Interview with Minister Soo

I’m sure everyone’s heard about how the last Minister jumped ship and ran off, so now we have a new Minister- Matthew Soo! The election campaign was wild! I wanted to talk to him for the Owl because, why not?! So, a couple of weeks ago I sent the new Minister for Magic an owl asking for an interview. Now, we all know I’m super important, so he immediately replied yes- it just took a couple of weeks. The Headmistress agreed to come with me to talk with him, so off we went! The first thing I noticed when I got to his office was how round and full of paperwork it was. There were literally piles of it all over! I thought Reuter’s class had a lot of reading, but this was on a whole other level! 

After we introduced ourselves, I started asking the questions. I got right to business!

Jericho: “You grew up in London, right? Did you spend a lot of time in Diagon Alley or the other magical focused areas growing up? Or did you spend most of your time in the muggle city?”

Soo: “That’s right. Like most wixen, my home was surrounded by muggles, though more often than not I spent my time with other wizardkind. Sometimes in Diagon, yes.” 


J: “How about your family? Are they cool? My mother’s kind of scary. Is your mom scary?”

S: “Out of all of us, I believe my little sister Lisa is the ‘coolest’. She’ll be joining you at Hogwarts next year. As for my mother… Aren’t all mothers a little scary? How else would they keep us in line?”

I didn’t quite understand his last sentence there. I never go out of line! So why is she so scary!?


J: “So what house do you think your little sister will get sorted into? Gryffindor, right? It’s the coolest! What house were you in?”

S: “Hufflepuff, maybe. Or Ravenclaw, if I’m honest. As for myself… What house do you think I was in?” 


J: “Hey! I’m the one asking the questions, but you have the same vibe Ravenclaws have when they ask questions…”

S: <Insert Laughter> “I was a Ravenclaw in my time.”

Well ain’t that just like a Ravenclaw, trying to make me guess his house! He seemed to not be taking me very seriously, but his assistant showed up. She was a pretty lady who’s name I can’t pronounce. In fact, I’ve needed to double check twice to make sure I’m spelling it right. Her name was Kaleikaumaka Tenadii. She was nice. 


J: “So what’s your favourite spell… and your favourite sweet?”

S: “I’m quite fond of the gardening charm, if I’m being honest. Favourite candy would have to be…. ice mice, I think.”

It was at this moment I knew he was lying. There’s no way someone with that much paperwork wouldn’t want to use the fountain of wine spell. I know my mother loves that spell. 


J: “So, what was your favourite subject when you went to Hogwarts?”

S: “I enjoyed Defence Against the Dark Arts!” 


J: “Oooh nice, I like that class too! Did you ever get in trouble- be honest! How about the Forbidden Forest- ever go in there?”

S: “As for whether or not I ever got into trouble… Haven’t we all? I was no prefect in school, though I can’t say I was a devil either. No suspensions to my name, but my fair few detentions. Never went into the Forbidden Forest though. I fancied keeping all my limbs.”


J: “When you were a student, what kind of stuff did you like? Did you do any sports? Did you snog anyone? I know all the older students are obsessed with finding someone to snog for the ball this month!– Oh! And the most important question of all, do you think first years should be allowed to take brooms to school?”

S: “I dabbled in dueling, but I didn’t participate in any tournaments. As for Quidditch, I’ve always enjoyed watching it more than playing. And between you and I, I was never very good at it. It wouldn’t be very becoming to kiss and tell, Miss Jericho. I did attend a few balls with a boy I knew back then, but the focus wasn’t quite on… snogging. As for the broom debate… I’ll leave that to your Headmistress for now.”

When someone says it wouldn’t be becoming to kiss and tell it means they snogged a lot. Our Minister was clearly a fiend when he went to Hogwarts. He’s probably the reason that portrait yells at us not to snog, clearly.


