Rita Skeeter & Cornelius Fudge

[triner2001]

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No: HPFGUIDX C7316
From: triner2001
Subject: Rita Skeeter & Cornelius Fudge
Date: 8/19/00 9:52 pm  (ET)

No, this is not a romantic pairing of tabloid journalism and inept
politics.

I was thinking about Ms. Skeeter earlier and although I think in general
Rita is supposed to be a bit of comical relief with her tabloidesque
writing style, there are profound ramifications of her actions. She causes
lots of pain and discord in her sojourn at Hogwarts: her expose on Hagrid
hurts him immeasurably (which made ME want to squash her like a bug way
before I knew she was one!), her many falsified reports on Harry hurt
Hermione and even poison Molly Weasley against her, as well as damage
his credibility as seen in Fudge's reaction to Harry's experience with
Voldemort. I foresee her love of gossip aiding and abetting Voldemort's
comeback in the future.

Now onto Cornelius Fudge. There's a saying "All it takes for evil to
spread is for one good man to stand back and do nothing to stop it." This
is Fudge in a nutshell. He is not an evil man or even just mean; he
simply stands back and does nothing, as can be seen by his reaction to the
news that Voldemort is back. He gives into others (mainly Lucius Malfoy)
throughout the series--Buckbeak's execution, getting Dumbledore suspended,
preparing to have Sirius kissed by a Dementor-- he hardly ever acts on
his own. And when he does, it is a thoughtless and self-serving act. His
failure to react appropriately may serve Voldemort in ways neither he
nor Voldemort can imagine.

I know this could probably wait till these folks are up for discussion,
but if I waited till then, I would most likely forget what I had thought.

Trina