Yesterday my daughter Willow and I were talking about the character of Barty Crouch Jr.. Willow couldn't remember what happened to him after he had been discovered masquerading as Mad Eye Moody so I reminded her that he was given to the Dementors. The Dementors then performed the Dementor's Kiss on him and sucked out his soul, basically killing his essence while still allowing his body to live.
Willow asked why this was done, and I said that Jr. had been turned over to the care of the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, and that Fudge made the decision for the Kiss to be done. She then asked why Fudge let the Dementors perform the kiss, and I explained about how he was in denial about anything having to do with the return of Lord Voldemort, and that he didn't want to hear from Jr. that Jr. had been in cahoots with Voldemort all along. Therefore, he allowed to have Jr.'s soul sucked out.
As soon as I said this, I realized that I was wrong in my explanation. It wasn't that Fudge was in denial, he knew that Voldemort was back and he purposely had Jr. "killed" to keep Jr. silent. In other words, Fudge allowed the Dementor's Kiss to be done not out of ignorance or denial, but maliciously and with purpose, so that word would not get out about Voldemort's return, which would allow Fudge to continue his deceit to witches and wizards in his attempt to retain the power he had as Minister.
Even though I have read the entire Harry Potter series at least eight times, I never before realized just how much power had corrupted the Minister of Magic until last night. And now, as I write this, I understand that this was exactly what Dumbledore feared would happen to him if he took on the post of Minister of Magic. Wow! Dumbledore's brief experience with Grindelwald during their youth made him understand the hypnotic and magnetic pull that political power had over him and he did everything in his power to avoid succumbing to it. My respect for Dumbledore just went up, and that's something I didn't know was possible!
