RUFUS SCRIMGEOUR

'Rufus Scrimgeour' is a fictional character in J.K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' book series. Succeeding Cornelius Fudge, he served as the Minister for Magic of Britain from 1996 until his death in 1997. Scrimgeour was a more capable leader than Fudge and oversaw the beginning of Lord Voldemort's second reign of terror.

Contents

Appearance and personality

Appearance

Personality

Background

Career at the Ministry

Head of the Auror Office

Minister for Magic

Film Portrayal

Translations

References

Appearance and personality

Appearance

Rufus Scrimgeour walked with a slight limp, and he looked like an old lion with tawny hair and bushy eyebrows. Scrimgeour also had yellow eyes and wire-rimmed spectacles. Scrimgeour was heavily battle-scarred from his years of service as an Auror, giving him an appearance of shrewd toughness.

Personality

While seemingly more capable than Fudge, Minister Scrimgeour appeared to be intent on following the tradition of past Ministers and Ministry officials, placing appearances over truth. One example of this was the contrived capture and imprisonment of three people, including a seemingly innocent, foolish young man, Stan Shunpike in Azkaban for alleged Death Eater activity in order to give the impression that progress was being made against Voldemort's forces. At the end of ''Half-Blood Prince'' it appeared that Scrimgeour had not changed his approach, still choosing appearances over the truth and repeated his request that Harry show support for the Ministry. Harry again rejected the Minister's proposal, which he saw as morally compromising.^[1]

Background

Luna Lovegood mentioned to Harry Potter that Scrimgeour is a vampire. Her father Xenophilius was going to publish an article about it in his magazine, ''The Quibbler''. Apparently, the Ministry forced Xenophilius not to publish this claim, which is probably untrue anyway, as most people scoff at the unlikely and often outrageous stories published in ''The Quibbler''. Also, Cormac McLaggen said that he and his father used to go on hunting trips with Scrimgeour before he became Minister.
It is possible that he is related to Brutus Scrimgeour, a wizard who praises ''Quidditch Through the Ages'' as "The definitive work on the origins and history of Quidditch. Highly recommended."^[2] Brutus Scrimgeour is also described as the author of a Quidditch-related book, ''The Beaters' Bible;'' the first rule of this book is "Take out the Seeker."^[3]

Career at the Ministry

Head of the Auror Office

Prior to the summer of 1996, Scrimgeour, a very experienced and accomplished Auror himself, headed the Auror Office of the Ministry of Magic. He worked with Aurors such as Kingsley Shacklebolt, Alastor Moody and Nymphadora Tonks. Scrimgeour is actually first mentioned in ''Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'' on the day of Harry's hearing when Tonks said the Order needed to be more careful because Scrimgeour kept asking her and Shacklebolt funny questions. Gawain Robards succeeded Scrimgeour as Head of the Auror Office.

Minister for Magic

During June of that year Lord Voldemort was revealed to wizarding Britain as unquestionably alive and active again. The Ministry of Magic led by then Minister Cornelius Fudge had insisted for the entire previous year that Harry Potter was lying when he reported his reappearance and had undertaken an overt campaign of legal oppression to silence Potter and what the Ministry termed "[Albus] Dumbledore's rumor-mongering."
After this embarrassing incident, Minister Fudge was forced into resignation. Scrimgeour was selected by the Wizengamot to be the next Minister and he visited the Muggle Prime Minister with Fudge, now a powerless advisor, to inform him about recent wizarding events, crucial to internal security.
Scrimgeour sought to raise the wizarding population's morale by asking Harry, who had been labelled as the 'Chosen One', to be seen visiting the Ministry, so that the public would believe that Harry supported the Ministry's actions against Voldemort. Upon becoming Minister, Scrimgeour's desire to use Harry to improve morale was a source of contention between the Minister and Dumbledore, who did not support this idea. Harry also rejected this role primarily because of his own antagonistic history with the Ministry, and the Ministry's treatment of Dumbledore and Stan Shunpike.
In the seventh and final novel, ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'', Scrimgeour's position as Minister became compromised as the Death Eaters quietly killed or took control of many Ministry workers.
Scrimgeour made a short appearance at the Burrow with Albus Dumbledore's will. According to Scrimgeour, only three students were mentioned in the will - Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter.
Scrimgeour was murdered shortly after the visit when Death Eaters took over the Ministry of Magic. He was tortured for Harry's whereabouts by Voldemort before he was killed. Harry felt a "rush of gratitude" to hear that Scrimgeour, in his final act, attempted to protect Harry by refusing to disclose his location. With the Ministry in Death Eaters' hands, the official line for Scrimgeour's death was that he resigned. Voldemort appointed Pius Thicknesse, former Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and under Yaxley's Imperius Curse, to replace Scrimgeour.

Film Portrayal

A movie based on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is scheduled to be released in 2008. It is unknown who will play Scrimgeour in the movie, but Bill Nighy is in talks of portraying Scrimgeour if the part makes it to the final cut of the film.

Translations

In the Icelandic version his name is changed to Skrimgur, probably to ease pronunciation, but is curious since few other names are changed.
In the Norwegian translation he is named Rufus Grimst

References

1. Rowling, J.K. ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince''; 2005; Chapter 16; Pages 345-347 (American edition).
2. Rowling, J.K., writing as Kennilworthy Whisp. ''Quidditch Through the Ages''. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2001, p. iv.
3. ''Ibid.'', p. 27.