Percy (yes, again :-)

[Doriane]

No: HPFGUIDX 69029


I read a magazine about coding secret messages the other day. And 
yesterday, while I was re-reading Percy's letter to Ron, it struck me 
hard : this letter feels fake. It feels to me like Percy is 
desperately trying to say something to Ron. I don't have my book with 
me right now, so I'll have to work from memory, so bear with me :-) 
Oh, and in order to understand my reasoning, you have to assume that 
Percy is working as an insider for DD. I'm not saying that's my 
opinion, I'm just saying it's the basic hypothesis here.

In the first paragraph of his letter, Percy mentions that he's 
writing to Ron because he learned from Umbridge through Fudge that 
Ron had been made a prefect. Sounds odd to me : would the Minister of 
Magic and the freshly-appointed High Inquisitor care about informing 
a junior assistant that his little brother was made prefect ? Seems 
to me like they would have tons of much more important things to 
discuss. On the other hand, Percy, having just learned that Umbridge 
had been made HI, might be desperate to inform Ron, because he knows 
what a devil the lady is, and he wants to make sure Ron and Harry and 
Hermione know what's going on.

In the second paragraph, he congratulates Ron on becoming a prefect. 
Specifically, he says how happy he is that Ron didn't follow Fred and 
George's route, but rather his (Percy's), and that he's now taking on 
responsibilities. Well, this could be genuine, but it could also be a 
warning to Ron : being a prefect is going to be tough on you in the 
present circumstances, stick with F&G. Note that he doesn't mention 
Bill and Charlie, even though we know that Bill at least was prefect 
and Head Boy too.

Then, if I remember well, he starts beating on Harry and DD. That's 
the part that feels oddest to me. I mean, he KNOWS both Harry and DD 
very well. He used to positively adore DD, he worked with him as Head 
Boy. He also spent time with Harry, he knows quite a few things that 
happened to him. He's calling Harry "unbalanced" and "violent", when 
Harry saved his sister and brother from danger more than once ? 
That's not logical at all.

A few other points :

He refers to the next day's Daily Prophet at least twice. Sounds to 
me like : make sure you read the DP tomorrow, there's something of 
vital importance in there !!

He says he's sending the owl at night so Ron can read it on his own. 
How thick would he have to be to believe that ? Ron and Harry share 
the same dormitory, they are virtually always together. Sounds to me 
like Percy is trying to protect his OWN privacy, not Ron's ! 
Something like : I have to send this letter at night so hopefully it 
won't be intercepted, I don't trust neither the Ministry nor the 
school post anymore.

And the bit about his parents... Nah, I can't take that. It's just 
too much. It's like those letters prisoners send to their families in 
which they say that basically they are living in paradise. Everybody 
knows it's not true. Well, it feels the same to me here. Things 
like "people in the MoM couldn't be nicer to me" (paraphrase, sorry) 
sound horribly fake to me. I think he's trying to shock Ron, Harry, 
and most of all Hermione, into thinking : this is not Percy !!

And we know he can lie, since he says in the letter that Umbridge is 
not getting much help in her work at school, while he is quoted as 
saying that she is immensely successfull the next day in the DP !!

Ah, one last thing : how did he know that his parents were associated 
with Sturgis Podmore in the Order of the Phoenix ? The Order is a 
SECRET organization, nobody knows who's in it, except those who are 
in it. And we see how cautious they are around each other while in 
public, from the way Arthur and Shacklebolt talk to each other at the 
Ministry. So how did Percy know that Podmore and his parents were 
associated together ? For that matter, how does he know that his 
parents and DD are associated at all ? He knows his dad supports DD, 
but he can't know anything about the Order. So why mention Podmore ? 
Unless he wants to give a hint to HRH : I know about Podmore because 
I'm in the Order too (or something like that).

Okay, I might be way off, but I felt I had to say it. And I'm re-
reading GoF for clues on his real position there, and already things 
are starting to look suspicious : how could bright, ambitious Percy 
accept to work on *cauldron bottoms* ??? For all we know, he could 
have become an Auror, but instead he seems happy to work on cauldron 
bottoms... Odd. Unless he's trying to remain unsconpicuous within the 
Ministry...

But if he's really simulating, he's an amazing actor...

Del