Ron and Percy (was Re: The OOTP Gripe List, v. 5,432)

[inkling108]

No: HPFGUIDX 126108


Magda wrote:
> Part of Ron's problem is that he is more like Percy than the other
> Weasleys and he's spent four and a half books trying to be like the
> twins instead.  The twins' ideas of what is acceptable and cool 
have
> squashed his personal ambitions for years and not until they are 
gone
> does Ron really come into his own. 

Inkling now:

(light bulb going on in head)  Yes...and Percy senses this too, 
which is why Ron was the only Weasley he made overtures to in OotP 
and why Percy was so visibly upset when there was a delay in Ron's 
return during the second task.

Underneath the pompousness of Percy's letter in OotP was a real 
loneliness and yearning for some kind of connection to his family, 
to the point of projecting his attitudes onto Ron "what *we* might 
call the Fred and George route" and "no doubt you will say that 
Potter has always been Dumbledore's favorite" assuming that Ron 
shares his hypersensitivity to status and "the people who count."  
And underneath the advice to disassociate from Harry may be genuine 
concern about Ron's welfare and future.  (Not to justify any of what 
he wrote, just that the motives were more that just pomp and vanity)

What Percy doesn't understand is that Ron's genuine ambition is not 
so great as to distort his perception of events and his judgement of 
others.  Percy doesn't understand this because he lacks the self-
insight to realize the his own view is so distorted -- to him, Power 
makes right.

I think if Percy is redeemed in the next two books it will be 
through Ron, but to help Percy Ron will have to continue to develop 
a sense of self, getting further out of his family's and Harry's 
shadow. Becoming Keeper was a beginning; he found the courage to try 
it despite the risks, and to stay with it despite the ridicule.  
Should Ron truly become his own man in book 6 it he may be able to 
see that Percy is not just a one-dimensional "git" but a complex 
person shaped by the same family pressures as Ron, and with the same 
need to prove himself.  And that Percy, despite his overweening 
pride, has the same underlying love for family that all the Weasleys 
have.    

Inkling