The Wizengamot
The Wizengamot is the wizarding world's highest court, deliberative body, and seating arrangement. Once a month, the electorate — defined as anyone who has inconvenienced Voldemort at least seven times — chooses five of its own to occupy chairs of genuine antiquity and debatable comfort. Four seats belong to the Houses. The fifth, Merlin's Seat, goes to the best of everyone else, who becomes Chief Warlock and acquires the power to break ties, a power the Ministry describes as "enormous, within limits."
Where to Find It
The Wizengamot Chamber is reached from the village navigation — look for "The Wizengamot". Inside is a circular courtroom of ancient stone with fifty tiered chairs, five of which are occupied, a ratio the Ministry describes as "right-sized." The plum-colored robes were mandated by a decree nobody can find, which is precisely why nobody can repeal it.
Who May Participate
- Voting requires at least 7 Voldemort Encounters. This is the same bar as the Minister election, on the theory that anyone who has personally annoyed the Dark Lord seven times has earned an opinion.
- Standing for a seat requires the same 7 Voldemort Encounters plus having logged in within the last 14 days. The activity check is run again at seating time, so registering and then vanishing produces exactly the political career it deserves: none.
- One vote per real day. You may vote again tomorrow; the Ministry finds one opinion per day per wizard to be the safe maximum.
The Five Seats
| Seat | Who takes it |
|---|---|
| Gryffindor | The top vote-getter from Gryffindor. |
| Ravenclaw | The top vote-getter from Ravenclaw. |
| Hufflepuff | The top vote-getter from Hufflepuff. |
| Slytherin | The top vote-getter from Slytherin. |
| Merlin's Seat | The highest-polling candidate not already seated, regardless of House. Its holder is Chief Warlock. |
One seat per House means the largest House cannot simply purchase the entire body, however much it may want to. Candidates of no fixed House may hold only Merlin's Seat, which was practically built for them. A House with no candidates leaves its chair vacant; the chair does not mind — it has excellent posture and infinite time.
The Chief Warlock chairs the body and casts the tie-breaking vote on deadlocked measures. If the Chief Warlock's seat changes hands mid-term, the chair — and the tie-break — passes to the successor, so the gavel never goes unheld while the seat is filled.
Elections
- Terms run one calendar month, which the Ministry considers generous.
- Candidacies are open all month; the tally happens at the month roll, and the new council is seated on the 1st.
- The very first month after the Wizengamot opens is the inaugural campaign: candidacies are taken but no council sits yet. The chairs radiate a quiet institutional patience until the 1st.
- Winning the Minister of Magic election vacates any Wizengamot seat — one office per wizard — and the runner-up succeeds: from that House for a House seat, or from the field at large for Merlin's Seat.
On the 8th, 15th, and 22nd of each month, the Daily Prophet publishes race standings to the news: each House's leader and margin, the Merlin's Seat projection, and the state of the docket, including whether the Minister has used the veto (when the Minister has not, observers describe the situation as "ominous").
The Docket: Five Instruments of Wizarding Law
Seated members may propose measures — up to 2 per member per month; the third is traditionally shouted into a drawer. Each measure gets a 7-day voting window in which the council votes aye or nay. Passing requires a majority of votes cast, with quorum being a majority of the seated members (minimum 2) — a one-member council can pass nothing, which is the closest the arithmetic comes to mercy. The Chief Warlock breaks ties.
| Measure | What it does |
|---|---|
| Educational Decree | A numbered proclamation posted in the Chamber and the news. Numbering starts at 24; Decrees 1–23 were lost in a filing accident the Department of Magical Records describes as "regrettable, scheduled, and in no way preventable." |
| Ministry Stipend | Every active player receives +25 gold on their new day while enacted, processed by the Department of Coin Redistribution, which exists. |
| Ministry-Approved Extra Credit | +10% experience from forest encounters while enacted. Forest encounters specifically; the Ministry approves of extra credit but only where it can be supervised by trees. |
| Commission a Statue | A permanent honorific naming a player, displayed in the Chamber forever. Statues do not expire. Nothing about a statue expires. |
| Order of Merlin, Third Class | A commendation awarded to a named player, counted permanently on their profile. Third Class, because the first two classes require paperwork nobody has survived. |
Stipends, Extra Credit, and Decrees expire when the term ends; statues and Orders of Merlin are forever. Every passed measure is guaranteed to resolve — enacted, vetoed, or overridden — by the end of the month. Nothing is left pending; the Wizengamot's memory is long and its arithmetic is longer.
