How did Fudge/Snape know about Dementors attacking HP in PoA?

[Partha Mukhopadhyay]

No: HPFGUIDX 91175

Greetings, folks, how go the lives?

1st post, so apologies if you've beaten this issue to death in the past; 
however, I've been poking in and out of various "HP errors" style pages, 
including the one for this newsgroup, and none of them quite seen to 
address the topic. I figure the 'answer' is out there, but thought I might 
ask a whole bunch of you at once.

My question is this:
Near the end of PoA, how, if Snape was knocked out when the 
dementors went after Harry, did he, and/or Fudge know that the 
dementors had tried to Kiss Harry? 

Talking to Fudge outside the hospital ward, Snape says something along 
the lines of not knowing what drove the dementors back, that by the 
time he came to, they were retreating, which suggests that he didn't 
actually see the dementor attempt to kiss Harry, and therefore that he 
did not know the details of the attack, or was even aware of anything 
that had happened. It's safe to say he also did not see the patronus, as 
he would have recognized it for what it was, had he been awake to see 
the initial dementor retreat.

Since no one else was around, how the heck did he or Fudge know that 
that attack had occurred? Hermione and Harry at that point hadn't talked 
to Fudge or Snape or Dumbledore, as they were just awakening in the 
hospital wing. If I recall correctly, in the very brief meeting of Harry and 
Fudge (pre-time turner action? I haven't read the book in months, this is 
just something that's bugging me for no discernible reason today), there 
is no mention of the attack. And in the subsequent action, there is no 
meeting between Fudge and anyone who might have been able to tell 
him that the dementors did indeed try to Kiss Potter - Sirius was 
unconscious at the time of that attack (as one of the HPfGu threads I 
looked at a few minutes ago about that specific attack posited, maybe 
the Dementors went after Harry because he was the only one conscious 
at the time), and Harry and Hermione don't meet up with Fudge until the 
very end.

It's at that time that Fudge says something to the effect that he can't 
believe the dementors would have tried to kiss an innocent boy.

So, overlarge post boiled down to one line: How did Cornelius Fudge 
know about the attempted Dementor's Kiss on Harry Potter?

I recall no line in the book that would suggest that he could possibly 
have know what had happened. The argument above points to no one 
from whom he could have learned about the incident (possible exception 
below)

Every time I've tried to bounce this off a friend who might care, I've 
been met with an unsatisfying, "Dumbledore knows everything" 
or "Fudge asked the Dementors about what had happened out there." I 
can't argue with the prior other than to say that it's a weak copout, and I 
find the latter unlikely, as it's necessary to assume that any particular 
head dementor that Fudge would talk to would a) happen to know of 
that particular action  by one of his "people", and b) actually share that 
information with Fudge. 

I mean, can you imagine a dementor actually telling Fudge something 
like, "ah, yeah....boss....about that....one of our boys kinda got a little 
excited...." (nervously shifting from "foot" to "foot") "I mean, I had to 
tell 'em that they'd get to kiss someone, 'cuz some of the boys, they 
were ready to walk off the job and go back to the wife and kids, and I 
had to tell 'em something to keep 'em happy, give 'em something to look 
forward to, y'know?" (nervous, whiny tone creeping into his voice 
now) "But, man, I promise you, boss, it ain't never gonna happen again. 
Once we get our kiss on this guy Black, we'll be cool for a while...."

(sorry about the americanization of the dementor's speech, feel free to 
englishify it to fit into the HP universe   :)

Anyway....even though I haven't read PoA in a while, I've looked for the 
answer to this question every time I have in the past, and haven't yet 
been successful. Hope you can help....

Partha