Umbridge and Fudge (Was: Lupin and Snape)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 152855

Pippin wrote:
> <snip> Snape was unconscious during Lupin's transformation and
escape into the forest, yet Dumbledore knew about it by the time he
spoke to Harry in the Hospital Wing. The only person who could have
told Dumbledore is <snip> Sirius Black. 
> 
> And since Snape was not present for that interview, the only way
> Snape could have learned that Lupin was at large on the grounds 
> was from  Dumbledore. Dumbledore also must have told  Fudge 
> about it, since we hear that he convinced Fudge that Lupin 
> had not gone out to the shack to help Black. 
<snip>


Carol responds:
One thing that confuses me. I had thought that Fudge informed his
Senior Undersecretary Delores Umbridge after the events in PoA that
Dumbledore was hiring "werewolves" and that she framed her
antiwerewolf legislation at that point as a means of undermining DD's
reforms, but according to Sirius Black (OoP Am. ed. 302), Umbridge
framed her legislation "two years ago" (as of September 8, Lexicon
chronology), which means that it must have been passed shortly after
Lupin began teaching at Hogwarts or just before he was hired. Maybe
the legislation was one reason why DD hired Lupin for what he knew
would be a one-year position (because of the DADA jinx/curse).(?) 

At any rate, Umbridge's antiwerewolf legislation can't be aimed
specifically at either Lupin or Dumbledore given that chronology, nor
can it have any connection with Snape's malicious little revelation to
his students after Lupin's resignation. The legislation predates these
events by almost a year, and it does not seem to be aimed, like
Umbridge's attempt to sack Hagrid, at undermining Dumbledore through
attacks on his known associates (unless Umbridge somehow knew that
Lupin was a werewolf before Fudge told her, which seems unlikely).
More likely, it's merely a manifestation of her anti-"half breed"
mania which happens, inconveniently, to affect Lupin a year after its
inception.

However, I do wonder whether Umbridge is the malign influence behind
Fudge's metamorphosis from the bumbling but well-intentioned figure we
see in PoA to the paranoid and power-hungry politician of OoP (pardon
the alliteration.) We know from "The Hearing" in OoP that Fudge moved
very quickly from being merely bewildered by Dumbledore's "insane"
declaration that Voldemort was back to fearful that Dumbledore was out
to replace him as MoM, and from being friendly toward Harry to willing
to expel him, break his wand, and even send him to Azkaban for
underage magic. Umbridge played a prominent role in Harry's hearing
and she sent the Dementors after him in the first place to silence or
discredit him. Could Umbridge also have played a role in having DD
removed from his high offices on the Wizengamot and International
Confederation of Wizards? Was Fudge already under her influence even
during GoF, before Voldemort's return? 

Posters have suggested, in fact, Harry himself suggests, that Fudge
was Imperio'd by Lucius Malfoy or at least that Malfoy is responsible
for the alteration in Fudge between PoA/GoF and OoP. Certainly Malfoy
seems to have been attempting to influence Fudge, but his real motive
in being at the Ministry on the day of Harry's hearing may have had
more to do with Imperioing whichever Order member was guarding the
door to the Department of Mysteries, probably Sturgis Podmore, who is
arrested soon afterwards. (Malfoy glances toward the door to the DoM
twice in that chapter, a detail I hadn't noticed until a recent
rereading of OoP, and Mr. Weasley makes a point of telling Sirius
Black that Fudge was talking to Malfoy on level nine, the level of the
DoM, another detail I hadn't noticed until this time around.)

At any rate, I suspect that Malfoy is a red herring here, and the
malign influence on Fudge is Umbridge's (which is not to say that
Malfoy is not working for his own ESE! ends, as he certainly is). But
Umbridge's close connection to Fudge and her later stint as High
Inquisitor at Hogwarts, makes her, IMO, the most likely person to have
turned Fudge's fear of Voldemort's return into anti-Dumbledore paranoia. 

Carol, noting that Umbridge is Fudge's Senior Undersecretary and Percy
is his Junior Assistant, and wondering if Umbridge is also responsible
for, erm, brainwashing Percy