Dumbledore-Fudge confrontation in GoF

[Cindy C.]

No: HPFGUIDX 29057

Wanda wrote:

>  During the confrontation in the infirmary, 
> > Fudge is defending himself for having turned a Dementor on Barty 
> > Crouch Jr., and says "It seems he has been responsible for 
several 
> > deaths!"  <snip discussion of Crouch being unable to give 
evidence.>

>I 
> have a bad feeling about 
> > Fudge.  Any ideas about this?
> 

Then bookraptor wrote:

I read that section of GOF, and while Fudge does 
> insist on bringing the dementor in for protection, he never orders 
it 
> to administer the kiss.
> 
> So we have two possibilities. First, Fudge could just be a politian 
> who wants to keep his head in the sand about Voldemort and avoid 
> unpleasant questions about the use of dementors.  Second, he could 
be 
> on V's side, giving him more time to regroup his death eaters, and 
> bringing in the dementor knowing it would go after Crouch.  
> Unfortunately, whichever it turns out to be, the results are the 
same 
> here. 
> 

I think it is implicit that Fudge knows something about how Crouch is 
involved in several deaths.  These deaths are his father, Cedric, 
Bertha. I think it is also implicit that he obtains this information 
from Snape, either before or after the dementor kisses Crouch.  When 
Snape retrieves Fudge, Snape undoubtedly must tell him why Fudge's 
presence is required.  It doesn't make sense that Fudge and Snape 
would make that long walk to the castle in silence, particularly 
given the relationship they established in PoA.  Instead, Snape 
probably gave Fudge some of the key details:  Moody is really Crouch, 
who engineered the plot as Crouch described it.  That could be the 
basis of Fudge's knowledge.

Also, I don't think we can be sure that Fudge doesn't instruct the 
dementor to kiss Crouch.  Fudge obviously has some means of 
communicating with the dementors, including the possibility that the 
dementors obtain their instructions telepathically.  

As for whether Fudge is evil, only time will tell, I suppose.  I 
would guess that Fudge is not overtly evil or in league with 
Voldemort.  If he were, he could have done a lot more to bring 
Voldemort back to power more quickly and easily.  At this point, I'm 
going with the idea that Fudge is a stereotypical politician -- 
concerned about his own image, willing to turn on Harry when the 
chips are down, trying to be everyone's friend.

Cindy