Cornelius Fudge

"You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!"

- Albus Dumbledore

Cornelius Oswald Fudge was the Minister for Magic from 1990 to 1996. Despite being a persuasive, confident and intelligent individual, he often valued bureaucracy over pragmatism. He was dismissed due to his unwillingness to believe that Lord Voldemort had returned. He was replaced by Rufus Scrimgeour, but stayed in an advisory capacity.

Early years
In the years before he became Minister, Fudge was previously the Junior Minister in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. In 1981, he was one of the first on the scene after Sirius Black "killed" Peter Pettigrew; unknown by anybody else, Black had been framed by Pettigrew himself. Fudge watched Sirius laughing maniacally, and remembers to this day the giant crater in the street.

Barty Crouch was favored to be the next Minister for Magic, but due to imprisoning his own son, he had a huge drop in popularity and Fudge replaced Millicent Bagnold instead.

Minister For Magic
"A Fair Deal for Wizards Who Deal Fair with Muggles."

- Cornelius Fudge's campaign slogan

1990
In 1990, Fudge was appointed Minister for Magic, and had his first meeting with the Muggle Prime Minister to introduce himself and to explain the existence of the Wizarding World. Fudge cheerily hoped that the pair would never need to meet again.

In Fudge's early days as Minister for Magic, it is said that he was not very self-confident and constantly asked for advice from Albus Dumbledore.

1993
Because of the four attacks on Muggle-born witches and wizards, Fudge arrived at Hogwarts in the spring of 1993 to remove Rubeus Hagrid to Azkaban prison; not as a punishment, but as a precaution. Fudge assured Hagrid that he would be released immediately if another person was found to be responsible. Dumbledore tried to convince Fudge that taking Hagrid would make no difference, but Fudge would not be dissuaded. Eventually, it was proven that Hagrid was indeed innocent, and he was released.

That summer, Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban, which unhinged Fudge and started him on a downward spiral of poor decisions. The night Black escaped, Fudge visited him at Azkaban, and was unnerved at how "normal" Black seemed, in relation to the other prisoners.

Convinced Black would be caught quickly, Fudge alerted the Muggle Prime Minister of the situation, and asked that the Muggles keep an eye out for Black, as well; the Ministry set up a special hot line for the Muggles to call with any information. Because of Black's connection to Harry Potter, Fudge was reluctant to inform Harry of the truth, something to which Arthur Weasley voiced his opposing opinion.

When Harry left the Dursleys' after blowing up his Aunt Marge, Fudge intercepted him outside the Leaky Cauldron. Fudge assured Harry that the problem had been dealt with; Marge had been punctured by members of the Accidental Magical Reversal Squad, and her memory modified by Obliviators. When Harry asked what would happen to him, Fudge told him not to worry, and that he would forgo punishment, since the circumstances had changed. Fudge then asked that for his protection, Harry stay at the Leaky Cauldron for what remained of the summer, and not to venture back into Muggle London. Harry agreed, and then asked Fudge if he would consider signing his Hogsmeade permission slip, to which Fudge uncomfortably declined. Fudge then bid Harry goodbye, and left the room.

As a misguided attempt to protect the students, Fudge posted Dementors around the school, which nearly produced tragic results. The teachers, as well as Madam Rosmerta in Hogsmeade, found the creatures' presence distracting, and Harry was a frequent target of the dementors' actions.

In October, Fudge was alerted to Black's entry into Hogwarts on Halloween night. Convinced Black was hiding either in or around Hogsmeade, Fudge had the dementors search the area, calling it a necessary precaution. In December, he journeyed to the school, and stopped at the Three Broomsticks with Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Hagrid. Inviting Rosmerta to join them, Fudge proceeded to explain Black's connection to Voldemort, and that it was Black who told him where the Potters were hidden. Fudge then admitted that he believed Black's eventual plan was to find Voldemort and return him to power. After this, Fudge left the pub for a meeting with Dumbledore.

In June, Fudge arrived at Hogwarts again, this time for two reasons: (1) to check on the Black situation, and (2) to witness the execution of Buckbeak the Hippogriff. At two o'clock, Fudge attended Buckbeak's appeal, but the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures did not reverse its decision. At five that evening, Fudge returned to Hagrid's cabin to witness the execution; but when Macnair stepped outside to perform the act, he noticed that Buckbeak had disappeared.

When Severus Snape returned Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Black to the school after the events in the Shrieking Shack, Fudge informed him that for his actions, Fudge would try to wangle an Order of Merlin, First Class for him. Moments later, Fudge entered the hospital wing after hearing Harry's shouts; Harry and Hermione attempted to convince Fudge that Peter Pettigrew was still alive. Several minutes later, when Professor Dumbledore arrived to speak privately with Harry and Hermione, Fudge decided to meet the dementors and rendezvous with Dumbledore later.

When they learned Black had escaped again, Fudge returned with Snape and Dumbledore to the hospital wing, where Snape ordered Harry to explain his involvement. However, Fudge seemed to think Harry being involved was impossible, and left to inform the Ministry about the situation, and agreed to remove the dementors from the grounds.

1994
During the summer holiday, Fudge had two tasks to organize, with help from Ludo Bagman and Bartemius Crouch: the final of the Quidditch World Cup, and the Triwizard Tournament.



Fudge met again with the Muggle Prime Minister, to inform him of the magical creatures he was bringing into the country for the Tournament.

At the World Cup, Fudge greeted Harry in a fatherly fashion, and introduced him to several foreign wizards, including the Bulgarian Minister for Magic. Fudge also extended friendly greetings to the Malfoy family.

