Harry in Azkaban (was Harry's Trip/Penelope, etc)

[wynnde1 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 49102

In a message dated 02/01/2003 07:17:03 GMT Standard Time, sammerz2388 at aol.com 
writes:


> Okay, yes, *why* would Harry Potter be in Azkaban? Well, it's not 
> like he hasn't been involved in some pretty risky business. <snip examples 
> of Harry's past shenanigans>
> 
> There's still the question of *what* Harry would do to receive such a 
> punishment, but I fear trying to imagine all the possible scenarios 
> that Harry could get himself into, would severely stress the limits 
> of my already-aching head...or maybe I'm just afraid to try :-)
> 


Well, here's the scenario which popped into my mind right away - Harry is 
sent to Azkaban for using an unforgivebale curse (AK) to murder Cedric 
Diggory. 

Okay, so *we* know that he wasn't the one who murdered Cedric, but as far I 
can tell, everyone else who witnessed this event isn't going to be willing to 
come forward and testify to Harry's innocence. So, pretend for a moment that 
you are Fudge. You are either a) really thick, b) evil and already working 
for Voldemort or c) not really evil yet, but weak and thinking that if 
Voldemort really *is* back, then maybe he's the one you want to be working 
for. There is a whole list of things about Harry that you either believe or 
can pretend to believe if it suits you (and some of them are actually 
*true*): Harry has committed crimes such as using underage magic away from 
Hogwarts, including an attack on his own aunt; Harry has been involved with 
dodgy things in the past, including the potentially embarrassing escape of 
Sirius Black the previous year; News reports have portrayed Harry as 
emotionally unstable, and possibly suffering strange effects from his curse 
scar; He's a parselmouth and there was that unpleasant business with the 
Chamber of Secrets a few years back. I'm sure there are plenty of others I'm 
forgetting, as well.

Now, Harry comes back with a wild story about Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew 
(who everyone knows is dead), and a bunch of supposed "Death Eaters" 
including Fudge's suck-up buddy Lucius Malfoy. And Harry has brought back the 
body of the only other tri-wizard champion who had a chance to beat him in 
the final test of the tournament. 

How easy it would be for Fudge to believe (or *claim* to believe, depending 
on whether or not you think he's evil or just thick), that Harry is a 
dangerous maniac with a history of criminal behavior and that he has finally 
snapped and killed his classmate, Diggory. Harry gets hauled off to Azkaban. 
Bye bye Hogwarts, Hello Dementors! 

So, what do you think? <G>

Admittedly, I really *don't* believe that this is how book 5 is going to 
open. If Fudge was going to play this card, he'd have done it by now. But I 
do think it's a reasonable example of the sort of thing that *could* happen 
to land Harry in Azkaban, or some other sort of trouble with the MoM. I think 
it would be fairly easy, when looking purely from the outside at Harry's 
*actions* and the things which have been said about him to make it look as 
though Harry is unbalanced and dangerous. Look how quickly the majority of 
the student population turned on him in CoS, and decided he was the Heir of 
Slytherin? Fame is fickle, and I think it is entirely plausible that 
*something* could happen (one of the much-discussed upcoming deaths, for 
example), and Harry will get blamed for it, though we'll know that he had 
nothing to do with it, but was just in the wrong place at the wrong time 
(which he often is <g>). And even if there are other witnesses to Harry's 
innocence, I imagine that Fudge, etc., could easily overlook that. After all, 
Dumbledore felt that the combined word of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Lupin and 
Dumbledore's own belief in the innocence of Sirius Black wouldnt' be enough 
to convince anyone else (in PoA). 

We know that Harry is really lovely and amazingly well-adjusted, all things 
considered. But I do think it would be very easy for someone like Fudge to 
make a convincing argument otherwise. And, from what we've seen so far, the 
standard of evidence necessary to send someone to Azkaban is not particularly 
rigorous, so I'm doubt it would be all that difficult for Fudge to convince 
most of the WW that Harry deserved a sentence in Azkaban. 

Now, having said all this, I'll add that I actually don't think Harry will 
get sent to Azkaban at all, as that would probably do really wild things to 
the storyline as we know it. But I wouldn't be surprised to see a huge 
anti-Harry campaign sweep through the WW. Harry would still be at Hogwarts, 
but pretty much everyone would suspect or hate him, even more so than what 
happened in CoS.

:-)
Wendy
(Whose favourite Fudge theory above is c) . . . I'm hoping for the following: 
Fudge trys to make a deal with Voldemort, and in doing so gets himself killed 
by Lucius Malfoy. Lucius then becomes Minister for Magic - fun, fun, fun for 
our heroes and the WW in general!. Eventually, towards the end of the series, 
Lucius himself is killed or sent to Azkaban, preferably by Arthur Weasley, 
who then becomes Minister for Magic in his place.)


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