Oh, Fudge.

[lizvega2]

No: HPFGUIDX 92678

I've seen the thread asking why/when Fudge changed his mind 
concerning LV's return between POA and GOF. I read an interesting 
essay over at Mugglenet in which the author speculates as to whether 
or not Fudge was the 'death eater who may have left me forever'. 
There's some pretty good arguments for it. It's in the Editorials 
page- If you have time, I'd suggest a quick read. 

But that's not what I necessarily think is true. My main issue is, 
of course, that there's no canon to back it up. But, speculating is 
fun. 

In POA, Fudge tells the party at the Three Broomsticks that 
he 'shudder's to think how powerful LV would become with his most 
faithful servant back in his service'-paraphrase. He's referring to 
Sirius, but we know later on that the culprit is indeed Peter. But, 
then in GOF- he knows that Sirius has escaped, and the reader 
assumes that Fudge hasn't waivered in his opinion that Sirius was 
the traitor. So, after basically predicting the outcome the previous 
year, what made him sink into denial when it came true? I think he 
was under orders to ignore Harry and DD's claim, and Dumbledore knew 
it. DD even refers to the notion that he knew Fudge wouldn't believe 
him. How did he, DD, know that Fudge wouldn't cooperate? 

I'm not saying that Fudge was a death eater, but what's interesting 
about all of this is the time frame between the beginning of the GOF-
 and LV's resurrection. He had nearly nine months, possibly more, to 
plot exactly what would happen in the grave yard scene. Not to 
mention 13 years of time in which I'm sure he was planning his 
return. He may have even anticipated that he wouldn't be entirely 
successful in killing Harry. Perhaps during the year while Crouch 
jr. was putting Harry in the right places, someone else was talking 
to Fudge. Malfoy, perhaps? Maybe Lucius was just passing the info. 
that Potter and DD would at some point make the wild claim about LV, 
and to dismiss it. Maybe Lucius was the one to plant in Fudge's mind 
that DD just wanted his job. (Regardless of the way Lucius behaved 
in the graveyard- ignorant, that is- he would've known just like 
Snape and Karkaroff that the LV was gaining power- he's got the dark 
mark too, right?) I don't know where the post is, but there's an 
excellent analysis of the graveyard scene somewhere in the archives, 
I'd suggest reading that too. 

I'm remembering something that one of the DE's said in the MOM- OOP- 
that the ministry was so conveniently ignoring the dark lord's 
return. And, with the new bit of info. we got from Jo last week, we 
know that Fudge is going to be losing his job soon. I'm just 
wondering if it's because he truly was just ignorant and proud, or 
because he was giving Malfoy time.