Fudge and the Dementors

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 71950

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "marika_thestral" 
<marika_thestral at y...> wrote:
> As we know from OoP, Fudge has finally accepted the truth about 
> Voldemort being back, but I can't stop thinking that his 
interaction 
> with the dementors is highly suspicious, and I kind of believe that 
> he is either scared of them or that there is something wrong with 
the 
> alliance once made with the dementors. What did he offer them in 
> return for guarding Azkaban?

Maybe the offer was that they got a place to stay relatively free of 
interference and in return, could use the emotions/memories of the 
captive supply of prisoners as Dementor-food.  Which leads to another 
creepy thought - let's hope that part of the bargain wasn't that the 
MoM guaranteed a certain number of new prisoners per year, with all 
of their fresh emotions ready to be picked like ripe fruit off a tree 
by the Dementors.  Now I'm going to have nightmares...

> In PoA Fudge actually knows about the dementor's attempt to kiss 
> Harry, before anyone could possibly have told him. Let's take a 
look 
> at what happened after the Shrieking Shack: Lupin turns into a 
> werewolf, Pettigrew attacks Ron and Crookshanks and takes off. 
Black 
> goes after Pettigrew and Snape is unconscious. Harry and Hermione 
> hear Black yelping and run to help him. The dementors are getting 
> closer. Black and Hermione have collapsed. Harry is saved from the 
> kiss by his own patronus and faints. Snape shows up shortly after 
> that, and moves all of them to the castle. When Harry wakes up in 
the 
> hospital wing he hears Fudge saying "What amazes me most is the 
> behaviour of the Dementors 
 you've no idea what made them retreat, 
> Snape?"  (page 284) and Snape answers "No, Minister. By the time I 
> had come round they were heading back to their positions at the 
> entrances
" (page 284)
> 
> The Harry and Hermione who have traveled back in time can also see 
> Snape showing up shortly after Harry has conjured the patronus 
(page 
> 301), which must mean that Snape didn't know about the kiss.
> 
> Later, Fudge says to Dumbledore "Never dreamed they'd attempt to 
> administer the Kiss on an innocent boy
" (page 307). Where could he 
> have gotten that information from - but from the dementors 
> themselves? 

There must be some way to communicate with the Dementors.  However, 
Fudge doesn't strike me as the type to go charging down to the gates 
of Hogwarts to converse with them by himself to see what may have 
happened by the lake, at least not without a couple of Aurors to back 
him up. There does seem to be a gap here of some sort.

> This episode obviously doesn't teach Fudge anything, because he 
keeps 
> asking for their "help" and at the end of GoF he brings a dementor 
> into Hogwarts, even if he knows that Dumbledore doesn't want them 
> there. Snape points out that "he (Fudge) seemed to feel his 
personal 
> safety was in question. He insisted on summoning a Dementor to 
> accompany him into the castle" and then we know what happened to 
> Crouch Jr. Somehow, I don't think that Fudge was worried about 
Crouch 
> attacking him. He must have had his own reason to act the way he 
did.
> 
> Marika 

Well, if you subscribe to the Evil!Fudge theory, he really wanted to 
use the Dementor to shut Crouch Jr. up.  What better way to do that 
than to use the Dementor to destroy him?

Marianne