Muggle Protection Act

Arthur Weasley, author of the Muggle Protection Act

"He is clearly unfit to draw up our laws and his ridiculous Muggle Protection Act should be scrapped immediately."

— Lucius Malfoy in the Daily Prophet regarding Arthur Weasley and the act

The Muggle Protection Act was a Ministry of Magic bylaw written at some point prior to 4 August, 1992, that was designed to protect Muggles from potentially harmful magical artefacts.

According to Lucius Malfoy, it was written by Arthur Weasley (the head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office) and resulted in the Ministry conducting searches for Dark objects, including those located at Malfoy Manor.

History

Some pure-bloods found the legislation offensive, presumably because they were prejudiced against Muggles and did not want the Ministry searching through their possessions. Lucius Malfoy went so far as to try to sabotage Arthur's career by planting an old diary of Tom Riddle's on Arthur's daughter, which led to the opening of the Chamber of Secrets and the petrification of several Muggle-born students.

Arthur Weasley came into disrepute when his bewitched Ford Anglia was used by his son, Ronald Weasley, to transport he and Harry Potter to Hogwarts Castle on 1 September 1992. Lucius Malfoy, a governor of Hogwarts, brought this up as an example of Arthur's ineptitude in The Daily Prophet in the December of that year, and used it as a reason that the law should be scrapped immediately.

Behind the scenes

• In the Game Boy Color version of the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, this is referred to as the "Non-Magical-Folk Protection Act", as the game curiously goes to great lengths to avoid using the term "Muggle".

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (First mentioned)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film) (Mentioned only) (Appears in deleted scene(s))
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (Mentioned only)

See also

• Law regarding ownership of charmed objects