The Motivations of Fudge and Dumbledore (WAS:Fudge: DE or not?)

[erisedstraeh2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 55175

Tom Wall wrote:

> Although to be frank, I bet that Voldemort would have found a way 
> to return sans Pettigrew eventually. 

Now me:

I agree completely.  Dumbledore tries to tell Harry this at the end 
of PoA, when Harry says "But – I stopped Sirius and Professor Lupin 
killing Pettigrew!  That makes it my fault, if Voldemort comes back!" 
and Dumbledore responds "It does not...The consequences of our 
actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the 
future is a very difficult business indeed..." (Ch. 22).

Tom again:

> Dumbledore has more information than Fudge, via the Veritaserum 
> used on Crouch Jr., and the interview with Harry. <snip> Dumbledore 
> has kept secrets from Fudge, which is, IMO, a *major* error on 
> Dumbledore's part. 

Me again:

This are excellent points – why didn't Dumbledore call Fudge into the 
room before he administered the verisaterum to Crouch Jr.?  Why is he 
keeping secrets from Fudge?  

I think Dumbledore is keeping secrets from Fudge because he knows 
what the implications would be if certain information is revealed – 
what if Fudge did know about Harry being a parselmouth, and did know 
about the pains in Harry's scar?  He would think Harry isn't to be 
trusted, just as he states at the end of GoF.  And since Dumbledore 
seems to be getting Harry ready for an ultimate battle with 
Voldemort, it's not in Dumbledore's interest to have Harry viewed as 
untrustworthy.

(As an aside, since all of Hogwarts found out that Harry was a 
parselmouth at the duelling club in CoS, and since we weren't told 
that Dumbledore made an announcement to the students to keep this 
information secret, I find it rather hard to believe that Fudge 
wouldn't have heard about this until Skeeter's article two years 
later...)

I've thought about why Dumbledore didn't call Fudge into the room 
when the verisaterum was administered, and I think it's because 
Dumbledore wanted the chance to question Crouch Jr. on his own terms –
to be able to ask the questions he wanted to ask and to direct the 
interview to the issues he wanted answered.  It's not as if he keeps 
Crouch Jr. from Fudge – after Dumbledore has extracted the 
information he's looking for, he invites Fudge to do his own 
questioning.  I think Dumbledore felt extremely personally betrayed 
by Crouch Jr. – Crouch Jr. kept his good friend Moody under the 
Imperius Curse for 10 months, and Moody suffered because he had 
agreed to do Dumbledore a favor by teaching at Hogwarts.  Moreover, 
Dumbledore completely fell for Crouch Jr.'s disguise.

I also think that Dumbledore feels personally responsible for the 
fight against Voldemort, since it is Dumbledore, not Fudge, who is 
the only wizard Voldemort ever feared.  So while he needs to keep 
Fudge in the loop and tries to enlist his aid, it's really 
Dumbledore's fight, not the Ministry of Magic's fight.
 
Tom again:
 
> Dumbledore accuses Fudge of being blinded by the office that 
> he holds, which I accept as only partially true in the "selfish" 
> sense that we read it, but as also true in the sense that Fudge 
> believes that he has to act according to public opinion... and 
> public opinion isn't necessarily in the favor of what Dumbledore 
> suggests.

Now me:

I agree that Fudge believes he has to act according to public opinion 
(which, I note, is the reason why the public elects high-level 
government officials in the first place ;), but I think it's 
important to assess the motivation behind his actions.  What 
motivates him, IMO, is power, which is what I think Dumbledore is 
referencing when he states that Fudge is blinded by the love of the 
office he holds.  So in order to stay in power, he has to please the 
public, and he believes it will displease the public to send envoys 
to the giants and to take Azkaban out of the control of the 
dementors.  I don't see Fudge as acting according to public opinion 
in order to please the public; I see him pleasing the public in order 
to stay in office.

~Phyllis