FUDGE IS A DE!!!!

[KathyK]

No: HPFGUIDX 78872

Jazmyn:

>>>Because Fudge is not a DE.  If he was, he would have had Harry 
come get his prophecy and would have been there when it was 'opened' 
to report what it contained to LV.. Easy as pie and noone would 
question the presence of Fudge when the prophecy was revealed at all.
 
Fudge could also have easily arranged for LV to come get the 
prophecy himself, but he didn't.<<<

Severus:
>>Then how did the DE's gain entry into the DOM?  And LV was ther 
shortly after Harry, was he also allowed in?  Fudge could not just 
present Harry with the prophecy, it would have raised too many 
eyebrows and Fudge's cover would have been blown.  By having Harry 
show as he did, Fudge was likely to be done with Harry once and for 
all, and then could openly support LV.  With Harry, the only know 
defense against LV, still running around, Fudge can't pick the 
winning side, because he doesn't know who will win in the end.  And, 
I think, that is what is keeping Fudge hemming and hawing about LV 
rising again.  Even at the end of OotP, Fudge was still reluctant to 
give in and state that he had risen once again.<<

Susan:
>I agree with Severus.  I posted a similar idea a while back.  And we 
all know that bad guys always tell the truth and never cover their 
own butts so they won't look bad....sarcasm.<


Firstly, it's entirely possible that someone other than Fudge could 
have let in the Death Eaters.  Unless you believe that "Death Eater" 
Fudge is the only one Voldemort has on his side at the Ministry.  The 
Order has Ministry employees, and they find this important as they 
are certain Voldemort has his own spies in the ministry (OOP, US 95).

Plus, we know Death Eaters at least have access to the Ministry:  
Lucius Malfoy, who has the Ministry in his pocket and therefore 
probably access to anything he wants, and Macnair who works for the 
Ministry.  Surely there are more that we don't know of, and they 
could have helped the Death Eaters and Harry gain entry.

I can see Fudge waiting around to see who's going to win to secure 
his position of power.  He's not a good guy.  But I believe that he 
doesn't think Voldemort will help him out at all in this respect.  At 
the end of GoF, he appeared truly frightened of the prospect of 
Voldemort's return.  Hence his inability to entertain the notion that 
he had indeed risen.

This also led directly to his trying to discredit Dumbledore and 
Harry.  He not only refused to believe their story, but the idea so 
strongly contradicted everything he knows (His power, his position, 
the stability of the WW for the last decade or so), that he turned 
the story around so that it was not Voldemort who was out to ruin the 
WW but power-hungry Dumbledore and his mad student Harry Potter.

So he does a lot of not-so-nice things in OoP, most particularly 
allowing Dolores Umbridge free reign over Hogwarts.  Even at the end 
when he is reluctant to accept the truth of Voldemort's return, it is 
because Fudge has just spent the last year insisting Dumbledore was 
wrong and now has to eat his words.  

Fudge's actions makes him a bad guy.  It also makes him a pawn in 
Voldemort's plan as he is actively working to hide all rumors that 
Voldemort has returned.  But it does not make him a Death Eater.

KathyK (who will not be persuaded that Fudge is a Death Eater until 
JKR herself explicitly makes it so)