Harry Potter Thursday: Would you rather break into Gringotts or the Ministry of Magic?

Harry Potter Thursday is a weekly meme created by Uncorked Thoughts.

This week's question was a no brainer for me. I would much rather break into:

There are so many reasons, but most of them boil down to the fact that it's much easier and I'm much more likely to escape this endeavor with my life and my skin.

I mean, really, would you want to mess with a Gringotts Goblin?

The bank, besides being the more intimidating of two, warns you right on the front door what's going to happen if you even attempt to break in:

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

Every single person that ever speaks about this prior to the Golden Trio actually succeeding in getting into Bellatrix's vault says you'd be mad to try and rob it. Not only is it protected by goblins and the Ukrainian Ironbelly, but there are scores of enchantments protecting it, not to mention the sheer size of the underground labyrinth containing all the vaults. How would you ever find your way out again even if you did manage to get what you were after?

The Ministry, on the other hand, sounds like a much safer bet and I think it would be a lot easier to. Wizards don't seem to put as much stock in certain security measures like Muggles do, so there would be way around things (ever heard of picking locks?). 

There are multiple points of entry, so even if someone did catch onto you, you'd be able to plan a backup escape route. There's the fireplaces, the visitor's entrances, the toilets (not ideal, but there you go), etc.

It would be super easy to blend in as well, as long as you've got your cover story ready. While there might be a wide variety of magical creatures allowed into the Ministry, the vast majority are human and with the amount of people working there, you'd have a bit of leeway, being a new face. Pick an obscure department, if possible, maybe even the Department of Mysteries? No one knows anything that goes on down there, so it would probably be a good course.

Now, here's the next important question, outside of which is the safer bet: why would you break into the Ministry of Magic in the first place?

Well, there's a lot of choices. You could be a spy, looking for a scroll on the latest law being passed. It's got to be written down somewhere and while there might be a magical way to look at something, that would be guarded against. Someone looking at the hard copy, though? Much less likely and you'd have a better rate of success.

If you're trying to steal something, whatever it might be, the Ministry probably doesn't have the curses and such on it that Gringotts does. It doesn't exactly post it on the entrance, does it? What would one be stealing from the Ministry, you might ask? I'm not sure, but let's see. There are things that were confiscated in raids on Wizard homes. There's prototypes of items being developed. There's any number of magical items that the other Wizards working there might be carrying on them at any given time. 

The possibilities are endless, aren't they? I'd be much more comfortable breaking into the Ministry than Gringotts, though I wouldn't mind having Hermione along for the ride. She's got the experience of having done this before and that can't hurt our chances, can it?

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