Sirius; Fudge eats words

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 14969

Monika wrote:

> 
> Fudge says something like that, too:
> "I must say, You-Know-Who alone and friendless is one thing...
> but give him back his most devoted servant, and I shudder to
> think how quickly he'll raise again..."

When does he say this?  It's now, isn't it?  So Fudge has had 13 
years to think of Sirius as the person who was so devoted to 
Voldemort that he'd turn his best friend & his family over to be 
murdered.  From Fudge's POV (and everyone else's), Sirius exposed 
himself as a DE the night the Potters died, and then found himself in 
a very bad way because his Master fell.  The whole story as told and 
retold in the past 13 years implies that Sirius was very high up in 
the DEs.  But that's all an explanation after the fact, an attempt to 
explain Sirius's actions that night and then vs. Pettigrew; no one 
thought of Sirius as V's "right-hand-man" or anything like it before 
then, because they thought he was on the right side.  At least, such 
stars of the anti-V effort as Dumbledore, James, and Lily did, and 
presumably Fudge did too.

BTW, it's very interesting to be reminded that Fudge said that, in 
light of his actions in GoF.  When informed that You-Know-Who did 
indeed get back his most devoted servant (well, one of them), he 
nevertheless flatly refuses to believe that he's risen again.

Amy Z