Cornelius Fudge (Harry Potter)

Cornelius Oswald Fudge is a recurring character in the Harry Potter franchise. Fudge made his debut as a minor character in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, before receiving a proper introduction as a supporting antagonist in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He was a supporting character in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, before returning as a major antagonist in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. He made his final appearance, as a minor character in the novel Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Fudge was the British Minister for Magic from 1990 to 1996. He had complete control over the Ministry of Magic, the main governing body of the British wizarding world. Despite being a quite respectable figure on a first glance, he turned out to be incompetent at best, and a corrupt tyrant at worst.

In the movie adaptations, he was portrayed by the late Robert Hardy.

Why He's (Intentionally) a Corrupt Wizard
NOTE: These reasons mainly apply to his book incarnation.
 * 1) To begin with, he is a very prejudiced person, as he favors people born with high status over lower classes. Moreover, he favors pure-bloods over half-bloods and muggle-borns and neglected the Weasley Family as he believed that they are obsessed with muggles.
 * 2) * Adding to that, he is also prejudiced towards non-human species, like house-elves and giants.
 * 3) He is very lazy and sleazy politician, a sycophant who favored peace and tranquility for the sake of his own position over a truth that would cause disruption of this peace. He preferred to cover up the truth rather than prepare the wizarding community for the worst.
 * 4) He is quite incompetent when it comes to being a Minister for Magic, as he seems to be more reactive than proactive because he would often wait for a solution to appear, rather than take the initiative and find or create a solution.
 * 5) After Harry returns from the graveyard with Cedric Diggory's body and informed everybody about Voldemort's return, Fudge, instead of taking this information into account, goes into complete paranoia and vehemently refuses to believe it. Even when Snape shows the burning Dark Mark on his arm, he still refuses to believe. His paranoia eventually grows out of control as he becomes convinced that both Harry and Dumbledore were conspiring to remove him from office.
 * 6) He had Dementor drain Barty Crouch Jr.'s soul out of purely selfish reasons. Namely, he felt that his position was at stake.
 * 7) In Order of the Phoenix he is absolute at his worst as he spends this whole novel relentlessly slandering both Harry and Dumbledore as well as everybody who is affiliated with them.
 * 8) * For example, he turned Harry's disciplinary hearing into a full-biased court trial and Harry felt like he was judged for murder or something worse. Even though Harry was cleared of all charges, Fudge was bent on expelling him from Hogwarts permanently.
 * 9) * Also, after Dumbledore's Army was discovered, he intended to arrest Dumbledore and permanently expel Harry from Hogwarts.
 * 10) * On the top of this, his actions at the end of Goblet of Fire and throughout Order of the Phoenix end up having negative impact on Harry's mental state.
 * 11) His smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore proves how truly ungrateful he is towards Dumbledore for all years he was receiving help from him.
 * 12) He appointed Dolores Umbridge as both new Defence Against Dark Arts teacher and High Inquisitor at Hogwarts, which made life of many Hogwarts students miserable.
 * 13) He is responsible for Percy Weasley's estrangement from his family.
 * 14) He is also indirectly responsible for ruining the relationship between Harry and Cho Chang.
 * 15) After mass Azkaban breakout he instantly pins the whole blame on Sirius Black despite having no evidence to prove his involvement (Sirius was actually innocent and had nothing to do with this breakout).
 * 16) After Dumbledore's escape, he taunted Professor McGonagall that it was the end of Dumbledore, showing how truly ruthless he can be.
 * 17) He effectively allowed Voldemort to rebuild his former army, completely uninterrupted, greatly endangering both the wizarding and muggle worlds.
 * 18) Even after personally seeing Voldemort, he was still partially inclined to arrest Dumbledore, despite just discovering that he was telling the truth. Luckily, Dumbledore quickly dissuaded him from doing so.
 * 19) He never apologizes to Harry nor to Dumbledore for slandering them, even after finding out that they were telling the truth all along.
 * 20) He is an EXTREME hypocrite. After Voldemort's return was finally revealed, Fudge, instead of realizing his mistakes and taking responsibility for his actions, tries to retain his position and, in desperate attempt to remain in office, even tries to gain Harry's support, completely disregarding the fact that he spent an entire year slandering him and everyone connected to him. Namely, he wanted Harry to lie to everyone (which ironically was the very thing he was accusing Harry of for a whole year) that, during his reign, Ministry was doing a good job at security. When Harry found out about this, he was enraged and disgusted by Fudge's shamelessness.
 * 21) After being ousted from office in complete disgrace, he lamented over losing his position, showing that he didn't learn any moral lessons from his actions.
 * 22) Overall, he cared much more about his position as Minister for Magic than the safety of the world he was assigned to protect.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Robert Hardy portrays him very well in the movie adaptations.
 * 2) In the movies, he is more tolerable than in the books, not to mention that his antagonism towards Harry and Dumbledore in the fifth movie was toned down when compared to the novel.
 * 3) * Also, unlike in the books where he was forced to resign against his will, in the movies he apparently realized his mistakes and resigned willingly.
 * 4) He also has a positive trait, as he initially treated Harry like his favorite nephew.
 * 5) He was truly shocked by Cedric Diggory's death, showing that he isn't a completely heartless person.
 * 6) He was present at Dumbledore's funeral, suggesting that he was genuinely saddened by his death.
 * 7) He reassured Hagrid that he would be released from Azkaban if another was found responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets and causing the attacks on Hogwarts' Muggle-born students, and he kept his word.