Yes, I noticed that too. One can see why Fudge did okay as a Minister until the chips started falling - he has this somewhat condescending but quite amiable way with people, very Minister-y.

It's a bit of a shame there's no follow-up to this that I can remember, though, the Muggles are ignored again from here on out...

I think she and Lucius are actually pretty much on the same page - they are very alike in many ways, down to the hair colour. They were both brought up in Dark pureblood families, with the notion that they were better than most everyone else, and so they chose Voldemort's side, but never with the fanaticism or fervour that some of the others had. At the end of the day they're opportunists, moving with the flow. And because they care more about each other and about Draco than about their ideology, they end up on the good side in the end, more or less.

Bellatrix of course is the other extreme, she obviously has some affection for her sister, but other than that she's pretty much a psychopath, as is clear from her statements about sacrificing any sons she might have to Voldemort. Though of course Azkaban might have had a lot to do with that. I felt sorry for the fox, too, but it fits Bellatrix well: the paranoid and trigger-happy mentality, and her total lack of uneasiness about the AK.

Yeah, the closing line especially was brilliant, as Camilla said. Good catch about the mead. As for the Dursleys sermon, yes, but I still have a somewhat uneasy feeling about the whole thing because of what I noted in the previous book - that their initial treatment of him was so over the top that it worked in a children's book, but feels off when the series grows to more adult levels. The Dursleys are made a bit more human in these later books, you sometimes feel sorry for them or see where they're coming from, but then there's that cupboard under the stairs thing that keeps making that difficult. I don't know, it bothers me.

With regard to your closing sentence, I find it interesting that you make that observation - which I don't disagree with - right after we'd agreed at the end of book five that Dumbledore's infallibility had ended for good with Sirius' death and his failure to keep Voldemort from possessing Harry. That was the end of Dumbledore the demi-god, this is the beginning of Dumbledore the kick-ass but quite human hero. If that makes any sense.