[HPforGrownups] Percy Weasley under Lucius' Imperius Curse?

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 85244

Joj wrote:
>  I think that makes more sense than evil!Percy.  I can but Percy having a
spat over differences of opinion about the >MoM, but Percy's behavior far
exceeds his job ambitiousness he'd shown previously.  It's one thing to not
send any >presents to his family for Christmas, but quite another to send
the gift he received back.  A slap in the face, if you would.  I >think his
behavior towards Harry is strange also.  He acts as though Harry is a
stranger, not a friend, which I think he >was.
>
>  I know Percy was ambitious, but lets not forget, he was in Gryffindor,
not Slytherin.  That means he must have bravery in >him, right?  So he's
either under the imperious curse, or he's a spy?  Right?  (shrug)

Well, maybe, but then again, maybe not. At the end of the day, JKR alone
knows all :-)

We tend on this list to go either for very straightforward Percy theories -
Percy is just a Bad Person, or very Machinavellian ones - Percy is under
Imperius from Malfoy/Fudge/Umbridge/Scabbers the rat (or alternatively,
Percy is a deep mole for the Order).

There's an alternative. It means looking at Percy as a whole person and not
pinning labels on him, but I think that the way Percy has behaved is
entirely explicable without needing to resort to magical explanations. So
here we go.

1. Young Percy

Percy is the third Weasley son - two older brothers, who are shown to us as
being both mature and cool, three younger brothers, who (especially the
twins, who are nearest in age to Percy) act in a young way. Percy doesn't
act in a "young" way at all. He clearly sees himself as being the third of
the "grown up" brothers, he tries very hard to be like Bill and Charlie.

He doesn't succeed, of course. He's pompous, uptight, big headed, closed in,
all the descriptives that are applied to him in the early books. And the
joke is that he doesn't recognise any of that. He's ambitious, he wants to
become Minister. Not someone with many redeeming personal features, apart
from his relationship with Penny Clearwater and his obvious brotherly love
for his two youngest sibs, Ron and Ginny.

But he's very bright, he does very well academically, he becomes Head Boy.
And, at the end of PoA, off he goes to being his climb up the greasy pole to
be one of the Prefects who Gain Power.

2. Ministry Percy

Percy starts his career as a Junior Assistant. That sounds like the most
junior kind of post you can get in the MoM, with the possible exception of
the doorkeeper.

It's interesting to speculate that entry into the MoM requires a Hogwarts
qualification, but that if the vast majority of the WW population aren't
educated at Hogwarts, the wizarding bureaucracy is drawn from a very small
section of society, who have shared cultural values and in many cases know
each other personally. I'll leave it to others to speculate about what that
means in terms of the Ministry's rule over other wizards. Also whether the
inter House rivalry at Hogwarts is in any way carried over into the
Ministry, whether a Head of Department from one House would favour fellow
Griffindors, Slytherins, etc when it came to promotion and the like. Now
back to Percy.

Percy is Assistant to Barty Crouch. We know Barty's story, the personal
tragedies that have blighted his life, the ruthlessness and inhumanity with
which he carried on the struggle against Voldemort, the fact that he was
passed over for the Minister's job, and we get a picture of a cold, bitter
man, a perfect bureaucrat, facing the end of his career with no prospect of
going anywhere. He doesn't treat Percy well, can't even remember his name.

But Percy sees in Barty the ideal bureaucrat, and tries to be the best he
can be. If "Mr Crouch" is going to call him "Weatherby", then he's going to
be the best Weatherby in the Ministry, and do the best reports on cauldron
bottoms and the like.

Then, suddenly, Barty doesn't come into work.

Now anyone who's worked in a government office will know that there are very
strict procedures that have to be followed if someone doesn't come into
work. They must contact their superior (perhaps the Junior Minister in
Barty's case), the details have to be passed to the pay office, and so on.
Percy knows all of this, it will have been drummed into him right at the
beginning of his job. So why isn't Barty following the rules?

Percy now has two voices in his head:

Voice one says: This isn't right. Mr Crouch should have told his boss that
he wasn't coming in, and he should have told the personnel department
Voice two says: This is Mr Crouch, what he does is the right thing. If he's
doing it this way, there must be a good reason.

Unfortunately for both Barty and Percy, voice 2 wins out. Percy follows the
instructions that Barty sends in.

It's interesting to speculate that this may have signed Barty's death
warrant. Possibly, although Barty is unable to throw off the Imperius, he is
at least trying to fight it in the only way he can, by doing something
that's totally out of character and against the Rules. Maybe he hopes either
that Percy will notice that something's wrong and bring it to the attention
of the right people, or alternatively that the despised "Weatherby" will
make such a bad job of things that, again, someone will notice that
something's seriously wrong.

But Percy is a man who is totally loyal and does what he's told. He's also a
Weasley, he's very intelligent and capable, and even though he's only a few
months into his career, he makes a sufficiently good fist of going Barty's
job that no one notices that there's anything amiss. He does too good a job
of it.

