Who's the third dead death eater? / 'One who's left me forever...'

[Brenda M.]

No: HPFGUIDX 105858

>>> Neri's speculation:
> Harry gets back from the graveyard, tells everybody 
> that LV is back and names several DEs, but he doesn't mention 
Snape. Fudge storms out, and DD says to Snape: "Severus, you know 
what I must ask you to do. If you are prepared?" Snape answers, "I 
am" and sweeps out. Up to here it's canon, from here on – my 
speculation: 
> Snape gets out of the Hogwarts grounds and takes a small object out 
> of its robes: it's a time turner. Snape turns it six or seven 
times, then he waits until his Dark Mark appears, and disaparates to 
the graveyard. He knows that LV will recognize him but will not name 
him (because Harry didn't hear it). Now to the part that the Snape 
fans will really like: Maybe, when Harry is running from the DEs and 
LV towards the Goblet, Snape curses the DE's from behind so they fail 
to hit Harry. He should do it very covertly, however, because while 
he knows that Harry did manage to get away, he doesn't know that he 
(the Snape from the future) got away with it. <<<


Bren now:

I have always wondered how Snape could be present at VM's Rebirth 
Ceremony, but your theory cleared it very nicely! It makes a *lot* of 
sense to me. Thanks Neri!!


>>> Neri continues: However, this lives the position of the "one who 
left me forever" open, and I don't believe it is Fudge (see post 
#105541 for my reasons). 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Neri's Post #105541
-- The main reason I don't believe Fudge was "the one who left me
forever" is that if Fudge was a DE, he has to have the Dark Mark, and
his Dark Mark must have summoned him to the graveyard. In fact, he
should have felt his Dark Mark becoming stronger through the whole
year before, just like Snape and Karkaroff. He would have known for
sure that Voldy is back. Why then would he refuse to believe DD and
Harry? Not only that, he fought against DD for a whole year, causing
a lot of damage to the war against LV. If Fudge is an ex-DE on the
run from Voldy, then he should have made any effort to help DD. DD is
his only hope of staying alive.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Brenda now:

I will copy and paste PART of the essay "The Missing Death Eater" 
(Essay #15, from North Tower Column, Mugglenet.com) that might answer 
your question:

--------------------------------------[From "The Missing Death Eater"]

1) It has to be a character of some consequence, because he will 
probably have quite a big role to play in the last books. I doubt 
very much that it'll be a new character or somebody that nobody knows 
anything of (like Professor Tufty for example). I think JKR will use 
this character as a surprise, a little shock to the readers who 
didn't think he was a Death Eater at all. 

2) Okay, this gives us quite a list. My possible candidates are: 
Prof. Flitwick, Prof. Binns and Hagrid at Hogwarts; Lupin, Mundungus, 
Kingsley, Arthur Weasley, Moody, Aberforth, Dumbledore and Sirius in 
the Order; and Lockhart, Crouch, Sr., Bagman, Amos Diggory and 
Cornelius Fudge in general society. Let's take them off one by one 
shall we? 

- Prof. Flitwick: in the Order and seems way too sweet and nice.
- Prof. Binns: totally uninterested by anything except History of 
Magic.
- Hagrid: Too close to Dumbledore
- Lupin: Seems too decent, gut feeling.
- Mundungus: a crook that was helped out of a tight spot by 
Dumbledore some sixteen years ago. Possible, but I don't think so.
- Kingsley: I really don't think so, plus I have him on my "canon 
fodder" list.
- Arthur Weasley: Too close to Dumbledore
- Moody: same thing, plus he'd probably not have been as effective in 
catching Death Eaters if he was one of them.
- Aberforth: I think that Aberforth is the barman in the Hog's Head 
(he kind of looks like Dumbledore and there is a smell of goats 
around the place). I think he was the one who threw out the 
eavesdropping DE the night of Prof. Trelawney's first prophecy (and 
no, I don't think that the eavesdropper was Mundungus). Plus, he' 
Dumbledore's brother, so no.
- Dumbledore: That would be pretty bad. Dumbledore's the only person 
Voldemort fears and the only one that calls him "Tom" and isn't 
afraid of him. I really can't see him being Voldy's humble servant.
- Sirius: No, because he seems to hate everything about dark magic. 
Plus, he's dead now so there's no point for him to play that role.
- Lockhart: He's too poor a wizard and too vain to recognize 
Voldemort as his master.
- Crouch. Sr.: Fought hard against Voldemort and is also dead = no 
point
- Bagman: I think he's a bit too thick, to tell you the truth. He's 
like a sporty version of Lockhart.
- Amos Diggory: Too concerned about what's right. 

