Could Fudge be a Squib?

[lea.macleod at gmx.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 22162

I´m not sure if this theory has been voiced before, but it came to my 
mind when I re-read "The parting of the ways", GoF, the other day.

Could Fudge be a Squib?

My theory is based on one short sentence only, which you may not even 
have noticed yet (I certainly hadn´t):

After Fudge has left the hospital wing, after the discussion with 
Dumbledore about whether Voldemort has returned or not, Dumbledore 
asks Mrs Weasley if he can count on her and her husband, and she says 
(refering to Arthur): "He knows what Fudge is." and continues "It´s 
Arthur´s fondness for Muggles that has held him back at the Ministry 
all these years."

If she had wanted to say Arthur knows how Fudge would react in such a 
situation, or what Fudge thinks about it, wouldn´t she have said "He 
knows what Fudge is like", or even "He knows how Fudge is"?

But no, she is suggesting Fudge IS something or someone, which we do 
not know yet.

Squibs were introduced to us in CoS, when we learned that Filch is 
one, and Neville says he is half a Squib himself. That´s what JKR 
normally does - she introduces things in rather trivial circumstances, 
in order to be able to make use of them again when they become really 
vital to the plot. She did it with Animagi, Veritaserum, Polyjuice 
Potion, Parseltongue... why not with Squibs?

Have we ever seen Fudge perform any actual magic? Have we ever seen 
him even carrying a wand? Have we ever seen him apparating? Have we 
ever heard of his schooldays at Hogwarts? If you look at it closely, 
he seems to be suspiciously un-magic. 

I like to imagine he came from a pure-blood wizard family, so he 
couldn´t chose to live as a Muggle, because the Wizarding World was 
all he knew. Maybe the family got him a boring office job at the MoM 
because there he didn´t need to do any magic himself.

When he became Minister, he was really only second choice, because 
Crouch was down for the job until the scandal about his son made it 
impossible for him to be Minister himself. Wizards seem to agree that 
Fudge isn´t really the best suited and best qualified person for the 
job...

This theory may also let Dumbledore´s wonderful words in the same GoF 
chapter appear in a different light:

"You place too much importance, and you always have done, on the 
so-called purity of blood! You fail to recognise that it matters not 
what someone is born, but what they grow to be!"

He´s refering to the Crouch family here in the first place - but he 
may also be talking about Fudge himself...