OOTP Chapter Eight: "The Hearing"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* And we’re up to p. 126, and the first interesting thing in the book. Back in COS we’d already had the whomping willow, the writing on the wall and the trio coming up with the plot to spy on Malfoy. Oh, for the good old days of tight plotting...

 

* Hey, Percy’s eager to do his job, the rotter! Good people know that government is never anything but evil (unless it’s a Labour Party government, of course), and therefore expect civil servants to do their job in the most unenthusiastic and dispirited manner possible.

* I’m a bit surprised that the Minister of Magic is allowed to sit as judge in a criminal trial. Wouldn’t that rather compromise judicial impartiality? I mean, I know that wizards are generally a bit behind muggles, but I’d have thought that they’d have at least reached 1689 by now.

* I’m not sure how they do things in the WW, but I’d be surprised if they didn’t take a dim view of their judges being interrupted. It’s a bit odd for Dumbledore to interrupt Fudge here, then.

* It’s clear that this trial has nothing to do with underage magic, and everything to do with Fudge trying to get Dumbledore through Harry. Really, this is what you get when your constitution doesn’t have even the most basic legal safeguards.

* For all that wizards look down on the muggle world, I’d feel a lot safer being falsely accused and then tried in a muggle court than I would being falsely accused and then tried in a wizard court.

* Producing a corporeal Patronus is such an achievement. Until the plot demands that the whole DA need to learn it, when it suddenly becomes a spell a group of teenage schoolchildren can cast. Either that, or Harry just displays a hitherto un-guessed-at genius for teaching. Gary Stu? Don’t be ridiculous!

* Also, note how it’s specifically Percy’s reaction that goads Harry into action. Is this because Percy was, if not especially close to Harry, then at least closer to him than Fudge or the other Wizengamot members, and his bad opinion therefore matters more to him?

* Does anyone know what Harry’s supposed motivation for this crime was? Because randomly casting Patroni for no reason seems a bit odd.

* Fudge doesn’t know anything about wizarding judicial procedure, it seems. Yes, he’s really making himself and his case look good here, isn’t he?

* I like it how Squibs are apparently so marginalised that nobody knows whether or not they can see Dementors. Sometimes, the WW’s just so bigoted it just makes me want to swear loudly and throw my book through the window.

* Why does Mrs. Figg feel the need to lie about seeing Dementors? Does she worry that she won’t be taken seriously if she doesn’t look magical enough? Remember kids, racism’s the fault of a few posh bigots like Draco and Tom Riddle! It can be easily solved by killing one person and making his group of followers marry outside the aristocracy. It’s not at all a deep-seated problem with complex societal and sociological causes, which can take decades to reduce and can never be truly eradicated.

* Fudge isn’t being very professional here. Snorting derisively? For heaven’s sake, man, you’re the head of Wizarding Britain’s government; why not try and act like it?

* “But naturally, you would not care how many times you heard from a witness, if the alternative was a serious miscarriage of justice.” Yep, say what you like about Dumbledore and his chums, they sure hate miscarriages of justice. Unless they can get Quidditch tickets out of it, of course. Or one of the criminals knows that you’ve been illegally letting a werewolf study in Hogwarts. Or they’ve told the authorities of your illegal student organisation. Or you can’t be bothered to try and prove the defendant innocent. Or…

* So, do Wizard courts not have barristers to cross-examine witnesses? Or is that the judges’ job?

* I can’t help but have a sneaking respect for Dumbledore’s handling of the trial. He’s a bastard, but (as TV Tropes would say) a magnificent bastard nonetheless.

 

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

Who would know what a Patronus is and what it is good for other than some DMLE members who cart prisoners to/from Azkaban?

[sunnyskywalker]

Well, if these were anything like real people, anyone who is geeky enough to study advanced magic for fun, and there's probably at least a couple every generation. As far as we know, learning about Patronuses isn't restricted at all, so they would be able to find the spell. It seems like someone would have wanted to experiment in the last century or so. And those DMLE members - or at least their R&D people who develop counter-spells against whatever the criminals have thought up these days, if they have those - might want a way to send a quick "Something's gone wrong, send help" message (even if they haven't used it, best to be prepared).

But then, wizards don't act much like real people.