PERCY: DD's Personal Spy or Ministry's Puppet? (Long)

[brandy]

No: HPFGUIDX 111343

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Brenda M." 
> (1) How would a smart lad trust Fudge over Dumbledore?
> -- Yes, Percy seems to worship whoever is his boss at any given time.
> So when he was at Hogwarts, the Headmaster. As Crouch's assistant his
> loyalty was to Crouch. Then to Fudge. I perfectly understand his
> admiration of Crouch; Crouch was strict, competent, respected,
> charismatic and hard-working. But why Fudge? Percy should know that
> Dumbledore was once supported by many in WW to become the MoM. Fudge
> asked DD for guidance in his early days of MoM. DD is widely known as
> the greatest wizard, Percy says so himself to Harry. Percy should
> know that DD is far more powerful and competent than Fudge. So why
> would the smart, ambitious youngster like Percy would want to lose
> respect from the greatest wizard of his times?

I said this before, but I think it was in a different Percy thread
(not even sure anymore). I think that Percy's loyalty is not to DD, or
Fudge, or Crouch, but to the Ministry itself as an institution. He
sees DD not necessarily as a threat to Fudge himself, but as a threat
to "the way things work" at the Ministry. If he were to stage a coup,
the entire basis of how the Ministry works would be thrown into
confusion. I think Percy would just as easily have followed Dumbledore
if he had been elected MoM, but he wasn't, so he follows Fudge. Same
for his admiration of Umbridge - she is carrying the party line,
therefore she is good (in Percy's view).

Of course, now that the party line has changed, it will be interesting
to see what Percy does... I think that he will continue to support
whatever the Ministry does. Will he support Fudge's actions of the
past year? Well, I think that depends on whether Fudge is in power or
not. If he remains MoM, I think Percy will say that without solid
evidence, he was doing the best he could. If he is ousted, I'm not
sure that Percy will turn on him completely but he will surely be
vocal in his support for whoever the new Minister might be.

-Brandy