- "We will arrest you and you will probably find yourself in Azkaban. I advise you to call a halt to this feud before somebody gets hurt. In the meantime, contact the Office for the Removal of Curses, Jinxes and Hexes, who will take care of both the broomstick and your brother."
- — Dempster Wiggleswade's reply on the Problem Page of the Daily Prophet.[src]
The Office for the Removal of Curses, Jinxes, and Hexes is an office within the Ministry of Magic[1].
History
When Buckley Cooper wrote the Daily Prophet asking for legal advice on the running feud he was having with his brother, during which he received a broomstick, presumably as a gift, which actually had been cursed to whack him around the shins. In response to this, Mr Cooper asked Mr Wiggleswade, an official of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement doubling as an advice columnist, whether the Ministry would "turn a blind eye" if he kidnapped his brother's children and turned them into blood-sucking ferrets.
Mr Wiggleswade strongly advised him against it, and urged him instead to immediately contact the Ministry's Office for the Removal of Curses, Jinxes, and Hexes, which he assured him would take care of both removing the jinx from the broom and deal with his brother for having jinxed it in the first place. It is implied that had Mr Cooper sustained any injuries as a result of the jinx on the broom in question, Mr Waggleswade would instead have referred Buckley Cooper to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.[1]
Behind the scenes
- It might be a sub-section or at the very least subordinate to the Improper Use of Magic Office, since cursing, jinxing and hexing objects for others to fall afoul of is by all means an 'improper' use of magic.
- In the Android game Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World, Officer Cerberus Langarm from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement sought out Mathilda Grimblehawk of the Beast Division in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and her partner to inform them of the disappearance of a Ministry employee by the name of Bilius Finbok and his suspicions concerning the involvement of some kind of beast. Upon journeying to Cornwall in search of the beast, they stumbled across a small box that had been cursed to burn those who touched it and took it back to the Ministry. Officer Langarm later confronts them about it, informing them that the curse was so powerful, that the Curse-Breaker assigned to removing it had to have a lie down after dealing with it, prompting Officer Langarm to criticise them for lack of results. In all probability, this Curse-Breaker worked for the Office for the Removal of Curses, Jinxes and Hexes.
- n 1992, the Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, Arthur Weasley, helped to write a bylaw known as the Muggle Protection Act, presumably in an effort to shield Muggles from those who would willfully use magic on objects from them to find and the like, resulting in the Ministry conducting a series of searches through private homes for Dark objects. Any such items found would have been confiscated would realistically be handed to this office.
- In 1996, the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects was established by then- Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour in response to the marked increase of false protective spells and objects that had surfaced in the panic after Voldemort's return, and although most of the objects they dealt with such things as cursed sneakoscopes and an alleged protectively enchanted medal that ultimately turned the user orange, some of the articles they confiscated was described as 'exceedingly dangerous'. The confiscated objects would likewise been handled by the Office for the Removal of Curses, Jinxes, and Hexes.
Appearances
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Daily Prophet Newsletters: June 1st, 1999, Problem Page