The Other Minister

[Snow_Crystal]

Apart from introducing the new Minister for Magic, why did we hear about the muggle Prime Minister?

Some people said that JK contemplated this chapter for Book 2, I can't see why and what the relevance was.

[Dacre]

Some people have suggested it's an attack on Blair not having as much control as he'd like (JK is friends with Gordon Brown's wife) altho it is a quick way of showing us what has been gonig on in Wizarding and Muggle news, and also that the minister of magic has changed.

[daisymae]

if it is something to do w/Petunia?

the wizarding world is crossing into the Muggle world and Petunia will have to face it....could it be that she also had powers and refused to accept them?

[sweetassugar555]

ooo maybe she does but i dont think that there will be much to do with the dursleys in the next book only the short visit that he promised to take.

[Lelie]

actually, i think she intended it originally for book 1, not book 2. it wouldn't have made sense in book 2 really at all. i think it was just her way of showing that the muggle world is getting glimpses of the war, and an easy way of introducing the new minister.

[Anna Black]

It was a way of showing how severe things have gotten, that the war is so out of control that Muggles are being affected. It showed how freaked out the wizarding community was (sacking Fudge). There was a climactic element to it. Everything was changing.

[menotyoo]

This was her "sum-up." She always has one. This book really jumps into things, though. There is no, "Harry Potter, a lonely teenage boy, who though normal in apprarances is actually much more. He is a wizard. Goes to HW, Hw is..." blah blah blah. She always starts out her books by filling in readers in case they have forgotten previous events. Here, she was able to keep things in the present, or at least from a new perspective on the past as she sums up last book's events. I found the scene quite comical, because it is how you would imagine a meeting such as this might go. I thought it was clever, and I REALLY loved the fact that everything got started right up in this one, as if everyone knows the entire background - which they really should if they are reading this one. I look to the "Chamber o' Secrets all over again" line. There was no line after it explaining what the COS is, it is assumed we know, which I love.

[niki_192]

yeh i think it was also to show how bad things were getting....the new MoM is better than cornelius.........

[Stumpy]

Also to highlight that the wizarding world has now accepted that he LV was back and the DE were at large.

[Snow_Crystal]

Hi daisymae

if it is something to do w/Petunia?

the wizarding world is crossing into the Muggle world and Petunia will have to face it....could it be that she also had powers and refused to accept them?

I like this idea. For me the first chapter was an understanding of how the wizarding world had started to affect muggle life but it didn't seem to carry forward anywhere else in the book as the back cover suggests. I did find this chapter a little harder to get into because of the way JK has written the rest of the books. I naturally want to know more about the wizarding world and was relieved to not have to read about HP's background again and that it went straight into the action in Chapter 2.

However Chapter 1 makes me think the muggle world must have a role to play somewhere in the last book (as JK would ignore it otherwise) and I agree with daisymae that Petunia will have an important part to play in the final book. After all we still haven't heard what Dumbledore said to Petunia in "his last" letter. I can't believe JK will not tidy this up nicely for us.

I wonder what it could be...

I'm secretly hoping that she also has some magical background that she has renounced (like daisymae says) and that we'll hear about them. I reckon however that she will be too afraid to use any magic powers she might have and therefore may or may not use them in the final book.

I also hope we get to hear about Harry's muggle grandparents as I just feel this is any area which just hasn't really been touched on.

[Stumpy]

Well harry still has to return to the Dursley's one last time so it should come out then!

[thestral]

and with his coming of age, he won't be restricted by the rule of underage magic anymore. so next time he can actually just go 'SILENCIO' to the lot of them and they're have to listen to him for once.

[Stumpy]

hope he gets the aunt again! LOL

[Snow_Crystal]

and with his coming of age, he won't be restricted by the rule of underage magic anymore. so next time he can actually just go 'SILENCIO' to the lot of them and they're have to listen to him for once.

I think that Harry might break the law of underage magic before he comes of age. DD mentioned to him that if he performs magic in the house of a wizard, they cannot say who it is within that house that performed that magic.

What do you think?

[glamourweaver]

Some people have suggested it's an attack on Blair not having as much control as he'd like (JK is friends with Gordon Brown's wife) altho it is a quick way of showing us what has been gonig on in Wizarding and Muggle news, and also that the minister of magic has changed.

She's said she's had the scene in her mind for years now, since well before Labor took power. So no, its not an attack on Blair, or any sort of comment on Blair. The Prime Minister isn't directly based on any real world Prime Minister.