Deep down, of course, he knows that something's wrong. Voice one won't shut
up and when someone reminds him of it (as Ron does at one point), Percy gets
very angry and defensive.

3. The Investigation

Suddenly it all comes crashing down. Barty is murdered and dishonourably
disposed of in Hagrid's vegetable patch. Now Percy is in _serious_ trouble.
There is an investigation.

We know from OoP how justice works in the WW. It's arbitrary and lacks many
of the rules of natural justice that we take for granted in our world. Percy
is facing a possible murder charge. He could well have been one of the
conspirators.

At the same time, he feels responsible. If he had done what he should have
done, and what he _knew_ he should have done, his beloved Mr Crouch might
not be dead.

And he has to explain everything to the investigation. It's interesting to
wonder who might have done the investigating - Dolores Umbridge perhaps?
She's certainly high in the Minister's estimation at this point and would
have been considered eminently suitable to investigate. Not a good time to
be Percy.   This _very young man_ is interrogated over and over again about
why he didn't do what he knew he should have done. Maybe even with a
Dementor standing at the back of the room behind him, just in case he tried
to escape, or ready for a guilty verdict.

Percy's very much on his own at this point. Penny's not on the scene any
more as far as we know - she could be anywhere. Percy's family are far more
concerned with the rebuilding of the Order. Just to add insult to injury,
Bill and Charlie are back in the picture: the brothers that Percy tried to
model himself on are able to witness his humiliation and what might be the
end of his career before it starts.

4. Redemption

But suddenly, out of the blue. it's all over. The Minister interviews Percy,
who I'm sure goes in expecting to be hauled off to Azkaban for the rest of
his natural, and instead he's all sympathy. Percy's punishment is to be
transferred from his previous post to the Minister's office. The rest of the
charges, perhaps, lie on the table (though of course they're still there if
Percy isn't of good behaviour in future!)

>From Fudge's point of view, it makes sense. Percy, as I've said before, is a
very intelligent and competent young man who, against the odds, actually did
a very good job when Barty wasn't there. Plus, to keep him in order, there's
still the accessory to murder charge on his file which _could_ all be
dragged up again.

So Percy knows that he has to be very very humble and very very good and toe
the party line very very carefully from now on. He's landed on his feet,
against all the odds, but he's certainly not out of the woods yet: one more
cockup like the last one and he's definitely on his way to Azkaban, but do
the job well and he's very close to the centre of power.

5. Breaking with the family

Percy goes home and tells his parents his good news. Their son isn't going
to prison or going to have his soul sucked out. He's been offered a second
chance. Do they celebrate with open arms? Do the younger ones chant "He got
off! He got off!"? Well, no. Actually, Arthur accuses Percy of being a spy.

Frankly, I'm not surprised at Percy blowing his top at that point. Are you?
Arthur handles things very badly. He _could_ have found that his son was a
valuable asset to the Order just by talking at tea break about how things
are going in the Minister's office (plus a conduit back for disinformation
about the Order). But that doesn't happen. Percy (and, I'm sure Arthur too)
say unforgivable things to each other and Percy storms out.

Why does the breach deepen?

>From our perspective, the events in the books happen very close together:
that's the way they're written. But the characters live their lives in real
time.

Percy goes to work every morning. The people he associates with are Fudge
and his circle. He hears their views every day.  He _has_ to keep his nose
clean and not express any alternative views. in fact, he has to agree with
Fudge, just to keep on side. He reads the Daily Prophet, which reinforces
his (probably) feelings that Harry (who he doesn't know very well, he's just
Ron's little friend from school who keeps harping on about some dead wizard
who died when Percy was very young and he associates with a climate of fear
from those days) is talking a load of rubbish. Also, I suspect that Arthur,
with his fascination for Muggle things, is a bit of a figure of fun at least
in Fudge's circle.

This goes on daily. Percy starts to believe all of this stuff. Being a stiff
necked individual, he's not going to be the one to make any gestures of
reconciliation, and he even rebuffs the ones that Molly makes. He doesn't
seem to have anyone to give him an alternative perspective on things,
especially in Penny's absence (or, even worse, if Penny is still around and
feels the same way that Fudge does). I see him spending his evenings alone
in his little flat and only coming alive when he's in work, striving to be
the best Percy that he can be for Fudge and brooding on his grudge against
his parents.

6. Is there a way back?

I don't know. It's possible that now that Percy knows that Harry was telling
the truth, that the door will be open to a reconciliation. But it could go
the other way. Someone suggested recently that Percy could end up like
Barty, hostile to the Order or anyone other than the Ministry fighting
against Voldemort.

Conversely (and this is my theory) Percy will, before he's reconciled to his
parents, be put in a position where their lives are in danger and only he
can save them. He will, but I fear he will die doing it.

Sorry for the long post! But as I've tried to make clear, Percy doesn't have
to be under anyone's orders but his own to have ended up where he did.

Cheers

Ffred

O Benryn wleth hyd Luch Reon
Cymru yn unfryd gerhyd Wrion
Gwret dy Cymry yghymeiri