Fudge: Evil or what? The evil of cowardice

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 107100

HunterGreen: "In the case of Umbridge, I'd agree with you, if she
turned out to be a DE it would be sort of deflating, but there's far
more shady about Fudge than him not believing Voldemort has come back."

Fudge serves a bigger purpose in JKR's narrative than another closet
Death Eater. He stands for every self-interested keep-the-lid-on
let's-not-blow-things-out-of-proportion apparatchik who ever assured a
town there really aren't sharks in the water off the beach.  He's the
guy that won't step up to the plate when it comes time to do
something. He's Neville Chamberlain. Harry's a man of action, Fudge is
a man of inaction.  Does that make him evil? You bet it does.

HunterGreen: "He takes Hagrid away, mentioning several times that
pressure is on him to do *something*. Of course taking Hagrid away
won't help anything, and I think he knows that, but he has to at least
appear to be trying to solve the problem."

Yep. Appearances first. There's people in prison put there by the
Fudges of the world.

HG:"e has to at least appear to be trying to solve the problem. Then
Malfoy comes in with the order to remove Dumbledore, and Fudge does
fight against it, so his actions are sort of in the middle here."

Half a minute's weak protest does not qualify as "fighting against it."

HG, quoting Sirius's escape from Azkaban story: "... I swam as a dog
back to the mainland.... I journeyed north and slipped into the
Hogwarts grounds as a dog.' Why didn't anyone else escape before if it
was that simple? The only thing special he did was turn into a dog,
and although his emotions were `different' it wasn't impossible for
them to sense him. Wouldn't it have been just as easy for someone else
to slip out (during their first few months there, before they are
weakened), and just run for it and then swim away or swim far enough
to Apparate?"

Are you suggesting the only credible explanation for Sirius's escape
is that Fudge arranged it?  Why is Sirius's story unbelievable? How
many unregistered dog Animagi have there been in Azkaban who somehow
didn't lose their minds?  My first guess: just Sirius.  

The other flaw in you argument is this: If Fudge is a DE, then he
knows that Sirius doesn't actually want to kill Harry; he knows that
it's Pettigrew that was the Potters' real enemy.

The ESE!Fudge argument fails because it assumes that all evil comes
from Voldemort, and it doesn't.  Fudge's evil is the evil of
cowardice, self-interest, dereliction of duty. It's the evil of the
proud "neutrals" who stand aside while Nazism rapes Europe in the
1930's and 1940's.  I think that's JKR's intention. Fudge stands as a
counterpoint to Dumbledore, and to a lesser extent Harry.  He had a
clear choice to make, and we see the results of the one he made.

Jim Ferer