OOTP Chapter Fifteen: "The Hogwarts High Inquisitor"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

 

 

 Well, university life certainly disrupted my sporks
a bit, didn’t it? Still, holidays now, so hopefully they should become more
frequent again. 

 

 

 

 

* “Hogwarts High Inquisitor” sounds a bit like the wizarding
equivalent of OFSTED. But note how JKR’s named the position in such a way as to
conjure up images of unfair, cruel and intrusive enforcement of rigid dogma. Now,
if JK Rowling wants to do a caricature of big government as controlling and
intrusive, that’s fair enough (and probably rather accurate after ten years of
Tony Blair), but it does make one wonder why she’s such a big Labour supporter.

 

* Also, the situation in the WW isn’t really
comparable to that in the Muggle. Muggle education systems are ultimately run
by the government, which is accountable to the voters, whereas DD seems to be
able to do virtually whatever he wants in Hogwarts with practically no
oversight or scrutiny. (He’s theoretically accountable to the Board of
Governors, but they don’t seem to do anything except in emergencies – we never
get any indication that they look over the day-to-day running of the school,
for example.)

 

* Even then, Umbridge’s powers are quite tame
compared to those of Muggle Britain’s government. It seems that she can just
report on the standard of teaching, not determine what’s on the school
curriculum, what disciplinary procedures to use, and so on.

 

* Percy’s interview reads to me less like his own
thoughts and more like an official press release he’s been told to read out. Although
he probably would agree with most of what he’s reading.

 

* But in case any of us were in danger of agreeing
with the Ministry, up pops Lucius Malfoy to support the idea. As no bad guy
could conceivably support any good idea, the High Inquisitor must be a bad
idea, too.

 

* Also, the word “decree” – does that mean that the
Minister just comes up with an idea and it’s implemented, without any need to
pass it through a legislative body? Do the wizards even have such a body? We
hear of people drafting regulation often enough, but never of it being voted on
by the Wizengamot or whatever it’s called. How do they hold their leaders to
account? We hear in PS that “they” wanted to give to job of Minister to
Dumbledore, but he refused and Cornelius Fudge was appointed instead. Do “they”
also have the power to remove Ministers whom they think are doing a bad job? I
suppose this could check some of their more megalomaniacal impulses, although as
a system of holding your executive to account it’s still not particularly good.

 

* Harry is worried by his low Potions grade, and
resolves to do better in future. This could have been a good example of making
Snape into a more rounded character – yes, he can be nasty to students, but
he’s only being cruel to be kind, and his abrasiveness turns out to be for the
best in the long run. It’s a pity this wasn’t explored more, really. (Also, do
we see Harry working harder in future, or is this just one of these things
which is brought up once and never seen again?)

 

* I really feel sorry for Trelawney here, but still,
if she gets so flustered by a simple inspection, how can she cope with the
pressures of being a teacher? What does she do if one of her pupils misbehaves?
Umbridge certainly doesn’t seem much worse than Hermione here.

 

* Also: least. Convincing. Prophecy. Ever.

 

* If Hermione’s already read Chapter Two, there’d be
no harm in reading it again to pick up information she’d missed the first time.
Surely a bright, bookish kid should know this?

 

* Also, this is quite obviously a way of showing off
to her classmates. “Look at me! I’ve read the whole book while you’re still on
Chapter Two. Aren’t I clever?”

 

* “Counter-jinx” to me sounds like it ought to be a
spell that reverses the effects of a jinx, but the way it’s being described
here makes it sound like a jinx which you throw at people when they’re trying
to jinx you, in which case Slinkhard’s quite right to say it’s just a
euphemism.

 

* Also, “[counter-jinxes] can be very useful when
they’re used defensively” isn’t a proper argument. It’s entirely possible for
something to be both (a) a jinx and (b) effective when used defensively.

 

* Umbridge doesn’t bother trying to refute
Hermione’s argument, making it look like Hermione’s right. In reality, of
course, this is a logical fallacy: just because one person does not refute an
argument, that doesn’t mean that no refutation exists.

 

* And Harry has to go and stick his oar in again. What
an idiot.

 

* McGonagall’s right, detentions don’t have any
effect on Harry. Even when he’s having to cut his hand open as part of the
punishment.

 

* Fudge is “gesticulating forcefully, clearly giving
some kind of speech”. I wonder if that’s supposed to remind us of Hitler or
Mussolini?

