 Immorality and the portrayal of authority as negative are significant themes in the novel . Marguerite Krause states that there are few absolute moral rules in Harry Potter 's world , for example Harry prefers to tell the truth , but lies whenever he considers it necessary – very like his enemy Draco Malfoy . At the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets , Dumbledore retracts his promise to punish Harry , Ron , and Hermione if they break any more school rules – after Professor McGonagall estimates that they have broken over 100 – and lavishly rewards them for ending the threat from the Chamber of Secrets . Krause further states that authority figures and political institutions receive little respect from Rowling . William MacNeil of Griffith University , Queensland , Australia states that the Minister for Magic is presented as a mediocrity . In his article " Harry Potter and the Secular City " , Ken Jacobson suggests that the Ministry as a whole is portrayed as a tangle of bureaucratic empires , saying that " Ministry officials busy themselves with minutiae ( e.g. standardising cauldron thicknesses ) and coin politically correct euphemisms like ' non @-@ magical community ' ( for Muggles ) and ' memory modification ' ( for magical brainwashing ) . " 
