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In J.K. Rowling's fictional universe that she describes in the Harry Potter novel series, the Ministry of Magic is the governing body of the magical community of Britain and succeeded the earlier Wizards' Council. It is known that other countries have their own Ministries of Magic. The job of the Minister for Magic seems to include executive, legislative and judicial functions (see more below.) The Ministry has seven departments and many minor offices to deal with different aspects of the wizarding world. Different departments communicate through "Inter-departmental memos", pale violet paper airplanes that will fly to their destination. The British Ministry of Magic headquarters is in central London, deep underground.

The Ministry keeps in touch with the British Prime Minister with the help of a wizard's portrait in the Prime Minister's office on Downing Street who notifies the Prime Minister of the Minister for Magic's arrival. To enter the ministry, one must dial the number 62442 ("MAGIC") into a specific public telephone and state one's name and reason for entering. Passes are then issued (apparently through a magical system) and the telephone box then descends through the ground into the ministry's lobby in Floor B8.

In the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling, the Minister for Magic (original British editions and the film series) or Minister of Magic (U.S. editions) is the head of the Ministry of Magic.

Current Minister for Magic

The current Minister for Magic in Britain in the fictitious setting of Rowling's books is Rufus Scrimgeour.

Former Ministers for Magic

Rufus Scrimgeour replaced Cornelius Fudge as of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Fudge himself replaced Millicent Bagnold, about whom nothing else is known. Other Ministers have included Grogan Stump, who settled the Beings vs. Beasts classification problem, and Artemisia Lufkin, the first witch to be elected to the post. Below the Minister are various undersecretaries (most notably Dolores Umbridge), and heads of various magical departments. The exact structure of power within the ministry is relatively unknown.

Albus Dumbledore, former headmaster of Hogwarts, was offered the job of Minister and refused it at least three times. When Tom Marvolo Riddle, now Lord Voldemort, was a senior student at Hogwarts, he was widely predicted to become Minister for Magic someday. Riddle refused all offers of assistance to find work at the Ministry, however.

One of the most popular Ministers ever was Grogan Stump (1770-1884), who was appointed to the post in 1811.

Floor directory

A floor directory of the Ministry of Magic is as follows:

Important note: As the entire Ministry is underground, the higher the floor number, the deeper the floor is. (Although the texts do not normally use the prefix "B-" on floor numbers to denote underground floors, they are used in this article to comply with standard usage and for purposes of clarity).

  • Basement Level 1 - Office of the highest Ministry Officals, such as the Minister for Magic, Advisor to Minister, Senior Undersecertary to Minister for Magic, and Junior Assitant to Minister for Magic (presumed)

  • Basement Level 5 - Department of International Magical Cooperation

  • Basement Level 10 - Courtrooms (stairway access only)

Vertical transportation directory

The main lift (disguised telephone box) transports visitors from ground level to the Atrium on floor B8.

More than twenty service lifts stop at all floors between B1 and B9, inclusive.

Stairways may provide access to all 10 levels in the Ministry. They must be used to access the courtrooms on floor B10.

Department of Magical Law Enforcement

Arguably the most important of the various departments, this one is a combination of police and justice facilities. Located on the second level of the Ministry of Magic, it includes
  • The headquarters of the Aurors, a team of elite dark wizard hunters.
  • The Improper Use of Magic Office which punishes wizards for using magic in inappropriate ways, at the wrong time, or in violation of magical laws;
  • The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office which regulates the use of magic on Muggle objects and recovers those which have been bewitched; It contains the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects Office which is located in a tiny office, staffed by an enthusiastic Arthur Weasley and his assistant, Perkins. Its aim is to keep enchanted items out of the hands of Muggles, often necessitating raids to keep Dark Magic items out of circulation. Harry Potter briefly visits this office before his trial at the beginning of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix .
  • The Wizengamot, the wizarding High Court of Justice.
The department was once headed by Barty Crouch. The former Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, prior to her brutal death at the hand of Lord Voldemort, was Amelia Bones.

Department of Magical Games and Sports

The most relaxed department (posters for favorite Quidditch teams are found tacked to the wall in its entrance corridor, although it should be noted that some Aurors have also tacked up similar posters in their cubicles) deals with such sports-related pastimes as organizing the Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament. Ludovic "Ludo" Bagman used to be the Head of Department here, but his gambling problem forced him to flee from Goblin creditors. The current head of the department is unknown. The department is located on the seventh level of the Ministry of Magic, and includes:

Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes

This department is responsible for repairing accidental magical damage. It is located on the third level of the Ministry of Magic and houses the following offices:

Accidental Magic Reversal Squad

The Accidental Magic Reversal Squad is a squad of wizards whose job it is to reverse 'Accidental Magic,' which is normally caused by young witches and wizards who have not learned to control their magic. For instance, the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad was sent out in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when Harry blew up his Aunt Marge like a balloon. The squad probably had to contact Obliviator Headquarters to get an obliviator on the scene to modify Marge's memory.

  • Obliviator Headquarters
  • Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee

Department of Magical Transport

This department is responsible for various aspects of magical transport. It is located on the sixth level of the Ministry of Magic and includes the following offices:

  • Floo Network Authority: The Floo Network Authority is responsible for setting up and maintaining the network, and distributing the greenish floo powder. The network is composed of the fireplaces of all the wizarding houses and buildings which are interconnected and it allows the user to transport themselves to any other fireplace on the network thanks to the magical qualitites of the floo powder.
  • Broom Regulatory Control
  • Portkey Office
  • Apparition Test Centre: The magical equivalent of the DVLA; grants licences to witches and wizards so that they can apparate.

