Scrimgeour - Blog Posts
Scrimgeour and Fudge
There are many different types of leaders in our world, teachers, pop stars, activists, CEOs and of course, actual political or governmental leaders. As within our daily world, the wizarding world showed Harry Potter and the rest of us that there are all types of leaders, even within the same field. Two of the biggest political leaders that would show different ends of the spectrum were Cornelius Fudge and Rufus Scrimgeour
Before we knew how bad things would get, we knew Fudge was an oaf. While some of his calls were good (increased efforts in protecting Harry Potter from Sirius Black), most of them were done out of self-preservation, for glory and prestige. Why he ever got involved in government, probably stems mostly from that wanting to see important as he portrayed no backbone, showed extreme jealousy and little critical skills. His role in the rise of Voldemort is not large, but important. As the spokesperson and leader of their world any small thing he did differently would have had a tremendous impact, but when the opportunity finally rose not only did he freeze at the challenge, he purposefully put everyone at greater risk just so he could keep his glory days. Seriously thou, what did he think was going to happen?
As former Head of the Auror Office, Scrimgeour was more experienced with the current priorities the ministry faced and was expected to be better at handling the situation when compared to Fudge as a leader. However, in terms of leadership, they were unfortunately, very similar. Considering the threat everyone was under and previous year of administrative secrecy, Scrimgeour should have operated with as much transparency as possible for both the safety and trust of the wizarding and muggle world. Instead, he was very much like Fudge: temperamental, would push for ridiculous propaganda with Harry Potter and bogus arrests, and an illogical paranoia and hatred against Dumbledore. While his death and life focused on the greater good, one cannot help but wonder what would have happened, how many more lives would have been saved, if he were more like Potterwatch being honest, hopeful and encourages those to not only fight for themselves but for others.