Ludo Bagman Is Ever So Evil (WAS Cutting Characters Slack / Ludo)

[ssk7882]

No: HPFGUIDX 34182

Cindy wrote:

 > As I said before, I'm convinced that Bagman will turn out to be an 
 > evil DE after all.  Caroline is on board, ::waves to Caroline:: 
 > but maybe a few others can be persuaded to see Bagman as the 
 > Longstanding Devoted Servant of the Dark Lord that he really is.  

<Elkins removes the pipe from her mouth and squints speculatively 
over the top of her spectacles at Cindy>

So...Cindy.  Tell me now, in all honesty.

Do you *like* Ludo Bagman?

<puts pipe away>

Wow.  You know, you really do make a good case for this?  I think 
that I'm starting to believe it.

Dammit.

Because you see, I really don't *want* Bagman to be guilty.  I really,
really don't.  Not because I have any particular liking for the
man (I have no feelings at all about him one way or the other; he's 
an utter flat-liner for me), but because I would like to believe that 
somewhere, somewhere out there, there is at least *one* person who
honestly *was* bewitched or threatened or coerced or just plain duped 
into serving Voldemort's cause.  One.  Just one.  One would be nice.

I mean, we've got Malfoy and Avery, right?  Both of them acquitted 
because they claimed to have been acting under the Imperius Curse.  

Guilty, guilty, guilty.

And then we've got all their DE buddies, similarly acquitted.  

Guilty.

And then we've got Pettigrew, who claimed to have been terrorized
and browbeaten and threatened until he agreed to pass on information
to Voldemort...but who actually turns out to have been deeply
enough involved to be sporting the Dark Mark.

Oh, SO guilty!

And then there's young Master Crouch, who even Sirius thought *might*
have been caught in the wrong place in the wrong time, and who even
Dumbledore thought *might* have really been innocent, and who 
screamed his innocence at the top of his lungs all the way through 
his trial...

Oh, no.  He's guilty.  And mad, to boot.

You see where I'm going here, I trust.  It's a little disturbing,
isn't it?  Was there really *no one* serving this guy unwittingly,
or even unwillingly?  Didn't anyone really get duped?  For heaven's 
sake, where are all of the patsies and the weaklings?

Yeah, yeah.  I know.  The patsies and the weaklings are all hanging 
out in the Green Room, getting sympathy hugs and cookies from the 
Bleeding Hearts.


-- Elkins, patting one of Mulciber's Imperius victims on the back 
while murmuring soothingly: "Now, now...there, there...I know, I 
know...it wasn't your *fault*..."