Percy Weasley - "of his own accord" might mean "neither for dumbly, nor for voldie"

[Paula "Elanor Pam"]

No: HPFGUIDX 128096

From: "vmonte" <vmonte at yahoo.com>

> Subhash Sane wrote:
> Though Percy was in Gryffindor, he was more Slytherinish. He hated
> his father for not giving up THAT ATTITUDE. He started living alone
> and away from his brothers, in his own room because of the fact that
> they were also supporting his father and mother.

Elanor Pam says:
We don't see any direct mention in canon stating Percy hates his father. At
least I don't think so... I'd say that's a bit of a stretch :/

> vmonte responds:
> You know, there actually is a lot about Percy that we don't really
> know. There must be some reason he was originally sorted into
> Gryffindor. Perhaps the hat can somehow tell that Percy will do the
> right thing in the end.

Elanor Pam:
....I don't think that whether he acts as gryffindor or slythering proves
anything. I very much hope the HP books don't endorse the labbeling of
people :/

Judging Percy is specially complicated because the fandom is usually biased
against him and in favor of the rest of the Weasleys (mainly the twins
and/or Ron). Also, JK's words on the subject seem to be taken at
face-value.... or maybe I just understand them differently, english being my
second language and all XD;; This is a good opportunity to expose a little
half-baked theory of mine, though I'm don't know if this should be posted to
theory-bay or something.


Of course, throughout the books, Percy has consistently acted like a pompous
rule-abiding ass. Yet, we've seen glimpses of a different person underneath:
he seems genuinely offended by Ron's accusations on book 2, shocked when
Penelope is petrified and Ginny is "kidnapped", and his walking into the
lake after the second task in book 4 made many people look at him with new
eyes. Despite all of this, simple analysis seems enough to justify (or at
least make some sense of) his row/betrayal/however you look at it with the
Weasley household. It has been building up for a while - I agree. His father
had no tact - I wholeheartedly agree. His siblings treated him like crap -
yes they did (I know how it feels to be the butt of every joke, it hurts).
He's an insecure teenage that needs praise to make sure he's worth a penny
and doesn't admit easily to his own mistakes - that's a bit of a stretch
from canon, but makes sense. Still, it doesn't settle well with me. Why?

Very, very few people have tried to protest to the portrayal of Percy as
Fudge's sidekick, and all their arguments have led to nothing - it's all
canon, it's fact. Whether Percy _agrees with Fudge's ideas_ or just wants to
_secure his job_, he's been sucking up to Fudge& shamelessly, in front of
ex-schoolmates, teacher and director, his own father, what have you. The
Creator, as well, doesn't seem to bring up the matter of Percy in her
interviews. It's as if 98% of the fandom have silently agreed that what you
see in Percy is what you get. And I point at the previous sentence and
scream "TRAP!!".

Let the starting points for this hypothesis be
"Percy doesn't agree or give a rat's 4$$ about Fudge's opinions or ideas"
and "He is not trying to secure his job as of now". Let's also not forget -
he's doing it all of his own accord. I'll take that as meaning he's not
Dumbledore's or Voldemort's or Malfoy's or the Giant Squid's spy in the
ministry. He's doing it for himself.

Why would he suck up to incompetency extraordinaire Fudge?

The best answer is that the position he attains now has a few advantages -
like access to restricted information. He seems to be a scribe, since in the
occasions
we've met him in OOTP he's always been holding parchment and quills. Also, I
don't think the minister's junior undersecretary (is that it?) would be
barred from
checking information or researching anything, maybe except what pertains to
the Department of Mysteries (we don't know if the Minister himself has any
say over their researches). So let's suppose he's humiliating himself in the
name of knowledge. What kind of knowledge?

And now I have another question. Where has Penny been all this time?

Nothing was mentioned of him and Penelope breaking up, or of her travelling
anywhere - actually, the last we've heard of Miss Clearwater was in book 3
(correct me if I'm wrong). It'd be possible for them to have drifted away
from each other after school was over, since they wouldn't have all that
much time together anymore - still, I don't see the Creator as the kind to
let a character that has had relative projection in a previous book (being
one of the basilisk's victims and all) just drift into limbo like that,
without a single explanation why. If Penny has just mysteriously dropped off
the face of the earth, then something smells fishy.

And Percy would surely notice if his girlfriend went missing, or so I hope.
Let's assume he did. At first, he sat down on the closest piece of furniture
that could fit his backside and invited Mr. Shock in. Then he had a
fit, and then he quieted down and tried to analyse the situation logically.
And whichever conclusion he happened to reach, incomplete as it surely was,
pointed to a lead within the ministry itself - be it that her disappearance
seems connected to internal problems or that he hopes to find information on
her case and related cases in there - which means finding criminal files.

Of course, in the latter's case, it'd be easier for him to become an
auror... but they need 3 years of training and he wants the info NOW. ASAP.
In the case he's started investigating as soon as book 4, his seemingly
"obsession" with Crouch could be explained in the same way I explained his
relationship with Fudge: he doesn't really admire the guy that much, but
will try to mellow him up so as to gain easier access to the info he needs.
Who knows if he was truly working on cauldron-bottom reports? It was
second-hand information, afterall. When Imperioed-Crouch was forced to stay
at home, leaving Percy to take care of their whole department, Percy didn't
seem to find it strange or to inquire further on Crouch's real situation.
But if the position gave him easier access to the files he needed, why
complain about it? Crouch doesn't matter; Penny does. Of course, when Crouch
Sr.'s situation starts to become suspicious and Percy loses his priviledges,
he finds himself in a pinch - he has no other sources...

Then comes Incompetency Extraordinaire and offers him the position of
(...fill in the blank, my book's in portuguese)! Yay! CHANCE!

....but now that Incompetency Extraordinaire goofed off, his info source is
busted. What will Percy do now?

That's my half-baked theory on his recent behavior. Dissect it, cut it to
pieces - what do you guys think?


Elanor Pam, who actually had started typing this up a few weeks ago, and
found a nice opportunity to complete it and post!