
- Why does Fudge visit the Muggle prime minister?
- Who does Fudge introduce to the prime minister? Why?
- Why was Fudge forced to resign as Minister for Magic?
[edit] Further Study
- Why might Voldemort's attacks have spilled over into the Muggle world?
- If Fudge was forced to resign, why is he working with Scrimgeour?
- Why did the Dementors defect to Voldemort's side?
- Why were members of the Bones and Vance families murdered?
[edit] Greater Picture
At Christmas, Scrimgeour, the new Minister for Magic, will attempt to persuade Harry to occasionally be seen visiting the Ministry. As a bonus for his cooperation, Scrimgeour hints that Harry may be easily accepted into the Auror branch. Harry recognizes this as an attempt to sway the general populace's opinion that Harry, the "Chosen One", supports the Ministry and its actions; he refuses, believing the Ministry is doing a poor job. And though the Ministry's position on Voldemort may have swung from one extreme position to another, they are more about presenting a good public face rather than building substance under Scrimgeour's leadership.
When Harry later discusses this incident with Dumbledore, we learn that Dumbledore had blocked Scrimgeour from proposing this same scheme to Harry earlier in the school year. Dumbledore knew Harry would never allow himself to be recruited as a Ministry pawn, and that he was still in a fragile mental state over Sirius' death. Dumbledore and Scrimgeour's argument became loud enough that it was overheard and later leaked to the general public. This was actually the Ministry's second attempt to draft Harry; prior to Fudge's ouster, he was attempting damage control and working to retain his power. Dumbledore says when Fudge suggested the same ploy as Scrimgeour, he was similarly rebuffed.
