Percy and the Dark Side

[Amy Winters]

No: HPFGUIDX 8743

I've really enjoyed the posts on Percy...both the Weasley Family 
Dynamics by Demelza and the Percy and the Dark Side post by 
Charmain.  For some reason, I'm finding Percy to be very thought 
provoking right now<G>.

Percy's behavior and attitudes seem to become more meaningful as the 
story progresses.  At first, Percy provides a bit of comedy.  He's 
such a complete opposite from the rest of his family, except maybe 
Molly.  Which may be why she's so tolerant of him.  He struts around 
like a puffed up peacock and you can't help but to laugh when the 
rest of his family starts poking fun at him.  However, when you start 
looking at the overall context like the two recent posts have, you 
start thinking about where Percy's going to find himself in the next 
couple years.  On one hand, Percy, like Ron, has older brothers to 
live up to.  While at Hogwarts, Bill was also Head Boy and Charlie 
was captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. (it's amazing that I 
can now spell Quidditch without having to check myself<G>).  Percy 
being Head Boy was nothing new and everyone is still talking about 
Charlie's skill on the Quidditch field.  Percy is 18 years old and is 
probably still trying to find his niche.  While it may seem that he's 
running as fast as he can away from any trait that may remotely be a 
Weasley trait, he is still a Weasley.  (Which means, I think he'll 
come out on the right side at the end)

On the other hand...and this is mainly because I read the Quidditch 
World Cup chapters last night in GoF...it seems that the wizarding 
world may have become a bit too lax in their "constant vigilance".  
And who can blame them - I bet the majority of them thought 
Voldermort was dead and would never come back.  The thing that jumped 
out at me last night while reading was the crowd that surrounded the 
hooded figures grew as the march progressed.  (Chapter Nine...the 
Dark Mark...at the beginning of the chapter)  It's mentioned several 
times.

"More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing 
up at the floating bodies."

"The crowd beneath the Roberts family was larger than ever; they 
could see the Ministry wizards trying to get through it to the hooded 
wizards in the center."

It wasn't just 20 or 30 death eaters participating in this.  Mob 
mentality probably played a role in what happened, but the fact still 
remains that a lot of witches and wizards thought that what the 
alleged Death Eaters were doing was funny and at the time, 
acceptable.  It would be easy for Voldermort to assert himself and 
the Death Eaters back into the wizarding world before the majority of 
them even realized what was going on.

(I am working my way back to Percy).  Right now, the wizarding world 
is divided into three segments.  Voldermort's supporters, Fudge and 
his group who don't believe that Voldermort is back or that there's 
even a problem, and Dumbledore's group.  I think Percy's going to 
find himself at a crossroads in the next book (or two).  From his 
attitude in GoF, I would be very surprised if he *doesn't* align 
himself, at least at first, with Fudge. 

Failure to act, while it doesn't constitute supporting Voldermort, 
does silently condone Voldermort's actions.  Percy has shown himself 
to not like questioning change...i.e. the house elves.  He's all for 
things remaining status quo and following the rules.  He reminds me 
of a character in Babylon 5 - one of the bridge crew.  While the 
command staff is contemplating breaking away from earth, they start 
trying to feel out their staff.  This one guy comes across as a nice 
guy, but one that would never think of breaking the rules and 
therefore would never go for the command staff breaking away from 
Earth (basically treason - but for a good reason).  Then when push 
comes to shove and he's faced with that decision and sees for himself 
what's going on - he supports them 100%.  I think that's where 
Percy's going to end up in another book or two.

Wow...that got much longer than I intended.  Sorry<G>.

Amy