Defending Percy ( was Percy Weasley )

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 104994

Pam wrote :
>  Percy has the Weasley family traits, yes: stubborness, 
> loyalty, and cleverness, but in his own unique expression & 
> combination.  But I believe that Percy willingly makes some bad 
> choices, too; he's not just duped into being "on the wrong side".

Del replies :
I'm on the fence. I believe we can't reach any conclusion at all from
the books. The only thing that bothers me is JKR's answer, during the
WBD chat, to the question of whether Percy was acting on his own : she
said "I'm afraid so."

Pam wrote :
> well, I see your point re: distancing himself, but I can 
> also see the other side--why react so strongly to people who love 
> you and have given you every reason to trust them so far?

Del replies :
Percy was always an over-achiever. That's his identity : he's the
excellent student while in Hogwarts, and the excellent employee once
he's working. That's the *only* thing at which he's good, in which he
can rightfully take pride : he's good at what he's doing. So when he
gets that dream job, he logically figures it's because of his hard
work, and he expects his folks to say so. But they don't. In fact,
they even say that it has nothing to do with his capabilities, it only
has to do with his surname. Basically, he could have been the worst
Ministry employee, Fudge would still have taken him in. That's denying
*everything* Percy has ever done, all the work he's ever put into his
studies and his job. That's denying his identity, *who he is*. It was
pretty much the most cruel, the most horrible thing his father could
have said : "all your efforts were for nothing, in the end it's only
my name that counts. You don't exist on your own, you only exist as my
son." I can't blame Percy for losing his temper on that one.

Pam wrote :
> And re: slander & protecting Ron, well I think he did both. He had 
> no proof that Harry was a liar any more than he had proof that H. 
> was telling the truth; the accusation was unfounded.

Del replies :
As a matter of fact, Percy *did* have a proof, albeit an indirect one
: LV was nowhere to be seen. If a friend told you they've seen John
Lennon but nobody else confirmed that and everybody called your friend
delusional for claiming he's seen Lennon, who would you believe ?

Pam wrote :
> The 'Crouch fiasco'--here I was just remembering canon (Harry's 
> thoughts/opinions, of course): "Percy had committed the fairly large 
> oversight of failing to notice that his boss was being controlled by 
> Lord Voldemort..." (OoP, chapter 4)--Granted, this is Harry's not-so-
> clear thinking, but it did make sense to me at the time!

Del replies :
It made sense to me too, until I started thinking about it. The whole
point of the Imperius Curse is that it doesn't show. Percy couldn't
know. He could and did notice that his boss was acting *differently*,
but how ever was he supposed to guess that it had anything to do with
being under Imperius ?? If your own boss was over-working and started
acting differently, I'm sure you would simply conclude that he needs
rest, not that he's being hypnotised by a follower of Bin Laden !
Especially since Percy didn't know anything about LV being supposedly
on the way back. So I don't agree with Harry at all anymore : Percy
did not do anything wrong.

Pam wrote :
> I see Percy as imperfect, and not without strengths--not evil, but 
> having very befuddled values. 

Del replies :
In fact, Percy does *not* have befuddled values at all, quite the
contrary ! He's got very clear values, and he sticks to them very
stricly. And they are not even bad values : he believes that hard work
brings success and that you should respect those in power. What's
wrong with that ??
Not to mention that he's always been reinforced in his beliefs by
everyone that counted. He was a model student and got only praises for
that : his parents were proud of him and DD made him Head Boy. How
could he figure that there might be something wrong with hard-working
ambition ? (I want to emphasize the fact that Percy associates success
with hard work, at least for himself. He doesn't try to find himself a
big friend, unlike Peter Pettigrew, he works to achieve his goals.) 

So what's wrong with Percy ? I'm not sure but I'd say he's horribly
insecure. Too insecure to dare and change his own rules and risk his
identity. Sticking to his values has always worked before, so he can
surely rely on them again, right ? Well, wrong, but how could he see
it ? After all, he's asked to believe Harry with no proof whatsoever,
and in the process, to risk what he's worked for all his life : his job.

Pam wrote :
> Thanks for the deeper exploration of Percy!

Del replies :
Thanks, but you should thank Ron and the Twins. They are the ones who
got on my nerves, by repeating ad nauseam that Percy is a git. What
kind of brotherly love is that ??

Del