Skip to main content

harry potter - How did Lucius Malfoy get back to being a school governor?


I don't have access to my copy of Prisoner of Azkaban currently, but I'm pretty sure I remember correctly that Lucius Malfoy is one of he school governors, since he is a big part of Hagrid's appeal and Buckbeak's attempted execution. But as I was rereading Chamber of Secrets, I noticed this:



Lucius Malfoy had been sacked as a school governor. Draco was no longer strutting around the school as if he owned the place.



Am I wrong? Or is it someone else?



Answer



There's no indication that Lucius was reinstated as a Governor.


When the governors write to Hagrid, the book reads:




We have decided to uphold the official complaint of Mr. Lucius Malfoy, and this matter will therefore be taken to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. [...]


There followed a list of the school governors.



It seems a little unusual for the governors to be deciding on this issue if Malfoy was still among their members. (And Harry et al. know that Lucius was fired as governor; they'd be able to point out a conflict of interest/foul play if he'd been reinstated and was ruling on his own case.)


Hagrid makes strong implications that he can stiffarm the governors and/or Ministry, but doesn't mention anything about his reinstatement:



“Them Disposal devils, they're all in Lucius Malfoy’s pocket! Scared o’ him!” [...]


“That Commitee's in Lucius Malfoy’s pocket.”


“Yeh know what Lucius Malfoy’s like... threatened ’em, I expect... an’ the executioner, Macnair, he’s an old pal o’ Malfoy’s”




but that simply stems from the fact that he was well-connected, and exerted considerable political influence. He doesn't need to be a governor to do that (although he took advantage of it when he was a governor).


I searched the text of Prisoner of Azkaban for all mentions of the word "Lucius" and "governor"; there's nothing which mentions his reinstatement.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...