Fudge & Umbridge believing in Voldy's return

[KathyK]

No: HPFGUIDX 112318

Kim wrote:

>If Umbridge doesn't believe LV is back, why would she insist that 
Harry knows where Sirius is? (Especially that whole scene with the 
Veritserum) Is Umbridge dumb enough to think that Harry would be 
speaking to Sirius --someone who was trying to kill him and betrayed 
his parents? Why would she think Harry is on the DE's side? Why does 
she think that Harry, Dumbledore and Sirius have "been in on this 
whole thing together from the start?"<


KathyK:

Hi Kim, everyone!

Fudge knows of the story about Sirius Black not actually being a 
Death Eater from the end of Prisoner of Azkaban.  Harry and Hermione 
shouted it at Snape and Fudge.  They were convinced the children 
were 'confunded' by Sirius.  Fudge knew also that Dumbledore had 
gotten the same story from Sirius himself.  Then Harry and Hermione 
rescue Sirius, which at the time Fudge did not suspect, and had no 
reason to, they could have done such a thing.  

Thanks to Rita Skeeter, by the end of GoF, Fudge had changed his 
opinion of Harry and then Dumbledore tells him something he just 
can't accept-that Lord Voldemort is back.  Where did Dumbledore get 
this information?  From Harry who has 'funny turns' and is a 
parslemouth.  

Fudge leaves Dumbledore in disbelief, after having to listen to the 
ridiculous notion that LV has returned.  Not only that, Dumbledore 
wants him to get rid of dementors and make nice with the giants.  So 
not only does Fudge think Harry is mad, but Dumbledore as well.  He 
begins to think about all he knows about Harry Potter.  What was it 
he was saying last year?  That Sirius Black was not the 
traitor/death eater everyone thought he was.  That he was 
*innocent.*  Maybe he begins to think Snape might have been right: 
that Potter had something to do with Black's escape.  

Perhaps he remembers Dumbledore's response to Snape: "Unless you are 
suggesting that Harry and Hermione are able to be in two places at 
once"  (PoA Ch 22, US ed. pg 420)  He starts to put two and two 
together.  Hermione had a time-turner.  This he would know because 
McGonagall had to get permission from the Ministry for Hermione to 
be allowed to have one.  What if Harry and Hermione really were in 
two places at once?  What if they used the Time-Turner to rescue 
Black?  Dumbledore must have been in on it, too.  

So Mad Harry and Dumbledore are in cahoots with Sirius Black.  He 
tells Umbridge to be on the lookout.  Those two are helping the 
escaped murderer.   It's only natural, I think, that Umbridge would 
try and find out where Sirius was when she attempted the Veritaserum 
on Harry.
 
Kim:

>But how many people (outside the Order)know the truth about Sirius, 
Peter and the whole secret-keeper thing?< 

KathyK:
The Death Eaters, Harry, Ron, Hermione, The Weasley kids, Fudge, and 
Umbridge...am I forgetting anyone?
 
Kim:

>I've always thought of it as a stretch not to believe DD and HP, 
AND to assume that Sirius and Harry are in cahoots. But if you 
didn't want anyone to know that LV has returned, wouldn't you keep 
your paranoia to yourself? It's one thing to say that DD is old and 
off his rocker, but I wouldn't go around saying that Harry is crazy 
and that he's communicating with Sirius Black. To the average 
wizard, that would have them scratching their heads, based on the 
knowledge that the "public" has.<

KathyK:

I'd say the only one Fudge has told that he suspects Harry is in 
cahoots with Sirius is Umbridge, his trusted Senior Undersecretary 
who is in a position to try and discover the whereabouts of Sirius 
and some evidence Dumbledore and Harry are harboring a murderous 
death eater.  I think Fudge sees their belief in Sirius' innnocence 
as further evidence they're both crazy and that allying with Sirius 
in some way is tied in with Dumbledore's wanting to oust Fudge from 
power and take over the WW himself.  
 
Kim:

>Granted, Fudge and Umbridge do a good deal of BSing during Harry's 
5th year, because they're silly, ignorant gits. Umbridge's quest to 
make Harry's life miserable shouldn't really make sense to the 
Wizarding World and Hogwarts students considering they don't know 
the real story.<

KathyK:

I highly doubt anyone in the outside WW has any idea of what is 
truly going on inside Hogwarts.  Not with Umbridge controlling the 
school and not with the _Daily Prophet_ doing Fudge and Umbridge's 
dirty work.  As far as the rest of Hogwarts...I think Umbridge is 
pretty nasty to any students who aren't falling in line with her 
regime.  Harry has taken a particularly extreme position against her 
and is therefore subject to more special attention from Umbridge as 
compared with other students. 

Thanks, Kim!  This has been fun. ;-)

KathyK