Millicent Bagnold

"I assert our inalienable right to party."

- Minister Bagnold defends the wizarding celebrations (that resulted in large breaches of the International Statute of Secrecy) on 1 November, 1981, the day after Lord Voldemort's first downfall.

Minister Millicent Bagnold (fl. 1963—1990) was a witch who served as the British Minister for Magic from 1980 to 1990. More notably, she was Minister for Magic at the time of James and Lily Potter's murders and Lord Voldemort's first downfall, in 1981.

Early life
Ms. Bagnold was born in or prior to 1963, somewhere in the British Isles. In her youth, she attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where she was Sorted into Ravenclaw.

As Minister for Magic
"Famous Ravenclaw Ministers for Magic include Millicent Bagnold, who was in power on the night that Harry Potter survived the Dark Lord's curse, and defended the wizarding celebrations all over Britain with the words, 'I assert our inalienable right to party'."

- Robert Hilliard.

In 1980, at the height of the First Wizarding War, Bagnold rose to the position of Minister for Magic of Great Britain. Bartemius Crouch Sr. was Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement during Ms. Bagnold's term, and it was by this time the Aurors were given authorisation to use the Unforgivable Curses against Death Eaters.

She was in power when, in the evening of 31 October, 1981, Lord Voldemort led an attack in Godric's Hollow that resulted in the deaths of James and Lily Potter, the destruction of Voldemort's body, and the inadvertent creation of a Horcrux, Harry Potter. The night that followed turned out to be the major upheaval of Bagnold's term in office, as wizards up and down the country started celebrating Voldemort's downfall and the end of the First Wizarding War in what became "a night of large-scale breaches of the International Wizarding Statute of Secrecy" Bagnold defended these celebrations by famously stating she asserted the wizards' "inalienable right to party".

It was also during her term in office that Death Eaters Igor Karkaroff, Rodolphus, Rabastan and Bellatrix Lestrange, and Bartemius Crouch Jr. were rounded up and tried before the Council of Magical Law, and sent to Azkaban. Sirius Black was falsely accused to be one of Voldemort's supporters and one of the responsibles for the murders of James and Lily Potter, and was sent to Azkaban without a trial.

After Bagnold's retirement in 1990, it was unclear who would succeed her. In the early 1980s, Bartemius Crouch Sr. was very likely to suceed Bagnold, but his popularity was tarnished after the scandal in which he sent his own son to Azkaban. Albus Dumbledore also had a lot of popular support to be her successor, but he never expressed any desire to take the Minister's job, so Cornelius Fudge took the post instead.

On 1 September, 1991, Prefect Robert Hilliard welcomed the Ravenclaw first years to Ravenclaw Tower with a short speech in which he mentioned former Minister Millicent Bagnold as one of the many notable Hogwarts students who had been Sorted, like them, into Ravenclaw.

Behind the scenes

 * Bagnold's term in office was almost the same as Muggle Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's (1979-90).
 * She shares the same first name as Hogwarts Slytherin student Millicent Bulstrode.

Etymology

 * The name "Millicent" is from the Germanic name Amalasuintha, composed of the elements amal "work, labour" and swinþ "strength".
 * Her last name is probably derived from the English author and playwright Enid Bagnold.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * J.K.Rowling Official Site
 * Pottermore

Notes and references
Millicent Bagnold