Something wrong with this Fudge

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 107441

Susan: "MY original point was that some people have claimed Fudge is a
good ESE! Candidate because he opposes DD, is friends w/ Lucius, is
unfair to Harry in his trial, won't take the position of informing the
WW that Voldy's back even though the evidence is clear, etc.-- all the
CLEAR, SURFACEY detail from canon. I then went on to point out that
often people argue back that, no, these things don't make Fudge ESE!,
they simply make him a waffling, weak, power-hungry bureaucrat. My
final point was that, wouldn't it be interesting if, in the end, we
find that Fudge truly is ESE! But not for the reasons typically stated
(and reiterated in this paragraph)? What if it's because he really has
been orchestrating truly evil things, such as setting the Dementors on
Harry, being in on the Potters' death or helping Wormtail somehow,
having Barty, Jr. "kissed" before he could testify so as to protect or
hide something, helping Voldy return?"

If that's true, then Fudge is a DE, maybe not in name, but in thought
and deed.

Fudge is part of a theme and a contrast by JKR – selfless courage,
duty, standing up for one's friends, represented by Dumbledore, Harry,
Harry's friends, and many of the Hogwarts staff, and venality,
malfeasance, self-interest and cowardice, represented by Fudge, Crouch
Senior, and Umbridge.  Does this make Fudge evil? I say it does, and
Umbridge shows us how far it can go.  Is Percy on that continuum? He
may be, if he isn't actually dissembling on Dumbledore's behalf, which
is perfectly possible.

Nobody can say that Fudge didn't do the things you speculate he might
have done, but mostly it wouldn't be like him.  He's a man of
inaction, as Harry is a man of action.  The one exception is that I
could easily believe he had Crouch Jr. "kissed" to eliminate and cover
up an embarrassment to the Ministry.

As far as  Fudge sucking up to Lucius, and his prejudice, consider our
history.  Public figures as diverse as Charles Lindbergh, Joe Kennedy
Sr. and the Duke of Windsor were early admirers of Hitler and shared a
lot of the same prejudice, although not to that psychotic a degree. 
Once the Second World War started most came back to the fold;
Lindbergh spent the entire war trying to live it down.  I think the
parallels are generally valid.

Is Fudge evil? I think so. I just don't think he's a DE or a mole, or
that major a player any more.

JKR is character-driven.  Know her characters and you can predict a
lot of what they'll do.

Jim Ferer