Cornelius Fudge cannot be a Death Eater (WAS: FUDGE IS A DE!!!!)

[Tom Wall]

No: HPFGUIDX 79144

Severus:" I have pulled our findings and it seems, astonishingly, 
that Fudge is in leagues with LV."
<snip all of Severus' excellent reasoning>

Tom replies:
Having given the whole thread (and I'm amazed that it's had such 
longevity,) a cursory read, I first want to applaud your apt 
defenses against all the comers thus far. BUT - since I haven't 
noticed my favorite objection to this line of thought yet in this 
particular thread, I decided to chime in.

This is the way I see it:

Cornelius Fudge, Severus Snape, Ludo Bagman, and Molly Weasley (who 
has been accused, if you can believe it,) not to mention all other 
staff members mentioned as present at the Third Task, (such as 
McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, and Hagrid) CAN NOT be Death Eaters. I 
base this on a simple fact: they were either present during the 
Triwizard Tournament, or else (as in the case of Snape – who is 
conspicuously absent prior to the Third Task) were present almost 
immediately upon Harry's return to Hogwarts via the Cup-Portkey.

Since we all know that it is an impossibility to Apparate OR 
Disapparate on the Hogwarts grounds, we must logically conclude that 
Fudge, Snape, Bagman and Molly (in particular,) and the other 
mentioned staff (in general) were not (and could not be) present in 
the Graveyard, due to this all-important constriction.

As such, these people cannot be Death Eaters, since they did not 
respond to the summons – and we have absolutely no indication to 
suggest that Voldemort accommodated anyone with special arrangements 
in this regard.

Oh, that, and Voldemort did mention that his one most faithful Death 
Eater was at Hogwarts already; subsequent correlation of this with 
Barty Crouch Jr.'s account pretty much settles that problem. There 
was one faithful servant at Hogwarts, and that was Barty Crouch.

Of course, I exempt Karkaroff from all of this, since (according to 
Snape) he fled when the mark burned, and for all we know he fled 
right off the grounds and then Apparated directly to the graveyard. 
So, whereas I'd be inclined to believe that it's possible Karkaroff 
is *not* the person referred to as the (paraphrased) "one too 
cowardly to return," I don't believe that we can successfully argue 
that there were other Death Eaters present at the Tournament.


Jim Ferer (in response to Severus' post):
I don't agree, partly because I don't see any convincing evidence of
it, but mostly because Fudge plays an important thematic role and
gives JKR the opportunity to make an important point. <snip the rest 
of Jim's fine post>

Tom replies:
I tend to agree with this perspective, and believe that Fudge is 
JKR's own attempt at painting a picture of political corruption. I 
also think that this theme, which was expounded upon so greatly in 
OoP, was intentional, and designed not to make us question Fudge's 
allegiances. Rather, it was intended to make us understand once 
again the nuanced viewpoint that the world is comprised of various 
moral positions, shades of gray, if you will, and that not 
everything is black and white. Thus, while Fudge is a difficult 
obstructionist to the truth, he's not actually a Death Eater.

-Tom