Who was it in Bungle who said they couldnt use one of the unforgivables?

 

Kwan said that he could not use the Killing Curse without feeling nauseous. He made up for that by being more imaginative with his curses. He said relying on Unforgivables was a problem.

 

What if the mission wasn't really an assassination? What if it was a 'hit and run...scare the shit out of him' type thing?

You know, we can get you any place any time...

That seems to fit their 'character' better.

In any case, it was an interesting chapter.

One thing I think most people are forgetting about Harry, the Dementors and his Patronus, is that last time he went a few rounds with them, James popped up in his head. That would kind of throw one for a bit of a loop and probably make it just that much harder to get into the 'right' mindset to be able to cast a Patronus. Remember, Harry just doesn't have his own joys and sorrows to deal with, he has James's too. To me, Harry not being able to cast a Patronus wasn't all that surprising, in fact, I kind of expected that would be the case.

 

Doubtful. Hit wizards are not hired to scare people. If this was the motive, they wouldn't have waited till they got to Hogwarts.

 

I love how were talking about this as if Hit wizards are real.


For the record, we don't know conclusively what a hit Wizard is...

Only what the name suggest and what little information Jbern Gave us.

Rowling didn't elaborate I don't think...

 

JKR said hitwizards are lesser than aurors. Policemen to SWAT/Military.

But fuck JKR. If she really wanted make it canon she would've written it into a book. Instead of talk about it in an interview to prolong her series' life. The name should fit the title.

In my books Hitwizard==Mercenary.

 

Hitwizard doesn't sound like a run of the mill policeman. It sounds like the wizards hired to do a hit (meaning an assasination, or other mercenary work).
If she wanted some police grunts she could have called them "lawwizard" or something equally dumb.

Aside from that, this is fanfiction since canon doesn't define Hitwizards in any way (they aren't even mentioned that often) the author can play around as much as he likes.

 

If Aurors are better than Hitwizards by JKR's standards, then they must be pretty damn shitty. Honestly, can you name one non-Order, Competent Auror?

 

Dawlish is probably the only one on which we have some information, and of course you're going to argue that he isn't competent because he keeps getting bested. I don't know whethter his character was meant to be a bit of a joke, but certainly he is characterised as less competent than what the initial description lets you think. Scrimgeour was also an Auror, apparently, and was most probably very competent, if he went on to become Minister.

We really don't know that many non-order Aurors, but it is to be noted that the most valuable members of the Order are teachers or Aurors.

 

What??

Does the name "Fudge" ring a bell?

 

Quoted for truth.

 

Do we know that Fudge was incompetent in his previous positions? How do you think Scrimgeour became head of the DMLE?

 

Its fudge...

He's pretty much portrayed as nothing but incompetent.

There are some that like to assume that becoming minister of magic is some epic feat which takes a skilled political mind.

The wizarding world is fucked up... I don't think he has to be that intelligent to rule, just have enough backing.

 

I always thought Rowling just replaced the "man" in "hitman" with "wizard."

Kind of like how she blatantly rips off everything else, eh?

 

In character, wizards are portrayed as very similar to muggles, if not quite a bit more eccentric. That does not make them idiots; they did not elect a guy who had shown to be incompetent in less demanding situations. Becoming Minister is less competitive than in Muggle Britain, but only because there are fewer wizards than muggles. Of course in both cases all it takes is enough backing.

 

Are we ever told how one becomes Minister?

All we know for sure is that Bagnold retired and Fudge became Minister, because Crouch Sr. couldn't...and Dumbles didn't want the job. Rufus took when Fudge was forced to retire. Thicknese took over when Rufus was killed. In all three cases, the man taking over was rather high in the pecking order at the Ministry, but none of them seem to have been elected.

 

It's true we don't know much of the political system, but I find it hard to imagine the Minister being chosen by someting other than some type of vote, though probably not a direct election.

The thread is getting seriously sidetracked. The point was, Aurors are better than Hitwizards according to JKR, and that wouldn't necessarily make them so bad.

 

I laugh in the face of Thread Derailment!

Note that I started the dolphin sex conversation in one of the introduction thread...

As to the Minister, I don't see why the wizarding system has to be anything like the muggle system. It's old enough to have its own traditions.

The most likely scenario to me is that if its a vote, its a vote inside the wizengamont.

With Fudge being the only other candidate at the time, that doesn't really speak much towards his intelligence or competence.

It could be a vote on the person with the most capital, or the one with the most seniority at the time... or maybe the one whose family have been members in the wizengamont the longest.

 

Considering how much influence Malfoy had on the Ministry it is highly unlikely it was done by popular vote. Since the whole Wizarding World seems kind of dated, i'd say the Minister is elected by the Wizengamot as was common in the earlier forms of British Parliament.
Basically the impression i get when i read the books is that the Wizengamot is built similar to the old House of Lords, with an elected Monarch (that being the Minister). Every other construct seems unlikely if you remember how much power the Ministry seemed to have in Book 5.

And yes we've successfully derailed this thread. More power to us

 

Actually, I could see society being in a position of deliberatley choosing a figure head minister. If Crouch and Dumbledore can't be the job, perhaps the last thing they wanted was an ambitious, powerful, and not fully known quantity as minister - and let the Wizengamot actually run the country.