House Points for Legislating
When a measure is enacted, the proposer's House earns House points toward the House Cup: 50 points for the mechanical measures (Stipend, Extra Credit) and 25 points for the ceremonial ones (Decree, Statue, Order of Merlin) — the Department of Points describes this schedule as "generous, once." Only the four Houses can earn them; a proposer of no fixed House legislates for the honor alone.
The Minister's Veto (and Other Relations)
- The sitting Minister of Magic may veto one measure per month. There is no re-vote: the veto stands — unless the measure originally passed with 4 or more ayes, in which case it is overridden automatically and enacted anyway. The Minister is reportedly very calm about this.
- The Minister may also sponsor one measure per month onto the docket, which does not count against any member's proposal cap. An enacted sponsored measure awards House points to the Minister's House — the Ministry, as ever, looks after its own.
- At the month roll, the seated council formally invests the incoming Minister, a ceremony consisting of standing up, sitting down, and being recorded as having done both.
- Upon investiture, the Minister receives the traditional lime-green bowler hat — a permanent wardrobe piece that no one has ever asked for and no one may refuse. Every Minister in the historical record owns one; the Ministry describes the color as "distinguished," and the Ministry is entitled to its opinions.
- The Minister election ballot shows each candidate's Wizengamot service record, so voters can see exactly how many chairs a candidate has previously occupied.
Inauguration Day
On the 1st of the month, if a council was seated, the whole realm celebrates: every player's new day brings a small gold gift and +10% experience from forest encounters for the day, courtesy of the incoming council. One celebration per wizard per inauguration; the Ministry has firm views on double-dipping into civic joy.
The Plum Robes
Every seated member is granted the official plum Wizengamot robes as a wardrobe item — a permanent keepsake, not a rental. You keep them after your term, because prestige that has to be returned is merely borrowing. The Chief Warlock receives a distinct variant trimmed in silver, a color chosen to communicate authority to anyone standing close enough to notice. Successors who inherit a seat mid-term receive the robes too; the tailoring department asks no questions.
Forfeiture: The Public Sacking
A seated member forfeits their chair by not logging in for 7 days, or by missing the vote on 2 closed measures. The runner-up from the election succeeds them — the same-House runner-up for a House seat, and for Merlin's Seat the best remaining candidate of any House, since that chair was never anyone's property to begin with. The House seats are settled first, so an at-large succession cannot quietly walk off with a House's own runner-up. The whole affair is announced in the news, because the Wizengamot believes accountability is best served publicly and preferably with an audience. Successors are not held liable for measures that closed before they sat down, which is the single most humane rule in this entire document.
The Annals and Your Permanent Record
- Past Councils — every seated council is recorded permanently and browsable from the Chamber. History is permanent, like all Ministry paperwork.
- Profile service records — your public profile displays your offices and honors: Minister of Magic terms, Wizengamot terms served, terms as Chief Warlock, and Orders of Merlin (Third Class) received. These never expire, reset, or apologize.
Strategy
- Vote every day. One ballot per real day compounds; a candidate whose supporters remember them daily beats a candidate whose supporters loved them once.
- Mind your House race. You only need to out-poll your own House to take its seat. Out-polling everyone merely gets you Merlin's Seat, the gavel, and slightly better robes.
- Propose mechanical measures for the Cup. Stipends and Extra Credit pay your House double the points of a decree, and the electorate remembers who paid them 25 gold a day.
- Count to four. A measure that passes 4–1 is veto-proof. A measure that passes 3–2 is one ministerial mood away from a cushion-retired quill.
- Show up. Seven idle days or two missed votes and your successor is reading about you in the news. So is everyone else.
The Wizengamot: proof that if you give five wizards chairs and a filing system, they will govern, and if you give them a fiftieth of the chairs they were promised, they will govern anyway.