Okay, for all the above characters I don't think that they're the 
missing Death Eaters for more or less fuzzy reasons, but the most 
important one is that Voldemort's words can only apply to ONE person, 
and I think that that person is Cornelius Fudge (i.e., if it is 
Fudge, then all the others are excluded automatically, like with 
Neville and Harry: if one of them is the One, the other one isn't, as 
there can only be ONE One). I thus don't really have to prove that 
each character above isn't the missing Death Eater, only that the one 
character I've chosen is (i.e. attacks should be on the argumentation 
concerning Fudge, not on the short arguments above as they are of no 
consequence). 


Why Fudge? 

Well, for a bunch of different reasons: 

1) He's very ambitious and doesn't mind using dishonest tricks to 
remain in power (e.g. badmouthing Harry and Dumbledore, changing 
Harry's hearing at the last minute and creating new (pretty fascist) 
school rules.) 

2) He's very good friends with Lucius Malfoy and places too much 
importance in the "purity of blood" (GoF). 

3) This person described by Voldemort is one who was a Death Eater 
but who left Voldemort but probably didn't join the opposing side 
(the Order), as indicated by "believe." He probably wasn't one of 
Voldemort's most ardent supporters (i.e., he could have been unknown 
by most of the other Death Eaters) as Voldemort doesn't specify who 
he is. I get an image of an ambitious character who probably turned 
to Voldemort out of fear and/or to achieve power and then, when he 
had achieved that power, wanted to leave him. He probably left after 
Voldemort's fall, as there seems to be no clear rupture between them 
(for one thing, he's still alive), when he deemed it safe to be his 
own master again. He's now extremely happy with the situation, able 
to suppress the memory of his Death Eater days and scared to death 
that Voldemort will return as that would ruin his life and career. 
Sounds like somebody we know? 

If we look at Fudge's background we find that he worked for the 
Ministry but that he only got the Minister of Magic job when Crouch, 
Sr.'s son was judged a Death Eater (maybe there was a reason to why 
Crouch, Jr. got caught?...). Fudge then became MoM and kept very 
close to Dumbledore in the beginning (looking for protection in case 
his old master came back?...) but then got more and more confident 
(as time passed without Voldemort coming back) and stopped listening 
to Dumbledore. Other than that, we don't know much about him. Nothing 
of his background, his time at Hogwarts, etc. (although I'd be 
willing to bet that he was a Slytherin). He's a bit mysterious. 

4) This character (the missing DE) ought to be extremely afraid that 
Voldemort should ever come back. That would ruin his world. He does 
not want that and will try to prevent it in any way possible (makes 
sense, Voldemort would kill him). What is Fudge's reaction when Harry 
tells him about Voldemort's rebirth? Denial. Very strong denial even. 
Fudge simply refuses to believe the truth and continues on this path 
all through Book 5. He'd rather believe that Harry has lost his mind 
and that Dumbledore is conspiring against him, even though that makes 
no sense. Fudge is not stupid. If he'd look at things in a rational 
way, he'd see that the only sensible explanation is the one offered 
by Harry and Dumbledore. He doesn't. He refuses to. 

If he's been a Death Eater, he'll have the Mark. He'll have felt it 
burn the night of Voldemort's return, just like Snape and the others. 
This could be why he reacts so strongly when Snape shows him his 
Mark. I mean, he lets out a yelp of fear. As I understood it, nobody 
but the Death Eaters knows about the Mark on the arm of all of 
Voldemort's supporters (if it was general knowledge, then the "good 
guys" would have had it a lot easier at the trials, for example). If 
Fudge hasn't been a DE, he wouldn't know about it, so why then react 
so strongly when he saw it on Snape's arm? Sure, the Mark in itself 
is a scary thing, but I think that there is more to it than that. 
Especially as, a little while later, he seems to give in to reason 
and says, "He can't be back Dumbledore, he just can't" (GoF). This 
seems to be a wish rather than a rational statement. In his heart he 
knows the truth but he refuses to see it. He most certainly felt his 
Mark burn too, but explained it away somehow (like some women manage 
to convince themselves that they're not pregnant (God, I'm getting 
fat, must cut down on the chocolate) and panic when they "all of a 
sudden" get severe contractions. ("It must be something I ate! 
Help!")). It's like the Muggles who are so easy to hide magic from 
because they simply refuse to believe in it, even if a stone turns 
into a cow in front of them. That is how I see Cornelius Fudge in 
Books 4 and 5. He sees what he wants to see. 

