ESE!Fudge

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 113425

Kneasy wrote:
> Always willing to smell the reek of conspiracy, even if only to 
make things even more complicated, I've wondered if Fudge wasn't 
deliberately placedin the Minister slot by DEs and their friends.
> 
Consider: Crouch Snr was trying to emulate Judge Jeffries - no-one  
was  assured of a fair trial or hearing. Worrying times for DEs now 
that Voldy has gone.  They would very much like to have some-one 
less assiduous in the Ministry, someone a bit more accommodating, 
who'll let bye-gones be bye-gones. A Voldy's vanished, the danger is 
now over, time to heal the wounds, sort of character -  because if 
they don't get some-one like that Azkaban will be stuffed to 
bursting with some of the most ancient of wizarding families.
> 
> How to get rid of Crouch? He's honest, upright, severe. 
> So compromise him. 
> Arrange it so that his son is picked up with a few fringe 
supporters.  Crouch  has two options - either go easy on his son, in 
which case cry nepotism and force him to resign, or act as tough, if 
not tougher, with his own son. Distasteful; start  a whispering 
campaign. His popularity, already low, plummets. He resigns, partly 
because of that and partly through shame and grief.
> 
> And guess what? There's this other wizard - ambitious, emollient, 
not too bright, available to slip into Crouch's shoes. Willing to go 
easy on the War Crimes Tribunal front.  Suits Fudge fine - just so 
long as his backers and supporters don't start up again with their 
old tricks.
> But they have, and now he's in a cleft  stick. He *owes* these 
people and they're calling in their markers.

Hannah now: Great post Kneasy, I agree with the essence of it.  I'm 
sure that Lucius Malfoy got Fudge into office, having selected him 
as a suitably manipulatable candidate.  I'm not sure how much Fudge 
would have realised that he was being used - I expect Malfoy pulls 
his strings very subtly, and Fudge is none too bright.

The only thing that doesn't quite work out to my mind is how he 
discredited Crouch Sr. using his son.  I think the other DE's 
(doubtless led by Malfoy) actually did this for a different reason.

Crouch Jr. is a fanatical LV supporter - would he have gone along 
with anything that Malfoy, who'd immediately run to the ministry 
pleading the imperio curse, suggested?  Also, Bella and company are 
hardly 'fringe' supporters.  They're the loyalist of the lot.
I think this is why the other DE's wanted to get rid of them.  By 
seeing that Crouch Jr. and Bella got sent to Azkaban, they removed 
the fanatical DE's who weren't just going to let things rest, and 
were either going to suceed in resurrecting LV, or just run around 
making trouble for the other ex-death eaters, who were trying to 
build up a veneer of respectability.

So the other DE's arrange for this loyal faction to be identified as 
the torturers of the Longbottoms.  It's a dead cert they'll all be 
thrown into Azkaban.  The discrediting of Crouch Sr. is a useful 
extra consequence of this.  They'd have had to find another way 
otherwise.

Hannah