[HPforGrownups] Evaluating Percy

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 121123

SSSusan wrote:
>Okay.  So now what would people here at HPfGU do with Percy if
>applying these *three* angles?
>
>And what do we think JKR is presenting us in canon?  Is she judging
>her characters on one or more than one of these angles?  *Is* she
>primarily about motives?  About end results?  Or...?

I think that JKR is giving us a different perspective on the situation from
our own. Percy isn't principled or good or evil, he's just responding to a
different set of circumstances from those that we think are important.

First of all, I don't think he regards Voldemort's return as a serious
threat. Why? Remember that he was a very small boy (4 or so) when Voldemort
was overthrown the first time. Old enough for him to be  a dark shadow in
the background in his babyhood but every since, I don't think he's spared a
thought for him.

Secondly, I don't think he regards Harry very seriously either. When they
met, Percy was old enough (even disregarding his own self importance) to see
Harry as nothing more than his little farty brother's little farty friend.
After Percy left school, I'm sure he didn't give Harry another thought.

When Percy _did_ leave school and went into the big wide world, he joined
the Ministry, something which would have immersed him in a completely
different culture. Suddenly he's associating with a group of people, some of
them _very_ much older than he is, and he has to work hard to fit in. He's
focused on his future, not on his past. When we meet Mr Crouch's Junior
Assistant, he never mentions the Hogwarts days, he's full of cauldron
bottoms and what he sees his future as being.

Of course, within a year of starting with the Ministry, he's in the most
serious trouble that a junior civil servant could be - he's under
investigation for possible complicity in the kidnap and murder of his head
of department. Let's not underestimate the seriousness of this. Percy knows
what Dementors are like, he met some of them the year before. He could well
have ended up with much closer acquaintance with them. At best, he's guilty
of very serious breaches of the Rules, something which is a big deal for the
Ministry and almost certainly for Percy personally.

Meanwhile his family are wrapped up in other stuff. Percy, being a self
centred kind of person, really doesn't want to know (I think) about that
stuff, and given his situation, can we really blame him? Finally, all that
pent up stress burst out and he broke with his family (personally I blame
Arthur's totally insensitive response to the fact that his son had got off
the charges and been given a second chance).

Ever since, Percy's been completely immersed in the Ministry culture, and
specifically those people who were in Fudge's inner circle. He had constant
messages to the effect that LFBLFF!Harry isn't serious, that he's attention
seeking, that there's no threat, and who's to tell him otherwise? He's also
very aware that he's been given a second chance, and that if he fouls it up
this time, he could well send up out on his ear. Once again, a very strong
impetus not to step out of line.

That, I think, is how Percy ended up where he did. We don't see it from his
perspective, of course. We see someone who's turned his back on the good
guys, who cuts his mam dead and sends back his xmas present, etc, etc. We
see Comic!Percy (the slapstick side of him) fawning and splashing ink about.
And we see stiff necked, rigid, dignified Percy, who won't back down easily
or apologise.

I'll be interested to see how learning that Harry was right and seeing yet
another mentor (Fudge) disappearing over the horizon will affect Percy.
Still redeemable, I think, but not necessarily. More likely to go out in a
blaze of glory than to make it through to the end

Cheers

Ffred

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