Fall of the British Ministry of Magic

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Fall of the British Ministry of Magic

TheBritish Ministry of Magic was consideredfallen afterLord Voldemort's coup of the Ministry on1 August1997, during the height of theSecond Wizarding War.^[1] The coup was preceded by theDeath Eaters using theImperius Curse to gain servants high up in the Ministry, includingPius Thicknesse, the Head of theDepartment of Magical Law Enforcement.^[2]

The Death Eaters eventually managed to get enough people in place to assassinateMinister for MagicRufus Scrimgeour and install Thicknesse in his place, as Voldemort's puppet. Over the course of the next year, the Ministry carried out many atrocities in line with Death Eater ideology, notably creating theMuggle-Born Registration Commission in order to imprison innocentMuggle-borns inAzkaban.^[3]

After theBattle of Hogwarts on2 May1998, which resulted in Voldemort'sfinal defeat at the hands ofHarry Potter and the end of the war, the Ministry was immediately taken back and reinstated and later reformed, withKingsley Shacklebolt being made the new Minister.

History[]

Background and plan[]

Over a year since the declaration of open warfare, the situation in the wizarding world was critical. There were continualdeaths all over the country, in thewizarding community andMuggle community alike.^[4]

Lord Voldemort and hisDeath Eaters were ascending in strength. Most of this was due to the formerMinister for MagicCornelius Fudge refusing to acknowledgeVoldemort's return. Fudge's desire to prevent the destruction of the peace that the Ministry has worked so hard to maintain resulted in losing the chance for the citizens to prepare themselves for this tragedy and allowing the Death Eaters to have a full year to rebuild their forces unhindered.^[4]

Following theBattle of the Department of Mysteries, Voldemort's return became apparent and Fudge himself was forced to admit it publicly, formally starting theSecond Wizarding War; Fudge's misconduct caused a major scandal in the Wizarding community ofGreat Britain andIreland, resulting in his dismissal from office, despite the feeble and unrealistic attempts by the disgraced Minister to save his reputation.^[4]

By this time, however, the Ministry had found themselves fallen too far back to get back on track, which was made worse when the new Minister for MagicRufus Scrimgeour was more worried about the Ministry's reputation than actual security, engaging in policies such as covering up breakouts and arresting random suspects.^[5]

In the summer of1997, a few weeks afterAlbus Dumbledore'sdeath, Voldemort and his followers plotted to overthrow theMinistry of Magic. To this end, there was a massivebreakout of Death Eaters fromAzkaban, which the Ministry decided to keep quiet in order not to spread panic. Voldemort set up his headquarters atMalfoy Manor and had his servants use the Imperius Curse to gain servants in high working positions within the Ministry.

ByJuly,Corban Yaxley relayed information to Voldemort during themeeting atMalfoy Manor that he (with difficulty and after great effort) had managed to placePius Thicknesse, head of theDepartment of Magical Law Enforcement, under theImperius Curse. Because Thicknesse had regular contact with Minister for MagicRufus Scrimgeour and with the heads of other Ministry departments, he was useful in subjugating the others to Death Eater control and then having many people help Voldemort when he eventually decided to stage the coup.^[2]

The Death Eaters also made use of their growing control of the Ministry tomonitor ifHarry Potter used theFloo Network or aPortkey or attempted toApparate. This forced theOrder of the Phoenix to transport him away from hisrelatives' home byflight usingbroomsticks,Thestrals, andHagrid'smotorbike. When they were ambushed by Death Eaters, abattle ensued.^[6][7]

The coup and new order[]

On1 August1997, the Death Eaters put their plan into action and staged a coup against the Ministry. Scrimgeour was captured and interrogated by Voldemort, who brutallytortured him for information on the whereabouts ofHarry Potter, but Scrimgeour refused to divulge anything he knew and was thusmurdered at Voldemort's hands. Thicknesse was installed in his place as Voldemort's puppet.

The coup was described as "swift and quiet" and virtually silent, and many members of the public were unaware of the take-over. This was intended to clearly ensure the community was suppressed with confusion and distrust, as if Voldemort had declared himself Minister outright, it might have induced open rebellion. The official version of what happened was that Scrimgeour has voluntarily resigned as Minister.

