Every morning underneath the city streets of Whitehall, London, a hidden community of
magical individuals start their workday at the Ministry of Magic.
Arriving either through the Floo network or many secret magical entrances from the city
above, these witches and wizards work tirelessly to protect the wizarding community of Great
Britain and Ireland and enforce wizarding law.
Above all, the Ministry of Magic is responsible for keeping the presence of magic a secret
from the Muggles they live amongst.
Founded in 1707 after the International Confederation of Wizards’ decision to enact the Statute
of Secrecy, the Ministry of Magic was formed as a successor to the Wizards’ Council.
The Ministry of Magic is comprised of seven main departments: Magical Law Enforcement,
Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, Magical Transportation, Mysteries, Magical Games and
Sports, Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and International Magical Cooperation.
Each department is itself comprised of various offices and groups ranging from the Muggle-Worthy
Excuse Committee to the Apparition Test Centre.
The institution’s highest authority is the Minister for Magic, typically an elected position,
although in certain circumstances the title can be offered to an individual of exceptional
merit, as was the case with Albus Dumbledore on more than one occasion.
The position has no fixed term limit, though elections must be held every seven years.
The Wizengamot, the Ministry’s high court of law and parliament, pre-dates the Ministry
of Magic itself, having been responsible for the trial of rogue witches and wizards since
the days of the Wizards Council.
Currently it is administered by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and is made up
of fifty members led by a Chief Warlock.
The Wizengamot sends the most dangerous of magical criminals to Azkaban, a remote prison
island in the North Sea.
While the island is well suited to this task due to the presence of Dementors, powerful
creatures who feed off the joy and happiness of their victims, conditions on the island,
and the propensity for its inmants to go insane, has led to several unsuccessful attempts for
Azakan to be replaced or supplemented by a more humane facility.
Throughout most of its long history, the Ministry of Magic has been predominantly focused on
it’s relationship with the greater world of Muggles.
Anti-Muggle sentiment was especially rampant during the 1920s during which time the infamous
Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald carried out several wizard-supremacist attacks throughout
Europe and North America.
Both the Ministry of Magic and their counterparts in the Magical Congress of the United States
of America attempted to restrain him, but it was only in 1945 when Albus Dumbledore
confronted Grindelwald that the crisis was resolved and the secrets of the wizarding
community were once again safe.
However, the frustration of many in the wizarding world of having been forced into hiding from
the Muggles they viewed as inferior had not disappeared, and many other magical beings
such as giants and werewolves felt marginalized under the Ministry’s government.
These social outcasts were recruited into a secretive organization headed by a rising
Dark Wizard, its members adopting the moniker of Death Eaters.
Slowly their attacks on Muggles and wizards grew more pronounced and by 1970 the First
Wizarding War had begun.
The Ministry of Magic struggled to contain this threat and it grew increasingly authoritarian
in its drive to root out suspected Death Eaters, even going so far as to allow its special
officers, called Aurors, to use the three Unforgivable Curses without warning.
When the war came to an end, victory was largely owed to the semi-rogue organization known
as the Order of the Phoenix rather than the Ministry itself.
Despite the defeat of the Death Eaters, the influence of their leader “He Who Must Not
Be Named” remained an ever present shadow over the Ministry in the decades after his
mysterious death.
Even as evidence of his return emerged in the 1990s, the Ministry refused to accept
it and even began discrediting those who urged it take action against the resurgent threat.
In the wake of a mass breakout from Azkaban and an open duel between the revived Order
of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters in the Atrium of the Ministry itself, the truth became
undeniable and the return of the Dark Lord was revealed to the wizarding public.
Once again the Ministry was stymied by corruption and obstructionism in some of its highest offices.
The death of Albus Dumbledore and then Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour paved the way for
a silent coup as Death Eaters assumed nearly every position of power.
The regime grew increasingly authoritarian, prosecuting those born of Muggles and arresting
so called “blood traitors”.
Once again, in this moment of triumph, He Who Must Not Be Named, Lord Voldemort, was
defeated by the unlikeliest of sources.
In a duel with Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, Voldemort was destroyed utterly, and the Ministry
of Magic was liberated from the influences of his Death Eaters.
Revitalized and reformed by the heroes of the Battle of Hogwarts, the Ministry began
accepting the rights of non-humans, ended its pure-blood laws and finally put a stop
to the corruption and prejudice that had defined its existence for much of its history.
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