 

* IRL, of course, being rude to your inspector would
be quite a bad career move. McGonagall, however, can seemingly get away with
it.

 

* Grubbly-Plank’s got the right idea, IMHO: polite,
to-the-point, telling Umbridge what she asks. Although I’m not quite sure why
she’s so happy with Dumbledore. Perhaps because as a substitute, she’s not
really aware of some of Dumbledore’s more… interesting decisions.

 

* Grubbly-Plank plans to teach the children about
the animals they’re most likely to be tested on, whereas Hagrid wastes a whole
year making them participate in his twisted experiments. But Hagrid’s more
loyal to Dumbledore, so he gets the job.

 

* For God’s sake, Harry, shut up. I might be more
sympathetic to you for your treatment by Umbridge if you didn’t constantly give
her reasons to put you in detentions. It’s almost as if you like cutting your hand open.

 

* Hermione gives Harry “a slightly nervous look”
when she suggests forming the DA. Is she worried that he’ll psych out on her
again?

 

* Still, she soon gets over it, and her eyes are now
“lit up”. Yup. She’s really looking forward to learning all those nasty curses,
all right.

 

* Not that I think this is necessarily bad (in terms
of characterisation): showing Hermione as attracted to the Dark Side could have
made for some interesting tension as to whether she’ll end up becoming the
image of what she’s trying to fight, as well as making the Dark Arts seems more
threatening, as even well-intentioned people could fall into them. A pity this
didn’t go anywhere, really.

 

* Apparently trying to put a stop to slavery is a
“far-fetched scheme”. You can tell how much JKR wanted to fight bigotry, can’t
you?

 

* Is Harry
the best in the year at DADA? Pretty much all of the extra-curricular spells he
knows were taught to him by Hermione, and a lot of his success is due to luck,
more talented friends and having the same wand core as Voldemort, none of which
can be taught.

 

* Also, simply being good at something doesn’t
necessarily make you qualified to teach it, otherwise nobody would bother with
any special training for people who want to become teachers. Although given
that JKR apparently taught in Portugal without any particular qualifications,
maybe she does think that being good at a subject is qualification enough.

 

* This whole idea of needing lessons “to prepare
ourselves for what’s out there” is just daft, really. Stupefy, Expelliarmus and
Protego are all you really need in a
fight.

 

* Harry beat Hermione in their third year, the only
year they had a teacher who knew the subject. And who was friends with Harry
and gave him private tuition, of course.

 

* Hermione saying Voldemort’s name is apparently
such a big deal, even though she only found out about him aged eleven, one of
her favourite wizards goes on about how everyone should use the name, and she
doesn’t seem like the sort to now say it for no good reason. JKR really should
have made her a Pureblood: her characterisation would have made a good deal
more sense, and it would explain why she knows so much about the wizarding
world.

 

 

Comments

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

----Also, the word “decree” – does that mean that the Minister just comes up with an idea and it’s implemented, without any need to pass it through a legislative body?

Yes, I believe so.

----Do the wizards even have such a body?

Not sure. As you say, there's really no evidence of there being one in the books.

----We hear in PS that “they” wanted to give to job of Minister to
Dumbledore, but he refused and Cornelius Fudge was appointed instead. Do “they” also have the power to remove Ministers whom they think are doing a bad job?

I believe that "they" are the Wizengamot, and they select the Minister and Heads of Departments from among their own membership. They also have the power to remove a Minister, as they removed Fudge in HBP.

How you become a member of the Wizengamot, however, is rather a mystery to me. It doesn't seem that members are elected by the general populace. Nor is it clear that the seats are inherited---if the older pureblood families were already in charge of the Wizengamot, then they wouldn't need to form separate terrorist groups like the Death Eaters.

Swythyv speculated that Nicholas Flamel was some kind of monarch who had the power to appoint members to the Wizengamot. (See her essays The Invisible King (http://hp-essays.livejournal.com/205121.html) and The Rule of Men (http://hp-essays.livejournal.com/209001.html)). Even if she was wrong about Flamel being in charge, her idea of a there being a wizarding monarch somewhere might have some merit.

Perhaps it's the case that the Wizengamot chooses its own members, meaning that it's something like a fraternal organization, or like the Roman Catholic Church and other churches with episcopal polity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_polity), where the bishops choose whom the other bishops will be.