Fudge evil or what?

[Anastasia]

No: HPFGUIDX 107285

> HunterGreen wrote:
Since about my second read of PoA, I've thought that Peter tossed a 
cheering charm at Sirius right before he cut off his finger, which 
is why Sirius was standing there laughing. (it just seems so odd 
that cheering charms are specifically explained earlier in PoA and 
then never brought up again, almost as though she was writing it 
that way, but it got written out for some reason).

Anastasia:
That's a great explanation for the introduction of cheering charms.
However, let's think about Sirius when he faced Pettigrew.

He had just understood that Peter had been a spy for a *long time*.
Wormtail, the weak boy, not outstanding at anything, always lurking 
near his stronger friends who protected him. Wormtail, someone whom 
he had never before recognized as a person who was able to cause 
problems and act entirely on his own. And it was Sirius who gave 
this git the ultimate opportunity to serve Lord Voldemort. Sirius 
felt guilty.  He thought that he was responsible for his best 
friend's, his "brother's" James' death.

To me, this seems quite maddening. And Sirius was laughing like a 
madman.

> HunterGreen:
I realized how odd the dementers act in PoA,  as though they are more
interested in Harry than they are in Sirius. <snip> I keep thinking 
about how odd it is that the dementers not only attacked Harry at 
the end of PoA but tried to perform the "kiss" on him, even though 
Sirius was lying feet away.

Anastasia:
The dementors seem to be so keen on Harry because he has witnessed a 
lot more suffering than many others have, especially at his age. You 
might remember that his emotions are always very strong.  This is 
exactly what the dementors need.

Lately, I've been wondering a lot about the way dementors act. They 
seem to do whatever Fudge or the MoM tell them most of the time, 
until they go over to LV. Why? Do wizards have a way to control 
them? I doubt that. The Patronus Charm can drive them away from a 
place, but it cannot make them do anything else. So they act of 
their own free will. However, this means that they can disobey 
orders. That could explain some things.

Nevertheless, I cannot understand why no dementors look for the DEs 
after the mass escape. As HunterGreen pointed out, that may be 
important.


> HunterGreen: <snipped>
I just don't understand how this decision was made to *not* alert the
one person that Sirius is after that Sirius escaped.
They don't know that Sirius is a dog, yes, but they don't know a lot
of things about him either. They think that he knows a great amount
of dark magic, and that he's not afraid of doing things in public,
and they think he's deranged and the main thing on his mind is to
kill Harry Potter. They *also* know that he was James' best friend,
and he's very intelligent. Sirius was a *big* threat.
Quite an odd moment to be worried about secrecy and protecting 
Harry's innocence.

Anastasia:
This story seems quite strange to me, too. Sirius could not only 
kill Harry, he could do worse things, if he knew dark magic. Imagine 
Sirius meeting Harry and talking to him. Sirius was James' best
friend and best man at his wedding. What if Sirius told Harry that 
the muggles got something badly wrong, that he was no murderer and 
just killed some DE, blah blah blah, that he was Harry's guardian, 
etc. What if Harry recognized him as the man he had
seen in a photograph that Hagrid gave him? Wouldn't he trust Sirius? 
I bet he would. Who knows what Sirius could have made him do if he 
was evil.

At first sight, Fudge clearly seemed to think that Harry was still a 
child, and that he couldn't cope with the thought that someone 
wanted to kill him.
Harry could have started asking questions about Sirius and find out 
why Black got into Azkaban. I must confess that this still seems 
likely to me.

Fudge seems to be not unlike Percy, except for his love of power. 
This would correspond with his *pleading* that LV had not come back. 
There is a moment when DD looks at him as if he saw him for the 
first time. That could be because he realizes how power has changed 
Fudge.

What we must not forget is that "The world isn't split into good 
people and DEs." Fudge has already helped LV a lot with his 
behaviour during OotP. 
He should be really discredited by now. That should be the worst 
punishment for him - losing power and being despised by the ones who 
once elected him.

Anastasia