Further misstag vid ministeriet för magi

Det fullständiga citatet från artikeln Daily Prophet är följande:

Arnold Weasely, who was charged with possession of a flying car two years ago, was yesterday involved in tussle with several Muggle law-keepers ("policemen") over a number of highly aggressive dustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to the aid of "Mad-Eye" Moody, the aged ex-Auror who retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell the difference between a handshake and an attempted murder. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasely found, upon arrival at the Mr. Moody's heavily guarded house, that Mr. Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasely was forced to modify several memories before he could escape from the policemen, but refused to answer Daily Prophet questions about why he had involved the Ministry in such an undignified and potentially embarrassing scene.

För att förstå denna artikel måste vi först gå tillbaka tidigare i boken, när Arthur (den Daily Profet fick sitt namn fel att starta) kallades för att hjälpa Moody:

Amos Diggory’s head was sitting in the middle of the flames like a large, bearded egg. It was talking very fast, completely unperturbed by the sparks flying around it and the flames licking its ears. “...Muggle neighbors heard bangs and shouting, so they went and called those what-d’you-call-’ems — please-men. Arthur, you’ve got to get over there —”

“Here!” said Mrs. Weasley breathlessly, pushing a piece of parchment, a bottle of ink, and a crumpled quill into Mr. Weasley’s hands.

“— it’s a real stroke of luck I heard about it,” said Mr. Diggory’s head. “I had to come into the office early to send a couple of owls, and I found the Improper Use of Magic lot all setting off — if Rita Skeeter gets hold of this one, Arthur —”

“What does Mad-Eye say happened?” asked Mr. Weasley, unscrewing the ink bottle, loading up his quill, and preparing to take notes.

Mr. Diggory’s head rolled its eyes. “Says he heard an intruder in his yard. Says he was creeping toward the house, but was ambushed by his dustbins.”

“What did the dustbins do?” asked Mr. Weasley, scribbling frantically.

“Made one hell of a noise and fired rubbish everywhere, as far as I can tell,” said Mr. Diggory. “Apparently one of them was still rocketing around when the please-men turned up —”

Mr. Weasley groaned. “And what about the intruder?”

“Arthur, you know Mad-Eye,” said Mr. Diggory’s head, rolling its eyes again. “Someone creeping into his yard in the dead of night? More likely there’s a very shell-shocked cat wandering around somewhere, covered in potato peelings. But if the Improper Use of Magic lot get their hands on Mad-Eye, he’s had it — think of his record — we’ve got to get him off on a minor charge, something in your department — what are exploding dustbins worth?”

“Might be a caution,” said Mr. Weasley, still writing very fast, his brow furrowed. “Mad-Eye didn’t use his wand? He didn’t actually attack anyone?”

“I’ll bet he leapt out of bed and started jinxing everything he
could reach through the window,” said Mr. Diggory, “but they’ll have a job proving it, there aren’t any casualties.”

“All right, I’m off,” Mr. Weasley said, and he stuffed the parchment with his notes on it into his pocket and dashed out of the kitchen again

Den här händelsen är hur Mr. Weasely blev involverad. Det fanns någon form av uppror på Mad-Eye Moody'd bostad, vilket orsakade Muggle grannar att ringa till polisen. Arthur inbjöds för att försöka hjälpa Moody att undvika en större mening (tydligen är den första ministerens representant på platsen behörig och kan bestämma alla avgifter i guidenvärlden). Den "falska påståendet" var att Moody hävdade att han hade attackerats, när det faktiskt inte fanns någon inkräktare alls.

Naturligtvis, senare i boken lär vi oss att

The commotion was actually Barty Crouch Jr. attacking and kidnapping the real Mad-Eye Moody. The story about the dustbins was something Crouch Jr. made up, a story he felt the wizarding world would believe the real Moody might actually say, in order to explain away the commotion that Moody's muggle neighbors heard in the first place.