Bad Faith: A Harry Potter Fanfic

[terri_testing]

Warning: Manipulative!Malfoy-oh, wait, we expect that of him.

Summary: Lucius and Cornelius enjoy a private little chat.

Disclaimer: You all know full well to whom the characters belong. (If you don’t, why are you reading?)

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Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

So in this version of the universe Lucius' influence on Fudge started with Lucius countering Twinkly's magical influence? And of course Lucius figuring out the previous influence places him ahead of the game.

(Though really, I think Dumbles gave Fudge enough reasons not to trust him in canon as it stands.)

Fudging Fudge

[terri_testing]

But in canon we see that Fudge starts by trusting Albus absolutely w/o reservation. And the turnaround happens quite abruptly, and BEFORE Rita's smear campaign against both Dumbledore and Harry.

In PS, we're told, Dumbledore's always heading off to tell Fudge how to do his job. Which Fudge gratefully accepts.

In PoA, look at Fudge’s interaction with Dumbledore in the “Cornelius Fudge” chapter.
“I want it understood, Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full confidence,” said Dumbledore, frowning at Fudge

[oryx_leucoryx]

Good catch on narrowing down the transition in Fudge's attitude. Even without Lucius' intervention Albus would have lost Fudge by the end of POA. I'm surprised he didn't notice for an entire year. But yes, Fudge started breaking away from Albus from the time of Sirius' escape.

Breaking away

[terri_testing]

At the time of Sirius's escape

Re: Breaking away

[oryx_leucoryx]

I should have said escape from Azkaban, not Hogwarts. Sorry for the confusion.

Re: Breaking away

[lynn_waterfall]

And we don't see any Aurors or others from the Ministry "interfering" at Hogwarts--investigating attacks that could have been, apparently were intended to have been, fatal. Fudge is content to let DD handle the matter--which he demonstrably isn't.

Yet it's only when the school governors start to put pressure on Fudge that he decides to arrest Hagrid despite his continued acceptance of DD's assurances of Hagrid's innocence.Some of this may have to do with whose job it is to deal with the situation. In the real world, I would expect law enforcement to get involved, but not the leader of the country (or even state), and it does look like Fudge only got involved after the governors involved him. Admittedly, the Aurors apparently never got involved, but in the wacky Wizarding World, it looks like near-murder is something for the school administration to deal with. This at least is consistent with what we see in HBP, where there was "a small task force of Aurors dedicated solely to the protection of Hogwarts School," but we never hear