-- Fudge and the Dementors

[cynthiaanncoe at home.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27234

Cindy wrote:

> > 
> > How does Fudge learn that something drove the dementors off at 
all, 
> > or that they tried to Kiss Harry?  Aren't the only people who 
could 
> > have told Fudge about this the dementors themselves?  Does this 
> mean 
> > Fudge may have some relationship with the dementors that we don't 
> > fully understand?  
> 
Caius wrote:

> Fudge says of that robed tribe in Chap. 10: "Rosmerta, dear, I 
don't 
> like them any more than you do.....Necessary precaution... 
> unfortunate, but there YOU are.... I've just met some of them. 
> They're in a fury against Dumbledore -- he won't let them inside 
the 
> castle grounds."
> 
> We don't know how they do it - mental telepathy, Morse code, sign 
> language, exchanging hand-written notes - but dementors can 
> communicate with humans.  The dementors surely had no reason to 
> conceal their encounter with Harry's Patronus from such 
*sympaticos* 
> as Fudge and Snape ("How can we get our job done with horrors like 
> Prongs floating around this place?")
> 
LOL!

OK, no Flint, then.  

Fudge's relationship with the dementors is a curious one, though.  We 
know he can communicate with dementors from the passage you cite, as 
well as the passage where they tell Fudge that Black keeps 
saying "He's at Hogwarts."

I guess it makes sense that the dementors would tell Fudge that they 
didn't get the chance to capture or kiss Black because of the 
Patronus.  But I think it is a little strange that the dementors 
would go so far as to admit to Fudge (their boss?) that they were 
planning on kissing Harry.  They apparently did tell him that, 
though, so it makes me wonder anew whether Fudge is evil in some way 
or (gasp) a DE.

In GoF, Fudge lets the dementor swoop in and kiss Crouch.  If he can 
communicate with the dementors, then he either knew the dementor 
planned to do this, or he elected not to order the dementor to stop.  
The best reason I can think of that Fudge might wish to silence 
Crouch is that Fudge is supporting Voldemort.  Uh oh.

Cindy (who is having trouble "reading" a politician like Fudge)