Other Weasleys (Percy, Fred)

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 16459

=Warning: listies who accompanied Fred to the Yule Ball may want to 
skip this post <eg>=

Demelza wrote:

> A few paragraphs later, Madame Pomphrey frees Ron from "Percy's
> clutches." The word choice is interesting. There is almost a 
negative
> connotation generally associated with 'clutches', ie, the clutches 
of
> a madman.

Penny replied:

>I wouldn't put that spin on it at all.  I see it as a word that shows
>strong emotional connection.

Percy is the victim of a very slanted POV:  Ron dislikes him, and we 
get a lot of our information about Percy via Ron.  If you go through 
and look at the negative portrayals of Percy, they are often filtered 
through a comment of Ron's as well as through Harry's POV.  I wonder 
what we would think of Percy if we saw him through, say, Bill's eyes.

I interpreted "clutches" in the above example as Ron's (and maybe 
Harry's) POV as a 14-year-old boy who, like most 14-y-o boys, hates 
public displays of affection and concern by his family.  He is 
probably embarrassed by Percy's outburst of concern.  Hence the 
humorous use of "clutches," as if being hugged by your brother were 
equivalent to a Lethifold attack.

I seem to be a candidate for Percy Fans Unite! membership; I hope the 
test isn't as rigorous as the one for L.O.O.N. (by the way, Joywitch, 
I was ROFL!).  For example, I hope I can still think Percy's 
outrageously pompous, and that he is not even in 3rd place for Most 
Impressive Weasley Man.  I just like him a lot more than most people 
seem to.

Penny wrote:

>I think the question about Hermione's naivete depends on how 
seriously
>the Ministry would view the offense of being an unregistered 
animagus.
>If it carries really horrible penalties (a stint in Azkaban for
>example), then Hermione pretty much has Rita handled. 

Except that Rita now knows that Sirius is an unregistered animagus 
too, and that Dumbledore knew it (we don't know when she entered the 
room, but it's certainly likely that she was there for that 
revelation).  So she has as much on them as Hermione has on her--could 
lead to a stalemate.

>With all that's going to be going on, an unregistered animagus may 
not register much on the
>priority scale at the MoM though, regardless of how seriously it 
might
>have been viewed in times of peace.

Yeah, I think so too.  Especially for Sirius, who can make the MOM 
look very bad if he gets the chance to prove that he was locked up for 
12 years without cause.  (Yes, I know the evidence was pretty 
convincing on the face of it, but cases like Sirius's show why 
civilized societies have a trial before they convict people.)

Aha!:  On chat the other day, I was trying to remember the 3rd thing 
I'd noticed was a Fred, not George, nasty trick on Ron.  Susan has now 
supplied it and added a fourth.  Thank you, Susan.

My point was that we lump Fred and George together (at least I do), 
but all the instances I can think of of childhood traumas inflicted on 
Ron by "the twins" were in fact Fred's doing.  Sorry, Ebony!

1) (least serious IMO) telling him you have to wrestle a troll to get 
Sorted (PS/SS)
2) changing his teddy bear into a giant spider (CoS)
3) giving him an acid pop that burned a hole in his tongue (PoA)
4) (most serious IMO) Beating his puffskein, apparently to death ("I 
used to have one of these" "What happened?"  "Fred used it for Bludger 
practice":  clear implication is that the past tense is due to the 
Bludger practice) (FB)

So, my question is:  what's with Fred?  Are other people growing as 
disturbed by the overall picture of him as I am?

Amy Z

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 His immediate reaction was that it would 
 be worth becoming a prefect just to be able 
 to use this bathroom.
                  -HP and the Goblet of Fire
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