![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunnyskywalker posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
deathtocapslockFred and George’s defense contract is one of those really interesting hinted-at subplots which is never followed up on. Disappointing for many reasons, but right now, let’s look at the timing.
Harry visits their new shop in, I think, late August. Fred and George say the Ministry has already placed an order for five hundred Shield Hats, and they’re expanding the line to include cloaks and gloves.
Even if a Ministry employee or their kid owl-ordered a Shield Hat months before the storefront opened, giving the employee a lot of time to realize that these new joke hats had potential as serious personal protective equipment, the Ministry had no motive to order them until they confirmed Voldemort’s return in mid-June. That means it took no more than six or eight weeks for someone to pitch the idea to the appropriate department, for that department to decide that a mandatory Shield Charm workshop would be inadequate and the hats were necessary, for the department and maybe Minister to officially approve the proposal, for one or more departments to decide what to cut to compensate for the giant hole the order probably blew in their annual budget, and for someone to put together the paperwork and actually place the order. That’s surprisingly fast and proactive for a ponderous bureaucracy.
True, they didn’t order enough hats for every employee. If they assigned five hundred people to work full-time on preparing for the Quidditch World Cup, they almost certainly have more than five hundred employees, even if you assume that some of those people were outside contractors. On the other hand, Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes is a brand-new business operated by teenagers. They don’t yet have a track record of delivering on large orders, and their product is too new to be sure how well the charms will hold. Also, we don’t know Fred and George’s manufacturing capabilities. They might not yet be able to fill a larger order. Maybe this order is a test run. If the Twins deliver, the Ministry will place a second order.
For all the Ministry’s many failings, at least they can supply a lot of their employees with protective equipment within weeks when a crisis arises. It's surprising enough to make you wonder how and why they managed it. Do they like Arthur so much that they'll place a huge order with his sons? Are they a far more capable organization than they appear? Did someone competent and safety-minded push this through?
Perhaps someone with a proven record as an administrator even when given minimal guidance and training, who has very publicly broken with his family and so cannot reasonably be accused of abusing his position for private gain?
Okay, that's probably speculating too far. But I doubt Scrimgeor signed that purchase order without first asking his personal assistant whether his brothers' products are actually reliable. And Percy is honest enough to tell him that yes, whatever else they might be, his brothers are very magically capable and their products likely perform as promised. He probably deserves at least part of the credit for giving Fred and George's new business a huge boost.
Not that this stops them from throwing mashed turnips at Percy. But then, neither did the prospect of looking childish and unreliable in front of the guy who probably has the power to approve or deny any future Ministry contracts with WWW. The Twins had better hope their products perform really well to make up for that display...
Harry visits their new shop in, I think, late August. Fred and George say the Ministry has already placed an order for five hundred Shield Hats, and they’re expanding the line to include cloaks and gloves.
Even if a Ministry employee or their kid owl-ordered a Shield Hat months before the storefront opened, giving the employee a lot of time to realize that these new joke hats had potential as serious personal protective equipment, the Ministry had no motive to order them until they confirmed Voldemort’s return in mid-June. That means it took no more than six or eight weeks for someone to pitch the idea to the appropriate department, for that department to decide that a mandatory Shield Charm workshop would be inadequate and the hats were necessary, for the department and maybe Minister to officially approve the proposal, for one or more departments to decide what to cut to compensate for the giant hole the order probably blew in their annual budget, and for someone to put together the paperwork and actually place the order. That’s surprisingly fast and proactive for a ponderous bureaucracy.
True, they didn’t order enough hats for every employee. If they assigned five hundred people to work full-time on preparing for the Quidditch World Cup, they almost certainly have more than five hundred employees, even if you assume that some of those people were outside contractors. On the other hand, Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes is a brand-new business operated by teenagers. They don’t yet have a track record of delivering on large orders, and their product is too new to be sure how well the charms will hold. Also, we don’t know Fred and George’s manufacturing capabilities. They might not yet be able to fill a larger order. Maybe this order is a test run. If the Twins deliver, the Ministry will place a second order.
For all the Ministry’s many failings, at least they can supply a lot of their employees with protective equipment within weeks when a crisis arises. It's surprising enough to make you wonder how and why they managed it. Do they like Arthur so much that they'll place a huge order with his sons? Are they a far more capable organization than they appear? Did someone competent and safety-minded push this through?
Perhaps someone with a proven record as an administrator even when given minimal guidance and training, who has very publicly broken with his family and so cannot reasonably be accused of abusing his position for private gain?
Okay, that's probably speculating too far. But I doubt Scrimgeor signed that purchase order without first asking his personal assistant whether his brothers' products are actually reliable. And Percy is honest enough to tell him that yes, whatever else they might be, his brothers are very magically capable and their products likely perform as promised. He probably deserves at least part of the credit for giving Fred and George's new business a huge boost.
Not that this stops them from throwing mashed turnips at Percy. But then, neither did the prospect of looking childish and unreliable in front of the guy who probably has the power to approve or deny any future Ministry contracts with WWW. The Twins had better hope their products perform really well to make up for that display...
