Penelope Clearwater (Was Challenging Lexicon timeline)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 85819

> KathyK:
<snip> 
> In CoS, after Hermione and Penelope Clearwater were petrified 
> McGonagall postponed all Quidditch, and the teams were unable to 
> finish the year. <snip>


I know this post was originally about quidditch, but I want to go off
on another track. I'd forgotten that Penelope Clearwater, Percy's
girlfriend, was petrified in CS. Surely that makes two grudges Percy
ought to hold against Tom Riddle, the other being that TR possessed
and tried to murder his little sister. Percy *must* know, based on
what Ginny was able or willing to tell her family about her
experience, that Diary!Tom was a previous incarnation of Voldemort,
and yet he seems to want to believe that Voldemort was destroyed in
that encounter, along with the diary and the "memory" of Tom--at least
until the end of O0P, where things take a different turn and even
Fudge is forced to acknowledge Voldemort's return.

But unless Percy really believed that destroying Diary!Tom destroyed
Voldemort, or that the memory of Voldemort's former self had no
connection with his present existence, his going along with Fudge in
dismissing Harry's story of Voldemort's return--a position he held
throughout OoP until the final scenes at which he isn't present--is
inexplicable no matter how ambitious (and hurt and angry) he is. I'm
not switching quite yet from my view that he's deluded rather than
under an Imperius curse (I still see his behavior as a consequence of
combined ambition, mortification, and pride), but the grudge he ought
to hold against YTR/Voldemort *is* creating some nagging doubts in my
mind.

To return to Penny, she may not know that Ginny was possessed, but she
certainly knows that Ginny was taken into the Chamber of Secrets and
almost killed. I'm also holding out the hope that she'll somehow
convince Percy to talk to Ginny about what happened to her, especially
since what happened in the DoM will make it impossible for him to deny
Voldemort's return. I  don't think that would be enough to make him
humble himself and beg his family's forgiveness, but it would at least
remind him that he really loves them and put him on the right side in
the battle.

Carol