[HPforGrownups] Percy. ( Harsh Morality)

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 121387

Eggplant wrote:
>Ron informed us about Percy's ambition when he was in the first year
>and Percy was in the fifth, at the time that's probably the highest
>position he could think of. The Minister is nominally the most
>powerful wizard in the world and most of the time he actually is,
>but now the most powerful wizard does not want the job and it fell
>to a weak man who must be the reincarnation of Neville Chamberlain.

I think that's a very good parallel, though it's interesting to consider the
post of Minister more generally.

Whether it's the most powerful post in the _world_, I'd dispute: it's the
head of state in the British Isles, but I haven't seen it suggested that the
MoM is an international body - canon seems to point the opposite ways, with
International Congresses and the like, and no descriptions of anyone foreign
working there.

We've also, really, got no canon as to the calibre of previous incumbents of
the post, we know the name of Fudge's predecessor but nothing else about
her. We also know that the post doesn't necessarily go to the strongest
character, otherwise Barty Crouch wouldn't have been sidelined the way he
was.

Possibly, given that there appears not to be any seperation in the WW
between executive, administration, and judiciary, someone only becomes
Minister by gaining and retaining the support of as many factions as
possible within the bureaucracy. There are many conceivable ways in which
that could work, the most extreme being the Soviet Union type, in which the
ascendency of a particular faction meant that there was widespread
replacement of senior officials when that faction came to power. I don't
think (though admittedly on scanty evidence) that the WW is a Soviet-style
state - even though Crouch had been an alternative candidate, he retained
his post as a head of department even though Fudge was Minister. Less
bloody, but also less stable. Possibly again, the reason why Fudge was
constantly asking Dumbledore for advice when he was first made Minister was
to understand how to negotiate his way around the internal factions of the
Ministry rather than in actually doing his job.

>Percy is ambitious, I don't think you can seriously deny it, and now
>his career with the ministry is dead so he must go to the death
>eaters.

If the MoM is a Soviet-style bureaucracy, then Fudge's fall will mean that
everyone associated with him will fall too. But as I argued above, I don't
think it is. Whoever climbs the greasy pole to inherit the job will inherit
Percy as an advisor. Percy hasn't done anything against the rules, this
time, he's been loyally following orders so he won't face an investigation.
If he'd been Umbridge's assistant things might have been different and
things like the unauthorised use of a Dementor might have rebounded on his
head. But he wasn't. Conceivably he'll be shunted sideways if he's not to
the new Minister's taste but he won't lose too much by that. After all,
think about his age and the likely length of working life in the WW - in
another 100 years' time all this will have been forgotten.

Cheers

Ffred

O Benryn wleth hyd Luch Reon
Cymru yn unfryd gerhyd Wrion
Gwret dy Cymry yghymeiri