The Podmore Connection--Percy as DD's Spy

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 93442

Susan:
<snip> if I'm understanding your argument about Percy--that in fact he 
> *hasn't* left the Good Guys but is working for DD--then what do we
do w/ this comment from the World Book Day chat?
> 
> Echo: Was Percy acting entirely of his own accord in Order of the 
> Phoenix? 
> JK Rowling replies -> I'm afraid so. 
> 
> Will your theory still fit?  I suppose this questioner was trying to 
> get at whether Percy was acting under the Imperius Curse...and JKR's 
> answer would mean he is *not*.  So I suppose one could argue that if 
> Percy is SecretOrderMember!Percy, it *would* fit JKR's answer that he 
> was acting of his own accord.  However...the use of the words "I'm 
> AFRAID so" [emph. added] makes me think JKR is saying Percy was 
> behaving badly because he did truly turn bad; there seems to be 
> disappointment or disapproval in her choice of words.
> 
> Or is she just toying with us?  ;-)

Carol:
I agree that JKR's comment indicates that Percy is not under an
Imperius Curse; he's clearly acting on his own volition, but I'm not
sure that we need to go so far as to say that he's gone bad. Being all
for the MoM vs. Harry and Dumbledore doesn't necessarily tie him in
with LV and the Death Eaters (his beloved Mr. Crouch hated them,
remember). I think JKR's "I'm afraid so" would be equally applicable
to a seriously mistaken Percy, who has launched himself onto a course
of action that is now beyond his control, as to a Percy who has gone
bad (actively and deliberately choosing evil over good). I think he
still loves his family but is too proud, too willfully blind--to see
the error of his ways, much less to apologize. He's been hurt by his
family's failure to appreciate what he sees as his accomplishments, so
just like Hermione with Rita Skeeter, he's hurting them in return by
refusing to speak to his father and returning his Christmas sweater
(jumper). Also, he's not much more than a boy--only nineteen in OoP.
He thinks he's all grown up but he isn't. Part of becoming an adult is
learning from our mistakes, and IMO, he isn't there yet.

My reading of the letter to Ron is that Percy still cares about his
little brother (as he showed after the second task in GoF) and wants
to "help" him by advising him to reject the "dangerous" Harry Potter.
Remember how his mother was willing to revise her view of Hermione
based on Rita Skeeter's Witch Weekly article? Percy is constantly
exposed to Fudge's revised view of Harry, presumably both at work and
in the Daily Prophet, and that deluge of negative publicity has also
reshaped Percy's view of his brother's friend as mad, bad, and
dangerous to know. But IMO it's also what Percy *wants* to
think--almost what he *has* to think in order to maintain his
self-respect in the face of his family's ostracism. But Fudge is
heading for a fall and Percy will almost certainly go down with him.
Let's hope that being disgraced is all it takes to make him to see the
error of his ways. If not, we may really see an evil Percy. I hope
not, for the Weasley family's sake.

Carol, who still has sympathy for Percy and thinks he will die
redeemed in Book 7--or maybe Book 6 as the war intensifies and the
deaths start to multiply