The coup also resulted in Voldemort taking control of the newspaperDaily Prophet, allowing him to control the information given to the public. With this new tool he spread propaganda against Harry Potter, Muggle-borns, and allies of the Order of the Phoenix. This was disguised as the Ministry's new policy.^[8] Independent media outlets such asThe Quibbler attempted to resist censorship, but were eventually subdued through threats and violence^[9], forcing the Order of the Phoenix to resort to pirate publications, such as the radio programmePotterwatch.^[10]

Using the power of the Ministry, the Death Eaters managed to take down the protections the Order had placed around its new headquarters,The Burrow, and its safehouses, as well as using illegal spells to full effects without fear of detection and prosecution. Death Eaters arrived at The Burrow during thewedding reception ofBill Weasley andFleur Delacour, butKingsley Shacklebolt had managed to send warning just in time using his talkinglynxPatronus.^[1]

Some guests escaped, including Harry,Hermione Granger, andRon Weasley.^[11] Those who remained were interrogated and roughed up, but no one was killed. Others connected to the Order, such asTed andAndromeda Tonks, were also tortured for information about Harry, but left alive. The Death Eaters alsoattacked thehome ofDedalus Diggle in an attempt on his life. However, he was not there, and his house was burned down.^[8]

Various Death Eaters were given high-ranking positions in the Ministry (includingTravers andSelwyn); Yaxley became the new head of theDepartment of Magical Law Enforcement. TheTaboo was placed upon Voldemort's name almost immediately, as a method of tracking enemies. This method proved highly effective, since the only people brave enough to call Voldemort by his name wereOrder of the Phoenix members.

Antonin Dolohov andThorfinn Rowle nearly captured Harry, Ron and Hermione this way after tracking them toTottenham Court Road.^[11] Harry Potter was declaredUndesirable No.1, with a reward on his head, and anyone with known connections to him were placed under surveillance, such asArthur Weasley.^[3]Muggle-borns andblood traitors were marked as Undesirables as well.

Under Death Eaters' control[]

The Ministry under Voldemort made a drastic number of sweeping changes in line with Death Eater ideology. It was claimed by theDaily Prophet and by Ministry-printed propaganda, that magic could only be inherited, meaning thatMuggle-borns must have stolen it from "real" wizards and witches. The infiltrated Ministry used this excuse to force Muggle-borns to register for theMuggle-Born Registration Commission, which falsely convicted them of theft and sentenced them to life imprisonment inAzkaban, and/or stripping them of their wands, jobs, homes, and families, and leaving them asimpoverished beggars.

Attendance atHogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry became strictly obligatory throughoutGreat Britain andIreland, andblood status had to be carefully verified on all students, which greatly enabled the Death Eaters to easily weed out all Muggle-born children. Despite the seeming ridiculousness of this "research" thatRonald Weasley believed that nobody would accept, the public was drenched in confusion by Voldemort's secrecy and distrust that they fully complied with the arrest and degradation of all Muggle-borns.^[8]

Severus Snape was appointed the newheadmaster of Hogwarts and Death EatersAlecto andAmycus Carrow were made the new professors ofMuggle Studies andDefence Against the Dark Arts classes, respectively.^[12] The latter essentially became theDark Arts, and the former nothing but hateful propaganda againstMuggles,Squibs, andMuggle-borns.^[13] Under these circumstances,Neville Longbottom,Ginny Weasley, andLuna Lovegood restartedDumbledore's Army to defy the Death Eater professors.^[14][13] All the other professors remained in school not only to continue to provide education to all the students, but also to protect them from the Death Eaters as much as possible.^[12]

TheOrder of the Phoenix continued to lead an underground resistance effort, broadcasting messages of truth and hope throughPotterwatch and protectingMuggles.^[10]The Quibbler also initially supported Harry Potter by printing stories advocating him, until theeditor's daughterLuna Lovegood was taken hostage, forcing it to turn on Harry.^[9]

Reinstatement and restoration[]

After Lord Voldemort was finallykilled for good by Harry during theBattle of Hogwarts, the fall of the Ministry was almost immediately reverted and its original regulations were restored, withKingsley Shacklebolt being the newly appointedMinister for Magic.

Alternate timeline[]

In analternate reality created byAlbus Potter andScorpius Malfoy, Voldemort successfully killed Harry, thus the fallen Ministry was not restored, and in fact, the Death Eaters' rule continued to increase in cruelty. Hogwarts became a training ground for future Death Eaters, being taught Dark Arts by torturing and murdering Muggles and Muggle-borns with twisted experiments. The Ministry fell under the control of anindividual under the alias "theAugurey", andDraco Malfoy was made Head of theDepartment of Magical Law Enforcement in charge of bribing the Muggle government into ignoring the many atrocities from the magical world. Death Eaters and other wizarding misfits murdered Muggles for fun, such as blowing up bridges to see how many Muggles would die from it. Furthermore, there were Muggle death camps and anyone who dared defy Voldemort would be burned alive. Scorpius described this timeline as "hell". With the help of a lingering resistance from the remnants of theOrder of the Phoenix andDumbledore's Army, Scorpius managed to restore this timeline and, effectively, the Ministry.^[15]

Appearances[]

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows(First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (video game)
• Pottermore
• HarryPotter.com(Mentioned only)
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7

Notes and references[]

See also[]

• Fall of the German Ministry of Magic