When Fudge Became MoM (WAS: Lily,James and Azkaban.

[elfundeb2]

No: HPFGUIDX 112209

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Marita Jan <maritajan at y...> 
wrote:
> Actually, there's canon against Fudge being MoM for that long.  In
> Phoenix, one of the Articles that Harry reads in the Quibbler is 
about
> Fudge plotting to take over Gringotts.  That article 
says:  "Cornelius
> Fudge, the Minister of Magic, denied that he had any plans to take 
over
> the running of the Wizarding Bank, Gringotts, when he was elected 
Minister
> of Magic *FIVE* years ago...." (my emphasis)
> 
[snip]
> What does this mean?  Is it a mistake on JKR's part?  If this 
timing is
> correct, Fudge was elected Minister about the time Harry started 
Hogwarts.
>  Hagrid mentions Fudge "pelting DD with owls every morning" asking 
for
> advice (in SS).


Though JKR is admittedly very poor with numbers, I don't think this 
is a mistake.  As the quote indicates, Fudge acted like a very green 
MoM in PS/SS.  As he got more comfortable with his power, he came to 
view Dumbledore's advice as interference.

Nor do I think it's necessarily inconsistent with the story Sirius 
gives in GoF ch. 27 ("Padfoot Returns").  Sirius says in GoF that 
Crouch's "big drop in popularity" occurred after the staged death of 
Barty Jr. and the staged death of his wife, which occurred "shortly 
after" Barty Jr.'s staged death.  Barty Crouch's death took place a 
year after he was convicted of the Longbottoms' torture.  We know 
that the Longbottoms weren't tortured until some point after 
Voldemort fell, and that the Pensieve Four weren't captured right 
away.  (Dumbledore says in the Pensieve scene that "the Ministry was 
under great pressure to catch those who had done it.")  And after 
their capture, some additional time must have elapsed before their 
trial.  What all this means is that at least two years elapsed 
before the earliest possible time Fudge could have become MoM.

However, the fact that Crouch's disgrace caused him to lose his 
position as heir apparent to the MoM job doesn't necessarily mean 
that Fudge replaced him right after Barty Jr. 'died'.  That wouldn't 
happen until the existing Minister of Magic (who remains 
unidentified) retired, was sacked, or (if it is an elected post) 
failed to be reelected.  We don't know when the position became 
available.  Crouch might have waited several more years hoping that 
he could still get the job in spite of his waning popularity.

Also, according to Fudge's own words in PoA ch. 10, "I was Junior 
Minister in the Department of Magical Catastrophes at the time, and 
I was one of the first on the scene after Black murdered all those 
people."  It would seem very quick for a junior minister to rise to 
become MoM in just a year.  Fudge would have needed to build his 
credentials on more than just the capture of Sirius Black.  While 
pre-OOP I would have guessed that Fudge had been MoM for 2-3 years 
at the beginning of PS/SS, I don't think the date given in OOP is a 
flint.  

There's another apparent anomaly in the books.  In PS/SS, Hagrid 
states, "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd 
never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job." This 
seems to imply that Crouch wasn't even under consideration when 
Fudge became MoM.   This seems inconsistent with Sirius' 
statement, "Once the boy had died, people started feeling a bit more 
sympathetic toward the son . . . . The conclusion was that his 
father never cared much for him.  So Cornelius Fudge got the top 
job, and Crouch was shunted sideways into the Department of 
International Magical Co-operation."  

On the other hand, perhaps the disgrace to his family left him 
unworthy of any consideration whatsoever by the time the MoM 
position became vacant, because I have no doubt that it was Fudge 
who shunted Crouch aside to the Department of International Magical 
Co-operation.  This seems to be a move to get Crouch out of any 
possible "line of succession" (DMLE is the largest department and 
seems most concerned with what Hagrid told us in PS/SS was the main 
job of the MoM: "to keep it from the Muggles that there's still 
witches an' wizards up an' down the country."  So it seems logical 
that MoM candidates would more likely have served in DMLE rather 
than one of the lesser departments.)  Note that Sirius' statement 
implies that Fudge got the top job first and *then* Crouch was 
shunted aside.

Debbie
always ready to accuse Fudge obtaining and keeping his job using 
nefarious means