When did Tonks become an Auror? Was there ever a year mentioned?

 

Based on that and McGonagall's assessment that Harry would need to do three more years' studies after Hogwarts to become an auror, it sounds like she'd earned her badge the previous summer [1994].

 

There was never any mention, in the books, of whether Aurors wore any sort of official robes when on duty, was there?

 

Voldemort's Ministry might have instituted a rule about wearing uniforms that wasn't there before though.

Hmm.

Thank you nonetheless.

 

Do we know anything about Barnabas Cuffe for sure except for him being the editor-in-chief of the Daily Prophet and his membership in the Slug Club?

E.g. his date of birth, his general appearance, his character?

 

Not much. He was Slughorn's student so he was at Hogwarts before 1981 (Snape had taught for 14 years in OotP). His appearance is totally unknown, and as for his character, we can only make suppositions based on his employing Rita Skeeter and the Prophet being the Minister's private press agency. Even that, we don't know how much was his decision and how much he was forced to do by the law.

 

well he did work for dp so we can assume that he wasnt a nice guy and had it in for dumble and harry.

 

Not really. For all we know the ministry threatened the Prophet's reporters with jail time if they didn't side with the ministry. Also remember people only started taking Harry seriously was after the Quibbler article. This means that they probably only had Fudge's testimony to go on, and Dumbledore's word at what Harry was saying. I would wonder myself why someone who claimed a terrorist was back never spoke up with the news.

 

Did they? I wasn't aware of that, so thanks. Do you know who said that in canon? Or was it something JKR only mentioned afterwards?


Fuck, now I have to rewrite quite a bit of my outline for a Cuffe-centered fanfiction...

 

It's just speculation. However we do know from canon that Fudge was doing everything he could to discredit Harry and Dumbledore. It stands to reason that Fudge probably said something to the Prophet to keep them in his pocket.

It is canon that Ministry workers where under much scrutiny by the Fudge administration and that Dumbledore sympathizers where fired according to Remus in OotP.

 

I don't know about how much/if the ministry was pressuring the Daily Prophet but it seems a bit unlikely. It seems a bit unlikely since I'm pretty sure the DP has said unsavoury things about the ministry on numerous occasions.

Why not just treat it like a normal newspaper and say that they write whatever sells?

Going off track here for a small anecdote: Before I got into Harry Potter, a friend of mine was explaining the magical world to me and brought up the Daily Prophet. My first thought was that it was the opposite of a newspaper and instead of telling past news it told future news such as "Minister Fudge will fall down on the second step of Gringotts tomorrow at 9:52pm" or something similar.

 

Was the reason Ginny had a crush on Harry because she read the Harry Potter fairy tale books or is that fanon?

 

Thats fanon. There is no evidence that books were written about Harry in particular.
All we know ist that he is mentions in a few books, like "The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts" when they talk about Voldemort.

 

In my opinion, it was a combination of that, Ron's tales of their adventures in First year and just being told bedtime stories about him.

Then again, a malnourished frame, diminutive size and meek personality might just be what turns Ginny on.

Protip: If your planned post starts with "In my opinion ...", you need read the rules again and then ... not post.
-Sesc

 

The lexicon mentions that portkeys "must" be made an authorized person, was that ever expanded on? Is there a canon way of detecting illegal portkeys?

Also, a similar question about apparition. I don't think there was a way of detecting/tracking that beyond the trace if the caster was underage but I am not sure about the newer material on pottermore etc.

 

Well, Harry's cave-Hogsmeade apparition in HBP was during the school year and since we don't see any Hogwarts student get any "you're performing magic!" letters from the Ministry during the time they're at Hogwarts, it seems a fair assumption that the Ministry just ignores the Trace while the kids are (expected to be) at school.

 

There was also mentioned that magic can't be traced to a particular person - so if Harry performed magic in company of Dumbledore then it was thought to be Dumbledore's doing.
More interesting seems if they can tell apart what spells/curses/etc. was used. It would mean users of prohibited branches could be caught by performing in proximity of underage wizards...