After the match ended, Fudge was irritated to learn that the Bulgarian Minister could speak English, and that his own need to communicate through sign language had not been necessary. Along with the Bulgarian Minister, Fudge then shook hands with the two teams.

1995-1996
In the spring of 1995, Fudge was asked to fill in for Mr. Crouch as a Triwizard judge; having stopped coming to work, no one knew where Crouch was, or what had happened to him.

When Harry exited the Triwizard maze holding Cedric Diggory's dead body, Fudge informed the crowd, and then tried to get Harry to release him. Fudge suggested Harry go to the hospital wing, but Dumbledore refused, wanting Harry to remain where he was.



When Fudge was informed the Death Eater responsible had been caught, he felt his personal safety was in jeopardy, and summoned a dementor to accompany him into the castle; said dementor then sucked out Barty Crouch Jr's soul, leaving him an empty shell of his former self, unable to give testimony about Voldemort's return. This lack of testimony helped Fudge discredit Dumbledore the following year.

Suspicious that Dumbledore may have had designs on the role of Minister himself, Fudge refused to believe the warning that Voldemort had returned. Seeing Dumbledore's suggestions of removing the dementors from Azkaban and sending convoys to the giants as ludicrous (fearing he would be forced out of office for even suggesting it), Fudge and Dumbledore accepted that they had reached a parting of the ways; Fudge was left to act as he saw fit, while Dumbledore acted immediately to reactivate the Order of the Phoenix.

"Laws can be changed if necessary, Dumbledore!"

- Cornelius Fudge

When Harry was accused of using magic illegally in the presence of a Muggle, Fudge took a leading role in Harry's prosecution before the Wizengamot, and actively sought to discredit Harry, going so far as to, during Harry's hearing, introduce irrelevant considerations and highly biased accusations while seeking to deny Harry's right to a fair chance to present his own version of events. Only the intervention of witness Arabella Figg and Dumbledore himself spared Harry from expulsion.



"Fudge isn't in his right mind. It's been twisted and warped by fear."

- Remus Lupin

Driven by paranoia, Fudge sought to undermine Dumbledore's credibility and authority both at Hogwarts and at large in the wizarding world, which he accomplished, first by ensuring that Dumbledore was presented in the news as a crackpot. Soon afterwards, Fudge's Senior Undersecretary, Dolores Umbridge, was installed at Hogwarts as the school's new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. By means of numerous Ministry decrees, Fudge gradually extended her powers until he was able to remove Dumbledore from Hogwarts, and handed control to Umbridge. Fudge's term ended in 1996 when, shortly after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, he and several other Ministry officials saw Voldemort for themselves in the Ministry Atrium. Forced to accept the truth, Fudge was pressured by the public and media, and resigned within two weeks of the incident. He stayed on as an adviser and messenger to the Muggle Prime Minister for Scrimgeour, as Scrimgeour was too busy to contact the Muggle Minister himself.

In 1997, Fudge was one of the many citizens of the Wizarding World to attend the funeral of Albus Dumbledore.

Legacy
"There is a tide in the affairs of men/Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;/Omitted, all the voyage of their life/Is bound in shallows and in miseries."

- William Shakespeare, Julius CaesarRemus Lupin

"Take the steps I have suggested, Cornelius, and you will be remembered, in office or out, as one of the wisest and greatest Ministers of Magic we have ever had. Fail to act, and you will go down in history as the man who let Lord Voldemort run free."

- Albus Dumbledore

Several persons, including Rubeus Hagrid, considered Fudge a well-meaning but ineffective bumbler while he was in office. This failed to worry many, as long as he was willing to accept advice from others, particularly Albus Dumbledore. When the full consequences of his actions (or rather, lack of action) after Lord Voldemort's return became known, the wizard community issued a virtually unanimous condemnation of his tenure. Fudge would later comment sadly that he had never known the wizard community to be so united on any other issue during his administration. Given this universal disapproval, he was likely memorialized as one of the least effective Ministers in British history.

Physical appearance
Fudge is described as "portly little man," with rumpled gray hair. He is recognizable by his somewhat bizarre dress style: pinstriped suit, scarlet tie, long black traveling cloak, pointed purple boots, and lime green bowler hat.

Personality and traits
"He [Fudge] is gonna get us all killed just because he can't face the truth."

- Hermione Granger's reaction about Cornelius Fudge interview to the Daily Prophet about the Azkaban Mass Breakout of 1995

As Minister for Magic, he appeared in the early years as a bumptious, good-natured wizard trying to manage and smooth over the occasional crisis, such as Harry Potter's misuse of magic to inflate his Aunt Marge in 1993.

He appeared to be more reactive than proactive; he would often wait for a solution to appear, rather than take the initiative and create a solution.

As he became more and more overwhelmed, his paranoia began to cloud his judgment; by ignoring Dumbledore, Fudge had metaphorically shot himself in the foot. His declining lack of preventive action affected his popularity with the wizarding world: by the summer of 1996, he had left from office in disgrace and replaced by the more proactive Rufus Scrimgeour.

Background Information
Fudge was portrayed in the Harry Potter films by Robert Hardy. Several comparisons have been made between Fudge and real-life British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who bowed to Adolf Hitler's territorial demands at the Munich Conference and foolishly announced "peace in our time" in 1938, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. Despite any of his other accomplishments, he is universally remembered by history as a bumbler.

Ironically, Hardy is well-known for playing Chamberlain's successor, Winston Churchill, in a series of televisio miniseries.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Notes and references
Korneliusz Knot