It is not said whether the Knight Bus is regulated by this department.

Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures

It is divided into three divisions ("Being", "Beast" and "Spirit") and contains liaison offices for goblins and centaurs, though the centaurs, being isolationists, have never interacted with the Centaur Liaison Office since its creation. Thus, "being sent to the Centaur Office" has become a euphemism at the Ministry for those about to be fired. For further detail on the distinctions between these divisions, see Magical beasts (Harry Potter).

In Chapter 7 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, we learn that the department is located on the fourth level of the Ministry of Magic.

Offices:

  • Ghoul Task Force
  • Pest Advisory Board

Department of International Magical Cooperation

The Department of International Magical Cooperation is an agency which, as its name suggests, tries to get wizards from different countries to cooperate. The British International Confederation of Wizards is based here, as are offices that regulate international magical law. This department on the fifth level of the Ministry of Magic includes the headquarters of:

  • The International Magical Trading Standards Body
  • The International Magical Office of Law
  • The International Confederation of Wizards, British Seats

The former head was Barty Crouch Sr. until he was killed by his son Barty Crouch Jr. The current head is unknown. This is also where Percy Weasley began his ministry career.

Department of Mysteries

The Department of Mysteries is, as its name suggests, a mysterious department. It carries out most of its operations in total secrecy. Few wizards within the ministry actually know what is located within this department. Those wizards who work in the Department of Mysteries are called the Unspeakables.

Although most of the workings of the Department are still covert, some of the projects undertaken, most seemingly for research purposes, were revealed in Order of the Phoenix: the Department apparently works to uncover the secrets of death and time, among other things, and record prophecies whenever they are made. Prophecies are magically stored within glass orbs on rows of shelves within the Hall of Prophecy. They are magically protected, so that the only people who can lift them off their shelf are the Keeper of the Hall of Prophecies and the subject or subjects of the prophecies; all others are afflicted with instant madness.

Its name could be a reference to the Eleusinian Mysteries of Ancient Greece. It shares with those rites a preoccupation with immortality and the cycle of time.

The rooms at the Department each seem (although not spelled out directly) to refer to various mysteries of life, such as "Time", "Death", and "Love". These rooms include:

  • An entrance room whose walls rotate, disorienting its occupants for several seconds, whenever all of its doors are closed. This is presumably a security device to keep non-employees of the Department from reaching a desired room. Responds to a verbal request for an exit by opening the correct door.
  • The Thought Chamber - A long room in which brains swim in a green solution (These "brains" seem to be controlled by some sort of creature that uses them to strangle its victims).
  • The Space Chamber - A dark room full of planets floating in mid-air. Visitors may find themselves floating as well. Includes the planets Uranus and Pluto.
  • The Death Chamber - A large, square room with stone tiers leading down to a pit in the centre. In this pit is a dais, on which stands a very old arch with a tattered curtain hanging from it. Called the "Death Chamber" by Dumbledore. It was through this archway that Sirius Black, Harry Potter's Godfather, fell to his apparent demise in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
  • The Time Chamber - A room in which various time-related devices are kept, such as clocks of every description and Time-Turners (necklaces with hourglass pendants, which will send the wearer back in time when the pendant is turned over). It also contains a mysterious bell jar, inside which anything will grow steadily younger and younger, then slowly return to its original age in a never-ending cycle.
  • The Hall of Prophecy - A giant, cavernous room with over a hundred rows of shelves, where prophecies are kept. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood are lured to this room by Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
  • The always locked room - A room behind a door that remains locked at all times and which cannot be unlocked by either the Alohomora spell or magical unlocking penknives. According to Albus Dumbledore, behind that door is the most mysterious subject of study in the Department: a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature.......It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all.. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, this power was confirmed through a dialogue between Harry and Dumbledore to be love.

Sixteen years before Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , Sybill Trelawney made a prediction about Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter. A Death Eater (who was revealed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to be Snape) overheard the first part of the prediction. Voldemort decided to kill Harry Potter, believing this would prevent the prophecy from coming to pass: instead, he caused the events described by the prophecy to be set into motion in the first place, and lost his powers.

After his powers were restored in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort decided he had to get his hands on Trelawney's prophecy, now stored in the Department of Mysteries. The trouble was that only he or Harry Potter could take them from the Department of Mysteries. As Lord Voldemort was not about to walk into the Ministry of Magic, he decided to lure Harry there.

This plan nearly succeeded, but the prophecy was destroyed before Voldemort could obtain it. There was a struggle in the Department and Sirius Black fell through the Veil and is presumed dead. When Cornelius Fudge saw Voldemort at the Ministry of Magic, he was forced to acknowledge that he was wrong in denying that Voldemort had indeed returned.

Unfortunately, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the heroes see the situation has largely not improved with the Ministry of Magic seemingly more concerned with keeping a public image of diligence than actually opposing Voldemort with proper vigor. For instance, they arrest Stan Shunpike who is likely guilty of no more than idle boasting and attempt to persuade Potter to join the ministry for propaganda purposes. When he refuses, Rufus Scrimgeour, who has replaced Fudge as the Minister for Magic, accuses him of being "Dumbledore's man through and through," a description which Harry proudly adopts for himself.

References

Harry Potter places | Fictional governments | Ministry of Magic

Ministerio de Magia | Ministère de la Magie | Ministero della Magia | משרד הקסמים | Kementerian Sihir | Ministerie van Toverkunst | 魔法省 | Magidepartementet | Ministério da Magia | Luettelo Harry Potter -käsitteistä | Trolldomsministeriet

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Ministry of Magic".

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