What If... Dumbledore had included Fudge in GoF Ch.35?

[Neotoma73 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 55219

In a message dated 4/11/2003 2:33:15 PM Eastern Standard Time, Gina Rosich <grosich at nyc.rr.com> writes:


> Taryn Kimel <amani at charter.net> wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> 
> <snip> I'll take it from that perspective. Looking from this point of view, Fudge's denial is an almost instinctive reaction happening out of fear. It's an impossibility to his mind, so his mind chooses not to believe it. In such a case, it would take something extremely weighty to snap such strong denial, and Crouch's formal confession still might not have cut it.
> 
> 
> ME:
> 
> Inded.  Which is why Fudge's denial became all that more frustrating when Snape dramatically showed him the dark mark as definitive proof.  I mean, how could Fudge argue with THAT kind of evidence?  But he did still disbelieve.  Which is why I agree that it wouldn't have made a difference if he was there when Crouch was under the veritaserum or not.
> 

Fudge can argue because Snape is already discredited in his eyes. At the end of PoA, Dumbledore makes Snape look unstable *at best* to Fudge, in order for Dumbledore to arrange Sirius' escape.  But that ruined Snape's credibility later on; when he shows Fudge the Dark Mark, Fudge can dismiss it because he already 'knows' that Snape sees things that aren't true, just like he 'knows' that Harry isn't trustworthy because he's a Parselmouth and has visions of Voldemort through his curse-scar.

AnneL