Percy...

[elfundeb2]

No: HPFGUIDX 106842

Shannon wrote:

> Percy might not know anything. Even so, 
> having lived with Harry, you'd think he at least knows him enough 
to be 
> able to make an independent personal assessment of whether he is 
unbalanced 
> as the Ministry accuses.

No, I disagree.  Harry may have spent summers with the Weasleys, but 
Percy spent his time shut up in his room.  It's likely he did the 
same at Hogwarts; way back in PS/SS he had to be cajoled into 
spending Christmas with the family, and he didn't even stay with his 
family for support when Ginny was in the Chamber of Secrets.

But more significantly, I think it's Percy's flaw (I almost said, 
his tragic flaw) is his inability or unwillingness to apply 
independent thinking to a situation.  To him, power derives from 
authority, and he cannot or will not question it.  As long as Crouch 
sent him orders, it was his duty to follow them without questioning 
why Crouch wasn't coming to the office or why someone so junior was 
left in charge.  

Unlike Hermione, who also arrived at Hogwarts with an unhealthy 
respect for authority, Percy has not learned discernment.  In fact, 
when Harry wonders why Percy doesn't believe Voldemort is back, 
Hermione points out that "Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously."  
Percy either naively believes that newspapers exist to expose the 
truth and not to sell themselves <g> or he thinks it's his duty to 
support his boss' position.
 
dcgmck wrote:

> What's more, I have trouble believing that Arthur and Molly raised 
> Fred and George faithful to Dumbledore without having instilled 
> similar fundamentals in Percy.

I'm not sure there's any canon to show that Arthur and Molly raised 
their children to be faithful to Dumbledore.  For one thing, they 
have only recently joined the Order.  They have, I think, raised 
their children with Dumbledore-like principles, meaning that they 
have taught their children to do what is right rather than what is 
easy.  They've done this through Arthur's example -- he's been held 
back at the Ministry because he refused to adopt the anti-Muggle 
prejudices held by Fudge and others in power.  

Nevertheless, Percy does admire Dumbledore.  From PS/SS ch. 7:

"He's a genius!  Best wizard in the world!  But he is a bit mad, 
yes!"

A bit mad?  No wonder he's willing to believe what the Daily Prophet 
says!  And in fact, Percy follows Dumbledore's own principles -- or 
at least he thinks he does.  It was Dumbledore himself who rewarded 
Neville for having the courage to stand up to his friends, and 
surely Percy thinks he's doing the same in standing up to his 
parents.  

>From Percy's POV, Molly taught him respect for rules and authority, 
pointed him at a Ministry career, and now she and Arthur have 
betrayed those principles by joining the rebellion against it.  
Percy probably thinks he's made the "hard" choice, without ever 
understanding that the truly hard choice is to follow your own 
judgment rather than the rule someone else has laid out.

> Percy's had 
> practice moving unnoticed, the ideal servant.  We readers tend 
only 
> to see him when he's irritating us.  He's kept his nose clean and 
his 
> grades up at Hogwarts, hiding in his older brothers' shadows while 
> looking to shine his own light.  If anyone can keep track of what 
he 
> wants and believes, it should be Percy.

The ideal servant . . . what a perfect description of Percy.  
Indeed, he once said that "[a] high-ranking Ministry official . . . 
deserves unswerving obedience from his servants."  This statement 
(in ch. 10 of GoF) should perhaps have prepared us for his over-the-
top behavior in OOP -- the obsequious statements about his bosses in 
the Daily Prophet and the letter to Ron, and the lapdog act he puts 
on whenever we see him on duty, is all of a piece with this.

Shannon again:

But 
> Percy, in one fell swoop, rejected an entire lifetime's worth of 
support, 
> praise, and love on the basis of one incident in which his father 
> questioned, not Percy's abilities, but the Fudge's motives.  His 
reaction 
> seems all out of proportion to the crime, and it also speaks of a 
> long-simmering resentment of his family's situation, the blame for 
which he 
> places squarely on his father's shoulders (along with whatever 
difficulties 
> he's had at work).  

I disagree.  I think Percy has historically had a difficult time at 
home, except for Molly's support.  Molly pushed the children toward 
toward careers in the Ministry, even though Arthur has not been a 
success there, but of the younger ones only Percy bought into 
Molly's plan.  He achieved every one of Molly's career goals for 
him -- every position of authority at Hogwarts, the coveted job at 
the ministry.  And except for Molly's praise, he got nothing for his 
hard work at home other than ridicule from Fred and George and the 
big brush-off from Ron, who doesn't want to be on the wrong side of 
the Twins.  To compensate, he took refuge in those rules, which 
estranged him further from his siblings.   

I think Percy's departure was a long time coming, and its root cause 
was much deeper than the family finances, or his own Ministry 
ambitions.  That doesn't excuse his throwing back to Arthur every 
disparaging comment about Arthur he's ever heard at the Ministry 
(violating one of the cardinal rules of arguing:  stick to the 
subject!), but the final argument is only one part of a much more 
complicated family dynamic.  

For what it's worth, I believe he still cares for his family a great 
deal.  (If he did not care then he would not have bothered to return 
the jumper; the act was an expression of his hurt and anger.)  But 
this will make it more difficult, not less, for him to reconcile.

> The thing about all this is, I see no way for Percy to get out of 
it 
> gracefully.  Now that the Ministry has acknowledged Voldemort's 
return, he 
> has two choices.  He can either admit that Harry & Co were right 
all along 
> and he was wrong (in which case my opinion of him will raise 
considerably), 
> or he can continue to insist that they couldn't have known at the 
time, and 
> he had been right to cast his lot with Fudge and the Ministry and 
be 
> disbelieving.   [snip]
> I do, however, think Percy will redeem himself in some way.  I 
have a 
> suspicion that it will be some grand gesture, possibly costing him 
his 
> life.  

I agree.  It will be very difficult for Percy to admit that he was 
wrong, and therefore I think that in the short run he will continue 
to stick with Fudge while he licks his wounds.  I also think that an 
opportunity for the grand gesture may present itself.  I once 
suggested, pre-OOP, that the grand gesture might be in some way a 
reenactment of the crime of his mentor Barty Crouch Sr. -- who 
professed to be a great believer in following the rules -- and that 
the gesture would be misguided in some way with tragic results. 
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/58796).  

Eric Oppen proposed a more dramatic outcome:

> Until I hear definitely (as in from Herself herself) that Percy 
> turned against his family for base reasons, I shall continue to 
stick 
> to my own theory about his motivations.  My theory is that he was 
> working for Dumbledore all the time, as a deep-cover mole, 
> like "Donnie Brasco" did infilitrating the Mafia.
> 
> The thing about a deep-cover penetration is that you have to _live 
> the role_ nearly every waking minute of your life...you _become_ 
the 
> sort of person you're pretending to be, while never losing sight 
of 
> your ultimate, long-term goals.  It's a difficult thing to do, and 
> most people probably couldn't carry it off.  
> 
No, I don't believe this.  Percy is not a skilled enough actor to 
pull off an undercover act.  If he could act, he would long ago have 
learned to mask his sensitivity to the twins' attempts to humiliate 
him, but he reddens far too easily to be a mole.  I think he plays 
up to Fudge and Umbridge because his loyalty is real, if misguided.  

And finally, an embellishment to an old acronym:
P.I.N.E. F.R.E.S.H.
(Percy Is Not Evil:  Floundering Royally, Ever So Hoodwinked)

Debbie