J: “So you worked at the Wizengamot, right? Mister DeChants works there- he’s cool, he was the best judge at the summer tournament at Little Lamplight. Did you ever have to do anything weird there? What did you usually do there? What are you doing now that you’re a Minister- besides a lot of paperwork.”

S:  “I hate to disappoint you, Miss Rothenberg, but the Wizengamot certainly isn’t a fascinating career path- at least not by journalistic standards. The weirdest thing I can recall is having to watch a jackalope down whisky while the case for breeding was being made. And now, I do a lot of paperwork, though I am also able to travel and meeting interesting people more often these days. And occasionally, I am able to ask Miss Tenadii to do my paperwork so that I can have some quality time with my sister.”


J: “Eh? But doesn’t the Wizengamot get to decide how long bad guys go to Azkaban and stuff? How can that be boring?! Okay, so- do you have any plans to work with the school more?”

S: “The Wizengamot decides guilt, how long you are locked up for is determined by your crime. I have plans to work very closely with your school, yes. In the hopes of repairing the strained relationship between Hogwarts and the Ministry.”

Strained is putting it lightly, huh Mister Minister?


J: “Okay so- if you had to feed anyone to a dragon, and it could be ANYONE, who would it be? And- if you were in a tunnel and at one end was Pest wanting to snog you and at the other end was a Dementor also wanting to snog you- which would you go to?”

S: “I… suppose if I had to feed anyone to a dragon… It… Would you like to see where we hold criminals?”

I would like to loudly note that he looked at his assistant Miss Tenadii when he was talking about someone to feed to the dragon. He then tried to distract me so he didn’t have to answer the questions, but I think we all know what the answers are. Shame on him! But I stayed steady and kept asking my questions.


J: “So, this is something on everyone’s mind- it’s about the goblin stuff. Mainly, what do you think about it? Do you think it’s all goblins or just specific rogues ones. I know the Prophet put out a poll about going to war with with them because of the attacks in other countries, but what do you think?”

S: “I think I made my stand clear during the campaign. I think we caused our own problems when we tried to take the bank from the Goblins. We need to work with them if we wish to put an end to this conflict. I certainly believe it is a few specific rogue ones, the thing with these situations is that the loud and the violent will get attention, even if they are the minority. We have had goblins working with us to try and retrieve the things that have been stolen, a fact that I don’t believe would be the case if they were /all/ guilty.”

The Minister was clearly surprised when I asked these questions. I bet he thought I was just going to be some dumb kid asking him about candy! Well he was wrong! I listen when people talk about stuff! And then I ask about it! At this point his assistant started talking about taking me on a tour to see the cells. Clearly, they didn’t like my questions and were trying to distract me from the important journalism I was doing!!!


J: “Are you going to work to change the discriminatory laws and regulations that helped cause these issues?”

S: “Of course, I have said that I believe there needs to be changes in laws, however, these things need to be voted on by the Wizengamot, after all.” 


J: “Furthermore, those cells you mentioned- would those be the same ones that held Hollyhead Harpy’s Chaser, Persephone Vitract a few months ago? You said your favourite sports team was the Harpies, how did you feel about their chaser being arrested for partaking in the riots that caused damage to Diagon Alley with dangerous explosive magic that could have hurt lots of the kids who were there- including myself?”

S: “There were many people arrested during that unfortunate situation and many misunderstandings. If I recall, Miss Vitrac faced no charges as there was no evidence of her participation in the riot. I was present too and unfortunately, there was a lot of chaos. I do intend to see that such situations, should they occur again, that they are handled better.”


And with that, the Headmistress made it clear that time had run out. We said our farewells and headed back to the castle. I hope you enjoyed learning more about him. I certainly did. He seems like a great guy. I just think he has a lot of work to do- he’s stepped into a right mess of things. The only thing I’ll add is that I think he accepted this interview thinking I’d ask soft fluff questions and not politically based ones. He underestimated the great me! Hopefully he won’t underestimate others!