Percy and Ginny (was Re: Percy)

[absinthe at mad.scientist.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 15158

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., muggle-reader at a... wrote:

> Clearly Ginny is in a state of mental distress. She is anxious, 
> panicky, and hyperreflexic. Upon learning that Ginny was about to 
> divulge "important" news, Percy, with egocentric urgency, 
> thinks "It's all about ME!", hence choking on his tea. He does not 
> even consider the important news is about the Chamber, much less 
that 
> his sister could possibly have any information about the Chamber. 
> Percy's only "concern" is to save himself. In one fell swoop, Percy 
> discredits Ginny's "important" news, questions her integrity and 
> discredits Ron's concern for Ginny. A similar situation occurred  
in 
> PoA, Ch 13, where Percy disregards Ron's claims that Sirius Black 
was 
> in his dormitory AND where Percy tells McGonagal that he not only 
did 
> not authorize the gathering in the Common Room, but also, that 
> Ron "had a nightmare". In both of these examples, Percy has jumped 
to 
> a wrong conclusion while dismissing the credibility of his siblings 
> and has attempted to save his reputation at the expense of his 
> siblings reputations. (Ginny's "important" news couldn't possibly 
be 
> about the Chamber and she can't be trusted with a secret; Ron only 
> had a nightmare.) Moreover it shows that Percy follows his 
> preconceived notions when assessing a situation rather than 
listening 
> and sorting through the facts. Ron's response, to Hermione's 
comment 
> that Percy wouldn't give any of his family to the Dementors, of "I 
> don't know, " said Ron. "If he thought we were standing in the way 
of 
> his career
Percy's really ambitious you know
"( GoF, Ch 27)
> doesn't 
> seem completely off the mark in light of Percy's history.
> 
> There is nothing completely wrong with following rules or authority 
> figures and that is an admirable Percy trait. However, there is a 
> danger when they are followed blindly. Here's a Percy quote from 
GoF, 
> Ch 10 about Winky and her loyality to Crouch.
> 
> "Now look here, Hermione!" said Percy. "A high-ranking official 
like 
> Mr. Crouch deserves unserving obedience from his servants---"
> 
> That quote sheds a very, very bright light on Percy's mentality: 
> authority figures deserve not just plain ordinary obedience, but 
> UNSERVING obedience. That is exactly what Percy gave to the 
Imperious 
> cursed Crouch and is what made him the perfect pawn of the Dark 
Side, 
> enabling them to succeed in their plan to control the Triwizard 
> Tournament. I firmly believe a less rigid person would have found 
> Crouch's extended holiday-illness and communications via post 
> somewhat odd (Sirius was only following Crouch's behavior by the 
> newspaper and HE thought something was odd and has Ron to write a 
> letter to Percy concerning Crouch). I can easily see Percy uttering 
a 
> similar sentence when he is told of Fudge's refusal to believe 
> Voldemort's return ("Impossible! Cornelius Fudge is the Minister of 
> Magic, the highest ranking official in the Ministry! He would never 
> hide from us anything as important as You-Know-Who returning!"). 
> 
> I truly want Percy to side with Dumbledore and the rest of the 
> Weasley's in the upcoming books. J. K. Rowling could have Percy see 
> the light. But at this point, Percy's character can convincingly go 
> either way.  
> 
> Demelza

I never realized that Percy was saving himself at the expense of Ron 
and Ginny. It makes me wonder if Percy was "helping" Arthur at the 
Ministry after the World Cup the same way.

I agree there is a bit of interesting Percy foreshadowing in the 
books. It puzzled me why in CoS Percy didn't know Voldemort was Tom 
Riddle. He was reading a book about Hogwarts Prefects who went onto 
powerful positions, unless that book wiped out all reference to Tom 
Riddle. 

I think Percy's beliefs about obedience given to authority figures 
also sheds light on how HE feels he should be/have been treated by 
Ron et al. while Head Boy at Hogwarts and would make sense why he 
took points away from Gryffindor due to the argument with Ron.  

Rowling has 3 books left to tie up the loose Percy ends. I hope it's 
done through the course of the books rather than having Ron tell 
Harry that Percy had a big conversion over the summer and he's much 
less strict--that would be a bit of a cop out, IMO.

:-)Milz