| “ | That Harry Potter's got more backbone than the whole Ministry of Magic put together! | „ |
| ~ Augusta Longbottom expressing her negative view of the Ministry. |
The British Ministry of Magic (abbreviated M.o.M.), or simply the Ministry, are the secondary antagonists of the Harry Potter series.
The Ministry is the central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland wizarding community, being a parallel to the Government of Her Majesty. They are often in the role of an obstacle to Harry Potter and his allies, as well as being blatantly corrupt and ineffective in their fight against Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters.
Overview[]
The Ministry of Magic is the main governing body of the British and Irish wizarding community, functioning as a type of magical government. Their primary purpose is to govern the magical society and make sure that the magic world stays hidden from muggles.
Though not always a truly evil organization, the Ministry have been often criticized for their corruption, ignorance, incompetence and unfair laws.
Ministry of Magic's smear campaign against Harry Potter and Dumbledore highlighted how problematic its aforementioned issues. To make matter worse, Ministry of Magic was also infamous for employing Dementors as guards of Azkaban — an idea proposed by Damocles Rowle. It's even implied that Rowle himself, or at least his similarly corrupt successors, had bigger, more heinous plans with these treacherous Dark creatures in which they would use Dementors as sort of beasts of war (a plan that ultimately commissioned once Voldemort took over). Even Harry Potter and Dumbledore's decision not to support Ministry of Magic after receiving pardon proved to be wise as its overall systems already progressively aligned to blood purity Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters fiercely believed in as a result of the presence of Pure-Blood Supremacists among its members (ex. Cornelius Fudge and Dolores Umbridge). The Ministry also was more concerned with public opinion and maintaining their reputation, that they willing to cover up bad news or just telling the public what they wanted to hear, which created a false sense of security as the Ministry was afraid of taking any actions that they felt would turn the public against them.
Not surprisingly, following Second Wizarding War, Order of Phoenix purged the corruption and pure-blood bias that marred Ministry of Magic for so long by downright reforming it from scratch, such as removing the Dementors from their employ. They started by having Kingsley Shacklebolt, the veteran member of the Order, assumed the position of Minister for Magic. He would later be succeeded by Hermione Granger, the Muggle-born Wizardkind race which least expected by Death Eaters.
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