Weasley Courage (Was Re: Dolores Umbridge)

[Derek Hiemforth]

No: HPFGUIDX 139034

> > Derek <derek at r...>:
> > Sounds good to me!  I'd love to finally see some reason to
> > believe Percy was correctly sorted into Gryffindor, when all
> > we've seen of him thus far clearly (IMO) indicates he was more
> > suited to Slytherin.
> > 
> Saturniia:
> You know, I am sick and tired of people trashing Percy just
> because he made a choice that was objectionable to his family.
> (snip an empassioned defense of Percy)

Derek:
Based on your reply, it sounds like you're assuming I came to
this view of Percy after his estrangement from the family in OP.
That's not the case.  As I noted, IMO, *all* we've seen of him
clearly indicates (IMO) that he's more suited to Slytherin.

I'm not saying he's evil.  I'm not even saying he isn't brave.
He's certainly done many brave things in the books.

What I'm saying is, it seems clear (at least to me) that his
primary motive force is ambition, and ambition is one of the
major Slytherin traits.

He was haughty and arrogant in his position as a prefect and
later as Head Boy, and he's had an enormously exaggerated sense
of his own importance since joining the Ministry.  In fact, he
was *so* arrogant, self-important, and ambitious in GF that it
blinded him to the fact that his boss's disappearance and
submission of (increasingly odd) instructions by owl was just
the teensiest bit peculiar.  ;-)

And all of this was *before* his big row with his father in OP.
That event wasn't revealing some kind of "new" Percy... it was
the logical next step in the character evolution of someone
who's been enthralled with his own status, and gravitating to
those in power, all through the series.

Now, having said all that, I'd love to be wrong about Percy.
I'd love to have him do the right thing at a key moment.
It's also possible (although unlikely, IMO) that Percy may not
really be all that arrogant, and that our information of his
character has been colored by the perceptions of younger
characters through whose eyes we've viewed Percy.

It's also distinctly possible that we're going to learn things
about the Sorting Hat that affect our view of its decisions.
In other words, if the Sorting Hat isn't "really" sorting
people into houses based on their true nature, but is instead
sorting them based on demeanor, their own desires, whim, 
random chance, etc., then it may be that Percy was sorted into
Gryffindor because -- like Harry -- he simply *asked* to be put
in Gryffindor... not because he's the most suited to it.  Is
Hermione really better suited to Gryffindor than Ravenclaw?
She's at least as clever as she is brave, after all...