Defending Percy ( was Percy Weasley )

delwynmarch delwynmarch at yahoo.com
Thu Jul 8 13:20:59 UTC 2004


No: HPFGUIDX 105048

sophierom wrote:
> George is suggesting that there was actually a some time in 
> between the return of LV and Percy's promotion.  If there was time 
> for an inquiry, a time for reprimand, this means that Percy had some 
> amount of time to find out about the return of LV from one of his 
> parents or Ron.

Del replies :
I agree, but we're not told how Percy received the news of LV's return
and Fudge's coward attitude. He was under a lot of stress at the time,
and it's possible that he simply didn't want to hear about it. What
makes me think that is that I believe that Percy would have been the
first one to recognise Fudge's move for what it was, if he had been in
the right disposition. The fact that he took Fudge's proposal at face
value indicates to me that Percy had not internalised what he had been
told about Harry, LV and DD. He did not believe it.

Sophierom wrote :
> *********
> Fred or George (not sure which): "Dad recoks Fudge only wants Percy 
> in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family - and 
> Dumbledore." ....
> 
> Ron: "He said Dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbledore, that 
> Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down 
> with him, and that he - PErcy - knew where his loyalty lay and it 
> was with the ministry.  If Mum and Dad were going to become traitors 
> to the Ministry he was going to make sure everyone knew he didn't 
> belong to our family anymore." [OotP, US, 72]
> 
> **********
> 
> What these quotes suggest to me is that Percy did not break with his 
> parents because he said to himself: "Why should we follow 
> Dumbledore? Is Dumbledore really right?" 
> He broke with his parents because of pride, hurt, resentment, anger.

Del replies :
Yes, but he wouldn't have been hurt in the first place if he'd
believed DD was right and Fudge was wrong. He would have been pleased
in fact, pleased to be able to play such an insider job. But because
he still hadn't made his mind whether he believed his parents, he
still believed in Fudge.

Sophierom wrote :
> And, perhaps worst of all, he broke with his parents because he 
> believed greater power lay with the Ministry than with the Order.  I 
> argued in an earlier post that PErcy is other-directed, that he seeks
> to please the people around him, particularly people with more power.

Del replies :
I like that explanation. It makes sense.

Sophierom wrote : 
> Unfortunately, he doesn't learn the lesson he should  from the Crouch
> incident.  He doesn't learn that the Ministry is not his family.  

Del replies :
That's where I disagree with you. The Ministry *is* his family, his
chosen professional family. And there's theoretically nothing wrong
with that : dedicating one's life to one's government is usually
regarded as a noble thing. Percy's parents were actually quite pleased
when he chose that way.

Moreover, adults are expected to fly away from their parents and build
their own life. We keep expecting that the kids of the DEs will see
the error of their parents' way and choose to work alongside Harry.
Similarly, there's nothing wrong with Percy seeing the error of his
parents' way and choosing to work alongside Fudge. If his mistake was
honest, then I respect his attitude.

Del





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