Percy question

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 79113

Susan:"[Will Percy apologize to his family?]This is a very interesting
question.  I have very mixed feelings about this.  Part of me says
that he will offer it up and admit that he was being power hungry and
stupid.  The other part of me says that he will have every excuse in
the world and feel that he did nothing wrong and maybe even turn the
events around to where he insists that he was right all along and his
family should apologize to him."

My money says Percy will come back.  Even though Percy was a
disgusting sycophant this year, truly a revolting, lick-spittle
apparatchik toady, he's still a Weasley, and I think the good family
background will tell in the end.

I actually think this was Percy's rebellion.  Like Ron, he was
embarrassed at being poor and wanted to do better.  Percy looked at
his eccentric father and saw Arhur holding back the whole family
because Arthur is his own man; so Percy decided he was going to go
along to get along – and it seemed to work, for a while.

Now Percy's having the wrongness of it stuffed down his throat. 
Dumbledore and Harry, who he repudiated, and his own brother and
sister, from the family he rejected, have won a victory over the Dark
Side and disgraced the man he was sucking up to.  They're heroes and
Percy's a lacky.  Percy's not stupid, and he doesn't need a weatherman
to know which way the wind is blowing.  But more important, I don't
think Percy's evil.

What Percy also is is the unredeemed Hermione.  She was like him in
many ways when she arrived at Hogwarts, and she could have gone the
same way as him, but her friendship with Harry and Ron transformed her
more wonderfully than any of the other characters.  Among the great
she is, and Percy must look at her and see in her the moral center and
courage that he lacks.  All his life he depended on higher authority
and all the rules he could find to guide his life, and it's stopped
working.  It's got to be a really bleak feeling.

But again, he's a Weasley, and I think that's what will save him in
the end.  It's also likely to be his death.  It wouldn't surprise me
to see Percy give himself up as part of his redemption.  It might be
too conventional for JKR, but I think we will see Redeemed!Percy.

Jim Ferer