Crouch's memory (was: Re: What is your all-time favorite ...

[ssk7882 <skelkins@attbi.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51225

Grey Wolf wrote:

> I think you are overlooking something, Elkins. While all your 
> points are valid, you are basing them in an asumption: that 
> Crouch heard the name "Percy Weasley" at least once.

Heh.  Yeah, you're right.  I had been making that assumption.  I 
suppose that it is possible that he never did.  (I particularly liked 
your suggestion that confronted with the question, "Are you related 
to the Weasley family?" Percy would likely have simply answered in 
the affirmative.  That cracked me up.)

Grey Wolf:

> Now, the real interesting question is: how does an absolute 
> newbie, that has been in the ministry for less than a year, 
> manage to climb far enough to be Crouch's personal assistant 
> and substitute when he is unavailable (for example, as Tournament 
> judge)?

Hmmm.  Well, I've actually *been* a "personal assistant," and in my
experience, at any rate, it isn't a job that necessarily goes to 
someone with seniority.  Far to the contrary.  In my experience, 
it goes to the person the Assistee finds most amenable to having 
around as a dogsbody.  Such a person is often someone with very 
little in the way of seniority, but with quite a lot in the way of...

<long silence>

<sigh>

Oh dear.  You know, I really very much *want* to say "hustle" here?
But I suspect that "sycophancy" might actually be a far better and
more accurate descriptor.

I have no difficulty believing that Percy would have been that person 
for Mr. Crouch.  I've always read a certain degree of amused approval 
mixed in with the faint exasperation of Crouch's description of Percy 
as a tad over-enthusiastic at times. 

I also find it believable that Crouch really would have wanted, er,
"Weatherby" as his personal assistant because Percy *did* idolize
him.  That's an important trait in a personal assistant.  I don't
know if anyone else has ever held such a job, but I imagine that
it may be a bit like being a professional servant.  It is work that 
is much easier to perform well if you are able to convince yourself,
at least while on the clock, that your employer really *is* a kind 
of minor deity.  You don't have to believe it *too* far down, but
it's a lot easier if you do.  It's a thankless job, really, and if 
you can't at least Stanislavsky or Roleplay or Self-hypnosis or 
what-have-you your way into at least...err...assuming the *position* 
of personal devotion then it will likely drive you quite, quite mad.  

(Why, yes!  I *did* feel a great deal for Percy at the end of GoF.
Why do you ask?)


Cheryl/Lynx, however, has a far more sinister suggestion:

> I'm not sure about the position, but I do have a suggestion about 
> why Percy was chosen as the representative. I think that was LV's 
> doing. Especially if/since Crouch, Sr., remember Percy's real name. 
> All he knew was that this newbie was just that, a newbie, overly 
> flattered by Crouch's interest. He probably felt that 'Weatherby' 
> would be the least dangerous person to be the link between Crouch 
> and the tournament, especially with Crouch resisting the Imperious. 
> After all, Percy did accept all Crouch's notes unquestioningly.

I agree that this seems *very* plausible.  Especially since I think 
it's safe to assume that Voldemort could have learned all he wanted 
about Crouch's underlings from Crouch himself.

Poor Percy really *was* an ideal tool, wasn't he?

For pretty much the same reasons that he would have made such an 
ideal personal assistant, actually.

Elkins

casting an uneasy glance down at her SYCOPHANTS badge and trying to 
avoid thinking about that clock chiming somewhere up the hill in the 
Garden of Good and Evil...