5) Fudge's relationship with Lucius Malfoy and other DE (like Nott 
and Macnair). Karkaroff said when witnessing that the DE didn't know 
who all the other DE were. At Voldemort's rebirth, Voldemort named 
some of the DE and just went past others in silence, not revealing 
who they were. If Fudge used to be a Death Eater, it's possible (and 
even probable) that most of the other ones didn't know about him. I 
think that we can be pretty sure that some knew however, and that 
Cornelius knew about them in return. Fudge is Minister of Magic. 
Several DE work for the Ministry. Wonder how that came about... 
Malfoy reeks of Dark Magic, and everybody in the Order knows exactly 
where his loyalties lie. In spite of that, he was never convicted as 
a DE (even though he was probably the most well-known among the DE 
themselves, seeing as he's very close to Voldemort). Again, I wonder 
why that is... This is, of course, a big conspiracy theory, but what 
if the DE who work at the MoM are the ones who know about Fudge? 
Maybe there's blackmail involved. Maybe in both directions (i.e., 
Malfoy shuts up about Fudge if Fudge shuts up about Malfoy, not to 
forget all the money that Malfoy gives to Fudge. I'll scratch your 
back if you scratch mine...). It seems like a big game, who is 
manipulating whom, really? This is what I think: 

-- Fudge is the DE referred to by Voldemort as the one who has 
probably left him forever. He knows that Malfoy and the other DE who 
work at the MoM used to be DE but probably thinks that they've done 
what he's done and decided to work for themselves. Lucius and co. are 
smart enough not to fill him in on their boss's return because 
Cornelius does such a good job unconsciously helping them (or is it 
really unconsciously? Maybe he knows that Voldemort is back and 
figures that his best chance of survival is to play along, or at 
least not oppose him...). Cornelius has achieved his ambitions, and 
now he wants things to stay the way they are. He doesn't want to get 
dragged into a conflict between Voldemort's supporters and 
Voldemort's opponents, and he doesn't want his previous alliance to 
be known to the public because they'd kick him out of office. I think 
that this is the key to Fudge: he doesn't really care about much 
except securing his own power. (In PoA, for example, does he protect 
Harry because he's concerned about him or because it would be very 
bad publicity to have Harry killed by an Azkaban fugitive?) --

This leaves one question: What does he know about Snape, Wormtail and 
Sirius and their connections to Voldemort? Malfoy seemingly didn't 
know about Sirius being an animagus before Wormtail told them all 
somewhere between Books 4 and 5, so the other DE probably didn't 
either. It's possible that Fudge was unaware of the whole "Wormtail 
being the true spy and DE"-part and thought that he was going after 
the right man in PoA. More interesting still is his relationship to 
Snape. Obviously Fudge knows that Snape used to be a DE (everybody 
does), but what does Snape know? Remember that Snape and Malfoy are 
very close. I think he knows about Fudge, but for some reason or 
other, he's chosen not to reveal this little piece of especially 
juicy information to the rest of the Order (or maybe Dumbledore 
knows, who knows? He's famous for being discrete and giving second 
chances after all...). 

This theory (if it's correct) opens up for a whole new twist on the 
story. Many people have guessed that Percy will play a pivotal role 
in Books 6 and 7 and that he'll have to make a choice about whose 
side he wants to fight on. Percy, who in Book 5 is made Junior 
Undersecretary to none other than Cornelius Fudge... A good position 
for getting to know things about his employer... Maybe Fudge hired 
him to get information on the Weasleys and on Dumbledore (he probably 
did), but he just might get impaled upon his own sword if he's not 
careful. This also creates a need for a new Minister of Magic 
(Fudge's bad handling of Voldemort's return might be smoothed over, 
but the fact that he once was a part of the "team" certainly won't 
be. Assuming he survives, Voldemort has vowed to kill him after all. 
He'll probably be dead the moment he no longer can be of use to the 
DE). Who knows, maybe Arthur Weasley will get the top job as so many 
seem to think. 

As for Fudge, he'll have to choose sides at the beginning of Book 6 
and his choice will be an essential one: will he join forces with 
Dumbledore, or will he go back to Voldemort in an attempt to save his 
own skin? (Also, does he or does he not have an army of fire 
creatures to help whatever side he picks?) 
------------------------------------[End of "The Missing Death Eater"]


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<http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/thenorthtower/nt15.shtml>

Brenda