Scrimgeour a DE (was More thoughts on the Cloak)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 158481

Tonks:
> This plays into my theory that Scrimgeour is a DE. I have suggested 
> that he was the 4th DE on the tower. But even if it was not him on 
> the tower, I do think that he is in league with the DE and in the 
> best place to help with the plot to take over the WW.
> 
> My reasons are:
> DD does not quite trust him. And DD was evasive when Harry asked him 
> if Scrimgeour was "good". (HBP,page 61 US version.)
> 
> Bones was murdered, and by LV himself. Perhaps she was getting too 
> close to knowing the truth about him.
> 
> In all these years the MoM, as Harry reminds us, has never been 
> successful in caching LV. And Scrimgeour was an Auror. He could have 
> done many things to prevent LV from being caught. Like a bad police 
> officer that helps the bad guys by tipping them off before a raid, 
> etc. Weren't the raids on the DE home conducted by a different 
> division? If not, I would guess that he couldn't prevent them all as 
> that would blow his cover and his main job is to keep LV safe from 
> detection. 
> 
> All in all, I don't think that Snape is the only one pretenting to 
> be one thing while really being something else. I think we will be 
> shocked to discover that lies and deceit are in many places. Who can 
> we really trust?

Carol responds:
I don't think that Scrimgeour is a DE--more a Barty Crouch Sr. type
who might resort to the DE's methods to bring them in. He seems like
the tough-cop type to me.

He couldn't have been the fourth DE on the tower (Brutal-Face) who was
petrified by Harry. (Scrimgeour for some reason says that the DE was
found "Stupefied"--probably JKR misremembering.) Also, Harry knows
what Scrimgeour looks like and talked with him soon afterwards, and
Scrimgeour has a distinctive limp. (I think that the fourth DE is
Yaxley, mentioned by Snape along with Greyback and "the Carrows," who
I think are Amycus and Alecto, in "Spinner's End." Why else would JKR
drop those names into that chapter?)

As for Scrimgeour not being "good," Dumbledore doesn't deny that he's
good, he just says that it's "an interesting question" and that he's
"able," with a "more determined and forceful" personality than Fudge.
He also says that Scrimgeour is "a man of action" who has "fought Dark
wizards most of his working life" and "does not underestimate Lord
Voldemort" (as Fudge did) (HBP Am. ed. 61). So the question is, what
constitutes "good." He certainly seems to be opposed to Lord Voldemort
and the DEs, but so was Crouch Sr., who became almost as ruthless as
the people he was pursuing when he started using their methods, not
only authorizing Aurors to kill DEs rather than capturing them but
authorizing the use of the other Unforgiveables, Cruciatus and
Imperius, on suspects. We don't know whether Scrimgeour, the former
head of the Aurors, continued that policy as Head of Magical Law
Enforcement, but I wouldn't be surprised if he has used the
Unforgiveables himself when Crouch was in charge of that department.

Again, I don't think he's a DE, but as sirius Black told Harry, the
world is not divided into good people and Death Eaters. There are
ruthless and power-hungry people in the Ministry, as Crouch Sr. and
Umbridge demonstrate, and it's possible that Scrimgeour is another
example. He wants to destroy Voldemort and the DEs as far as I can
tell (he was looking for Sirius Black in OoP, thinking he was the
betrayer of the Potters and the murderer of thirteen people) but he's
also as aware as Fudge of public image and willing to arrest innocent
people to maintain it. Beware of politicians who are also police, I
suppose. I wouldn't be surprised if he turns the WW into a police
state in Book 7.

Carol, agreeing that we haven't heard the last of Rufus Scrimgeour